The Punisher episode 12 review: Home

Reviewing the 12th episode of The Punisher, titled “Home.”

In the penultimate episode of Marvel’s The Punisher before the season finale, Frank Castle nonchalantly answers questions from Dinah Madani (who by this point is behind the camera) as it records.

Castle proceeds to expose all details and information about Operation Cerberus, which is a covert military operation during the War of Afghanistan designed to eliminate terrorists and later is discovered to be an illegally sanctioned program to smuggle many stashes of heroin into the United States. The operation, as revealed in episode 2 “Two Dead Men” and further detailed and expanded on in flashbacks in episode 3, “Kandahar”, involved the assassination of Ahmad Zubair and an ambush that had taken place in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Zubair happened to be a partner of Madani investigating criminal activities that were present at the time.

Despondent, albeit hesitant at giving out all of the details, Castle, desiring to punish the corrupt members who are left in the death squad Cerberus he was a part of. Castle exposes the men who were in charge including Colonel Ray Schoonover, William ‘Bill’ Rawlins III – Director of Covert Operations for the CIA, Colonel Morty Bennett and Carson Wolf. All of whom Castle has killed except Rawlins and Bennett – Rawlins, who is still at large and Bennett, who has been killed by decorated marine, Lieutenant Billy Russo, in episode 7, “Crosshairs”. Castle admits that Russo was among the people involved.

Cutting to another side of the Homeland Security building, David ‘Micro’ Lieberman is sitting in a waiting room beside his daughter, Leo, who has loads of questions. One of them is regarding his “fake death”. Leo asks Micro about what is going to happen to her brother, Zach, and mother, Sarah, who were both taken by hired mercenaries. Leo even mentions that the family even attended his funeral, to which Micro states on the safety of Zach and Sarah that he and Homeland are working on it. Micro explains to his daughter that although the situation is hard to explain, he is trying to protect her. Leo suspects Micro is off to leave again with “Pete”, the alias of Castle, which Micro replies that he is working on trying to get hold of Zach and Sarah.

In the interrogation room, Madani is filming Micro and he is being very coy about the interview being a “by–the–book Q&A.” He states that he will help Madani provide evidence that Rawlins was involved in killing Zubair and access to the video depicting the torture, recorded by late marine Gunner Henderson as long as his family are safe.

Cut to Madani and Castle, he answers her question on Cerberus and their target – Zubair. Castle answers that they found him and he was a witness to his torture, that Rawlins gave the order and admits that he was the one who pulled the trigger, not Russo as Madani had believed to her shock.

Castle and Micro are at the ‘drop off point’ and discuss the plan at hand, which the latter promises not to deviate from. The mercenaries bring Sarah and Zach out of the van, both are strapped with gasoline tanks on their backs that drop petrol. Russo, who is hiding with a sniper rifle, calls Castle to move along with the exchange. Castle and Micro head forward to the van, but Homeland disrupts the transfer. This ends with Castle being taken by Russo’s men, Micro presumably shot by Homeland plus Zach and Sarah safe.

Later, Castle wakes from a dream about his late wife Maria to the hideout of Micro. Russo has a moment with Castle to access the password into the computers for the Zubair video. Elsewhere, Micro wakes up from his ‘second fake death’ at Homeland Security and demands to meet his family. Sarah is angry at Micro for the setup and everything that had taken place, which led up to now.

The Good:

“Home” is what I call a necessary means to an end for exposition and the lead up to the grand finale. At the start, the episode had a clear focus on the path ahead – to save Lieberman’s wife and son and prove Rawlins was behind the assassination and drug smuggling that Russo is a part of.

While the soundtrack by Tyler Bates ‘You Do Something to Me’ and Paul Weller’s cover of the song of the same name were placed well, it distracts and pulls you out of the progression of the story, which I will get back to later.

The direction was for the most part acceptable as was the lighting and cinematography, which is mood-driven: intense, sharp and true grit with some grays and nice white balance in the colors.

The executions of the exchange between Castle, Micro, Sarah and Zach plus the disruption by Homeland on set were shot and cut intricately together and that have been thought out pretty well.

The Bad:

However, this was huge slow burn towards the midpoint of the show and climax for the twelfth episode. During the scenes of Castle’s torture, it was padded and did little but to pull you out of the narrative – which the soundtrack was designed to distract from the action.

Rawlins by far has proven to be a sub par antagonist. Rather than being calm and composed, he is characterized as a petty, greedy, deranged CIA man rather than a superior, cold and callous Director of Covert Operations.

While the writing is great, its not without its fair share of problems and the recurring problem is the pacing and the middle was full of ‘filler’ unfortunately, which the editing of the transitions were not able to fix between cuts. Despite this, the payoff came eventually in the end.

Highlights: 

• Micro is at peace with his whole family once again. His son, daughter and wife come together.
• The Department of Homeland Security behind Madani gain the evidence they need to put Russo away for good.
• Rawlins meets his end with Cerberus put to bed in his grave.
• Castle decides not to meet his walk towards the valley of death under the symbol of Memento Mori and returns ‘Home’ to the land of the living where he belongs.

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Stay tuned for more episode reviews of The Punisher.