5 Reactions to Daredevil’s “Penny and Dime” (S2, EP4): A Reflection on the Punisher Arc

The Great Daredevil Season 2 Binge Is Here, and I’m Reviewing Every Episode. Head Here to Keep Up with Them.

Ding dong, Punisher is gone. For now.

Which One Is “Penny and Dime”?: The Punisher gets caught by the Irish mob. Is saved by Daredevil. Arrested by cops. We learn about his dead daughter. Feel bad for him. Also, Karen snoops around for dirt on the Punisher’s home life, and ends her night finally kissing Matt. Yay? Then she gets Elektra-blocked. Boo?

1. A Reflection on the Punisher Arc

Daredevil and Jessica Jones’s respective first seasons followed a similar formula. The first three episodes established tone, introduced character and built up a bogeyman-esque central antagonist (Fisk for DD, Killgrave for JJ) who managed to have a hand in every facet of the show without ever actually making an appearance. Then the big bad made a startling entrance near the end of the third episode, and was gradually worked into more scenes with each subsequent episode. Eventually, they became equally if not more interesting than the hero.

The concern coming into Daredevil’s second season was whether or not it could truly top Vincent D’Onofrio’s imitable performance as Fisk, and thus far the season has responded by altering its formula. “Penny and Dime,” the season’s fourth episode, brings an end to Punisher’s arc, and we’ve yet to actually meet the real antagonist. Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe Punisher returns with a vengeance and is truly the bad guy of the piece. However, it doesn’t feel that way. Instead, he seems like an eventual ally, someone whose rather public exploits and subsequent capture will be used for the true bad guy’s ultimate gain.

Jon Bernthal’s compellingly unhinged performance as the Punisher has pulled focus from the rest of the cast. As a result, thus far Daredevil season 2 has been The Punisher’s origin story, and from the looks of it the next couple of episodes will transition into being an Elektra origin story. However, unlike the first season where it was all heading to a Daredevil/Fisk brawl I genuinely have no idea where season 2 is ultimately heading beyond the hint of some larger scandal/corruption in the District Attorney’s office.

As for how the Punisher might play into things the rest of the season, Bernthal told THR:

It’s important to recognize that when we meet Frank Castle at the beginning of the season, he’s in no way the Punisher. He’s a guy who is reeling and completely unhinged after all that’s happened to him. He’s just a man on a mission. He’s not concerned with keeping the streets of Hell’s Kitchen safe. He’s not concerned with right and wrong or his own personal morality. He’s built a wall around all of that. He wants to find the people that killed his family. He wants to kill them in the most brutal ways possible. That’s different from what Matt Murdock is doing as Daredevil. But as the season continues, their philosophies and what they’re going after will get a lot closer.

2. Poor Grotto Had an Eleanor Rigby Funeral

Three people. That’s it. That’s how many people attended Grotto’s funeral, and they were all his lawyers. That’s still better than poor Eleanor Rigby though. After all, “nobody came.”

3. The Cold Open at the Irish Wake Went On So Long I Thought I Had Somehow Turned on an Irish Beer Commercial

Well, I thought that before the one guy at the funeral was murdered via a knife through is eye, unless there are some weird beer commercials I don’t know about. Also, yes, the Irish mobster who just wanted his dang money back was played by the actor best known as Doctor Who‘s Vincent Van Dogh and Defiance‘s Datak Tarr. Shoving something through an enemy’s eye was such a Datak Tarr thing to do.

4. If They Had Killed That Freakin’ Dog…

I would have been rooting for a John Wick display of bloody vengeance. Screw you and your morals, Matt. The Punisher can kill all the bad guys he wants if those bad guys killed a dog he had actually rescued from them in the first place.

5. The Catholic Imagery is Strong With This One

This was an episode which began with our heroes in a church and ended with our new anti-hero recounting his sad lifestory while leaning against a headstone in a cemetery. Then as the police took the Punisher away on a stretcher the camera panned up to a splash page image of Daredevil perched next to a bell tower overlooking the cemetery. Somewhere in-between there Matt confessed to feeling guilty for not doing enough to save Grotto, despite his priest’s attempts to let him off the hook. Foggy even made a Catholic joke when Matt looked too happy at the end.

I suddenly want an episode which uses Matt at Confession as a framing device for a particular hectic 48-hour period of his life which resulted in so much bone-crushing he rushed to confess his sins. Did they already do that last season?

On to the next episode: “Kinbaku”