Madani and Sam plan a delicate operation, Curtis tries to connect with Lewis, and Frank encourages Micro to get his hands dirty.
Tropes
- Be Careful What You Wish For: At the end of the episode Micro does get his hands dirty — but not in the way Frank imagined it (by almost killing Madani).
- Ballistic Discount: At least Turk is smart enough not to sell ammunition with his guns to prevent this happening.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: And a pretty embarrassing example, at that. The only gun Turk has in stock when Frank interrogates him is a special order a mob leader requested for his daughter's sweet sixteen: a pink Ruger Mini-14. Frank takes the gun anyway, but he makes it pretty clear that he has no desire to use it ever.
- Brick Joke: Frank explains his shaving off his beard as being because people keep mistaking him for a hipster.
- Butt-Monkey: First Matt, then Jessica, then Luke, and now Frank? Turk Barrett just can't catch a break, can he?
- The Cameo: Turk Barrett appears in the first scene as Frank tries to steal his weapons. When Turk only has an unloaded pink rifle to offer him, Frank sighs and knocks him out.
- Camera Spoofing: Madani belatedly realises this is happening with the footage from the follow car.
- Continuity Nod: The fact that the NYPD knew about Turk matches with a scene in The Defenders (2017) where Turk is shown speaking to an undercover police officer.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Curtis thinks that for Lewis, getting back on the field of war is the worst thing (more so his PTSD and Sanity Slippage is going overdrive). This is also why he recommends to Billy not to hire him.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Madani's car explodes a few minutes after it was totalled—which meant if not for Frank getting her out, she could have gone up into flames with it.
- Game of Chicken: Frank and Madani end their car chase this way, only for David to abruptly put an end to this by ramming Madani's car with the truck.
- Honor Before Reason: It would be way easier to just buy the weapons Frank needs to resupply instead of shaking down arm dealers but Frank refuses to give a dime to organized crime even if temporary needed to kill them afterward.
- Hypocrite: Lewis bitterly claims that for all of Billy's sugary promises to potential Anvil recruits, he's still just a "liar in command" for not hiring him (due to his plain-to-see PTSD driving him nuts).
- Just Like Robin Hood: David brings this up while discussing Frank's insistence on only harming evildoers.
David: What if we got you a little pair of green tights and a pointy cap with a feather in it?
[Frank laughs] - My God, What Have I Done?: Frank is left feeling guilty about Micro injuring Dinah, so he pulls her from the car.
- Mythology Gag: The pose with which Frank leaves the corpse of one of the thieves he kills, slouched over a pinball machine, is identical to a toy of the Punisher
. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Clearly feeling "less masculine" by seeing Frank in action (and, for that matter, being confronted by the fallout within his family due to his choices), David/Micro chooses to "get his hands dirty" and prove himself by saving Frank from the pursuing Homeland Security agent with a Surprise Car Crash. The bad part is that it's Madani—ironically the person who could best help them in what they're doing right now.
- Not Worth Killing: Frank is just too bummed about his supply plan failing that he just knocks Turk unconscious, seeing as how pitiful Turk looks, guaranteeing Matt and Luke can have fun with him in the future.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Much like Matt's rescue of Hoffman from cops working for Fisk, we get this situation with the hostage at the chop shop, the camera focusing on his fearful expressions as Frank takes out the thieves.
- Pet the Dog:
- Frank goes out of his way to save Dinah from her burning car.
- Frank also goes out of his way to fix Sarah Lieberman's garage, help Leo fix the sink, and even offering to fix Sarah's headlights himself (so she doesn't need to spend on insurance). This gets Sarah all embarrassed—and, for that matter, David is clearly saddened that he can't do these very things himself. It's never made clear why Frank chooses to do this (apart from his claim that "it's leverage"), but it's visible that he enjoys doing normal stuff for once.
- Rousing Speech: Russo is shown giving a motivational speech to a bunch of ex-soldiers looking to get jobs at Anvil. This is, however, deconstructed a few scenes later: despite the pitch sounding like a universal appeal to all soldiersnote especially considering it sounds like a speech Big Boss, with his "Outer Heaven" philosophy, would say in any of the Metal Gear entries it's still clear Russo will be discriminating with who he hires—something that badly sits with Lewis when he gets rejected.
Billy Russo: Each of you trained as part of the finest fighting force in the world. Now what do you think that that cost? From the moment that you walked into a recruiting office to the moment that you took your first duty station. What do you think? I'll tell you. $50,000. And that's just that's just for starters. Say you're, uh, Special Forces? $150,000, minimum. Corpsman? Add another 200K. So this government, our country, the one that you all swore to protect, invested in you. And you all you all invested, too. You invested time... your lives. Ask yourself, what are you doing with that investment? Is anybody here making $100,000 a year? ... You making 50K a year? 40? No, no no. Why? Why is that? Is it Is it because you're not worth the investment? No. It's because your skills are not matched to the tasks available to you here at home. It's that simple. You are fighters! And here at Anvil, you will have the opportunity to fight for a living. And you will be well compensated. Now I know I know. I'm not here offering you just money. I mean, not a not a single one of us joined up to make a fortune, right? It's because we didn't want our lives to be just gray. We wanted them to mean something. We wanted to be a part of something bigger than ourselves! And here at Anvil, if you are recruited you will find that something. A new brotherhood to call your own. Something to fight for. To live for, even.
- Sanity Slippage: Lewis is clearly losing it due to his PTSD.
- Spanner in the Works: Frank/Micro and Madani/Sam serve as these to each other. Each had a plan for taking out the Greeks, and each screwed up the other's plan.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Turns out purging three gangs when there is no Easy Logistics going on dries out your ammo fast. Frank needs to resupply if he wants to restart his old habit.
- Micro hacks into NYPD files to find an Arms Dealer that Frank can steal from, but that doesn't mean their intelligence is going to be accurate. Turns out Turk doesn't have the stuff Frank was looking for.
- Frank has to warn Micro not to vomit when it looks like he's dry-heaving at the chop shop, since the cops would have DNA to identify him.
- Billy Russo delivers a Rousing Speech as a sales pitch to potential ANVIL recruits. Even though Russo is extremely unscrupulous, he still can't have a mentally unstable veteran on his payroll, as Lewis could potentially sabotage any assignment he's given and prove to be a huge liability. So Russo dumps Lewis once Curtis brings to light recent events at Lewis's home. Although Russo is genuinely apologetic in telling Lewis why he can't be hired, Lewis doesn't take it well.
- The Strategist: Madani certainly shows some skill in this area, polishing up Sam's plan to take down the Greek arms dealers, and it was going fairly smoothly once they put the plan into action. Too bad she never counted on Frank and Micro.
- Weapon for Intimidation: Micro says the gun he keeps under his desk is for show and that he's never used it. Frank is not impressed by this.
Frank Castle: Y'know, where I'm from that weapon is the difference between life or death. You pull it out, you better be ready to use it. It's not for show.
- You Will Be Spared: Frank considers Turk pathetic enough a criminal to just knock him out instead of killing him, leaving Turk alive for Matt and Luke to torment at later date.
