It's not a trap if you know it's coming: That's Frank's philosophy. Madani opens up and Pilgrim plans a visit to an unholy land.
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: A bit of joshing between vets gives Russo pause.Russo: You earn that jacket? Or'd you buy it at an army surplus store?
Jack: I earned it. Can you say the same for that face?
Russo: [long pause] Set him up! Another one for my friend here. - Battle Discretion Shot: After repeated muzzle flashes and gunshots inside the Russian gym, Pilgrim walks out alone.
- Butt-Monkey: Turk is at the receiving at of it again, being forced by Frank to set up a meeting with the Russians, then being taken hostage by them and gaining nothing out of it.
- Call-Back:
- Frank referenced how Turk worked for the Ranskahov brothers in season one of Daredevil.
- Turk tells Kazan he has been "uptown for a minute" and then clarifies "way uptown", evidently referring to the head shop he was running when Luke Cage questioned him about Bushmaster.
- Combat Pragmatist = Brutal Brawl: Outnumbered by the hulking Russians, Frank grabs every single sharp heavy or solid object around him to take them down. Along with his usual repertoire of groin attacks, eye gouges, and low blows.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Frank does pretty well against the Russian gang, though he does take a few hits along the way. When he is down to the last opponent, he spends most of the fight getting beat up until he kills the man by hitting him the face with a weight. Justified as this was originally the first mook sent against the Punisher, indicating the Russians thought he was tough enough to take Frank on.
- Dream Within a Dream: Madani wakes up, pulls her gun, and confronts Billy, and then wakes up from her nightmare, revealing this was another dream.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Pilgrim is reluctant to return to New York because his bedridden wife is dying. She promises that she will hold on to life until he returns.
- Facial Horror: The final Russian's face looks like raw steak ripped open once Frank's finished caving it in with a barbell.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: The muscular Russians at the gym are very strong, Frank relying mostly on the objects in the gym to beat them. When he is faced with bald one he gets his ass beat until he grabs a weight.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Frank delivers a brutal one to the gang of Russians, but special mention goes to the poor guy whose head he bashes in with a weight.
- Not So Above It All: At first Frank berates Amy for using Madani's credit card. Then he sees that she ordered his favorite pizza and he is immediately ok with it.
- Oh, Crap!
- Turk gets into his car... and finds Frank is sitting in the back seat.Turk: Oh, hell no.
Frank: (amused) Oh, hell yeah. - Amy says "Oh S-H-1-T" after looking up the name of the person who hired the Russians and discovering he's a wealthy and politically connected Russian oligarch.
- Russo has this reaction when Jake addresses him by name, until Jake reveals he's actually an admirer.
- Turk gets into his car... and finds Frank is sitting in the back seat.
- Pillow Pistol: Madani keeps a handgun under her pillow, more a sign of her PTSD than of being Properly Paranoid.
- The Rat: Frank goes to Turk, the snitch who has also appeared in Daredevil, Luke Cage, The Defenders, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and season one of The Punisher, to get more information on Konchevsky.
- Self-Harm
- Pilgrim locks himself in his basement and engages in self-flagellation, presumably to atone for his failure to catch Amy and Castle.
- Krista Dumont is shown to have neatly-parallel scars on the inside of her arm. There are other indications of a Dark and Troubled Past, including agoraphobia.
- Shell Game: Amy tries to teach Frank that the smart move is not to play with repeated rounds of 3-card Monte. Frank disagrees, saying the only smart move is to make sure that you're the dealer.
- Spotting the Thread: It's Amy who pieces together something is up as Konchevsky didn't show up in person to take care of her quietly but rather a brutal pack of killers, none of whom were Russian. She and Frank thus conclude Konchevsky is already dead and someone else is behind this.
- Strong, but Unskilled: The Russians in the gym are much stronger than Frank is, but aren't prepared for his unorthodox tactics.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Madani is not happy about Frank not killing Russo for her, and Amy wearing her clothes and messing up her neat apartment, so gives them 24 hours to get out of New York. They clean up the apartment before leaving, and Amy leaves behind the credit card she stole on the pile of receipts.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Billy starts bonding with Jake, another one of Dr. Dumont's patients, who is an alcoholic veteran. It's obvious that he is up to no good.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Frank asks if it is really a trap, if he knows it is a trap.
- Villain with Good Publicity: A variation. Billy Russo is wanted for the murder of Homeland Security agents, but his smuggling drugs into the country in collusion with corrupt government officials has been swept under the rug. Therefore he's a magnet for disaffected veterans like Jake who have a grudge against the government.
