- Title: The Punisher – Roadhouse Blues
- wiki: link
The Second Season of The Punisher starts with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) driving around middle American in the A-Team‘s van, not exactly looking for trouble but unable to avoid it when it finds him. As to how he is paying for the hotels, beers, gas, and other items… well, that’s just one of several questions the premiere doesn’t stop to answer. Two days in the same town is all it will take bring Frank’s more brutal nature to the surface when he attempts to help a scared young woman (Giorgia Whigham) from an insanely large number of well-trained attackers sent after a presumably unprotected target unable to fight back, leading to complications for Frank’s new friend with benefits (Alexa Davalos), the bartender of the bar where Frank leaves one hell of a bloody mess. He also “forgets” his wedding ring in one of those really convenient plot points to clue in the nameless host of bad guys as to the identity of their target’s new protector as soon as possible.
While the action is first rate, there’s plenty of plotholes littered through “Roadhouse Blues.” That said, the episode does what it needs to to put Frank back into action (including an extended action sequence featuring him punching and stabbing female assassins in the lady’s room). While his new charge is less than forthcoming about why she was being targeted, those on her trail are far from done with her and I’m betting Frank will be able to get some answers from her fairly quickly. Thanks to Frank leaving the only thing in this world important to him (also the only thing in this world traceable back to him) in the bar for our villains to find, our unknown baddies are on the hunt. The episode’s epilogue also teases the return of a another familiar, if slightly more scarred, face (Ben Barnes) looming as another threat to Frank at some point this season.
