Summary
“Collision Course” is a pacey penultimate episode that throws a few needed curveballs on the way to a finale in which almost anything could happen.
This recap of Marvel’s The Punisher Season 2 Episode 12, “Collision Course”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Poor Mahoney. All he ever tries to do is the right thing. He’s an old-school guy – he likes things by the book. But here he is in “Collision Course” with Frank Castle in a stolen ambulance, being pursued by a religious hitman. His day couldn’t get any worse, really. And then the ambulance plummets off an overpass and crumples with the impact.
Agent Madani arrives in the nick of time before Pilgrim can finish the job, but she loses her car in the process – her car that has her previous routes still programmed into the GPS, one of which is the address of the trailer where Amy and Curtis currently are.
But Frank, he’s just trying to do the right thing too. After escaping from the ambulance and grimly popping his shoulder back into socket, he realises that the ambulance is seconds away from going up in flames. He goes back in and carries Mahoney to safety. As Madani explains later, he couldn’t leave Mahoney there for the same reason that Mahoney couldn’t shoot him in the back as he walked away. He’s starting to get the picture.
Billy and Dumont learn of Frank’s escape in “Collision Course” from the TV, and no matter how blasé the former pretends to be about it, you can tell he’s fuming. Dumont calls Madani to press her for information, which is one suspicious step too far. Madani begins to suss out her involvement. It’s about time.
Frank is still dressed as a cop from his hospital escape, and he’s so blatantly not a cop that the fact he’s limping around in the outfit and giving polite how-do-you-dos to passers-by is hilarious. Using the cop he’s impersonating’s name and badge number, he finds the location of David Schultz. I guess we’re going to make this personal.
In the meantime in “Collision Course”, Pilgrim arrives at the trailer, where Curt is – currently alone. But not for long. Amy arrives back from the hospital right in the middle of a fun conversation between the two about how Pilgrim would, once upon a time, have judged Curtis based only on the colour of his skin. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet, but Josh Stewart is really phenomenal in this role, striking a balance between perfectly reasonable and utterly psychopathic, and it’s becoming increasingly clear the show is drawing very explicit parallels between Pilgrim and Frank – two men who would do anything for their children.
There’s a bit of scrap, during which Amy escapes (but loses her phone) and Pilgrim knocks Curtis out but doesn’t kill him. Frank arrives later and finds Amy’s phone outside, assuming, reasonably, that Pilgrim has her. But he has something the Schultzes want: David, tied up in the back of the car. Oh, dear. This doesn’t bode well for him.
But it quickly becomes apparent that David is a really nice guy. He’s genuinely innocent in all this and had no idea what his parents were up to; he’s appalled by the notion, which is quite a tragic note for the story to strike in “Collision Course”. But it doesn’t change anything. Can’t, really. Frank needs David to get Amy back, and he puts it best: “I think it’s time to call Mommy and Daddy.”
But Pilgrim doesn’t actually have Amy. She’s in his (technically Madani’s) boot, but he has no idea. He’s much more concerned with fishing buckshot out of his leg and reciting prayers, while Amy follows him to his room with a shotgun she pinched from the back of the car. She presumably intends to kill him herself.
While Billy talks his crew out of going after Frank, Madani visits Dumont at home, for some more snooping. But she kind of gives the game away, forcing Dumont to attack her. The women fight, but eventually Madani gets the upper hand and fucking throws her out of the window. Well, Jesus. That certainly happened. Dumont crash-lands on the pavement right in front of Billy, who was returning to the apartment with flowers. He was telling the truth about not pursuing Frank after all.
