The season comes to an explosive conclusion as Castle and his allies deal with Russo and the Schultz family once and for all.
Tropes
- The Adventure Continues: The season ends with Frank gunning down gangsters, showing that he has fully embraced his identity as The Punisher. He even turns down an offer to work with Madani as a legitimate CIA assassin.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Billy, to both Curtis and Frank.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Amy asks Pilgrim what happened to Thou Shalt Not Kill, and asks whether those who ask him to break that Commandment are worth following.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Billy turns to one of these to patch him up after Madani shoots him in the gut. He has to actually drink for his hands to stay still during a surgery. Deconstructed, as not only is he woefully ill-prepared for the operation Billy is demanding of him, but remorselessly steals all of his money and leaves him for dead in a dumpster as soon as he passes out.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The beginning of the episode makes it appear as if both Billy and Dinah perish during their fight with Billy choking Dinah to death and Billy dying from the bullets wound, however they are revealed to have survived their fight later on, as Billy was too weak from the gunshots to actually kill Dinah, or he just assumed he had killed her.
- Likewise with Pilgrim, who turns out to be still alive at the end, Frank having spared his life so he can return to his children.
- Badass Boast: Somewhat humorously subverted during the fight between Castle and Pilgrim at the trailer. The two have been thoroughly brutalized by the events of the last few episodes and can barely walk. After pounding on each other for thirty seconds, they're both down on the ground and take just as long to get back on their feet. After each grabs a weapon and manages to face the other, we get this hollow exchange.Castle: You need a minute?
Pilgrim: I was waiting on you. - Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Despite landing face first into the sidewalk from a 3-story building, Dumont's face seems to have suffered no visible damage. Madani's looks aren't affected much by the scar Dumont gives her either.
- Bittersweet Ending: Out of the main cast, Amy is the only one with an unambiguously happy ending, as Frank has sent her on her way to Florida to take diving lessons and fulfill her dreams of becoming a salvage diver, and even then, there is an undercurrent of sadness, as it is clear that they will almost definitely never see each other again, and Frank clearly does not want her associated with the life he is about to lead. Other than her, Frank has lost virtually everyone close to him in some fashion and has fully embraced the identity of the Punisher, and is last shown opening fire on a low-level street gang, Madani has lost all of her idealism and has jumped ship to the CIA with an air of complete resignation, and is last seen trying to recruit Frank for wetworks jobs, Curtis has completely washed his hands of Frank and wants nothing to do with him ever again, Pilgrim's wife is dead and he is now a single dad who will more than likely continue to work as a hitman to support his sons despite despising that life, Russo is dead, and Dumont was most likely rendered a quadriplegic and has no way to support herself between her injuries and being stripped of her licenses, and will likely go to either prison or a psychiatric institute after she recovers.
- Bookends: Once again, Frank gets in a massive gunfight with the Schultz's people at a hotel, and once again the cops show up afterward and get in Frank's way.
- Boom, Headshot!: Frank shoots Eliza in the head as she's about to stab Amy with a table knife.
- Brandishment Bluff: Turns out the weapon Pilgrim was holding to Amy's head was empty, as Frank discovers when he takes it off Pilgrim and tries to shoot him. Frank himself pretends he has David wired up with an Explosive Leash, when Curtis has already freed him.
- Broken Pedestal:
- David accepts his parents are absolute monsters who have killed scores of people to "help" him, more out of the family legacy than true love for him.
- Pilgrim too realises the Schultzes have just been using him as muscle to do their dirty work and clear up their messes, while Hiding Behind Religion. Mrs. Schultz threatening his kids can't have helped either.
- Bullying a Dragon: Anderson threatens Frank that he will kill him, in spite of the fact that Frank has killed most of the men he and Pilgrim could throw at him mostly alone. This bites him back hard later. Eliza also threatens Pilgrim's children to make sure he keeps going.
- But Now I Must Go: After all their enemies are dead, Frank parts ways with Amy, wanting her to have a normal life. He even pulled some strings and sends her to a friend of Curtis who is running a Diving School, as that was always her biggest dream.
- Call-Back: At the police station in Ohio, Pilgrim quoted the bible, "He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind". In this episode, Pilgrim calls Frank the whirlwind. The Schultzes sowed violence with Pilgrim, and Frank returns it on them.
- Cannot Spit It Out: A sort of paternal/protective variant between Frank and Amy. By this point Frank and Amy have grown attached to each other and Frank will miss her as she goes her own way, but all he's able to say is "You know, kid, sometimes... you find, things... and uh... they change your life." Amy understands his meaning anyway and gives him a touching hug before departing to start her new life.
- Chain Pain: Pilgrim wields a length of chain against Castle during their fight.
- Dented Iron: After all the horrendous violence they've suffered all season, Frank and Pilgrim are far from top form. Their fight is a brutal exchange of blows between men who can barely stand.
- Double Tap: How Frank finally kills Russo. Two quick shots to the sternum.
- Due to the Dead: Curtis closes Billy's eyes after he Dies Wide Open.
- Dying Alone: Billy is afraid of this and calls Curtis to be with him during his last moments. Instead, Frank comes and finishes him off.
- Easily Forgiven: Mahoney decides to let Curtis pointing a gun at a cop slide, as long as he never does it again. Curtis just wants to go home and is more than willing to agree.
- Elevator Action Sequence: Frank Castle has just been involved in a shootout with Pilgrim before Pilgrim grabs Amy as a hostage and ducks into an elevator. As the doors close, another elevator opens to reveal several police officers who've turned up to investigate the shooting, so Frank rushes them before they can draw their weapons, leading to this trope.
- Enemy Mine: A brief one between John Pilgrim and Frank towards the end, since John informed Schultzes he killed Frank, resulting in those two thinking Amy is on her own.
- Engineered Public Confession: Discussed. Frank recorded Anderson's threat to him that mentioned among others all the crimes throughout this series. Amy then threatens him that she will publish it, leading him to eating a bullet.
- Exact Words: Curtis promises Billy that he won't call the cops—instead he calls Frank.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Krista Dumont is still alive, but as Mahoney puts it, she might soon wish that she weren't, as she fell out of a third-story window. When Madani meets her, she being kept immobile in a hospital bed, implying spinal damage. And given that she is about to go to prison and soon receive the message of Billy being dead, death surely would have been a more kind fate for her.
- Anderson chooses suicide over Amy giving the incriminatory recording to the New York Bulletin.
- Have You Come to Gloat?: Madani denies it when she visits a crippled Krista in hospital, but shows she's not above gloating about Billy Russo's fate, pointing out her White Shirt of Death with Billy's blood on it.
- Completely averted when Frank comes for Billy. He doesn't say a word, and let's his gun do the talking.
- He Will Come for Me: Dumont says this about Billy, but as we see he won't.
- Human Shield: Worried that Frank has only a pistol against the More Dakka she can hear Pilgrim is using, Amy goes to help with her shotgun only to be grabbed as a hostage by Pilgrim. There follows a scene where Frank is trying to Shoot the Hostage Taker while Pilgrim is maneuvering to keep her between them.
- I've Come Too Far: When Amy tries to convince Pilgrim to let her go, he states that he wishes he could, but it is too late.
- I Have Your Wife: Eliza doesn't directly threaten John, but having his son Lemuel come to the phone and then telling him to remember what he is fighting for very much implies that she is willing to hurt his children if he fails his task.
- Is That a Threat?:Frank Castle: You threatening me?Anderson Schultz: That was more than a threat. It's a fact. I'm gonna see you dead!Frank Castle: Nah. I think it was a threat. (hits David) Your son is bleeding. That's a fact.
- After Frank threatens to kill his hostage...
David Schultz: Is that a threat...or a fact?Frank Castle: What do you think? - I Work Alone: During the final scene after a Time Skip, Madani (who now works at the CIA) offers Frank a job. He declines, stating that he already has a job as the Punisher.
- Karma Houdini:
- John Pilgrim gets to walk away with his children, despite the dozens of innocent people he has killed in service of the Schultz family.
- Doctor Charles steals all of Billy's money and leaves him to bleed to death in dumpster, and gets away with it.
- Nobody of Billy's gang who got provided with new identities by the man himself last episode are shown getting their just desserts.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Billy Russo is shot twice in the chest in the middle of telling Frank he's sorry for "whatever he did," clearly not realizing those words mean jack due to his Lack of Empathy.
- Last Request: As Frank is about to smash his head in, Pilgrim asks Frank not to harm his children when he goes after the Schultzes. Ironically this convinces Frank to spare his life instead.
- Leave Behind a Pistol: Frank's original plan for dealing with both of the Schultzes. However, Eliza gets her brains blown out before Frank has a chance to explain this. Anderson ends up taking up the offer.
- Let's Dance: In the final scene, two criminal gangs are about to come to blows when Frank Castle does a Walk-In Chime-In.Gangbanger: Oh, you wanna dance? Is that what this is? (everyone draws their guns)Frank: HEY! (enter the Punisher) I'll dance with ya. (opens fire with Guns Akimbo)
- Liquid Courage: Doctor Charles needs a lot of it to steady his nerves before operating on Billy. That and long term drunks get the shakes when they're sober.
- Long Last Look: Subverted; as Amy steps on to the bus she turns to look at Frank again only to find he's already disappeared.
- More Dakka:
- During the hotel shootout Pilgrim brings progressively more firepower to bear against Castle, going from a pistol to a shotgun to a machinegun.
- The final scene of the series, after the Time Skip, when Frank Punishes the gangsters. When the gangsters argue about the purpose of the meeting, they all pull out pistols - and then Frank walks up, dual-wielding fully automatic weapons and unloads into everyone there.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Eliza Schultz shows herself to be more vicious than her husband Anderson. Not only is she trying to convince him that John Pilgrim has become a liability and subtly threatens Pilgrim with his sons, but when confronted by Amy, Anderson just yells angrily while Eliza quietly grabs for a knife to stab Amy.
- Mutual Disadvantage: Frank's and Pilgrim's final fight is an ugly, staggering affair, with both of them nursing so many injuries from earlier in the season that neither can make a particularly impressive go at it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: A variation as David wonders how he could never have known how his parents were murdering people to help his career and how many people died while he honestly thought he was doing good.
- Mythology Gag: Madani, now working for CIA, contacts Castle trying to recruit him as an assassin in what looks like a desert location. The MAX Punisher series was kicked off by the CIA trying to recruit Frank to fight the Taliban.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After Amy calls to say she was never captured, and Frank goes to kill Pilgrim, Curtis has had enough and decides to just release David to Sgt. Mahoney. Unfortunately Amy really has become Pilgrim's hostage, so when Frank turns up at the trailer to do a hostage exchange there's no-one there.
- Plausible Deniability: Invoked by Curtis in why David's family kept him out of how far they went to have him stay in power.
- Properly Paranoid: Like Frank did earlier in the season, Pilgrim is in an adjacent room to the hotel room he's supposedly using, so he won't be taken by surprise if someone tries to kick down his door.
- Outside Ride: Frank leaps onto the hood of Pilgrim's car as he's fleeing with Amy.
- Sadistic Choice: Frank and Amy give one to Anderson (they were going to give it to him and Eliza but, well, she made her choice): kill yourself or see your every secret, all the murders and your son's homosexuality, exposed to the press. Anderson opts for the former.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- During the shootout between Castle and Pilgrim, the other guests of the hotel can be seen evacuating the floor as quickly as possible.
- Curtis decides to just let David walk away and then does the same, apparently severing his ties with Frank for good and finally returning home.
- Dinah decides to quit Homeland Security. At first it seems she might walk away. Instead she ends up joining the CIA.
- Billy's back-alley doc quits pulling bullets out of him after he passes out and opts to steal Billy's millions and run.
- Shout-Out: The death of Billy Russo seems in many ways like a modernized take on Kurtz's death scene from Apocalypse Now; the hero wordlessly executing the Secretly Dying villain with the latter's tacit approval, set to a dark war themed rock ballad (in this case, "Rooster" by Alice in Chains).
- Shovel Strike: The first improvised weapon Pilgrim attacks Frank with is a nearby shovel.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: One possible interpretation of Frank shooting Billy dead in the middle of Billy's ramblings about his complicated feelings towards Frank - it might have been Frank's way of demonstrating that his feelings at that point was that Billy was just another bad guy who needed killing and that their supposed connection had become entirely one-sided.
- Speak in Unison: The Running Gag of the season claims Mahoney as its victim this episode: when he mentions Frank, Madani and Curtis reply in unison, "Who?"
- Sure, Let's Go with That: In the end, Mahoney decides to just say Madani fired five shots instead of three, leaving Frank Castle out of all this.
- Time-Delayed Death: Billy. Having been shot once in the chest and twice in the gut, Mahoney hangs a lampshade on it. "Looks like you killed him, only he doesn't know it yet."
- Title Drop: Pilgrim calls Frank the whirlwind.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: As Doctor Charles lampshades, no matter how badass a person is, if someone starts pulling bullets out of their guts without anesthesia, the pain is going to be more than they can bear. Russo ends up passing out. Once he does, the Back-Alley Doctor decides to just take his money and abandon him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: There is no mention of what became of Beth and her son Rex from the first episode.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: The Schultzes use this against Pilgrim, by having his son call him.
- Worthy Opponent: Pilgrim and Frank seem to consider each other as this by the end, to the point of bantering with one another during their brawl, and Frank letting him walk away with his sons.Frank: [barely able to stand] You need a minute?
Pilgrim: [equally battered] I was waiting on you.
