10 Greatest Punisher Moments From Daredevil: Season 2

Despite the criticisms, each portrayal of The Punisher we've seen on screen had its own respectful positives and negatives, some more obvious than others. 

We've had Dolph Lundgren's brooding, yet suitably violent anti-hero. We've had Thomas Jane's mopey, use a fire hydrant instead of a firearm, do a catwalk pose Punisher. Lastly, Ray Stevenson's 'I will DEFINITELY kill you and look 100% convincing while doing it' Castle from War Zone.

But it's Jon Bernthal's Punisher from season two of Daredevil that finally took quite possibly one of the most psychologically interesting character's to grace any medium and showed his enormous potential. Bernthal took a lot of the good from the previous performances and left the bad behind to create a Castle fit for a king.

In many ways, this season of Daredevil is an origin story for The Punisher. Truthfully, throughout its entirety (and save for one scene that will be mentioned in this list) his entire motive is for revenge. But it's done beautifully, through Bernthal's masterful use of the characters extreme subtleties and explosive rage. 

Whether it be the twitch of a finger, the confidence in his walk or a glance to the side, Bernthal took a character who began as a response to the rise of street crime in the seventies and made him entirely relevant in today's world. 

Often outshining the title character, Bernthal absolutely killed it (pun intended) as Frank Castle. In a list that could have easily been doubled, here are the ten greatest Punisher moments from season two of Daredevil, ranked.

The first of these entries is all to do with the acting ability of Benthal (well, technically, they all are) but it's in this scene that you see how much pain Frank has gone through. 

Without uttering a word, he sits before the carousel where he was last afforded time as a husband and a father. In a trance, he watches all the normal people and their children, enjoying themselves, unaware that they're just one bad day away from becoming as empty as he is. That emptiness is splayed across Bernthal's face. 

It's heartbreaking.

When the carousel eventually stops and the lights turn off, it's symbolic resonance that Frank's previous life went only so far and that was it. He'll never go back to being the man he once was because other, more evil men stole it from him.

All of this was a ruse to allow himself to be captured by the remnants of the Irish mob (hence why he wasn't armed) in order to gain the information that he needed but it's a quiet, somber scene that reminds you how scarily easy it can be to become a man like Frank.

Who has more to lose, the man who has everything or the man who has nothing?