Welcome back, Frank. Marvel Studios has confirmed this week’s episode of Daredevil: Born Again features the return of Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) to the streets of New York City, which have been inundated with vigilante violence since Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) “Masked Man” became the guardian devil of Hell’s Kitchen. It was there that Bernthal’s former Marine turned vengeful vigilante began waging his one man war on crime in the second season of Daredevil, a crusade that continued in two seasons of the Marvel-Netflix series The Punisher before the spinoff was cancelled in 2019.
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But now the Punisher is back, and there’s hell to pay. Marvel released an image teasing Tuesday night’s Daredevil: Born Again episode 4 with the Punisher’s spray-painted skull insignia, which has been covered with the words “Sic Semper Systema” (Latin for “Thus always to the system”).
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The post is the latest tease setting up Punisher’s return to the series. First, former Kingpin of crime and newly elected Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) referenced a “gun-toting vigilante who wears a skull on his chest” in his mayoral acceptance speech on New Year’s Eve, the same night that Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes) was wrongfully accused of killing NYPD Officer Shanahan while breaking up a subway brawl.
Shanahan’s partner, dirty cop Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley), arrested Ayala and then tried to kill drug dealer turned confidential informant Nicky Torres (Nick Jordan), the key witness who could testify to Ayala’s innocence. When Ayala’s attorney, Matt Murdock, intercepted Powell at Torres’ apartment, it was revealed Powell had a Punisher symbol tattoo on his left wrist.
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Murdock and good cop Cherry (Clark Johnson) stashed Torres in a safe house tagged with graffiti: the Punisher skull emblazoned with the word “triggered.” (The provocative mural is the work of the mysterious street artist known only as Muse.)
As Murdock defended Ayala in court, his heightened senses overheard another dirty cop (Steven Staine Fernández) whisper to Powell that Torres couldn’t take the stand to testify. Unbeknownst to Murdock, this officer had a similar Punisher tattoo on his neck.
After Murdock was forced to expose Ayala’s alter-ego as the vigilante White Tiger — a desperate move to get his client acquitted as a cop killer — a killer cop misappropriating the Punisher’s symbol lured the hero into an ambush and shot Ayala in the head. If there is to be justice for Hector Ayala, Matt Murdock must track down White Tiger’s killer. And then they must be punished.
Daredevil: Born Again episode 4 premieres Tuesday, March 18, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Disney+.
