Emotional Walls, Kindred Spirits, Troubled Pasts

“Aftershave and a haircut? That all for me?” AHHHHH! Frank cleaned himself up for Karen! Karen CALLED HIM and he promised her he’d save Matt. But of course he doesn’t tell Matt it was all for Karen.

Matt and Frank’s bickering is always going to be a highlight for me. Although I am getting tired of Matt refusing to kill people. The part where they were arguing and Matt yells at Frank to shut up because he hears a grenade was very amusing to me. More of that in S2 please!

Karen offering to check Frank’s wounds!!! Let her help you, you asshole!!! It’s all I’ve ever wanted!!! And of course he doesn’t let her and then tries to smooth things over with coffee. And they stare awkwardly longingly at each other while Matt sits in the corner and listens to their HEARTBEATS. Somebody sedate me. For a minute here, Frank looks like an awkward teenage boy and it kills me. (Sidenote: I KNEW Frank was looking at Karen in that production still from this scene. He has “I’m looking at Karen” eyes.)

I feel like the reason he didn’t let her check his wounds is because it would have been TOO MUCH FOR HIM to have her that close and worrying about him and touching him and-

Frank doesn’t go with them to investigate, which… I realize he can’t be in every scene, but I’d love it if he never let Karen out of his sight again. He’s so hot and cold here. Trying to push her away but he CAN’T DO IT.

“I don’t believe you don’t care,” Karen says as Matt leaves them alone even though he can still hear everything they’re saying.

“You asked me for a favor. I did it,” Frank says with his sad eyes. Because he would do ANYTHING. FOR. HER.

“Stay safe.” (KILL MEEEEEE!!!)

And of course he ends up protecting her later anyway. OF COURSE.

Matt asking Karen if she talks to Frank a lot. “It sounds like you’re jealous.” !!!!

MATT HEARD THEIR HEARTBEATS!!! And Karen asks if he heard Frank’s too!!!!!!! I will scream about this until the day I die.

Frank goes out to protect them and of course he gets captured and beaten to shit! :(

I fucking love the effect of the city lights being turned on at the end of Karen and Matt’s talk at the port. So cool!

The shot of Frank in a cage immediately followed by the shot of Karen at Josie’s with her big blue eyes! Radiohead was a nice choice here, I think.

Frank using his charms to get the guard to shake his hand. Ohhh these guards will never stop fanboying him. It's delicious to see him use that against them. I want Frank to break out, but I also dream of a moment where Matt and Karen bust him out and we get a beautiful Kastle hurt/comfort moment.

A couple small gripes: The soundtrack could use work. They’re really overusing “our lady of soundtrack sorrow” during the emotional scenes and it’s taking me out of it a bit.

Karen needs a lip. Like I realize she’s dressed down, but put her in a tinted chapstick or something!

Another sidenote: Turns out she wasn’t wearing Frank’s clothes OR a bulletproof vest. It was just the line of her shirt/hair in the trailer.

Do you have a link to this interview by chance 👀

I'll keep it real with you bb - I don't buy it 🤷🏾

Frank has literal tears in his eyes when Karen is walking away from him. That is not the face of a man who is trying to tell his estranged love interest that they're even now and to stop ringing him up for favors. That was the face of a man who is watching the only living person left in the world that he loves walk away from him and hating himself because he can't give her more. He can't give her what she wants, and definitely not what she deserves. Frank could have very easily let Karen have the last word and left her with the impression that he didn't care; instead he stops her and reminds her that she is quite literally the only thing he cares about.

& I wouldn't necessarily say that Karen has the upper hand either. Love is a losing game when it comes to these two. She might be the one setting boundaries this time, but it's not as though she's happy about it. The very next scene is her asking Matt about Frank's heartbeat because she wants that extra confirmation of his feelings for her lol.

His quiet "Stay safe". A statement meant for Karen but only to be heard by himself.

Not only did he hear their heartbeats, but he heard Frank's *HEART*.

LET THEM BE HAPPY I BEG 😭😭

Unbelievably spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again ep 9

So I’m INSANE about this shot. I clocked immediately there was so much going on and had to rewatch it, now I’m babbling and trying to do film analysis

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN | 1.09

THIS IS A LOOK OF YEARNING

THIS MAN YEARNS

But the Karen and Frank chemistry was an accident. They caught lightning in a bottle between two characters who never even interact in the comics, but the actors just go crazy in a room with each other.

And they assumed that the Punisher's audience skewed heavily male, that they'd refuse to watch anything not already established in the comics, and that they'd scorn any new plot where The Punisher feels love for anyone, so the writers/producers never fully went there. Even though they clearly know that Frank is made all the more interesting, all the more tragic, when he's not just wallowing in grief for a lost family- he's actively denying the potential of healing and love with a new person. He's consistently being offered a redemptive escape from the violent path he's chosen and he consistently denies it, even though it's clear as day how badly he wants it. That's a more interesting choice! It makes him more pathetic and self-denying, it shows him thinking that he doesn't deserve healing, it shows his conflicted awareness of his own morality, it makes him worse, it makes it clear that this character is tragic instead of aspirational.

So they gave as many hints as they could. The near kiss in the elevator, Karen's heartbeat, the dress Maria wears in his last vision of her (as he lets go of her hand) matching the fabric of the blouse Karen wore the first time he ever saw her, Karen insisting he try to love someone else instead of another war, Micro saying "that's my family that's my wife" and Frank responding "so is Karen." They made it as obvious as they could without actually saying it because they didn't want to piss off the fan base who wants Frank to be a static, stoic, one dimensional vengeance machine.

But now they're back after SEVEN YEARS and they're not fucking around. The first time they're on screen together it is Textually Acknowledged and Stated Out Loud that Frank Castle's heart does the fucking samba when he looks at Karen Page. Matt, the Human Polygraph Test, tells Karen that Frank loves her and that he knows how she feels about him too. (Not to even mention the way he looks at her and acts around her, because Jesus Christ, I have never seen anyone more obviously lovesick.)

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN | 1.09

When Karen and Matt are talking, Frank is the focus and the topic, HE is the elephant in the room.

When Karen and Frank are talking they are the ONLY ones in the room. Matt is...just there. On the side... not even on the same frame. He is the third wheel not Frank.

The two very different framings speak for themselves:

Matt and Karen become more and more out of focus and then you can't even see them. And they don't talk about anything else other than....*cough* frank *cough*