The Punisher recap: 'Home' 

What a punishing episode! Sorry not sorry, because that’s the only way to describe the brutal penultimate installment of the season, which sees

finally bring Frank, Billy, and Rawlins together in the same room. Even though we’re one episode away from the end, you can still feel the show stretching the plot out to make it to 13; however, Bernthal’s emotionally devastating and painful performance rescues the episode and helps make it one of the best of the season.

Unfortunately, there’s a bit of throat clearing before the show can get to the good stuff. “Home” opens with Dinah putting Frank and David on the record about Operation Cerberus, and it’s frankly unnecessary stuff. It’s hard not to share Frank’s annoyance at being asked questions Dinah (like us) already knows the answers to. When she interrogates Frank, Dinah finally learns that he was the one who killed Ahmad, which is news to her. When it’s David turn to step in front of the camera, he refuses to play ball until Dinah promises to help rescue his family, and their conversation reveals how much David has changed over the past few episodes.

“You want justice, ’cause you haven’t found out yet that there’s no such thing,” says David. What he’s witnessed since teaming up with Frank has finally broken his faith in the system. He’s reached the same point as Frank.

Once all of that is settled, Frank and David head out to the waterfront to meet Billy for the prisoner exchange. As Frank and David walk toward the Anvil van waiting for them, David is forced to basically ignore his family because their plan depends on him not losing his cool. Homeland Security bursts onto the scene once Sarah and Zach have made it far enough away, and a gunfight breaks out. The Anvil men manage to capture Frank, but David appears to get shot and killed in the crossfire.

(Spoiler alert: David’s not dead. He later wakes up back at the Homeland Security office and is reunited with his family.)

Speaking of which: Billy wakes Frank, who was dreaming of dancing with his wife at their wedding in a cheesy but moving dream sequence, and demands the passwords to stop the countdown on David’s computer. This is the first time Frank and Billy have come face to face since Frank found out Billy’s role in his family’s murder, and hearing Billy admit that he knew about it but wasn’t involved breaks Frank. Their fraught chat also confirms that Billy did join up with Rawlins because of the money, which makes sense given his upbringing.