They went out of their way to explain nothing this whole season, if felt like. Except Matt's belief that no one should kill people, except sometimes when it suits him.

Seriously! Two seasons they've been mentioning this thing! Two seasons!

For real, that whole last scene made 0 sense. Frank…what, hid in Karen's trunk? (Or followed her there and then broke into her car and turned her radio). And then, I guess, stuck around to listen in order to hear the Blacksmith sort of confess to his nefarious deeds? And then somehow got outside, into a different car,…

Painfully true

I get that's what they were going for, but I didn't feel like there was enough of a set-up to get Matt there from his No Killing Ever stances from the early episodes, and even concurrently w/ Elektra (he won't even let her kill people who are trying to kill her, you know?). Plus, I didn't buy that this guy was any…

Those other ninjas can't deny?

Oooooh. But why was it so wide, then?

Speaking of the writers doing weird shit with Matt and Karen, is there an explanation for why Matt suddenly noticed Karen's heartbeat at the docks when she's all "Frank!" I'm still not sure what emotional beat they were going for, there.

Yeah, there were a lot of times watching Frank, especially in the back half of the season, where I was like…are we going here, really? It's one thing when it's a single guy doing crazy things, but… Matt's tactic approval in this episode and spoilers for the finale had me side-eyeing this shows protestations that maybe…

Agreed. I buy it as a messed up thought of Frank's, but not as something that people should strive for.

Agreed. Pretty sure Frank would like to die while taking everyone out

I liked this season better. The ninja plot was kind of dumb, but I really enjoyed most of Elektra and all the Punisher stuff, so.

Okay, so, this episode just detailed how badly the show handled the theme of to kill vs. not killing that they've been trying to deal with all season. So, on the one hand, we got Frank, 100% pro kill all the time. On the other side is supposed to be Matt. The writers seem to fluctuate wildly about which side is…

I thought, watching it, that this related back to Frank telling Karen that he was afraid that after he got justice it wouldn't help, that he'd still be the way he was. That he had reached the point where he needed to kill the Blacksmith just to see if it 'fixed' him.

Yeah, it seemed really messed up. I can only figure they were trying to mirror Karen's habit of projecting herself all over Frank by having him project his issues all over her, because seriously, that is terrible advice to give someone when they tell you someone has hurt them. But then again, they handle romances…

I have to admit, I didn't find his parts funny in season 1, either, though

I mean, it could be both, for whatever that's worth?

Reyes was just so evil and so stupid it undercut the trial.

By this point in the season I was beginning to feel like a fight had gone down between the writers, with some of them thinking Frank was wrong and the other ones being like BUT NO it was justified. I think it led to the show not knowing what the hell it was trying to say.