Rick gets aboard a bus and takes a seat, and sees the passenger ahead of him not wearing shoes. He looks at the man--Billy—whose face is lightly covered with scars. Rick mocks his scars and asks him if his mother stuck his face in a blender, and Billy remembers escaping from the hospital. Billy doesn't say anything, and Rick dismisses him as a sad bastard before walking off. Billy follows Rick off the bus and into an alleyway, and Rick draws a knife and turns around, asking Billy what he wants.
A minute later, Billy walks out of the alleyway wearing Rick's clothes and heads off down the street.
Elsewhere in NYC, Frank looks out of Dinah's apartment window.
Dinah and Ravi are walking down the street and she explains that she had to get Frank out of Hardin's custody before Frank went into the system. Ravi pointed out that Frank was supposed to be on his own, and she claims that she dropped him off outside of the city.
Earlier at her apartment, Dinah takes some pills.
Dinah claims that she didn't tell Frank about Billy's escape.
Earlier at her apartment, Dinah tells Frank that they'll talk about Billy when she gets back. She tells Frank not to leave, and after a minute he agrees.
Ravi says that Dinah's mother told him that she still won't talk to anyone, and figures that she needs to talk to someone. He wonders what happens when Frank hears about Billy.
Amy asks Frank why they're there in Dinah's place. Frank ignores her as best he can and finally tells her that she'll take the bedroom while he sleeps on the couch. Amy goes into the bedroom and bolts the door. Frank watches a newscast about Billy's escape.
In the bedroom, Amy looks at Dinah's closet full of work suits and goes to take a shower when she realizes that her own clothes stink. Once she's done, Amy tries to make herself comfortable on the bed but fails and crawls under the bed. She breaks into tears, and in the other room Frank hears her.
Billy goes to a bar and cuts off his hospital band using Rick's knife. He pockets it and orders another drink, and the news on TV runs a report on Billy's escape.
In the hospital, a white-masked Billy does push-ups to keep himself in shape. He manages to do twenty and dismisses it as pathetic, and a watching Krista asks how many he could do before. Billy admits that the recruiter never asked him that when he signed up, and wonders if the fatigue will ever end. The doctor assures him that he's only six months into his recovery, and tells him to hang in there. Billy laughs and talks about the motivation poster with the same saying, and says that in the group home they didn't have a choice. Krista asks how often he sees the skull in his dreams, and Billy says that he hates thinking of them. The doctor tells him that he has to if he wants to recover, and suggests that he make a mask of what he wants to portray to the outside world. Billy refuses and Krista tells him to think about it.
Billy looks at his reflection in the bar mirror.
Dinah returns home and asks Frank for information on what happened. He figures that she wants him there to deal with Billy because she's officially not allowed to. Dinah admits that they thought Billy would die or be unable to function, but he dragged himself back from Hell. She warns Frank that he might have moved on but Billy didn't, and Billy bided his time until he could escape. Dinah shows Frank Billy's dream journal and says that Frank is all that he thinks about, and Frank figures that’s good. The agent gives Frank his Kevlar vest with the skull insignia and blood on it, and says that it's all of their blood. She warns that Billy doesn't have closure, and Frank says that killing Billy would have been too easy for Billy. Dinah wants the names of anyone that she can use to find Billy, and Frank says that it never ends as Dinah walks out.
That night, Frank knocks on the bedroom door. When he gets no answer, he locks the door and leaves. Amy is still under the bed, and dreams of running down a street and hiding beneath a bed with the corpses of her friends strewn around a motel room.
Curtis is at home when there's a knock on his door. He draws a gun and opens it, and discovers that it's Frank. Curtis lets him in and gets some beers, and figures that if Billy gets his memory back he'll come after him. He went to the hospital to see Billy, and Frank says that Dinah figures Billy is putting on an act. Curtis doesn't believe it and says that Billy talked about Frank like a brother. Now everyone but Billy has to live with what Billy did, and Curtis says that Frank should have killed him. He tells Frank that he wants a real life without guarding himself from Billy, and says that he's seeing someone and doesn't want her around anything going down. Frank wonders where Billy will go, and Curtis figures that Billy will settle scores and wonder who he would go after if he doesn't remember them.
Billy goes to a softball diamond with Frank and talks about how he used to love baseball when he was a kid. However, Arthur Walsh took that away from him. Billy hated playing after his shoulder healed but that wasn't why he quit. Frank talks about how his father was at every game he ever played in and wishes Billy had the same, and Billy figures that it made him who he is. He says that he always ends up there thinking about what happened.
At the softball diamond, Billy sits on the bleachers and stares at the empty field. He doses off briefly and dreams of the skull, and wakes up.
The next morning, Amy wakes up beneath the bed, dresses, and discovers that the bedroom door is locked from the other side. Frank finally unlocks it and Amy hits him in the chest, telling him to never lock her inside again. She slaps him and walks away.
Arthur goes to his kitchen and finds Billy waiting for him. He doesn't recognize him and assumes that he's a thief, and Billy says that he's not going to hurt him and calls him by name. Billy gives his name and says that he was at the group home.
Amy tells Frank that when she closes her eyes, she sees hot sauce and blood. Frank makes coffee and suggests that Amy talk to him. Amy finally says that she went and got tacos, and came back and her friends were dead. When she mentions "He", Frank wonders who she means and Amy says that she and the others worked for Fiona doing jobs. She hid under the carpet and says that Pilgrim came back in. Fiona snuck them onto a catering crew for a funeral in Chicago, and they had to take pictures of the guys there. Amy says that Pilgrim killed everyone that she cared about, and Frank asks her what she wants to do about it. The girl tells him that her friends are dead and Pilgrim wants to kill them, and suggests that they split up and run. Frank says that Pilgrim won't stop and if Amy goes to one of her friends then the friend will die as well. He tells Amy that they should take the fight to Pilgrim.
Arthur gets Billy coffee and suggests that they make it Irish. Billy agrees and Arthur sits down with him. Billy says that he went to the group home and discovered that it was torn down and built over, and admits that he didn't know where else to go. Arthur doesn't believe it and says that they took everything, and wonders what happened to Billy's face. Billy claims that it was an accident and talks about how his head is all messed up, but he remembered Arthur's address.
Amy and Frank are having breakfast when Dinah comes in. Frank figures that if Billy was lying then he would have already killed Dinah. He suggests that Billy wanted to make Arthur pay but changed his mind, and offers to go there for Dinah. Dinah insists on doing it her way, and Frank tells her to shoot Billy if she can. There's a knock at the door, and Dinah tells Frank and Amy to get in the bedroom. Once they do, Dinah opens the door and finds Mahoney there. He asks if she has the dream journal. When she denies it, Mahoney talks about staking out a former girlfriend and passed out drunk on her doorstep. He tells her not to show up on Billy's doorstep, and figures that she wants to kill him after what went down. Mahoney notes that there's two bowls on the kitchen table and suggests that she's moved on, and Dinah leaves, closing the door behind her. Frank and Amy come out and Frank grabs his things and says that he's going to take a shower.
Arthur insists that he was good to Billy and the other kids at the group home, and they took his pension and sent him to prison. The old man insists that he was there for the kids when their mothers and fathers weren't, and some of them loved him back but not Billy. Arthur reminds Billy of when he came after him with a stick, and asks why he's there. Billy says that he was a Marine, and asks if Billy is there because someone cut up his face. His visitor glares up at him.
Amy goes to a computer place to buy a laptop, and brings up news on Frank. She realizes that he's the Punisher, and the clerk Mark comes over and says that Frank killed 50 criminals and escaped from jail. He figures that Frank is dead for good now, and tries to sell Amy the computer. She doesn't bite and leaves.
Dinah goes to Arthur's house and finds the front door open. She draws her gun and goes in, and finds Arthur's corpse in the kitchen. Mahoney comes in behind her and Dinah instinctively shoots him, hitting him in his Kevlar vest. She helps him up and he figures she knew Billy would be there. Mahoney demands answers and threatens to have her up on obstruction if she doesn't answer. Dinah gets in his face, saying that she's a special agent and he's a NYPD detective, and tells him to handle the homicide.
Amy returns to the apartment and tells Frank that she knows about his past and wonders why he didn't tell her. He confirms that he killed the people responsible and admits that sometimes it makes him feel better. Amy wonders what that means, and when he doesn't answer, Amy gives Frank her real name. Frank figures that she's done running.
Krista is at home reading when there's a knock at the door. It's Billy, and she lets him in. He's covered in blood, and Krista brings him in. Billy says that he didn't know who else he could turn to, and followed her home from the apartment to find out where she lives. He stares at the blood on his hands and begs Krista to help him. Krista takes him to the bathroom to clean the blood off of his hands, closes the door, and starts to call the police.
Billy draws a jigsaw design on his mask and Krista tells him that it looks good. He says that it feels the same, and she asks him how he feels in his head. Billy talks about how he was the best version of himself in the Marines and they were all family, and now he has fear on the edge of his mind. He figures that he deserves to feel the fear, Krista suggests that he open his mind to the idea of redemption, and says that she'll help Billy get there.
Billy comes out and tells Krista that he wouldn't blame her if she called the police. He says that he wants the world to see his scarred face because it has everything he did wrong written on it. Billy wants to look in the mirror and see the best version of himself, and asks Krista if it's possible. Krista turns off the phone and nods.
Written by Gadfly on Jan 21, 2019