Banshee Season 2 Episode 4: “Bloodlines” Recap

In the fourth installment of Season 2, we find out who killed Lana Cleary, where Solomon Bowman is, see a peace offering from Kai Proctor to Alex Longshadow, and Chayton Littlestone escape from custody.

By Michael Stets — Staff Writer/Co-Host ‘Charming’s Most Wanted

As episode 4 of Season 2 begins, things are looking up for Carrie Hopewell. She is getting picked up by her husband Gordon after serving her prison sentence and returns home to reconcile with her family. That is too good to be true of course, as she awakens from a dream—staring at the pictures of her children wedged into the frame of the bunk above her—still within the walls of Mercer County Prison.

The murderer of Lana Clearly (a Kinaho tribe member) is still at large after her body was discovered in last week’s episode and her boyfriend Solomon Bowman is still missing. Lucas Hood approaches Nola Longshadow at the Kinaho funeral procession and formally introduces himself. Other than some small talk before the two slept together, and a brief scuffle at the Indian Casino, the two really know nothing about one another. Yet here they are talking shop about who may have killed Cleary.

“You’ve got Chayton locked up. That must’ve taken some doing.”—Nola Longshadow tells Lucas Hood.

Nola tells Hood that while Chayton is definitely a killer, he would not kill one of his own kind. In a funny moment that really encapsulates Hood’s on the fly and learn as he goes duty as Sheriff, Nola points out what we already know after Hood asks her where

she thinks he should be looking to find the killer.

“You are seriously asking me that? Isn’t that where you would be the expert?”—Nola tells Hood

Back at the Cadi, Chayton is still in a holding cell and is insulting Deputy Yawners. Telling him he is a “disgrace to his race.” Gene Segers is just killing it in his role as the newest Banshee antagonist. He owns the screen for any amount of time whether short or long, that he is on it. His distinctly deep voice and physical presence add quite a bit of potency to the excellent dialogue that he is usually provided with.

Deptuy Lotus convinces Hood to let him go alone to talk to the Amish so he can try to find out some information about Solomon’s friends. Lotus thinks maybe by talking to some of Solomon’s buddies, he can get closer to the truth.

Alex Longshadow has already had his status of being the Chief of the Kinaho questioned by fellow tribe council members, but now he and his sister are starting to fail to see eye to eye. They have a pow wow (see what I did there?) at the tribal council headquarters and she warns him that blood is in the water, and Proctor and George Hunter—a council member who is out for his position as chief—can smell it. Nola’s ‘kill anyone who is a threat’ style is more suited for the Italian mafia, than for the politics of the Kinaho tribe. Her brother is beginning to appear weak in her eyes, and the bond between the two siblings is clearly weakening.

“I’m the chief of this tribe, Nola. I don’t have the luxury of being able to take out anyone who challenges me.”—Alex tells Nola

Later on, Alex crosses paths with Kai Proctor at the Miles Diner, and the Amish criminal also tells the Kinaho chief how his people are losing faith in him. Proctor then mentions his sister is actually the one with the “balls” in the family and the two have a fistfight inside the diner, slamming one another into tables and swinging plates for a creative and entertaining scrap. The fight ends with Alex holding an arrowhead in between his fingers at Proctor’s throat and the waitress threatening to call the BSD.

Carrie is seen at the Mercer County Prison making a phone call home to Gordon. We see her estranged husband at home preparing breakfast and once again ignoring her call. She leaves a heartfelt message, tells him about the dream and how she won’t survive without him and their children. Carrie’s 30-day stay will be up soon and that story line should heat up, as Gordon won’t be able to ignore her forever.

As we learned from Episode 3, Jason Hood is in town and wants to trade keeping his mouth shut about the truth of Lucas Hood not being the actual Lucas Hood, in exchange for a new identity. Hood informally introduces him to Job, who is shocked and wondering aloud why they aren’t killing him to tie up loose ends. Job’s appearance never ceases to be utterly amusing. This week he dons a blonde wig with black streaks, cut off leather gloves, and a shirt and tie under a bustier.

“And the motherf**kin hits just keep on coming.”—Job says after meeting Jason Hood

Back at the Cadi, Deputy Kelly heads into the sheriff’s office and the two begin to broach the topic of sleeping together when they are interrupted by Lotus, who is too smart to not notice the vibe in the room. It turns out his hunch was right. Solomon had a friend, Daniel Moses who left the Amish community and Lotus was also informed of the building he is now squatting in. The two set off to find the boy and after chasing him down, they learn of a very strict Amish teacher by the name of Jonah Lambrecht who had a violet history with both Moses and Solomon. Meanwhile Rebecca catches up with her cousin Patia—the girl she was waiting to talk to when she was attacked last week—and she tells her that Lambrecht is bad news.

Hood heads to Lambrecht’s house and while he questions him after being invited in for tea, he notices the massive Amish teacher’s leg is bleeding. As he comes to the realization that Lambrecht is the man he shot after being attacked in the woods, Lambrecht knows he has been made and fires the tea kettle at Hood. Even with his gun drawn, and help from Rebecca, the sheriff fails in his first attempts at arresting the massive Amish teacher. Finally after kicking out his leg, he gains the upper hand. He then begins to torture Lambrecht by pushing him against the iron stove to burn him, but he will not reveal where the missing Amish boy, Solomon is being kept.

Proctor shows up with Rebecca and interrupts Hood, telling him the teacher isn’t going to tell him any information and to leave him alone with Lambrecht for a few minutes. If it’s one thing the writers for Banshee know how to do is go all the way and boy did they go all the way with shock value for this scene. Proctor pulls out seven teeth from Lambrecht’s mouth—while Hood and Rebecca hear the screams from the front of the house—with a pair of blacksmith’s tongs and subsequently also extracts the location of Solomon.

“There’s a debate currently waging in civil society about the effectiveness of torture.”—Proctor tells Jonah while picking up a pair of blacksmith’s tongs

They rush to an abandoned silo and find the well-hidden Solomon bound and gagged. As Solomon hugs Rebecca the flashbacks play through his head and we are made privy that it was in fact Lambrecht who killed Lana Cleary. Upon returning Solomon to his family, Proctor’s father, along with the rest of the family, refuse to acknowledge them for finding Solomon. Proctor then gives his father a piece of his mind about religion and what role it played in finding the missing boy.

“When your own grandson was lost, you cowardly prayed to God and the almighty would’ve left him dead beneath your feet. Maybe God just doesn’t love you as much as you’d like to believe.”—Proctor tells his father

Maybe it’s me, but you would think that after having to use three cops, two taser guns and a night stick to subdue Chayton Littestone, that the plan to transport the enormous and herculean strong Native American to Jefferson County would include more than just two cops and one police car. Not if you’re the BSD, you just roll the dice and hope for the best.

Chayton begins a spooky war chant in the backseat, starts ramming his head into the cage wall that separates the police from prisoners and then kicks it in forcing Yawners to lose control and crash the police cruiser. He pulls Deputy Kelly from the car, wipes his blood on her cheeks, takes her keys and unlocks his chains and handcuffs and his picked up by fellow Redbones gang members. Yawners attempted to stop them, but thought better of it and quickly dropped his gun after realizing he was out numbered and out gunned.

“Tell your sheriff I’ll see him soon.”—Chayton tells Deputy Kelly

The righteous leader of the Redbone’s escape most likely means another epic fight scene should be headed our way between he and the sheriff in the coming weeks. Stunt coordinator Marcus Young will be hard pressed to top the scene from episode 3, but I would sure like to see his attempt at doing so.

After Jason Hood was found earlier by Job and taken back to Forge to be reprimanded and for not staying put indoors—since they are in the process of changing his identity—he shows up at the Miles Diner. So too does Rebecca and the two end up going home together in the episodes lone sex scene. Rebecca is clearly not enjoying it nor receiving the release she seemed to be looking for.

Intertwined with that scene we see Carrie making another phone call, this time to Deva—who doesn’t notice since she is out with her friends, and Hood back at the Cadi receiving congratulations from ADA Medding for finding Lambrecht and putting a bow on the Lana Cleary murder investigation.

Next we see Hood getting some father and she doesn’t know she’s my daughter time. The sheriff finds Deva smoking pot with some of her ne’er do well friends and takes her back into town. The two are chatting at the diner until Gordon comes to pick her up. Job had been listening from a nearby booth and put two and two together to figure out Deva must be Hood’s daughter. He reminds him that he only brings bad luck to those that are close to him and to get any idea out of his head that he could one day lead a normal life and be a parent to Deva.

“Bad shit happens to people standing too close to you. If you care for them, you have to get out of their lives.”—Job warns Hood.

Proctor shows up at Alex Longshadow’s office with a bag containing Lambrecht’s teeth. He gives them to him as an attempt at having peace between them and tells him he should be pleased to know that the man responsible for murdering Cleary was not one of the Kinaho tribe.

Nola is there and she doesn’t want any peace between the Kinaho and Proctor. Alex on the other hand is looking at it through political eyes. She slams Alex into the wall and yells at him to take action. He tells her she doesn’t belong there anymore, and adding more complexity to her character, brings up the past and vaguely mentions things that have happened to her and something that she went through. Now we know she didn’t just morph into an assassin out of nowhere, something life altering set her on the path she currently takes.

“I’m sorry but you don’t belong here anymore.”—Alex tells Nola

After leaving her brother, Nola breaks into the Cadi and throws a hatchet through the cell bars, directly into Lambrecht’s skull and kills him. Then—and only fittingly inside the Banshee framework—she crosses paths with Job as she walks back to her motorcycle while sheathing her hatchet. The two exchange compliments on the outfits each are wearing.

The show closes back at the prison. Carrie is notified that she has a visitor. She is whisked away to a private area to meet…her father, Rabbit! He appears badly damaged from the bullets she put into him in last season’s finale, and sits in a wheelchair hooked up to an oxygen tank. He tells her of how she reminds him of her mother and compares love to insanity. As he is wheeled away by his aid he tells her this is in fact the last time they will ever meet.

“It seems you and me are awfully hard to kill. It’s a family trait.”—Rabbit tells Carrie.

‘Bloodlines’ covered a lot of ground and moving parts inside the town of Banshee. While the main focus was finding the boy and solving the murder of Lana Clearly, the supporting story lines moved rather smoothly and the writing in this episode was the best this season has offered so far.

Here are some questions moving forward.

We now know Rabbit is still alive, but just how much of a threat is he to Hood and Carrie confined to a wheelchair? With each episode we get deeper into Nola’s character. What will the assassin’s next move be now that she has been banished by her own brother? Jason Hood appears to be a major liability and danger to Hood’s true identity. Can Job ship him out of town and keep him out? Will Proctor and Alex remain peaceful? Chayton is on the loose and will most certainly be seeking revenge for being arrested. And let’s not forget about Carries imminent release from prison. What kind of impact, will that have on Hood, and the Hopewells?

Extras:

In this week’s bonus post-credits scene we see Rabbit sitting in the back of a car driving away from the prison, breathing heavily into his oxygen mask.

Zooming in:

Ever week the folks at Cinemax put out a clip featuring an in depth look into the episode on how certain scenes were written, filmed and created. Here is this weeks for ‘Bloodlines.’

Music:

The song from this week’s closing credits was not listed, so I included one song from the very beginning of the episode called Tidal Force by Xtortion Audio.