In the latest episode of Banshee, the main focus is on the relationship between Hood and Carrie. The sheriff picks up his former flame after she is released from prison. The two embark on a long ride back home, and take a detour along the way that does not come without surprises.
By Michael Stets — Staff Writer/Co-Host Charming’s Most Wanted podcast
Banshee has been able to do a lot of things in one and a half seasons: make you laugh, shock you with violence, and offer the viewer gratuitous nudity and sex. Going over the top is often an understatement. The best thing the show does, is develop the characters within the show and even further with its very clever “origins” web series. This time out they pull on the strings of your heart and emotions by going deep into the history of the love Hood has for Carrie, by featuring both characters together for almost the entire episode.
Carrie walks out from prison holding a bus schedule, only to find Hood waiting there to take her home. The scene is edited in a very clever form, showing what is actually happening and what Hood hopes would happen. He is picturing Carrie running into his open arms, but she only walks over to greet him. As they converse, he pictures their embrace. He is clearly still very much in love with her.
The two set off in the Hood’s classic Ford pickup and head back to Banshee. First, they stop off in a small town along the way to grab a bite to eat. While browsing around at a local craft market, Carrie stumbles across an old unicorn toy. It’s the same one she had given her daughter Deva when she was a young child. As she holds up and shows Hood the toy and how it glows, she tells him about how she used to read the book The Last Unicorn together with Deva. To Carrie’s surprise, Hood reveals that he too—while in prison—had read the book. The two enjoy an afternoon, much like any normal husband and wife would. They eat a meal together. They talk very candidly, and at one point case a bank like they used to back in their heyday.
“Deva had one just like this. She loved this thing. She slept with it. Took it to school with her. We read The Last Unicorn together when she was little. It was her favorite book.”—Carrie tells Hood, showing him the toy unicorn.
The fun afternoon comes to a pause as Hood has notices a vehicle keeping tabs on the two of them. The car has tinted windows, so they cannot make out who is inside. The sheriff places his gun in his waistband and goes to confront whoever is in it. As he does so, a lady with groceries approaches the vehicle. Feeling relieved and perhaps self-aware that he is a bit paranoid due to Rabbit still being out there somewhere, he and Carrie smile at each other knowing they are for the moment, free from harm.
Before they reach the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Hood heads in a different direction. He wants to show Carrie something. Now if you’ve watched Banshee and the Origins webisodes, then you know the history of the locket that she used to wear around her neck. It was a present from Hood, and inside it is a picture of a house. That is were Hood takes Carrie. It turns out he had promised her that very house would be where they’d begin their new life, after their careers as master thieves had ended. What she didn’t know until know, was that Hood had in fact bought it and set up a trust fund to pay the taxes on it while incarcerated, and had he not went away, they could’ve had a chance at a fresh start.
As he shows her the house, it appears to be an overwhelming moment for each of them. They both are in the present day looking back at what their life might’ve been. Hood fights back tears as he explains all his feelings to Carrie: about seeing how she started a life just like the one they were supposed to with someone else, how it hurt him, seeing Deva for the first time, not wanting to leave, and staying there to protect her. He also admits that he thinks it would be best for her if he left Banshee altogether.
After awaking from a vivid dream that ended in Carrie shooting him, Hood peers out the window and notices someone on the outskirts of the property watching over the house. The sheriff heads out into the overgrown field, into the woods, and he gets the drop on Special Agent Racine, watching the house with a pair of binoculars. The terminally ill FBI man is still hoping to capture Rabbit before he dies and was following the two of them in hopes he wouldn’t be far behind.
“Well for starters, I know you’re not Lucas Hood.”—Special Agent Racine tells Hood, revealing he knows more than the sheriff is aware off.
Racine tells both of them about his early days of trying to put Rabbit behind bars and how his confidential informant was killed, along with his wife and kids due to Rabbit exacting out revenge. However, the big bomb that the agent drops on Hood is that he was there in the interrogation room on the night he was arrested (you can see that in this scene from Banshee Origins) and he knows he isn’t the true sheriff of Banshee. He wants their cooperation in return for keeping quiet about Hood’s true identity, which he still doesn’t know. Hell, none of us know! One of the beautiful things about Banshee, the unknown mythology!
As the three begin to discuss the particulars, a bullet comes through the window, into Racine’s head, ending his life. Hood and Carrie duck for cover. They are under fire from a camouflaged sniper hidden in the hay field. Hood grabs the gun out of Racine’s bag, slides it over to Carrie and the two head out into the hay field, crawling on all fours to find the sniper. A spectacular and intense scene unfolds as the three hay paths from Carrie, Hood and the sniper are shown from an aerial view. Birds started to fly overheard and Hood stood up and ran to draw fire from the sniper. While being distracted by Hood, Carrie snuck up and took the sniper down with one shot. When Hood removes the mask from the sniper, we see it was the lady with the groceries from earlier in the episode. The tattoo of a spider on her neck reveals she is from Rabbit’s crew.
A lantern was knocked over during the attack on the house, which set it ablaze. It is symbolic in the sense that everything around Hood ends up damaged in some way, and also it was a bit of closure on the their relationship. After watching it burn, they drive away with the burning house in the rearview mirror, leaving Racine and the dead sniper behind with it.
“He’s never going to stop coming. Not until we’re both dead.”—Carrie warns Hood about Rabbit
Hood drops Carrie off at her hotel, and heads back to The Forge to see his friend and confidant Sugar, share some sippers of bourbon and dissect the latest happenings in his life. Now there are often great lines that come from the character played brilliantly by Frankie Faison, and he usually steals the majority of the scenes that he is in, but this episode may in fact be Sugar’s finest hour, as he brings out the truth in the kind of people he and Hood really are and why they can’t lead a normal life. Rather than leave just one quote from it, I’ve included the whole speech.
“People like you and me, we don’t need bars. We build our own cells. When you live like we live, it goes without saying. We are going to find ourselves in places we never imagined we’d be. Looking back and wondering how the hell we got there and why the hell it seems we can’t leave. There is something broken in us. Something that we don’t have that other people do, that lets them settle down, find peace and dream of a better life. People like you and me, we can’t afford those dreams, because of what we have done. There are ghosts that just won’t let us be.”—Sugar informs Hood on some harsh realities
While Sugar is talking we see Carrie sitting in her hotel room staring at an old picture of Deva with a sullen expression. Next we see Deva entering her bedroom to discover the glowing unicorn sitting on her bed. She obviously knows the significance behind its meaning, and picks it up and starts to process the moment and most likely remembering reading The Last Unicorn with her mother. As Sugar finishes his speech, Hood slams his empty rocks glass down, refusing to believe what is already true and says, “F*ck that” and leaves the bar.
What this episode proved is that Banshee can tell a great story without any bells or whistles. The characters can more than just hold their own, and both the writing and acting has provided a great backbone for the series. Sure the show can punch you in the face when it wants to and be ridiculously over the top, but it can scale back from the land of the guilty pleasure and offer a straight up serious and emotionally driven episode. Further proving that compared to other series that usually do one or the other, Banshee continues to forge its own path in modern television.
Extras:
This week’s post credit scene featured Hood in his loft apartment—in what may or may not be an homage to Patrick Swayze’s character Dalton from Road House—going to town on a heavy bag with kicks and punches. At least I hope it was!
Music:
The song playing in this episodes closing montage was “Missing Reward” by Mt. Royal.
The song playing in the closing credits was “Benevolence” by The New Man
We are half way through Season 2. Keep it locked to Nerdcore Movement for recaps of the five remaining recaps!
