Banshee Recap Season 3 Episode 1: “The Fire Trials”

In the first Banshee recap of the season, the stage is set for what lies ahead. An old score was settled, a new enemy was revealed, Hood educates Deva on the family business, Carrie is starting to unravel and Chayton and the Redbones gang are preparing for war.

By Michael Stets — Staff Writer

Season three of Banshee started off with a bang.

As the first episode of Banshee’s third season opened, we were immediately given assurance of two things. One, that the violence would ultimately continue, and two, so would one of the town’s biggest messages, which has always been easily understood: there will always be a price to pay for your actions. No one is above or beyond repercussion in this Pennsylvania town with an innate built-in checks and balances system. It will tip the scales to either direction at any given time.

When a car crashes on a rainy evening, we see that man exiting the vehicle is none other than the racist skinhead who viciously murdered Deputy Emmet Yawners and his wife after mowing them down in a parking lot last season. Yawners had beaten two of his associates nearly to death while they were locked up at the Cadi for beating up his pregnant wife and ultimately killing their unborn child. Doling out his own brand of justice, would unfortunately lead to the religious Deputy’s undoing.

After a brief gun battle, the skinhead is on his knees pleading to be arreste as Hood, Deputy Brock Lotus and Deputy Siobhan Kelly are pointing their guns at him. Karma would not be a jail sentence though, it would be an execution. Lotus fires the first shot and all three of Banshee’s finest send bullet after bullet into their captor to avenge their fallen friend. Knowing Hood’s character, evening the score outside of the law is not a big surprise. But, seeing by-the-book Brock and Siobhan–who he is currently dating–was definitely a surprise.

Lotus is having a tough time dealing with Yawners murder, and he spoke with Hood about what they did. His morals and conscience are obviously eating away at him.

“Are you even fazed by this?”—Lotus asks Hood

A sex scene in a hotel room reveals Carrie is sleeping with someone we haven’t seen before. That would be Colonel Stowe (Langley Kirkwood), more on him later. After the act is over, she appears withdrawn and heads to her new gig at the Miles Diner. If you watch the Banshee Origins series on Cinemax.com, you know that Carrie worked there 15 years prior when she moved into the town and met her husband Gordon Hopewell during one of her shifts.

Hood and Kelly were also at the diner, and as they leave, Proctor walks past them. The both exchange a few pleasantries with one another.

“Charging me with unlicensed fire arms, is that the best you could do?”—Kai Proctor asks Hood.

Back on the Kinaho reservation, Chayton Littlestone interrupts the “Fire Trials” and beats up the interim leader that briefly took his place, asserting his dominance and regaining control over the Redbones gang.

“Times have not changed. We are still being raped and plundered by the white man like we have been for 500 years.”—Littlestone says addressing the Redbones gang

At the Cadi, the new Deputy takes a “prowler” call for 63 Oakwood Lane. Lotus guesses the address before it is told to him, and says he will go and check it out. When he gets to the house, we see it is his ex-wife Amy. Lotus ends up sleeping with her.

Deva and her friends break into “The Stash,” a smoke shop that sells pot-smoking paraphernalia. Running parallel with this scene is Carrie robbing a safe. It looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. When Deva and her friends leave the store, Hood is waiting for them. He tells the others to leave and consider it a warning and then goes into full detail what Deva did wrong and what she should’ve done to not get caught. He then drives her home.

The bond that Hood shares with Deva is special and we have seen that they were connected on a deeper level since Season One, before it was revealed she was his daughter. She feels safe with him, and knows he will always look after her. Deva speaks badly of her mother, but Hood sets her right and tells her the sacrifices she made for her.

When Carrie returns home, Gordon is sitting at the kitchen table waiting for her. He appears unshaven and looks like a mess.He had dropped by the house to see the children and after noticing she wasn’t home, decided to stay.They begin to argue about her criminal night life. We learn that they are getting a divorce.

As Gordon is leaving, Hood is dropping Deva off at the house. He was obviously, unaware that Deva was out. The DA pleads with Hood to let him have his daughter in a very vulnerable moment. Russ Blackwell has really played the transition from secure family man to a husband shattered by what has transpired around him with subtle brilliance.

Lotus visits Yawner’s grave in the middle of the night and confesses about killing the skin head that murdered him and his wife. He brings a bottle of Jameson and pours a shot in Penn State shot glass, Yawner’s Alma Matter. We are seeing a whole new side to Lotus, he isn’t as morally righteous as you thought he was. He—like everyone else in the town—has demons that haunt him too. He has toned down his Elliot Ness meter it seems, and has an execution and roll in the hay with his ex-wife under his belt in one episode. Well done Lotus. Well done.

“You see Emmett sometimes you can’t wait for God to put the world right, because why you are waiting the world just keeps going to shit.”–Lotus tells Yawners at his grave site

At the Savoy Gentlemen’s Club, one of Kai Proctor’s enterprises, Proctor is teaching his niece on some of the finer dealings of the club and how to keep track of what each strippers are making, etc. The relationship between Proctor and his niece Rebecca has been creepy at best the last two seasons. Now it seems they are going all the way this season, because Rebecca is seen naked in her uncle’s bed along with him at the start of the episode.

When Rebecca goes outside the Savoy for a cigarette, Littlestone comes out of nowhere and grabs her around the neck pinning her to the wall. He lets it be known that he knows Proctor is responsible for Alex Longshadow’s death and that he will be returning for her and her uncle. Naturally, this shakes Rebecca up because she is the one who murdered Longshadow last season. Proctor downplays the seriousness of the situation to his niece and says he will have a guard at the house for her.

On the outskirts of town, up by the military base Camp Genoa, Littlestone strolls into the middle of the road armed with a bow and arrow as an armored-military vehicle heads toward him. He starts unloading arrows and kills the driver. While this is going on, the Redbones come from the other direction and open fire on the marines. The Banshee police department would get the call and headed over. They too, would engage in the fire fight. The Redbones and Littlestone escaped and four marines were killed. As Littlestone drives away, he and Hood lock eyes. Those two got into an epic fist fight last season when Hood went into the Kinaho reservation, which is out of his jurisdiction. He was nearly killed until Lotus came to his aid.

Hood heads to the base to speak with Colonel Douglas Stowe about what transpired and discovers that the truck the Redbones jacked was filled with guns and ammo. While being shown around the base, Hood was privy to seeing millions of dollars of unmarked cash that has been seized by the government. His master-thief instincts take over as the Colonel is speaking to him and he begins to case the place for cameras, sensors, and what kind of safe is holding the goods. The Colonel says they will take over the case and dismisses him as a small-town Sheriff. Hood bites his lip and heads toward the door. As he walks out, he tells a captain that he does not look like a marine.

“You know that one big  job we’ve been looking for. I think I’ve found it.”—Hood tells Sugar

The addition of Langley Kirkwood as Stowe seems like it will be as interesting one as it is refreshing. Most of the action in Banshee is centered in town, or on the Kinaho reservation. Now Jonathan Tropper, Greg Yaitanes and company have added a military base and mercenaries into the mix. A new location and a new villain adds a nice layer to the show for Season 3. And of course, let’s not forget that Carrie is sleeping with Stowe, putting the ol’ Banshee stamp of approval on a situation that assuredly won’t end well.

Hood immediately calls Sugar to tell him about the possible job at the soon to be decommissioned base.

Meanwhile in NY, Job is being held at gun point inside Brooklyn Cement and Stone and ordered to crack into the New York Stock Exchange. He ducks under the desk as gunshots rip through the stained-glass window and take out his adversaries. Fat Au–the NY gangster who saved Hood and Carrie in the big shootout with Rabbit’s cronies last season–came to bail out Job.

One of the criminal runs off and after a shootout transpires, he drops his own grenade which kills him. It also blows up the briefcase full of money, so Job and Fat Au end up with nothing. Job gets a call from Hood that he just had eyes on eight to 10 million unwashed dollars and he tells Hood he hates him, in the sarcastic tone we have all grown to love over the first two seasons.

At the Miles Diner, Carrie breaks the nose of a redneck patron after he grabbed her ass. Hood shows up asks her what is going on? She tells him all of the things that are bothering her: her pending divorce, her children not looking at her the same and she resents the fact that she is a waitress. Both Carrie and Gordon are becoming unglued in their own unique ways, but it seems Carrie’s path can spiral out of control into darker territory.

“Do you really think you are the right person to be lecturing me?”—Carrie ask Lucas

At The Forge, Hood, Sugar and Job discuss the possible job at Camp Genoa. Job flips out after Hood reveals that it is not just marines he is worried about, but mercenaries, which he believes may be ex-Navy Seals.

As the episode comes to a conclusion, we catch our first glimpse of Nola Longshadow. The sexy and dangerous assassin is, of course, the sister of the deceased Alex Longshadow. She is in the very room, where the Kinaho chief was murdered by Rebecca Bowman. Nola feels the bloody carpet where he died as tears roll down her cheek. She is emotional, deadly and highly motivated. Expect to see her character much more than the handful of appearances she had last season.

There you have it Fanshees. Several story lines have been put into motion for Season 3. Colonel Stowe enters the fray and brings the show into a new location. Chayton Littlestone is literally the new “big bad.” Nola will be out for revenge. And we are not yet sure what Proctor will be up to.

Carrie and Gordon are both beginning to unravel from their relationship gone sour and we are seeing a whole new and layered side to Brock.

Hood is still Hood. Finding the ever-delicate balance of policing the town and securing a new score for the gang. Only it’s not a bank, but a military base. Never change Banshee. Never change.

Bonus:

The post-credit scene for “The Fire Trials” episode shows Littlestone heating up his nice on the fire.

Music:

The song from the shootout with Job and Fat Au is called “Greasy Love” by Findland

The song in the end credits is “Life, liberty and the pursuit of Indian Blood” by The Last Internationale