Banshee Season 2 Episode 2 Recap: “Thunder Man”

The ladies take center stage in the latest episode of ‘Banshee’ with the most dangerous women in town getting spotlight in ‘Thunder Man’…

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

Don’t let the title of this week’s episode fool you. It’s all about the ladies of Banshee this time around as the story line of Deputy Siobhan Kelly heats up, the inherent danger of Nola Longshadow is realized, Rebecca gets kidnapped and Carrie heads to jail.

While last week’s episode dealt with the fallout and repercussions from the shootout with Rabbit, this week deals with the reaction from the Longshadows, after they had their armored truck robbed by Hood, Carrie, Job and Sugar. They of course, don’t know who robbed them, but they suspect it’s Kai Proctor and they want their money back.

The opening montage of “Thunder Man” has plenty of moving parts, including the morning after Nola and Hood slept together featuring Hood in the shower and Nola getting dressed, Carrie waking up and fetching coffee at the Motel she is staying at, and Proctor working out on a wooden Wing Chung practice dummy while his niece Rebecca is upstairs masturbating in her bed and fantasizing about Hood. Just let that soak in for a minute…Yeah this show is over the top, isn’t it?

Staying in the erogenous zone, the episode gets rolling at The Savoy, a gentlemen’s club where Proctor’s office is located. Deputy Lotus is there to ask a few follow up questions about the two bodies that turned up recently—both former associates of Proctor—to which he receives no answer.

Next up is Alex Longshadow attending an impromptu Kinaho Tribe council meeting. George Hunter and other fellow members of the council are showing concern over the recent robbery and question Alex’s leadership capabilities.

Back at the Cadi—the Banshee police department—it was just another day for Deputy Kelly. That is, until she got to work and crossed paths with her ex husband in the parking lot. An abusive ex husband by the name of Breece Connors; he wants Kelly to lift the restraining order on him, so he can work with his cousin who lives in Banshee. Sounds like a good idea since he used to beat the hell out of her and burn her with curling irons. That was sarcasm, what do you take me for? In all seriousness, Trieste Kelly Dunn really nailed it in this episode. She has stepped out from a fringe character and into the fold in Season 2.

Deputy Yawners is none to pleased when he arrives and sees Connors talking to Deputy Kelly. He is all too familiar with the violent history between the two. You can see more on that back story by watching the Banshee Origins series at welcometoBanshee.com. Kelly tells him she has it under control.

The episode shifts to Carrie Hopewell’s court arraignment. We learn that he and her lawyer agree to a plea of reckless endangerment and discharge of an illegal firearm, resulting in a 30-day prison sentence. DA Hopewell’s temper erupts after seeing Sheriff Hood and he punches Hood in the face and blames him for Carrie’s prison sentence. Hood is angered but reserved as Hopewell continues to provoke him, and attempts another punch, which Hood blocks and then slams him into a wall. Hood issues him a warning he would not land another punch before throwing him on the stairs. Hopewell is correct, in that everything was going fine until Hood showed up. Something Hood is very aware of.

“I gave you the first one. You don’t get another.”—Sheriff Hood tells DA Hopewell

Alex Longshadow is pissed off enough at his Hotel getting blown up, so he just assumes that last weeks’s high speed robbery of $156,000 dollars from his casino is also the doing of Kai Proctor. Longshadow calls Proctor as he is walking along side his right-hand man Clay Burton at his slaughterhouse and accuses him of the crime before blowing up one of his trailers and killing several of the cows. Proctor informs him he didn’t rob him and that he has severely underestimated his capabilities.

“At some point in the very near future, you will be made to understand how badly you misjudged me today.”—Kai Proctor tells Alex Longshadow

Carrie returns to her former home to try and talk with Deva and Max, but Deva will have none of it, doesn’t let her inside and tells her to stay away from them and the house. Another “stay away from here” conversation takes place at Deputy Kelly’s trailer, when she comes home to find Breece there unexpectedly. She has seen this movie before and certainly knows how it ends.

Rebecca heads to Hood’s apartment appearing to be seeking a tryst (this has happened several other times in Season 1), except his apartment is adjacent to The Forge—the local watering hole where nothing good usually happens—and three soldiers home on leave are harassing her. The soldiers become angry at Rebecca’s refusal of their attention and they pin her to a car. Before anything happens to her, the three soldiers are taken out one by one by an assailant we are not privy to seeing, just the soldiers getting taken out hard and fast. It was similar to the scene at the end of “Let the right one in” where the vampire kills all the kids in the pool, with perhaps a feel more ninja then vampire.

With no motorcycle helmet to remove like last week, we see it’s once again Nola Longshadow, Banshee’s new resident badass. Can I just say, Odette Anable is killing it this season in her role as the mysterious and dangerous, smoking hot villain. She is 5’ 8,” has legs for days and kick some serious ass. When is the last time a show had a hot Native American assassin as a character, let alone a female one? Your guess is as good as mine, if one even actually exists. Anable also receives bonus points for having played a small role in the movie Kindergarten Cop. Show writer Jonathan Tropper tweeted before the show that we would see just how dangerous Nola really is, and he wasn’t kidding. Immediately after saving Rebecca, she chloroforms Proctor’s young niece and kidnaps her.

If you were thinking that Proctor might be calling on Hood for the favor he owes him, since he saved his life from ending abruptly by machine gun fire during last season’s finale, you are correct in your assumption. Proctor finds Hood at his place and asks about Rebecca. Hood reminds Proctor that the Indian Casino is sovereign territory and the Banshee police have no jurisdiction over it. Proctor replies with, “A few weeks ago you told me you owed me one. I’m sure you recall that conversation…Good go get her.”—Kai Proctor tells Lucas Hood

At the casino, Alex Longshadow has Rebecca on an unfinished floor in an empty pool. As he is trying to pry answers out of her, he tells her the origin of the story for which Episode 2 is named after.

“My people have this myth about the Thunder Man. He’s reborn once each generation. He’s got the power of a god, a lover, a fierce warrior, but outwardly he looks like a normal man. So every man has to ask themself whether he may in fact be the Thunder Man, and every women has to wonder whether the man she is with is him. Some women live to find him. Others know that he will destroy them if they stay with him. I believe you think you found your Thunder Man.”—Alex Longshadow

Hood sets out to find Rebecca at the Casino, and aided by Job, he dons an ear piece much like any talk show host on TV would, with Job playing the producer talking into his ear. Instead of telling him when to throw to commercial or wrap a segment, he’s telling Hood how to navigate the casino.

The fight scenes in Banshee are always well thought out and orchestrated in full detail. There are no hokey one-punch knockouts or David Hasslehoff Knight Rider jump kicks on this show, just solid fight choreography and stunt coordination. Hood has to get through several of Longshadow’s finest henchmen and security detail in order to get up to where Rebecca is. A highly entertained sequence unfolds with Hood choking out a huge security guard, taking out two other guards on a flight of stairs with a black jack and a billy club, followed by three more guards: one he puts through a window, the other meets his fate with a two by four and the last by way of a light fixture he pulls off the ceiling. Before he sees the last henchmen, a noticeable tired Hood gives an incredulous stare and shouts, “seriously!”

The Banshee sheriff finally gets to Rebecca, who is being guarded by both Alex and Nola Longshadow. Nola disarms Hood rather quickly, and remember these two just slept together, so in a moment of levity he says, “Just when you think you know someone.” Hood manages to politic and gets Alex to agree to let Rebecca go, pending he forgets the kidnapping ever took place, much to Nola’s chagrin. As Hood and Rebecca drive off, Hood tells Rebecca that he Uncle is not a good man and that she shouldn’t be living with him. She suggests living with him, and he replies, “I’m not a good man either.”—Lucas Hood tells Rebecca Bowman

Hood returns Proctor’s niece safely to him and Proctor is thankful. Before Hood can leave Proctor asks him why he never asked him if it was he who robbed the truck and Longshadow’s $156,000 dollars. Hood tells him he didn’t think it was his style. The two look at each other for a moment then Hood pulls away.

The chemistry between these two characters is palpable. They seem to dislike each other yet respect one another’s capabilities simultaneously. As explosive as they both are, they know how to co-exist without turning the town upside down. However, Hood knows who Proctor really is, on the contrary, Proctor is still discovering the many layers of the onion known as Hood.

Making sure they hit the prerequisite gratuitous sex scene quota, we see Alex Longshadow out in his outdoor hot tub with a random girl. His underwater romp would be short lived as Proctor and his crony Burton show up unexpectedly. Holding Alex and his girl for the night at gun point, more of Proctor’s cronys show up and dump buckets of cow blood and dead cow parts from the explosion at the slaugherhouse into the hot tub. Proctor lectures Longshadow and warns him of what will happen if he sets foot anywhere near his niece again.

“You come near my niece again and it won’t be cows blood it will be the blood of your family. Every single one of them I can get my hands on. I’ll drown you in their blood.”—Kai Proctor threatens Alex Longshadow

Back at the Forge (my new favorite sentence), Sugar is dropping some wisdom on Hood, who is feeling guilty about Carrie going to jail for a month. He reminds Hood that he did 15 years for her, and more importantly he has to worry about what he is going to do going forward.

“Listen you can sit here and get drunk while you dissect everything you’ve gone through, we’re ex-cons, that’s what we do. But at some point or another, there’s only one question worth asking yourself: what are you going to do now?”—Sugar Bates tells Lucas Hood

Hood already feeling guilty for Carrie having to be sentenced to a 30-day prison sentence, takes on the duty of driving her to the correctional facility she will taking a residence in. With each step into the prison, Hood is reminded of the time he spent there. The ex-con cannot leave the jail fast enough as the memories are all coming back to him at once and he succumbs to a panic attack as he makes it back to his car.

Deputy Kelly is back at her place and walks into her kitchen only to find Breece attempting to cook her dinner, and—big shocker—is drinking again. An argument ensues and Kelly draws her gun at Breece. All the anger that she has felt for a big portion of her life is coming to a head as she is screaming for him to leave.

After receiving word that Deputy Kelly hasn’t showed for her shift, Hood finds her alone at her trailer. Knowing the obvious, Hood asks Kelly where Breece is staying so he can put an end to things. Kelly tells him he is at the local Motor Lodge.

The episode crescendos into parallel scenes with both: Deputy Kelly and Carrie. Inside the prison, Carrie is attempting to keep to herself—much like Hood warned her to—but ultimately she is left with no choice. Next we see Breece get a knock at his door, and instead of getting Hood at the door, it’s Deputy Kelly. She starts to unleash her wrath upon Connors inside his hotel room. As that fight unfurls, Carrie is in a bloody battle of her own in the prisons cafeteria. The scene climaxes with Carrie ending her fight by beating her foe with a metal food tray and Deputy Kelly severely beating Breece with a bible from the bedside nightstand. Who knew those bibles could prove so handy? Carrie is pulled off the girl she beat up by the guards and escorted away.

“So, it turns out Breece isn’t staying at the Motor Lodge after all.”—Hood

Hood eventually shows up to find Deputy Kelly sitting on the bed smoking a cigarette and Breece unconscious on the floor. With all the deputies already being placed on probation by Special Agent Racine, she feels her actions will result in the loss of her badge. Hood sends her off and vows to clean up the mess for her. She starts to leave and then turns back and kisses Hood passionately. In last week’s recap I mentioned how Hood pulled the hat trick for scoring with the three hottest girls in Banshee. Now the sheriff may be adding yet another, as Deputy Kelly is also easily one of the most attractive girls in Banshee.
The episodes final montage starts back at the Savoy Club, where DA Hopewell is in the parking lot with a stripper performing some extracurricular activity in his lap. We then see Carrie sitting disconcerted in her jail cell and finally Sheriff Hood picking up the bloody bible in the hotel room and laughing at the humor of it. Wouldn’t you?

That’s all for this week’s recap fellow Fanshees. We conclude this “Girl Power” episode with a budding romance between Hood and Deputy Kelly and the bloody Longshadow/Proctor feud growing deeper and darker by the minute. The depth of the characters are really starting to take shape and they proved they can hold their own, as main villain Rabbit and newest character Special Agent Racine were absent for the entire episode.

Extras:

As per usual and of course signature style for every episode of Banshee, we were treated to an extra scene post credits. “Thunder Man” ended with Deputy Kelly driving down the road and smiling.