Banshee Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: “The Warrior Class”

On the latest episode of ‘Banshee’ we learn that Nola Longshadow isn’t the only dangerous member of the Kinaho Tribe.

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

A female member of the Kinaho tribe, Lana Cleary is found dead with a hatchet in her skull. Her boyfriend, Solomon Bowman is now missing, causing major tension between the Amish and the Kinaho. The Banshee Sheriffs Department head to the reservation—where they have no jurisdiction—to search for answers, and they discover a big problem, his name is Chayton Littlestone.

Still on the heels of last week’s ode to the women-in-prison genre fight scene, that saw Carrie dispatch of her adversary with a metal food tray, this week’s episode opens with her dreaming of all that has led to her incarceration.

Make no mistake, a major underlying theme of Banshee, is the chain of events that happen after having to make certain choices in life. For whatever benefits a character gains, there in lies a vicious checks and balances system that alters something, usually in a life-threatening manner. For Carrie: it’s her life of crime and betraying her Ukrainian gangster father, Rabbit that has placed her family in harms way and landed her in prison.

She is awoken by the guard and told of having a visitor. It’s Lucas Hood. He sees her hands and can tell she has been in a fight. She lets him know she was let off with a warning. As Hood walks away, she stops him and sheds more light on their history, saying, “All that time that you were inside, I never came to see you… Thank you.”—Carrie tells Hood

In the next scene we are introduced to Rebecca Bowman’s brother, Solomon, and Kinaho tribe member Lana Cleary. The two teenagers are sitting in a field and having a romantic moment, while not far away from an Amish family gathering. They are not supposed to be fraternizing with others outside of their own kind. Lana shares an apple with Solomon, perhaps homage to the snake in the Garden of Eden, and a harbinger of bad things to come.

“My grandfather says green eyes are the sign of the devil. I put that in the category of crazy shit old Injuns believe.” —Lana Cleary tells Solomon Bowman

When Solomon does not return home, his father goes out looking for him only to find Lana’s dead body, along with the hatchet that killed her still inside her skull, with no sign of his son’s whereabouts. Tensions rise at the crime scene the following day as the Kinaho accuse the Amish of hiding Solomon. When word surfaces that Solomon and Lana were seeing one another, Solomon’s father is shocked and in disbelief. The camera pans over from the crowd gathering around the crime scene to reveal the back of Banshee’s newest baddie, Chayton Littlestone. With Chayton’s presence arousing Hood’s suspicion, Deputy Lotus fills the sheriff in on the rap sheet and reputation of the leader of the Redbones gang.

“That’s Chayton, he’s out of the Redbones, a gang on the reservation, real bad news. Did some time a while back. Beat the living shit out of a buss load of tourists because some of them were dressed like Indians. Came out bigger and meaner than when he went in.”—Deputy Lotus tells Hood

It never seems to get any easier for Sheriff Hood. He already had to deal with the Longshadows in last week’s episode, he always has to be aware of what Proctor is up to, the love of his life is in prison, Special Agent Racine is keeping tabs, and now he and his department have to investigate who murdered Cleary. He has a quiet moment at the crime scene, where after seeing Chayton he seems to already know that there paths are going to cross as he digs deeper to solve the murder of the young girl. It’s as if he was speaking to himself, saying, “I had no idea I was signing up for this.”

Kai Proctor is aiding his niece on how to operate a firearm, setting up target practice on old champagne bottles, when his right-hand man Clay Burton alerts him that Solomon has gone missing. Kai and Rebecca show up at the Cadi hoping Hood has answers for them.

“Please just bring him back to me.”—Rebecca tells Hood

The deputies and Hood have a conference about some pertinent information regarding the murder of Cleary. Cleary’s ex-boyfriend is Tommy Littlestone—the little brother of Clayton Littlestone and also a member of the Redbones gang. It turns out that Tommy caught word of Lana dating an Amish boy—which is forbidden among Redbones members—so it would appear there is a motive and a suspect to question. The problem for the BSD is that they cannot speak to Littlestone because they do not have jurisdiction on the Kinaho Moon Indian Reservation.

If you know Hood’s brand of justice, not having a federal warrant isn’t going to stop him from crossing the line onto sovereign Indian Territory. So, much to his deputy’s chagrin they follow him to the Kinaho Reservation.

“Just wondering which one of us has the best relationship with the FBI these days? That’s what I thought, let’s go.”—Hood tells Deputy Lotus, Yawners and Kelly

As one could imagine, the BSD’s trip to the reservation goes over like a lead balloon when they arrive at the Redbones hangout (It says Redbones on the door, just in case you weren’t smart enough to figure it out). After several of the members mouth off and slam the door in their faces, Hood manages to pick the lock of the back door and let himself in.

Out steps Chayton Littlestone in one of the greatest entrances in this show’s short history. A gigantic Native American, fully tattooed, with a Mohawk and braided ponytail, struts out and confronts Hood. Chayton is somewhere between the size of Apache Chief from Superfriends and Sonny Landham’s character, Billy, from the movie Predator. In a voice almost has deep as James Earl Jones, Littlestone waxes on about Hood being a trespasser.

“You got no business being on the Res cop. As far as I’m concerned, you have no authority on or off the reservation. You see, all the land around here was Kinaho land, before the white man ever saw it. And your forefathers stole it, parceled it up and sold it as if they were entitled. Just like you feel entitled to walk into my house because you wear that piece of polished tin. And now a Red girl has been killed on white man’s land, that should’ve rightfully belonged to her people to begin with and you… You don’t see the audacity it takes for you to show up here pointing fingers?”—Chayton Littlestone tells Hood

Chayton attacks Hood and is tossing him like a ragdoll into and through any available wall in the house. Hood fails in his attempt to defend himself with a chain and his hanging on by a thread as Chayton unsheathes a knife. Yawners, Kelly and Lotus break in through a window and a brawl breaks out with the rest of the Redbones. Chayton is attempting to kill Hood with a knife and continues on after being stunned by two taser guns. Finally, Hood hits him from behind and chokes him out with a nightstick.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.”—Deputy Lotus says after Chayton is finally apprehended.

Now, all along since the show’s beginning, we knew once he became Sheriff Hood, the man with no name, would be flirting with danger every day going forward by assuming another man’s identity. Upon seeing that the actual Lucas Hood’s son would be heading to Banshee, in last season’s finale, we knew things would eventually get interesting.

Jason Hood shows up unannounced at the Cadi to speak with Hood, while the department is trying to sort out the murder case, question Tommy Littlestone and get introduced to the new assistant district attorney. Jason Hood introduces himself, prompting Hood to shut the shades in his office before the two break words. Maybe Hood felt this was a possibility, maybe he didn’t, but this is clearly just as big a threat to him as Proctor, Nola Longshadow, Chayton Littlestone, or Special Agent Racine—who actually knows he isn’t the real Sheriff Hood, as mentioned in my recap of Banshee Origins.

“I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Jason Hood.”—Jason Hood tells Sheriff Hood

Hood assures Jason his father went out doing the right thing and he was not the one who killed him. When Jason pushes the issue about holding the cards to blow up Hood’s spot, he gets a gun pointed in his face for a reality check. Jason wants an identity change in exchange for being quiet about Hood’s true identity. He reveals that he is trying to avoid some bad people that are looking for him. Hood can certainly sympathize with the boy in that regard.

Meanwhile back at the Forge (yes, that’s two weeks in a row I’ve used that phrase), Hood takes Jason for a bite to eat to further discuss their agreement. Hood takes the good cop approach, Sugar Bates, not so much. He stabs Jason’s hand to the table and warns him of what will happen if he runs his mouth about the truth of Hood’s identity.

“Look around you son, does this look like the kind of place that serves pie?”—Sugar Bates tells Jason Hood

Frankie Faison gets better and better with each episode playing the role of Sugar Bates. He is Hood’s most loyal friend and the moral compass and voice of reason. Never overused, or underused but pivotal whenever called upon. A spoonful of Sugar helps each episode go down.

Back on the Amish side of town, Kai visits the family to offer his help on finding the missing Solomon Bowman, while Rebecca tries to get any information about her brother and his connection to the Lana Cleary from an old friend. While Kai is getting the usual cold shoulder from his former family, three trucks of Kinaho pull up through the fields, wielding assorted baseball bats and other weapons, demanding the Amish turn over Solomon Bowman.

“I’ll give you 30 seconds to get back into your trucks and go.”—Kai Proctor warns members of The Redbones

Proctor takes a bat from one of them and beats him and another member unmercifully, scaring the others away. As he walks back to his family he questions his father on whether or not he is actually hiding Solomon. In a touching moment Proctor’s mother comes and greets him by putting her hand on his cheek. His father yells at his mother, but she yells back saying, “This is about the life of your grandchild. If Kai can help, I will not be the one to stop him.” That was a telling moment in Kai’s storyline that leaves you wondering about the history between he and his family.

While that is going on, Rebecca headed to a secluded spot in the woods where she was supposed to meet her friend, to discuss her brother and Lana Cleary. While waiting, she is attacked by someone all clad in black—and in case you are wondering—they are definitely too big to be Nola Longshadow. She manages to fight and escape and make it back to the road where Hood and the other deputies are. The Sheriff runs back in to try to find her attacker, but he gets slammed in the head with a tree branch. However, in the attack he managed to shoot the unknown assailant in the leg.

Deputy Kelly offers to take Hood home, but instead they end up at her trailer. After a few Jamesons, Hood thinks it’s best that he should leave, because, well, for starters they work together, and also because most folks know where that night is going to end up. Kelly tells him she agrees as she starts to undress him and they both follow through on the sexual tension that has been building since last season’s finale. That is, right after Hood offers the obligatory “this isn’t a good idea” line. As much trouble as Hood often finds himself in, luck with women is never a problem, Kelly becomes the fourth notch on his Banshee belt. The force is strong with him.

The episode crescendos with Hood and Kelly’s sex scene intertwined with Carrie calling her husband Gordon’s phone from prison, and Gordon getting a lap dance at the Savoy Gentlemen’s club, while ignoring Carrie’s phone call. In the final scene we see Lana Cleary ‘s dead body at the morgue and Nola Longshadow standing behind her. With tears streaming down her face she kisses her hand and touches Lana’s forehead. More angry ass-kicking and gun-toting Nola next episode? Yes please!

Extras:

The signature post-credit’s bonus scene did not disappoint this week. “The Warrior Class” came to a close with Chayton Littlestone reciting an Native American chant while taking the blood from a cut on his stomach and smearing it under his eyes, as if preparing for war.

Music:

The song featured in the closing credits is “Weatherman” by Dead Sara.

Since there was no song in the opening credits I chose the track “Native Blood” by one of my favorite metal bands of all time, Testament. That song plays during the fight scene on the Kinaho Reservation. I found it apropos, since the lead vocalist of the band, Chuck Billy, happens to be Native American.

Keep it locked to Nerdcoremovement for recaps throughout Season 2’s entire run.

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