Banshee: Homecoming review
In the latest episode of Banshee, the population of the town is in danger of decreasing. Here's David's review...
Tonight’s episode of Banshee, “Homecoming,” is bookended by top-notch action scenes. First up is Job, who has tracked Rabbit down in New York City. When it comes to hacking, Job’s skills are without question. He operates with a light touch, changing an ID here, expunging records there—and occasionally he’ll cut power to a certain Dutchman’s slaughterhouse if he’s feeling frisky. But when it comes to Rabbit, Job is all about brute force. He takes down the priest’s henchmen with ruthless efficiency—whether it’s hand-to-hand combat or as a dual-gun wielding, bullet-spewing force of nature. Job’s no fool, though. Rabbit may be injured, but he’s still under heavy protection. Job finally chooses flight over fight, and hightails it out of the church while he still can. He dashes into traffic but gets knocked off his feet by a speeding car.
Job eventually awakes in a hospital bed. He can barely sit up, much less get out of Dodge. He knows it’s only a matter of time before Rabbit tracks him down.
Meanwhile, back in Banshee, Hood and Siobhan are going through the motions of another night together. Vigilante justice doesn’t make for great pillow talk—even for two cops. Siobhan supports Emmett but not his actions. Hood, on the other hand, believes that the law is nothing more than a set of arbitrary rules.
“Justice,” Hood tells Siobhan, “real justice, is personal. Sometimes the only way to get it is with your own two hands.”
Again, this sort of talk doesn’t scream romance. And yet, it’s all these two have, this false intimacy. No matter how close they may hold one another, Hood will still manage to keep Siobhan at arm’s length. She’s known this about him for quite some time, but when a panicked phone call from Job cuts their night short, she finally understands that what she and Hood share is just a facsimile of affection.
In some ways, the same could be said of Gordon and Carrie, whose entire marriage was built on a foundation of lies. This doesn’t stop Gordon from trying to reconcile with his wife. After weeks of wallowing in self-pity, Gordon is acutely aware of the damage caused by his absence. He wants to make things right—with himself, with his kids, and especially with Carrie. Asking her to spend the night is a great step in the right direction, but their passionate reconciliation is interrupted by a late-night visitor. That it turns out to be Hood only adds insult to injury for Gordon. We saw what happened to Emmett when he was pushed too far. What is Gordon’s breaking point? How much can he handle before he finally snaps? When Gordon draws a gun on Hood, Carrie confesses to both men that Hood is Deva’s father. Denial is a powerful aphrodisiac, but this revelation is too much for Gordon to bear with grace.
Fearing for Job’s safety, and knowing that her father is still alive, Carrie and Hood quickly leave Gordon in their rearview mirror. When it comes to Rabbit, it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. Hood and Carrie arrive at the hospital just as two men disguised as priests go room to room in search of Job. Which brings us to the episode’s second action scene.
Hood and Carrie split up—he goes looking for Job, she seeks out the priest’s assassins. It’s lucky for Job that Hood finds him first—his concussion has left him too weak to be any good in the fight that ensues with assassin number one. Theirs is a knockdown, drag-out fight that nearly destroys the small hospital room. Blows are exchanged but Hood manages to get a gun under his attacker’s chin. He pulls the trigger in an act of brutal efficiency.
But there’s still one more would-be assassin prowling the hospital’s halls. He and Carrie find one another and exchange gunfire across the nurse’s station. A security guard, operating under the rules of a Rabbit-free world, quickly intervenes—only to become another innocent victim in Rabbit’s vengeful crusade.
At this point, we as viewers understand that every dodged bullet is another bit of luck that runs out for Hood and for Carrie. When the second assassin tries to use a nurse as a human shield, Carrie plays her trump card by explaining in Ukrainian that she is Rabbit’s daughter. Is the henchman prepared to kill her? He hesitates, but Carrie doesn’t. She fires off a single shot that buys her, Hood, and Job one more day of alleged freedom. This reprieve also allows them time to hopefully arm themselves to the teeth before they meet up with Rabbit again. Still, their future is uncertain, murky. They know that Rabbit will never stop coming for them; as long as he is alive, they can never truly live.
Some closing thoughts:
-Proctor had an unexpected guest at the prison—his mother. Shunned for most of his adult life, Proctor is quite surprised to see her. She is stern and practical, but a mother nonetheless. “Your crimes,” she tells a stunned Proctor, “whatever they may be, are my crimes.” This revelation causes Proctor to weep in an uncharacteristic moment of weakness.
-Acting on the echoes of an old friendship, Sugar also visits Proctor in prison. “We’re family,” says Sugar, but Proctor’s not having any of it in light of what he considers the former boxer’s dubious loyalties. “We’re not family. Not anymore,” Proctor tells him matter-of-factly. “You made your choice.” Sugar may be right about one thing—being Hood’s friend should come with hazard pay.
-Alex Longshadow and Rebecca? Really? I said earlier that denial is a potent aphrodisiac. Maybe making out in a slaughterhouse is more romantic than I thought. But did anyone consider that their illicit kiss might be the Kiss of Death? And, if so, for whom?
-It’s never good news when Clay Burton removes his glasses. The bow-tied one took out Sharp, and, were it not for Rebecca, he would have killed Juliet as well.
-As for Rebecca, if her uncle is incarcerated, she looks poised to move to the big kids’ table.
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I've been known to dabble in happy thoughts from time to time, with mixed results. I've written a few novels and even created a successful line…