Episode Title: “The Warrior Class”
Writer: Evan Dunsky
Director: OC Madsen
Previously on “Banshee:”
Episode 2.02 ” The Thunder Man”
“What’s worse than getting your testicles crushed with a baseball bat? Getting them crushed again.” This is the question Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) poses to the unfortunate Kinaho thug who, along with the rest of his baseball bat-wielding friends, threatens Kai’s estranged family.
That same statement is also both the reason why Kai’s Amish parents have shunned him and yet now find themselves relying on his help to find their grandson, Solomon. The young Amish boy is missing and many believe his disappearance is related to the death of Lana, the young Kinaho girl he was not so secretly hooking up with.
In “The Warrior Class” we’re presented with a procedural-esque murder mystery as Sheriff Hood (Antony Starr) and his team attempt to get to the bottom of Lana’s murder while trying to prevent an Amish-Kinaho war. In the midst of the investigation, Hood is forced to square off against another behemoth of a man, Kinaho gang leader, Chayton Littlestone (Geno Segers). Usually, Hood is pretty effective at breaking the bones and wills of much larger foes, but Chayton proves to be a real challenge and after hearing their boss get tossed around the inside of a trailer, Siobhan (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and Brock (Matt Servitto) bust in. They both use a taser on the Kinaho Hulk, but he barely flinches. However, Hood is able to get behind the monster and choke him out with his nightstick. Now behind bars, Chayton warns the sheriff that once he’s out of his “cage,” he’ll be looking for him.
As if Hood doesn’t have enough enemies, a new potential threat presents itself when Jason Hood, the son of the real Lucas Hood shows up at the station with some questions for the sheriff. Knowing he can’t lie his way out of this one, Hood tells Jason the truth. Fortunately, Jason is more like his fake dad than his real one. He tells Hood he’s on the run from some pretty bad dudes and needs to start over somewhere as someone else. So yeah, the guy who stole his father’s identity is probably the person to talk to. Hood agrees to help Jason so long as he never sees or hears from him again. After he leaves, Sugar (Frankie Faison) punctuates Hood’s point by putting a knife in Jason’s hand and warning him not to mess with his friend.
The meeting between Jason and Hood isn’t as intense or dramatic as we might imagine it should be, but it’s probably safe to say that despite Hood and Sugar’s warnings, we haven’t seen the last of Jason. Seeing as he’s more like Hood than his father, whom he claims he didn’t care for, Jason could turn out to be just as dangerous as Hood, himself. And having the threat of exposure looming over Hood, once again, keeps things interesting.
Jason’s arrival in the already crowded Banshee and the introduction of bruiser, Chayton make up for not hearing from Rabbit hunter, Jim Racine (Zeljko Ivanek) and Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross), himself. We’ve also got a new villain quickly establishing herself in Nola Longshadow (Odette Annable), who appears to be behind Lana’s murder. Nola wasn’t satisfied with how her brother handled Kai Proctor and she may have sacrificed one of her own to start a war.
A couple of other developments amid this tale of Amish-Kinaho forbidden love and murder include the introduction of an attractive new ADA (now taking bets on how long till Hood sleeps with her) and Siobhan and Hood having sex, though he openly admits it’s a bad idea. He’s probably right but somehow, it seems like “bad ideas” went out the window the day Lucas Hood was reborn in Banshee.
