Episode Title: “Bullets and Tears”
Writer: Jonathan Tropper
Director: Greg Yaitanes
Previously on “Banshee:”
History nearly repeats itself in “Banshee’s” season two finale as Ana/Carrie (Ivana Milicevic) and Hood (Antony Starr) revisit the past in hopes of creating a better future for themselves – a future without the spectre of Rabbit (Ben Cross) looming over them.
As Hood and Ana prepare to put Rabbit down, we get a glimpse into the past when the two worked for the Ukrainian gangster along with his right-hand man, Olek (Christos Vasilopoulos). The operation has Hood and Ana taking all the risks while Rabbit calls the shots. It doesn’t take at thief or a con artist to know that’s a bum deal and Hood wants out.
In addition to their plans to make off with Rabbit’s diamonds, Hood and Ana are also keeping their relationship from her father/their boss. Why Rabbit is against the two being together isn’t entirely clear. We’re left to surmise he doesn’t want his daughter sleeping with the help, or something like that.
Rabbit finds out about the affair (they weren’t doing a very good job of hiding it) and Olek, who has a thing for Ana, asks Hood during a not-so-friendly sparring session if he plans on running off with the diamonds he’s supposed to be stealing for Rabbit.
It’s a little surprising that two seasoned criminals like Ana and Hood don’t see Rabbit’s double-cross coming. Of course, we’re dealing with the younger versions of Ana and Hood, who are presumably so caught up in their love for each other that they don’t see the threat right in front of them. Despite Ana’s “bad feeling” about the diamond heist, she and Hood go ahead with it and Rabbit has Olek report the break-in to the police. Ana gets away, thanks to Hood, who in turn gets fifteen years.
This we already know and seeing it played out again isn’t the best use of precious finale time. The point is to demonstrate how Ana and Hood are back in the exact same predicament, as their present day counterparts find themselves trapped in Rabbit’s priest brother’s church after a lengthy gunfight. Luckily, the pair gets a happier ending this time around. Job (Hoon Lee) and Fat Al, a Chinatown gun runner and old friend of Hood’s arrive just in time to save the pair and stop Hood from taking a dive so Carrie can escape, just like last time. The two then head to Rabbit’s estate where they find him sitting on the same bench where Agent Racine questioned him about the diamond heist set-up fifteen years earlier.
It’s the finale so we know bodies are going to drop and with Rabbit finally cornered, his time has come. But before he dies, Rabbit tells Hood that there is a bench just like this one waiting for him in the future. Perhaps, but for now things are looking up for Hood as Rabbit shoots himself with the gun his daughter gave him.
Rabbit’s death brings closure to one troubling aspect of Hood and Carrie’s lives, but there are plenty of other problems waiting for them in Banshee. While the sheriff is away and Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) is locked up, Rebecca (Lili Simmons) pays Alex Longshadow (Anthony Ruivivar) a visit. Things get sexual and Rebecca tries to shoot Alex while he’s distracted. He catches her in time, there’s some gratuitous violence and bloodshed and then the second death of the finale, as Rebecca stabs the “Thunder Man” with the knife the former chief gave him. When her uncle arrives home, Rebecca tells him what happened. Later, she watches him take a shower and afterwards, hugs him while he’s still naked. So much creepiness here to look forward to next season.
The final death of the season comes when Emmett (Demetrius Grosse) and his wife make a pit stop on their way to Florida. A van pulls up and the two are mowed down. By who is unclear, but the hit is likely related to Sharp and the white supremacists. Meanwhile in New Orleans, Chayton Littlestone (Geno Segers), who we haven’t heard from in some time, has just finished murdering a man in an underground bare knuckle fight when he gets word of Alex Longshadow’s death. He tells his boys it’s time to go back to Banshee where he’ll probably hold Hood accountable for the chief’s murder.
The deaths of Rabbit, Longshadow and Emmett will surely change the landscape of season three but its Deva’s (Ryann Shane) visit to the sheriff’s office that may have the biggest impact. The truth that she is indeed Hood’s daughter has been in the air for some time now but when she addresses him as “Dad,” one more layer of Hood’s secret identity is peeled away. It’s a great setup for a third season that may very well be about where, and with whom, the lie ends and the truth begins.
