Banshee - The Fire Trials - Review

 A neo-nazi executed vigilante-style, a Native American fireside punch-up ritual, ex-Amish incest and a guy shooting arrows at trucks of heavily armed marines; yep, Banshee is back!

Following the death of Rabbit in last season’s finale, Hood enters this episode a new man. Rather than the cornered, desperate animal who lashed out in previous series, the Hood who calmly stalks his prey in the opening scene is a no-holds-barred predator. He’s no longer a lone wolf either, with a pack who are prepared to stand by and shoot with him. Even Brock is now a disciple, albeit one with reservations, weakly requesting that they “not make a habit” of these team executions. It’s understandable that what they’ve been through together, and the loss of one of their own, has forged a strong bond between Siobhan, Brock and Hood but even they acknowledge how dysfunctional they will always be, with Brock’s sarcastic “functional… that’s us”.

One of the most promising themes of this episode is the burgeoning relationship between Hood and daughter Deva. Family drama can sometimes be an irritatingly sentimental change of tone in shows like this but the Banshee team handle it so well, never letting it overflow into melodrama and keeping it grounded with humour like "it's a little soon to be making daddy jokes". The exchange where Deva realises that Hood came to Banshee for her mother, “you came for her”, and he replies “I stayed for you”, is a real emotional crux of the episode and it sets up an interesting dynamic for the rest of the season as well as being yet another indicator of a changed Hood.

Not all has changed though as, when greeted with the sight of millions of dollars at Camp Genoa, Hood’s eyes widen with the glaze of an addict just as every viewer comes to the realisation that this is going to end very, very badly. The kid-in-a-candy-store moment is played out so brilliantly by Antony Starr, who really acts well with his eyes, later going through a whole gamut of emotions when presented with the season’s new big bad and a familiar face to Hood, Chayton Littlestone, who’s the one antagonist to seriously outmatch our hero in a fight. In the space of one brief moment of eye-to-eye contact Hood goes from the liberated predator of the episode’s opening and back to a wild-eyed, threatened animal; things are about to get serious, again.

And when it gets serious in the world of Banshee, who ya gonna call? Job, of course! In one of the best scenes of the episode we catch up with everyone’s favourite fabulous, cross-dressing, kick-ass hacker in the midst of a job meltdown. There’s a shootout, exploding money and one of the best lines of the episode: “you know, I’m actually starting to believe in God… and I’m thinking that m**********r hates me”. It’s the Banshee we all know and love, and it’s only getting better.

Best Line

Hondo: “You’re the f*****g sheriff!” Hood: “Allegedly”

Best Scene

It’s a close call with Job’s entrance but my pick has to be the epic arrows vs trucks of marines scene where Chayton reminds us all that he is both absolutely terrifying and a total psychopath but definitely a whole lot of fun to watch.

Speculation

Is Carrie targeting Camp Genoa as well? She’s obviously still a thief and she’s sleeping with the Colonel; just a coincidence, or is she getting her foot in the door?