Kris Wall reviews the third episode of Banshee season 4…
One thing is for certain in this final season of Banshee, the show is definitely not hanging around and dragging things out as it rockets towards its endgame. No sooner had we caught a glimpse of Job being alive last week, held in a secret shadowy location, this week he was freed, with all his captors dead, there was no new ‘big bad’ to be uncovered. As you can probably tell from the title of this episode, this week was primarily all about everyone’s favourite cross dressing criminal, Job, and Lucas’ and Carrie’s desperate attempt to find him.
This week wasted no time getting right down to it as we opened on Job being tortured in front of a massive UV light that was being used to burn his retinas. Turned out that Job’s skills as a master hacker has made him a highly valuable target, a vault of secrets just waiting to be broken into and sold off to the highest bidder. However, Job hasn’t been broken, no matter how much he’s been broken down, he’s never been cracked, not for 18 months.
Lucas and Carrie were up against the clock this week as Job’s use to his captors was running out, along with the need to keep him alive. Carrie enlists the help of Fat Au (Eddie Cooper) to help them out, between them uncover that Colonel Stowe, despite his madness, kept detailed files of personnel on the military site. Which quickly led Lucas and the team to Leo, a man with links to Job’s captors. As is usually the way in Banshee, the plan to catch Leo goes awry and a pretty cool foot chase began with Lucas chasing Leo across town, through a tram and down the middle of a busy street, ending with Fat Au side slamming Leo to the ground with his SUV. Hail the return of Fat Au!
This episode moved at a lightning pace, with Lucas, Carrie and Fat Au interrogating Leo and learning that Job was being held in a blacksite that kept high value targets prisoner and sold off to the highest bidder. With no way to break in, Leo reveals their only option is to buy Job out, Lucas quickly options the millions from their military base heist at the climax of season 3, Leo sets up the deal with Job’s captors but finds out that Job has been scheduled to ‘go dark’, his use has finally ran out, his life worthless.
Luckily, Job’s captors agree to the trade at the final minute and Job is finally released back to Lucas and Carrie. One of the strongest parts of Banshee has always been the barbed relationship between Lucas and Job, two great criminal minds who don’t always see eye to eye, but share a brotherly love for the other, so it was quite moving to see Job finally being reunited with Lucas and Carrie, collapsing in sheer relief at seeing Lucas stood in front of him. However, the happy moment couldn’t last as the leader of the blacksite attempted to turn the tables on the group, with Fat Au then turning the tables back again and having his men kill all the blacksite mercenaries, Lucas wounded the leader, and Leo escaped with the millions. I loved that Job didn’t even give the leader a chance to finish his sentence before he just blew his brains out in revenge, and with that Job was back with the gang, but he’s not the same guy we knew and loved, he’s a completely broken man suffering with some pretty heavy PTSD and we leave him at the end of the episode where he’s crying in the corner of Carrie’s home after she’s given him a place to recover. Seems like everyone is starting to crumble this season!
Elsewhere in Banshee this week:
- Brock’s investigation into Rebecca’s murder ramped up this week as he was put under intense pressure from Rebecca’s family to release her body back to them for burial, her family heaping the guilt on Brock for breaking their religious traditions, whilst also turning to Proctor to bend the law to his will. However, the pressure to crack the case and release the body ended up with Brock making a pretty serious discovery in the investigation via the autopsy reports. I’ll get to the reveal at the end of the review, for chronology reasons obviously.
- Proctor had a suitably creepy subplot whereby he offered to help a young stripper / prostitute named Cherry who had appeared in Banshee. Quickly becoming fascinated with her, buying her food and giving her a place to stay in Rebecca’s old room. Cherry wakes up a spots a chance to steal expensive goods from Proctor’s house, but not before she runs into Proctor himself with her bag of loot, proceeding to choke her out while he has flash visions of strangling Rebecca instead, giving Cherry the window of opportunity to escape from Proctor’s mansion. Now I don’t think Proctor is the one who killed Rebecca, that would be too easy for Banshee, but those visions definitely don’t help put him above suspicion, I definitely think Proctor’s hands are dirty in the events leading up to her death.
- The conflict between Kurt and Calvin conflict started heating up again this week. Kurt is quite clearly still struggling to come to terms with Calvin burning him almost to death, while Calvin is starting to become suspicious of his wife’s whereabouts, as we saw when he tried calling her while she was in bed with Kurt and Calvin seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kurt’s situation suddenly became even more complicated when Calvin’s wife asked Kurt if he would be able to get him out (of The Brotherhood), and Kurt saying that Calvin is beyond saving and needs to be locked away, but his wife tells Kurt that he needs to kill Calvin for them all to truly feel safe. Calvin later meeting with the leader of The Brotherhood in prison and realizing their vision and aims don’t really align anymore was a great moment in this story, Chris Coy again completely nailing Calvin’s quiet rage that’s building to a point of explosion. I’ve a feeling that Calvin will form a splinter cell of The Brotherhood from here and start to strike back. I really can’t wait to see how this inevitable conflict plays out !
- Cruz revealing to Proctor and Burton that an unknown vigilante has been targeting all the criminals that Kai has been releasing back on to the streets was a cool new plot thread, one which has now put Cruz on a potentially violent collision course with Carrie, now that Proctor has put her on the investigative trail.
Lucas just can’t seem to catch a break though, no sooner had that gotten Job back to the bar, with all parties involved, especially Job, pretty annoyed that their ‘retirement fund’ from the military outpost was all gone in the trade, when Brock, Bunker and Cruz all enter to place Lucas under arrest for the murder of Rebecca. Not only was Lucas’ blood found in Rebecca’s car, which I kinda guessed would happen after what happened at the Boedicker ranch, but Rebecca was also PREGNANT with Lucas’ child, something I did not expect at all, and another well placed Banshee suckerpunch, with Brock almost dropping the mic with this shocking denouement, Bunker looking almost crushed at thinking Lucas maybe involved, and Cruz squaring up to Carrie, which gave us an exciting glimpse towards a flashpoint they’re building to now that she’s on her vigilante trail.
And as you would have it, the moment we see Lucas sat in his cell, Brock thinking he’s got his killer, we cut to a parking lot in Banshee where a woman is getting into her car and is quickly pounced upon by the real serial killer. You’ve got it all wrong, Brock, you’ve got it all wrong!
Hurry up Friday, the suspense is killing me!
Kris Wall – Follow me on Twitter
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