'Banshee' Season 2 Review
Completely enthralled by season 1 of 'Banshee', I binged season 2 this week.
Coming off of their quest to take down Rabbit, Sheriff Hood & Co. are now dealing with the repercussions of their illegal assault. The FBI is now heavily involved in the dealing in Banshee and are out to make an example. Ana/Carrie is the only one to actually face legal issues, being sentenced to 30 days in prison for possession of illegal firearms. Her marriage and family life is turned upside down by her lies. Gordon becomes enraged and jealous, turning to alcohol and substance abuse to deal with things. Deva becomes more rebellious as well, also getting into drugs and other problems.
The first quarter of season 2 also focuses on Alex Longshadow and the Kinaho Tribe dealing with problems with the Amish, when a Kinaho girl is murdered. She was secretly dating an Amish boy, who turned out to be Ky's nephew, who went missing after the murder. The Kinaho are out for blood and things turn ugly. Sheriff Hood and the Banshee SD eventually find the boy, but the damage seems to be irreparable. Ky and Hood seem to have a mutual truce, now that Hood has evened the score from season 1, as Ky saved Hood from certain death at the hand of Rabbit's thugs.
But when the real Sheriff Hood's son, Jason, comes to town, things get complicated for Hood. Hood agrees to help Jason create a new identity for himself to move to Canada, as it's revealed he is being hunted by men from Oregon, whom Jason stole drug money from. Hood alleviates the threat and Jason is supposed to skip town. The night before he is set to leave, however, Jason again sleeps with Rebecca, Ky's niece. Jason is murdered by Ky's right-hand-man and Hood finds out about it. Wracked with guilt about Jason's death, Hood now sets out to bring Ky down for good, trying to drum up any charges he can to put Ky away. Hood coerces a stripper/prostitute from Procter's club to give information about illegal activities and Hood illegally gains information about Ky's cache of automatic weapons, temporarily jailing him. This sets off Procter and dissolves their temporary truce.
The season ends with Hood, Ana and Job traveling to New York, as Job gained intel that Rabbit (still alive) is being protected in a church, run by his brother. With some help from old acquaintances, the team mows down Rabbit's men, and finally come face-to-face with him. After some dialogue, Ana gives Rabbit a gun containing one bullet. Rabbit kills himself, ending the affair.
A couple other points of interest:
The introduction of Chayton, a Kinaho brute. Hood fought him during the investigation of the murder of the Kinaho girl. He is a vicious man that again pops up at the end of the season when he seemingly gets a phone call about Longshadow's death.
Rebecca has a strange plotline this season, as her motives are a bit shady. She is under the tutelage of Ky and the two seem to have a strange incestuous relationship brewing. Rebecca uses her sex appeal to make her way, and is shows killing Longshadow, the new Kinaho chief towards the end of the season.
The saddest point of the season was Emmitt's wife being attacked by the skinhead gang that lead to her hospitalization and the death of their unborn child. Emmitt beats them nearly to death and decides to leave Banshee for fear that he might do something like that again. As they are traveling to Florida, they are gunned down by one of the skinheads in a heart-wrenching scene.
This season was exhilarating. The characters and storylines are very well-written. The only thing that annoyed me a bit was the emphasis on Ana's prison sentence. She was only sentenced to 30 days but they made it seem like she was in there for a long time. Other than that, great season, I wil be starting season 3 this week. Stay tuned for my review on it as soon as I get it finished.
My rating: 9 out of 10
