1.4 Half Dead Is Better Than All Dead Before we get to that, there’s the welcome return of Hoon Lee’s Job – still Lucas Hood’s go to guy when he’s in a jam. That jam happens to be finding himself locked in a local museum while trying to steal a painting. Why Hood is still pulling jobs when he’s supposed to be masquerading as the head of Banshee’s law enforcement doesn’t really add up but we’re starting to realise that some of what makes Banshee so compulsive each week is these character’s abilities to surprise us with their actions. But we’ll get to that too. Despite the alarm bells ringing and the police closing in, Job takes time from his speedy security system hacking to berate some locals with a plate who have taken exception to his rather outlandish demeanour. So far, in the little we’d seen of Job, he’d come off as a bit of a bitchy whinger, albeit a funny one. This scene shows us that Job may be every bit as lethal as Lucas Hood. Dispatching three guys in a matter of seconds, it’s easy to see why a man like Hood would know a guy like Job. Towards the end of this episode Job finally makes his way to Banshee for a humorous reunion with Hood. It’s a nice moment and shows us a rare side of Hood, as Job is only one of two people we’ve seen so far that can make him smile with affection. Half Deaf Is Better Than All Dead’s opening scenes are the first time Banshee has returned to the high carnage, action movie style that opened its debut episode. Bullets fly, cars flip through the air multiple times as the characters scream at each other. For as great as this show is at being a character-driven pot boiler, when it wants to do the video game type thrills and spills, it knows how to do it well. Once everyone’s calmed down a bit, Hood has to go and ruin it again with Ana. Much like he did last episode when he saw the fighting scars on her hands, Hood’s joy at having his Ana return to him makes him smug and arrogant. She puts her defences back up immediately. It’s a moment when Ana lets out the frustrations that she’s been feeling since Hood showed up in Banshee, and back in her life. This Sheriff thing, she tells him, is “one long bungy jump without the cord”. For now Ana is still the voice of reason, even if she is slipping up occasionally. She’s saying what we’re basically all wondering. How long can Hood get away this? Remember that moment between Lucas Hood and Senator Schumacher at his son’s wake? We wondered then if it may develop into something more and hasn’t taken long. The Senator naturally wants justice over the death of his son and tells Hood to get it done with a “F**k jurisdiction”. If Hood has proved one thing in his short time as Banshee’s Sheriff, it’s that he’s plenty willing to do that. Pulling in Deva Hopewell to look at some mug shots in the hope of identifying who may have been involved with the drugs which led to Senator juniors passing gives Hood a lead but doesn’t do much for his relationship with Ana. Storming into the police station she informs Hood that he needs to go through her “If you want to see or speak to my daughter.” Ivana Milicevic plays this line very carefully. There is ever so slightly too much emphasis on the word ‘my’. Was she being extra cautious so as not to use the word ‘our’ in her anger? Banshee keeps tugging away at this idea that Deva is actually Hood’s offspring. Deva has given Sheriff Hood and Deputy Emmett Yawners the lead they need though and after finding culprit Arno Webber during a bout of self tattooing, there’s more Grand Theft Auto-style running before Yawners floors him. We hadn’t seen that much of Demetrius Grosse’s Deputy Yawners up until this episode. Whereas Deputy Brock Lotus has made his disapproval of Lucas’ unique methods of policing well known, based on the torture that Yawners meets out to Arno here, he’s perfectly at home adopting Hood’s tactics, perhaps having seen the results it’s been getting so far. It doesn’t take long for Hood to break a guy like Arno Webber with regards to the whereabouts of his associate Hanson. You may remember Hanson. We last saw him being sliced into little bits by a chainsaw wielding Kai Proctor during episode two’s post-credits scene. In a very neat twist, which shows just how well Banshee is put together, we learn that this scene came courtesy of Arno’s phone. It would seem that Hood well and truly has some hard evidence against Kai Proctor. I would say at long last but it hasn’t really been that long, but this is a start for a case against Kai Proctor, a man who’s been absent from this episode so far. When Hood and Yawners turn up to arrest him he’s doing some training by visciously bashing a wooden pole, a dog and his right hand man, Clay Burton, looking on. Proctor gets more Bond villain each week, but that’s quite fun. Forgive the caplocks, but I’m trying, probably unsuccessfully, to convey the jolt that Banshee delivered when the Moodys’ truck ploughed into the side of the Police cruiser. It’s the shock moment of the series so far. We’re being drawn so well into Proctor’s mind games with Hood that it smacks us with just as much surprise as it does the characters. The siblings of the man Hood killed at the close of episode one have come for their vengeance. Now, the Moodys are no strangers to Banshee. They know who Kai Proctor is, but rather than realising that nothing good could possibly come of tying up and berating one of the two most dangerous men in town, one of them chooses to see it as a bonus. The imprisonment of Kai Proctor and hearing followed by quick release on bail isn’t too much of a surprise. I don’t think anyone was convinced this was going to be the downfall of Proctor. There’s a nice moment when Banshee’s young mayor – a character we’d nearly forgotten about – visits Proctor at the county jail, which adds to the storyline behind him and sets out his motives for wanting to see Kai punished. It’s father issues leading this one, but, sigh of relief, Proctor isn’t the Mayors father. Banshee did enough reveals of that kind last week. This is a good scene though, even if Ulrich Thomsen threatens to go a bit Darth Vader at one point with the line “You have no idea what real power is.” There are a few disappointing absences from Banshee’s fourth episode. Lili Simmon’s intriguing Rebecca is nowhere to be seen and though Brock Lotus returns, he doesn’t do a great deal until the closing moments, again showing that Kai Proctor is not a man to be trifled with. This week’s post credits scene is blink and you’ll miss it. Kai Proctor, back to camera, showering away his ordeal, a guttural, blood curdling scream being released. It seems to be saying “Now, he’s really mad!” Of course, turning up at Lucas’ only to see him escorting the widow of the man he shot from his bedroom does spoil it a bit. Hood’s probably going to have to wait longer than he may have now to get his Ana back, her smile replaced with those defences returning once more. Maybe not all the way though? In much the same way as fellow Alan Ball show True Blood, Banshee’s end credits play over a different song each week. Episode four’s choice is a haunting track, strung out, reflecting the emotions of Ana. It brings to a close an episode which slowed down on plot but gave us a rich insight into Banshee’s lead female character. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
