Hood’s life of non-stop action and derring-do is starting to take its toll psychologically; he’s visibly disappointed when a car following him isn’t carrying one of Rabbit’s assassins, but instead a confused grocery shopper. The episode cheats by building up the tail car as a threat through specific camera angles and music, but the payoff is worth it. Hood can handle a life of danger and paranoia, but only if that paranoia is justified. Having him then jump to a vow of non-violence not much later in the episode is a bit of a rush job, but doing so in the aging prairie home Hood and bought to share with Ana before he got pinched adds weight to the sentiment.
Hood and Ana figuring out where they go next in the place that once was going to be their shared future has a nice thematic ring to it, which the episode needs in order to sell you on its slow burn through the first two acts. But then the two have to deal with an unexpected housewarming guest that kicks the hour into high gear. Yes, Agent Racine is back, ready to kick ass, smoke cigarettes and drink canteen water (and he’s all out of canteen water!). Turns out, he remembered Hood from the long-ago diamond heist the moment he walked into Banshee, but wouldn’t let an impostor complicate his designs for Rabbit. Laying it all out on the table, Racine makes his mad-on for Rabbit clear to Ana and Hood, and tries the leverage the two into joining his revenge quest. Even if they’re no fans of Rabbit themselves, Ana and Hood seem done with the life of crime, so to have Racine pull them back in at the last moment sets up a strong conflict…which “The Truth About Unicorns” then promptly gets rid of by blowing a hole through the back of Racine’s skull.
Sigh.
Alright, so as to not be too down about the whole thing, let’s first address how fantastic the sniper set piece was. While last week’s car wreck was pure violent spectacle, there was a quiet intensity to the shots of Hood, Ana, and the assassin all lying prone in the wheat field, two hyenas angling to take down a savanna lion armed with a big ass gun. As per usual, Banshee makes the most of a shootout, but once the threat is disposed of, the depth of the backtracking sets in. The death of Racine robs the rest of the season of what looked to be the most interesting character to come to Banshee since Hood, which is a real shame in and of itself, but it then calls into question why he was brought in to begin with (if not to just dismiss the fallout from the first season finale). Furthermore, the sniper being revealed as the grocery shopper then negates Hood’s doubts about himself, seeing as he was right to suspect her from the start.
By episode’s end, any chance of a shakeup for these characters goes up in the same smoke that consumes Hood and Ana’s love nest. While I appreciate “The Truth About Unicorns” for trying something a little different, it doesn’t have the guts to commit, which is ultimately why viewers likely won’t want to visit this one again (save for the field shootout). By the time we get back to town, and Sugar is laying out the theme of the week in a plaintive monologue, Hood’s final sentiments will likely mirror your own regarding Banshee’s refusal to get into gear: “F*ck that.
- Stray Thoughts
-For those looking for more awesome, wheat field-related action scenes, check out last year’s underrated The Last Stand, which does pretty much the same scene that Banshee does this week. Just with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And super cars.
-Hood explaining that he set up a tax account for his getaway house is a case of exposing the ridiculousness of a plot point by trying to Band-Aid a possible hole in it. If you just say Hood bought a house way back when, that’s enough; bringing in taxes and his method of payment just raises further questions about just how much money he was making back in his thieving days, and the severity of Pennsylvanian property taxes.