What I’m Watching: Banshee

Banshee: Season 1, Episodes 8 and 9 “We Shall Live Forever” and “Always a Cowboy” (B+)

Things are really coming to a head on this show, and there’s something both appealing and terrifying about a universe in which anything really could happen, namely Carrie nearly getting bludgeoned to death by Olek and Rabbit actually appearing in Banshee and taking Max from the playground. These two episodes each contained one monstrosity of a fight that was excessively brutal and shockingly lengthy, and it’s a wonder that only one person lost his life after all of the violence. Episode eight started out in a mesmerizing manner, showing Gordon’s utter silent dismay, which quickly turned to fury, at Carrie’s absence as we saw her experiencing passion with Lucas, who she immediately told should think of their love as something of the past. Carrie deserves credit both for her combat skills and for her resilience, refusing to answer any of Gordon’s highly relevant questions and, more crucially, ditching the hospital to go save her family. Rabbit’s visit to her home was fascinating and highly disconcerting, and I was concerned that Rabbit was going to kill Gordon on the spot. As I predicted, Lucas did go to Kai for help with Rabbit, though we don’t know what he asked him just yet, and Kai felt the need to beat Lucas to a pulp before sharing some scotch and agreeing to help him. It seems that Kai’s expanded universe will be somewhat central in the near future with the new focus on the Longshadow family. That will have to wait mostly for next season, of course, thanks to that awesome ending with Lucas realizing that he has not one but a whole bunch of guns pointed right at him.