What I’m Watching: Banshee

Banshee: Season 2, Episode 5 “The Truth About Unicorns” (B+)

I was thinking for a while that this was an unusually slow episode, one that chose to delve into the complexity of the relationship between Lucas and Carrie and to focus only on them for the majority of the hour. But that, of course, was excellent subtle preparation for a startling and devastating finish to their time spent at the dream house, which literally went up in flames. Racine showing up and revealing that he wants Rabbit dead and that he was present at Lucas’ interrogation before his incarceration and before he was Lucas was shocking, but not as much as a bullet flying straight into his head and stopping that particular plotline in its tracks. Lucas taking off the assassin’s mask only to learn that she was the woman with groceries from earlier all but affirms his paranoia, and Rabbit’s parting visit with Carrie last week seems like anything but final. The scene in the field with the three characters burrowed was intense, and leave it to Carrie to be fearless and put herself right in the hunter’s bullseye to be able to take her down. Lucas got to have an unusual heart-to-heart with Sugar, and his defiant refusal to stand apart from society and be unable to have a normal family and life was a great way to end the episode. Now that they’re back in Banshee, both Lucas and Carrie have a lot of work to do to put their lives back together and try to stay alive in general.