What I’m Watching: Banshee

Banshee: Season 4, Episode 2 “The Burden of Beauty” (B+)

This show has never been apologetic about how dark it is, and that’s not changing at all in this final season. There are bad people who exist on this show that you’d have to hope don’t exist in the real world, and so many of them seem to live in Banshee. I wasn’t sure what we were watching before the cameras stopped rolling and the police burst in, and Carrie is making use of her time by taking out the trash after an errand Proctor sent Brock on ended up being negated by his instruction for the district attorney to dismiss all charges. Proctor is feeling a lot of rage and needed an outlet, and unfortunately his niece’s boyfriend was the recipient of his fury and paid with his life. Lucas makes a good point that he no longer has to observe the law, not that it stopped him in the past from doing any of the illegal actions he took, and now he’s really out on his own. Asking Proctor what would happen if he ended up being revealed as Rebecca’s killer was interesting, though we of course know that neither Lucas nor Proctor was the one who murdered her. We did see a bloody, unconscious Lucas lying in the back of Rebecca’s car when she stole a bunch of drugs from the hospital, so there’s definitely lots to explain there. I liked Brock’s response to Lucas that spooking their suspect would clue them in about who to chase. I knew I recognized Nestor Serrano as Emilio, Proctor’s new business partner, but I couldn’t peg Dr. Tim Hubbard, who was played by Erik King, best known as Sgt. Doakes from “Dexter.”