Cinemax’s Banshee
Season 2, Episode 5: “The Truth About Unicorns”
Directed by Babak Najafi
Written by John Romano

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Bloodlines” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Armies of One” – click here
 Finally, Carrie (Ivana Milicevic) is let out of prison. No dream. Waiting for her is not Gordon (Rus Blackwell). It’s Hood (Antony Starr). And they’re headed off for an adventure together.
 Of course Carrie misses home. Her children. Hood’s keeping an eye on Deva (Ryann Shane), much as possible. The two talk together in the truck headed along the highway. But Hood also spies a a car trailing them. Who could it be? Likely not Rabbit. Or is it? Maybe Agent Racine (Zeljko Ivanek). Someone else, somebody worse? We’ll find out eventually.
Along the way, the two rekindle parts of their relationship. She still has that family, but their connection is too strong to die. Hood even uncharacteristically mentions his father, which Carrie – Ana – finds surprising. He’s too busy with paranoia. He sees a vision of Rabbit (Ben Cross) in the crowd. The dark car tailing them is never too far off, and Carrie notices. What’s more fun is when they’re having ice cream, just kicking around. They spend their leisure time chatting about security cameras in shops across the road. They’re thieves at heart, she simply does not realize that fact yet.
Soon, Hood goes to confront the person in the tailing car. It’s a woman with groceries. Nothing suspicious. Is Hood slipping, or is there actually someone out there following?
Long ago, Carrie and Hood talked of a house out in the country. So they go to see it.
Their theme – the Massive Attack music played during their loving moments – always kills me. Nearly brings a tear to my eye on its own. Then there are scenes like this one, where they go to the house that will never be. Out in these beautiful open fields, they find a rundown house where Hood planned to take them, fix it up. Live on their own, away from the world and away from Rabbit, the robberies, the police. This is the first episode which slows down enough to a pace where the real romance between Carrie and Hood is brought to the front. Lots of it is already evident. Here, though, it’s an episode mainly consisting of solely these two characters. We see their old plans, while Hood simultaneously brings forward his next plan: moving on.
And this is the thing, Hood once had a plan. With her. Now that’s nothing, she has a family – even if they’re split apart for now – and there’s no more him and her. Likewise, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else around him. He doesn’t want to cause any further collateral damage. “You had all the things you were supposed to have with me and that fuckin‘ killed me,” Hood admits, before also saying knowing Deva is his made him want to stay. He rationalized keeping her safe, but it was always him that Rabbit wanted.
Then Hood dreams of a nice life with Carrie. All the things they wanted. Ending with Carrie shooting him in the face right before he wakes up next to her, sound asleep by his side.

Out in the nearby fields, Hood still feels there’s someone watching. He goes searching and finds Agent Jim Racine spying on them from far away. So they go back to the little house for a chat. He only wants to kill Rabbit. He figured they were good bait, to draw out the old gangster. Well, Hood is not pleased with any of what’s happening. Racine’s dying, he couldn’t care any less about how things shake out. Then we discover Racine knows, partly, the truth about the man known as Hood; he knows that he’s not the real Lucas Hood. Racine has intel on the big diamond heist, the one where Hood went down, interrogated by a Detective Julius Bonner (Reg E. Cathey). All the same, Hood doesn’t want to kill any more, and Carrie doesn’t want him to leave with partial knowledge of Hood’s real identity. Deal is, they help Racine get Rabbit, nobody comes for them. This quickly ends when Racine gets sniped through the window. Right in the head.
There was indeed someone hiding in that tall grass.
In their once dream home, Carrie and Hood now must face another battle. Unknowingly, the sniper starts a little fire in the house. The dreams of Carrie and Hood will literally burn to the ground. But out in the grass, the dynamic duo sneakily track down their would-be assassin. Such a great action sequence, that’s both packed with intensity while also coming off in a subtle manner. Eventually, they take down the sniper when Carrie manages a good shot – the woman in the car earlier was indeed tracking them. Sent from Rabbit. That theme again. God damn you, Massive Attack!
Hood and Carrie head back to Banshee. In the background, their home burns. A metaphor for their own love, their relationship, that has now all but burned completely to the ground sadly. Yet their love is so deep. Faced with every last odd in the book, it won’t ever be fully extinguished. Never will it burn all the way out.
For now, they’re back to their lives in Banshee. But can that really be their end? Certainly not. Hood heads over to see Sugar Bates (Frankie Faison) at the bar for a drink and a talk, as usual. He fills his buddy in on the events of the road trip, getting hunted down. All that good shit. Nothing can fix Hood’s anger and frustration right now, though.
 After the credits, Hood beats the hell out of a punching bag, a picture of Carrie and her family nearby. Hard to quell a love and lust for someone when they were meant to be together forever, now forever seems much longer for him.
 Great, great episode. A favourite of mine in the entire series. Next up is another solid chapter titled “Armies of One” that brings in a fun little character, one that helps push Hood to the limit for an exciting, thrilling episode.