Cinemax’s Banshee
Season 2, Episode 9: “Homecoming”
Directed by Greg Yaitanes
Written by Jonathan Tropper

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Evil for Evil” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Bullets & Tears” – click here
 Job (Hoon Lee) has tracked down where Mr. Rabbit (Ben Cross) is hiding, in the church with his priest brother (Julian Sands). This is a suspenseful opener, as Job follows the man of God further down into the church, into the basement.
Then he’s led into a trap. He sees Rabbit, but the priest gets a jump on him.
Uh oh. The priest has Job in his grasp now. But we get an unusual treat: watching Job do some fighting. Before now, he appears to us only as the genius hacker. In this episode, we see there’s more to him than meets the eye. He subverts all our expectations, showing the viewer he too can fight. However, while running out of the church Job gets clipped by an oncoming car, badly. This whole action sequence is amazing with great stunt work, including the impressive vehicular accident. Looks so real. Now, I’m worried for poor Job.
 At the Hopewell house things are slowly, steadily moving along between Gordon (Rus Blackwell) and Carrie (Ivana Milicevic). While Deva (Ryann Shane) is warming back to her mother, as is Gordon, things are never going to be the same. For now, things are fine. Is that always going to last?
Meanwhile, Hood (Antony Starr) is living a lie, still, as Carrie tries to live the truth. Right now, the man known as Lucas Hood has to deal with the fallout from Deputy Emmett Yawners (Demetrius Grosse) and his run-in with the Nazis. He seems to want to take time off. Hood understands what he did, but Emmett is a righteous dude. He doesn’t want to become that type of person, reactionary and violent. No matter what the stakes. And that’s a nice parallel between him and Hood. Even in his darkest moments, Emmett isn’t willing to give himself over to total emotion, whereas Hood is all emotion and nerve.
Carrie: “Sometimes when you live with a lie for long enough it starts to feel like the truth”
The remaining Nazi in the hospital gets a visit from Clay Burton (Matthew Rauch), doing what he does best. No loose ends for Mr. Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) and his business. Funny going back to these earlier seasons, as Kai ends up having a long and troubled history with the Aryan Brotherhood.
But those aren’t the only loose ends. Clay heads over to the strip club where Juliet (Maya Gilbert) is working. Having already suggested her name to to her uncle and Clay, Rebecca Bowman (Lili Simmons) warns the mother to get going. And before Clay gets there, she’s gone, luckily. Rebecca sends her off, running from town. This in turn puts a stick in the spokes for Banshee PD. Although Hood’s focused on his new angle involving Alex Longshadow (Anthony Ruivivar). Strange enough, Alex is busy getting closer to Rebecca. So many elements to Proctor and everything hovering around him.
Speaking of Proctor, he gets a visit from Sugar Bates (Frankie Faison) in jail. They have a bit of an argument over Hood, his plans, what Sugar does or does not know. I love these two characters, both separately and together. There’s a history over the town of Banshee between these men, now that’s broken because Sugar didn’t tell him anything about Hood and what he was preparing. Lots of threats now, as Kai effectively ends their relationship.
And at the same time, Deputy Siobhan Kelly (Trieste Kelly Dunn) is still questioning Hood’s character, what he’s all about, his true self.
Amazingly, Kai receives a visit from his estranged mother Leah Proctor (Jennifer Griffin) in jail. A very surprising development. She hates to hear of her son alone, troubled, though he isn’t overjoyed to see her. All the same, this is an emotional moment. Kai, in most respects, is a sort of monstrous character. Yet there’s part of him which cries for empathy. The writing pleads with us to understand. He was cast out for not wanting to live in the strict confines of Amish culture, shunned because of it, and eventually ended up lost amongst his own life of crime, debauchery, anything to rebel in an eternal Rumspringa. Here, his mother admits she failed him by not protecting him: “We put you here,” she admits, “Your father and I. Your crimes, whatever they may be, are my crimes.”
An interesting development in the city, as Detective Julius Bonner (Reg E. Cathey), the man who once interrogated the man known as Hood, turns up over at the church where Rabbit’s priest brother preaches. Seems Bonner has been onto Rabbit a long time – he’s the one who tipped the cops off to Hood, on the fake diamonds and such. Oh, the tangled web that weaves. Down in the basement, Rabbit plays chess with his brother, worrying about the day people finally come for him.
At the same time, Job is gradually coming to in a hospital after getting smashed to bits by a car. He’s disoriented, confused, not making much sense to anyone. And he wants to get out, away from the men trying to kill him.
 At his office, Alex is confronted by George Hunter (Gil Birmingham). For a moment it seems like there might be trouble. The violent kind. That moment passes, as George leaves in frustration. Perhaps the torch has finally been passed, reluctantly.
Carrie reveals more to Gordon about her past. When she discovered the truth about her father, how things changed from loving her dad to being scared of him. A chilling and emotional story, all at once.
Over in the trailer together, Hood and Siobhan keep on getting closer, as they chat about Emmett. This leads into a talk about breaking points, situations where “the circumstances outweigh the consequences” and how Emmett needed to take revenge, in order to feel whole again. Then Job calls, he lets Hood know he’s in New York Presbyterian And he’s in some trouble, waiting to see if Rabbit will show up any minute. Of course having to take off so suddenly means no explanation for Siobhan, only complicating their relationship with one another.
The kicker is when Hood goes to get Carrie, right as she and Gordon are having sex. Well, he needs help to collect Job, and to take down Rabbit. This puts Carrie and her husband at odds, which doesn’t get any better after Gordon pulls a gun. Forcing his wife to admit Hood is Deva’s father. Wow. Bombshell for Gordon to hear, I’m almost surprised he didn’t pull the trigger in shock. Off go Carrie and Hood, suiting up. Simultaneously, a couple men dressed in the garb of priests are headed for Job’s hospital room. This puts them in each other’s way. A showdown ensues in the halls of New York Presbyterian once Carrie spies a holy man with the tattoo signifying Rabbit’s men on his neck. Furthermore, we get a bit of solid action, as usual. Hood takes on one of the henchmen, hand-to-hand, while Carrie guns at the other in the reception area. Awesome sequence on both sides. Little things here are so great, from one of the priest henchmen missing a high kick and busting a cabinet open, to Carrie using a wheelchair to divert the other henchman long enough to get a shot off. So many nice touches. In the end, they manage to slip themselves out of trouble. Just barely. And Dt. Bonner is not far behind, seemingly always nipping at the heels of both Rabbit and now, more importantly, Hood. They pass one another in the hallway briefly before Bonner realizes who he’s let by him.
Later, Job and Hood discuss an old friend that may be of use. A dangerous one, as it sounds. And so the final showdown with Rabbit just may be around the corner. What will it bring? Who will survive? After the credits, we watch Gordon smoke a joint, holding the picture Hood had under his bunk, and contemplating what’s next.
 Love this episode. And the next episode, “Bullets & Tears”, makes for a wonderful Season 2 finale that propels things forward into a new era for Banshee as a series.