Cinemax’s Banshee
Season 3, Episode 5: “Tribal”
Directed by Ole Christian Madsen
Written by Adam Targum

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Real Life is the Nightmare” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” – click here
 After the Cadi is overrun with Red Bones and Chayton Littlestone (Geno Segers) leading the charge, assault rifles blasting bullet after bullet into the building, Hood (Antony Starr), Siobhan (Trieste Kelly Dunn), and all the rest are left to fend off the attack inside. This is what people like Hood and Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen) ultimately bring to a town like Banshee, to the people in it. Nothing but destruction. Chayton calls out over the gunfire to Hood, whose eyes show the fear he feels knowing it’s the big man and his crew out there. An intense episode begins.
 Thinking Emily Lotus (Tanya Clarke) is her son, Leah Proctor (Jennifer Griffin) confesses that she “could have saved” him, apologizing. It’s too bad Kai, along with the others, is stuck under a hail of bullets. At the station, Hood starts trying to figure out some kind of way forward. The emergency gating is dropped just in time to keep the Red Bones out.
Tom Bunker (Tom Pelphrey) has to take his shirt off when he’s cut by some glass, revealing his neo-Nazi tattoos, all over. Alison Medding (Afton Williamson) is obviously horrified, as is Deputy Brock Lotus (Matt Servitto). Instead of trying to explain, Bunker lets them think what they will. He makes good after busting into the armoury, bringing out the guns and taking some “initiative” – as he puts it. Everybody gets a bit of work to do.
Reason I love Bunker immediately, despite his clearly awful past along the way, is because he feels so repentant. The tattoos are hideous to look at. Yet the way he agrees with people, the way he conducts himself; there is a man wanting to be forgiven, wanting to make it up to society beneath that old neo-Nazi exterior.

 

Lotus: “Ma‘am, that gun packs a powerful kick.”
Alison: “Are you gonna stand there like a total misogynist and patronize me, or are you gonna show me how to shoot the damn thing?”
Lotus: “Thank you, I just felt married again. All right, here we go.”
 So Chayton wants the Red Bones from the holding cell, Kai, and Deputy Billy Raven (Chaske Spencer). This is the deal. Hood disagrees with the terms and starts talking a little trash to rile the big man up. “Hey Chayton,” he starts: “Fuck off.” This sends the war painted Red Bone into a psychosis. For his part, Billy wants to hand himself over. The sheriff won’t go that way. And then the lights go out, the power down. This is not good.
Everyone’s down in the basement regrouping. Bunker stands stationed at a door in the back of the station downstairs, doing his duty. Siobhan has a problem with them all listening to Hood, as he technically doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing in terms of being a cop. “I don‘t wanna die tonight,” she tells him ominously.
More bullets come flying in upstairs. The Red Bones have a machine gun. When Proctor’s lawyer tries to get him out, he takes a bullet in the head. Next to him, Alison gets grabbed by a Red Bone. Although instead of leaving Proctor shoots the guy and helps her out, reluctantly. When Hood makes his way up to everyone, he downs the guys outside at the machine gun, stopping the fire for now. Hood and Proctor stand firm against what comes next. They await whatever the Red Bones are about to throw at them. At the very same time, Kai’s mother is dying. A parallel – the mother dies, as the son faces his own death. Meanwhile, Brock has problems with Proctor having a gun; partly because of his issues with Emily, partly because of his issues with Hood. And when the sheriff pulls rank, Siobhan can only see the hypocrisy in him.
Bunker and Alison talk downstairs. Turns out her father was beaten into a coma by neo-Nazis, that’s hard to overcome. Worse, she was likely raped or assaulted in some way. Then we get to hear from Kurt about being beaten as a child, not wanting to be home. He was a stutterer. Problem is these are the type of kids that fall prey to the Nazis, those White Nationalist-types. “They were the only people that made me feel like I mattered,” Kurt tells Alison. This character is well written and I’m glad he turns up. Quite the different picture we get of most neo-Nazis in film and television. Nice to see another side. He owns up to the horrific choices in his life, though, and never relegates those to the fault of someone else fully.

 

Brock (to Hood): “Everything you touch turns to blood”
Red Bones finally turn up at the door downstairs, but Bunker’s ready. He takes a bullet before getting saved by Alison. However, now they’re exposed on that end. With all the psychological weight bearing down on him, Hood is letting things get to him. But from nowhere Kai offers to go out and offer himself up. Will he survive the onslaught?
The rift between Siobhan and Hood is huge. Although, he makes sure she knows all of what they had together was a real thing, and that’s not hard to believe either. For the first time, she and Hood talk seriously, candidly about his life. There’s a part of her which understands beneath it all. Part of her also doesn’t want to let him go. He’s ready to open himself up to her. A beautiful moment amidst the war going on around them.
Poor Billy is both afraid and full of guilt. He feels terrible for having to shoot Tommy Littlestone, as well as fears the repercussions at the hands of Chayton, the Red Bones – that “Tribal Justice” of which he speaks. So he wants to end things by handing himself to the big man. Chayton doesn’t want any deals now. It’s war time. Talking is finished.
In the basement, the door’s busted in. Hood heads off to help the others, as Siobhan stays with Billy. You can almost feel something terrifying about to happen. Within the darkened halls of the station, Chevon takes on one of the Red Bones with a machete. Bad ass. The only trouble being Chayton is right behind her.

 

When Hood comes face to face with the big man, it is devastating. Chayton locks his hand against her chin and you feel it coming. Hood watches on as Chayton cracks Siobhan’s neck, letting her fall dead to the floor. Death is everywhere in Banshee tonight with Siobhan dead, a load of Red Bones, even Kai’s mother has passed on.
 After the credits, we see Siobhan’s lonely, abandoned Airstream trailer, the door blowing in the wind.
 What a heavy episode, in many ways. So much happening.
Next is “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” and continues on from this heartbreaking saga. Giving Hood a new rage, a new tear in his soul to try and stitch closed. Plus, now he and Chayton are truly at odds, worse than any other moment ebfore.