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Banshee, Ep. 3.06: “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” and what could have been

Banshee, Ep. 3.06: “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” and what could have been

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Banshee, Season 3: Episode 6 – “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday”
Written by Adam Targum
Directed by OC Madsen
Airs Friday nights at 10 on Cinemax

A question that doesn’t neatly fit into any of the five stages of grief under the Kubler-Ross model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) is “What could I have done differently?” There are certainly elements of denial and bargaining within that, but the question on its own isn’t any one kind of reaction to losing someone; if anything, it comes from curiosity or doubt. Banshee has asked the question before. Season two’s “The Truth About Unicorns” asked how life might have been different if Carrie and Hood had had their planned future together. And like that episode, “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” represents an alternate timeline of events through its black-and-white lens.

There are so many different questions Hood can ask himself that result in Siobhan living. “What if I had taken the shot and got him?” “What if she was off-duty that night?” “What if I had gone with her and Emmett when they were escorting Chayton to make sure he never came back?” The one that this episode settles on, though, is so much more interesting as a hypothetical for this series: “What if Lucas Hood–the real one–had lived?” What does that version of Banshee look like for the man we know as Lucas Hood?

The two sequences that bookend “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” allow Hood to give Siobhan a different fate. Just as short works of fantasy, both sequences work perfectly fine, but what’s most interesting about them is how the current timeline affects the parallel version of Hood. On his first day in Bizzaro Banshee, Hood actually solves a conflict without using fists or bullets. He talks down Proctor’s men and allows everyone to walk out alive. This isn’t the Hood we saw in the pilot. Fresh out of prison, the guy was bursting with rebel-with-a-very-specific-cause energy and would have happily re-lived the events as they actually happened one hundred times out of one hundred times–anything to get closer to Anastasia. Bizzaro Hood, crazily enough, values human life as current Hood begins a long process of dealing with grief (the exception to this rule for current Hood is the value of the life of Chayton).

Later, after he sees Ana with Gordon and Deva, Bizzaro Hood makes another unlikely decision in letting her go. That’s the other major part of this parallel timeline–in addition to saving Siobhan, Hood can let Ana become Carrie and not drag her back into his destructive orbit. He can just be a ghost from her past that she might have imagined seeing through that window. And, finally, Siobhan would be able to continue doing her job, never having to deal with all of the drama Hood would bring to Banshee. “Hey.” “Hey, yourself.” And that’s it.

How Banshee uses this scenario to look at grief is much different from other television series. Especially when it comes to shows that are renowned for being generous with death counts, such as Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, there’s often so much going on with so many different characters that giving a major character’s death enough time and respect on-screen after it has happened becomes increasingly difficult. Say whatever  you want to say about “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday” (not that anyone is going to see this as anything but a strong continuation of a strong season), but at the very least, the episode is a satisfying send-off for Siobhan Kelly. Letting go is difficult, and fans undoubtedly have been asking some of those same questions about what could have been different. To be given a fantasy that keeps her alive is heartbreakingly beautiful, and I’m sure once Hood deals with Chayton, Bizzaro Banshee will be a place he comes to visit often rather than just remembering things as they happened. Even as a third-person observer hovering over the parallel world, he gets to live a waking dream that keeps Siobhan out of harm’s way, far from the things he is responsible for bringing into her life.

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That’s the other side of the coin–responsibility–and this episode makes sure to express it bluntly. When Kai comes to Sugar’s bar to thank him for attending Leah’s funeral, Sugar doesn’t mince words. He gives his respect for someone who was kind to him in life and tells Kai that maybe people like him are responsible and should consider that when they simply feel responsible. Proctor, always philosophically reasonable, agrees: “Yeah…I suppose so.” Hood’s not quite at that stage where he can start owning that responsibility fully; dealing with Chayton comes first. But once that’s done, acknowledging responsibility is the next quasi-step towards acceptance. Again, it kind of fits into one or more of those fives stages, but accepting responsibility is different from acceptance. There’s still plenty more anger and depression after Hood admits his part in Siobhan’s death. But even as the world seems to be collapsing around him, he’s picking up the pieces (literally, in the case of the things he smashes at Siobhan’s place).

The question “What could I have done differently?” is also a selfish one. It supposes that someone has control over a situation when he really doesn’t. Really, there’s nothing Hood could have done. Things happen as they happen, and hypotheticals are only there to give people something to think about and learn from. However, I don’t think selfishness is at all a bad thing. Everything works in moderation, and just as no relationship can function effectively if one person is completely selfless, no life can be lived without embracing selfishness when it needs to be embraced. When Kai tells Emily about the cross on his back, he realizes it’s actually transitioned from a challenge to his father’s god into a symbol of his loneliness. Wanting to be less lonely is also selfish, but I would never fault someone for that. Not Hood. Not Kai. Not anyone. Both Hood and Proctor have to struggle with these questions and ideas in “We Were All Someone Else Yesterday,” further showing how connected they are to one another even if they’ll never be able to put their differences fully aside. None of it is easy, and that’s probably the thing that resonates most with me in this episode. Whether you experience grief first-hand or through someone else, none of it is easy. Sometimes, the only thing you can do is what Carrie does for Hood at the bar–just sit there.

– Sean Colletti

Bullet Points and Tears:

– The other two major threads for this episode belong to Deva and Rebecca. It’s always a little nerve-wracking as a viewer-critic when a young character gets her own story separate from the rest of the series with other young characters, but innocent until proven guilty. Charlie at least seems like a natural part of her development towards becoming more like her biological parents (he also knows how to steal).

– Regarding the latter, what a fall from grace for Rebecca. Just that sequence–beautifully directed and edited–in which she strolls through the club smiling only to see Burton down the hall and that face she gives…poor, Rebecca. Well, not really. She kind of deserves everything she gets in this episode. If I were Emily, I’d be sleeping with my eyes open.

– “Shhh…” It’s what Chayton whispered into Siobhan’s ear before he snapped her neck. It’s what Hood whispers to Chayton as he twists the knife. I don’t mind this tease of an encounter at all, especially since it makes sense that Hood wouldn’t just execute Chayton in his sleep. He knows too much about torture for that.

– Bottles of whisk(e)y on-screen in this one: Blanton’s, Glenlivet and Macallan. No more of that cheap Jameson stuff!

– Gordon apparently knows how to fire a gun. That’s two people Brock has underestimated prematurely in the last two episodes.

– In Targum’s script, the punctuation in this line is certainly like this (Brock to Hood in the car): “This town needs a sheriff, Hood.” Consider the difference without the comma and how there are two Hoods in this episode. Writing like this is just extremely impressive.

– Kai’s father softly beckons him to come sit down. All. The. Feels.

– “Tall, dark and…Nazi?” I love Bunker as a new deputy. He fits in perfectly. Stepping in to defend Hood after the commander threatens him earns him many, many karmic points.

– And Stowe finally makes another appearance. The episode actually tackles a bunch of different plots, yet those opening and closing fantasy sequences make the whole thing feel focused and thematically unified.