On June 3, 2016, 'Banshee' co-creator Jonathan Tropper answered a bunch of Fanshee questions (see link!). His answers offered up some confirmations of assumed information, and some new information about characters and events in the series. Here I break some of it down, because I have feels.
I shall begin with...
Schrödinger's Kai
A couple of Fanshees asked Tropper about Kai's final scene of the series:
Q: Was Proctor's final scene meant to be ambiguous?
A: No. It was meant to be more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You know he gets killed, but we don’t want to show it.
Tropper also commented in response to another question that he personally did not want to see Kai die, for trauma reasons (really?!?!? What about my Burton trauma, Tropper?!?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!). Personally, I hadn't thought too much about it. I assumed he was dead, since there were many bad guys and he was very injured, but I was also ok with the idea that he could have survived, as this is 'Banshee' after all. So he was always both dead and alive for me because that is how I like it. Other fans may have decided that he survived; others that he died. Whatever floats your boat! And I think Tropper kinda thinks so too, given this response he gave to the same question:
Q: Is kai proctor dead or alive?
A: Knowing him, he will wake up in a hospital somewhere, bullet-ridden and pissed off.
So I think really the ending, for fans, is allowed to be ambiguous, even if the writers/producers say for themselves he is dead.
"Hood" Mysteries
The question of Hood's real name was of course a frequent question (not so great on the moderation, HBO...?), and Tropper gave us the clearest answer here:
Q: What's hoods real name this is gonna bug me if I don't find out?
A: Here then, is the final truth about Lucas Hood’s real name: We don’t know. We never gave him one. We felt to do so would invariably be disappointing. He is the man with no name. Deal with it.
I like this answer. I guess it would be nice to have a "real" name for Hood, but I don't think that really tells us anything in the end. It might have been a nice touch to tie up that stuff with Carrie, and also Siobhan, and those "knowing the real me" moments Hood had with both of them. But I prefer Tropper's response. Deal with it, people!
Keen Fanshees also grilled Tropper about Lucas Hood's past:
Q: Does the Lucas Hood character have a family? siblings, parents?
A: Lucas had parents. He killed his father who was abusing his mother, and that started him down the road to becoming the man with no name we all meet in the pilot of Banshee.
and
Q: Did Hood really kill his father, or did he succumb to the thirst? If he really did, was he too late to save his mother? Thank you for a fantastic show!
A: Yes, Lucas killed his father, who had been abusing his mother. His mother did survive, but by then Lucas was being sent off to the military and they never really got to be mother and son again.
This story about Hood's past is confirmed as true, so cue the feels! This element of Hood's past makes sooooooo much sense for his character, so I'm glad we have had it double-confirmed.
Another issue that Tropper helped clear up (not really) was the meaning in the opening credits:
Q: Did the combination numbers in the opening sequences mean anything? I always thought they were clues leading up to Lucas Hood's real name.
A: They did mean things, but not that. Someone other than me would have to tell you what they meant.
SOMEBODY TELL US WHAT THEY MEAN DAMMIT. This has probably been the most enduring Fanshee mystery (aside from Hood's real name), so it is frustrating to know that those combination numbers do have meaning, but none of us has figured it out yet. Here's hoping there is a special feature on the season 4 dvd extras that can put us out of our misery.
Tropper's answer to this question also really intrigued me:
Q: Jonathan, did you get to stay true to your ending from the beginning...or did it change over the course of the seasons...
A: The story changed, though thematically we stayed on target. Originally I believed that the only true redemption for Lucas Hood was to sacrifice his life for his family. He came out of jail completely selfish and driven, looking to take back what was his at any cost. But by the end of the series, he was caring about others before himself. So, in the early days, my plan was that Lucas would die to save the Hopewell family. But over time it became apparent to me that Lucas was someone who had never really lived an adult life, had never actually figured out who he was, and so for him, resolution should come from that realization. I decided it was much more satisfying to see him ride off in search of himself, with some degree of peace of mind.
I certainly predicted, because I'm just so darn optimistic, that Hood would die at some point in the series. In fact, I was sure of it, even through the 4th season. I didn't think there was really any other way out for him. While I'm glad I didn't have to witness the trauma of his death, I'm still not totally convinced that the shift Tropper discusses here was too apparent to the fans who watched the show...? I dunno, maybe other people have a different interpretation and saw this stuff better than I did. I might have missed it in my intense weekly anxiety that he was gonna die, brutally, any minute.
Burton
Fanshees ask a lot of Burton questions. And rightly so. Tropper answered a few of them with some pretty fascinating answers. First up, Tropper talked about the development of Burton as a character:
Q: How did you come up with the character Burton?
A: We were just really plugged in to this notion that we were straddling the line between a graphic novel and a television show, and we wanted at least one character who really channeled that kind of heightened comic book feel. So we came up with this mute butler character who is also a vicious sociopath. But then, being that we were also a drama, we needed to find the humanity in him, which came from a combination of his love for Proctor and Matt Rauch’s fantastic interpretation of the role.
Man, Burton would be turning in his grave, IF HE HAD ONE, at all this “butler” talk! Anyway, mission accomplished: Burton was certainly a (humanised) boss character, and I am supremely happy they confirmed that status by giving him the boss battle with Hood, as well as giving him that extremely emotional moment with Proctor in his final scene.
We also got some good info about Burton’s torture:
Q: Why was Burton in the basement being whipped and castrated? Was the guy he strangled his father? Who was he before he met Kai?
A: Burton was raised in a brutal cult. His parents were acolytes of the cult leader, and Burton was being punished for an infraction. The man he killed was not meant to be anyone specific, just the acolyte carrying out his punishment, but it was Burton’s first kill, and doing it woke up a sense of power in him, that would grow in the years to come.
JESUS CHRIST OK so some better context for Burton’s torture. While this explanation gives me teh feels, I still want to know what the infraction was that put him down here. I want details. GIVE ME DETAILS. But this is more than I had before, so it’s cool, it’s cool. The cult thing isn’t a surprise, given some of the aesthetics of the scenes we saw. I was hoping for something a little less obvious, but I think this makes sense for Burton’s character. Really, Burton left one cult and immediately joined another: the Cult of Kai Proctor. Not an abnormal response, especially if he grew up knowing nothing else but devotion to a saviour figure… And the cult thing might also explain his particular distaste for neo-nazis (ok, we ALL have a distaste for neo-nazis, but what I’m getting at is that they are a form of cult, are they not?)… The biggest problem with this answer though is this: what the fuck was Proctor doing down there too?
Tropper also answered my question! I asked:
Q: Can you give us some insight into the aesthetic decisions for Burton's little murder shed/basement?
A: Burton is, in many ways, like a child. But he protects this child, never really shows any emotions. So he needs a secret place where he can actually be alone to be his true self. Presumably, he had one in the last Proctor house as well, a place even Proctor didn’t know about. This house is still fairly new, and Burton hasn’t yet had the time to fully furnish or clean up this little basement he found beneath the tool shed, so it’s a psychotic work in progress, I guess.
I asked this question because I was a little annoyed at the aesthetics of the creepy shed and basement Burton used to kill Rebecca. The dolls seemed, to me, to be a lazy choice, designed to signal to us that Burton wasn’t quite right in the head. But we all knew Burton was nuts from the very beginning of the series, so adding the creepy doll factor seemed like a poor, clichéd decision. Tropper’s response, coupled with his response about Burton’s life in a cult, makes a little more sense of the creepy dolls and the clutter. Still think the dolls were not necessary though… I do very much like the idea that it was Burton’s “psychotic work in progress”, a little place of his own for him to be his weird little murder bean self…
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Fanshee Q&A without someone mentioning the contents of Burton’s pants:
Q: Was Burton a eunuch or "gifted" Just remembering Rebecca's shocked reaction in Season 3
A: Burton was neither a eunuch or “gifted.” He was something “other,” no doubt self-inflicted, and I imagine things felt pretty gnarly down there.
Confirmation he’s got his nuts! So we are looking at either no pee-pee or a badly tortured pee-pee, for those of you playing at home. At first I thought “mutilated pee-pee” because of the “gnarly” comment, but I think the aftermath of a total pee-pee removal would also probably be pretty gnarly, right…?
The “self-inflicted” part threw me for a loop! Given the cult context, you’d assume that he was mutilated down there for some sort of sexual infraction, so the self-inflicted thing is even more intriguing… So thanks for answering the question, Tropper, but now I HAVE EVEN MORE QUESTIONS.
Finally, since I didn’t want to end on Burton’s gnarly junk, this question (and its answer) made me LOL:
Q: Was Burton ever able to wear the same outfit twice or did he just have a moment every night where he stands naked in the woods while his blood soaked suit goes up in flames?
A: Burton has a very good tailor, and a very deep closet.
Aw, I’m pretty sure he burned the suit the nazi touched!
So there is my breakdown of what I saw as the important stuff to come out of Tropper’s HBO Connect Q&A (note how I included my own question LOL narcissist much?). I guess we can’t take everything Tropper said as the gospel truth, but I think a lot of his responses made sense in the context of the show. So take them with a grain of salt, or embrace them as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thanks to Jonathan Tropper for answering all those burning Fanshee questions! Remember to check out the whole Q&A on link Connect[/url].
I shall begin with...
Schrödinger's Kai
A couple of Fanshees asked Tropper about Kai's final scene of the series:
Q: Was Proctor's final scene meant to be ambiguous?
A: No. It was meant to be more like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You know he gets killed, but we don’t want to show it.
Tropper also commented in response to another question that he personally did not want to see Kai die, for trauma reasons (really?!?!? What about my Burton trauma, Tropper?!?!?!?!?!!!!?!?!). Personally, I hadn't thought too much about it. I assumed he was dead, since there were many bad guys and he was very injured, but I was also ok with the idea that he could have survived, as this is 'Banshee' after all. So he was always both dead and alive for me because that is how I like it. Other fans may have decided that he survived; others that he died. Whatever floats your boat! And I think Tropper kinda thinks so too, given this response he gave to the same question:
Q: Is kai proctor dead or alive?
A: Knowing him, he will wake up in a hospital somewhere, bullet-ridden and pissed off.
So I think really the ending, for fans, is allowed to be ambiguous, even if the writers/producers say for themselves he is dead.
"Hood" Mysteries
The question of Hood's real name was of course a frequent question (not so great on the moderation, HBO...?), and Tropper gave us the clearest answer here:
Q: What's hoods real name this is gonna bug me if I don't find out?
A: Here then, is the final truth about Lucas Hood’s real name: We don’t know. We never gave him one. We felt to do so would invariably be disappointing. He is the man with no name. Deal with it.
I like this answer. I guess it would be nice to have a "real" name for Hood, but I don't think that really tells us anything in the end. It might have been a nice touch to tie up that stuff with Carrie, and also Siobhan, and those "knowing the real me" moments Hood had with both of them. But I prefer Tropper's response. Deal with it, people!
Keen Fanshees also grilled Tropper about Lucas Hood's past:
Q: Does the Lucas Hood character have a family? siblings, parents?
A: Lucas had parents. He killed his father who was abusing his mother, and that started him down the road to becoming the man with no name we all meet in the pilot of Banshee.
and
Q: Did Hood really kill his father, or did he succumb to the thirst? If he really did, was he too late to save his mother? Thank you for a fantastic show!
A: Yes, Lucas killed his father, who had been abusing his mother. His mother did survive, but by then Lucas was being sent off to the military and they never really got to be mother and son again.
This story about Hood's past is confirmed as true, so cue the feels! This element of Hood's past makes sooooooo much sense for his character, so I'm glad we have had it double-confirmed.
Another issue that Tropper helped clear up (not really) was the meaning in the opening credits:
Q: Did the combination numbers in the opening sequences mean anything? I always thought they were clues leading up to Lucas Hood's real name.
A: They did mean things, but not that. Someone other than me would have to tell you what they meant.
SOMEBODY TELL US WHAT THEY MEAN DAMMIT. This has probably been the most enduring Fanshee mystery (aside from Hood's real name), so it is frustrating to know that those combination numbers do have meaning, but none of us has figured it out yet. Here's hoping there is a special feature on the season 4 dvd extras that can put us out of our misery.
Tropper's answer to this question also really intrigued me:
Q: Jonathan, did you get to stay true to your ending from the beginning...or did it change over the course of the seasons...
A: The story changed, though thematically we stayed on target. Originally I believed that the only true redemption for Lucas Hood was to sacrifice his life for his family. He came out of jail completely selfish and driven, looking to take back what was his at any cost. But by the end of the series, he was caring about others before himself. So, in the early days, my plan was that Lucas would die to save the Hopewell family. But over time it became apparent to me that Lucas was someone who had never really lived an adult life, had never actually figured out who he was, and so for him, resolution should come from that realization. I decided it was much more satisfying to see him ride off in search of himself, with some degree of peace of mind.
I certainly predicted, because I'm just so darn optimistic, that Hood would die at some point in the series. In fact, I was sure of it, even through the 4th season. I didn't think there was really any other way out for him. While I'm glad I didn't have to witness the trauma of his death, I'm still not totally convinced that the shift Tropper discusses here was too apparent to the fans who watched the show...? I dunno, maybe other people have a different interpretation and saw this stuff better than I did. I might have missed it in my intense weekly anxiety that he was gonna die, brutally, any minute.
Burton
Fanshees ask a lot of Burton questions. And rightly so. Tropper answered a few of them with some pretty fascinating answers. First up, Tropper talked about the development of Burton as a character:
Q: How did you come up with the character Burton?
A: We were just really plugged in to this notion that we were straddling the line between a graphic novel and a television show, and we wanted at least one character who really channeled that kind of heightened comic book feel. So we came up with this mute butler character who is also a vicious sociopath. But then, being that we were also a drama, we needed to find the humanity in him, which came from a combination of his love for Proctor and Matt Rauch’s fantastic interpretation of the role.
Man, Burton would be turning in his grave, IF HE HAD ONE, at all this “butler” talk! Anyway, mission accomplished: Burton was certainly a (humanised) boss character, and I am supremely happy they confirmed that status by giving him the boss battle with Hood, as well as giving him that extremely emotional moment with Proctor in his final scene.
We also got some good info about Burton’s torture:
Q: Why was Burton in the basement being whipped and castrated? Was the guy he strangled his father? Who was he before he met Kai?
A: Burton was raised in a brutal cult. His parents were acolytes of the cult leader, and Burton was being punished for an infraction. The man he killed was not meant to be anyone specific, just the acolyte carrying out his punishment, but it was Burton’s first kill, and doing it woke up a sense of power in him, that would grow in the years to come.
JESUS CHRIST OK so some better context for Burton’s torture. While this explanation gives me teh feels, I still want to know what the infraction was that put him down here. I want details. GIVE ME DETAILS. But this is more than I had before, so it’s cool, it’s cool. The cult thing isn’t a surprise, given some of the aesthetics of the scenes we saw. I was hoping for something a little less obvious, but I think this makes sense for Burton’s character. Really, Burton left one cult and immediately joined another: the Cult of Kai Proctor. Not an abnormal response, especially if he grew up knowing nothing else but devotion to a saviour figure… And the cult thing might also explain his particular distaste for neo-nazis (ok, we ALL have a distaste for neo-nazis, but what I’m getting at is that they are a form of cult, are they not?)… The biggest problem with this answer though is this: what the fuck was Proctor doing down there too?
Tropper also answered my question! I asked:
Q: Can you give us some insight into the aesthetic decisions for Burton's little murder shed/basement?
A: Burton is, in many ways, like a child. But he protects this child, never really shows any emotions. So he needs a secret place where he can actually be alone to be his true self. Presumably, he had one in the last Proctor house as well, a place even Proctor didn’t know about. This house is still fairly new, and Burton hasn’t yet had the time to fully furnish or clean up this little basement he found beneath the tool shed, so it’s a psychotic work in progress, I guess.
I asked this question because I was a little annoyed at the aesthetics of the creepy shed and basement Burton used to kill Rebecca. The dolls seemed, to me, to be a lazy choice, designed to signal to us that Burton wasn’t quite right in the head. But we all knew Burton was nuts from the very beginning of the series, so adding the creepy doll factor seemed like a poor, clichéd decision. Tropper’s response, coupled with his response about Burton’s life in a cult, makes a little more sense of the creepy dolls and the clutter. Still think the dolls were not necessary though… I do very much like the idea that it was Burton’s “psychotic work in progress”, a little place of his own for him to be his weird little murder bean self…
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Fanshee Q&A without someone mentioning the contents of Burton’s pants:
Q: Was Burton a eunuch or "gifted" Just remembering Rebecca's shocked reaction in Season 3
A: Burton was neither a eunuch or “gifted.” He was something “other,” no doubt self-inflicted, and I imagine things felt pretty gnarly down there.
Confirmation he’s got his nuts! So we are looking at either no pee-pee or a badly tortured pee-pee, for those of you playing at home. At first I thought “mutilated pee-pee” because of the “gnarly” comment, but I think the aftermath of a total pee-pee removal would also probably be pretty gnarly, right…?
Finally, since I didn’t want to end on Burton’s gnarly junk, this question (and its answer) made me LOL:
Q: Was Burton ever able to wear the same outfit twice or did he just have a moment every night where he stands naked in the woods while his blood soaked suit goes up in flames?
A: Burton has a very good tailor, and a very deep closet.
Aw, I’m pretty sure he burned the suit the nazi touched!
So there is my breakdown of what I saw as the important stuff to come out of Tropper’s HBO Connect Q&A (note how I included my own question LOL narcissist much?). I guess we can’t take everything Tropper said as the gospel truth, but I think a lot of his responses made sense in the context of the show. So take them with a grain of salt, or embrace them as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thanks to Jonathan Tropper for answering all those burning Fanshee questions! Remember to check out the whole Q&A on link Connect[/url].
