Under the Banner of Heaven, a Hulu series about corruption in the LDS Church, was written and produced by Dustin Lance Black, who is gay, so there's bound to be some gay characters or subtexts. Besides, who isn't interested in cute Mormon missionaries?
Scene 1: Establishing shot of Salt Lake City. Jeb (Andrew Garfield), a super clean-cut nuclear family Dad, is listening to "Let's Hear it for the Boy." A gay anthem! So the protagonist is gay? His preteen daughters, who wear long pioneer dresses, ask him to do loving-father activities, like lasso them. Wife, who wears a modern t-shirt and cut-off jeans, calls him to the phone. He has to go to work, so everyone has to do the evening prayers early.
We hear all the prayers: for the Mormon missionaries (how about a visual?), for Church President Kimball, for Grandpa in heaven, and for an Easy-Bake Oven. "Let's Hear it for the Boy" came out in 1982, and Spencer Kimball died in 1985,
Scene 2: Continuing to pray, Jeb the Cop puts the siren on his car and heads to a house surrounded by yellow tape and police cars. Inside: the tv on, bloody footprints, scattered toys, a dead lady, and something in a basinet that makes him say "Evil." The dead lady's murder was not evil? He goes out to the yard and arrests the bloody young man who happens to be walking around.
Scene 3: At the police station, Jeb the Cop and his Gentile (Non-Mormon) Partner do the good cop-bad cop routine on the blood-splattered suspect, Allen Lafferty (Billy Howle), who happens to belong to one of the most important familiies of the Church. He claims that for the last year, "peculiar men" dressed like Mormon prophets have been stalking his family, so no doubt they did it. They are probably after his brothers and their wives and kids, too.
Left: Billie Howle, Dick #1
Scene 4: While they book and strip Allen, Jeb watches, flashing back to someone he saw at church (was this a flash of same-sex attraction?). They send a squad car out to check on the only brother whose address Allen knows: the others all moved to hide from the humiliation of having a brother who left the Church.
Scene 5: Jeb is too disgusted to continue the interrogation, so his Gentile Partner continues alone. Stunt casting: he's played by Gil Birmingham, a bodybuilder who appeared in Diana Ross's music video "Muscles" in 1982.
Allen: if you want to know who did, check out the Mormon saints.
Flashback to his future wife Brenda winning runner-up in the Miss Twin Falls, Idaho contest in 1980, then going to Brigham Young University, to stay away from the "Democrats and crazies," and studying broadcast journalism. She meets Allen at church.
Back at the interrogation, Allen blames the Church on his wife's death: "My only regret is that I didn't drive her out of Zion (Salt Lake City) to protect her from our people."
Scene 6: Jeb the Cop continues to ruminate about how evil Allen is, to do that to a baby (and an adult?). They're still having trouble tracking down the addresses of his brothers and their wives/kids, so Jeb calls his wife -- they went to church with the Lafferty family, so maybe she has some of the brothers' addresses.
He returns to the interrogation: Jeb: "So, you despicable monster, was there anyone besides you who hated Brenda enough to do it?" Allen: Everyone hated her because she was so perfect." Yeah, I heard that a lot in high school.
Scene 7: Flashback to Allen introducing Brenda to the family at a picnic. "Just don't say much," he warns. Patriarch Ammon (Christopher Heyerdahl, Dick #2) wants to know why she abandoned Twin Falls, Idaho for the evil Big City (Provo, Utah?). There are an endless number of boisterous brothers, Stepford wives, and staring kids to meet.
More Lafferty boys after the break
