Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 7 is the final part of an 2022 American true crime drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer. The premise involves a police detective who’s faith is shaken when investigating the murder of a Mormon mother and her baby daughter that seems to involve The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
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Entitled “Blood Atonement”, Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 7 is utterly predictable. So is the miniseries a failure, after all’s said and done. It depends on one’s perspective and what a viewer might expect to get out of this miniseries. If you are seeking mystery, thrills and spills then this is not for you. The fact that the killers are Ron and Dan Lafferty is revealed very early on in the series, so no tension and conflict there whatsoever.
READ OUR ANALYSES OF UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN.
Is it perhaps a character study about how a pious police detective has to deal with his inner conflict when investigating heinous crimes that involve the dark origins of his own religion? Not really, cuz while the baby-faced Andrew Garfield does a good job in portraying the strait-laced Jeb Pyre, that personal trial is never quite played out dramatically enough – Pyre comes across as a passive-aggressive, unable to express himself. And even everything that he has learned about Mormonism appears to return to his church at the end. No character arc whatsoever?!?
Then perhaps does Under the Banner of Heaven Episode 7 demonstrate once and for all that the LDS Church is a compromised religion, refusing to adhere to its original tenets for fear of breaking man’s laws? Maybe this is the main takeaway from this miniseries – that no matter how much evidence there is concerning the invalidity of a particular faith – the pious and the faithful will continue to live in their delusion. For this reason and this reason alone, we would recommend Under the Banner of Heaven. Not much more than that.
Now streaming on Hulu.
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