Under The Banner Of Heaven Episodes 1 & 2 True Story: What Really Happened

2022-08-20 01:00:32 By : Ms. Tongyinhai Manufacturer

Episodes 1 & 2 of Under the Banner of Heaven tell the true story of Brenda Lafferty's murder and the preceding events – here's how accurate they are.

Warning: Spoilers for Under the Banner of Heaven episodes 1 & 2!

Under the Banner of Heaven episodes 1 and 2 introduce Brenda, the Lafferty family, and the circumstances of her murder, with the series being largely accurate to the true story. The FX on Hulu series is led by Academy Award-nominated actor Andrew Garfield, who plays the fictional Mormon detective Jeb Pyre. Garfield’s detective takes the lead on the real-life murder case of Brenda and Erica Lafferty in 1984, with the true story uncovering how the Mormon scriptures and religious extremism influenced such brutal events.

Starring Fresh's Daisy Edgar-Jones as Brenda Lafferty, Under the Banner of Heaven episodes 1 and 2 jump feature several flashbacks to Brenda Wright’s youth and meeting the Lafferty family and the circumstances of the Lafferty brothers’ LDS background around the time Brenda begins a relationship with Allen. The present-day timeline of Under the Banner of Heaven sees Detective Pyre and Detective Taba investigating the murder case, which includes questioning Allen Lafferty about the murders and how his family and the LDS church could be connected to the brutal killings of his wife and daughter. All the while, Allen’s conversations with Andrew Garfield’s Detective Pyre include flashbacks to notable accounts of violence in Mormon history, the foundation of Mormonism, and how they connect to Under the Banner of Heaven’s true story crimes.

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Since FX on Hulu's Under the Banner of Heaven is based on the 2003 true crime book of the same name that documented the real-life case, the series doesn’t take too many liberties with the facts of the family and murders. Aside from some fictional characters like Andrew Garfield’s main detective, Under the Banner of Heaven episodes 1 and 2 only feature a few notable changes to the true story. Here’s a breakdown of the true story of the Lafferty murders in Under the Banner of Heaven and what the TV show changes.

FX on Hulu’s original true crime TV show kicks off with Andrew Garfield’s Detective Jeb Pyre being called to investigate the crime scene for the brutal double-murder of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-year-old daughter, Erica. The scene in which Andrew Garfield's character walks through the home and is physically repulsed and upset by what he sees is based on the truly brutal and gruesome nature of the crimes. Under the Banner of Heaven doesn’t hold back on the exact horrifying nature of the murders, but it thankfully doesn’t depict the crime scene in an insensitive manner due to leaving the bodies obscured.

As Under the Banner of Heaven describes, Brenda Lafferty was murdered first, with the killer using a vacuum cord to choke her before cutting her throat on the kitchen floor. Erica, who was only 15 months old when she was so cruelly murdered, was found murdered in her crib, with fatal wounds similar to her mother’s that nearly left her decapitated. The true murders in Garfield's Under the Banner of Heaven were just as brutal as the show depicts.

Under the Banner of Heaven episode 1 sees a flashback to the true story of Brenda Wright Lafferty’s life before she makes the decision to attend Brigham Young University, which kicks off with her singing at a beauty contest. This event truly happened, as Brenda was the runner-up in the Miss Twin Falls Idaho 1980 beauty pageant, with the series making sure to include the fact that she was known as a talented singer. Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Under the Banner of Heaven character then heads to BYU in Utah to pursue a degree in TV journalism, which is also accurate to the true story. At the time of 24-year-old Brenda’s death, she was a journalism student who anchored BYU’s TV newsmagazine program on KBYU.

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Under the Banner of Heaven episode 2 sees Dan (the MCU's Wyatt Russell) become visibly upset when he sees that the government is sending warnings to the Lafferty home and demanding he pays his taxes. The Lafferty brothers’ tax issues, particularly with Dan and Ron, are accurate in Under the Banner of Heaven. While Matilda tries to get Dan to pay taxes in the series, the real-life Dan refused to do so, which also included refusing to pay any sort of property taxes or business license fees. As such, the notion that the government was set to seize the Lafferty family home and all of the office supplies in the chiropractic business was true, though it’s unclear if the moment in Under the Banner of Heaven episode 2 when the government is physically looking through the house is accurate. Under the Banner of Heaven’s depiction of Wyatt Russell's character in significant trouble with the government for taxes truly happened.

While some of the more significant characters in Under the Banner of Heaven, like Brenda, Allen, Dan, Ron, Matilda, and Dianna Lafferty, are all depicted with their real names, Hulu’s true crime story changes the identities of several of the family members. The other Lafferty brothers, Robin (Seth Numrich), Sam (Rory Culkin), and Jacob (Taylor St. Pierre), are depicted under fictional names, with the real-life figures being named Mark, Watson, and Tim. Similarly, the Lafferty family patriarch in Under the Banner of Heaven’s series goes by the name of Ammon, whereas his real name was Watson Lafferty, Sr. Likely changed in order to allow more creative freedom with the 2022 TV show, Under the Banner of Heaven seems to give every family member a larger role in the murderous events that unfold.

Dan Lafferty is introduced in Under the Banner of Heaven episodes 1 and 2 with his Scottish wife, Matilda. When with Brenda and Ron’s wife Dianna, Matilda mentions that she and Dan were married when he came to Scotland for a missionary trip, which aligns with the true story of how the pair met and wed. As depicted in Under the Banner of Heaven, Matilda was a divorced mother of two daughters who agreed with Dan that God wanted her to marry him and move to America. It’s unclear whether Under the Banner of Heaven’s inclusion of Dan originally being interested in Matilda’s sister is true, however. Additionally, the Andrew Garfield-starring Under the Banner of Heaven leaves out that Dan and Matilda had already conceived a few of their own children by the time Brenda was introduced to the family.

Under the Banner of Heaven episode 2 shows Dan Lafferty taking over the chiropractic business while their parents are away on a mission, which is faithful to the true story. As depicted, Dan’s father, Watson Lafferty, left him to lead the business while he was away, which was operated out of their home’s basement. Not all of the brothers joined in on the chiropractic business, as it seems only Dan and Mark (presumably Robin in the FX on Hulu series) took over after their parents went on their Mormon mission trip.

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When Andrew Garfield’s Detective Pyre is questioning Allen Lafferty (actor Billy Howle, who played Rey's father in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), the youngest Lafferty sibling mentions that his older brothers had joined the “Patriots for Freedom” anti-tax group, who he believed were going after his family. The true story of the Lafferty murders doesn’t mention anything about Ron, Dan, or any of the brothers joining a group called “Patriots for Freedom.” Still, the family did become adamantly opposed to taxes. As such, the real-life brothers like Dan, Ron, and even eventually Allen outspokenly supported anti-tax pursuits, but it’s unclear whether they ever joined an organized anti-tax group. The brothers became increasingly opposed to the American government and the notion of taxes, with Ron (Avatar's Sam Worthington) and Dan calling their anti-tax ideals patriotic, but it only appears that they acted on these beliefs by refusing to pay taxes.

The end of Under the Banner of Heaven episode 1 sees Detective Taba arrive at the home of Robin Lafferty, where he discovers that a fire had been left burning papers. Andrew Garfield’s character suspects that the papers being burned were associated with the anti-tax group that the Lafferty brothers had joined, but since there’s no confirmation that they were part of “Patriots for Freedom” in real life, it doesn’t seem that the paper-burning situation was accurate, either. However, Robin Lafferty (Blacklist season 8's Seth Numrich) explains that the reason he ran away from Pyre was that he distrusts the government, which would have aligned with the brothers’ sentiments around the time of Under the Banner of Heaven’s murders.

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New episodes of Under the Banner of Heaven release Thursdays on Hulu.

Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies. Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI's 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.