"Under the Banner of Heaven" is more than just a true crime detective story. It's also a period piece tracing the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the journey of its founding prophet, Joseph Smith.
As Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) investigates the brutal 1984 killings of Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter, "One Mighty and Strong," the series' fifth episode, flashes back to a defining moment for Latter-day Saints: the murder of Smith and his brother, Hyrum, in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844.
Smith and a growing legion of followers had pushed across the country, eventually settling in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839 after fleeing Ohio and a violent expulsion from Missouri.
