Season 2, Episode 1: The Western Book of the Dead
Season 2, Episode 2: Night Finds You
Season 2, Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow
Season 2, Episode 4: Down Will Come
Season 2, Episode 5: Other Lives
Season 2, Episode 6: Church in Ruins
After I'd been watching this episode for five minutes, I knew that, by the end of the episode, either one of our true detectives would be dead or two of them would start nobbing each other. I didn't expect both. And I didn't anticipate that gay ol' Paul would be the one biting the dust - with all the references to trees at the start, I fully expected Ray to meet his maker at the hands of some literal and figurative demons, as his fatherly vision predicted four weeks ago. But I suppose it makes sense that Paul would be the first to drop. He's the one with the most to lose, what with the fiancé and the baby and all - plus, he's the one who's developed some of the most true-y detective instincts out of all the true detectives, which - save for being black - ticks all the right boxes for "cop show cannon fodder."
Anyway, first things first. After the glorious clusterfuck that was last week's episode, the gang have holed up in a room with the world's worst wallpaper. Ani's a bit panicky after her bad trip - at one point she clambers into Ray's lap in search of some, um, therapeutic love. He refuses, and she blames it on the drugs, but we all know better - the two have a bit of an awkward chemistry that's hard to shake. (They both like to mumble things and don't like talking about their feelings which, in Pizzolatto's world, is about as romantic as it gets.) Meanwhile, someone texts Paul photo proof of his illicit hookup with the army dude. This means that a) people know Paul's secret, and b) they know that he was at the party where the all-important contract was stolen, and can now blackmail him over it.
What is it with Paul and his sexuality, anyway? Unless Vinci is stuck in a time warp in the seventeenth century, why would anyone in the world care if a random cop was gay? I suppose it's all about image and delusion: he hasn't exactly had the most healthy upbringing. Though he still ensures that, as he feels the threats building toward him, his mother is hidden away safely in a hotel room (along with his reluctant fiancé, who she forces to watch Splendor In The Grass).
In fact, much of this episode is occupied with family, clearly building towards something terrible. After dealing with the girl she rescued from the party - who turns out to be a bit of a brat - Ani has an emotional moment with her father, revealing that the man she hallucinated at the party as, "The man who took me away" as a child. Throughout we've always been able to see some kind of trauma bubbling away beneath her surface, but this is the closest Ani's been to outwardly vulnerable all season. She even gives out three hugs! (Which, as her police friend jokes, must be a record for her.)
It's no surprise, then, when Ray and Ani, in a moment of shared loneliness, end up shacking up in the lodge. The scene where it happens proves to be quite effective, and I think it's because there's an almost total absence of trademark True Detective goofy dialogue. A fire burns in the background; they look at each other, longingly; we cut to close-ups of them, then their hands, intertwined; a riff on the Blade Runner "Love Theme" plays in the background; and then they go at it, without so much as an analogy about wildebeest.
Another good scene came when Frank beat the shit out of his subordinate. It's another one of those brutal interrogations the show is so fond of - though this time, there's slow-mo! He finds out about a big conspiracy to cheat him out of money and business, a movement even Caspar himself was a part of (though still, no-one really knows who killed him). And after a decisive murder, Frank finally comes up with a good plan, an endgame to uncover the truth and sever ties with those who cheated him. (The first part begins, as most good plans do, with gasoline and matches.)
This is really the best Season 2 has ever been. It's a shame it took so long, but I always knew that we'd start to see some satisfying pay-off around this point, even if we did have to sit through a few "blue balls in your heart" lines to get there. When Paul ends up in the tunnels beneath the city, we were finally able to make the connections we thought we'd never make, pinpoint the baddies that had previously only been vague names and references, and finally engage in a thrilling end-sequence that saw Paul running for his life.
And I'd also like to say that I FUCKING CALLED IT. You all forgot about Lieutenant Kevin Burris, didn't you? WELL, I DIDN'T. I may not understand about 80% of the plot, but even I thought that dude was suspicious from the get go. And poor Paul. I think I can safely say that we were all rooting for him to reach that gun in time, yet in the back of our minds was the knowledge that he had to die for the story to be any good. He'll never be able to get back on his bike, and it's unlikely that next week will be all sunshine-and-lollipops. But it should, hopefully, be some satisfying closure to this sporadic, bumpy ride that is finally finding its groove - albeit a touch too late. See you then!
STRAYS:
- It's that time again where I list some of the goofiest lines offered up to us this week. Here are some of my favourites:
- FRANK: "In the midst of being gang banged by forces unseen, I figure I'd drill a new orifice, go on and fuck myself for a change."
- ANI: "Maybe you were put on earth for more than fucking.
BRATTY GIRL: "Everything is fucking." - FRANK: "Guy's been around less the last few months than my wife's period."
- RAY: "Dixon... He was just a regular dick."
- FRANK: "You might say my ship's come in."
RUSSIAN DUDE: "And who sails this ship?"
FRANK: "I'm a regular fucking Captain Ahab, I just got too many white whales to harpoon." (Alright, I made that last bit up.) - South Park was right: people do shit themselves when they die.
- Has Frank ever met a Jewish person before? He treated them like a self-service machine at the bank.
- 90 MINUTE FINALE HYYYPE
