Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers for this week’s episode of True Detective.
We’ve reached the penultimate episode of True Detective
Season 2 — congrats to all of you still hanging in there! — and with
the explosive revelations from last week’s hooker party, it makes sense
that tonight’s episode was a bit of a table-setter. We got buried in an
avalanche of exposition as chess pieces were carefully moved into place
before next week’s finale. But, then again, it wasn’t all set-up: We did
say goodbye to one member of our Tragic Trio. (We think.)
We
start out with Ani, Ray, and Paul holed up in a roadside motel, still
reeling from the party. In fact, Ani’s still coming down off the drugs
she was given. Ray offers her some weed to calm her down (what a
gentleman!), but she’s rambling about the visions she had of that creepy
molester dude from her childhood. (Note to self: Never try oral-mist
ecstasy. Again.) Then suddenly, she’s climbing up on Ray and kissing
him! He pushes her off, though: “You’re too far out of my league
anyway.” Well, for now, anyway…
Paul’s
busy sifting through all the contracts he stole from the party, and
they seem to clear up a lot of this season’s mystery: The Russian
investor Osip and Mayor Chessani’s son Anthony are among those divvying
up those lucrative land parcels along the high-speed rail corridor.
After Caspere died, they bought up his shares for pennies — how is that
possible? He didn’t have any next of kin that would claim these very
valuable shares? — and then took the liberty of redistributing them.
Paul’s
a little distracted, though, by these mysterious texts he keeps getting
from an anonymous number, with pictures attached of him and his
military buddy getting bizzay. (Paul, if you want to hide your gayness
so badly, here’s a tip: Don’t make out with a dude in front of an open
window.) Sensing something bad is about to happen, he stashes his
fiancée Emily and his crazy mom Cynthia in a motel room together. And
Emily looks thrilled to be spending alone time with her future
mother-in-law.
When
we check in on Frank, he’s dealing hands of blackjack to himself; his
wife Jordan suggests he “could just walk away from the table,” but he’s
not ready to do that: “You see me managing an Applebee’s?” Hey, Jordan
used to work at an Applebee’s, and it’s not all bad; “they gave me a
shift meal,” she says. (A shift meal!) But soon, Ray comes calling and
unloads a whole bunch of exposition on Frank, catching him up on what we
learned last week. Land deals, contracts, Catalyst: You’ve heard it all
before, so we’ll spare you. But Nic Pizzolatto really wants to make
sure we understand… even if we’re finding it hard to care.
By
the way, Ray still wants to know who ID'ed the wrong guy as his
ex-wife’s rapist. Frank promises he’ll get him that name by the end of
the day: “Word of honor.” We’re not sure how much Frank’s “word of
honor” is worth, but he does get his answer by beating it out of his
henchman Blake. Yes, Blake gave Frank the name of a meth head who ripped
him off instead of the real rapist, and he’s been double-crossing Frank
with Osip for a while now — and he even killed Stan, burning out his
eyes to make it look like Caspere’s killer did it.
And
Blake pays for his sins, too: Frank cracks a glass across his face and
grinds his bloody cheek into the carpet, before finally putting a bullet
in Blake’s gut and watching him slowly bleed out. He even gives a dying
Blake one final indignity, observing: “And now you just s–t my carpet.”
Dude, if you were so worried about your carpet, why’d you just grind a
guy’s bloody face into it?
Then
things get a little hectic: Ray drives to meet the state’s attorney
Davis near an abandoned factory… but whoops, she’s already dead. Frank
tries to keep his cool while Osip visits the casino to tell him he’s
buying up all of Frank’s properties — but hey, he offers to make Frank a
manager, at least! Frank plays nice… only because he’s planning to
torch the casino rather than hand it over to Osip. He snaps a gas line,
pours out some liquor, and drops a lighter before turning on all the gas
burners and letting the place burn. Tsk-tsk… that’s no way to impress
the people at Applebee’s, Frank.
Back
at the motel, Ray and Ani are sharing a drink and opening up — well, as
much as they ever open up — about their deep personal wounds. Ani tells
Ray, “You’re not a bad man"… and then reaches out her hand to touch
his! It wasn’t just the drugs! She’s not out of his league! The two end
up making out and falling into bed together… which is weird, right? Does
it make any sense that these two would end up together? With all the
craziness going on around them, no less? And what’s even weirder: We’re
sure there are people out there shipping these two, and calling them
"Rayani.” You know who you are.
But
the real drama happens when Paul goes off to meet whoever’s been
sending him those blackmail texts. Turns out it’s Miguel, the guy from
Afghanistan he spent the night with; he works for Catalyst now, and some
people — Ray’s former police chief Holloway included — would like those
stolen contracts back, please. Paul plays along at first, but suddenly
takes Holloway hostage before running off alone, leading to a deadly
game of cat-and-mouse through dark subterranean corridors.
Paul
manages to kill all the assailants — he uses Miguel as a human shield,
getting his old buddy shot right in the skull — and climbs out
unscathed. He’s safe! Wait, no, he isn’t; Lt. Burris comes right up
behind Paul and shoots him in the back. (We knew we should never trust
anyone played by James Frain.) Paul tries to crawl away, but Burris
stops him with another bullet in the back and runs off with Paul’s
cellphone, leaving our highway patrolman to die in the street.
Of course, we think
Paul is dead… but we also thought that when Ray was shot earlier this
season, so now we’re doubting everything. Maybe Paul was wearing a
bulletproof vest? Maybe Burris only shot him with riot shells? Maybe
Melisandre the Red Witch is on her way back to Castle Black to resurrect
him? Okay, we’re grasping at straws here — but the way this season of True Detective has gone, we’re gonna need to see Paul dead and buried in the ground before we give up on him entirely.
Loose Clues:
*
We knew that jewelry-store robbery during the L.A. riots would play a
role later on: The two orphans left after that robbery are all grown up
now — and Ray and Ani think the girl orphan might be one of the girls
seen in party photos with Caspere. After all this talk of a state-wide
conspiracy, was Caspere’s death really just a simple case of revenge?
* This Hasidic Jew jeweler Frank strikes a deal with: Did he just walk in from a dinner theater production of Fiddler on the Roof? (And of course, he squeezes Frank for 40 percent!)
*
We missed you, Mayor Chessani. The sleazeball makes an all-too-brief
appearance this week, drunkenly bragging to a girl at the casino bar
that his family is “a goddamn political dynasty, like the Kennedys,”
before gallantly asking her to “hum my balls a little.” He’s got our
vote!
*
It was a little confusing to hear Paul demand all the “copies” of the
incriminating photos of him and Miguel. Doesn’t he know that with
digital photography, there’s no such thing as “copies” of photos
anymore? What year does this take place in, again?
*
We couldn’t help but chuckle when Ani admitted to her former partner:
“I think I might be unfair to people sometimes.” Uh, ya think? But we
did love his reaction to her giving him a goodbye hug, along with her
dad and sister: “Three in one day. Bet that’s a record.”
* Next week’s season finale is 90 minutes long. Whew. Luckily, Ray has us covered:
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