Tuesday 14 July 2015

True Detective: Season 2, Episode 4



Previously On True Detective

Ray wakes up from a nightmare where he speaks to his father who tells him the most chilling story you will ever hear, Ray can't make any sense of it. When Ray wakes up from his nightmare he can see he has been shot multiple times by a dummy shotgun, which only brakes his ribs, where it could of been a more serious matter. 
We also see a new detective partnership with Ani and Paul since Ray is injured and getting checked out by his doctor, who gives him the all clear. Ani & Paul decide to check out the mayor of Vinci house, where Caspar made numerous of phone calls before he got murdered and the mayors wife & son know  nothing about this information. 
Ani's superiors have an idea that Ray is a crooked cop but don't have enough evidence to prove that he is, Ani is told to get some information on him and use him for leverage for the investigation.
When Frank pays an old friend a visit at his construction site about his new payment policy, that Frank needs more money each month from him, things get a little tense between the two and Frank's rules where agreed on. The next day Frank is told that his friend is dead and pays him one last visit, as his work colleagues take him to the place where his friends body is.
After Paul's dead end investigation with Ani at the mayors house, he decides to take matters in to his own hands and go out on the streets to asks hookers some questions, but as usual hes gets no where. One guy takes Paul to the club where Caspar used to hang out, so he could ask further questions.

Episode 4 - Down Will Come


Paul's Gay?

In the near opening scene to True Detective we see Paul, the morning after his solo investigation mission on the streets, as he asks a load of hookers about Caspar but gets no information on him. He got took to a night club by a random male who claimed to see Caspar there on a regular basis. Paul finds out that he used to go the club to get sexual favours from premium prostitutes who went to the same club.

Paul wakes up and seems a bit hungover as you can tell by the way he is squinting his eyes and holding his head in pain. He notices that he isn't in his own bed and walks out of the bedroom to see a young man watching TV, Paul looks shocked to see him. The young man asks Paul "Don't you remember meeting me at Lux?" while putting his arms around Paul, "I'm glad you did man" he says to Paul walking back to the couch to watch TV. As Paul is about to leave for work, the young man says lastly "be what you want, it ain't bad", with Paul shutting the door behind him in a hurry.

I literally gasped at this scene and i had to rewind it back because i didn't know if i just imagined what i just saw and to make more sense of it. Is Paul Gay? It actually does make sense because Paul has a erectile dysfunction and maybe that's because he's not attracted to women? Also when he was in the Lux club, you could tell how nervous he was by all the gay vibes he was getting and how much he was drinking, so he would feel less nervous and to be more of himself. 

If i was to produce the next couple of episodes, i would have Paul get tormented by someone who spotted him with the gay man and at the club Lux by sending him photographs of him inside the club and leaving the young mans house. This would put Paul on edge and make him very desperate as he wouldn't want anyone finding out about his antics he had at the Lux club. 


Franks Has More Friends To Visit

Frank is sitting down with two old friends, talking about how he now owns the club Lux again and he want some product moving around the club, meaning he wants drugs dealt with in the club. He brings up the past with the two friends of Frank's and mentions a timeline of dates where he dealt them some favours they wanted doing and Frank never once got paid for it, so Frank now thinks he deserves the favour from the two gentlemen since he helped them out many years ago. 

The two men said they paid their favours off and Frank offers them 5% cut of the profit if they help Frank move the drugs around his newly owned night club Lux. Their a bit worried about the proposition and tell him its "a risk" he replies with "its a risk for me, not you". One of the men is brave enough to confront Frank about why hes back to his old self with being in the life of crime, that hes only doing this because his other plan failed. "Why now would we trust you not to fail?"and Frank tries to bribe them again with the 5% profit for them both.

The two men agree with Franks 5% terms and one of the men shake his hand in agreement, while the other one says, "all that sugar Frank, i wonder how you haven't lost your teeth," Frank bends down to eye level with the man, "now iv'e never lost a tooth, never even had a F*ck*ng cavity," and walks away from the meeting with his two old friends.

So Frank has no choice to be the more dangerous dominant man he once was and take back ownership of the Lux club, by fighting the Mexican and pulling his teeth out in-front of his own men. I don't know if he got ownership because of that fight or if he just decided to say its his again, but he applies this as he tells the two gentlemen who he's having a discussion with in this scene. I think he's getting very desperate and a little scared because he lost millions in the process of Caspar's death and people who he once knew are dying, maybe Frank takes this personal.

In the scene where he brings up different dates where he claimed to help the two gentlemen out in the past, it would of been a good opportunity to have a flash back scene or some kind of memory and look back on how Frank used to be and what he did for the two men, taking the episode into a more in depth story. 

Dust In Your Eyes, Just Blink It Away

Paul is sitting waiting for Ray to pick him up, while thinking about the night before he had at the night club and with the young man. Ray tells him to open the glove box when Paul is in the car and says "Take a Cure" and there's a load of pills and a bottle of vodka, Paul picks the Vodka and takes a big gulp of it. Paul's bike got stolen and he couldn't get back in to his hotel because there was reporters waiting for him, chased him down the street while taking photos and asking him questions as he explains to Ray.

"I did everything they said...Army, PD but it doesn't matter...You do what they say, it doesn't matter" Paul says to Ray who's looking over to his right shoulder. Paul explains that he's been listening to them for so long that he didn't know who he was anymore, "You're a survivor, everything else is just dust in your eyes, just blink it away man" says Ray, who now has put on his police car lights to drive away from the traffic jam the two detectives are stuck in.

I like seeing Paul struggle a little bit more as the episode goes on, telling the audience that he has some demons of his own and not just Ani or Ray that have issues in the series. I think as the season goes on, one of the three will explode with pressure from their own issues their dealing with, making situations worse for themselves and maybe even others around them. 

I would like to see Paul overcome his issues that he might have, because i think hes a very likable character as he's not a typical detective like Ani or Ray, the two with the most issues out of the three of them. To see Paul destroy himself with his issues will be horrible for the audience to watch or it could be a good thing as True Detective is all about surprises and gritty scenarios.

Paul's Guilt Trip

Last time Paul and his girlfriend spoke was when they had a huge argument at her flat, where she told him to leave and never come back to her again. The two of them are now sitting in a diner together, about to talk about how they left things back at the apartment and Paul starts by admitting she was right what she said to him at the flat, but as soon as he starts to talk some more she interrupts him and says "I'm Pregnant." Paul's face looks up from the table and looks shocked towards her as she sips her cup of coffee. 

There's a huge pause between the two ex couple and Paul says "I thought you was on the pill" and it wasn't a 100% as he finds out from her. There's another pause between the two and she thinks that Paul doesn't want to keep the baby and she tells him that she doesn't believe in abortions. Paul finally starts to speak again and tells her that he wants her to keep the baby, that he thinks they should get married. She has her doubts as you can tell by her facial expressions and doesn't want to get married if Paul is only doing it if he thinks its the right things to do. 

"I love you Em" He says looking directly into her eyes, saying that he wasn't sure until now at this very moment hearing the news that shes pregnant. "I guess i love you too" she replied to Paul who is now moving from his side of the table to her side, kissing her straight away as soon as he sits down next to her. "This is the best thing that could happen" he says lastly.


Paul is obviously feeling like crap today with waking up in a strange mans apartment, having his bike stolen and getting chased by crazy mobbed paparazzi. I can understand why he wanted to get back with her as soon as she said she was pregnant, because he wants something in his life to make him feel good again, something to make him feel complete, as he explained to Ray earlier that day he doesn't know who hes supposed to be. Was it the right thing to do? probably not because its selfish for him to lead her on like that and say he wants to have the baby for his own satisfaction and to hide his guilty antics he had at the club Lux.

Ani Gets Suspended

As she is sitting down with one of her superiors, Ani gets told that she had a sexual misconduct complaint made against her and she can't believe it. She tries to justify herself by saying it was outside of work, but her boss tells her it was a informed by the I.A (Who ever they are?) and her boss also knows about one more other relationship she had with another colleague, that she had power over him and it makes her look less of a professional. Her boss lets Ani know that she can not come in to the building once the sexual complaint is dealt with and tells her to sort her gambling debts out while she has more free time on her hands.

More issued demons creeping up on another character as we see Ani get suspended for sleeping with one of her colleagues at work and her boss also finding out another fling she had a while back with her old partner. As for gambling debts i would like to see some flashback memory or something of Ani's when she was going though a rough time with her gambling addiction or when she started sleeping with her old detective partner, make more things interesting to watch because up to now things are slow and stale as ever.

There is a cut scene when Ani is outside of the building and her old partner follows her to her car, asking why she's leaving and he seems pretty angry with her for sleeping with the other colleague recently. I think he must like her still or something because i remember from the last episode he said something towards the policeman she was sleeping with, nearly starting a fight between the two. Ani also say's to her old detective partner that his marriage was over years ago, telling the audience he was or still is married man and he might have some issues of his own.

Ray Has A Present

"I wanted to give you this, it was your grandfathers, i thought you should have it, remember me with" Ray says to his red headed son, passing him the glass case of his Grandfathers police badge. His son thinks hes going away somewhere by the way Ray is acting towards him and the surprise gift he has just received from his father. Ray hesitantly says "No" but he doesn't know yet as his ex wife bribed him with money to never to see his son ever again.

"Where you come from, that will mean something to you one day" he says to his son who seems a bit confused and anxious. His mother is shouting him for him to come inside the house since he sneaked outside to see what Ray wanted. When he turns round to shout to his mother "Just a minute", Ray disappears in to the darkness as soon as his son turns back round to see him again, but isn't there to say goodbye.

I found this scene quite emotional to see Ray give him his Grandfathers police badge, as if to say "i'm giving you this present because i'm leaving you for good and i won't see you ever again" because of his ex wife trying to make Ray not see him again, which is so horrible for a person to do, even after what Ray done for her when she got sexually abused by strangers. He didn't have to do what he did t the strangers, but he did because he loved her, so why would she do that to him? I Hope to be surprised and see Ray turn out to be the good guy/hero in this series because you can't help feel sorry for him with all his issues and pressure from Frank 24/7.  

Final Shoot Down

The three detectives have a new suspect for the killer of Caspar and about to embark on a deadly operation with a squad of detectives to take him down and arrest him for the murder. Ani is talking to the squad of detectives of the operation, "You think all this man power is warranted" says one of the colleagues, "Better safe than something else" Ani replies, with a bullet proof vest on and leading the operation to the location of the suspect. 

Ani has her men prepared and ready to go, while she gives her last orders to the squad in a ally, that is near by the location they want to be. She tells a couple of detectives to go round back to check it out and the rest of the squad walk down the street and cross the road, but as soon their on the open road they got shot at from a building window by a machine gun. Some of the policemen get shot while in the middle of the road, while the remaining squad run to take cover behind the parked cars. They all start to shoot at the crazed gunmen in the window one by one when ever they feel its safe to shoot back and when they all start to shoot at him, the whole top floor explodes.

Another gunmen pops out from the window below the floor that just exploded and starts to shoot at the detectives again, killing one more of the detectives in the squad. They take out the gunmen and proceed to look for the suspect by looking through the building, until Ani spots a car trying to flee the scene while they shoot back at her. Ray & Paul catch up to the fleeing car that has now just crashed in to a bus and 3 men burst out of the crashed car, shoot towards Ray & Paul who are crouched behind a parked car.

Ani soon catches up to the 3 gunmen who are now on foot, shooting at civilians are the two detectives, who are on the other side of the crashed bus. While the detective take out 2 of them men, one is still alive and managed to get himself on to the bus, pulling a civilian out with him as a hostage. He hides behind the suspect while holding a gun to his head, shouting Spanish towards the 2 detective who have him surrounded, but he can't take the pressure and shoots the hostage in the head, while Ray and Paul empty their gun clips in to the suspected murderers body till he hits the floor.

Best scene in the whole of the entire season so far, because it's the first real action scene of the series. As we see a squad of detectives get ambushed and most of them killed in the process, while Ani, Ray & Paul are left to stick it out to the end and bring in the suspect, they finally catch up to him but you could tell they didn't want the end result, which lead to Ray and Paul to kill him. I also liked how gruesome and realistic they tried to make the gun shot kills, like when it blew half of someones face off when he got shot in the head in-front of Ani. 

I now think that the detectives might think they got the killer and Ray goes to tell Frank they got him and killed him, but as the season goes on they find out that he wasn't the killer as he starts to kill more of Frank's men and maybe even toy with the 3 detectives again. Personally i think it might be someone working as a detective so they no every move they make, but making them have the advantage since he knows what their next step is. That would be a good twist in the story but maybe to obvious and unoriginal.

Conclusion

In my honest opinion, every episode has been the same so far but with one little scene that makes it different from the others, like the shoot out they have towards the end of the episode. All we see is them driving around and asking investigation questions, to finally not getting any valuable information. The only good part of every episode is at the end of the episode, making me and the audience watch more to find out to see what happened but the same thing happens over and over again as they make the key scene at the end of each episode.

I'm positive that the series will get better as there's more characters and 8 more episodes that the first season, giving it more time to make the plot of the story better and more entertaining to watch. I think maybe the first 8 episodes will be slow and help build a better foundation for the last remaining 8 episodes. Overall the episode was the slowest by far in my opinion but had the best action scene out of the series so far.

Discussion

  1. What did you think of the overall episode?
  2. What was your favourite scene? & Why?
  3. What was your least favourite scene? & Why?
  4. Is Paul Gay?
  5. How will Paul react now that he has his own demons to deal with?
  6. Will Paul's guilt get the best of him?
  7. Will Ray see his son again?
  8. What will Ani do about her sexual partners she works with?
  9. What did you think of the last shoot out scene?
  10. What will they do now the suspected murderer is dead?


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