True Detective: Season 2, Episode 7

Previously On True Detective

Ray finally finds out the truth about not killing his ex wife's assailant that Frank had him to do and goes knocking on his house for answers. He then sits down in Frank's house, telling Ray that he had no idea about it and that he will find out the truth for him.

When Ray finds out the real assailant got caught and arrested, he felt the need to pay him a visit inside of jail and speak to him with some threatening words, with the assailant having no idea what he's on about or who he is. 

Having a tough time finding out he killed an innocent man, it only gets worse for Ray when he's forced to have visitation visits with his son and he comes to realise that he will have to give him up so his son has a better life without Ray being involved. 

Some dodgy deals were made when Frank got caught in a Mexican stand off and made a deal with them to find the girl Frank has been looking for. When they deliver the girl to Frank's meeting place, he see's the girl dead and things get tense with the Mexicans as they now work in the same club as Frank promised them as part of their deal.

Ani goes undercover to a secret mansion where she has to become a prostitute and entertain rich and important people while she try's finding some valuable information, including a missing person she has been looking for. 

Episode 7 - Black Maps And Motel Rooms

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The three detectives are all camped out in motels rooms, with Paul looking into the information papers he stole from the mansion compound where the sex parties were located, while Ray and Ani are in the next motel room talking and waiting for Ani to get sober off the drugs they given her back at the mansion. Ani starts to feel more weird and less sober as the night goes on and forces herself onto Ray, kisses him as he sits in his chair and tells Ani "look i don't think this will help you" but Ani thinks different and it might help her as she says "It usually does." Ray gets out of his chair to get away from the situation and Ani realises what she was doing, "It's the drugs, i'm F-bleep-ed up" She says to Ray, who's sipping on his whisky bottle to feel less uncomfortable and telling Ani "You're to far out of my league anyway, i'm going to check on the other two" and leaves the room.

Ray is now sitting down in Paul's motel room and going through the information they gathered back at the mansion. The two of them find out the links between Mayor Chessani was involved in some way with the buying and selling the assets that Caspar used to have before he got brutally murdered, giving some kind of motive but the detectives are still unsure what they have in their possession. In the middle of the discussion, Paul gets a text message with a two picture messages attached, showing him having a intimate time with the young male he met at the LUX club and woke up at his apartment the next morning. The text message also reads "Busy night? Say hi to Emily" with a smiley face at the end to make it more patronising. Paul tells Ray that it was a text message off his Fiance and he needs to go check on her, leaving Ray and Ani alone as she's now in the same room as them both.

Credit to HBO

Woah, i thought we was going to see some steamy action from Ani and Ray for a moment there, when we see Ani make a move on Ray but you could tell was trying to be the professional and some sort of decent man and not take advantage of Ani who is heavily drugged up on "Molly" as she said in the episode. You can feel some sort of sexual tension between the two even though they haven't confessed or shown it but that just might be me, i can imagine Ani getting off with one of the two detectives for some reason. 

When Ray and Paul was speaking about the evidence papers they got at the mansion, it was a bit confusing on what they were talking about but all i got out of the conversation was that the Mayor might be involved with Caspar case as there were signatures by the Mayor for buying and selling his assets for more profitable money. This tells us a lot about the Mayor and what he might be capable of, even if he is a lousy drunk.

Also what was that text about?! I knew something like this would happen, remember? I said that Paul might get blackmailed in the future for his insecurity of being a gay man and not coming out the closet about it. I think this adds more thrill to the episode and makes the viewers think on what could possible happen with Paul and his future. Hopefully it will give us more suspense and more action scenes to come for the remaining episodes.

The missing sister

"Your sister put me on to you, she said you were missing," Ani says to the missing women who she found back at the mansion. The women just laughs sarcastically while Ani shows her the mysterious photographs the detectives are trying to make sense of. The women knows about the pictures that Ani shows her and explains that "Tasha must of kept these" with Ani thinking she knows Ben Caspar and she does. She explains further that Tasha used to be Ben Caspar's favourite girl and she took the pictures so she could blackmail all the rich and powerful people who attend the sex parties without thinking about the consequences. She tells Ani that they found Tasha's camera and they took her to a cabin outback into the woods and Ani asks her if she will testify in court but the women refuses for her own safety.

Credit to HBO

OK so this answers a lot of question we have all been asking ourselves, "What are these photographs and what do they mean?" We now know that Tasha was the one who took the photos for blackmail, which is stupid by the way because who blackmails powerful people who could possible get you killed? accept Tasha! It also tells us that the cabin that Ani and Paul found in the woods was the same cabin where Tasha got killed and now knowing who and why they did it. 

The missing women also tells Ani that she was never missing and that she enjoyed working at the sex parties, so this makes me think that she might try and go back to the people who hired her in the first place or she might get killed for leaving the compound, resulting in one of their security guards getting killed by Ani.

Face-full Of Glass

Frank has Blake sit down in his office as he pours a drink for the two of them and tells him that he had Stan to follow him, making Blake look nervous. "What did he see to make you punch his ticket like that?" Telling him that he knows it was Blake all along who killed Stan because he might of seen something that Blake didn't want him to see. "You took his eyes, why? To make it look like it was connected to Caspar?" Blake tries to get up from his chair but Frank is stood over him, making him sit back down and listen on what he has to say. Frank tells him that he messed up for being in the same room as him all alone, "You're arrogant or you would of never of walked in here," Frank tells him and smash's his glassful of whisky against Blake's face.

Credit to HBO

Crawling on the floor after getting a whisky glass smashed over the face is Blake begging for Frank to stop, telling him that he will talk about the situation he gotten himself into. Frank gets him up from the ground and chucks him against the wall while smudging his bloody face against it, turning him around with his hand around his throat and asking him who killed Caspar. Blake tells him that Caspar was always going to back-stab him even though Frank wouldn't like to think so. "Why did you kill Stan?" Frank asks and Blake tells him that Stan was blackmailing Blake but Frank quickly changes the subject about the person who he gave up for Ray's ex wife's assailant and asks who the person was. "A F-Bleep-ing meth head said that i ripped him off and he was going to come after me. I herd about the deputies wife and i saw a chance to step up for you, get noticed."

Credit to HBO

"Look me in the eyes, i wanna watch the lights go out" and Frank strangles him up against the wall, with Blake trying to gasp out something to Frank. He tells Frank that he can get money for him and tells him that there's going to be a big cash exchange, that someone is paying over 12 million for Caspar's shares. Frank lets Blake go, "Alright, get yourself together...Anything else you can tell me, anything? Might help," Frank says handing him another glass of whisky to drink. "There taking it all Frank," Blake begins to explain more information to Frank and try's to squeeze as much as information out of him as he can, with Blake offering to be a inside man for Frank, being a triple cross so he can get information about everyone so Frank has the upper hand but Frank pulls out a pistol and shoots Blake in the stomach, "Do this for me instead."

Credit to HBO

Remember when you got in trouble at school and you got sent to the principles office to get told off? Well this scene reminded me of that very moment for some reason, weird i know. I could imagine the tenseness that Blake must of had when found out that Frank found out about the sex parties and the murder or Stan. When Frank first mentions him killing Stan and taking his eyes out, i was shocked on how cool Blake tried to play it and deny it was even him who killed him but Frank already knows the truth and smashed the glassful of whisky into Blake's face.

OUCH! That's got to hurt and when he's on the floor, Frank pushes his face in to the glass that is on the floor with his foot, then picking him up to smudge it against the wall. This scene literally tells us a lot about Frank and what he is capable of, seeing him be ruthless and nonnegotiable type of person if you get on the wrong side of him. Also a big part about this scene we find out is that the person that Ray killed wasn't actually the person who sexually attacked his ex wife but a meth head that Blake got killed because he was scared for his own life at the time. 

The part when i thought Frank was a cold blooded killer was when he said to Blake "Look me in the eyes, i wanna watch the lights go out." that part was bad ass and made me see Frank in a different way, hoping to see him like this in the remaining episodes to come. 

Ray Meets Davis But..

Driving in to the quiet industrial plantation is Ray going to meet detective Davis, to let her know about the evidence they had found at the mansion compound where the sex party was held. He see's Davis's car and pulls up next to it and gets out of his own car, while holding a stack full of papers that contain the evidence they have gathered. He gets into her car saying "Have i got a F-Bleep-ing story for you!" and looks at her who is not moving a inch and Ray notices the blood stained patch coming from her torso. Ray quickly figures out what happened to her and runs out the car immediately and drives away as fast as he can without looking back.

Credit to HBO

This was unexpected and amazing all at the same time,  i mean what the hell? Who ever killed Davies obviously doesn't want her knowing anything about the evidence that Ray has in his possessions, taking her out and not having any further links for the detectives to go back to. Davies was the one who got the three detectives to form a secret operative between them and she was the only one who knew about them and their job, so killing Davies was like killing their last hope to try and get the evidence out there but now she is dead, the three detectives are now all on their own. 

Pictures For Sale

Ani, Paul and Ray are back in the motel room discussing Ray's encounter with Davis's dead body when he arrived at the place they were supposed to be meeting. Paul tells them both that they are now fugitives and have no one to go back to and show their evidence to anyone, throwing down some more evidence on the table for the both of them. Paul explains that "Cops" were involved with Caspar and the jewelry store was their district when doing illegal business. The three of them are trying to wrap their minds around the case and figure out what to do next now that Ray and Ani are fugitives of the law but in the middle of the discussion, Paul gets another text message showing more intimate pictures of him and the male, with a message underneath saying "Hall of records midnight tonight...Pics for sale."

Credit to HBO

Its midnight and Paul decides meet the person behind the mysterious text messages but he calls Ray on his phone before meeting him. "Velcoro, i wanted to call, i think...i ain't told anybody else about this other..Thing. Somebody sent me these pictures, pictures of me," Paul tells Ray and lets him know that he might be walking in to something and tells him he will call him back as he see's the person he's suppose to be meeting. Paul walks over to the man and it's the same one he was in the pictures with, telling Paul to give him his gun and don't make a scene because he has eyes on him. The young man explains that their a private security and he had orders to check on Paul after he herd about the "Press stuff," while leading him into a building that leads to the underground tunnels.

Credit to HBO

Paul gets lead down in to the pitch black tunnels and is hit with bright torch lights that blind him from a distance, letting Paul know a group of people are walking towards him from the darkness of the tunnel. "You've been looking for information about me son. Well, here's your chance to ask," says chief police Holloway and confronting Paul about the documents he stole from the private gathering at the mansion. Paul denies knowing anything about the documents and blames it all on Ray, saying he will phone him to organise a meeting so Holloway can get the documents himself. He shows Holloway his phone because he can't get any cell service down in the tunnels and takes his gun from his Holloway's waist as he goes to show him his phone, taking him hostage in front of the other armed men surrounding him.

Credit to HBO

With a gun pointed at his head, Holloway is told by Paul to order his men to put down their guns and turn off all the lights. Walking backwards as soon they turn their lights off, with Paul then knocking out Holloway by pistol whipping him and running off as soon as the men pick their guns back up to shoot at him. He then hides within the dark tunnels taking out the armed men and shooting them all one by one as he can spot them a mile away with their beaming torches swaying around in the darkness. When he feels it's safe enough to leave the tunnels, Paul climbs a ladder that leads to the surface of a building and makes his way outside the pad locked doors he had to break through before entering the outside world again. Once he steps outside, a man is hiding behind one of the door he had just broken through and shoots Paul in the back, making him fall to the ground and crawls to his gun but stopped in his tracks as the gunmen shoots him once more in the back and leaves the scene. 

Credit to HBO

OMG, Oh My God, Oh No, Why? Please tell me why? He can't be dead surely,  he was one of my favourite character of the series and to die alone and with a baby on the way was brutal but i guess that's why True Detective is so gritty and truthful is some scenarios, which makes it stand out from other TV shows. They might keep him alive like they did with Ray, since everyone thought he was dead and it might of been the same guy who shot Ray, which i think will be awesome! Or he could just be put on a life support machine and Paul fights for his life in hospital and he needs to get away in-case someone comes back to finish the job. 

Lets head back to the beginning of the scene, where Paul first meets the man who he had a intimate time with. The man explains to Paul that he was basically told to be intimate with Paul so he could keep an eye on him and make sure that Paul wouldn't do anything stupid with the information he ha on Holloway. This scene was so tense that i thought they was going to kill Paul there and then but they built up the suspense of the scene and turned it into an amazing get away when Paul grabs Holloway's gun and runs for it, taking them all out. 

Conclusion

The last half of True Detective started off with a good one as we seen plenty of bloody, murder, shootings within in the episode and a lot of shocked faces as Paul could be possible be dead or seriously injured for the remaining episodes, leaving the two detectives on their own and think of a plan to get out of the mess they're currently in. 

We also see Frank at his worst and see him brutally beat up Blake and kill him towards then end, maybe letting us know what's install for Frank's future. Plus the Russians have moved in the Californian state and bought Frank's clubs, making him go on one more last rampage and taking the money out of all the clubs the Russians have bought and setting them all on fire. Basically telling them if i can't have the clubs, then neither can you. 

Another surprising scene that was amazing was the passionate scene that Ray and Ani have together back at the motel room when Paul left to meet the man, showing us the build up with the two of them as they talk and drink whisky, ending them both hugging and kissing each other.

I also knew that Paul was going to get blackmailed about being gay, even though he actually didn't get blackmailed but it was a reason to lure him away from the other two detective, which made it a very cunning and a smart part of the story. His death on the other hand was brutal and unexpected and that's what we want from a TV series like True Detective. So overall this episode has by far been the most entertaining and thrilling one so far of the series. 

Discussion

1. What did of the overall episode?
2. What was your favourite scene? & Why?
3. What was your least favourite scene? & Why?
4. What does Frank have planned next?
5. Will Ani and Ray get out of trouble?
6. Who killed Davis?
7. Is Paul dead and who was the man who shot him?
8. Will the Russian's get Frank back for burning their clubs down?
9. Will anything happen with Ray and Ani after their motel of love?
10. What will happen next episode?