True Detective: Season 2, Episode 8 - The Finale.

Previous On True Detective

While the three detectives investigate the newly found evidence in the motel room where they're hiding out, Paul gets an anonymous text threatening him him with the intimate picture he had with one of them men he met at club Lux.

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.

True Detective: Season 2, Episode 6

Previously On True Detective

The three detectives are going through some troubles in their personal life as we see Ani attend a sexual misconduct group, Paul protesting his innocents against his sexual misconduct claim made against him and Ray fighting to keep his son.

With Ray's being off the case and no longer a detective, he looks for more opportunity with Frank and does odd jobs for him at the club, also tailing his other colleague Blake. Frank has his suspicions of Blake and gets Ray to follow him, to see what he's up to.

Paul pays his mother a visit, so she thinks as he's only there to claim something that he hid within the walls of her home, 25 grand in cash. When Paul can't find his money, he finds out that his mother spent it all without him knowing till now.

Ray gets another opportunity but this time with the police, when they offer him to come back on the case, giving him a better chance to win his court case battle for his son. He also finds out that the person he killed that he thought raped his wife wasn't the right person, initially thinking Frank set him up to kill someone else.

The blue diamonds in the photo is the main case for Paul, as he goes round to different jewelry stores to find out where they come from. Where as for Ani, she has a missing girl case shes trying to work on, but also help Paul with the main case of the reopened murder case of Caspar.

Episode 6 - Church In Ruins

A Staring Contest

Ray is now sitting in Frank's small getaway suburban home, with both of them sitting at the dinning table with their cup of coffees untouched. Frank has his suspicions as its very tense between the two of them and haven't spoken a word why Ray has turned up on his doorstep out of the blue. Ray with one hand on the table and the other hand on a gun under the table at Frank wants to confront Frank about killing the wrong man who raped his wife, thinking that Frank set him up with someone that Frank might of known."You banged down my door for a staring contest?" Frank says sarcastically to Ray who has not yet spoken a work since his arrival. 

"A long time ago...You gave me a mans name on a piece of paper." is the first sentence he says to Frank since walking through his door. Frank explains to Ray that the information came to him and he passed it on to Ray, because one of Franks men was speaking about it. The situation is still intense and Ray still thinks he's being blackmailed, with Frank denying it, saying he believes in a "Sense of Justice." Ray tells Frank that the guy he killed was the wrong guy since Ray only just found out that they only just caught his ex wife's rapist last month by DNA. 

"I sold my soul for nothing!" says Ray frantically and confronting Frank that he used his ex wife's tragedy to do his dirty work. Telling Ray that that he already had the idea of killing before Frank even gave him the piece of paper with the mans name on it, that it wasn't Frank's fault to push him to do anything. Frank tries justifying Ray killing some man by telling him that he was "Scum", basically telling him that he deserved it. "I didn't set you up and i'm not your suicide ticket" he tells Ray with a gun pointed at him under the table, but the heat dies down when Ray slowly calms down and leaves Franks house with some sort of clarity.

This was the one scene i was waiting for since we seen Ray turn up on Frank's doorstep as a cliff hanger in the last episode, giving us the idea that something bad might happen when Ray found out the truth. Even though nothing bad did actually happen, Frank tells Ray and us that he didn't set him up and makes us all believe in his word he's telling Ray at the dinning table. I also a bit unsure if Frank is telling the truth or not, but i think it will play on Ray's mind even more, now that he knows he killed a random man for no reason at all. 

Now that the intense scene was over, What is Ray's next move? Now that he knows his ex wife's rapist is in jail and alive. Will he try and get him killed? The questions keep on coming and coming, since Ray is one of the most unpredictable characters in the series as we have just seen him contemplating on shooting Frank in his own home. 

A Phone Call To Satan

Sitting down behind the glass window phone booth is Ray, as he waits to speak to his ex wife's rapist. "What?" is the first words out of the mouth of the convict, sitting on the other side of the window, holding the phone to his ear, waiting to hear what Ray has to say. "I thought i killed you...11 years ago...Maybe i still will" with a deadly serious face telling the convict through the glass window.  He then tells the convict the situation and the surroundings the convict was in the day he raped his ex wife, trying to remind him of what he has done, but the convict can't remember. "You have no idea of what you have caused me" he tells the convict, with him trying to hang up the phone, but Ray keeps him on. Ray gives him his last final words he has to say, threatening him to torture him if he doesn't get life in prison and the convict yells at him "I don't even know you man!"

OK, so that answers my last question on what Ray was going to do next, because we see him pay a visit to his ex wife's assailant. It was another intense scene, but Ray was more calm as he thought he was 100% sure that the person he was speaking to behind the glass window was indeed his ex wife's assailant. So Ray's calm manner was his way of showing us that he finally knows who it is and knows what he wants to do the convict, but towards the end of the conversation the convict denies knowing him or anything to do with his ex wife. Could this be another decoy for Ray, so he's made to kill another random person? Using Ray as leverage to kill and if so, that's an awesome story plot for Ray and the remaining season. 

Ray Gives up

Now after sitting with his ex wife's assailant, Ray is spending sometime with his son, but with a visitation colleague that has to keep an eye on them and write everything down what they are doing together. Ray opens up a box with a airplane model and his son doesn't want to build it as he tells Ray "It kills people". He then asks his son what he wants to do instead of building a plane and he wants to watch "Friends" on TV. Ray lets him watch TV, while Ray has a pop at the visitation person for writing down on her notepad, "What are you scribbling over there? Is there some hot drama i don't see?" he asks the colleague and she tells him to carry on with his "Man date." Ray begins to tell his son that people might tell him stories about him and his son, but that he will always be his father and he will always love him. 

Later that night Ray returns home with a paper brown bag with whisky, some beer and some drugs and sits down to prepare himself, putting a CD on to play some Rock music to get him in the mood. Ray begins to take the drugs and drinks heavy, mixing both his drinks and narcotics together, making Ray pace around his living room and pulling himself up on the pull up bar. After having some drugs and alcohol in his system, he takes a long stare at the airplane models he made with his son over the years and phones his ex wife. She picks up the phone to hear Ray tell her he "I won't contest custody, he's yours" and begs her not to tell his son about her being raped and where he comes from. 

I thought Ray was going to put up more of a fight than that and not just give up, but i'm guessing he's only doing it so his son can have a better life. Now we have to wait to see if Ray's ex wife will actually go along with it or will she feel sorry for him and let him keep on seeing his son. If he actually does give up his son, he won't have anything else to fight for and this may make him more suicidal and more ruthless with his case and with the other two detectives, making him have a death wish if he ever gets into more guns fights. Maybe that's what this season needs though, is more spice to the episodes and see at least one of the characters be more ruthless and daring to do some dangerous stuff, but i think that will most definitely happen even if it's not Ray.

Mexican Standoff

After some intense investigation of his own, Frank gets one of the Mexican's to tell him a location where they might find one of the missing girls that might know something about Caspar's death. With this new information, Frank goes to the location with 3 of his men and fully loaded with guns, breaking down the door of the house they're investigating. The house looks clear but out of no where, the Mexicans come from one of the backrooms, with both Frank's men and the Mexicans in a stand off in the middle of the living room.

Frank knows one of the Mexicans as he turned his business proposal down after taking his night club back, with the Mexican saying "You here to talk some more?"He tells the Mexicans he didn't know it was their place and they all sit down to see what Frank has to say, since he did break their front door down and point their guns towards them all. Frank and the Mexicans make a deal to get the girl who he is looking for, to phone him, while Franks gives them permission to "push" their stuff through the clubs for 3 nights a week, for 1 year only if they can get the girl to him.

Later that day, Frank receives a phone call from the girl who he was looking for, telling her that they need to meet to get some information off her. The women tells him that he doesn't trust him and then agree's to meet him when he tells her she can take her own men to protect her and give her 1000 dollars for her time. When Frank arrives at the remote location to meet the girl, he can see her dead body and see her throat cut wide open. That's when the Mexicans come out from the headlights of their on cars and tell him "As promised, you seen her," beginning to tell Frank about their deal they made with the club, with one of the other Mexicans whipping his bloody knife as he explains their deal. 

I for sure thought there was going to be a gun fight within that house, when they were all pointing their guns at each other. Imagine if they did, ending Frank and the the Mexican gang and leaving us hanging with no information what so ever. I probably would of stopped watching if that happened, as i'm very interested in Franks story and where it might end. i'm hoping it ends good for Frank but i highly doubt it, because he lives in a very dangerous world and he knows he might be the next target to get killed like Caspar did. 

This scene must of made Frank furious as they used him and the girl he wanted to see, to make a deal to move drugs around the club he now owns. Last time they met, he turned them down bluntly and that's why the Mexicans might of killed the girl, but still promised him to see her, as he didn't say dead or alive. How patronizing is that? Making a deal to meet the girl face to face, to only find her with her throat slit wide open, then with the Mexicans having the nerve to complete their deal with the club. 

Undercover Prostitute

Ani's sister got her into the premium party and is now undercover as a premium prostitute at the party for the very important people of Vinci. Before starting the party the girls are lined up in one of the big mansion rooms, while someone sprays a drug into each one of the prostitutes mouths as Ani is told its to make you relax and feel more happy. Ani is reluctant in doing it and does it anyway, when one of the ladies tells her to ope up and sprays a bottle substance inside of her mouth, with Ani swallowing the drug.

When Ani is getting ready to entertain her party guests, Ray and Paul are outside taking care of the armed guards, waiting to see if Ani brings any information to them. While the two take out one guards, they see two business men talking about a deal inside one of the mansions rooms, talking about the clients money and how it won't end up like Caspar's deal went. When they finish up, Paul pick locks the door outside, entering to gather some evidence the men were talking about, rolling up and shoving a bunch of papers into his trouser waist band.

A very confused and with blurred vision is Ani, as she walks around the mansion pretending to find someone to entertain is actually looking for some valuable evidence for her case. When she see's someone she knows, she goes to walk away but bumps into a very interested male, "I've been watching you miss" and walks her upstairs to have her way with her. Walking up stairs with her client, Ani tries to look through her blurred vision of the sex crazed mansion, while she gets a flash back to her childhood of a man taking her in to his van. Ani notices she's back at the mansion and tells the man she needs to go to the bathroom.

Ani puts her fingers down her throat so she can make herself be sick to get the drugs out of her system and noticing one of the girls collapsed on the floor, is the girl she has been looking for as a missing person case for someone she knows. She picks her up and carries her through the mansion, bumping into the client she was supposed to entertain, but Ani defends herself with him ending up on the floor. She gets grabbed around the throat by someone else, while she slices him multiple of times with a knife, with him ending up bleeding out on the floor and with Ani running with the girls arm over her shoulders to meet Paul at the basement door for their getaway.

A Very dangerous situation Ani put herself into, but a very entertaining scene to watch and that's what this show lacks! More entertaining scenes! I liked this scene because i was constantly thinking what was going to happen to Ani, as she's drugged up and has no control over her surroundings, so anything could happen...And it did! We see her get into some conflict and accidentally kills one of the men, but she was desperate and drugged so she didn't know much on what she was actually doing.

One of my favourite cut scenes in this part was Ani flashback, which was one of the biggest adaptions in the first season and i wish they add more flashbacks into this season. I think her flashback was of a younger Ani as she was lured in a van and maybe sexually abused by the man. I hope they add more flashback scenes with Ani and some of the other characters, but my gut feeling is telling me that the producers won't include that in this series (Sad face)

Conclusion

Another drama, intense episode as i expected, but a very well plotted story within this episode as we see what happened with Frank & Ray. The two cleared things up but i don't think the awkwardness and the intensiveness between the two will be over, hoping to see them collide in future episodes.

Every episode have been similar to each other as the action scenes always happen towards the end of the episode, but through the duration of the remaining episode, the plot thickens, with hardly any light shed on the murder case of the detectives and the characters just keep digging themselves into a hole, making things harder on themselves.

I think now that Ani has her missing person in her custody, maybe she will tell them more about the premium sex party and gain more valuable evidence, making more action packed episodes for the viewers.

Discussion

1. What did you think of the overall episode?
2. What was you favourite scene? & Why?
3. What was your least favourite scene? & Why?
4. What was you hoping for with Ray's & Frank's situation?
5. Will Ray ever trust him again?
6. What will Frank do about the Mexicans killing the girl?
7. Will Frank get revenge on his ex wife's assailant?
8. Will Frank actually leave his son alone for a better life?
9. Who will be the next major character to die?
10. What will we expect in the next episode?

True Detective: Season 2, Episode 5

Previously On True Detective

Paul finds himself at a young males apartment after meeting him in the club Lux, after he got a little help finding out some information on Caspar while on his solo investigation. Paul doesn't like the situation he has just woken up to, so he leaves to go back to his hotel room but chased by paparazzi. 

With Paul's wild night at the Lux and waking up at the young mans apartment, he seems to feel some guilt and asks his ex girlfriend Emily, to marry him as she tells him she's pregnant. 

Since seeing Ani dump her fling with one of the Cops that work in the same building, her boss finds out and has no other choice to suspend her from duty, because someone has filed a sexual conduct report on her. Ani's boss also lets her know that he knew about her previous fling with her detective partner, telling her that she needs to finds someone outside of the work place as its very unprofessional.

Ray is having a spot of trouble with his ex wife as she's trying to get full custody of their kid, making Ray go to desperate measures and pays his son a little visit, handing him a glass casing with his fathers Sheriff badge inside

After weeks trying to find the suspected killer of Caspar, they finally found a him and go in with a team of detectives to bring him in and arrest him on charges of murder. As soon as the squad of detectives arrive at their location, they're rained upon by heavy gunfire and become main targets in a gun shoot out, ending civilian lives and their own and the only ones to survive are Ani, Ray & Paul. 

Episode 5 - Other Lives

Fighting Their Demons

Sitting in a room with a small group of men, talking about their sexual misconduct stories is Ani, as she looks around the room listening to the nonsense stories come from the male filled room. The lead spokesmen of the group asks Ani "How do you feel about your actions?" And Ani replies in the most sarcastic way imaginable, as she talks inappropriately about the length of the males genitalia, what the right size of it should be and "Girth" as she puts it. When she's talking about her made up persona on how much she admires the males genitalia, the group leader didn't expect her to say something on them lines, which makes him speechless.

 Now sitting in a roomful of lawyers, is Paul. Paul also got suspected of sexual misconduct with a women he stopped on the highway, saying that he asked for oral sex off her. "I'm innocent" says Paul across the table of lawyers, who are defending the women's case, but the lawyer keeps bringing up Paul's past and saying "How many people did you kill?" With Paul looking angrily at the women who looks back it him in a smug way. Paul tells the room that she's a liar, with the women saying "I just don't want what happened to me, to happen to anybody else."

"Will you submit to a blood test Mr. Velcoro?" asks the judge, who is present with Ray and his ex wife, assuming Ray is a drug addict. Ray agree's to take the blood test since he's trying his hardest to fight this case and stayed sober for 60 days he tells his lawyer, minus the heavy drinking he still does. Ray's ex wife believes that her rapist is the biological father of her son and not Ray, making the lawyers final terms are to contest Ray's paternity, making things hard for Ray since he is no longer a detective.

All three detectives...Well two detectives and one ex detective are having some major issues with their lives, seeing them all fight with their own demons. Ani's sexual misconduct, Ray's fake sexual misconduct and Ray fighting to keep his son, who may not be his son at all. The first scene with Ani and her group, was quite funny if you don't take the sexual profanity she was saying to seriously. Watching the men around the room perk up from their seats to listen what she had to say, telling the group leader to be quiet, so the group can hear what she's saying. I honestly think she was saying them things to either get herself chucked off the group therapy or so she doesn't have to share her real life problems, avoiding the truth.

About Paul's sexual misconduct, i actually feel sorry for him because it looks like he's losing the case battle to plead his innocents, that he didn't do nothing with the girl. It was so brutal to watch him get slatted about killing people in previous jobs he had done, i mean...What's that got to do with the case? I honestly think he is going to lose the case, making his life much harder and more intense to watch him slowly blow up.

The person that is the closest to blowing up is Ray, as he is being told that he's getting visitation visits with his son and their going to be contesting his paternity, meaning that his name needs to be on the birth certificate, the child is born with a married couple and he needs to be working. I think that what it means but i'm not to sure, feel free to correct me if so! If it is true, then it would make sense and make a great tragedy story to see Ray go through these obstacles. 

Ray's Got A New Job

"You need more money, i need more money" says Frank at Ray, who are both looking at the live camera footage of the casino downstairs. Frank explains to Ray that he might have a job for him, that the person who owned the waste company died, "I'm going to start listening to the hot feeling on the back of my neck" he says to Ray,  a job opportunity to "Tail Blake." Ray says he can do the job and asks him what he suspects of Blake, "Running girls?" But the conversation drifts off topic and starts to talk about Caspar and the Mexicans, shortly landing back on the job topic for Ray again, "I'll see about some extra shifts at the Lux" Frank says.

Driving in the middle of the desert at night, is Ray. Ray is speaking to his voice recorder he sends to his son to listen too and following Blake at the same time, as Frank told him to. Still speaking to the voice recorder, he see's Blake's car turn in to a different road that leads to a mansion in the middle of no where. Ray Keeps on following him, while turning off his car lights when he gets closer to the mansion, which Blake has just arrived at. Ray gets out his car and sets out on foot, to get a vantage point that over looks Blake and the mansion. Ray can see Blake examining three attractive women, by groping and looking at them closely and tells them to get in the car upon his approval. 

Ray follows Blake and the three women back in to the city and carries on spying on Blake with his binoculars, seeing the 3 women get out the car and unloading their suitcases out of the trunk of the car. Blake looks closely at one of the women's faces once more, with a couple of body guards around the building that the women are about to go inside.

Ray is starting to get himself knee deep on the other side of the law, now he started working for Frank, making Ray run around for him, because Ray is desperate for money to keep seeing his son. What else will he have Ray do? I mean he could have him do anything at this stage and its as if Frank is the puppet master and Ray his the puppet, with Frank controlling Ray's every move he does. I like where it's heading as it's building up the intense-ness of the series between Frank & Ray and it could all end badly between the two of them.

When Ray followed Blake, i think he ended up following him back at the mansion he previously investigated with Ani. If i'm correct, i think it was Caspar's therapist he was seeing for many years, but also did plastic surgery within the mansion, explaining why Blake was examining the women, to see if plastic surgery was up to his standards. I might be completely wrong, but further in the episode Ray pays the plastic surgeon  a visit and beats him up, until Ray gets some information and i think its the same place as where Blake just got the women from. Its all very confusing!!

You Took It

Paul is back at his mothers to tell her the good news about him and Emily getting married and having a baby together, "How pregnant is she?" His mother asks. She isn't pleased about the answer or the "good news that she is hearing from her own son, as she is drinking alcohol to make the conversation bearable to listen to. She starts to talk about how he could do anything that he wanted, that he's a detective now and "wants to be somebodies husband" as if to say its a stupid idea to get married in such a dangerous line of work. "If i was a man, i would of had the world" she says to Paul, before he goes to enter his old bedroom.

Now in his old bedroom, Paul is looking in a a hiding spot within his bedroom walls, searching up and down the dark empty space and out he pulls a old, dusty, rucksack. "No...No..No, No, NO!" he says to himself, opening and searching the empty rucksack. He enters back in the living room where his mother is sitting and shouts, "You took it!" But she pretends that she doesn't know what he's talking about. "The Money, the money i brought back from Afghanistan!" Explaining there was 25 grand in the bag, but she pretends to think that he hid it from her, to eventually find it for herself. 

He really does hate her, doesn't he? But i still don't know why! The two of them just argue every time we see them in a scene together and Paul should have the right to be angry, she took thousands of Dollars away from him! He was going to use it for his new unborn baby he explains but she hits him with "You've been back for 4 years,"meaning he had time to come back and collect the money. Also if she had all that money, why the hell is she still living in a ugly looking trailer still? At least buy a better trailer or just move out to a house. If the sexual misconduct wasn't enough for Paul to go crazy, i think this situation is perfect for him to go loose of the rails, as he will have this in the back of his mind. 

When things get heated about Paul's money, she starts to talk about how she raised him all on her own and known all about his weird goings on as a kid, about the boys and how he's gay, but this makes Paul mad. I think he's a closet gay and is afraid to admit it, as he just denies and lies about his sexuality. I think it would be good story if someone threatens to tell people, like send him photographs of him with a man and send them to people he knows, like Emily and the other detectives, but i don't think they would care to be honest.

Ray Knows

Ray meets up with Ani's superior detective, with Ani and Paul tagging along to see what Ray has to say about the new deal she offers him. He starts to frustratingly speak out towards Ani's boss, because she's trying to re open Caspar's murder because they don't think the person they shot in the gun shoot out was the person who murdered Caspar. She tells Ray that she's putting together a confidential special investigation on a missing girl Arina Roofer. If Ray agree's to investigate the missing girl, then she will make sure that Ray will keep his son, as its not looking to good for him in winning his court case battle against his ex wife.

When Ani & Paul leave the conversation to go investigate the missing girl, Ray and Ani's boss agree with him working on the investigation and tell him to start straight away. Ray asks her that he thought she thought he was the worst of them all, because of all the rumors of him killing his ex wife's rapist, but she tells him that she basically doesn't think that anymore because they caught the rapist who raped his wife, a couple of weeks back. Ray's face looks like he's seen a ghost as he just realised that he didn't kill his ex wife's rapist that Frank pointed him to, but a random guy that had no connection to the rape what so ever.

So there might be a chance for Ray to start over and win the court case battle to keep seeing his son, which i'm pleased about because it was terrible watching Ray suffer and try his hardest to fight this losing battle on his own. If it wasn't for Ani, he would be still struggling and working for Frank, so everyone say "Thank you Ani!" Anyway...I hope Ani's boss isn't lying to try get him to work for them and use him for leverage, as she put it in the last episode.

Now thinking he has another chance with his son and a new opportunity in the investigation, he is hit back down to earth from cloud nine, as he finds out that he didn't kill his ex wife's rapist, but a random guy Frank wanted dead. So Frank used his anger he had for the rapist and used it against Ray, so Frank could get someone killed, maybe a rival gang member that threatened Franks business. Who knows?

Photo's Of Who?

The missing women's sister got some random photos sent to her in the mail and Ani is checking them out, now she works down in the evidence & data room. She hands them to Paul to go investigate further as she is unable to do it herself and Paul goes to different jewelry stores around Vinci, because there's one picture of a blue sapphire diamond. Most of the stores have never seen this sort of diamond before, accept from one. The stores owner explains how rare the stone is and that another detective came in with exact same photo's and asking the same questions. He gives Paul the other detectives business card.

Ani & Paul are now driving up north to a location where Ani wants to investigate, where she thinks she will get further information about the missing girl. They talk about the diamonds and the detective card that the store owner gave to Paul, while they arrive to their location which is centered in the forest. The two of them walk to a stone cabin and no one is inside as they check from outside the windows and see all the furniture with white spreadsheets covering them from dust. Ani can see birds circling in the sky and so she has a hunch to go follow the birds near where they are circling.

The two of them walk through the forest, with Ani looking up towards the sky for directions and Paul confused on why she's even following the birds in the first place. "Now where following birds?" Paul asks, "Carrion Birds" she answers. They both discover a strong smell and come to a wooden type shed, with both of them pulling their guns out from their waist. As soon as they go inside the shed, they discover that the smell is much stronger, notice weird markings on the walls and a chair that is covered in blood, with masking tape around the chairs arms.

I'll explain the photo's a little bit more as i'm not including the scene on when Ani's receives them. When Ani got the photo's off the women, she finds out that there photo's of very important people, who indulged in a secret club of sexual fantasy and where no cameras were allowed, meaning the photos's were meant for blackmail against the people who were in the pictures. Make sense? Good! There was also a invitation to the premium club, stashed in between the random photo's, maybe this was a trap for the women to go to and become one of the sexual active girls that work at the club.

I'm still confused what detective was investigating the rare diamonds before Ani and Paul was, his name was Dickson i think...Feel free to help me on that one people. Ani and Paul have a good idea who it is and i'm expecting them to investigate him and why he was investigating the rare stones that you see in the photo's. My theory is that he's a crooked cop that also works for the premium club and wants to find out where the diamonds were, so he took photo's to black mail powerful people to tell him where they are. 

Conclusion

I'm going to say this was one of the hardest episodes to follow and to try make sense of, because it was purely drama based, where you had to connect up all the dots together and fit in the missing pieces. This is only because they have re opened the murder case of Caspar and coming up with new evidence further we go in to the episode.

As i would normally say, i think one of the three detectives will eventually blow up with stress from the demons that are taking over their lives. When we see each of them suffer more and more every time we see them, for example when they were all fighting their demons in sexual misconduct group and legal court case battles between their loved ones and some deranged ones. Overall the episode wasn't boring or exciting, it's what i expected from most of the episodes, pure drama to build up more of a story and plot for future episodes.

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. What will happen with their demons & issues?
5. Will people find out that Paul's gay? & How?
6. What will Frank do about Blake?
7. What do the photographs mean?
8. Will Ray win his court case battle against his ex wife?
9. Is it a good idea for Frank & his wife to adopt a baby?
10. What will Frank do to Frank, now he knows he didn't kill his ex wife's rapist?

True Detective: Season 2, Ep 3

True Detective

Previously On True Detective

Frank Semyon tries speaking openly to his girlfriend about his dark past as child growing up with his father and things got hot for Frank as we see him get put under pressure by the business people, as they wont allow him to carry on with his plan since Caspar died, which is also troubling Frank.

Ray & Ani partner up to try and find the killer or killers of Caspar by looking round his personal properties and asking his psychiatric Doctor for information on him, but the two don't get very far. As for the newbie cop turned detective, Paul has his issues with his mother and girlfriend and leaves them both on bad terms for his new assignment with Ray & Ani and finds it hard fitting in with the new squad. 

When Ray gets a lead from Frank and tells him to check out a property of Caspar's, he goes to the house and finds a murder scene but as soon as Ray enters the house he gets ambushed by a masked gunmen and shot twice by a shotgun, leaving Ray on the ground. 

Episode 3 - Maybe Tomorrow

Ray's Lucid Dream

Country music at the local bar of Ray's and Frank's meet ups is the Lucid thinking of Ray's dream as we see the opening scene focus on a country singer in a baby blue country suit, lip syncing Conway's Twitty's "The Rose." Ray is sat down at the very same booth, where Ray and Frank have their discussions but only this time he isn't speaking to Frank, he's speaking to his own father who is dressed up in a sheriff's uniform. 

Ray looks from the wanna-be country singer and looks across the table where he sees his father looking back at him, with his father saying "You have your father's hands" and Ray looks down at his his bloody knuckles and they look as if Ray was punching a wall to death. They both talk about how Ray was nervous and how he lacked grit, but then his father begins to tell a chilling story.

His father says "I see you, running through the tree's, your're small, tree's are like...Giants. Men are chasing you," Ray: "I'm Right Here." "You step out the tree's, you ain't that fast. Ahh son...They kill you...They shoot you to pieces!" Ray begins to look around all worried, followed by a question "Where is this?" his father replies with "I don't know, you were here first" and Ray looks down towards his torso and see's a bloody gunshot womb to his chest. 

What a bizarre opening scene as it was all so very random and confusing, but from what i seen at the end of episode 2 with Ray getting shot, i thought he was dead and he was in hell...Maybe? Also why was his own father speaking to him like he wasn't his father, for example he says "You have your father's hands," that was just weird if i'm honest. The most chilling part of the scene was the story his father was explaining to him, it didn't make sense and who are "They?" I think its a memory from Ray of his father, maybe doing something bad or maybe its a warning for Ray. 

Ray wakes up in a puddle of his own urine and music playing from the radio and its Conway Twitty- The Rose. Ray looks around the room of the house he was investigating the night before and lifts up his shirt and his torso is covered in rubber bullet wombs, which have broken a couple of ribs. 

Wooo! He's alive! I'm glad that he's alive as i thought it would of been to soon to kill off one of the main characters of the show. From my previous True Detective post i thought he was going to be alive because he might be wearing a bullet proof vest but seems like i was wrong & right at the same time. 

New Partnership

Because Ray is taking the day to get checked out by the doctors, this mean's Ani needs a new partner for the day for the investigation of Caspar's death. Paul & Ani drive to the Mayor of Vinci's mansion to find out any further information about Caspar. The two explain to mayor Chessani's wife that numerous phone calls where made to the mayors house but the wife explains to Paul that she has no trace of thought of any phone calls or if Caspar and the Mayor had any business together.

When Paul is asking the wife questions, Ani wonders off around the house and ventures upstairs to have a look around for some clues. She finds nothing until she hears screaming coming from one of the bedrooms to find the Mayors son, so the two take the time to ask him questions before the Mayor gets back home. Ani and Paul get no where with the Mayor's sons and so he kicks them both out as they don't have a warrant to search the house or ask further questions. 

When Ani & Paul was asking him questions, he mentions that he does specialty events and that made me think that he might be some kind of pimp or organises sex events for clients. I added the two clues together with Caspar phoning the house and how he liked hookers or liked to watch them at least, so i thought Caspar and the Mayor's son were the ones who had business together and not with the Mayor.

Velcoro's  Dirty

Detective Ray Velcoro is all checked out and is already back to work, telling Mayor Chessani that Ani didn't find anything when her & Paul intruded in his house with out his consent. The Mayor is frustrated with Ani and also with Ray because the investigation is going no where and Ani is dragging the Mayor's personal life into the investigation, so Mayor Chessani tell's Ray that he wants Ani's badge and the Sheriffs badge, out of anger. 

Ray mentions that the person who shot him wore a mask and he couldn't identify the shooter and took the tape out of the cam recorder, leaving no evidence for the detectives to find and all this makes the Mayor and the rest of the team frustrated.

Back at Ani's boss's office she is questioned on Velcoro and one of her superiors tells her that Velcoro is dirty and she wants him, meaning she wants enough evidence to take him down. she explains that they have a crooked Vinci cop and that they could leverage him for the investigation but Ani looks concerned as she doesn't seem up for the tasks because its not her job to bring in crooked cops but to find out the murderer of Caspar.

This part of the scene is a bit two faced if you asked me because we are seeing two different sides of the same law speaking about each other behinds each others backs, when Ray tells mayor information about Ani and Ani is getting told that Ray is crooked. This will only complicate the future relationship between the two detectives as Ani won't trust Ray anymore, making the investigation harder for them both.

Paying Old Friends Is A Bad Idea

From the last episode we know that Frank is having some money problems because of the deal he made with Caspar, which lost Frank millions of Dollars of his own money because Caspar is now dead. Frank pays one of his old business friends a visit at a construction site. His friend explains that he done his part of the deal and helped out Frank in the past but Frank wants 20% of the net profit from him every month because he is very desperate. Frank says "Things change" meaning that the situation has changed for Frank and now his friend. 

Will Frank ever stop with his business plan? He's Ruthless!

Later that very same evening, one of Franks workmen turn up late at his hotel room and he has a very good excuse as he explains to Frank and takes him to the body of his old business friend he visited earlier. His friend had been brutally murdered the same way as Caspar did, with his eyes missing from his skull. Frank can't believe what he is seeing and is frustrated why anyone would do this to him, as he was a good man and didn't deserve it. 

Frank starts to shout at his workmen saying "Who's coming after me?" and tells them all to ring who works or used to work for Frank because he wants to ask them questions. When he arrives at one of the clubs he used to help run, he asks the workers if they had anything to do with the murder but none of them comply as they think they don't need to answer him. One of the main bosses who now runs the crew and the club thinks that Frank has gone soft and no longer has it in him to be tough and the two of them fist it out in the kitchen.

They begin to brawl in the kitchen of the club with both crews surrounded them and Franks beats the day light out of him, knocking him to the ground. As soon hes on the ground, Frank gets on top of him and pulls his gold plated teeth out with a pair of pliers one by one, as the people look at Frank as a mad man.

I said that Frank is Ruthless but this takes it to another whole level. The guy just knocked out someone twice the size of him and pulled his teeth out in front of his own crew, one by one! The guy doubted that Frank could be the monster he once was and you could see in Franks eye's he didn't want to go to that dark place again but he eventually did and beat the crap out of the guy. This made me think on how Frank used to be and why he changed to try and be a better person? I hope they show some flash backs to his life.

Paul Goes Solo

Detective Paul is wondering the streets on his own asking every hooker on every corner questions as he shows them a picture of Caspar. The hookers don't give him any information and Paul is thinking about giving up for the night, until one man see's Paul asking questions and he knows the man in the picture, so he decides to help Paul and point him in the direction of the nightclub he saw Caspar last. Paul thanks the man before venturing off to the unknown nightclub but the man stops him in his tracks and explains to Paul that they won't talk to him and they probably wont let him in the club.  

Paul is now inside the nightclub with the man who just helped him, looking around all anxious and cautious around the room to suddenly bumping in to Frank at the very same club he just pulled the mans gold teeth from, (Talk about coincidental.) and the two stare each other down for a few seconds to then walking away from each other. Paul goes in to full detective mode again, asking a bunch of questions about Caspar to one of the people in the club. He explains to Paul that Caspar would like to watch people have sex and gives Paul the name of one European girl who works for a private company that runs parties for rich people. 

I think this part of the scene is linked up with Mayor Chessani's son because one of the men mentions that the girl did private parties for rich men and the son is an event organiser as he explained to Ani and Paul. The last girl to see Caspar was European and Mayor Chessani's wife is also European. So either the wife knows something or the son knows something, time will soon tell.

They Almost Had Him

Ani and Ray are back investigating with each other and both are at a house asking questions for the investigation as usual. When things go normal as they should do when asking questions, they hear a blaze of fire and follow the orange flickering light that is fire coming from their car, someone set their car on fire when they were asking questions at the house. When they both see their car on fire, Ray can see the person who done it and they are wearing a white mask to cover their face, so Ray shouts them and they begin to chase him on foot. 

Ani gets in front of Ray and climbs over a fence to chase down the man who is running through a homeless camp that is set under the highway bridge, while Ray struggles to get over the fence with his broken ribs, he still runs with determination. Ani and the perpetrator run through the camp knocking anyone who gets in front of them to the ground, while Ray is far behind, he takes a detour and he finally meets back up with Ani just in time, as there is a huge truck coming her way as she pulls out her gun to shoot, but the suspect gets away and Ray pushes Ani to save her from the oncoming truck. Ani thanks Ray for saving her and Ray replies with "If you want to thank me, tell me what State has on me."

Well i think that's the most thrilling scene we have seen in the last 3 episodes of True Detectives, with all the fire blazing car, the intense chase through the dark homeless camp and we nearly seen someone shoot their gun BUT!... They never did. Plus we now all know that the person who shot Ray is toying with them by setting their car on fire and making them chase them just for the fun of it and they could also be the killer of Caspar. 

Ray also knows that hes being investigated by the state police and he tries to get Ani to tell him what evidence they might have. I'm excited what the next episode will have install for us as we might see tensions brew between Ani, Ray and the State Police. 

Conclusion

I would say this has to be my favourite episode by far as its beginning to make more sense to me as i link up some of the information i gathered from the episode. I think that Mayor Chessani's wife or son are big characters to come as i think they are part of something big but hiding it very well, making it one big mystery. 

I'm glad to see another side to Frank as he shows the audience how ruthless he can actually be when he wants something, telling us he had a very dark past and i hope to see more action from him and even a couple of flash backs from his past. 

The 3 detectives, i think will build up more friction between them all as the series goes on but i have no idea how it will turn out. Will it be good or bad for them?

Discussion

1. What did you think of the overall episode?
2. What was your favourite part of the episode? & Why?
3. What was your least favourite part of the episode? & Why?
4. What do you think will happen next with Ray and the State Police?
5. What do you want to happen in the next episode? & Why?
6. Will Frank find out who's after him and how will he deal with the situation?
7. Will Frank encounter Paul again or Ani?
8. Will Ani help Ray with the State police situation
9. How will Paul become more involved with the story?
10. Who's the masked man and why do you think that?

True Detective: Season 2, Episode 2

True Detective

So last week was a pretty slow start for the premiere of True Detective and made me think if the show would get any more thrilling, as the first season was. Maybe it was a slow start because there's more characters involved, so they have to cover more stories for the series. Plus i'm hoping to see more than just 8 episodes as they did for the first season of True Detective, because they have more characters for the series & after two episodes we still don't know the true plot of the story yet. 

Episode 2 - Night Finds You

Frank Semyon & His Demons

The opening scene of True Detective shows us Frank and his girlfriend lying in bed, and Frank starts to talk about his old man back in Chicago. Franks old man used to lock him up in the basement whenever he went out for a bender (Drinking) and Frank thought he was just trying to keep him safe. Now Frank explains a little deeper and darker on how when he was 6 years old his father put him down in the basement and the door was locked when Frank woke up. Frank says he got arrested or something but he explains further. On the 2nd morning he woke up and he was out of food, on the 2nd day the light bulb went out, making it pitch black and it made the rats come out.

Frank wakes up to a rat chewing on his finger and his girlfriend asks "What did you do?" Frank replies on, when he woke up he grabbed the rat and smashed it on the floor till it was goo in his hands, and two days later Franks father comes home.

Credit to HBO & Melty.com

This little story that Franks has at the beginning, had me intrigued so much i could picture everything he as saying to his girlfriend. Can you imagine being down in the basement in pitch black darkness while you have rats trying to chew your finger off! This tells me that Frank had a dark childhood while growing up and its just the tip of the iceberg on what really his character is like. I think he is trying to keep his demons in the past but they might catch up to him sooner or later in the series.

Paul's Mother & Girlfriend Issues

We know Paul has had some traumatic issues from his injuries to his body but he also has relationship problems with his mother and girlfriend, as we see in the 2nd episode.

His mother who lives in a trailer is trying to get Paul to stay over and always says "You can stay in you old bedroom," but Paul tells his mother that he has a new assignment with special detail and he wont be around as much, also Paul asks his mother about her shifts at the restaurant she worked at but she no longer works there anymore. He eventually stays over in his old bedroom while having a smoke next to his window.

I don't know why he has issues with his mother, but he really didn't want to stay over in his old bedroom. From the look on Paul's face, he always looked like it was a major effort with his own mother and he found it difficult to be around her for some reason, but why?

We also see him packing his stuff at his girlfriends flat, telling her that he has a new job at being detective, but she explains to him that she cant do this anymore as it is to difficult for her. Paul keeps on packing anyway and leaves her as she tells him its basically over between them and Paul says "This is you doing this" as in its all her fault for ending the relationship.

Credit to HBO

In the first episode we knew that they had problems to begin with, as Paul had erectile dysfunction and how he would always leave in the middle of the night. I think he used her for comfort for whenever Paul got lonely or bored an his girlfriend couldn't handle him leaving her in the muddle of the night or the lack of communication between the both of them.

The Unlikely Partnership

Ray Velcoro & Ani Bezzerides, we see together a numerous of times in the 2nd episode of True Detective. The unlikely partnership are trying to investigate the murder of Ben Caspar as they are driving round to place to place trying to gather information, putting the missing pieces together. As doing so, the two find a house of Ben Caspar and they also visit his psychiatrist he had been seeing for the past 3 years. With all the information they had got, it seems the two were getting no where with the investigation, until Paul gives them a bank record that matches the information Ray & Ani previously had in their possession.

It was random putting these two very different characters together but very necessary as the two work in the same department as each other, but i thought it was a matter of time before everything blew up as it was very awkward to see the two working together. There was a lot of stares and a lot of awkward silent scenes between them both.

Ray & His Son

From Rays antics with his son from the previous episode, it was a matter of time something bad was going to happen with him and his sons relationship. Ray is being the desperate weird father that his son doesn't want to be around him but Ray is always there and when Ray found out his son was getting bullied, he went to the others kids house and beaten up his dad in front of his sons bully.

When Ray thinks hes about to meet his son, he is met by his ex girlfriend/wife and she tells Ray that his son wont be here and that she is going for full custody of their son and supervised visits because of Ray's antics lately.

Credit to HBO & Melty.com

This clearly has made him very angry as the one thing he has in his life and loves dearly, is going to be taken away from him if his ex girlfriend gets full custody of their son. If a desperate father is trying his best to do good for his son, how desperate will he get if they take him away from Ray?

Franks Getting Desperate

Now that Frank knows that Ben Caspar Is dead, he pays a numerous of visits, one of those visits is to a dealership businessmen for Ben Caspar which now Frank has a problem with,  as he tries to explain to the dealership businessmen how Caspar died with 5 million of his money and now the business deal can no longer go on with out Ben Caspar's deal papers. 

The deal that was suppose to make Frank a fortune is down the drain as the death of Caspar has ruined everything for him, taking most of Franks money to Caspar's grave. Who wouldn't be angry right? 

Two Russian guys have just beaten up a businessman after they crashed in to the back of his car, but that was the plan, since they wanted him out of the car to beat him up. After they've beaten him, Frank runs across the road, to the beaten man who is lying on the floor moaning in pain and Frank starts to ask him patronizing questions on "Who would do such a thing, to get guys like that, after you?" and that he should take more care and not to try p*ss people off.

Frank had this all planned out and he did this to scare the man and threaten him in some way but tried to act all innocent and patronizing towards the businessman. It was a bit passive aggressive in some way as Frank was trying to get in to his head with out doing any physical harm to the man. 

Franks pays a last visit to the city Mayor and hands him a little paper brown envelope with money inside for "business." The two talk about business but also the mayors son and how Franks wants to know who killed Caspar, because his life's work is put on hold.

OK, now we see Frank getting very desperate because hes going to the most powerful man in the city, the mayor! The mayor obviously must be dirty since he took the money from Frank and talks openly about Franks ongoing business but no major information about this scene was given away as the mayor is very mysterious and blunt.

A Killer Ending

Frank and Ray meet at the dreary dim bar where the music is down and slow as much as the people who drink there. 

Frank hands over a piece of paper with new information, that Caspar had another house in Hollywood. He tells Ray to go check it out but Ray also has something on his mind to tell Frank. Ray begins to talk about how Ray & Frank met & that its not the life for him anymore, that he has no reason to to carry on because hes tired. Frank doesn't take it on board and tells Ray to go check the house anyway.

I think Ray doesn't want to work with Frank anymore because he knows his son will be taken away from him and what else is there to fight for? That's why hes bringing this conversation up. Also Frank is desperate and he wont take him serious enough to care about Ray's thoughts.

Ray arrives at the house Frank advised him to go to, and he pick locks the front door till it opens. He enters inside the house and hears old music playing in the background, so he moves around the house slowly so hes more aware of his surroundings. Ray sees a puddle of blood on the living room floor as he switches on the light and this makes him look around the room for more clues. He opens up a hidden mirrored door that lies with in the walls of the house and sees a cam recorder facing towards the one way mirrored door he just opened. As Ray backs out of the room, a masked man who is wearing a crow mask to his his face, shoots Ray with a shot gun and Ray falls down to the ground, the gunman  then walks up to Ray and shoots him again in the stomach to finish him off for good. 

Told you it was a killer ending! And how very random was that? I did not expect to see Ray get shot or killed so soon in the series, that's if he is dead. He might of had a bullet proof vest on or something. 

Does anyone else think it was part of Franks plan to get him in the house to get him killed? Or it could of been the person who killed Caspar, which puts Frank in more of a bad situation. Plus if Ray did die, it might mean that Ani & Paul will have to partner up to find Caspar's and Rays killer for the duration of the season, while Frank is also trying to find out but obviously on the other side of the law.

Conclusion

The overall episode was slow as the first episode but had more of a thrilling ending as we see Ray get shot viciously. I think it was more of a build up episode for the future of the series as we might see more compelling and thrilling scenes as we see Frank get desperate to find the killer and make the deal happen and also the work of the detectives and officer Paul.

I'm excited to see what happens with the upcoming episodes of true Detective and i hope you guys are also excited.

Discussion

1. What did you think of the overall episode?
2. Did you expect more from the episode?
3. What was your favourite part of the episode? & Why?
4. What was your least favourite part of the episode? & Why?
5. What do you think will happen next with the characters?
6. What do you want to happen? & Why?
7. Why did they shoot Ray?
8. Is Ray dead or alive? & how would he even survive if so?
9. If Ray does survive how will he fit in the rest of the season?
10. Do you think there will be more episodes than the first season of True Detective?