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 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?

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 1

True Detective

Summary

True Detective is a collection of series in which police investigations unravel the personal and professional of those involved, within or outside the law.

Episode 1 - The Western Book Of The Dead

I caught up on last nights episode premier of True Detective season 2 this morning and wow, it was so slow and a bit pointless of a first episode if you ask me, but i'll get in to that further on into the blog. If you're wondering why i didn't watch it last night its because i live in England, so i have to wait a day later to watch things that air in America first, which sucks so much!

When ever i watch on a carry on series or a sequel to a film or anything on them lines, i'm always going to compare them together. Season 1 of True Detective was truly a great first season for the series, with great actors (Mathew McConaughey & Woody Harrelson,) amazing story plot and don't forget on how gritty and truthful it was, making the viewers want more. I think season 2 has got some serious work to do if they want to compare/compete with season 1 of True Detective.

After i watched the first episode of True Detective i was pretty much disappointing and left confused as i didn't know what the produces was going for, it didn't have any true story behind it and the cut scenes was to random to keep up with. The whole episode was basically the reveal of the characters and what their persona was all about. With season 1's first episode we knew who the characters were, what role they had and what the story was about straight away. OK, they gave a little bit about the new characters but not much as it might because they're more A list-ers in the mix.

Characters/Actors

Collin Farrell is our first A list actor we see in the first episode of True Detective playing the character Ray Velcoro. Ray Velcoro is a Lieutenant of the Vinci's police department, a fictional California city. Ray also has a side line job with career criminal Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn,) Who helped Ray 20 years early with some information on who raped his wife. This first scene where the two characters meet for the first time gives us a flash back to the past as we know True Detective loves to do from the last season. We know this was a flash back as we see Ray Velcoro with a clean shave with a mustache, looking sober and wearing a sheriff uniform but now Ray is a Alcoholic with relationship problems with his bullied son and has a hot temper as we see him brutally beating up a couple of people.

I think Collin Farrell's character will be one of the most explosive and main characters of the new season as he is dangerous and a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. I think Frank will play him as one of his pawns in the criminal world and he might get into some sticky situations.

Vince Vaughn plays the criminal businessmen Frank Semyon, a person who has climbed the ranks since the last flash back, 20 years ago. Frank now owns a casino and planning to make his fortunes with a 68bn high speed railway road through the city of Vinci. As being a buisnessman you would think he has left his criminal ways behind him, but Frank is just better at hiding them these days, but as soon as a corruption article lands right in-front of him he gets Ray Velcoro to do his dirty work and scare the reporter from showing the rest of the article. 

Franks Semyon is a hard character to read as we don't know if he can be dangerous or not as we didn't see him do any dirty work, but i think he will get his hands dirty as the season goes on. He may also make some enemies in his line of work to make him decide on some hard decisions to further his ranks in the his criminal career.

Our first female lead role is Rachel McAdam's who plays the tough cop Ani Bezzerides. Ani is trying to stay away from her family who she thinks needs help as her dad is a hippy and her sister is a sex cam girl as we see Ani and a team of cops raid a house when Ani's sister was caught doing her day job.
Ani is reckless and tough as she carries a gun in her belt and pocket, and always picking fights with casino bouncers as we see in the first episode.

Ani clearly has some issues in her personal life which may also effect her day job as a cop. I think this will be interesting as we might see her juggle from the two lives she lives in, even though she might not want to be part of her dad and sisters life. We also know that her mother died but not sure how it happened, so we might see some more flash backs to her mothers death.

The fourth and final lead role is Taylor Kitsch who plays the high road police officer, Paul Woodrugh. Paul is suspended from his job after being accused getting a blog job from a Hollywood actress. Paul is also reckless like Ani but in a different way as he likes to leave his girlfriend late at night to drive on his motorcycle at high speeds with his lights off.

From what i saw of Paul Woodrugh i think he will be one of the most important characters as he is very mysterious because he has all them scars on his body but wont share on how he got them, will this be some flash back scenarios on how he got his scars? 

Conclusion

In my experience in watching the premier of True Detective season 2, there wasn't much story i could talk about as it was only the first episode after-all. It was all to mysterious for the viewers to gather any valuable information. 

The only thing i gathered from the first episode is that the characters all have relationship problems as Ray's wife got raped and his son is scared of him, Frank has a girlfriend and seems happy together, Ani has daddy & sister issues and has one night stands as we see in the episode and Paul has traumatic issues with his scares on his body, leading him to have a erectile Dysfunction as we see him take a Viagra pill before he has sex with his girlfriend. So are we going to see them sitting down together in a relationship therapy center to sort their problems out? I hope not! I'm still waiting for the detective side to the story, but its still early days as its only the first episode of the season.

The only interesting thing we seen in the episode was how the characters got brought together at the end, as they all get called in to a crime scene where Paul found a dead body who is Ben Caspar, a buisnessman who was heavily involved in helping Frank with his Railroad highway project. But what now? and how will Frank react after this event?

Overall it was a very slow start to the new season as their has no depth in the story so far, but i am very interested on how it will all plays out.

Discussion

1. What did you think of the first episode of True Detective?
2. Could it of been improved? & How?
3. Was the Characters good/Interesting/worthy of the new season?
4. Who is the favourite character to watch? & why?
5. Do the characters suit the roles they are playing?
6. What do you think will happen in the season to come?
7. Should there of been more flash backs in the first episode? or do you think there will be more?
8. What did you think of the new these song of True Detective?
9. Is there to many A list actors that over shadow the story of the True detective?
10. What actors would you replace? who with?& why?