True Detective Review/Recap S02E04

“Sometimes your worst self is your best self.”

-Frank Semyon

Okay… So we all know that episode 4 is when last season REALLY began to pick up the pace and the same can be said for this season. BECAUSE HOLY CRAP THAT SHOOTOUT!!!!

*ahem*

Let’s talk about some other things that happened in this episode before we get to that. The facts and coincidences really begin to stack up in this week’s episode. Ben Caspere had his finger in a TON of pies and all of them are slowly beginning to surface. Ray and Ani’s investigation led them back to Mayor Chessani. Ray is really the only one who knows just how corrupt Vinci is and doesn’t really see any use in perusing anything involving the mayor. He knows that absolutely no one has ever been arrested in the Chessani family and that it doesn’t look like that is about to change no matter how corrupt they get. However the pair do manage to get some information out of the mayor’s daughter after tailing her to a hookah bar. She opens up a bit about her unusual household (she informs the them that her father is a bad man but doesn’t elaborate) and reveals that her mother had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Chessani sent her to a clinic to receive treatment where she ended up killing herself. Guess who her caretaker was? Dr. Pitler, the same creepy doctor that had been in charge of Ben Caspere’s care. It’s all starting to connect!! Seeing that Dr. Pitler had two of his wards have unnatural deaths Ani and Ray head to her father’s retreat. Ani’s father recognizes Pitler’s name and informs them that both Dr. Pitler and Mayor Chessani had been members of his new age cult when they were younger. He also mentions something about Chessani’s elderly father’s lodge, but I’m still not too sure how that connects yet. I wondered if Ray would ever end up meeting Ani’s father and we finally got to see that in this week’s episode. Upon seeing Ray Eliot, Bezzerides announces “You have one of the largest auras I’ve ever seen. Green and black, taking up this room. You must have had hundreds of lives.” Ray follows with “I don’t think I can handle another one. ” An aura the colors of a toxic dump like the cesspool that is Vinci? The unusual interaction between these two was definitely a highlight of the episode for me. Hopefully there will be more!

While Ani and Ray are out investigating, we find out that Paul has just spent the night with his army friend. He wakes up, gets upset and leaves after being told by his friend/lover(?), “Let yourself go. Be what you want. It ain’t bad.”. Paul later finds his out that his motorcycle is stolen and reporters have found out where he is staying. Paul quite literally runs away as they bombard him with questions about his time in Iraq. Luckily Ray picks him up and offers him some alcohol to help forget everything that Paul is running from. Paul tells him “I just don’t know how to be out in the world”. “No one does”, Ray answers bluntly. *Ray is the BEST* Aside from worrying about his sexuality Paul finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and wants to keep the child. In an extremely desperate move Paul declares his love for her and proposes. OH MY GOD WHY?! He tries so hard to be someone he’s not and provides the most cringe inducing scene of the episode in my opinion. Thankfully he does make headway into the case by tracking down a stolen watch of Ben Caspere’s to a seedy pawn shop. After testing it for prints they discover that it had been handled by a local pimp, Ledo Amarillo. Amarillo is a good lead but I don’t think he is anything but a pawn in this ever growing conspiracy. Our three detectives are able to track down Amarillo to a warehouse where he and his buddies are holed up.

Frank has been going super gangster and is calling in all kinds of favors. He seems to have woken up after removing that club owner’s teeth last week. Frank knows he’s on his last legs and is doing everything he can to keep his life where it’s at. He and his wife know they are basically in an ever growing sink hole after Caspere’s death and they can’t afford to sink any further. Frank is tightening up his business and getting suspicious of those around him.  Take for example his right hand man who seems to still be in contact with his ex business partner Osip. That guy oozes the old double crosser vibe. My bet is that he’s definitely involved in Caspere’s death.  Like he said last episode, someone is trying to draw Frank out and it seems like it’s working. Thankfully Ray brings Frank some good news with their new suspect Ledo Amarillo. Frank offers Ray a job working for him but Ray once again refuses. Why does he refuse? Maybe he sees Franks desperate attempts to climb out of his financial hell hole as pointless, he is getting a kind of conscience, or he does not  need one more thing for the state to slam him with.

The gangs all here for the raid on Amarillo.

FINALLY we come to the shootout scene!! Ray, Ani and Paul have assembled a team (without help from the state hmmmmmm)  and are prepared to raid Amarillo’s hideout above a factory. Our detectives think it’s going to be a simple in and out job but it turns into a glorious bloodbath. Amarillo seems oddly prepared for the raid and has plenty of unexpected firearms. A few of the shots fired from our detectives sets off an explosion suggesting that there could have been a meth lab within. Nearly half of their team shot within the first minute of the raid and not many more survive once the targets had fled the building in a van. Ani gives chase and the world’s most unlucky bus collides with Amarillos’ van. Amarillo and his cohorts start shooting off the remaining cops, train protesters that happen to be there, and civilians on the bus. Paul and Ani are able to take out some of the men while Amarillo manages to take hold of a bus hostage. Unfortunately for Ani she uses all her amo and pulls out her Mom’s knife as her only weapon. I don’t know how she thinks that will defend her against bullets but it’s her lucky day and  Paul saves her from being shot. Amarillo kills his hostage once he sees that the situation is hopeless leaving Ray and Paul to finish him. BOOM. Now we have just witnessed perhaps the biggest sh*t fest on television this season. All suspects are dead, fellow officers are dead, and numerous civilians are dead. Dixon? Dead. Ani’s partner who blames her for ruining his marriage? Dead. All that is left are Ray, Ani and Paul standing among a bunch of corpses.

Oh, and Ani gets a sexual harassment investigation.

What do you think of this episode? Also have you noticed that each week the lyrics to the opening song are slightly different?

Here s rundown of the lyrics from an article on The Work Print that you can check out in full here!

Episode 1: The Western Book of the Dead

My woman’s here, my children too
Their graves are safe, from ghosts like you

In places deep, with roots entwined
I live the life I left behind

Episode 2: The Night Finds You

I could not kill, the way you kill
I could not hate, I tried I failed

You turned me in, at least you tried
You side with them, whom you despise

…

There’s truth that lives, and truth that dies
I don’t know which, so never mind

Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow

This was your heart, this swarm of flies
This was once your mouth, this bowl of lies

You serve them well, I’m not surprised
You’re of their kin, you’re of their kind

Episode 4: Down Will Come

Repeats the verses from the premiere, with the addition of::

I live it full, I live it wide
Through layers of time, you can’t divide

What do you think? Is it a cool use of Leonard Cohen lyrics or foreshadowing the content in that week’s episode?!

Also if you’re feeling a bit heavy after that blood bath here’s a link to a funny True Detective clip from Jimmy Fallon! XD

See you next week!

-Spocktopus