If you haven’t watched the most recent episode of HBO‘s “True Detective“, you might want to stop reading right here just to play it safe. On the other hand, if you are all caught up with the show then you know the fourth episode ended with an intense shootout scene that will almost certainly alter the course of the entire season — which you can read about in Michael’s here.
Much like last season’s celebrated long-take raid scene, which also occurred in that season’s fourth episode, the shootout scene in “Down Will Come” has been talked about all over the internet not just for what it means for the series, but also for how gut-wrenching and intense it is as a form of storytelling and entertainment. Turns out it was just as intense to film as it was for us to watch.
In an interview with Variety, Rachel McAdams — whose character Ani Bezzerides finds herself right in the middle of the action — told the outlet the scene took a full five days to shoot.
“That [scene] was pretty intense. I actually puked during that scene. When I was running and reloading my gun — it actually wound up being about 200 yards, it was like two football fields — and I was just going all out and we did it a couple of times.”
McAdams has regularly been a highlight of this season for me, and it seems the physical challenge of that scene paid off given how much my Twitter feed blew up Sunday night, but there is something interesting going on with “True Detective” this season outside of the social media circle I find myself engaged in. The show is suffering ratings and viewership drops every week, and while I’m really digging where the second season is heading — I even like Vince Vaughn in the show, and it seems everyone else is anti-Vaughn at this point — there are an awful lot of naysayers out there.
Hopefully Sunday’s much-discussed final scene can not only alter the course of the season’s story but boost its ratings and viewership, too. I like the characters, the tone and the story, and I’d hate for the show to suffer so greatly just because its second season doesn’t quite compare to its outstanding first go-round. Only time will tell what these next four episodes bring, but I’m in for the long haul, and if the fourth episode is any indication of what the second half of the season will bring, color me excited.
You can watch the scene below and read our recap here.
