The logline for this week’s episode of “True Detective” filled me with hope:
Ray (Colin Farrell), Ani (Rachel McAdams) and Paul (Taylor Kitsch) take precautionary measures to elude detection and untangle a dark mystery. Frank (Vince Vaughn) deals with the fallout of his betrayal.
Would my optimism be rewarded?
The short answer is “yes”. The long answer is “it’s complicated”. “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” snaps a lot of the frustratingly disparate elements of the season together. Many of the side detours and shoehorned characterizations coalesce in an episode that provides answers, even if some are purposely vague.
For the first time all season. at least one of the characters has to deal with the mental fallout of their actions. Jumping forward 66 days prevented this type of exploration after the mid-season shootout, but Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) has no choice but to face up to the life she took at the end of “Church In Ruins“. Her conversation with Velcoro (Colin Farrell) struck me as interesting because of one simple word… “choice”.
Nic Pizzolatto and his writing style could be called many things but random is not one of them. Some of the ways in which he makes his characters talk are overly flowery, obnoxiously so sometimes, but when it counts, his characters always mean what they say. Bezzerides, still in a daze — whether from the drugs, her having just killed a man with her concealed blade, or both) — remarks that she’s been waiting for this her entire life. Waiting, not preparing, but waiting.
She’s eagerly anticipated her revenge on mankind since going through the childhood she had to endure. Despite all of her practicing, all of her steely resolve, the fact remains she took a life in a particularly brutal fashion and she’ll have to deal with it for the rest of her life. Having rescued her missing person lessens the blow… at first. This is what “True Detective” has been lacking this season – an action that serves character and plot simultaneously.
The contract stolen from the party puts the detectives back on the trail of Tony Chessani (Vinicius Machado) and Osip (Timothy V. Murphy). Velcoro keys Semyon (Vince Vaughn) into Osip’s involvement and all sides of the story are finally moving at the same speed.
Frank begins to take care of his enemies in quick fashion and tying up all loose ends. He’s no longer ineffectual, making idle threats, and vacillating between his gangster roots and trying to go legit. He’s finally a man of action and that makes him interesting. His execution of Blake (Christopher James Baker) has been a long time coming, and as he burns down his clubs and the casino, we finally see the the man who built a criminal enterprise in the first place.
In addition to Blake’s death and Velcoro discovering Davis’s (Michael Hyatt) body, there is an obvious death that needs to be addressed. Luring Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) to a meeting using pictures intended to blackmail is a typical strong arm tactic but a situation that main characters usually find their way out of.
Woodrugh exhibits many of the skills that got him out alive in the mid-season shootout but the ambush by Lt. Burris (James Frain) proves inescapable. The direct involvement of the Vinci PD isn’t a surprise, nearly everyone has suspected it since the beginning, but unless there were riot shells load in the handgun of Lt. Burris, their methods to stay involved are remarkably brutal.
The various angles around the land deals — who owns what, who owes who, and what the big picture is — remains convoluted. Ultimately, it probably doesn’t really matter if we or the detectives connect all the dots. There doesn’t seem to be anything more sinister at play here other than politicians and bureaucrats being stereotypically greedy – no cults, no pseudo-supernatural forces, no cosmic influence.
This may end up being Pizzolatto’s thesis of the season. The lengths people are willing to go to keep their secrets can be beyond comprehension. We can look for unbelievable explanations to questions that don’t have simple answers but what we find may surprise us in its simplicity.
Crazy Theory Corner
This week’s crazy theory corner isn’t so crazy. There is no possible happy ending to be had, the only hope is that the surviving characters are able to move on and live out the rest of their broken lives without inflicting their damaged psyche on anyone else.
Were you satisfied by the progress made this week? Will you miss Woodrugh in the finale? What are you expecting from the finale?
Next Week
