Episode 1: The Western Book of the Dead

Episode 2: Night Finds You

Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow

Episode 4: Down Will Come

Episode 5: Other Lives

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Sex, drugs and rock & roll. Other than the fact that we didn’t get no Rachel McAdams T from Nic P at the party, thought it was another above average ep. If you watch it for what it is and stop trying to compare it to Season 1, you’d be amazed how much more enjoyable it is. Let’s get to it.

Questions/Tidbits:

• I’ve read good things and I’ve read bad things about the music selection during Ani’s party trip and the boys playtime outside. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it. Kind of like how Nic focused on making the language in Frank’s dialogue as absurd as possible to illustrate his (maybe overly ambitions) attempt to go legit, the party and infiltration scene from start to finish seemed to be another tongue-in-cheek exaggeration. It did it for me. The corny bad guy dialogue between Osip and McCandless in the office, the methodical ascent up the premises by James Bond I mean Paul, how he happened to be waiting right at the door Ani busted out of even though I’m pretty sure he never ended up getting a visual on her and it looked like that door was a completely random exit strategy, Paul’s “Go!” exclamation once inside the car and the overly badass music that played them out as Ray Tokyo’d and ripped off into the moonlight. I loved every second of it. The drugs and hallucinations, along with the phantasmagorical (suck it Frank) atmosphere of the party in general made it feel like it was all sort of a dream for Ani and that carried over in the actions of Paul and Ray. And with the help of the music, I thought it definitely worked. Here’s the badass song that played at the end and that also plays in my head whenever I walk into a meeting now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-KiqXHmeE

• Things moved pretty fast once Ani started feeling them drugs and you might not have caught every familiar face she saw in the party, so real quick…

Frank’s guy that’s working behind his back (Blake) and Masuka from Dexter (former AG running for governor, Geldof)

McCandless (Catalyst dude that met with Osip in the office, also who Frank is trying to find the hard drive for, ALSO this is probably his house since he had a personal office), Osip (Russian who was supposed to go halfsies with Ray on the land deal before Caspere’s murder), Holloway (Chief of Vinci PD) and Tony Chessani (mayor’s son)

(images & summaries /u/MAYORDADA)

•  Another week, another pat on the back for Colin Farrell and his acting. Regardless of how you feel about this season in general, there’s absolutely no denying the fact that Farrell is crushing it. This week it was his standoff with Frank, supervised chill sesh with his detached son, subsequent takedown of lines the size of Manute Bol’s index finger and his concession of custody to his ex wife. All were done extremely well.

(/u/DirtyxD75)

Also the casting of and job that the kid that plays Chad has done have both been right on the money. Every scene with him and Ray is so goddamn uncomfortable and I love it.

• “Full Moon is the best time to ratify alliances.” I missed the phrasing of this line live but you have to believe the way Full Moon is used as a proper noun there is intentional. The line was delivered by McCandless so it’s not like it was Osip’s Russian ass accidentally leaving out an “a” at the beginning of the sentence. It sounds like he’s referring to either the party that night or the group itself as Full Moon. It also showed up elsewhere, both last night and at other points this season:
  • As the gang drives away at the end of the episode
  • During the opening credits I’m pretty sure the last thing that’s shown is an eclipse
  • Frank and the Mexicans also “ratified an alliance” that night
  • The ticket to one of the parties

(/u/ins1der)

• Nice look at potential Birdman candidates from /u/Dr__Nick

• I wrote a blurb a few episodes back about how calm Paul seemed to be in contrast to the other characters during the shootout with the pimps. While this episode’s ending was less chaotic (for him at least) and a little less tense I’d say, you saw that same look of serenity in his eyes as he and Ray bounced around the compound. His movements were smooth and he seemed to be leading Ray, not to mention the fact that he was the one who picked the lock on the window and went inside McCandless’ office to search his desk. I don’t hear an awful lot about Kitch’s performance in TD and I feel like that isn’t right. Paul is a pretty difficult character to take on and it’s little things like this (his mannerisms during every day life vs during a mission) that make me feel like he’s doing a pretty damn good job with it.
• This link between the diamonds and a jewelry store heist during the LA riots in 1992 threw me for a big ol loop. Paul goes and chats with an old cop that worked the case & he seems pretty messed up from it. Specifically he talks about the two kids of the jewelers who watched their parents get executed right in front of them. They ended up in the system as orphans. Lots of ideas swirling around about the two orphans being Mayor Chessani’s kids. Why would he adopt them? Maybe out of guilt since it seems like he was involved in killing their parents? Or more likely so that he could keep them under his own roof in case they ever “remembered” anything about that day. Opponents of this theory are quick to point out that his daughter talks about her mother and how the Mayor sent her to Pitlor’s palace where she later killed herself. My rebuttal to that would be a) a kid that is adopted so young obviously grows up calling her adoptive mother “mom” and b) them being so young and witnessing a tragedy like that,  I don’t think it’s out of the question at all that they could have psychiatric damage to the point where she may have shoved that event so far into the back of her memory that it’s like it doesn’t even exist at all.

(/u/zeezee2k)

• So Ani was molested as a kid during one of her father’s weird hippie retreats huh. I’m thinking the culprit is just some rando and doesn’t really play a bigger part (no, it’s not a younger version of her dad) but hey, I’ve been wrong before.

Reddit Theories:

• More about the diamond orphans being Chessanis kids
• Link between the torture shack and the party

(/u/DeathSludge)

• Map of real life locations used for filming
• Obviously Ani’s knife is a “Bird’s Beak” pairing knife
• What exactly was Stan’s role in all of this?
• Ray’s hands show his dream sequence with his father is becoming a reality

And, oh yeah, looks like the finale is 87 minutes long. 🙂

“Hey Ray, you finish your part for our group project for school?”

(/u/redskir)

Episode 1: The Western Book of the Dead

Episode 2: Night Finds You

Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow

Episode 4: Down Will Come

---

Well it was a good run. I was able to fully wrap my head around what was going on in True Detective for a whopping four episodes this season. Now we’ve got people who may or may not be working with each other and may or may not be working against or with other people who we may or may not know about, multiple murder scenes, illegal sex parties and an unidentified bird person. We’re back, baby!

Your summary, courtesy of /u/LifeWillBeOkay:

So. Many. Questions.

• One thing that was 100% over my head was Frank’s line where he told the little Asian guy to “go stand in front of a motherfucking tank”. Apparently in 1989 some guy stood in front of some tanks in China the morning after the Tiananmen Square protests were squashed. I guess this is one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century or something.

• That shed Ani and Paul found at the end of the episode. First reaction was that it was where Caspere was murdered, or at least where his jubilees met a shotgun. You saw the blood sort of pooled beneath the chair and they weren’t shy about stressing (and showing) the fact that his body had serious genital mutilation. But then you think, would those birds really be circling the shed some 70 days after Caspere’s body was found? Perhaps the missing girl met a similar fate there after that? Or another one of the girls? Ugh.

(/u/DeathSludge)

• Just a crazy amount of questions regarding the late Teague Dixon. It’s obvious he was working undercover for Vinci, trying to steer the investigation whatever way the Mayor wanted it to go (pimps). He knew about the diamonds in the safety deposit box before the rest of the squad and didn’t tell them. He was secretly spying on Paul and others, I’ll bet. Or he could have been gathering intel for whoever is behind Caspere’s murder, aka whoever the sex party gang was threatening to blackmail with whatever is on that hard drive. This could be someone or multiple people with Catalyst, which would mean they were behind Caspere’s murder but not the bird person because the bird person has the hard drive (I think) and the hard drive would be their end game (I think). I don’t know what to think.
• It’s looking more and more like Frank is all on his own here. Catalyst used him to “contaminate” the land surrounding the rail, thus making it cheaper for purchase. But that was just business, he doesn’t seem to be involved in any of these sex parties, so he wouldn’t have anything to do with the mission to recover the hard drive that resulted in Caspere’s murder. I’m guessing his henchman that was killed and made to look like Caspere was done in by Vinci, not knowing Frank wasn’t completely in cahoots with Catalyst (this would also require Vinci knowing that Catalyst did Caspere. Also that Catalyst really did do Caspere.) There seems to be some strong animosity in pretty much every scene with Frank and the Mayor. I also am inclined to believe that Frank had no idea the name he gave Ray wasn’t really his ex wife’s rapist. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a realistic possibility or I just want it to be true so the last three episodes turn into Frank and Ray against the world but I think he was intentionally given bad intel. The fact that one of his own henchmen is working for Chessani and the sex party gang shows that there’s somebody above him that is involved in his affairs and possibly even controlling him.
• Is Mayor Chessani actually involved in all of this, or is he just a dirty politician whose son happens to run a giant illegal human trafficking sex ring? Pitlor says the mayor doesn’t know about the parties as Ray is beating the living piss out of him, but I certainly don’t trust anything that comes out of that guy’s mouth.
  • Speaking of Pitlor, he’s either dead or kidnapped right? Probably dead. Ray seemed pretttttttty pissed off and he couldn’t exactly let him go free as he made no effort to hide his identity and Pitlor still has some very powerful friends.
• Let the Bottlegate record show that Colin Farrell’s acting in this episode is probably top three performances I’ve ever seen. Guy has been stellar all season long but he knocked it out of the god damn park with this last hour. When he finds out they caught his wife’s real rapist, meaning he (assumedly) killed the wrong man, you could see his complete internal breakdown leaking out in his face. But his best work was when he told his ex wife that “Frank set me up.” She obviously doesn’t know what that means, and he wants so badly to tell her what he did for her and that it ended up being the wrong person, but he knows he can’t. They’re divorced and he can’t completely trust her with information that would put him in prison. In my opinion, after this episode, Ray Velcoro is officially giving Rust Cohle a run for his existential money.

(/u/redskir)

• The scars. What does it all mean, Basil??? Paul lets us know during an argument with his mom that his scars are the result of whatever mission landed him $20,000 under the table during his time as a mercenary. Blackwater was clearly a shady mission that was declassified, intentionally or unintentionally, hence Paul mentioning it openly multiple times. On one hand, I have a hard time believing his scars and the lady bartender with the scarred face are unrelated, but on the other, Nic P isn’t the biggest fan of coincidence. Interesting, though, that her scars are on her face and they focus in on her the same episode that Pitlor admits to “turning 8’s into 10’s” with cosmetic surgery for the parties. Hmmmmm

(/u/logan_aaron_11)

• Last bullet point, I swear. It was hard to follow live, but the woman with the missing sister got the pictures of the diamonds (which have since disappeared from the Vinci evidence room) and the parties from a PO box that her sister had opened at their old address. When they were evicted, they shipped her the contents. This could mean one of three things: she took these photos on her own prerogative as insurance in case her employment at these parties ever went south,  she was hired by Chessani and co. to take these pictures as part of the blackmailing scheme, or she was hired by an outside party to infiltrate the parties and take the photos. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion it’s option C.

Reddit Theories:

• Season 2: All that we know
• Chandelier in the house at the end of the episode = chandelier in picture of sex party
• Where did the money go?
• Ani’s back to the real cigs
• Is Clint Eastwood Paul’s father??????

 

Reaching the home stretch of season 2. Woo!

(/u/adventurer84)

Episode 1: The Western Book of the Dead

Episode 2: Night Finds You

Episode 3: Maybe Tomorrow

---

 Well that sure escalated quickly. After 50 minutes of dialogue and plot advancement, last night’s episode ended with two guys, a girl and a shootout. Predictably, the big three were the last ones standing after a bunch of cholo’s open-fired on their squad before they even had a chance to say hello. Velcoro’s dumpy partner bit the dust, as well as probably a half dozen cops and 20 or so “protesters”. I thought it was pretty well done. Most tense scene the show has had since Carcosa and the tracking scene from Season 1.

Question/tidbits:

• Probably the biggest question from this episode is “Who tipped off the pimps?” The fact that they were fired upon immediately after arriving at the building in the final scene certainly suggests that the gangsters were expecting company. And the awkwardness between the higher ups and the team during the briefing beforehand (the mayor’s “Be careful out there,” the lieutenant asking if they needed that much manpower, plus the fact that the Vinci PD wanted the Caspere investigation to go towards the pimps anyway) lends itself to that theory. We know the Mayor has a vendetta against Ani ever since she went to his house. However there’s a lot of Redditors that are of the opinion that the Mayor is too obvious and he isn’t the one calling the shots. I tend to agree with them. “I live among you…well disguised” from the opening credits. The Mayor is about as well disguised as Shaquille O’Neal at Chuck E. Cheese.
• Sticking with that last scene, it was interesting to see how all three characters reacted to it. Ani was clearly shaken up and almost vomits when the dust settles. Ray shows less than that, but even he is shaking during those final moments where the pimp is holding the hostage. But Paul seems completely comfortable and at home. For someone who has been struggling with his identity all season, sexually and otherwise, he seemed almost enchanted by the whole thing.

• That quick exchange with Frank, his wife and what seemed to be a groundskeeper? About the avocado trees not growing? Avocado comes from the Aztec word for “testicle”. The guy said the soil was infertile, which to me implies that Frank’s wife is the problem and not him. (/u/toaka)
• Dixon’s request of Ray from earlier this season:

(/u/TheMannam)

Welp he’s dead now, so does Ray follow through and go through his stuff for him? And if so, does he find the photos Dixon took of Paul and his Army lover? And if he does, what does he do with them? I have to imagine that situation happens, I don’t see the point in even showing him taking them if you’re just going to kill him off the next episode and they never see the light of day.

• I gotta say, I’m pretty close to jumping on the “the dialogue in this show absolutely blows” train. I like the idea that Nic intentionally has Frank use million dollar words in an effort to overcompensate for his masculine and, well, professional shortcomings. I do. But it doesn’t really make sense to me when Ani gives her sister the “memories recognize you” speech. And it makes even less sense when her sister (a hooker, sorry, “online performer”) articulates “You couldn’t even be there for yourself” back at her. And don’t get me started on Frank’s henchman and some of the other minor characters. I’m not boarding the train just yet but how much are tickets?
• The watch at the pawn shop and the picture of the watch that was stolen from Caspere do most certainly not match up.

(/u/mcsmif)

Yet Paul says that they do, and they even find fingerprints on it. Is this just an oversight by the show? Was Paul so flustered that he didn’t notice the difference? Probably not. The fingerprints seem to point to this all being a setup, just like the final scene. And possibly that Dixon was a part of it. He gave Paul a long stare at the pawn shop when he initially identifies the watch as a match to the photo.

Reddit Theories:

• A nice summary of all our main characters so far.
• Vanity Fair takes a look at the Bohemian Grove connections.
• Were the “protestors” at the shootout part of the setup as well?
• Ray is being framed.
• Rule of Fives

(/u/gideonpilgrim)

• It’s Always Sunny in True Detective

Hey, Frank:

(/u/heisenberg_jr)