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That was the most intensely paranoid television I've ever experienced. Maybe if you haven't been into the season as a whole you'll disagree, but that was literal "edge of your seat" shit right there, the whole thing. And I screamed GOD DAMN IT at the end. I mean, like... God damn it!

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Haven't had wifi for a couple of days, and I was already behind with the season, so it'll take a couple of days for me to catch up sadly.

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Is that really what this guy took away from the episode, and is that really worthy of being posted here when just recently you called for more actual substantial discussion of the show?

What did you think?

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Is that really what this guy took away from the episode, and is that really worthy of being posted here when just recently you called for more actual substantial discussion of the show?

What did you think?

Check the poster. OCD. Twitter dude was probably a kindred spirit.

Anyway, such laziness in productive values has canceled my plans.

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True Detective 2x07 Black Maps and Motel Rooms

The biggest difference between the two seasons so far has been the time balance between the case being worked on, and the character's backgrounds. In season 1, every episode moved the main case along, while we learned a little bit about our character's backgrounds each week. In season 2, every episode so far had spent a lot of time exploring the details of all the character's backgrounds - not only through flashbacks, exposition, and monologues, but also through events that are completing their character arcs and making changes to who they are in the main narrative - while the actual case the season is ostensibly about has been moving along at a snail's pace.

This all changed with the penultimate episode here, and there's a bit of a whiplash effect there was such a jarring difference. We basically got an hour of exposition filled speeches and revelations, that finally fill in all the details on the conspiracies and other goings on that basically explain why everything that has happened so far has happened. I'm sure it was a deliberate decision by Pizzolatto to reveal so little for 6 episodes and then so much in Episode 7, but I question his decision. I'm sure his intention was to build up all his characters as much as possible before the inevitable conclusion of the case drew forward, but I wonder if moving just SOME of the revelations in this episode into earlier episodes at the sacrifice of say, the umpteenth scene of Frank shaking down people or arguing with his wife about their inability to have children would have helped things immensely.

I've never seen an episode be so suspense-filled and gripping, and yet an all-out info-drump at the same time. The tension was high through scenes like Paul hiding his baby momma and actual-momma, Ani hiding her dad and sister, Vera explaining that she didn't want to be rescued, Ray being framed for Davis's (shocking!) murder, Framl realizing how screwed he was and what he does about it, and Paul's dealings with the blackmailers.

But all that came in between many scenes of characters figuring out and explaining everything that's going on, from the 1992 robbery through the conspiracy for the train land, Caspere's murder, Stan's murder, the parties, the people at the parties, the Chessani family's role, Holloway's role, murder sheds, stolen diamonds, other diamonds, blackmail pictures, more blackmail pictures, private security firms, holding companies, crooked cops, hidden cameras, orphans, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I think I have a grasp on what's going on - let's see how I do.......... big breath!! ....

During the 1992 riots, a bunch of corrupt cops stole a bunch of diamonds and have been using them slowly over the years to buy themselves positions of power in the Vinci goverment. You've got Holloway, the police chief; Caspere. the city planner, and Burris (tall thin white cop) and Dixon (slobby guy who died in the episode 4 shootout) as a Lt and Det in the force respectively. At some point these guys became friendly with the Chesani family, essentially getting Mayor Chesani in on their corruption ring, and eventually the mayor's son setting up these orgy parties where corrupt business deals happened. The biggest deal they've been planning for years involves de-valuing land in a corridor for a planned high speed rail through California to buy it cheap, clean it up, then sell it to the federal government high for the train project. That's how Frank got involved; He was hired years ago by McCandless, the owner of Catalyst, the holding company that owns all the land in question, to contaminate the land. Another way Frank is involved is that Caspere supposedly let Frank in on the deal by letting him have $5 million worth of the land (which is why Frank liquidated all his assets right before the start of the season). Caspere's death wasn't part of any of these's guys plan though (more on that in a bit) - Caspere (presumably with the blessing of everyone else) was always planning on taking the money from Frank and screwing him out of the land.

Back to the 1992 riots: when the diamonds were stolen, the corrupt cops actually committed a double-homicide to get the diamonds - essentially they killed the mom and pop owners of the jewelry store. That couple had 2 children that have been orphans ever since, a brother and sister. The girl, Laura, ended up working for Caspere as his assistant (she was the girl on the movie set). It was her and/or her brother that are the ones who killed Caspere, out of revenge for them killing their parents. Either one of both of them could be the bird-man too. They not only killed Caspere but stole the tape in the camcorder as black mail or evidence, I guess. And then burned down the car they had transported him in, I guess to mask evidence they might have left in it. Not sure why Laura tipped off the cops to come to the movie set, though?

A lot of the stuff that's been happening since Caspere's death has been because of the corrupt cops trying to cover their tracks and not be implicated in Caspere's death, the diamond theft, or any of the land deal business. For example, Burris giving Caspere's stuff to Irina so the detectives in charge of the case would head to the mexican meth-head shootout in Episode 4. And I assume Velcoro being assigned to the missing person Caspere case to begin with (since they know he's corrupt [but not part of their corruption ring] and could be bought off to hide stuff).

Now, Paul's death; Paul and Miguel fought together in a war, and had sex at the time. Paul is repressed about his homosexuality and in episode 3 he seems to randomly encounter Miguel again and wakes up in Episode 4 after having sex with him. However its now revealed that it was all a setup; the private security firm Miguel now works for, Black Mountain, only has one customer - Catalyst, the holding company of the land. Dixon, the dead conspirator, had been tailing Paul (for reasons I'm not sure about) and had pictures of him with Miguel. When Dixon died, Holloway got the pictures and tried to use them to blackmail Paul in this episode, but he got away before Burris ultimately killed him. I'm not entirely sure why Dixon was obtaining blackmail on Paul originally, but it worked out well that once Holloway found the pictures, he could use them to try to get the contracts back. Speaking of the contracts, I'm not entirely sure what having them proves - they show that Catalyst owns the land, right? Is that illegal? IDK.

So, all the stuff with Frank seems mostly outside of the conspiracy ring. Its now revealed that Osip, his Russian "competitor" has actually been planning a coup all along, setting things up to take over all of Frank's businesses. Osip is also related to the conspiracy, buying into a bigger part of the land deal that Frank (thought he) was. And Blake, Frank's right-hand man, had actually been turned by Osip long ago, and even killed Stan to make it look like there was a a connection to Frank with Caspere's murder, even though we know now the orphans killed Caspere and would have no reason to kill Stan, or any of Frank's associates, who had nothing to do with their parents death.

Phew. I hope I got all that!

So what's left to show next week?

-Will Frank and Jordan leave the country with the money he collected from his safes? Will he still try to intercept the $12 million Osip is planning on delivering to Chessani? Is Jordan also turned by Osip, and will betray Frank in the end?

-Will Ray and Ani make the contracts public to reveal the conspiracy?

-Are the families of Paul, Ani, and Ray safe?

-Will the orphans reveal themselves, and commit any other murders? Is the brother a character we've seen?

-Will Burris, Holloway, McCandless, and the Chesani's be revealed for their crimes and face justice?

-Will Ray be absolved of Davis' death?

-Will Ani face time for killing the security guard?

Anything else?

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Sounds like season 2 is a real step down from the first, which is bound to be a classic. I'll still watch it soooner or later though. I like Colin Farrell, and always knew he had the chops to pull of such a role.

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The black guy Paul met is Holloway, the (corrupt) police chief of Vinci. He's been in a bunch of episodes, since he's Rays boss. Also Ani saw him at the orgy and was trying to avoid him there.

McCandless is the owner of Catalyst. There was an episode where Frank met up with him, and we learned Frank was the one who contaminated the corridor land. McCandless then tasked Frank with finding the hard drive that was in Caspere's second house.

I have no idea why you thought Ani's dad was the one that molested her. That was never suggested on the show. When she flashed back to it on drugs at the party, we saw it happen and who it was (some other guy)

Catalyst is the holding company that owns all the land.

Black Mountain is a private security firm, and Catalyst is their only client.

We never knew before that Black Mountain was involved in the conspiracy until this episode.

I too thought it was odd Frank didn't hide his ex wife and "kid". Either they will be bait for him next episode, or they are truly off the show since his decision.

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Totally agreed about the case being spread out over 8 weeks with watching other stuff in between. Makes it really hard especially when so little advanced for 6 weeks, then a ton did now. A slight restructuring would have helped a lot.

And yea I can't recall if Frank ever went back to McCandless after not finding the hard drive... I guess it could have happened in the 3 months they skipped past.

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Geldof is the State Attorney / General Attorney Of California. In episode 2, he (along with Davis, another State Attorney) set up the task force of Ray, Paul, and Ani to solve the Caspere murder.

After the big shoot out, its revealed Geldof shut down the investigation, satisfied that the mexicans did Caspere all along.

But then in the same episode, Davis approaches our trio, and creates the secret squad with them to really solve the murder, because she suspects Geldor is in on the conspiracy ring; He wasn't originally, but he has desires to be Governor of California, and is working with those guys to help him get there. Davis suspects he colluded with Chessani, as in he was funneling money out of the account Chessani set up to fund the original investigation into Caspere's death. Like everyone else in the corruption ring they are trying to pin all the evil doings on Caspere and keep everyone thinking the mexicans killed him so no one will dig into things and discover their conspiracy.

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I do wonder if the final episode will explain some of this stuff better, or if Pizzolotto just assumed we got it all.

I'm not sure what's gonna happen in the last 90 (!) minutes, seems like almost everything has already been explained, and the remaining protagonists have mostly finished their character arcs.

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No, but they should make it clearer who's who and make the whole case leaner. As it is, it's rather confusing.

I'm sure you'll say something like: "Hey, it's your fault you dumbfuck if you can't remember who McTitters is. We saw him in a scene in Episode 3. Really, how can you not remember him? It was just a month ago!" but what can I say? I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not having a memory as good as yours.

Exactly my response!

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As initially stated, and judging by your and BB's reactions this is dependent on how into the season one already was, it was a genuine nail-biter, between the four leads being forced into oblivion by everyone around them and the safety of their families. Rarely have I felt such serious stakes in a show. Everything is beginning to tie together nicely, bringing earlier confusion into focus - this is how detective work *actually* happens so it's nice the show didn't give us easy and privileged information before the characters got it themselves. And finally, it's still totally unpredictable. I wonder if this may be a rare "bad guys win" ending in contrast to the sort of quiet victory of Rust and Marty. They're willing to kill at least one lead, fulfilling a tease started with Ray's "death" earlier on. It would be bold to end it with everyone totally fucked. Enraging, but bold.

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Yea, I was wondering if they go that route as well.... with the conspirators getting the land deal to happen, Frank dying while trying to intercept the $12 million (possibly betrayed by Jordan), and Ray and Ani - who are already no longer cops, and now wanted for murders - unable to get out of the charges and ending up in jail or dead. That'd be pretty crazy.

I have to imagine some part of the finale will involve some members of their family in danger somehow, for sure.

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Just came across this quick article; It's a good read:

1. After reading them breakdown how Blake told Frank about the $12 million money drop before being killed, I now suspect that Osip planted that information into Blake, and expects Frank to come and will ambush him. I hadn't thought of that possibility before.
2. These article writers speculate it was Burris and/or Dixon that killed Caspere. I can see how that is also possible, but also it doesn't make a ton of sense; Firstly, the torture and killing of him DOES make sense, since Caspere held onto the diamonds when they thought he had not. So they could have been the ones who tossed his house, then tortured and killed him.... but then WHY would they pose the body out on the bench like that? All that did was create a whole situation that they've been trying to cover up ever since. That's why I thought it was more likely that the orphans killed Caspere.
Thoughts?
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Good question.

I'd guess maybe Caspere told the others he sold ALL the diamonds, but had only sold SOME and was keeping the rest. That could be it.

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Oh I just came across this article which is even better and more clear (but much longer) explanation of the season

What Exactly Is Going On in True Detective Season 2? An Excruciatingly Clear Plot Breakdown.

Although I don't get why they go on a tangent about Blake's hair color. It doesn't make any sense for him to be Chad's dad; what would that add to the story?

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Funny that Steef started this thread, but hasn't watched Season 2 yet. Or if he is, he hasn't posted about it once.

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Well, I think its possible that the orphans didn't know exactly who the LA cops were that killed their parents until recently. Perhaps all these years, they were using the blue diamonds as their piece of evidence to follow. Maybe Caspere recently sold one so that's how they found him.

Again - if Burris and Dixon killed Caspere WHY would they take his body and put it on the bench for everyone to find? Why not just hide the body forever where no one would find it? All displaying the body did was put a spotlight on everyone involved in the conspiracy.

Now, it's possible that Burris/Dixon killed him, but then somehow the orphans intercepted and they are the ones who transported the body, I suppose.

Everything else the Birdman has done is curious. Birdman:

1. Was first seen transporting Caspere's body from where he was killed to where Paul found it

2. Was then hiding in Caspere's secret apartment, where he shot Ray, presumably so Ray wouldn't get ahold of the hard drive

3. Set the car that transported Caspere on fire while Ray and Ani were following up a lead from a guy on the movie set

Now, if we assume Birdman has the hard drive, then Birdman can't be Burris/Dixon, because we know the conspirators don't have the hard drive (hence McCandless tasking Frank with finding it)

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Why are you replying to a month and a half old post? Steef hasn't posted in the thread since; he's clearly not watching the second season.

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