“The shadow of our best intentions”
Even the most die-hard of True Detective fans will admit that this season hasn’t quite managed to match the nihilistic lows and thrilling heights of it’s debut. Little of the most recent episode – or the entire season for that matter – has obeyed basic storytelling logic but there’s no denying that the episodes that followed the ‘Vinci massacre’ have been leaner, meaner and more focused.
Fight-or-flight was the theme of this episode and it did its job by managing to set up a gripping finale to a season that has intrigued as much as it has frustrated.
All it took was some logical narrative progression and a decision to make our detectives actually do some detective work to get the show back on track. As the finale approaches, it’s still far from perfect but it’s compelling viewing at the same time.
This being said, I can’t help but shake the feeling that the rapid-fire plot turns, casual clues and leads are being fed to us in an 11th hour rush. This is all the more frustrating given the fact that Rust and Marty’s case unfolded like a carefully constructed novel.
This season is its own corrupt beast though and I’m still gripped to see what the 90 minute finale has in store. This doesn’t negate the fact that the case took a hell of a lot of time to get moving but I’m glad that it finally has.
‘Black Maps and Hotel Rooms’ upped the pace as the walls are beginning to close in on our four leads. The repercussions of stealing the list of contacts from the infamous orgy are opening new avenues for some and closing coffin lids on others.
We finally know that Frank is being screwed out the land parcels and his own territory by Osip and Chessani while those suspicions about his right-hand man Blake were true.
Vaughn hasn’t always been convincing in the role of ‘down on his luck but ruthless gangster’, you can add his line “figured I’d drill a new orifice and f**k myself for a change” to the long list of lines that went wide of the mark, but the scene when he confronted Blake was one of his strongest yet.
My own thoughts here, didn’t his wife Jordan look awfully guilty when she walked into that room? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a final episode twist involving her or perhaps Ani’s partner who’s currently chaperoning her hippy father and sister to safer ground. Maybe I’m paranoid but this season has frequently proven just how deep the corruption lies in Vinci.
While Frank is busy burning down his own house, we find out that Ray was framed for the murder of Katherine Davis while Vera, the missing girl that Ani saved from the orgy, offers up a tantalising clue about Caspere’s killer in a moment that’s akin to the ‘green ears’ reveal of the first season.
The labyrinth plot regarding Caspere’s killer might actually boil down to something that’s very simple, revenge.
In 1992, Messers Holloway, Burris, Dixon, Caspere and Chessani were all complicit in a diamond heist that orphaned a set of twins. All of these shady and corrupt individuals used the heist to rise into their respective positions of power in Vinci.
The lightbulb moment was when Ani and Ray noticed that one of the girls at an orgy, Laura/Erica, Caspere’s quiet secretary, looks uncannily like the adult version of one of the twins that were orphaned in that diamond heist back in 1992.
If this is the case then Caspere killed her parents, she knew about the shady dealings among the Vinci elite, had access to the car that the murder used and saw an opportunity to expose everyone that made her suffer. That seems like a strong motive.
Plus, that scene on the film set was laced with hidden meaning at the time.
Ultimately, to the sound of pissed off frustrations everywhere, this might mean that any dealings involving Catalyst, Russian’s, Holloway, Burris, Dixon, Dr. Irving Pitlor, Osip, Blake, McCandles, Black Mountain and countless others might be meaningless in the context of the identity of Caspere’s murderer.
Yes, these Red Herrings are all guilty of something but they weren’t murderers.
I’ve no doubt that Nic Pizzolatto will have another twist up his sleeve, this season has reveled in its stop/start nature, especially since the narrative stakes have been upped by the apparent murder of ‘god warrior’ Paul Woodraugh.
Taylor Kitsch did a decent job portraying the conflicted character but ultimately, when you step back and look at the show as a whole, was he really all that necessary?
That’s a question for another day, one when fans can put all of the pieces together, but for the time being we should be thinking about the following;
What’s on the harddrive, is Erica/Laura’s brother significant, will Frank make a new life for himself and finally who killed Caspere?
Here’s the preview for the finale.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
