The partially great second series of True Detective has come to a thrilling end, and what a finale it was. It has been a series of confusion, incoherent dialogue, clichéd anti-heroes, exhilarating action and some sublime acting performances, creating mixed reviews for a very up-and-down series that had giant shoes to fill. Now it’s all over until another series is inevitably made, one feels even those that moaned about the series’ quality will miss it dearly.
Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) and Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) reveal their damaged pasts to each other, and when they hear about Paul Woodrugh’s (Taylor Kitsch) fatal demise, they vow to justly close the case. Once Ben Caspere’s killer is revealed, Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) promises them both an escape into Mexico as long as Ray stays to assist him in one final task, which they agree on, unfortunately though, it isn’t that simple for the long-term collaborators.
The bleak episode and series eventually ambiguously closes on the good guys losing and the bad guys seemingly winning – extending the show’s major inner message about the real world: good guys lose and bad guys win, and that’s “the world we deserve“. In the closing scene, Bezzerides and Semyon’s spouse emerge from a dense, partying Mexican crowd with the determined intention of pinning those responsible with all the evidence they have gathered throughout the series, and this particular scene illustrates how men jump in front of bullets for the women they love, more so than how female characters always survive in this context and deadly landscape.
Like the previous episode, the mystery itself straightens out, and once the killers and do-badders are ascertained wholly, it all becomes a lot more comprehensible and enjoyable for the audience, if only it was consistently that way throughout the series! Although some of the action scenes may even seem quite ludicrous, they are explosive, exhilarating and necessary, as most audiences would have loved seeing ruthless deaths of the bad guys that caused so much killing. The latter stages of the episode do become poignant and gripping, and without giving too much away, audiences will be praying that their favourite anti-heroes live and their hated villains die.
The characters were rather clichéd and conventional of a psychological drama, the mystery was at times far too perplexing and the dialogue was somewhat overwhelming and poetically unauthentic. However, with a little acceptance of its weaknesses and some perseverance, the series should really be known for how great it is – for its in-depth anti-fantastic four, its eventually absorbing intertwining mystery and the pumping action sequences.
It will be known as the series that could not match nor surpass the quality of the first, this maybe true, but over the last two months, it has been a mostly fantastic watch and it will be greatly missed by most. One more thing mind, one must wonder – what on Earth are Bezzerides and Semyon’s spouse going to do with each other? An unlikely pairing considering they had never met and the former had only met Frank once; questionable ending from Nic Pizzolatto, but I guess a lot of the series is questionable despite its debatable quality.
#Peace.Love.TrueDetective
