A new suspect is identified in the Caspere case, while several characters face the consequences of choices in their private lives.

“F**K, F**K, F**K”

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

Things have gotten incredibly messy on True Detective, and I’m not just talking about our three detectives’ personal and professional lives. The closing moments of the episode gave us an insane shootout that caused absolute mayhem on the streets. Police officers and civilians were gunned down left, right and center, and only Woodrugh, Bezzerides and Velcoro were left standing in the end. The whole way the episode ended perfectly captured my feelings about what had just went down. The freeze frame of the three bewildered looking detectives just screamed “what the hell just happened?”

Digging into what exactly went wrong here, I can’t help but think it was all a big set-up. Their new prime suspect, Ledo Amarilla, was just a little too convenient. We all know that something is going on behind the scenes in Vinci, and Caspere’s death is part of some larger plot involving a whole lot of money. Knowing all of that, it doesn’t make sense that a low level pimp would be the killer. So Ledo appears to be a patsy here. The cops go in, kill Ledo in a gunfight and then the case gets tied up with a neat little bow. Somebody definitely tipped Ledo and his crew off anyway, but I’m not convinced that they had considered the sheer amount of carnage that would follow. What could have been a quick and easy solution to the problem will now draw national attention, something which I’m sure our bad guys wouldn’t have wanted.

I’m still not sure who the bad guys actually are. Pretty much every single person we’ve met that is in a position of power appears to be dirty as hell, but that doesn’t mean they’re behind the murders. Interestingly, Bezzerides’s father seems to be a link between many of the influential figures involved in the story. He knew the mayor, and he also knew Caspere’s therapist. There’s something here that is starting to remind me of last season’s nefarious bad guy group. There have been several mentions of “parties” involving prostitutes, and there was also a ton of weird, sexual stuff at both Caspere’s house and the scene of his murder. Perhaps there may even be a link to Season 1’s group, considering they were never actually caught…

I felt that this was a strong week for Woodrugh. It started off with him nearly losing it after a drunken night with his old squad-mate. Woodrugh has serious problems with accepting his own sexuality, and it’s become clear that it’s affecting him a lot more than whatever else he saw while on duty. Quite tellingly, Woodrugh seemed pretty cool, calm and collected during the shootout. While bodies were dropping around him and everyone else was freaking out, he kept his composure. Bezzerides was the polar opposite of Woodrugh by the end of the episode. She kept it together well enough during the shooting, but by the end she was noticeably freaked out, as was Velcoro. Bezzerides took a big hit to her career this week after her ex filed a complaint against her and she got suspended, but all of that seems pretty insignificant right now compared to all of the mayhem.

Semyon’s descent back into his criminal activities continued at a rapid pace here. There’s actually a very interesting side to Semyon’s character emerging now that he’s getting back to his old business. For all the talk he has done about going legit and leaving crime behind, he seems to just come alive a little bit more when he’s being a gangster. He took back the drug trade in his club and made a few deals, and he did it all with icy determination. I kind of would like to see more of the Semyon that existed before the show began, from around the time he first got Velcoro under his thumb. He’s still no closer to finding out who has his money, but I expect him to start taking a more active approach to that pretty soon. It’s also worth noting that Velcoro did tell Semyon about Ledo, so there’s a possibility that Ledo got tipped off by someone in Semyon’s organization.

THE BREAKDOWN

We’re halfway through Season 2 of True Detective, and while it hasn’t quite lived up to the heights of the first season, things have definitely gotten interesting. I thought it was just starting to simmer along nicely, but the shootout has made everything boil over completely. There are going to be far reaching consequences after what just went down, and I’m looking forward to seeing exactly what happens next.

Do you think Ledo was tipped off? If so, who do you think did it? Tweet me @OldSnake24. And be sure to follow us @YouNerded!

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