‘True Detective’ Season 2 Finale Recap and Review – Omega Station

True Detective Season 2 Finale Recap and Review
Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams in ‘True Detective’ (Photo: Lacey Terrell / HBO)

“Woodrugh, he’s dead,” says Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) to Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) while hiding out at the motel. Ray discovered the news of Woodrugh’s death after his former boss answered Woodrugh’s phone and offered him a deal that could save his life in the season two finale of the HBO dramatic crime series, True Detective.

After Ani and Ray quickly get over the shock of Paul Woodrugh’s (Taylor Kitsch) death, the two do some solid detective work and realize the little girl who lost her parents in the jewelry heist back in the ’90s had a brother, and that her brother, Len, was working on the movie set the day Ani and Ray were there. Checking through the union website, Ray gets an address for Len and the two go to talk to him.

Meanwhile, Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) is having a hard time convincing his loyal wife, Jordan (Kelly Reilly), to leave town with Nails (Chris Kerson), even though he assures her he’ll meet up with them in two weeks or less. After way too much discussion on the topic … C’mon, she’s a gangster’s wife, and up to this moment in the series has shown she is actually smarter than her husband. She should know he has to tie up the loose ends if they even hope to survive … Jordan agrees to leave with Nails and wait two weeks for Frank to join them.

Ray and Ani arrive at the address to find Laura, Len’s sister, handcuffed and upset. They free her and she tells them Len murdered Caspere for turning Laura into a hooker and has set up a meeting with Chief Holloway (Afemo Omilami) to turn over the computer drive they took for the diamonds. Laura further explains that Len’s actual plan is to kill Holloway. Ray asks where the meeting is going to take place and Laura tells him the new train station. Ray tells Ani to stay with Laura now that they have their witness and races out the door with Ani calling out after him to wait.

Ani takes Laura to the bus depot and gives her a bus ticket to Seattle, telling her that no matter how all of this plays out she doesn’t deserve any jail time. Laura asks what about her brother and Ani tells her she lost him a long time ago. Ani leaves Laura as she walks towards the bus.

Once at the station wearing a disguise consisting of a straw cowboy hat, sunglasses, and jeans, Ray maneuvers behind Len and whispers softly in his ear that he knows what happened to him and his sister and if he makes a sudden move he’ll put a hole in him. Ray tells Len he’s going to help him get revenge for what Caspere, Holloway, and the rest of them did, but Len has to do what he tells him. The next scene shows Ray sitting in a seat with Holloway recognizing him and sitting down next to him, not realizing Len is sitting behind them with a phone recording their conversation.

As the two men talk it comes out that Caspere had an affair with Laura and Len’s mother and that she wanted more from him in the relationship (it turns out Laura was actually Caspere’s daughter). Her demands for a relationship made him order her death – along with the murder of her husband – during the robbery. Len loses his temper and attacks Holloway with a large knife while the phone recorder goes sliding across the floor and is destroyed under the feet of scared people running from the area. Holloway and Len kill each other while Ani arrives and helps Ray get out of the train station.

Out of options and now wanted for the murder of California State Attorney Katherine Davis, Woodrugh, and Holloway, Ray and Ani team up with Frank. They meet at his hideout located in a secret room at their favorite bar to make plans to leave the country and go to Venezuela. But, they’re going to need money to live off of while on the run. With Ray’s help, Frank plans on hitting and robbing Osip Agronov (Timothy V. Murphy) up at the cabin during the planned transaction. In a private moment between Frank and Ani, Frank asks Ani to do him a favor and when she gets to Venezuela, tell his wife that he’s sorry and wanted to be with her. Ani agrees.

True Detective Season 2 Finale Recap and Review

The raid at the cabin goes perfectly, with Frank and Ray armed to the hilt and taking out the Russian mobster Osip and his goons, and escaping with $2 million. Once back at their cars in town, Frank and Ray split the money and plan on seeing each other in Venezuela.

Frank next does business with the men who’ve been working on getting him an untraceable car and passports. Driving away in his new car with his bag of $1 million in the backseat and passports in his coat pocket, Frank seems to be – for the first time since the series started – happy. He’s leaving the gangster business behind for good and starting a new life with his wife.

Meanwhile, Velcoro’s only 40 miles away from the hideout where Ani is anxiously waiting to hear. He calls her to let her know it all went well and that he’s on his way. Ani, also for the first time in the series, actually looks happy and turns to Felicia, the owner of the bar who has a crush on Ray, and tells her he’s okay. But, while driving Ray decides to go see his boy one last time before meeting up with Ani. He exits the freeway and heads toward his son’s school.

Frank is waiting at an intersection between two cars when he starts to suspect perhaps it’s not just a coincidence the car behind him is closer than usual. He reaches down to his ankle to get his small gun when his driver-side window is shattered and the Mexican crew gets in Frank’s car, guns pointed at his head, and all three automobiles drive out of town.

Ray has parked his Dodge Charger a few blocks away from his son’s school and walked to where he sees him sitting with some other boys during lunch. He notices his son has his grandfather’s badge on the table with him, the one Ray gave him to remember him by. Ray’s son looks over and sees Ray by the fence and smiles and nods at him as Ray salutes the boy. Feeling good, Ray heads back to his car to continue on to meet up with Ani when he notices a tracking device connected to the bottom of his Dodge Charger. Ray looks around but doesn’t spot anyone following him. He tries to remove the device but to no avail. Ray then drives off and heads for the freeway.

Outside of town somewhere in the California desert, Frank and the gang members meet up with the rest of their crew. The Mexican gang leader who Frank was tricked into doing business with through his clubs is waiting in this desolate spot in the desert. “What are you going to do me?! asks Frank. “I was already out,” states Frank, but the Mexican leader tells Frank he knows about the clubs burning down, meaning they can’t move their merchandise through them. Hoping to buy his way out, Frank tells the Mexican leader there are a million dollars in the car and he can have it if that will make things square. The Mexicans take his money and are about to leave when Frank says, “What? A million dollars can’t buy me a ride back into town?” to which the Mexicans tell him to take off his suit and give it to them. Frank hits the one closest to him and is stabbed and left for dead in the desert.

Ray is driving on the freeway when he calls Ani to tell her he’s running late and for her to go ahead and get on the boat with Felicia. He tells her he’ll meet up with her later. Ani refuses saying she’s going to wait for him. Ray tells Ani he messed up. That he thought it would be okay and he went and saw his boy one last time, and that’s when they put the tracking device on his car. “Ditch the car and get another,” demands Ani, adamant that she will not leave without Ray. Ray tells her to stick to the plan and to get on the boat. He tells her he’ll find a way to lose his tail and meet up with her. He then asks to speak with Felicia.

“I am going to see you again, right?” asks a frightened Ani. “Are you kidding? You’re going to need a restraining order against me,” answers Ray. “No, no I won’t,” replies Ani as she hands the phone to Felicia. When Felicia puts the phone to her ear Frank says, “I’m not going to make it. Don’t say anything just listen. You owe me, remember? I don’t care if you have to carry her, you get her on that boat.” “I will. I promise,” replies Felicia. Ray hangs up the phone and speeds down the freeway.

Frank stands up but is bleeding profusely from a stab wound to his abdomen. He begins walking with a limp toward town, hallucinating first that his hateful father is yelling at him and blaming him for Frank’s mother leaving them. Then he sees the first kids to pick a fight with him as he continues his hopeless trek back to L.A.

Ray has driven his car to the woods and ditches it after running out of gas. He leaves the car, abandons the $1 million in cash, and runs off to find some cover from the men tracking him, all while desperately attempting to send one last voicemail message to his son’s phone. Taking out two of the thugs, Ray is low on ammo and looking up into the trees, decides to go out in a blaze of glory. He steps out into the line of fire and is shot multiple times by the team tracking him which is led by Lieutenant Burris (James Frain). Miles away, Ani, who has already gotten on board the boat to Mexico, seems to feel or sense Ray’s death and breaks down in tears.

Frank is still trying to make it back to town when he sees his wife who tells him it’s okay and it’s time to stop and rest. Franks says he can’t ever stop and he always needs to keep moving. Jordan looks at her husband sadly and tells him that he stopped moving way back there. Frank looks to where Jordan is pointing and sees his own lifeless body lying on the desert ground and collapses.

About 15 months later, Ani is in a hotel room in Venezuela wrapping up telling a reporter the whole ugly true story about what happened as a montage shows Tony Chessani being sworn in as mayor and of CHP Officer Paul Woodrugh having a highway named after him. Ani leaves him the documents and what evidence she has on the case, telling the reporter it’s his story now and for him to do with it what he wants. He asks her to come back with him and testify but she says no. The reporter begins to try to say something and Ani tells him to wait an hour after she has left the room before he leaves.

The next scene shows Ani entering another hotel room where Jordan is holding Ani and Ray’s baby boy. “He’s fussy,” says Jordan. “He senses the long trip,” replies Ani, as the two ladies leave the room, with Ani carrying her baby boy in a carrier, escorted by Nails. There’s a party going on in the streets and soon the four of them blend in and disappear from sight.

Suspenseful and extremely well-acted, True Detective season two ends with the two leading ladies surviving and becoming unlikely travel companions with something to live for. Meanwhile, the men in their lives die brutally but bravely at the hands of their enemies. Slow and far too often confusing, this second season of HBO’s crime series was saved only by the stand-out performances of Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams. Farrell’s character Ray was so damaged and full of self-loathing and yet there was still a part of him that wanted to be a good cop and a good man. That part was what made the audience pull for Ray, even though it was fairly obvious early on in the series that Ray was the lost soul of the group who most likely would not find his way home.

Rachel McAdams delivered a stellar performance as Ani, the other damaged detective haunted by her past full of vengeance and issues. Ani’s eventual attraction to Ray came from the simple fact that he was the only man in her life who she could ever count on and trust. The scene where she’s on the phone with Ray asking if she’s going to see him again was touching and heartfelt, as she makes herself believe the lie Ray tells her so she can save herself.

Some scenes were reminiscent of other classic moments in movies including a desert meeting between Frank and the Mexicans which seemed to be taken straight from the first Lethal Weapon film. In addition, the scene where Ray is driving and thinking about risking everything to go see his son one last time before leaving the country is very similar to the scene in the film Heat starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro where De Niro’s character is thinking about stopping and killing an informant before leaving town with his girl.

Still, even with a few similar scenes and a slow and confusing plot True Detective season two was worth watching for the dark, gritty, powerful performances from Farrell, McAdams, and Vaughn.

EPISODE GRADE: B

SEASON 2 GRADE: B-

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