Chris

True Detective Weekly 4: Down Will Come

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True Detective Weekly 4:

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Down Will Come
By the end of this episode, we were left just as lost as our detectives were following their very bloody shootout. There were a lot of strong character moments in "Down Will Come," but overall we didn't find it to keep up the momentum of the preceding two much stronger installments. With half of the season done and half left to, we're still of two minds on the whole thing.

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I was worried you guys were at the protest in the last scene.

 

Speaking of the last scene, WTF? that was so over the top and silly. Why did protesters just stand there? Did the AI glitch? Why was it cutting back and forth so much? How will our heroes get out of this one? How much of that was a setup from the mayor? His comments about manpower and safety make it likely they were trying to get everyone killed. I assume they planted the evidence as well. Does this mean the mayor is involved in Casper's death?  

I did like that Paul looked right at home under automatic weapons fire. He was totally unphased, even after the fight.

 

I loved the set design in that bakery, so many huge cakes. I am actually starting to like Frank a little. 

Sad to see W. Earl Brown die (don't remember his characters name). I still wonder why he was taking pictures of Paul.

The weird hippie cult connection is finally coming back around, still no idea what it means aside from everyone knowing everyone. 

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I was worried you guys were at the protest in the last scene.

 

Speaking of the last scene, WTF? that was so over the top and silly. Why did protesters just stand there? Did the AI glitch? Why was it cutting back and forth so much? How will our heroes get out of this one? How much of that was a setup from the mayor? His comments about manpower and safety make it likely they were trying to get everyone killed. I assume they planted the evidence as well. Does this mean the mayor is involved in Casper's death?  

I did like that Paul looked right at home under automatic weapons fire. He was totally unphased, even after the fight.

 

Yeah, the fight was total nonsense, even though I appreciate the broader implications that it could conceivably offer for the show. One guy firing blind with a Krinkov totally wrecks a police taskforce that was just criticized for being too large and well-armed? Four guys with Glocks manage to break through the police cordon (if there even was one) and then annihilate the majority of said taskforce, in addition to literal dozens of bystanders, before our three heroes finally gain the upper hand. You're right, what's with all the friendly fire, does anyone display any training? What's more, how ridiculous to end with literally everyone involved dead on the street except for the main-billed characters? It really was the assault on LeDoux's stronghold all over again, but bigger and messier, with less buildup and less of a clear upshot.

 

I liked a few things. Kitsch's performance during the fight was good. I guess Farrell's was, too, but I had no idea what McAdams was doing and I didn't particularly enjoy the naked fear in her eyes when she ran out of ammunition, drew her boot knife, and cowered. It made her feel like a paper tiger, which is exactly where I don't want the show to take her character. The hostage-taking moment at the end was very good, with its tension and confusion leading to failure, but overall... I'm not sure what a Heat-like gun battle was meant to accomplish here.

 

Also worth noting, this episode had the director who presided over the worst episode of the most recent season of Game of Thrones. You know the one.

 

Sad to see W. Earl Brown die (don't remember his characters name). I still wonder why he was taking pictures of Paul.

 

I think he was just meant to be a leash on Velcoro, digging up dirt on his partners for the Vinci administration on the side. It's fairly obvious that he just tagged along so that a named character could die in the firefight. What a waste of a good actor, but whatever.

 

The weird hippie cult connection is finally coming back around, still no idea what it means aside from everyone knowing everyone. 

 

I can't be sure, but I think the implication is that the father of current Vinci mayor did research on soil toxicity from mining runoff in the sixties and seventies, the results of which are now being used to route the planned freeway through poisoned lands that the farmers of which are desperate to sell. Maybe Caspar's death was about him breaking ranks on this little conspiracy and selling shares in it on the side? I could be wrong, certainly about the relationship between the toxicity reports and the highway. Maybe they're being faked or fixed?

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It was a thoroughly disappointing episode. It was so disjoint, and uninteresting. How many scenes of Vince Vaughn extorting money do we really need?

I also couldn't believe that they killed W Earl Brown's character. My friend and I were discussing how he was the best part of the show literally a minute before he was killed. What a waste.

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Every fourth episode of True D must end in a gun battle. Every midpoint of True D must end with the suspect being killed by the cops before they can get answers from him which later leads to the TWIST that the dead suspect wasn't the guy behind the crime.

 

I admit that I have been reflexively defensive of True D this season in reaction to what I see as a lot overly negative responses. It seems that certain segments of the internet really want Pizzolatto to fail and are obsessively critiquing every misstep this show makes, which makes me in turn want to give the show more leeway than perhaps I normally would. This episode really strained my forgiveness of the show, however. The case with Caspere progressed and crescendo much too quickly. Before we had time to even understand the new suspect, he was dead. (Contrast that to the Reggie LeDoux arc in season one, where there actual time to process his significance before he was killed.)It's such a clunky set up to the inevitable "we got the wrong guy" narrative the next few episodes will follow.

 

There was still some good in the episode. For one, it was gorgeously shot. I'm also really enjoying the interactions between Frank and his wife. Infertility is a bit of a cliche, but I like that it mirrors Frank's own inability to produce a real business legacy. This man in frustrated in both his personal and professional attempts to get pregnant. Contrast that to the absolutely depressing family situation that Paul is going through.

 

Speaking of Paul, how do people feel about his storyline? Maybe I'm off base (and please tell me if I am), but I find his story a bit unbelievable. In 2015 I just find it hard to believe that a gay man would feel such shame with his sexuality, given how much more accepting public attitudes are towards gay people (obviously bi and trans people still have a lot of mistreatment and gay people in generally are not afforded the same treatment as straight people in all areas, but we're progressing in such a way that Paul's plot feels a little overwrought to me). I suppose we are meant to assume that his mother relied on Paul to boost her own sexual self-esteem and that her sexually domineering behavior prevented Paul from expressing his own desires. Even with those hangups, I have a hard time truly believing Paul's story but if others are convinced by it and think I'm in the wrong, I'd be really interested to hear it!

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Sad to see W. Earl Brown die (don't remember his characters name). I still wonder why he was taking pictures of Paul.

 

I was so bummed out when this happened!! His brief stint on Rectify was short-lived as well. I was expecting him to get up to some real dastardly business.

 

I had no idea what McAdams was doing and I didn't particularly enjoy the naked fear in her eyes when she ran out of ammunition, drew her boot knife, and cowered. It made her feel like a paper tiger, which is exactly where I don't want the show to take her character

 

Totally.

 

Speaking of Paul, how do people feel about his storyline? Maybe I'm off base (and please tell me if I am), but I find his story a bit unbelievable. In 2015 I just find it hard to believe that a gay man would feel such shame with his sexuality, given how much more accepting public attitudes are towards gay people (obviously bi and trans people still have a lot of mistreatment and gay people in generally are not afforded the same treatment as straight people in all areas, but we're progressing in such a way that Paul's plot feels a little overwrought to me). I suppose we are meant to assume that his mother relied on Paul to boost her own sexual self-esteem and that her sexually domineering behavior prevented Paul from expressing his own desires. Even with those hangups, I have a hard time truly believing Paul's story but if others are convinced by it and think I'm in the wrong, I'd be really interested to hear it!

Overall things feel...weird in comparison with the first season's pacing. By the end of the fourth episode of season one, I was losing my shit (the one-take gang brawl, obvs) and invested at least partially in every character. This time around, I only care about the Bezzerides family and what happened to Woodrugh, who, until his past is revealed will just sound

in my head. I've convinced myself whatever happened to him is inexplicable, supernaturally.

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Speaking of Paul, how do people feel about his storyline? Maybe I'm off base (and please tell me if I am), but I find his story a bit unbelievable. In 2015 I just find it hard to believe that a gay man would feel such shame with his sexuality, given how much more accepting public attitudes are towards gay people (obviously bi and trans people still have a lot of mistreatment and gay people in generally are not afforded the same treatment as straight people in all areas, but we're progressing in such a way that Paul's plot feels a little overwrought to me). I suppose we are meant to assume that his mother relied on Paul to boost her own sexual self-esteem and that her sexually domineering behavior prevented Paul from expressing his own desires. Even with those hangups, I have a hard time truly believing Paul's story but if others are convinced by it and think I'm in the wrong, I'd be really interested to hear it!

 

There are totally still people and communities who are full of enough anti-gay hatred and "Its unnatural" talk to create someone as conflicted as Paul is. Those re-education camps/therapy groups are still around.

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I had no idea what McAdams was doing and I didn't particularly enjoy the naked fear in her eyes when she ran out of ammunition, drew her boot knife, and cowered. It made her feel like a paper tiger, which is exactly where I don't want the show to take her character.

 

I dunno, how else can that situation be played unless you're in an 80s action movie or the character is insane? Bringing a knife to a gunfight is a fun joke only up until you imagine an actual human doing it, at which point it becomes suicide.

 

That said, while I think the director and actor pretty much played it the only way they could, that doesn't explain why the writer put that bit in in the first place. There's barely reloading or recognition of ammunition as a prerequisite for gunfire in the rest of the scene, so why is Ani the only one who has to worry about running out of bullets and being disarmed? Is this all some bizarre continuing tease of her character handling and talking about knives but never actually using one? Is it some kind of weird reiteration of how she's constantly in greater physical danger doing her job than the men around her?

 

If so it's a strange stretched metaphor, because as far as I know the Y chromosome doesn't increase the amount of bullets in your magazine.

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There are totally still people and communities who are full of enough anti-gay hatred and "Its unnatural" talk to create someone as conflicted as Paul is. Those re-education camps/therapy groups are still around.

I feel like his brand of shame is more tied to his weird upbringing and military hypermasculinity than factors like that. I'm generally in agreement with Argobot though, it feels a little strange.

Is this all some bizarre continuing tease of her character handling and talking about knives but never actually using one?

we can only assume/hope there will be an enormous payoff of some kind for this. Chekhov's Giant Collection of Knives.

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I dunno, how else can that situation be played unless you're in an 80s action movie or the character is insane? Bringing a knife to a gunfight is a fun joke only up until you imagine an actual human doing it, at which point it becomes suicide.

 

That said, while I think the director and actor pretty much played it the only way they could, that doesn't explain why the writer put that bit in in the first place. There's barely reloading or recognition of ammunition as a prerequisite for gunfire in the rest of the scene, so why is Ani the only one who has to worry about running out of bullets and being disarmed? Is this all some bizarre continuing tease of her character handling and talking about knives but never actually using one? Is it some kind of weird reiteration of how she's constantly in greater physical danger doing her job than the men around her?

 

If so it's a strange stretched metaphor, because as far as I know the Y chromosome doesn't increase the amount of bullets in your magazine.

 

Especially since one guy is using two Glock 18s, which take just over a second to empty their mags and just over five seconds to reload under perfect conditions. It was a ridiculous firefight, with every shot either missing completely or hitting someone in the head, and yet we have Detective Bezzerides running out of ammo, drawing her knife, and hiding. It's maybe the only realistic thing in the fight, but it makes her look scared and weak. What's more, and this is what bothers me, it makes her previous statements about carrying knives to even the odds look like her being scared and weak rather than a pragmatic woman trying to give herself an advantage. Besides making Ani out to be a fraud, I don't see the point of having it in there. The other characters don't even see her do it, it's something for the audience alone to know.

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I actually enjoyed this episode, probably more than the others. But it leaves me more uncertain than ever about where this season is going, if anywhere. Last season we got a really strong and gripping arc that led to a somewhat disappointing conclusion (for me, anyway). So I want to believe this arc is going to be muddled and uncertain until we get a bang-up climax, but that's probably not going to be the case. I guess I just liked this episode because it finally let some air into the Caspere plot (which had mostly been endless allusions to his orgies till now), by allowing some hints of the religious institute and statewide corruption to sneak in. Of course, (season 1 spoiler)

we can all remember what episode 8 did with the first season's religious institute and statewide corruption (nothing).

And the action sequence at the end, however implausible, was pretty gripping television after a lot of meandering plotlines (Frank's was excruciating this episode).

 

Does anyone else get James Hurley vibes from Paul? The sensitive, brooding motorcyclist who just wants to shut off his lights and ride into the night? That said, this was the episode where his storyline finally began to work for me. I buy his repression as a personal/psychological matter more than broader social conditioning: it just isn't who he personally wants to see himself as, however culturally acceptable on its own terms. But yeah at times it does feel a tad dated.

 

Anyway, whatever you think of season 1's ending, I think the strength of its momentum, suspense, and character development up to that point made it worth watching. Sadly, season 2 is going to HAVE to have a really amazing finish to justify the rest because it can't really stand on its own.

 

I just have absolutely no idea where Pizzolatto is going with any of this beyond a routine wrap-up (oh it was the shrink/mayor's son/character-we've-never-met-before - lol what if it's the Fukunaga stand-in?). It's a bit like watching your team play football, and something's off but you just keep believing. They're just a little behind, maybe they'll catch up, ok here's a drive - oh wait, they fumbled, and now it's halftime, and now it's the fourth-quarter, and now there's 2 minutes left and...please, please get that Hail Mary...

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I don't find Woodrue's struggles with his sexuality nearly as weird as Bezzerides's freaking out over her sister doing webcam shows, especially living as she does in the heart of the porn industry. Sure, things have come a long way, but homophobia is still very much alive and well and between the hints at his mom abusing him and the still very macho, homophobic culture of military forces (perhaps especially PMCs, as he sounds to have been employed by one of those) Woodrue seems like a prime candidate for closet-related struggles. It's not like the show presents homosexuality as something everyone else also struggles with - his military buddy and the prostitutes he interviews certainly don't seem bothered by it. Of course, it seems like Bezzerides has some definite issues around sex herself.

 

I certainly wasn't expecting the late stage firefight, and I'm not sure I liked it, but the thing that struck me is something no one else has mentioned, so I may be imagining things. Specifically, I could swear that Teague Dixon (W. Earl Brown's character) is shot in the head fairly early in the battle - big ol splot of blood, etc. Not definitively dead, but certainly wounded in a noticeable fashion that would persist, and probably dead. Then at the end of the fight the last guy comes out with a hostage who sure the fuck looks like Teague Dixon to me, albeit minus a bit of costuming, and is definitely not sporting any sort of head wound. And that hostage gets killed too. Did they really kill Dixon twice, or was one of the two a different character that just looks similar?

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How did the scene where Woodrugh is running away from the press make it into the episode? It was so poorly presented that I just had to actually laugh out loud at what I was seeing.

 

The further we get into the season, the more I hate the first episode. It was so long and bloated. In this episode, we get reintroduced to Ani's family, all the same ground is covered, and both scenes do a better job than the ones in the pilot. Speaking of the pilot, lots of this episode felt like it was shot before the pilot. Farrell didn't seem to understand Velcoro for much of the early episode and he his accent was going wild. Might be my imagination, but his stache didn't seem as full.

 

This season feels bloated in general. Frank and Woodrugh so far aren't adding anything. If they don't have some kind of payoff at the end, I'm going to be really mad at their inclusion in the first place.

 

I was mostly fine with the big shootout at the end. At least it was exciting and some good character moments are bound to come out of it. I'm also fine with the thesis of True Detective as a series being "Cops who can't let that one unsolved case go." (The preview of the next episode alludes to this.) What I'm not really fine with is that I couldn't give two fucks about Caspere or Frank. Who cares if that case get solved? 

 

Along the lines of what Chris was saying: 

This season is trying to do so much, but it still manages to waste so much time. You could so easily trim down the pilot to maybe 10 minutes and literally lose nothing. 

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How did the scene where Woodrugh is running away from the press make it into the episode? It was so poorly presented that I just had to actually laugh out loud at what I was seeing.

Yeah that definitely looked like an outtake from Entourage.

 

I was very much taken aback at the brutality of the final scene and how overcome the characters were by what took place (besides Woodrugh, I guess). The further I got from watching it, though, the more out of place it seemed and the less confidence I have that any of it will be justified. If the main characters aren't dealing with the fallout of this one scene for the rest of the season and it barely comes up from here on out, I will be both disappointed and unsurprised.

 

On a more positive note, I was very glad to see Lera Lynn return to the stage at the dive bar this episode, her music has been a high point of this season for me. I was familiar with her work from stumbling across an amazing cover she did of TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me" years ago, and despite the passing familiarity I immediately recognized her voice in the first episode.

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What are people's takes on the killer, anyway? It seems to me that Frank's 2nd in command is the most obvious pick. He's in a position to know that killing Caspere will fuck Frank over. He's in a position to know that Velcoro is being sent to Caspere's grosshouse. He also fits the build of the crow-mask shotgun dude and the No Face cosplayer who torched the car.

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What are people's takes on the killer, anyway? It seems to me that Frank's 2nd in command is the most obvious pick. He's in a position to know that killing Caspere will fuck Frank over. He's in a position to know that Velcoro is being sent to Caspere's grosshouse. He also fits the build of the crow-mask shotgun dude and the No Face cosplayer who torched the car.

 

Not a bad theory. They are definitely casting more suspicion on him in this most recent episode, we will see if it goes anywhere.

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Not a bad theory. They are definitely casting more suspicion on him in this most recent episode, we will see if it goes anywhere.

just had a thought, what if the second in command killed that other guy and made it look like the person who killed casper did it?

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Does anyone else get James Hurley vibes from Paul? The sensitive, brooding motorcyclist who just wants to shut off his lights and ride into the night?

 

I've been unable to unsee this comparison since my fiancée pointed it out in episode 2 or 3. I do find the actual elements of his storyline interesting, but I really don't care for the actor much at all.

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Something seemingly no one has mentioned in regard to the last shootout scene is, to me at least, the whole thing very much like a setup. Someone (almost certainly Vinci PD) tipped off the gangbangers that the raid was coming, and possibly even setting them up as the fall guy by planting that watch in the pawn shop.

 

So then Caspere's murder is wrapped up with an almost certainly dead and quite plausible suspect and if Bezzerides/Velcoro/Woodrugh happen to go down too, well, c'est la vie.

 

Given that, the scene felt that it has a bit more stakes/purpose than just being an extreme shootout without real point plot-wise. That didn't makes its extremity totally forgivable (it might has been trying to evoke real and similarly extreme southern California police shootouts of the late 90s, updating to drug runners instead of bank robbers, but it still went a bit far) but it wasn't the total fart for me that it seems like it was for a lot of folks. Maybe I'm reading more into than there is just to make it more purposeful though, I dunno.

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Speaking of Paul, how do people feel about his storyline? Maybe I'm off base (and please tell me if I am), but I find his story a bit unbelievable. In 2015 I just find it hard to believe that a gay man would feel such shame with his sexuality, given how much more accepting public attitudes are towards gay people (obviously bi and trans people still have a lot of mistreatment and gay people in generally are not afforded the same treatment as straight people in all areas, but we're progressing in such a way that Paul's plot feels a little overwrought to me). I suppose we are meant to assume that his mother relied on Paul to boost her own sexual self-esteem and that her sexually domineering behavior prevented Paul from expressing his own desires. Even with those hangups, I have a hard time truly believing Paul's story but if others are convinced by it and think I'm in the wrong, I'd be really interested to hear it!

 

FWIW, I also find it similarly weird. Not only is it 2015, but the guy lives and seemingly grew up in/around LA. If he came from the bible belt (or hell, even Bakersfield) or there was something else in his upbringing/environment to explain why it's such an intense self-loathing and not just something he feels he needs to keep hidden, it feels like it might make more sense. That brief scene with his kind of weird mom didn't really explain that shame/self-loathing.

 

Maybe there's more to come in the 4 episodes left, but it feels like if a character had this much self-loathing about any other aspect of their life, there'd be some explanation as to where that shame comes from. But Paul's sexuality seems like it's just supposed to be taken for granted as something someone (in this time/place with this background) could find cripplingly shameful without any other explanation, which just doesn't really track for me either.

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I don't find it weird, but I am from Oklahoma.  I have a friend who is just a bit younger than 30 who occasionally makes out with men, but definitely isn't gay and being gay is definitely a mortal sin.

 

Edit: Also I feel internet famous since they read my email. :)

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I also found this episode pretty forgettable. I really mostly just remember the gun fight.

 

I'm not entirely sure I can put my finger on the reason, but I really like the way Frank's wife is portrayed. She seems a lot more fleshed out than the standard mob boss wife character. I keep having these mental comparisons between Frank and his wife and Fisk/Vanessa from Daredevil. In comparison, Vanessa seems way more shallow and thin compared to Frank's wife. (Even though I can't remember Frank's wife's name)

 

That freeze frame though.

There was one in the first season two, right? After you see the guy with the gas mask in his underwear?

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There was one in the first season two, right? After you see the guy with the gas mask in his underwear?

 

Yep. Episode three ends on a freeze frame of Reggie LeDoux walking around his cook camp with a VO of Rust saying something along the lines of "there's always a monster at the end of a story."

 

I'm really disappointed at how contained the conspiracy feels this season. Even though technically it involves whole swaths of California, it still feels very claustrophobic because both the directing and the writing are not doing a good job demonstrating the depths of corruption that are present. I'm hoping that the setup is leading to a conclusion where the detectives never even glimpse the true extent of conspiracy. Maybe Frank will be the only one to realize all the connections between Caspere and the land deal and Vinci (making him the True Detective?) while the other three are only able to unravel one tiny part of the larger tapestry. If that's where the show is going it might excuse the poor way in which the mystery is being set up and doled out.

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he further we get into the season, the more I hate the first episode. It was so long and bloated. In this episode, we get reintroduced to Ani's family, all the same ground is covered, and both scenes do a better job than the ones in the pilot.

 

Time is a long and bloated circle.

 

 

What are people's takes on the killer, anyway? It seems to me that Frank's 2nd in command is the most obvious pick.

 

Wasn't he doing casino things in the pilot while raven man was transporting Caspere's corpse? I reckon it could've been an accomplice or not synchronous.

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