True Detective Finale

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the finale tied up the season really cleanly but it felt below par (the whole season) for HBO

Huh? How?

I had a ton of questions...
What was on the hard drive? The whole season hinged on it and never revealed?
So the movie director, who was shown for all of a mere 3 min way back in episode 3 (good thing I didn't blink, I would've missed it) is the main guy behind everything?
Why did that lady cop (never picked up on her name) give a Venezuelan reporter the evidence - not like an LA Times reporter?
Whose baby was that and where were they going?
VV dies with the diamonds in his pocket. Um ok.

So anti climactic. Didn't see much justice or get the impression it was implied. Could've ended the show fast forwarding 15 years with the red hair kid (Valcoro's) graduating the police academy impinge he was going to avenge his dad's murder and clear is name.

1) The hard drive was the hard drive from the video camera in Caspar's house (the one where Ray Velcoro gets shot). The implication throughout the season was that there was footage on the hard drive of various bigwigs/politicians/etc. in the orgy parties.

2) It wasn't the movie director who killed Caspar - it was a set photographer named Len who Velcoro and Ani talked to very briefly - I think he was the one who told them that the movie director sometimes went to "parties" with Caspar (maybe to throw them off his own trail?). Len was the son of the jewelry store owners who got killed when the corrupt police officers stole the blue diamonds.

3) The reporter Ani meets at the end is an LA reporter who was doing a story on how corrupt the city of Vinci is. He's the reporter Velcoro beats up in the first or second episode to try and get him to stop investigating the story.

4)The baby was Ani and Velcoro's baby. There's a scene when Ani is in the safe house getting ready to leave for the boat and she throws a box on her suitcase - hey, call me an expert on pregnancy tests (!) but I immediately thought that was a pregnancy test box. I don't know how she could think she was pregnant after having sex with Velcoro only a day or two before that, but then when they're in Venezuela or Mexico or wherever, she says to the reporter, "I want to honor his sonS." No idea where they were going, though I was happy that Ani and Jordan survived (and Jordan gets to help raise the baby) -- and Nails too. Oh Nails, what would we do without you. It's just like Stan, the mysterious guy who never seemed to appear in the show but everyone talked about his death for like, 5 episodes.

I thought the season overall was weak but the last 2 or 3 episodes were better. The beginning was really slow. Some of the dialogue was flat-out terrible. I think Vince Vaughan did a perfectly decent job given how bad the writing was, but his best moments were when he was allowed to show that he had a sense of humor (my favorite moment of the finale episode was when he tells Velcoro that "Blake is gone. He did not go...nicely" - he has the most hilarious expression on his face and he said it in such a witty yet dark way. I think if Vince Vaughan had played the character less "straight" and been allowed to show a little more of his madcap side, it would have been a stronger show - kind of the role that Woody Harrelson served in Season 1 (he was so funny, even though it was such a dark season). I thought Colin Farrell did a fine job and also got some of the better lines ("I support feminism. Mostly by having body image issues."). Disappointing compared to Season 1, disappointing in comparison to "Chinatown" (which I have to imagine is the movie this was supposed to be an homage to), but generally I thought Season 2 was meh.

My questions are:
Why would VV be so slow to react when he realized his car was boxed in? Don't you think he would be smarter/quicker on the draw?
Why wouldn't Velcoro instantly understand that he couldn't go see his son because, as a wanted criminal whose face was being plastered on TV screens everywhere, the police would DEFINITELY be staking out his son's school?!
What was the deal with Ani's father's cult? I really thought there was going to be on that cult and it just didn't seem to go anywhere.
I assume Velcoro did "suicide by cop"?- deliberately came out guns ablazing because he did not want Burris and the other corrupt cops to torture him to find out where Ani went.
If the daughter of the jewelry store owners became a hooker and then ended up at Caspar's sex parties, and then (as it turns out), then Caspar was her father, then does that mean she had sex with Caspar (her own father)? Yuck.

In response to your questions (I also posted similar answers to PP's questions):

I really think Pizzolatto is playing the hubris card, in one way or another, for most of these main characters. I think Frank was on a high - he had just pulled off this amazing heist, one that should've been the last of his career - and the Mexicans blindsided him. I think in the moment that he realized what was happening, it was too late. They already had him boxed in - there were several of them. There was nothing he could do.

I think hubris also plays a major part in Ray's decision to go see his son one last time. He was so prideful about not wanting his son to know who his "true father" was (God, so ironic that it ended up being him all along). Ray said "I thought we had time" and I think he truly believed they were that far ahead of everyone else. But we all knew when he was eyeing that exit sign that it wasn't going to turn out well.

I agree about the thing with Ani's dad and the cult. Seems like it was a red herring, and only important because a bunch of those shady guys hooked up there years before. And isn't this also where Caspar found Vera? Other than that, yeah, didn't really go anywhere. (there was that whole realization that her dad had about poor parenting because he was so lax but eh, I don't know)

I don't think Caspar necessarily had sex with Erica/Laura. I think that he knew all along that this was his kid. At least that's how I understood it based on the conversation that Ray had with the other cop in the airport before all hell broke loose.

[Anonymous]

So after all that the hard drive self destructed. How anti climatic and what a waste of time dwelling on it the majority of the season.

I would've had the detectives use it as reverse black mail, release it to the press, or something (anything) that adds irony or suspense. All these potential solid parts the storyline hinges on and then nothing comes to fruition...And you have to remember characters that make a 30 sec appearance way back from the beginning of the season and never seen again until the last episode and you think to yourself "who was that again?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So after all that the hard drive self destructed. How anti climatic and what a waste of time dwelling on it the majority of the season.

I would've had the detectives use it as reverse black mail, release it to the press, or something (anything) that adds irony or suspense. All these potential solid parts the storyline hinges on and then nothing comes to fruition...And you have to remember characters that make a 30 sec appearance way back from the beginning of the season and never seen again until the last episode and you think to yourself "who was that again?"

Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting any of these characters to end up with a happily ever after. The ending of season 1 was surprisingly happy (i.e., both the main character lived) and I didn't expect as much this time. It was terribly tragic that they went through so much (specifically Frank and Ray) only to die in the end, but I think that was the point.

I also like the subtle nuances of this show. You kind of have to work to put it together, it's not just handed to you (which, as I understand, is much like The Wire?).

[Anonymous]

Can anyone ID who the other big wig was that was shot with Osip in the cabin? Couldn't really place him, again, few too many characters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone ID who the other big wig was that was shot with Osip in the cabin? Couldn't really place him, again, few too many characters.

He was the guy in charge of Catalyst Group, the company that was involved in the railway deal - he is the one who told Frank he'd let Frank have some parcels of land if Frank got the hard drive back. Ani also saw him at the orgy party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the finale tied up the season really cleanly but it felt below par (the whole season) for HBO

Huh? How?

I had a ton of questions...
What was on the hard drive? The whole season hinged on it and never revealed?
So the movie director, who was shown for all of a mere 3 min way back in episode 3 (good thing I didn't blink, I would've missed it) is the main guy behind everything?
Why did that lady cop (never picked up on her name) give a Venezuelan reporter the evidence - not like an LA Times reporter?
Whose baby was that and where were they going?
VV dies with the diamonds in his pocket. Um ok.

So anti climactic. Didn't see much justice or get the impression it was implied. Could've ended the show fast forwarding 15 years with the red hair kid (Valcoro's) graduating the police academy impinge he was going to avenge his dad's murder and clear is name.

The baby was Velcoro's baby. He and the lady cop slept together. The lady cop is on the run (with her baby) because she is still a target because she knows what happened. That's why she gives the evidence she has to the reporter.

I don't think they ever say exactly what was on the hard drive. They just imply there's evidence of all of the corruption.

Just watched this last night. See, I thought the baby was Vince Vaughns. I thought he finally got his wife pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone ID who the other big wig was that was shot with Osip in the cabin? Couldn't really place him, again, few too many characters.

He was the guy in charge of Catalyst Group, the company that was involved in the railway deal - he is the one who told Frank he'd let Frank have some parcels of land if Frank got the hard drive back. Ani also saw him at the orgy party.

McCandles or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think Caspar necessarily had sex with Erica/Laura. I think that he knew all along that this was his kid. At least that's how I understood it based on the conversation that Ray had with the other cop in the airport before all hell broke loose.

So Caspar recognized Erica/Laura as his daughter when she showed up as a hooker at one of his sex parties? And then he later hired her as his assistant (presumably NOT recognizing her because she dyed her hair)? That doesn't seem to make sense. My take on it was that Caspar knew that the jewelery store wife had his baby, but then after the robbery/killings, Caspar just let the jewelry story kids (really HIS kids) go into foster care and basically just forgot about them. I didn't think he recognized his daughter when she later resurfaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So after all that the hard drive self destructed. How anti climatic and what a waste of time dwelling on it the majority of the season.

I would've had the detectives use it as reverse black mail, release it to the press, or something (anything) that adds irony or suspense. All these potential solid parts the storyline hinges on and then nothing comes to fruition...And you have to remember characters that make a 30 sec appearance way back from the beginning of the season and never seen again until the last episode and you think to yourself "who was that again?"

It seemed weird to me that the corrupt cops just killed Velcoro when he told Holloway in the train station, "If anything happens to me, this stuff on the hard drive hits the cloud." Why would the bad cops then just gun him down? Wouldn't they do anything to avoid killing him so that a) they could find out where Ani was, and b) to avoid the stuff on the hard drive going public? Or maybe they just figured (correctly) that Velcoro was bluffing.

I agree that there were a lot of red herrings and stuff that didn't go anywhere, but I thought it was to try and keep you guessing -- like the thing about Ani's dad's cult, the vague allusions to motorcycle cop having done really bad stuff when he was overseas with the military contractor, and the thing about the woman whose sister was missing and who Ani later rescues from the sex party only to have the sister say, "What's your problem? I was fine being a prostitute!" What was the thing about the mayor's wife being treated by Dr. Pitlor and then killing herself - did that really go anywhere?

As for minor characters showing up later in the season as significant, the same thing happened in Season 1 - where a very minor character later turns out to be the main killer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the finale tied up the season really cleanly but it felt below par (the whole season) for HBO

Huh? How?

I had a ton of questions...
What was on the hard drive? The whole season hinged on it and never revealed?
So the movie director, who was shown for all of a mere 3 min way back in episode 3 (good thing I didn't blink, I would've missed it) is the main guy behind everything?
Why did that lady cop (never picked up on her name) give a Venezuelan reporter the evidence - not like an LA Times reporter?
Whose baby was that and where were they going?
VV dies with the diamonds in his pocket. Um ok.

So anti climactic. Didn't see much justice or get the impression it was implied. Could've ended the show fast forwarding 15 years with the red hair kid (Valcoro's) graduating the police academy impinge he was going to avenge his dad's murder and clear is name.

Wow, I think I'M out of it paying attention during movies to various characters and plot lines- you are really bad!! And to have to be led with a flash forward a conclusion that the kid's now a cop (totally not necessary and not where his character was going) is just too easy.

Here I was feeling like a dumb moviewatcher because I wanted Frank and Ray both to live... (too easy) but it was never going to happen. I just thought the story lines were so tragic and romantic- the connections the male/female leads had at the end. I was literally on the edge of my couch with my hands cupped over my mouth for the last 45 minutes of the episode. And I did feel the first few episodes were boring and didn't have the draw of the first season- hated Vince Vaughn's 'acting'.... but then I started to care about the characters. Man, Colin Farrell seriously has depth as an actor, for a random little Irishman.

I'm still crying about the diamonds in Frank's pock.

[Anonymous]

Just binged watched this season, and ugh, horrible. First season was so well written and acted, this was such a let down. Definitely agree with PPs who mentioned that it was too heavy on (bad) dialogue, too many disparate settings, every mob under the sun, so many plot holes and expositional crap.

The shoot out was ridiculous. So many head shots and only the three of them surviving. Also it lasting that long and having that much carnage, then finally back up arrives.

Rachel Mcadams had a foroughed brow in 90% of the scenes. Those god awful rings, which are probably against departmental guidelines to wear, and those goofy Annie hall inspired hats at the end--how incognito of them.

James Frain always plays the bad guy and some how knew which pillar to stand behind waiting to shoot Tim rigging in the back.

Most cringeworthy line Colin Farrell saying to mcadams, you'll need a restraining order to keep me away.