Score: 3/5
“Who Goes There,” the fourth episode of True Detective’s first season, ended with one of the most jaw-dropping sequences in the history of television.
Rust Cohle and Marty Hart’s search for Reggie Ledoux led them to the Iron Crusaders, a bike gang Rust dealt with while working undercover. Rust goes undercover in an unofficial manner to gather intel.
Rust ends up participating in a raid that goes horribly wrong and leaves lots of dead bodies in a housing project in Beaumont, Texas. The raid is a six-minute, single-take masterpiece that follows Rust as he moves from house to house dodging gunfire with the bike gang member he has apprehended.
Flash forward to “Down Will Come,” season two’s fourth episode, and we get another action-packed, bullet-filled ending.
We’re talking about a lot of corpses filling the street as Ray (Colin Farrell), Ani (Rachel McAdams) and Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) try to make sense of what’s just happened.
The gripping finale comes at the end of a tame episode where not much happens with the plot. Eventually the detectives focus on Ledo Amarilla, a pimp who has pawned Ben Caspere’s stolen possessions and their pursuit leads to the bloody conclusion.
Four episodes in, Frank (Vince Vaughn) is starting to feel very disconnected as our other leads’ lives become more woven together. The show could really benefit from him becoming more involved with everyone.
For now, it looks like he’ll continue to brood about his lost money and see how many people he can bully and how many shady dealings he can muster up to try to overcome the significant setback.
Meanwhile, Ray is more likeable— and (unbelievably) sober.
Woodrugh doesn’t know who he is, or more likely he just hates who he is.
Ani is frustrated, suspended from work following a sexual harassment complaint. She believes Austin Chessani (Ritchie Coster), Vinci’s corrupt mayor, is behind her suspension.
The most exciting thing about “Down Will Come” are the implications it has for the following episode. Last season, episode five gave us the the thrilling encouner between Rust and Marty and Ledoux.
What will episode five bring this season?
If we end up with anything as compelling as what happened at Ledoux’s remote meth shack, it will be must-see stuff.
You can reach Jack on Twitter @Jack_TDR.