Long form storytelling on television comes with its own set of frustrations. It has to work within certain tropes just by virtue of the medium, but this can lead to predictability and boredom. There’s a desire on the part of the creator and audience to encounter surprises. With the second season finale, “True Detective” swings for the fences to try to find what surprises it can to reward a viewership that has stuck with a meandering and sometimes incomprehensible season. Did it succeed?
A high body count was certainly something most would have expected before “Omega Station” began. An anthology series means no character is ever safe, which is part of why Velcoro (Colin Farrell) surviving the shotgun early in the season felt like a cop out, as if it belonged in a different show. What does transpire in the finale walks the balance between predictability and surprise.
Bringing the mystery of who killed Caspere to a close happens early. The revelation of the actual killer (Did you know Lenny was the set photographer from episode three? Then again, some people were all over it.) is a bit of a surprise if only for seemingly coming out of left field. Additionally, the real power Tony Chessani (Vinicius Machado) wields as the son of the mayor is a surprise that balances the predictability of the Vinci PD being incredibly corrupt. The vast majority of the events this season have been incidental to Caspere’s killing, Frank’s (Vince Vaughn) troubles are all just the result of bad timing and Velcoro, Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams), and Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) were pulled into a conspiracy years in the making.
If you recall the real history of Vernon, California, Tony taking his father’s place as mayor mirrors reality and rampant corruption is par for the course. Ending the season in such a dark place, with nearly all of the “bad guys” carrying on should have felt like a bold choice but in today’s television landscape, it barely even registers.
Clearly Nic Pizzolatto set out to tell a very specific story but just as in season one, character was his main focus. We can talk about how the murder of Caspere was wrapped up in “Omega Station” but ultimately that isn’t what we should take away from this season. For better or worse, I’ll remember Velcoro, Bezzerides, Woodrugh, and the Semyons.
One thing the finale does well is to bring the theme of fatherhood to an actual satisfying conclusion. Frank and Ani had terrible fathers, Velcoro is a terrible father despite his best intentions, and Woodrugh never had one. Each character pays for the sins of their respective fathers in some way and try to redeem their family names through their actions. What this finale makes clear is… that’s easier said than done.
Woodrugh paid the ultimate price last week but he proved time and again throughout the season to be a man of intention and honor. He put himself in the line of fire knowing full well he was walking into a trap, willing to sacrifice himself for his friends.
Velcoro constantly tries to instill some virtue into his own son but keeps failing because of his own shortcomings as a man. He also tries to do the honorable thing by aggressively insisting Chad (Trevor Larcom) is his son even when the paternity was in doubt (and now, thanks to a piece of paper, we know the truth… hooray?).
Frank confronts his past directly during his desert march at episode’s end. All of his aphorisms throughout the season have been things he’s been telling himself his entire life because he’s had to. He’s needed basic truths to reassure himself he was stronger than his circumstances. He couldn’t show hunger, even when eating (I won’t add another comment about how ridiculous that line was back in the season premiere). He too tries to be honorable regardless of which side of the law he finds himself on. Either way, he has a code he tries desperately to stick to.
All three men find the same fate by the time the credits roll on the season. The only one left standing is Ani. She becomes a mother, but I think the reason she survives is something else. She is the only one of the four main characters who didn’t care at all about honor or legacy – she only cared about justice. If she cared about honor in the same way as her two male counterparts, she never would have gotten on the boat bound for Venezuela.
This season had the unenviable task of following up the first. Comparisons had a very slim chance of being favorable, especially when the success of the first was at least partly due to how it took the audience by surprise. While it did some things well, this season moved improbably slowly and frustratingly back-burnered making the central mystery interesting.
I wanted to like this season but what we were given didn’t make that easy. Should I go back and revisit it looking for something I might have missed? The war was lost so never mind.
Thanks for joining me these past eight weeks to discuss “True Detective”! What did you think of the finale? What did you think of the season as a whole? Did the murder of Caspere have a satisfying conclusion?
