‘True Detective’ Recap: [SPOILER] Shot Dead In Show’s Final Moments

No one saw that coming. The penultimate episode of ‘True Detective’ season two was absolutely shocking. Everything started to come together, and one person was brutally shot dead in the final seconds of the show.

There’s only one episode left of True Detective, and it’s going to be insane. On the Aug. 2 episode of the show, Ani (Rachel McAdams) and the guys dealt with the aftermath of what happened at the sex party, Frank (Vince Vaughn) lit his entire world on fire and one character didn’t make it out alive. And this time, this person is really dead.

Ani was flipping out about that crazy sex party to Ray (Colin Farrell). Obviously those drugs made her act on all that sexual tension between her and Ray because she started flirting with him hardcore. Ray stopped her from taking things to the next level. She blamed the drugs. “You’re too far out of my league anyways,” Ray said.

Paul (Taylor Kitsch) was starting to get texts from someone who had pictures of him getting frisky. He left Ani and Ray together to deal with the situation. All of them were in trouble, and Paul knew he had to protect the ones he loved. He put up his girlfriend and mother in a hotel room and told them not to leave or answer the door unless it was him.

Meanwhile, Ani told her sister she had to disappear for a while, as well as her dad. When she spoke with her dad, she admitted she finally remembered something from her past. “I remember his face finally,” she said. “The man who took me away.” Her father was shocked. He asked if she was going to turn herself in for killing the security guard. She wasn’t going to. That’s when her father dropped this bombshell: “You are the most innocent person I’ve ever known.” Really?!

Ani started talking to the girl she saved from the party, and Vera wasn’t exactly thrilled with what Ani had done. Remember that girl Tasha that was involved with Caspere? Yeah, it looks like she might have been blackmailing Caspere. Apparently, some men took her to a cabin in the woods one day, and she was never seen again. Vera wanted to go back to her partying lifestyle. Ani wasn’t going to let that happen. Ani said that if she talked she would let those guys know Vera talked to a cop. “I’ll let them paint a cabin with you,” she threatened. YIKES.

Up In Flames

Blake, one of Frank’s business associates, brought money to Frank at the casino. Frank’s anger was boiling over, and he smacked Blake in the face with a bottle. Blake tried crawling away, but Frank wanted to know where his money was. Blake said that the other guys running the sex parties were trying to outdo Frank’s club and hand been doing it for over a year. To make matters worse, Blake said Caspere had been planning on taking Frank’s money from the beginning. Frank got Blake to admit he killed Stan and that a $12 million deal was happening between Osip and Catalyst the next day. When Blake finally proved completely useless to Frank, he shot him dead and watched him squirm. Later, Frank cleared out the casino, turned the gas on and lit the whole place on fire. He was pretty much ready to go on the run with Jordan.

Paul realized that Ani was wanted for the death of that security guard she stabbed in the last episode. Basically, everything hit the fan. Ray went to meet with state attorney Katherine, but he found her dead in her car. He immediately got out and drove away. Dude, evidence. 

Ani looked back at the photo of Caspere with those mysterious ladies. Even though Vera said one of the girl’s names was Laura, her name was actually Erica. She was Caspere’s secretary from the city manager’s office. Later, Ani reassured Ray they would get out of this and their names would be cleared. Ray said his bad luck stemmed far beyond what was going on right now. “You’re not a bad man,” Ani told him. “Yes. I am,” he said. There was that look in their eyes, like something was about to go down. She grabbed his hand, and seconds later, they were kissing and likely doing much, much more.

Bye, Bye, [SPOILER]

After Paul finally told Ray that he was being blackmailed, he met up with the person who’d been sending him texts. It was his friend Miguel that he met up with a few episodes back! The guy was ordered to get in touch with Paul, he was working for Catalyst. He brought Paul to some dark tunnel and police chief Holloway stepped forward. It looked like a set-up. Holloway wanted to know about the documents from Monterrey. Paul revealed that Ray had the papers, and he was going to turn them in to the Feds. Paul was willing to call Ray and throw him under the bus (but it was just a ploy). Suddenly, he pulled the gun on Holloway and took control. The rest of the guys started shooting at him. Paul literally became an assassin. He started taking everyone out.

It looked like Paul was going to make it out alive. He was going to be able to start a new life with his girlfriend and baby, but no. When he stepped outside of the tunnel, he was shot dead by Lt. Kevin Burris from Vinci PD! He tried desperately to crawl away, and he fought valiantly for his life, but Kevin put another bullet in his back. Bye, Paul. I will miss you and your brooding soul. You were one of the good ones.

HollywoodLifers, what did you think of tonight’s True Detective? Can you believe Paul’s dead? Let me know!

— Avery Thompson
Follow @avery__thompson