True Detective Recap: Time Doesn’t Heal All Wounds
So that’s how Nic Pizzolatto wants to play it. He gave the viewers minimal information throughout the first four episodes, and then bang, after last week’s weird shootout we get a two month time jump and a whole shitload of exposition in episode five. 66 days have passed since that dreadful shootout with the Mexicans, and we find our four central characters in rather different situations.
‘Other Lives’ was exposition central – new information is dumped on us and we are required to map it out. It at least becomes easier. As the case comes together, we can puzzle the pieces together, or slowly complete our brain map. This may have been a case of too much at one time. Where was all this information when the show was so painfully slow?
Look, the episode, as part of the bigger picture, was not bad. When we get an episode jammed with exposition and twists, I guess we should be happy about the show’s acceleration. With only three episodes left, I suspect things will be moving at a rapid pace. The time jump does serve the story well, but it doesn’t wipe away the past mistakes.
Frank and his wife have moved into a smaller place, Ray now does “security”, or consulting like he calls, but he’s actually just one of Frank’s minions. Ani has degraded to working in the evidence control room after that whole sexual harassment saga, and Paul now works in insurance. After 66 days, they’re scattered and miserable.
Let’s take a look at the episode’s narrative, shall we? Let me at least try get the important stuff down, and it seems like almost everything dropped in this episode is pretty important information.
Frank asks Ray to follow his main minion Blake around to see what he’s really up to. Turns out, Blake and Mayor Chessani’s pimp son are smuggling girls along with one of his Russian rivals, cutting Frank out. Seems like he’s cut out of everything these days, including the railroad deal. Frank speaks to a developer who seems to be well connected to the deal, and he promises Frank a way back in – if Frank could get him the hard drive with the footage of those sex parties on it. You know, the footage Caspere and Chessani’s son used to blackmail those rich businessmen and politicians. That last little nugget of information comes courtesy of Dr. Pitlor, whom Ray beat the shit out of. Creepy Dr. Pitlor just worked on the girls for them, he says.
Ani continues working on the Caspere case, as that missing girl who we heard of earlier this season sent her sister photos of the sex parties and the dead man’s missing blue diamonds. Ani’s ex partner did some digging into that himself. He provides Ani with the last number the missing girl called on her phone. This leads to Ani, Ray, and Paul meeting that attorney general woman from The Wire in some alleyway. She wants them to continue with the Caspere murder investigation. Ray refuses at first, but the attorney general quickly brings up his kid who he’s trying desperately to keep. He’s on board then. She drops another interesting nugget – they found the guy who raped his wife – huh? Didn’t Ray kill him? Apparently not that guy.
As Paul follows up on the blue diamonds, we learn from a pawnshop owner that a detective has been there before. Who, you may ask? None other than Ray’s now dead ex partner Dixon. Dixon, a dirty cop, had been searching for those diamonds since Caspere’s demise, until he wittingly or unwittingly led them into last week’s deadly shootout.
Later, Paul and Ani follow up on the last number the missing prostitute called. Apparently the same number shows up on Caspere’s list too. At the location, they find a dirty isolated wooden contraption that looks like a place birds would be kept in. In it, there’s blood, and a stool where someone, likely Caspere, was tied up in. They may just have found the place where it all went down.
Ray’s wife confesses that yes, police did tell her they found the man who raped her, which is why she wants a paternity test, to put everything behind her. Ginger kid deserves to know the truth. Someday. And then, in my mind, probably the best development of the episode, Ray realizes that Frank screwed him over. He fingered the wrong man. Ray killed the wrong man. The episode ends with Ray at Frank’s door. They need to have a talk it would seem.
The fact that that twist is the most exciting development of the episode is probably testament to how little I care about the Caspere murder investigation. Do we really care about who murdered that dirty old man? The personal relationships appear to have taken the front seat, and that is a problem. It’s like the whole season has rested fully on Colin Farrell’s shoulders. The show lives and dies by him, and it’s too heavy a burden to bear.
