True Detective

[thebigo]

I heard from a good source that the next season is being filmed here in LA

[freakynzb]

I heard from a good source that the next season is being filmed here in LA

Nice i hope they release it soon.

[nitilism]

I heard from a good source that the next season is being filmed here in LA

This is confirmed.

[Stu1179]

Loved the first season looking forward to a new one

[dark_knight]

really enjoyed this series, even though the season finale was crap

[Stehle]

Okay, I've been watching now a few weeks... what is going on?

(Has it totally gone off the rails this season? Well at least "Hell On Wheels" is back looking forward to that... (new episode) ... train staying on the track.)

[IdolEyes787]

Semyon, Catalyst, and Caspere:
Ben Caspere was the city manager for the city of Vinci. Through his many connections, probably initiated through the various "parties" that he attended with high-end hookers, he was able to get "ins" with the movie industry and the California High Speed Rail Project (an actual real life thing they're trying to build right now). As part of the rail project, he was able to get connections with a land holding company called the Catalyst Group. This group supposedly was responsible for selling the lands around the railroad, probably for commercial development. Caspere probably made an agreement with Catalyst that he'd find buyers for Catalyst in exchange for a slight payment, similar to how he received payment for the tax incentives for movies.

Shortly before he died, Caspere made a deal with Semyon and the Russian for a joint cash purchase of a plot of land. Neither Semyon nor the Russian were able/willing to buy the land buy themselves, and they didn't want to go through the official routes of the banks because the money they were using to buy the land was probably questionable enough as it was. In exchange for a cash purchase, Catalyst was willing to let Caspere negotiate for a lower-than-appraised value purchase of the land. Shortly before his death, Semyon gave Caspere his share, but the Russian didn't as he was going to do so at the presentation that was shown in the first episode that was supposed to be done by Caspere.

Of course, Caspere got offed before he could get the remainder of the payment from the Russian and give it to Catalyst, which is what was shown in the second episode. Catalyst had no record of getting the funds, and reminded Semyon that if the deal was done through the banks that they would have honored the deal. But it wasn't, and no one can find the money, so Catalyst isn't budging ground. On top of that, Catalyst was willing to still sell the plot, but now only at the appraised value. So now not only was Semyon out $5M, he'd need an additional $10M if he wanted to buy back in. What makes Semyon's situation worse is that with Caspere's death, the Russians are afraid to honor their end of the deal as well, making any IOU with the Russians impossible for purchase of the land now. The cherry on top is that now Semyon's own associates are getting axed in the same manner as Caspere, so Semyon knows someone has it out for him specifically.


Bezzarides:
The daughter of a hippy freak who did some really awful things to his kids that led all five of them to live fucked up lives, she was the only one who managed to semi-clean up her life, although she's extremely cold and has a really odd S&M fascination as well as seemingly an addiction to porn and knives. She became a detective for the Ventura County Sheriff Department while her father leads some kind of spiritual camp up in Guerneville, up in Northern California. While serving an eviction notice, the evictee tells her that her sister is missing, but yet nothing has been (seemingly) done about it. She tells Bezzarides that the last she heard she moved up to the faith resort up in Guerneville.

Being the good detectives they are, Bezzarides and her partner decide to follow up on the missing girl case. The resort employees tell her that last they heard, she quit and moved back down to SoCal for a job with fewer hours and better pay (i.e. prostitution). The detectives go back down to Ventura and shelf the case, although Bezzarides does occasionally get updates from her partner. I think at one point he finds out that she has a connection to Catalyst Group, but I don't remember all the details. In any case, before Bezzarides can fully close the case, she gets dragged into the Caspere case because the body was found in unincorporated Ventura County.

The State has her become lead investigator on the joint-juristidiction investigation for a variety of reasons (see below for Velcoro). Under her, she finds out that Caspere was a sexually passive deviant and spent nearly $4K a month on hookers. She and Velcoro hear of an Eastern European prostitute Tasha as a name of interest, but they don't know where she is, so Velcoro suggests in episode 2 for Woodrugh to go slut it up downtown with the hookers to get info.

Bezzarides relays the plan, having Woodrugh tested first on Mayor Chessani's wife (conspicuously also Eastern European) before sending him out on the streets. While searching the house, she finds land deeds for plots of California land on the mayor's desk, and also finds his daughter looking at maps of California. She also correctly deduces that Chessani's son isn't who he says he is, leading him to tell them that he's an "event organizer." The case basically is now at the point where Bezzarides finds the Cadillac used to take Caspere to the cliff along PCH, but when investigating the connection to Caspere, the thief sets fire to the car basically 50 feet away from Bezzarides and Velcoro.



Velcoro and Vinci:
Ray's story begins back about a decade ago after his wife gruesomely is raped while he is out. Furious and out for revenge, he ends up turning to Semyon, who agrees to help punish the rapist for Velcoro in exchange for Ray helping Frank as part of his neverending debt to Semyon. As a result, Velcoro has been in Semyon's back pocket for years against his will, even after Ray and his wife split. Ray is doubly hurt because everyone, including him, is fairly confident that the boy he calls his son is actually not his as he was born nine months after the attack. As Velcoro begins to do more and more things for Semyon, he moves away from LAPD to Vinci PD, where the corruption is even worse than it was in LA, which is just great for both Velcoro and Semyon.

Fast forward to today and Ray's wife has seen his fall from grace and doesn't want their son anywhere near him, especially after hearing about how Velcoro approached a classmate of his son's father for retribution for the bullying at school. She plans to petition the Courts for sole custody with her new husband, and is even willing to pay Ray $10K to stay out of the way. For Ray, it's worse because now he finds out that the State has probably heard about how shady a character he is and is now secretly investigating him. With the Caspere case, the State has found the perfect way to nab Velcoro by putting him right under their noses while they conduct their investigation.

Velcoro isn't the only thing the State is investigating. Suspicious of how wealthy Vinci has become despite its size, they start a formal investigation into Vinci's formal governing. With the Caspere murder, they have the perfect opportunity to slam Vinci and its leaders. They tell Bezzarides that they want to use Velcoro as leverage against Vinci, but they don't tell her what they have on either at this point.

As part Velcoro's debt repayment, Semyon wants whatever information they find on Caspere's murder. Semyon is the first to find out about the second house in LA owned by Caspere, most likely as his sexual hideaway. He sends Velcoro to check it out, but Velcoro gets shot by rubber pellets -- the same kind used for crowd control by riot police. Instead of drinking away the pain, he gets even angrier than before and threatens to leave Semyon. While Semyon will stop at nothing to find the killer as a means to getting his money back, Vinci doesn't want the murderer found because it could end up exposing their financials to the State, and so instead want Velcoro to throw off the state's trail by getting them away from any Vinci paperwork and instead focused on the streets aspect of Caspere's murder, even willing to frame it on a gigolo or pimp. In addition to being angry from being shot, both of those options infuriate Velcoro and it seems like he's choosing the third option, which is to find out the truth, regardless of whether or not it involves implicating Vinci and denying Semyon his justice. It also allows him to get on the path to righting his life, which seems to be his ultimate goal, for his son.


Woodrugh:
Finally, there's Woodrugh. During the war on terror, he was stationed in Afghanistan with Black Mountain Security (basically a contracted security detail by the government). While in the desert, he ends up befriending and eventually having a three-day long tryst with a fellow soldier who also happens to move back to SoCal after they return. For whatever reason, definitely not his slutty mother, he feels very guilty about whatever happened abroad and is really conflicted about his sexuality. He gets to the point where the only way he can deny it is to actively have sex with women, something only possible with Viagra.

When we first meet him, as a CHP officer, he sees a driver weaving recklessly in traffic. When he pulls her over, the actress propositions him to get out of the ticket and probable probation violation. Clearly that won't work on a gay cop, so he still issues her the citation. As retribution, she accuses him of propositioning her, earning him a paid probation since everyone else knows its not true (although they don't know why it's not true).

To vent his sexual frustration after a drug-induced sex session with his "girlfriend," he goes on a biking trip on PCH at night. At 100 mph. Without his lights on. When he gets over his death wish, he ends up at the rest area where Caspere was dumped, thus the whole jurisdiction issue -- CHP (albeit off-duty) found the body off a state highway at a rest area, the county is interested because it's in unincorporated Ventura, and this is Vinci's missing person. The State uses this jurisdiction question as a way of getting into Vinci, even though the CHP's connection and investigation of the murder is tenuous at best. That's how the group gets together.

Seeing as he's the best looking of the four detectives investigating Caspere, Velcoro and Bezzarides send Woodrugh on the prostitute hunt. What they don't know is that the fourth cop, Velcoro's Vinci partner, is tailing him for a yet undivulged reason. The case is clearly making Woodrugh uncomfortable because the only prostitutes that help him are the gay men, so he goes on a drinking binge while at Semyon's old night club, whom he also ran into as Semyon was on his way to shake down his old shady business partners for information on Caspere.

That's all we really have on Woodrugh right now. He's an ultra-denying closet case who is having to confront his own sexuality inadvertently in order to help solve this case.

Other than that the deadly gunfight at the end of the last episode was clearly a setup and an attempt to kill one or all of the investigating officers.

PS the Twin Peaks "is he dead?" bit with Velcoroè's dad was totally shite and not in a good way.

[megabyteme]

Okay, I've been watching now a few weeks... what is going on?

(Has it totally gone off the rails this season? Well at least "Hell On Wheels" is back looking forward to that... (new episode) ... train staying on the track.)

I was pleased to see HoW back. A bit interesting to see the other side of the railroad story, but feels a bit formulaic in doing so. I am definitely pushing forward.

@Idol: I am into the second season of Penny Dreadful (ep2), and am excited about where that one is headed. "The Bride" setup is one Hell of a hook...

True Detective is not as good as season 1.

[IdolEyes787]

Have you seen the TD shootout? The way it came out of left field was borderline brilliant.

As for Penny Dreadful, there too things are about to get turned on their ears.

Strangely, unpredictable seems to be a good thing.I wonder why nobody else in Hollywood does it?

Actually I'm sort of into True Detective as I've always been a fame of redemption type stories.

Hopefully this is a redemption type story.........

[megabyteme]

The shootout did create the perfect "Oh, FUCK, what do we do now" scenario. Not up to the long shot sequence from season 1, but certainly plays on our media culture of questioning cops' intentions/reasonable reactions.

Definitely looking forward to the next ep...