True Detective – Episode 204 Recap

Some have complained this season of “True Detective” doesn’t live up to last season’s, although it’s hard to understand why. They’re both police noir dramas, yet other than that they’re mostly incomparable.

However, it’s hard not to be reminded of last year’s famous fourth episode shootout after witnessing last night’s gunfire massacre in “Down Will Come,” the fourth episode of True Detective season two.

While on the pursuit of a suspect in Ben Caspere’s murder, a Mexican mob member whose fingerprints were on the deceased’s watch, Ani Bezzeride (Rachel McAdams), Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), and Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) find themselves in the middle of an intense shootout. They survive as the last ones standing after the bloody onslaught.

Machine guns sprayed bullets killing countless civilians, police officers, and gangbangers. Director Jeremy Podeswa chose to cap the episode with a freeze frame to linger on the shock. The war veteran Woodrugh remains composed (he’s seen his share of destruction), while we watch trauma wash over Velcoro and Bezzeride.

Ray Velcoro knows that the corrupt Vinci Police Department wants this case closed. They will likely try to pin Caspere’s murder on their now dead murder suspect, but ganglord Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) is anxious to know who is messing with his business and won’t be satisfied by anything less than the truth.

HBO is not shy suggesting it can take a criminal to be a true detective.