"True Detective" Recap: "Black Maps and Motel Rooms"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

At one point or another we have all heard the phrase that money is the root of all evil. I remember hearing that phrase more when I was a child and well, when you're young you completely and utterly believe it. After all, we don't quite understand evil as kids, but as True Detective proved last night, that phrase is just a phrase. 

In fact last night's episode, "Black Maps and Motel Rooms" was the big one we have been waiting for. After weeks of trying to figure out the conspiracy, the truth was at last revealed to all of us, and a few surprises as well came into play, not to mention, holy cow that ending. I mean seriously, that ending. That was one that left me sitting in my seat with my jaw dropped to the floor. But before we get to that, let's discuss exactly what's been going on behind the scenes all this time. 

First and foremost, we learned that it would appear every single person involved in this conspiracy from the elected officials at least, all have ties back to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Caspere, Dixon, the list goes on and on. Every single one of them were part of the Los Angeles Police Department and many of them found their way into cush jobs in Vinci following the riots. Slowly and surely they have put together a massive plan to be rich, rich men. Making more cash than they could ever imagine with this land grab and whatever they have planned for it. 

With the truth now in hand, our intrepid detectives have to go into hiding. After all, these are powerful men who are no doubt on the hunt for the people who have information that could put them away forever. But before they do, Ani and Paul secure their families and Ray fills in Frank, leading Frank to finally confront Blake and learn the truth. It turns out almost all of Frank's crew minus one is on the take from the Russians and they are planning to take everything from Frank. It also turns out that Blake was the one that fed the bad info regarding who harmed Ray's wife all those years ago, leading Frank to handle Blake and then handle his businesses, robbing them blind and leaving the Russians with nothing but scorched earth.

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The stakes are simply getting higher in this show, I mean hey, our baddies even killed Davis, and there were two other big nuggets that we still need to discuss, the fact that now we know the shootout in Vinci was indeed a trap after all designed to clear up this mess, and that the innocent office clerk we met early on in the season...may indeed be one of the orphaned twins from the 1992 L.A. Riots, and potentially the one who took down Caspere. But all of that aside, we still need to talk about that stunning ending.

Yes, the grand tragedy of the night came by way of Paul's storyline. Someone was texting him the entire episode with pictures of his affair with Miguel and well, it led to something terrifying...a confrontation with Holloway, and Miguel for that matter since as it turns out, Paul's lover has been working for the bad guys after all. It led to a shootout and an escape that appeared to have Paul in the clear. Save for the fact that Detective Burris was waiting for him...and well, we lost Paul. So that's where we are now. One dead detective, an incredible conspiracy that seems to be motivated by money but if you ask me, it's motivated by revenge and a disdain for what happened in the riots, it just seems like money is the root of all evil here.

I say that because, while the money would be nice, there are clearly plenty of other ways for these men to be rich. Frank for example fed plenty of money into Vinci's city leadership. No it really seems that these men were as disgusted by the riots as the officer that Paul interviewed and this seems to be their way of sticking it to a system that failed everyone at the time. The only questions remaining now are exactly who did kill Ben Caspere? How will Ani and Ray bring all these corrupt pieces of crap to justice and how far will Frank go to exact his own revenge on everyone that burned him? We'll just have to wait one more week to get the answers and I can't to see everything wrap up on the season two finale next Sunday. Until then. 

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