"True Detective" Recap: "Maybe Tomorrow"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

Turns out that last night was the first time in a long time that I stood up and shouted at my television because of the complete and utter hell True Detective put my emotions through with the games it decided to play with my heart in the opening moments of the show. After all, at the end of the last week, Detective Velcoro was shot dead abruptly and we were left to digest that moment.  

Oh but guess what? Turns out Ray wasn't dead after all! Yup, that's right "Maybe Tomorrow" decided to surprise us with a meta moment that appeared to be his final seconds on this earth that turned out to be nothing more than a bad dream as Ray awakens to discover he was blasted with rubber bullets and he made it out alive of Ben Caspere's second home/sex dungeon with a few broken ribs and some shattered pride over pissing his pants, and that pleasant surprise is why I shouted at my television because I spent a week prepping my feels for the show to continue without one of its major lead actors. That's just cruel to play with us like that, but I'm glad Ray's okay and I digress.  

That stunning moment set the tone for one dark episode from the show, and as Velcoro took a little time to heal and continue his journey toward sobriety, the case to find who killed Ben Caspere continued, and well...not much happened there last night outside of the final moments of the show where we witnessed our masked man setting fire to the vehicle that Ben's mutilated corpse traveled in back in the first episode, so we won't spend much time talking about the case today. Instead we are going to shift gears to the incredible darkness the show brought forth...courtesy of Frank.

Now Frank's journey last night was just...disturbing. After all, his money is gone, he's having trouble with the wife at home and there's a feel as though his empire and all he's built is completely and utterly crumbling. But matters only get worse when the body of a member of his crew turns up and Frank turns to the old friends he used to run with in the streets for help. Santos feels that he owes Frank nothing and it leads to one brutal fist fight between the two of them. Yet the regret over this that's evident on Frank's face upon returning home speaks volumes to something we have seen in the show before. It's clear that Frank wants to be a legit businessman. He wants to be a good man, and perhaps someday a father and is filled with angst anytime he has to unleash the man he used to be.

Otherwise, I was quite surprised to see a transition/filler episode this early in the season. Not a bad episode by any means, we got a lot of insight into the weirdness of the Vinci mayor and his garbage family, but not much else and the rest of the darkness this episode oozed from Ray and his regret for how his life has turned out but outside of that, we are sadly no closer to learning more about the potentially bigger picture that is slowly building here. Caspere and his death still remain a mystery, the masked man is still out there and well...I'm hoping I'm not the only one who noticed that it looks like the guy who died from Frank's crew, looks like he had his eyes melted out with acid as well. Until next time. 

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