"True Detective" Recap: "The Western Book of the Dead"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

I have to admit, and I'm not proud of this, but I completely missed out on HBO's True Detective last year and I know I am a fool for doing so. For starters I love a good detective/crime story as it is and let's be honest, it was one well respected show. Thankfully, it's a program unique enough that the story this time around is completely different and knowing I already missed eight weeks of incredible television last year has prompted me to make sure I don't miss another season of quality storytelling. 

Needless to say, I really didn't know what to expect settling in to watch this show and I'm glad I went in with zero expectations because the season two premiere of True Detective instantly pulled me in and I am now planning to go back and watch the first season after this one concludes, but I digress and rather than focus on the many plot points that came to bear last night in "The Western Book of the Dead" we need to talk about the rich characters we met last night, because they were definitely not the kind of people I was expecting to be introduced to. 

Fact is, these are all some incredibly broken down and damaged human beings that happen to wear a badge and carry and gun and I'll be damned if I don't want to know more about them. Each one of the characters we met last night has a checkered past that haunts them day in and day out and while we only received hints of that last night, I'm sure more details about their yesterdays will no doubt be revealed as the weeks progress. But really, two men stole the show last night, Detective Ray Velcoro, played by Colin Farrell and Frank Semyon, played by Vince Vaughn. 

These are two men whose fates are intertwined over tragedy. Since we learned enough about Ray last night to know that he and his wife suffered some serious trauma years ago and he received information from Frank on exactly who the man was that brutally beat and raped his wife. It is of course implied that Ray dealt with the man off duty and I have no doubt that that man is dead considering the predisposition to violence that Ray is more than willing to exhibit at any given time. Yet it still haunts him, we see it in the way he pounds down alcohol as if it were prohibition and the irony of it all is that Frank seems to be the only character with a conscience, despite the fact that it is clear he is a businessman with a career full of dubious choices grounded in grey areas and he has no doubt broken a few laws along the way. 

Either way, this episode served as an hour long introduction to these shattered characters and a good long look at their painful day to day lives and I loved every second of it. It was clear however that there was a reason to introduce everyone the way that we did and I'm glad that it all came together in the last few minutes of the show when the man of the hour, Vinci City Manager Ben Caspere shows up dead and just like that...our characters come together and we have a mystery on our hands, one that may or may not be solved depending on how these damaged characters handle death because thus far, they most certainly cannot handle life. Either way, I'm hooked. I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw a crime drama this dark and I'll definitely be tuning in next week to see where this story is headed. Until then. 

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