True Detective Season 2 Episode 4 Review: Is going rogue the only way left for characters?

Episode 4 of True Detective season 2 'Down Will Come' has a 10 minute long action scene and for once it looks like we are headed towards an interesting ending.

Let's take it down one character at a time:

Paul Woodrugh's (Taylor Kitsch) story is now out in the open. No more hinting at Viagra and ex-boyfriends from the army. One thing stays common; the self-hatred about being queer and blaming the unjust world.

But, no need to worry when you have a friend like Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) by your side. He has no grip on his personal life whatsoever, and will offer you a Smirnoff to drown whatever you are feeling. This is Velcoro's mantra because he believes nobody out there knows how to deal with anything. Here, we get the much delayed bonding moment between Woodrugh and Velcoro. Share some booze, have out all that bothers you and become brothers in arms.

This little pep talk is not all that Woodrugh got. As if the ride of shame in the morning was not sufficient, paparazzo are waiting outside his hotel to ask question about the Black Mountain case (which would not be a case at all if Woodrugh came out).

Woodrugh's sexuality is no longer a puzzle to the audience, but he remains firmly in the closet. In the evening he convinces himself he needs to spend his life with his ex-girlfriend after she tells him she is carrying his child and will not consider abortion. 

The decision seems to have worked like a charm. The next day we see Woodrugh find a suspect, brief the task force and be part of it to nab the suspect. Business as usual. Until we get to the fight and you are in the middle of a mess where officers and civilians have died alike and you are facing an investigation solely designed to trap you and your band of friends.

Even after all this happens to Woodrugh, there is no a significant leap in his character. In reality, it's hard to understand why anybody would be bothered with his sexuality in particular in the middle of LA! What is the point of the gay angle if we don't know why is he hell-bent on hiding it? 

Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) is now paying the price for visiting the Mayor's house. Velcoro is too late in telling her that the people she is told to deal with are the same ones not interested in having this case investigated. They have ruled Vinci for years and she will be first in line to get screwed over for meddling.

Bezzerides is now under investigation for sexual harassment of her junior, DI Steven Mercer. She believes this came to light because of the Mayor and that she is being targeted because she is a woman. But this is simply revenge. The information about her gambling debt though could be the damage the Mayor intends for her. When it comes to being a woman, we see a fair argument. Bezzerides is not a victim. She is not hell-bent on pinning everything on the opposite gender. 'Cops protect cops' could have been applied to her. She kicks it out of the park when she says, "This would not be happening to a man."

Later, she is back to lead her task force to nab the suspect. The look she gives the Mayor of Vinci is spot on!

Instead of waiting back for the suspect to come out in open, they decide to ambush him. But after the civilian casualties and the death of most of the task force, Bezzerides realises it was them who were the target of the ambush. In the series, once again Bezzerides has failed with one of her raids. Remember episode one? This will reflect badly on the investigation run against her.

Velcoro is a changed and very relaxed man in this episode. What happened to 'I want to stay sober to stay angry'? It was an episode filled with bonding and creating connections for Velcoro. He tells Bezzerides about the people she is dealing with, helps Woodrugh gulp down his issues and then bonds with his son. The scene with his son brought some comic relief. As his son points out to him, Velcoro gives his father's badge to his son so that his son will have something to remember Velcoro by!

What Velcoro did should drive the plot now. He still hasn't stopped being Frank Seymon's (Vince Vaughn) eyes and ears in the force. So the information he gave about the suspect to Seymon could be the reason they got ambushed in the end. Someone within Seymon's men maybe trying to go after his money. Therefore there are chances that Seymon's people tipped the suspect to open fire at the task force, killing them mercilessly.

Frank Seymon, on the other hand, is going down in the quicksand of the LA underworld. He is hitting all his old businesses that he gave away to gather petty cash and save what he has built to come out of the dirt.

While on these rounds to call in favours, Seymon's vocabulary is getting far too sophisticated for a gangster. He is using words like Apoplectic, Stridency, and Louche! Then there is covering the tea stains on the table cover. Is this his way of clinging to the new life he has created?

Conclusion

Looking at the ambush in the end, barring Seymon, the other three are now trapped in the cage. The only cop who had sort of a clean record, Ani Bezzarides, is now blotted and has no hook left in the state police. Paul Woodrugh is already in troubled waters because of the actress incident at Black Mountain. He is not a very popular person with the State Highway Patrol either. Ray Velcoro, already the fall guy for Vinci PD, can probably still get some support out of Seymon. Right before the 10 minute action scene Seymon offers Velcoro the chance to walk away from the PD and come work with him. Was that a foreshadowing for the next episodes where all our detectives go rogue on the system and solve the case on their own? 

Let's stick around with one more episode because things just got interesting.

True Detective airs every Monday at 6:30 am, with a repeat telecast at 10 pm, on HBO Defined.