'True Detective' season finale recap: 'We deserve a better world'

Spoiler alert! The following contains spoilers for Sunday’s episode of True Detective.

It's been quite a road getting here, hasn't it?

Like the California freeway system it was so fond of showing us, True Detective season two has been long, twisty and exceedingly frustrating since it premiered. This week's finale was the show's last chance to redeem itself, and yet we were treated to an hour-and-a-half episode that was so emblematic of the flaws of this season.

There's a lot to unpack from "Omega Station" (get it because omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet? So it's the last station? Because it's the last episode?). It tried to cram as much as humanely possible into ninety minutes (this is an episode where the mystery of the entire season is solved 27 minutes in and then it just keeps going), but the last ten are really where it just let itself go, as it took our three remaining main characters to their extremes. Visually there actually is something cool going on in the last bit of the show, where Ray is fighting for his life in a redwood forest, Ani is fleeing the country on a boat and Frank is walking wounded in the desert. No matter how much the show tried to push these guys together, inevitably they are all loners. For Frank and Ray, that meant they died alone. For Ani, that means living alone, even when surrounded by others. But inevitably we're all alone, even if, as Ani says in her one hopeful sentiment for this entire season, "we deserve a better world." To be honest, I don't think True Detective actually thinks we deserve much of anything.

Time to wake up

Frank's marriage, which seemed to be a core part of his identity from episode one, is the first thing he is willing to sacrifice as he burns his life down (the literal burning happened last week, if you recall). Trying to Spider-Man his wife (that would be, break up with her for her own safety) he gives her 100 grand and tells her it's over and to get lost. What a guy, right? Of course Jordan doesn't buy his act and the pair makes plans to meet in Venezuela in two weeks (they even coordinate outfits), so we know Frank's going to die. But Jordan gets to ride off with her bodyguard a little hopeful (more on her later).

Frank then continues with his escape plan, and it's going swimmingly. He and Ray successfully rob the Russians, he gets his diamonds and has a whole trip planned to Venezuela with Ray and Ani (and he even gets to talk to Ani, sort of justifying his inclusion as a character this season). But it all goes wrong when a rival gang kidnaps him. It's not totally clear what they wanted, but Frank gives them the million dollars he just happens to be carrying, as his way out of it. And it almost looked like he was able to wriggle out of one last jam, but when one wants his suit (which has more like $3 million in diamonds in the pocket), Frank can't go down without a fight.

It's a fight he loses, of course. He takes a knife to the side and is left alone, wounded and hallucinating in the desert as he dies. Legitimately the hallucination of his father says "I never loved you," because subtext died on this show back in season one. He gets to see a vision of the Jordan he would have seen in Venezuela, dressed in a white gown, before he finally gives up completely. It seems like it's meant to be the most meaningful death, given how drawn out it is and the hallucinations of important figures from his life, but, like most of Frank's plot and characterization this season, it all just kind of washes over you. Anyways, RIP, serious Vince Vaughn. It was ... interesting while it lasted.

Who knew you were this competent?

OK before we talk about anything else to do with Ray, we HAVE to talk about his aviators/stetson look he wore to the train station catastrophe. Because ... wowza. That is a CHOICE. Is that necessarily the best disguise when you're a wanted man?

But anyways, I digress. Ray and Ani are actually able to solve the season's mystery pretty quickly in this episode. That's right, in just 27 minutes they have the daughter from the jewelry store robbery on tape (or on iPhone) confessing to her and her brother's involvement in Caspere's death and the parties (and the big bird head is back! Hooray!). But I have to say, even having the whole mystery explained did not help it become more interesting.

Instead of taking their witness and taped confession straight to the police, Ray heads off to try to stop the brother from killing another member of the corrupt Vinci conspiracy, while wearing the aforementioned disguise. We all learned a valuable lesson from his exchange with the brother at the train station: Never trust a guy to keep his cool who casually says things like "I am the blade and the bullet." So naturally Ray's one chance to clear his name goes wrong, two more people die and Ray could have been one of them if Ani hadn't shown up at the opportune moment. Finally they decide it's time to hit the road, but not before Ray steals a bunch of money with Frank.

Honestly I thought, when we spent so much time with Ray on the highway after the robbery, that it might be his undoing, thus explaining all the overhead shots from the season. But no it was just a moment for him to decide that he needed to see his son one last time before booking it to Venezuela, and a ripe opportunity for him to leave his car unattended so someone might plant a tracking device there (at first I thought it was a bomb and was really concerned when he kept poking it).

The last dregs of the conspiracy are still after him, and they chase him down through a redwood forest trying to find the "train documents" and Ani, but why they went to all this trouble makes no sense to me. Given how completely under water Ray and Ani were, it didn't seem like the conspiracy needed to do anything else to shut them up. But they went that extra mile anyway and put an untold number of bullets in Ray, who, to his credit, doesn't give up Ani. But he does get in one last failure as a father: His final message to Chad couldn't upload as he bled out on the forest floor. And just to twist the knife in a little more, it turns out Chad really is his son. But hey, at least they got to have that moment at the school.

The last one left

After forcing Ray and Ani into a physical relationship last week with little-to-no chemistry backing it up, the pair opened up the finale by telling each other their darkest secrets: Ani recounted her self-blame about her molestation as a child and Ray told her he murdered the man he thought raped his wife. For these two it was definitely the closest they could get to true intimacy. It's something, considering how much of this finale hinges on these two actually having a meaningful relationship.

The emotional anchor of this episode is meant to be that conversation between Ani and Ray as Ray is driving, knowing he's being followed by the Vinci crew, and he has to tell Ani to get on the boat without him. He's lying to her, promising that he's just going to be delayed instead of murdered, and she's trying to believe the lie, even though she knows what this means. It's a testament mostly to Rachel McAdams that this scene works, really giving her all even though the seven previous episodes did little to help her get there. And despite the fact that Ray is really a no-good killer, there is a heavy sense of inevitable sadness here, and I wondered just for a moment if Ani was going to do something stupid that would get her killed too.

But since having every single one of our main characters die would be just a little too depressing, Ani makes it out of the country, with only a new haircut and her daring sense of do-good to sustain her. Only when we see what kind of life she's carved out for herself (much of which was spent trying to get more evidence on this case) we also discover that she had Ray's baby (surprise!) and that she's raising him on the run with Jordan and that one guy who was still loyal to Frank. So I guess that's kind of a happy ending for them? Jordan got a baby after all? Ani found the truth sort of? That one henchman got to visit Venezuela?

Like so much else in True Detective season two, we are left a little confused and mostly unsatisfied.

Thanks for coming with me on this wild ride over the Southern California freeway system, aka True Detective season 2. Maybe we'll be back next year for season three. Maybe.

Missed last week’s recap? You can read it here.