Spoilers for True Detective Season 2, Episode 3, "Maybe Tomorrow" ahead.
With "Maybe Tomorrow," True Detective's central question—who killed Ben Caspere?—blurs even further. The list of suspects grew, the plot thickened, and the nightmares became more nightmarish. Those who find the show's second season to be unbearably odd might be grabbing their pitchforks after this third episode; after an impressionistic opening, True Detective doubles down on everything that makes this show so frustrating and captivating. Which is why we're still mesmerized, still hunting for clues...
Evidence #1: Ray Velcoro's Trip to Hell
The last time we saw Detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Ferrell), a man wearing a bird mask shotgunned him in the chest. And then things got weird. Turns out, Hell is a grungy bar where the only other patron is your abusive father, ready to dispense metaphors at the drop of a hat, and a Conway Twitty-ish cowboy soundtracks the moment with a cover of Bette Midler's "The Rose." The whole thing is intentionally obtuse, yet totally on-the-nose. Velcoro is becoming his father: an unpleasant, destructive, dinosaur of a man. If season one's Rust Cohle needed to learn how to hope, then Velcoro surely needs to learn how to love and to forgive. But as the song says, love "is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed." And he's sure doing a hell of a lot of bleeding.
As far as bizarre David Lynch riffs go, this one is a solid B+.
Evidence #2: The Buckshot Stops Here
Velcoro's death was a fake out. He wakes up. That shotgun was only loaded with buckshot and he's very much alive. However, the "Birderer" did abscond with that all-too-convenient secret camera. So much for solving the case in episode three...
Evidence #3: Vinci is all Up in Ani's Business
Detective Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) arrives at Caspere's secret sex cave, only to find that Vinci P.D. has beat her to the punch. Suspicious much? The mayor and his inner circle certainly know more than they're letting on, so it's no surprise that Ani is officially on their shit list before the credits roll. After all, she's the most competent cop of the bunch. The "true detective," if you will.
Evidence #4: What a Pivotal Clue Looks Like
When someone tells you to stick to the hooker angle and avoid looking into the land deals, that's code for look at the goddamn land deals. Seriously, Velcoro. Where did yo go to cop school? Do you know what kind of show you're on? At least we later see a shot of Ani ruffling through real estate paperwork, once again proving the trueness of her detectiveness.
Evidence #5: E-Cig Commentary, Round Two
"Is that a fucking E-cigarette?" Yes. Yes it is, Officer Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch). How else are we to know that Ani Bezzerides is not your average cop? She's a vaping cop! All kinds of unpredictable.
Evidence #6: Emasculation Proclamation
The masculine failures of Frank Semyon (Vince Vaugn) extend past the workplace. His criminal enterprise is falling down around his ears and he can't put a baby in his lady. He can't provide a sperm sample, even when his wife joins him to give him a... hand. This season of True Detective has been about a lot of things (real estate, troubled childhoods, broken families), but it's been mostly about men being unable to get boners. See, Nic Pizzolatto doesn't think men are that great.
Evidence #7: The Death of What's-His-Name
Since Frank Semyon is deeply unhappy that Stan is dead, we'll assume that we should be deeply unhappy, too. Stan is a True Detective red shirt, a character existing just to bite it. That brings our official murder count up to two bodies. If we had to point fingers for this crime, we'll look to Osip Agranov, the Russian gangster who has been quietly pulling the rug out from under Semyon since episode one (more on him later).
Evidence #8: Re-masculation Proclamation
Frank aims his vengeance at the owner of Frank's old nightclub. Did this guy kill Stan? Probably not. Did he kill Caspere? Most definitely not. But he does pick a fight with Frank, who proceeds to beat him to a pulp before going to work on his gold grill with a pair of pliers.
Evidence #9: Woodrugh Hangs Out at Dirtbike Races
Because of course he does. He's probably drinking a Budweiser, too.
Evidence #10: The Ongoing Mysteries of Woodrugh
Last week's clues panned out in a big way in a scene where Woodrugh meets his old military comrade… who was also his lover. Maybe. Possibly. The show hasn't come out (pun firmly intended) with the full story yet, but it's certainly no accident that Woodrugh's investigation finally goes down the right path when he starts chilling out with the male prostitutes instead of the ladies of the night. The fruit of his labors is the name of a hooker: Tasha. This is surely the same Tasha who Mayor Chessani name dropped as being a favorite call girl of Caspere in the previous episode.
Evidence #11: The Russian Connection
Semyon's "fucking commie jew fuck" of a business partner, Osip Agranov, has officially fled the deal. Could he be responsible for this whole debacle? After all, "…he looks half anaconda, half great white," which is an actual line of dialogue written for a television show.
Evidence #12: Yes, a Song With the Lyrics "Killer, Killer" Played Over a Montage of Woodrugh Conducting His Investigation
Jesus Christ, Nic Pizzolatto.
Evidence #13: The Mayor's Very Special Family
Mayor Chessani lives in a tacky Bel Air mansion with his Russian mail-order bride of a wife and a mustache-twirling son who wouldn't look out of place in an episode of Magnum P.I. The home office even has a picture of the Mayor posing with George W. Bush, so you just know he's up to even less good than previously thought. Last week, we wondered if the son could be our Birderer. This week, we learned that he's an event planner with an arsenal of accents. Can the show kill this guy off as soon as possible? Pretty please. With cocaine on top.
Evidence #14: The Missing Car and the Film Shoot
Between all of the neuroses and sexual hang-ups, "Maybe Tomorrow" did manage to feature some actual police work. It seems that Caspere had his hand in a local film production and that the film's producer attended a few of those crazy parties. Most importantly, the car that transported Caspere's dead body was stolen from the set. Hmm…
Evidence #15: Apocalypse, Now
True Detective has never met a metaphor it didn't love hammering into the ground. It's no accident that the local film is some kind of post-apocalyptic adventure. After all, the world is ending. Society is crumbling. Families are breaking. Dynasties are struggling. No one can get an erection. The final chase takes Velcoro and Ani through an apocalyptic shanty town inhabited by the homeless and the forgotten. Heavy-handed? Oh, yeah. But also undeniably effective.
Evidence #16: The Sad Saxophone
Is that really a sad, '80s sax wailing over the scene where Frank ignores his wife and throws away all of teeth he just ripped out of a man's head? Never change, True Detective.
