Black Maps and Motel Rooms
"Black Maps and Motel Rooms" is the seventh episode of the second season of the American anthology crime drama television series True Detective.
The season is set in California and focuses on three detectives, Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell), Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), from three cooperating police forces and a criminal-turned-businessman named Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) as they investigate a series of crimes they believe are linked to the murder of a corrupt politician.
In the episode, Velcoro, Bezzerides and Woodrugh use the information they obtained to finally connect all cases, while Semyon sets out to take care of his loyalties.
After escaping from the mansion, Velcoro (Colin Farrell), Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams), Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) and Vera (Miranda Rae Mayo) stay at a motel.
Woodrugh moves Emily (Adria Arjona) and Cynthia (Lolita Davidovich) out of the city and into a motel while Bezzerides does the same with Athena (Leven Rambin) and Eliot (David Morse), putting them in care of Ilinca (Michael Irby) and en route to Oregon.
Using the information that Velcoro provided, Semyon brutally attacks Blake (Christopher James Baker), who confesses to conspiring with Osip and Tony Chessani but claims that no one knows who killed Caspere.
The three conclude that during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Burris, Holloway, Dixon, and Caspere worked together to steal the blue diamonds, which they used to buy into the Vinci power structure and inflate their salaries.
Woodrugh is once again contacted by the stranger, claiming that they need to meet at the Los Angeles County Hall of Records or they will leak the pictures, forcing him to leave the motel.
Glib leads him through an underground tunnel to meet Holloway, the person responsible for the blackmail messages, as well as a group of men from Black Mountain.
Back in the motel room, Velcoro and Bezzerides look through Vera's photos, and identify a woman at a party as Erica, Caspere's secretary in the city manager's office.
The site's consensus states: "Tense and tightly paced, 'Black Maps and Motel Rooms' finds the disparate -- and often vague -- strands of True Detective coming into sharper focus.
"[4] Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.5 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "True Detective put the screws to our heroes this week, placing them, for the first time in this season, in the crosshairs of the various villains pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Club gave the episode an "A−" grade and wrote, "True Detective season two wants you to be watching the whole chessboard at all times, but it's playing chess by mail — you have to wait at least seven days to find out what meaning (if any) the previous move had, and the entire game lasts two months.
With Ani and Ray on the lam, Paul potentially out of the picture, and Frank watching his world burn, 'Black Maps And Motel Rooms' sets up one explosive checkmate.
"[7] Gwilym Mumford of The Guardian wrote, "The jittery momentum builds as the series’s climax comes into view, and at last we actually care about the fates of our true detectives.
'"[10] Aaron Riccio of Slant Magazine wrote, "The problem with mysteries, especially fair-play ones, is that if you've paid close enough attention and solved it ahead of schedule, then a table-setting episode like 'Black Maps and Hotels Rooms', in which characters constantly explain how the pieces fit together, is nothing short of irritating.
"[11] Kenny Herzog of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "At least we'll all know soon enough what everyone on this hotly debated True Detective season takes with them and leaves behind, now that only one chapter remains.
"[12] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "'Black Maps and Motel Rooms' was a dense and satisfying and upheld the HBO tradition that no one is safe on their series.
"[13] Carissa Pavlica of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "If you were holding your breath, hoping that 'Black Maps and Motel Rooms' was going to raise the stakes and lead us into one hell of a finale, you were sadly mistaken.
