Omega Station
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.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 2.73 million household viewers and gained a 1.2 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
Semyon (Vince Vaughn) asks Jordan (Kelly Reilly) to leave for Barquisimeto in Venezuela with Nails (Chris Kerson).
He calls Osip (Timothy V. Murphy) to threaten him and settles down at a bunker at the Black Rose to map out his plan, with the help of Felicia (Yara Martinez).
They visit their house, finding the bird mask, weapons and pictures of many officers, including Burris and Holloway (Afemo Omilami).
She also admits that Lenny is responsible for Caspere's death, intending to meet with Holloway to trade the hard drive (which has been erased) for money in the new train station at Anaheim (ARTIC).
Using a wire, Velcoro claims to have the hard drive and demands the diamonds, also having him reveal his involvement in Amarilla's death and his partnership with Tony.
Holloway then claims that Laura was Caspere's illegitimate daughter, prompting an angry Lenny to attempt to stab him, only to be shot by Burris.
Bezzerides, who arrived at the location, also starts shooting but in the chaos, the crowd steps on the wire, destroying their evidence and forcing her and Velcoro to escape.
Velcoro and Semyon then intercept a Catalast meeting at a cabin in the woods and they kill everyone, including Osip and McCandless (Jon Lindstrom).
Gena (Abigail Spencer) finally receives the results of her paternity test, which states that Velcoro was Chad's biological father.
Tony Chessani is named Mayor of Vinci, while elected Governor Richard Geldof (C. S. Lee) inaugurates the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which goes as planned.
Some time later, in Barquisimeto, Bezzerides speaks with Dan Howser (Stevin Knight),[a] recounting on all the events that happened and provides with all incriminating evidence, including Caspere's case files.
"[7] Gwilym Mumford of The Guardian wrote, "The formulaic tropes that plagued the second season continue right into the bloody finale, and many questions have been left unanswered.
For it to be a mystery, audiences would have needed to enjoy piecing together the clues, rather than waiting for missing bits of exposition to drop heavily during long-winded back-and-forths.
While there were times the rampant confusion over what was happening on True Detective was overblown, it would be hard to argue anyone was engaged with the mystery for the right reasons.
In other words, Season 2 was filled with poorly chosen red herrings, and what did matter lacked the dramatic heft of better stories.
"[11] Brian Lowry of Variety wrote, "Despite rallying marginally at the end, the encore to the acclaimed limited series that paired Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson proved a major disappointment – not just compared to the original, but on its own turgid terms.
"[12] Sean T. Collins of Rolling Stone wrote, "True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto delivered a frustrating finale that tried to have its catharsis cake and mute it too.
A show that has spent its entire existence straddling both sides of the self-parody line just doesn't have the control required to pull off that contrast.
"[13] Shane Ryan of Paste gave the episode a 4.8 out of 10 and wrote, "The beautiful mess is over, and the tumbling, changeable dice that is True Detective season two landed more on 'mess' than 'beautiful' in last night's finale.
"[14] Kenny Herzog of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "This iteration of True Detective as a whole oriented, disoriented, and then reoriented us to its environment and ethos with lurid detours into genre storytelling and sobering cause and effect on real lives.
Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.5 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "True Detective's second season certainly contained a lot.
"[18] Carissa Pavlica of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "True Detective Season 2 wasn't a win.
