At one point during the second-season finale of True Detective, “Omega Station,” Frank turns to the Latino man holding a gun to his head and asks, “Why?” It’s a question we’ll ask ourselves time and again during this mystifying 90-minute experience, in which the show finally veered into so-bad-it’s-good territory.
Tonally, the finale felt like an ’80s action film — a shootout at a train station, a shootout in the woods, telling your woman you’ll see her very soon (dying soon after that), and those women living under aliases in Venezuela. While watching “Omega Station,” I found myself wishing I were watching Point Break instead, and missing Patrick, Keanu, and the ocean. (This season of True Detective really could have used more ocean-driven drama.)
Plot-wise, we open with Ani and Ray’s depressing pillow talk, and then quickly dispatch with the show’s central murder-mystery as anticlimactically as the rest of the season played out.
(It was the kids!)
The next hour is mainly concerned with our dynamic trio of fugitives trying to escape their fates … to create better fates! Instead, True D twists the ol’ knife over and over again — the finale is basically a series of knife-twists for those whose hearts were invested in Frank, Ray, Ani, and Jordan. (Send your regards to chadvelcoro@gmail.com.) It also gifted us with: Colin Farrell’s cowboy voice, Vince Vaughn’s desert walk, one last look at that crow mask.
Now that this season is in the rearview mirror, tell us: Did the end redeem the show? Did it entertain you? Was it brilliantly kitschy or a hot pile of garbage? How did it compare to Rust and Marty’s farewell? And did Rachel McAdams’s hair deserve that? We’ll have our full analysis up in the morning. In the meantime, discuss!
