‘True Detective’ Recap: Ani And Ray Are Fugitives; Paul Gets Shot

True Detective, following last week’s harrowing sex party, left Ani, Ray and Paul with the contracts signed by Vinci’s high profile criminals, wondering what the next step is.

True Detective Recap

Ani (Rachel McAdams) is stilling coming down from the MDMA spray from the party, erratically telling Ray about all of the high-profile men that were present, and also almost lets slip about the incident in the woods when she was a child. Still drugged up, Ani tries to get Ray to have sex with her, but Ray tells her it won’t help her and goes to see Paul (Taylor Kitsch), who is going over all of the documents, one of which is signed by Chessani (Ritchie Coster). While they’re talking, Paul gets a blackmail text with pictures of him and Miguel (Gabriel Luna). Worried about what could have been sent to Emily, he leaves to go see her just as Ani comes to check out the contracts.

As for Frank (Vince Vaughn), he’s playing a solo game of cards when Jordan walks into the casino and tries to convince him to get out of town. Ray then pays him a visit and tells him that the future governor, the attorney general and McCandless are all in on deals. Someone had helped Tony Chessani get him out of Caspere’s shares and killed Caspere. In response, a somewhat taken aback Frank tells Ray that Irina had told him that she’d been working for a cop, hoping that Ray can find out who that cop is. Frank then promises to give Ray the name of the guy who gave him false information about his wife’s attacker.

Ray leaves Frank to meet with the district attorney Katherine Davis (Michael Hyatt) and show her the contracts, but finds her dead in her car at their meet-up point. Meanwhile, Frank confronts Blake (Christopher James Baker) and blames him for Stan’s death, smashing a glass across his face. Blake, in an effort to stop the beating, reveals that Osip’s (Timothy V. Murphy) been moving to take Frank’s spot and that he had started working for him. He claims he doesn’t know who killed Caspere, but that Caspere was never going to honor the deal. As for why Blake killed Stan, he admits that Stan had seen him talking to Osip. It’s also revealed that it was Blake who gave the guy up for Ray to kill because he personally needed him dead, and also thought the tip would make him look good. Pressed for any further information, Blake says that Osip’s turning over $12 million of Caspere’s shares and that Osip’s people bought the liens on the clubs. After getting out the last bit of information, Frank kills Blake.

When Jordan (Kelly Reilly) arrives, Frank lets her come up to his office and see Blake dead on the floor. He tells her that Osip and his men have taken everything and that she’s going to have to leave their home and that he’ll meet her tomorrow. He makes plans with a diamond dealer to hide some cash, books a couple of plane tickets and buys some new passports.  When Frank returns to the casino, he comes out to the casino bar where Chessani has thrown back a number of drinks. Osip then approaches the bar to tell him that be’s bought the lien on the casino and the ones for his clubs. Osip also tells Frank he can manage the casino and the clubs and that they’d put him on a salary. Frank plays at being grateful, but later he burns the casino down to the ground. He burns down the clubs as well.

Meanwhile, Paul is getting Emily and his mother out of town for fear that they’re in danger of learning his secret, or worse, getting killed. Back at the office, Paul starts to uncover some dirty business in the police department. He also finds out that Ani is wanted for questioning in the death of the security guard. When he meets back up with Ani and Ray he tells them that they’re both fugitives as Ray was set up for the DA’s death. Paul also tells them that Burris (James Frain) and Dixon (W. Earl Brown) had served under Holloway (Afemo Omilami) and that they’d been working with Caspere since in the 90s. They think Holloway and Burris may have killed Caspere because his girl Tasha was threatening to come forward with the murder that happened more than two decades ago that they’d helped him cover up.

After leaving the meeting, Paul calls Ray and tells him that he’s been getting blackmailed with pictures and that he might be walking into “something.” He stops short of telling Ray what the pictures are of before coming face-to-face with Miguel. Miguel tells Paul that the man he works for – Holloway – only wants to talk. Holloway, who tells Paul it was Dixon who’d provided the blackmail pictures, knows that he has the contracts. Paul tells him that Ray currently has the contracts and that he’ll set up a meeting with him if they’ll keep the pictures a secret. But, when he spots a moment of opportunity, he grabs Holloway and starts to make his exit. He takes down Holloways agents one-by-one, even offing Miguel by using him as a shield. Just as he thinks he’s in the clear, Burris shoots him dead.

While their partner lay bleeding out on the concrete floor of one of Vinci’s underground tunnels, Ani and Ray bond over booze and a news discovery about the case. Looking into the Ray’s eyes, Ani tells him that he’s not a bad man. Ray insists that it’s true, that he is bad. It’s not long before they’re in bed together.

True Detective airs Sundays on HBO at 9/8c.