World Literature

No show knows how to double down and hit hard quite like True Detective.

“Church in Ruins” picks up right where we left off as Ray (Colin Farrell) bangs down the door of Frank (Vince Vaughn) after discovering the man who raped his wife is still alive and the man Frank told him about was not the rapist. The two sit at Frank’s kitchen table, cups of coffee on top and concealed pistols pointed at each other underneath. Ray thinks Frank gave him the wrong information just to have a cop under his thumb, but Frank insists he was given bad information and will track down the guy who gave Frank the wrong name. A bit calmer but still seething, Ray tells Frank about the prostitute that stole and pawned some of Caspere’s belongings. He also mentions the crazy sex parties hosted by one of Frank’s guys, Blake, and mayor Chessani’s son. Frank wants Ray to find the hard drive that was missing from Caspere’s secret sex house, due to a corporate big shot believing there to be some unflattering footage of certain powerful dignitaries on there.

Ray will do his best, but his personal life continues to circle the drain. Visits with his son now come with a court-ordered supervisor, who (to Ray’s annoyance) scribbles down every little thing that goes on during the meeting. After realizing his son isn’t as into building model airplanes as he is (if his son ever was to begin with), Ray starts to see less and less of himself in his son. Responding like a mature adult, Ray downs booze and snorts cocaine in frustration, eventually calling his ex-wife and admitting defeat by not contesting custody. His one condition is that if his ex takes the paternity test and discovers the rapist is the father and not Ray, that their son can never find out.