True Detective 'Other Lives' [TV-EPISODE REVIEW]

Five episodes in and 'True Detective' Season 2 finally seems to reach further than where it has been for the first half. 'Other Lives' is definitely the best episode so far as all the buildup we have been getting finally seems to be heading somewhere now. Every character had great scenes and I can now not wait to find out where this is going.

Yes I have really enjoyed all the episodes this Season but even I cannot say that this is a brilliant season that lives up to the first. All the episodes up to this point have not been very re-watchable and there are a bit too many characters and subplots to follow. 'Other Lives' though is fantastic. Excellently tieing together many of the subplots and characters, in the other episodes there was always that "oh..." moment for me whenever we cut to another character that was not Ray or Ani. In this episode however, I never got that feeling. I thoroughly enjoyed every scene in the episode because it is finally feeling like this is going somewhere. Of course Ray Velcoro is still the best and most interesting character but he did not have to carry the whole thing on his shoulder this time. Vince Vaughn delivers his best performance to date as his character is finally given something interesting do. Taylor Kitsch is great here and I finally cared about the character's personal life as well as his place in the main story.

Once again we get a new director for the season in the name of John Crowley. This is the only episode he directed and he is definitely up there with last episode's director Jeremy Podeswa. There is this sense of dread throughout the whole thing, like it is all leading up to something - and of course it turns out it was. Crowley just like the other directors manages to emulate the first season's style quite well. 

Nic Pizzolatto is finally focusing less on the land deals and finally spending more time on the habits of these sinister and powerful people. It has now become very enjoyable to watch the story unfold now that we are completely onboard with the characters' motivations and the episode ends in a nailbiter that I cannot wait to see where they take it. It truly is starting to feel like Season 1 now and I am desperately hoping they keep it up. In 'True Detective' fashion, the second half of the season received a bit of a time jump as this episode deals with what happened a couple of months after the big shootout in the last episode. Hopefully something this season does not do that Season 1 did is not have a twist at the end. Of course it worked in the first Season but I feel like this season really needs a big kicker to shake everything up and put everything into a whole new perspective. That might also help to get more people onboard and also maybe make it more fun to re-watch the whole thing. 

Overall, definitely the best episode thus far. All the characters and subplots finally feel important to the story and there seems to be an endgame to the whole thing. It just needs to deliver on the remaining episodes by continuing to improve and maybe it will be remembered more fondly.

9/10

- Lucas