Church in Ruins (S2x06)
Airdate: 26 July 2015
Written by: Nic Pizzolatto Directed by: Miguel Sapochnik
Running Time: 59 minutes
Church in Ruins comes six episodes into True Detective's catastrophic second season like a faint pulse in an otherwise flatlining patient. Director Miguel Sapochnik—fresh off his triumph with Game of Thrones' Hardhome—manages to deliver what is arguably the season's strongest installment, though that is damning with the faintest of praise. The episode represents a temporary cessation of the series' freefall, offering moments of genuine visual sophistication and narrative coherence that only highlight how thoroughly Nic Pizzolato's anthology crime drama has squandered its pedigree.
The episode's centerpiece—Ani Bezzerides' infiltration of an elite sex party—wears its influences so brazenly on its sleeve that one wonders if Pizzolato is paying homage or simply borrowing. The sequence explicitly echoes Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and the timing is suspicious: the episode aired on July 26, 2015—Stanley Kubrick's 88th birthday. Whether this represents genuine inspiration or cynical calendar-marketing is debatable, but what matters is execution. Here, Sapochnik distinguishes himself from the season's otherwise inept direction by filtering the orgy through Ani's drugged perspective (she is forcibly given ecstasy upon arrival). Rather than delivering the exploitative voyeurism HBO's marketing promised—and that lesser directors might have indulged—the scene instead cultivates genuine unease. Ani's impaired perception blurs the line between reality and nightmare, compounded by intrusive flashbacks to childhood sexual abuse in her father's New Age commune. The result is appropriately disorienting and ethically complex, though one questions whether the show earns its trauma narrative after seasons of using female characters as vessels for male anguish.
Church in Ruins exposes the season's uneven performances with cruel clarity. Colin Farrell, who delivered genuinely affecting work in the preceding episode, here descends into histrionics as Ray Velcoro relapses into substance abuse. His manic drinking, smoking, and cocaine snorting constitute pathetic overacting that destroys the goodwill built by his earlier restraint. The character's spiral—triggered by the realisation that his relationship with his son is irreparably damaged—should land with tragic weight. Instead, it plays as parody.
Conversely, Vince Vaughn finally receives material worthy of his talents. Liberated from the "flowery" dialogue that plagued earlier episodes—those pseudo-philosophical monologues that seemed designed for Google-searching by philosophy undergraduates—Frank Semyon emerges as the season's most compelling figure. Pizzolato appears to recognize this shift, positioning Frank as the series' closest approximation to a "good guy." A scene in which he comforts the son of a murdered associate manages emotional authenticity without sliding into mawkish sentimentality, while his genuine revulsion upon discovering his Mexican cartel partners killed a woman merely for talking to police adds necessary moral dimension. Frank's pragmatism and buried humanity stand in stark relief against the season's otherwise nihilistic posturing.
The episode resolves the previous instalment's cliffhanger with surprising elegance. Rather than deploying the over-complicated solutions (contrived deus ex machina) that have plagued the season, Ray's confrontation with Frank unfolds with brutal realism. Both men meet at a kitchen table, pistols concealed but ready, and reach a pragmatic détente: Ray acknowledges that vengeance for Frank's false tip (which led him to kill the wrong man) would be mutually destructive. Their continued alliance feels earned, grounded in mutual survival rather than plot convenience.
Ani's infiltration mission—borrowing her sister's identity to gather evidence at the elite gathering—provides the episode's propulsive energy. The eventual discovery of Vera Machiado, the missing woman whose case initiated the investigation, leads to a predictable but competently staged confrontation with an arrogant oil-wealthy client whose dialogue (boasting of his oil wealth and weapons production) reads like a Hollywood caricature of Bush-era villainy. The subsequent knife fight and escape sequence, aided by Woodrough and Velcoro, delivers the season's most effective action choreography.
Older viewers will recognize another influence: Audrey Horne's infiltration of One-Eyed Jack's in Twin Peaks. Pizzolato wisely avoids Lynch and Frost's melodramatic register, but the comparison does him no favours. Where Twin Peaks balanced its darkness with genuine strangeness and emotional authenticity, True Detective Season 2 offers only oppressive grimness. The classical music score—evocative of 1940s-50s film noir—represents Sapochnik's smartest choice, lending the episode an aural sophistication missing from the season's typically poor music selection.
Church in Ruins is the best episode of True Detective's second season, which is roughly equivalent to being the most comfortable seat on a sinking ship. Sapochnik's direction elevates material that remains fundamentally compromised by Pizzolato's overstuffed plotting, underdeveloped characters, and philosophical pretensions. The episode suggests what might have been possible with tighter writing and consistent direction—qualities that defined the McConaughey-Harrelson partnership of Season 1 but evaporated in the California sun.
For viewers who have endured five episodes of increasingly incoherent narrative, Church in Ruins offers temporary relief. It moves the pieces into place for the season's conclusion with something approaching competence. Yet even at its best, this season cannot escape its foundational errors: four protagonists where two sufficed, subplots that lead nowhere, and a mystery that resolves not with revelation but with resignation. The episode's final moments suggest momentum, but momentum toward what remains the question. With only two episodes remaining, even this relative high point cannot salvage a season that will be remembered primarily as a cautionary tale about the dangers of sophomore slumps.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
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