10 Best Episodes Of True Detective

Fans of Michael Mann’s crime classic Heat would be the first to point out the influence that it had on season two's fourth episode (and entire season). Featuring tense, explosive action, all beautifully shot and carefully choreographed by director Jeremy Podeswa. Down Will Come provides the low point for our lead investigators and the ending of the first act, all leading to a significant jump in time, a True Detective plot device throughout all three series.

Velcoro, Bezzadires and Woodrugh converge on a location provided by intelligence from fingerprints on a pawnshop watch, fingerprints that belong to a new suspect – Ledo Amarilla. As the heavily armed unit arrive at a multi story building in Vinci, L.A. they are unaware of the horror show they are walking into.

Moments later, a man armed with an automatic weapon unleashes a spray of bullets on the cops from an upstairs window resulting in the corrupt and permanently drunk Dixon being shot in the head and killed. The whole operation begins to unravel as more cops, civilians and suspects are blown away. When the building itself explodes, it becomes clear that this is a meth house and does not hide Ben Caspere’s murderer.

It’s an intense shootout – a blaze of gunfire worthy of the big screen and a moment of disaster that we know is going irredeemably wrong from the first bullet. It’s clearly a set up and an operation that will end the careers of the detectives and destroy the case itself.