10 Reasons Why Season 2 Of True Detective Is Actually Awesome
4. That Orgy Scene
The action sequences in Season Two may have been as brutal, and well-earned as they were sporadic, but nothing was quite as shocking or thrillingly paced as the orgy; the centrepiece to the season.
Season One's Cary Fukunaga-directed, six-minute tracking shot of Rust infiltrating a drugs ring was one of the most thrilling television sequences in recent memory. To attempt to better it in terms of ambition or scale for this season would have been foolish and reeked of desperation. Instead, Pizzolato conjured this up: thematically, it is heavier, and the characters - particularly Bezzerides - have more at stake than Cohle ever did. Once again, Pizzolato allows the characters' own personal circumstances to heighten the dramatic impact of the action.
When Bezzerides disguises herself in order to infiltrate this nightmarish (again, David Lynch seems to be an influence) vision of sexual depravity it becomes personal. She is drugged upon entering the party and begins to have ambiguous visions from her past. These visions raise questions about her own sexual behaviour and how these relate to what she is witnessing now. It draws parallels between the different ways in which power can be abused, between the sexual assault on a child by an adult (as seen in Bezzerides' visions), and the abuse of power which can gain the rich and powerful access to any act of debauchery they wish.
This abuse of power serves a larger purpose and reiterates the central themes of the whole season arc.