True Detective Season Two: Ray Velcoro is not Dead

By Reuben Levine | Jul 2, 2015

You could consider the above title to be a tad “spoilery,” but the second episode of True Detective season two aired last Sunday and it is now Thursday. Sometimes you just have to go with it. At the end of last week’s episode, Detective Velcoro was supposedly left for dead after being shot by one of the crow men.

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But he’s not dead.

Now, there are a few reasons why this is. One, also known as the “gut feeling” is that it would be very odd to throw away a lead that has some of the most character development. Plus, him and Frank Semyon make a hell of a team.

Velcoro dead this early — we can’t speak to whether or not he’ll survive the entire season — would seriously cripple True Detective season two.

But besides all that, during the production of True Detective season two we were treated to a few paparazzi shots of a certain scene that has not yet unfolded. That link definitely qualifies as spoiler territory at this point, so consider yourself warned.

It’s unlikely that the above scene will feature as a flashback, as we’ve already seen what Velcoro looks like back when he was a regular cop in the first episode. Plus, that scene features Paul Woodrugh, who Velcoro only recently met. True Detective certainly wants you think that Velcoro has been killed, but there’s also a possible hint in the preview that followed the episode.

In the preview, Lieutenant Kevin Burris says to Bezzerides “one of my men get shot, better believe I’m on site.” The distinction being that he didn’t say “killed” or “murdered.” Coupled with what we already know and the overall likelihood of Velcoro’s death this early, we can’t help but believe he means that he’s not dead.

The shooting of Velcoro was the most shocking scene that season two of True Detective has had so far, and it was well executed to make you believe he may not be coming back. But that’s just not the case. We’ll see Velcoro again, and we feel strongly that it will be within the first ten minutes of episode three.

You can watch the preview for True Detective season two’s third episode below.

Next: Ray Velcoro and Frank Semyon are the best of what True Detective season two has to offer.

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