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Taylor Kitsch Talks to Variety about “Black Maps and Motel Rooms.”

By Reuben Levine

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Spoiler warning for last Sunday’s True Detective.

The latest episode of True Detective, “Black Maps and Hotel Rooms,” Taylor Kitsch as Paul Woodrugh was arguably the star. Another way to say that would be to say that we’ve seen the last of Paul. Even though our feelings on Paul have been mixed, his finale was appropriate and well done. Kitsch recently had a chat with Variety to talk about his character’s death.

Kitsch is not unaware of Paul’s issues, and how he never got to overcome them:

"“I think it’s true we tried to martyr that character. He never got to come out of the closet. Just the life he led, he was always in the shadows of his own self. I think that was also a beautiful part to play as well.”"

Paul’s inability to deal with his issues marked him as a target. All of the other main characters have slowly opened up or have been able to move forward; Paul was the only holdout. It’s an interesting use of the word “martyr.” Kitsch also says that Paul just “tried to do the right thing and it bit him in the ass.” The idea of Paul as a martyr perhaps makes sense when looking at the big picture, but it doesn’t come across as well on-screen.

Kitsch says that they wanted it to go down simply, but obviously played up the shock factor:

"“I think we wanted it as matter-of-factly as well, a shock factor obviously for the characters but also just storytelling-wise. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.Any actor will tell you, no doubt they’ve died a few times on stage — it’s an incredible moment, and with those things being your last moment, you want to draw it out. And watching last night, I really think it was great at the end of the day.”"

It’s possible to read that as Kitsch perhaps not being totally down with either Paul’s death or how it happened, but regardless, he stands by it in the end. Taylor Kitsch also hasn’t actually read the entire script for the finale, “Omega Station,” but he at least thinks the final forty minutes are “phenomenal.”

And, of course, he doesn’t have much to say about how it all ends:

"“There’s no way I’m going to tell you that. I get it, man. (Laughs) I will say it’s beautifully, beautifully done, and I tip my hat to all those actors and to Nic and the writing. It’s really phenomenal what goes down”"

The rest of us will just have to wait and see. You can head over to Variety to read the full interview, which also goes over the big shootout and what Kitsch thinks of the criticism. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.

Next: Check out the final True Detective season two preview.

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