This season needs a great finale (obviously).

Btw, found this on Redddit. Solid, simple breakdown. It's long but worth a look if your confused...

https://m.reddit.com/r/TrueDetective/comments/3fkniq/s2e7_what_the_hell_is_going_on/

I'm writing this to make sense of it myself, so bare with me.

The Mayor is basically the dirty ruler of all of Vinci. At the start of the season (as far as he and we know), everything in Vinci runs through him. Frank is a local thug that has done well for himself through various organized crime, including dumping toxic waste all along the corridor where the state plans to build some huge metro system (effectively making the land worthless so it can be bought cheap, then will be worth a lot once the metro is finally open). There's also the whole history of Frank/Ray....but that seems pretty clear and we just found out it was Blake that gave the wrong name, so Frank wasn't using Ray. Also Blake killed Stan because Stan found out about Blake's side shit.

Frank is hoping to go legit and make a lot of money, so he gives all of his savings to Casper, who is supposed to give it to the real estate company Catalyst that owns all the parcels of land by the soon to be built Metro.

Meanwhile Casper was in league with the Mayor's son and Blake (and the Russians?), to run an prostitute ring and gather blackmail on a lot of powerful people. It seems like the Mayor's son is trying to usurp his dad by buddying up with the new power taking over Vinci (the Russians).

The Russians are a little hazy to me, but I guess Frank went to Europe at some point and meet up with the Russians in hopes of doing a partnership. The Russians said yes, but have seemingly been behind all of Frank's recent downfalls (e.g. they're taking over his casino and club, bought out all of his men except that creepy guy), and they were going to kill Frank but that Osef guy backed him and allowed him to work for them. Frank says sure, but then proceeds to get all his money together to jump town and burns all that shit to the ground.

Anyways, someone kills Casper (don't think we know yet), and steals his harddrive full of blackmail. Casper was also in possession of these blue diamonds that have a lot of history (but the people that killed him couldn't find the diamonds, so where they are now is a mystery).

The first time the case closes, it was because Buress (I think it was him, he's the second in command white guy in the Vinci police station...also guy that killed Paul tonight) gave some of Casper's stuff to a Mexican girl (so Buress was probably involved with Casper's death). The Mexican girl was the one Frank was looking for, and the one the Mexican gang found/killed. Anyways that girl pawns that shit, which leads the cops to the Mexican meth lab or whatever it was. Shoot out...case closed.

No one believes the Mexican meth cooks killed Casper. But the guy running the state investigation (the Asian guy from Dexter) doesn't give a shit because he's been bought (he was at the party last episode) and is running for governor I think. So the black lady starts a special unit with our 3 heroes to do a special investigation.

So they start investigating again, they find out about parties and diamonds and all that shit. Ani kills the security guard at the party and is now wanted for murder. They use one of Ray's guns to kill the black lady, so he's wanted for murder. Paul is dead, so there's that.

My understanding of the whole blue diamonds business: back in the 80/90s, specifically during the 1992 LA riots, Halloway (black police Chief in Vinci), Buress (white police guy under Halloway), Dixon (fat guy that got headshot), and Casper all worked in the same department (Casper was the police accountant I think). They use the riots as a distraction to murder a couple that owned a jewelry store, and steal the rare blue diamonds. They use these diamonds to buy-in to the crime syndicate in Vinci (I'm not sure if this is with the Mayor or with Catalyst), and they all move to Vinci to take new positions with high salaries.

The couple that was murdered left two kids that are apparently important to the plot, one of them was Casper's secretary and is involved with the prostitute parties somehow.

Paul was in the army, then with some private militia group (Blackwater). Seems like they did some fucked up shit. Anyways, Blackwater now is security for Catalyst. Paul is gay, and Dixon took some pictures of him for potential blackmail. After Dixon is dead, Halloway's men find the pictures in Dixon's apartment to blackmail Paul and lure him to the sewers.

Sorry that was all over the place. Let me know if you have specific questions.

Edit (random add-on's): Ani's dad, the Mayor's dad, and Pitlor (the creepy guy that did surgery on prostitutes) were all a part of some hippie movement. I'm hoping this gets tied in more to the finale.

Ani's mom killed herself by walking into the ocean. Ani was kidnapped as a child and most likely sexually abused. The Mayor had his wife institutionalized with Pitlor, where she killed herself. Pitlor is dead I think, or maybe Ray just beat the shit out of him.

The missing girl Ani was looking for and found at the party wasn't missing, she in fact loves that prostituting life style. But one of her buddies (Tasha) was blackmailing the blackmailers (bad idea), and got caught. Tasha is the one that was tortured and killed in that random cabin. Tasha sent backups to Ani's "missing" girl's PO box.