'True Detective' Just Dropped A Caspere Bombshell

For a 90-minute episode, the Season 2 finale of True Detective certainly had its fair share of twists, turns, climactic moments, and bombshells dropped. First and possibly most importantly, we finally learned who killed Ben Caspere — Leonard, the boy from the photo who we know as the movie set photographer. But as we all know, Caspere's mystery went much deeper than his death. The more than two-decades long robbery case that led to the city manager's death was unraveled even further when the finale revealed that Caspere was actually the biological father of Laura, aka the girl from the photos. So why exactly does this matter? For one, it helps us understand why that robbery turned into a murder, and also changes the audience's perception of Caspere's death.

As we now know, Caspere pocketed some blue diamonds during the 1992 LA riots, which supposedly caused the double homicide of a couple, with the only remaining survivors being their two young kids. We now know that the conspiracy behind the robbery is much more complicated than a cover-up. When Velcoro goes to meet Holloway and attempts to stop Leonard, Holloway reveals that Caspere was having an affair with the siblings' mother, and is actually Laura's biological father. And when Caspere found out that Laura's mother was pregnant with his child again, she became a risk. Leonard, who was listening to the whole story in secret, attacks Holloway in anger over hearing the truth, and Velcoro makes his escape with Bezzerides.

It's a horrifying realization, but it definitely makes this twisted case a least a little more clear. In the end, everything else we learned about Caspere was essentially tangential to his death. It all came down to those two scared little kids who witnessed something horrific.

Image: Lacey Terrell/HBO