Read and weep: True Detective season 2 finale filming locations
[No spoiler guarantee]
Before revealing the most iconic filming locations of True Detective season 2’s finale, let’s weep together.
Let’s weep for True Detective’ second season that could have been great but took off way too late, in a hurry.
Anyone watching avidly the show felt it. Perfection was there. It was everywhere. In Ray Velcoro’s last stand for his legacy with his son, in Ani Bezzerides healing her wounds through rage, in Frank Semyon’s impossible choice between love and power or in Paul Woodrugh abiding righteousness. Perfection was right here but the show never seized it.
Let’s weep for the 21st century’s Chinatown that was never born; for the Raymond Chandler’s dream screen counterpart that got away.
Nonetheless. Let’s praise True Detective’s season 2 for its flashes of genius, like the raw shooting scene that shook us to the core half-season or the sick orgy scene that ended in a pool of blood under Bezzerides’ lightning blade.
Let’s praise a beautiful draft that could learn from its mistakes and lead to the ultimate masterpiece with season 3 in 2016. And weep.
Now to the most iconic filming locations of True Detective season 2’s finale.
Shooting scene at the railway station → Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (‘ARTIC’)
Omega Station where one of the major shooting scenes happens in the finale of True Detective season 2 is the recently built Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (‘ARTIC’) southeast of Los Angeles. Opened in December 2014, the center is a hub for Greyhound buses and hosts a couple of train lines.
The beautiful structure features a 120-foot-tall (37 m) glass entrance and a massive transparent shell roof that allows a diffused sunlight to illuminate the interior. Read more on Wikipedia.
Photo: Ron Reiring
Heist in the woods → Thousands Oaks, California
The fictitious Crystal Ranch where a major heist takes place in the finale is actually a cabin in Ranch Studios located in Thousand Oaks, south of Lake Sherwood (see photo). The spot is in fact very near to Point Mugu that we highlighted at the beginning of the second season.
Source: Ventura County Star
Photo: Alex Beattie
Shooting scene in the forest with Ray Velcoro → Balch Park, Sequoia National Forest, Springville, California
The shooting scene in the forest with Ray Velcoro was filmed in the majestic Sequoia National Forest’s Balch Park that features Giant Sequoia trees.
Photo: Erik Bartley
Desert scene with Frank Semyon → Soggy Dry Lake, Lucerne Valley, California
Soggy Dry Lake is where was filmed the major scene in the desert with Frank Semyon in True Detective season 2’s finale. Soggy Dry Lake is prized by ATV and motorcycle riders for the smoothness of its surface and already appeared on screen in Fast & Furious (2009).
Photo: Tony Hoffarth
Check out this page for the full list of True Detective season 2 filming locations.
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all of the largest giant sequoia trees in the world are only in California.
Ok I guess I deserved that!
Should have read more thoroughly on the subject – this has been corrected.
You have done very poor research. You state the tree height ranges from 1,370 to 14,494 feet tall. This is in fact the elevation above sea level of the terrain. How could you have possibly though a tree could be from almost 1 mile high to over eight miles high? What were you thinking?