The explosive Vinci massacre at the end of Episode 4 changes everything, marking a new direction for characters, crime story and artistic style. The first 4 episodes were a set up of deliberate mystification with convoluted labyrinthine plot lines impossible to follow, creating a foreboding Californian Noir of intrigue and the supernatural (magical crow mask and ghostlike Casper).These were knot-lines rather than plot-lines, operating at all levels from the shady entanglements of business corruption to the confusing coping mechanisms of characters to the motorway network entangling the landscape. Nothing was clear.
Most characters were pretending to be something they are not,
masking their true identity as a form of defence. Paul pretends to be
heterosexual, Ani pretends to be the same as the other male cops, Frank
pretends to be a legitimate businessman, Ray pretends to be a cowboy hero and
father, Austin and Tony pretend to be moral public servants in “happy
families”, Jordan is pretending she can get pregnant, Blake is pretending to be
loyal to Frank, Elliot and Pitler pretend to be competent healers, Athena is
pretending prostitution is art, cops are pretending to be honest, gangsters
pretend to be businessmen. State officials are pretending to be interested in
“finding the truth” when really they are only interested in a cover up
involving Mexicans. It’s a world of fantasy, illusion and delusion, with
characters living their lives blindly, unconsciously. It’s also full of
allusion to influential films of an industry based on pretence and centred in
Los Angeles.
After the massacre this world of knots begins to fall apart
as characters experience loss of status and disorientation, a “dark night of
the soul”.”None of that went down right”, says Ray as he quits his job and
openly works for the gangster, Frank. Ani is demoted to admin and attends
therapy sessions for her sex addiction. Paul loses his exciting job in traffic division
and moves to tedious office work. Frank downsizes to a house in Glendale and is
demoted to managing clubs again. Their lives seem futile as they experience the
pain of loss and pitfalls that lead towards self realisation. The massacre has acted
as a “wake-up” call; “everything’s ending, time to wake up”, says Frank. Now every
move these characters make outwards to locate the truth is also a move inwards to
recover their own truths.
call up by Attorney General Davis.
When they next assemble it’s an “off radar” call out, “covert
operations” led by a woman outsider, Davis, to “expose the collusion between
Vinci business power and large scale institutions”, and this time they are
ready to implement enquiries that will take them under cover and under their
own defences. It’s a conscious free choice, the first important step on the
journey: “You make your choice, it’s in you always, own it”, says Frank (seldom
candid!) to Ray, (hardly a ray of sunshine!).”It’s never too late to start all over
again,” says Ani. “Did you go all the way in?”asks her sister. “Stop this
fantasy about Chad, he should have the truth, not this fake story”, says Ray’s
ex wife, “this fairy story has to end, I can’t live this fantasy”.
As true detectives of their deluded selves as well as
corrupt institutions, Ray, Ani and Paul lead the way in, “I’m in” they pledge.
Frank joins them in this endeavour to expose the links between waste management
and land deals, whilst facing the truth about his own identity, “maybe your
worst self is your best self, (see Nietzsche, “your worst qualities are your
best qualities”). His character often speaks in the language of cryptic poetic
truth, sometimes rhyming, rather than anything frank (!), pointing the way to
universal truths using clipped speech that seems strange and inappropriate for
a gangster, but entirely appropriate for Noir characters (see Marlowe). “The
enemy won’t reveal itself”, he says poignantly of the “well disguised” forces
of evil as well as the hidden forces of the unconscious self, “all the lies
people tell themselves”.
Frank recognises the need to wake up and expand
consciousness, however painful the process; “Now I’m me and you’re you, and
here we are both out in the open, so who loves who? / You had a design, the
design does not work, when we are knee deep in dirt. /Here we are under the
bright lights/ I have knowledge of my limitations / You had me in a fairytale
for a while but now it’s over, stop reading into things”. “I only trust self
interest”, he says, meaning the selfish intent of survival instincts and also
the centred attitude of those who face the Self. His character has ceremonial
speeches; “Your father was a good man. This fight is in you. Sometimes things
split you apart. Use it right and it makes you better. Bad as this is, wrong as
this is, this hurt can make you a better man. Pain shows you what is on the
inside. And inside of you is pure gold”, he says to Stan’s son.
Frank knows the fairy
story about escaping to a rural paradise with Jordan is a delusion. He is aware
of his blindness, that he did not foresee the set up that trapped him or the
betrayal by the mercenary Blake (not mystical like the poet!).He was unaware of
his wife’s infertility too, though he trusted her “with eyes wide open”. Frank
is on a painful journey of discovery where being good and true to oneself,
fully conscious and making the right choice are all aspects of a growing maturity.
His loss of fortune brought suffering that shook him into a moment of lucidity
that expanded his consciousness to realise truths about himself and others.
This process is happening with Ray (hardly a ray of
sunshine!”) too, and his fantasies about fatherhood with Chad. The breakdown in
mediation with his wife and threat of lost custody has forced him to wake up.
It sends him into a mad frenzy, out of which come realisation and honesty, “my
powers of influence are so meagre”. Ray is forced to reflect and stay conscious
of his relationship with Chad in the presence of the social worker who has a
“mandate to observe” and also remain conscious. He can’t escape into fantasies
about making aircraft together. He has to face the fact that Chad would rather
watch “Friends” on TV with him, because “planes kill people”. Instead of
soaring with the planes, Ray is brought down to earth and finally able to
communicate directly and honestly, “your mum might mention things changing, but
I am your father and you are my son and I’ll always love you, whatever you
hear”. These emotions are real and heartfelt, not the extravagant abstractions of
his dictaphone. Chad recognises this honesty because he is already well
grounded for his age, self possessed.
Make planes or watch" Friends".
Minor characters are also forced to face their deluded lifestyles, as when Athena sees through her prostitution and decides to study Art instead, fulfilling her namesake of “Creative Intellect”. Austin realises he is being “fucked by his son” despite the illusion of “princes and happy families”, as his “thrilling” lifestyle is exposed as world weary and sordid with the ultimate irony of drowning hopelessly in the waters of an “expansive consciousness” he advocated, literally as well. Jordan admits her inability to conceive as an end to that fantasy, “we’ve been pretending, I can’t have kids, I had 3 operations”. Elliot realises his laissez faire parenting was not healthy or responsible, and when Pitler is faced with the truth about himself and his cosmetic surgery to order, he commits suicide to end the pain of that consciousness. Leni is also on a nihilistic “suicide mission” to confront Holloway when the realisation that his sister is Austin’s illegitimate daughter causes him to lose consciousness in madness. When these characters face real depths, some are overwhelmed, others are revived.
Eliot and Ani reconciled
In their search for truth, Ray and Frank become partners,
their “weapons” held below the surface, literally and metaphorically. They face
each other across the table in a perilous dual of trust and thrust, making a
deal where Frank says “he didn’t set Ray up but will give him the man who put
him wrong” and Ray agrees to help Frank find the hard drive evidence of
treachery. This deal will culminate in the second massacre of episode 8 where
the two unite to annihilate the corrupt businessmen and their own final
delusions. The first massacre of episode 4 was a foolish blind blunder. The execution was all wrong, sending
everything array. The second massacre shows the maturity of men who are fully
conscious, unified and focused. The action is well planned and executed in the
determination to “do right” and restore order. Frank starts it with his three
deliberate shots. Wearing defensive masks of disguise for the confrontation, Frank
removes his to face the Russian in full consciousness. Though the Russian tries
to fake emotional concern in a mask of duplicity, there is no possible concealment
now. It’s all out in the open as Frank annihilates him.
In search of a missing girl, Ani (whose name of Antigone is associated with independence) goes deeper into the
corrupt world of “escort parties for powerful men” where consciousness
expanding drugs are taken to alter perception. She keeps her blade of analysis with her to knife her way out. It’s surreal. Here girls are
inspected like market livestock, reduced to “their natural state”, dehumanised
with drugs and alcohol. The drugs disinhibit so that Ani begins to retrieve
lost memories of childhood abuse, missing aspects of herself. Trancelike but
retaining consciousness, she stabs the pervert/business man, retrieves the lost
girl Kira and the lost girl of her childhood self; a “three-in-one day”. It’s
also a full moon night, “the best time to ratify alliances”, and a time for Ani
to be at one with herself in a new totality. As the three investigators drive
towards the full moon there is a sense of fulfilment as the musical lyrics stab
the invectives, “kill,kill,kill,kill” , in “time to draw this shit out into the
light”.(See Plato and circles etc).
Ani’s reaction is to lose the pain of a conscious memory in
sex, but Ray denies her this release. Their second encounter is a stylistic sequence
of intimacies where they exchanges truths (childhood abuse/murder of innocent
man) and balance each other, “It wasn’t your fault/I don’t blame you/I haven’t
been like this for a long time.” They open up to each other as they get in
touch physically and psychologically. It’s a deep encounter that involves
physical connection and soulful syzygy, very different from the usual voyeuristic
television sex, more meaningful, “We saved each other”, Ani says later. Unusual
editing skilfully portrays this touching of souls as well as skins.
“I think I’m walking into something” says Paul (not a saint
like his namesake, but a sinner) to Ray, without an “exit strategy” before
standing in the circular arena of light that might expose his true sexual orientation.
Paul “kills that light” before his own life is extinguished. Fully conscious of
the danger, he enters the underground car park with its confusion of tunnels to
face the corrupt cop at the centre of it all, Holloway (the hollow soulless
man!) and the truth about himself. Three blows knock Holloway out but Paul fails
to reach the light. He got in but he can’t get out of the underground maze, a
valiant “god warrior” of mythical proportions, who “saved their arses three
times and deserved better”, but who can’t admit his own dark secret. He dies
reaching for the light with only a glimpse of serenity, unable to orientate
himself in the arena of life, the first tragic hero to leave the stage.
Immortality is in the memorial highway named after him as a hero, the modern
cowboy whose horse is a motorbike. In this way he returns to his rightful place
on the Highway.
“Easier to get people in than out” says Felicia, the people
trafficker who may also be a guide/ facilitator,
preparing travellers in her secret room, a place of rest before the next stage
of their journey, “nobody lives here now, just moved a group through”. This
sense of preparation for an inward journey where the traveller must stay
mindful of a way out is part of traditional storytelling, from myths like the
Minotaur to fairy stories about getting lost in the Otherworld. There is
something strange or otherworldly about this disfigured woman, another outsider
who can discern the truth and help others in and out, and whose name means
“good fortune or happiness”.
Veronica, (whose name means “true image”), the drug crazed
prostitute passed from son to father, is also a strange character, outside the
norms, appearing mythical like some wild siren whose lure is demented as she
bewails her own delusions about Austin. She awakens from the delusions of
passion in her navigation of Life, because in this story prostitutes are not
one dimensional victims, but also significant performers.
Felicia owns The Black Rose Bar
where the haunting songs are sung by Lera Lynn, another strange outsider woman
draped over a stool. She is like a troubadour or chanteuse, not the usual bar
singer but in the soul singing tradition of chanson. Her lyrics are evocative and equivocal soul songs that seem to weave
their way trancelike into our consciousness as an accompaniment to the
narrative. If the characters listened, her songs would help them on their way. These
three women inhabit the perimeter of the story and our consciousness, having a
strange beauty of their own.
Of the three remaining protagonists who reach Felicia’s
room, only Ani will get out. Frank might have had “ideas about getting out” but
they dont materialise. “You want out?” he says to Ray, “You’re free, I didn’t
set you up”, but people are prisoners of their own nature. Frank and Ray are preparing
for their last battle, like all tragic heroes. “I didn’t live my life to go out
like this”, says Frank, facing his limitations. When they leave this room the
story turns surreal as the heroic characters face ultimate challenges of their own psyche before
annihilation. The crime story has brought these characters to the centre of
their souls where fearful monsters lurk.
Dressed up in bizarre cowboy accessories and sunglasses in a
whitewashed public space, Ray meets the souless hollow man at the centre of it
all, Holloway, where he learns that the hard drive he was hoping to obtain as
proof of corruption has “erased itself, a security feature” not unlike the
defence mechanisms of the Psyche that erases painful memories (see Ani). Ray
realises he will be “vapourised” by Chessani’s men, but it’s his own nature
betrays him as he makes the choice to see his son again, exposing himself to
his own fate. From then on the “dissembling” Ray finds himself without
sunglasses and eyes open in the dense forest, a place of confusion, camouflage
and peril where his fortitude is tested. This outside location reflects his
inner state. He darts in and out of the trees, dodging bullets, much as he did
haphazardly in life, stumbling with panic and terror, not knowing which way to
go. Then, anchored in touch with his son
and Ani, the loves of his life, he experiences a transcendent moment of unity
that lifts him above the duality of Life’s struggle. He dies at one with
himself and a greater reality, eyes wide open, integrated.
Having burnt and annihilated all his clubs so that nothing
remains, Frank finds himself in the featureless desert where he faces the glare
of emotional truth without sunglasses, defenceless and unmasked. In this place
of desolation there is nothing left but the mirages of his own conscience,
figures from his life that haunt him. He is being tested but battles on to
reunite with the love of his life, Jordan and her promise of a better life, the
one who was “never nothing, that’s not our story”. She was everything to him,
not the fertile promised land that her name indicates, but the promised
fulfilment of his soul. He experiences a transcendent moment of ecstatic union
before losing consciousness in the realisation of death.
So the monosyllabically named male heroes die, Paul, Ray,
Frank, released from the mental handcuffs of the threefold nature of existence
that protected but also trapped them. However, “Bezzerides is in a better
place” with a chance of surviving her heroic ordeal as she crosses the waters
of the Unconscious to a new life and carrying a new life inside her. After all,
she is on a boat called “The Great Escape”, and she still carries her "blade of analysis" that cuts through and keeps her safe from illusions. She appears transformed, inside and
outside. Feeling the connection to the love of her life, Ray, she represents
hope for a new beginning, holding the future in her hands in terms of a baby
and the evidence of corruption, “making a difference because we deserve a
better world”. Ani entrusts her child to Jordan while she trusts the journalist
with the evidence, “the truth is here, it’s your story now”. Anonymity becomes
an empowerment, not concerned with “making a name for themselves”.
She sacrifices her American residency to save her soul now in
exile in Venezuela (see Assange/ Noam Chomsky’s Oeuvre),another place, a
country deliberately chosen to symbolise a different society beyond the
corruption of corporate capitalism, where truth might not be distorted through
the manipulations of corporate interests, a chance to break through the web of
falsehoods, using critical thought and awareness of deception in oneself and
others,her "blade" . She really is an outsider. Meanwhile the endless corruption continues
in Vinci with Chessani making business deals as usual. That life goes on.
Ani embodies the hope of a better world in her “unholy
family” of two women and fatherless infant, an alliance that contrasts with the
traditional “holy family” parading behind her as they disappear into the
pixilated anonymity of the carnival crowd celebrating its own theological
mystery. This image parallels the optimism in Jill at the end of “Once Upon a
Time in the West” as the outmoded male heroes fade away in the landscape. But this is based on same sex parenthood, not duality.
Their disappearance into the crowd is dreamlike, slow motion, like entering
another world, (see disappearance of girls in “Picnic at Hanging Rock” by Peter
Weir).
If True Detective 1
had a sense of hope with the cross/resurrection imagery associated with Rust in
the hospital bed, True Detective 2 has its hope in the unconventional Madonna/
child imagery of Ani. It’s an ambiguous ending refusing to satisfy, leaving the
audience consciously on edge instead of blissfully reconciled. That is deliberate
and part of the process because this story of social corruption and self delusion is without end.
......
In a way, we have all been set up. Episodes 1-4 deluded us
into thinking we were dealing with a typical, atmospheric, Californian Noir
involving monsters of depravity and corruption. We expected the evil to be
powerful and disturbing and the heroes to be charismatic crusaders, fantasies
of the Imagination. But that is not what we got in episodes 5-8. The enigmatic
intriguing atmosphere of Casper’s murder dissolved into the sordid prosaic
deals of apathetic businessmen where the magical “Hansel and Gretel” fairytale
hut in the woods was actually a torture chamber. The criminals were crude
nonentities, hollow men without substance despite their wealth and status, not
interesting but fatigued. We were led to believe there were convolutions of
concealment to uncover when in fact the corruption was familiar and predictable.
And these fumbling inadequate heroes were in a partnership with women whose own
heroism outplayed them. Early episodes set us up to anticipate the influence of
Swedenborg’s mysticism when in fact it seems Teilhard de Chardin is more
likely. “Stop reading into things”, says Frank. Audience expected “flights of
fantasy”, remembering the Southern Gothic of True Detective 1 and winged imagery of episodes 1-4 of TD2, but we are being brought down to earth and this
might seem disappointing at first.
However, there is another story here, something infinitely
more mysterious than the contrived mystifications of a crime story, a visionary
tale about the mystery drama of the soul/psyche in its valiant struggle to be
in the world. Individuals move from self centred lifestyles to self naughting union
with something other than themselves. It begins with a painful sense of loss or
separation and ends with blissful connection and reunion; the story of lost and
found. This heroism is not about making a name for oneself, but about losing
oneself in the other.
In this drama, masks or personas or sunglasses are worn to
hide behind, imagery that clothes/ protects the soul. Ray dresses up as a
cowboy, Paul plays the macho biker, Ani adopts her sister’s identity to enter
the party, then changes appearance to escape capture, Ray and Frank wear gas
masks to hide their identity, Leni wears the crow mask to appear magical. These
masks are removed at moments of clarity when characters show themselves as they
are and see inwardly. Stripped of persona and defences as a soul exposed at
death, Frank reaches the “promised land” of Jordan.
In a world of social disintegration, dehumanisation and loss
of meaning (ennui), it’s the mystery of Love that saves people, that energizes
the soul towards change and transformation. “You made it all mean something”,
says Frank to Jordan. The enemy conceals itself, whether it’s the adversary
within the unconscious psyche or the enemy outside in society. So the adversarial
process of life oscillates between concealment and revelation as the soul
struggles heroically to traverse that duality.
Love is the real power here, taking characters beyond the
confines of the self. Love makes us human,not automatons. Those without Love are drained of energy, those with Love
are spirited. Mystery crime stories can be solved easily, but the mystery of
Love is inexplicable. After all, that’s what the troubadour/chanteuse has been
singing about all the way through in her bewitching hypnotic songs in The Black
Rose Bar that sufis might call a “tavern” in their mystical terminology. She packs
up when the characters move on.
Sometimes that love is between lovers in secret languages,
as with Ray and Ani who “save each other’s lives”, or Frank and Jordan whose
“story they told was true”. Sometimes it’s between a father and son like Ray
and Chad, or between brother and sister like Leni and Laura. Their sibling
relationship is dysfunctional but better than nothing, (see sibling
relationship at heart of True Detective 1). Sometimes it’s between friends in
partnership as when Ray and Frank unite to overcome the evil that is
threatening Vinci, or when Jordan and Ani unite to build a future. It’s not about
flying with ambitious ideals, but about being grounded in relationships with
others, not flying high but touching deep; “relationships are important” says
Frank.
This Love involves sacrifice, the kind that tested medieval
knights with their Lady. Ray sacrifices his own needs as a father in the best interests
of his son, then sacrifices his life to save Ani. Frank sacrifices his personal
ambitions to expose corruption, then sacrifices his life to save Jordan. Paul
sacrifices his life to save Ani, Ray, his wife, mother and child. Leni
sacrifices his life for his sister, having suffered at the hands of the
ironically defined “Care System” of social services. In episode 5 we are
reminded of religious sacrifice in the surreal figure of a man carrying a cross
down the street, a moment of intersection when the sacred and profane meet.
Characters are capable of this sacrifice because their love for another gives
meaning to their lives, the opposite of “nobody cares, nobody minds” in the
title song. It’s Love that makes life significant, not money or status, and
it’s Love that expands our consciousness to heroic levels of existence.
Characters need to connect to another, to stand outside
themselves and experience something whole from another viewpoint. The change in
consciousness that is experienced through Love suggests transcendence. Ray
experiences rapture as he merges with the trees before dying, a clairvoyant
moment that Ani also shares on the boat. Frank experiences ecstatic reunion
with Jordan in the desert of his imagery in scenes that are like the
metaphysics of a Tarkovsky or Kurosawa film. Paul feels the elation of reaching
for the light before he is shot. Their faces are transfigured in moments of
release from the “mind forged manacles” of conscious existence. The mystic,
Teilhard de Chardin, calls these moments “Omega Points”, points of convergence
or transformation, the experience of unity. Omega means “the great 0”, a
complex symbol of nil or nothing from which plus and minus numbers are
calculated in opposite directions, or everything in all round totality like a
full moon consciousness or circle of light (see Plato etc), the final letter of
the Greek alphabet and in the title of this Finale, “Omega Station”, an end and
a beginning; both.
As the alpha males die, having conquered their egotistical
need to “be something”, the Omega females take over and disappear into the
crowd, self less, carrying the promise of an alternative future and a different
humanity. They are part of a deeper development of consciousness, vigilant, caring
and aware, self naughting and unified, (see The Upanishads, or the
Individuation process of modern Depth Analysis where “the one who seeks is the
one who is sought”). Beyond the limitations of existence and its threefold
reality is this greater consciousness that can be accessed in ineffable moments
at the right time. It’s absurd; in finding herself, Ani is now a “missing person”.
All stories are lies in the sense that they are made up. In
True Detective 2 we hear reference to many kinds of stories; fairy stories, Hollywood
film narratives, Californian Crime Noir, Apocalyptic epics, personal
confessions of characters etc. But the
real story behind True Detective is this mystery drama of the soul re-collected
with all its enigmas, puzzles, perils and illusions. Psyche tells its own story
clothed in defensive imagery waiting to be uncovered and that requires a different
sort of detective work, not “reading in” but “leading out”. Whether we use the
language of the mystics ( see Light paper),or Depth Analysis (see Jung, Ego,
Anima, Individuation), or Literary myth (see The hero in literature) or
fairytale motifs(see princesses and
kisses that awaken) or the confessional intimacies of lovers’ (see Ray and Ani)
or the apocalyptic visuals of epic film sets (see episode 3), or techniques of
American Noir, they all navigate this
vast interior landscape of the soul with maps that contour desert, forest, tunnel,
sea, going in, going upnorth,adversarial duality,threefold unity, choice and love, the greatest story ever
told and never finished in the telling.
Duality
The surrealist painter, Chirico, says; “Everything has two
aspects, the one we see and is seen by all, the other which is metaphysical,
which only rare individuals see at moments of clairvoyance and metaphysical
meditation. Art must relate something of what does not appear in visible form.”
In his “True Detectives” Pizzolatto investigates the old
tripartite composition of man as body, mind AND soul, “working on the inside;
triple cross”! It’s an interesting alternative to the Cartesian duality of
modern materialism, meaningful instead of meaningless. He affirms the mystery
of Love in a world where “Nothing matters so never mind”, developing unique ways
of presenting the human condition with a fusion of techniques that gives glimpses
of alternative states of consciousness. Hopefully he will continue to tell this
story and explore its significance in whatever format he chooses next.
..........
The Song
The Song
Lately, words are missing form now on
Vanished in the haze of love gone wrong
There's no future, there's no past
In the present, nothing lasts
Lately, someone's missing from now on
Vanished in the haze of love gone wrong
There's no future, there's no past
In the present, nothing lasts
Lately, someone's missing from now on
Lately, I'm not feeling like myself
When I look into the glass, I see someone else
I hardly recognize this face I wear
When I stare into her eyes, I see no one there
Lately, I'm not feeling like myself
When I look into the glass, I see someone else
I hardly recognize this face I wear
When I stare into her eyes, I see no one there
Lately, I'm not feeling like myself
Lately, I've been losing all my time
All that mattered to me slipped my mind
Every time I hit another town
Strangers appear to lock me down
Lately I've been losing all my time
All that mattered to me slipped my mind
Every time I hit another town
Strangers appear to lock me down
Lately I've been losing all my time
The mystery that no one knows
Where does love go when it goes?
The mystery that no one knows
Where does love go when it goes?
Where does love go when it goes?
The mystery that no one knows
Where does love go when it goes?
(all photos care of HBO)
Ani's blade in True Detective 2
Throughout True Detective 2 Ani is armed with the protective blade of her knife.
Sharp and effective as reasoned analysis,it keeps her safe from any illusions that might overwhelm. She practices with it to keep her reflexes sharp. It saves her from the drug party and she still has it in Venezuela.
So it arms her inside and outside.
"I took it for a long, long time
And a woman can take a lot
Two can be undone by three
But it only takes one shot
I took it for a long, long time
And a woman can take a lot
Two can be undone by three
But it only takes one shot"
(from "It only takes one shot" by Lera Lynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JyCmRiFId8
One shot is all you need!
Sharp and effective as reasoned analysis,it keeps her safe from any illusions that might overwhelm. She practices with it to keep her reflexes sharp. It saves her from the drug party and she still has it in Venezuela.
So it arms her inside and outside.
"I took it for a long, long time
And a woman can take a lot
Two can be undone by three
But it only takes one shot
I took it for a long, long time
And a woman can take a lot
Two can be undone by three
But it only takes one shot"
(from "It only takes one shot" by Lera Lynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JyCmRiFId8
One shot is all you need!
