Welcome to Vinci, a podcast about True Detective

The main characters go hurtling across California as season two comes to an end. We'll take you to the big trees, a place really called "Dry Soggy Lake and Southern California's newest transit hub, seen for the first time on screen in "True Detective."

Officer Paul Woodrugh and State Attorney Katherine Davis are dead as we careen towards the final episode. Hear from Michael Hyatt, the actor who played Davis, about how secretive the show was with its scripts and why she's often cast in crime dramas. Plus Grantland's Chris Ryan and Tom Explores Los Angeles.

Tonight's episode has lots of ties to real L.A. history. We'll talk about legendary Hollywood orgies and girls, girls, girls with Karina Longworth. We'll also go to a real life Santa Muerte temple in LA to hear about why the darker characters of "True Detective" are name-checking this spirit. And we watch with Matt Gourley of "I Was There Too" who starts thinking about the LA riots, "Eyes Wide Shut" and Mt Baldy.

We'll talk about Frank Semyon's modest new house in Glendale and go deep on the long, sordid history of high speed rail in California.

There is a field of wooden stakes with pink ribbons. A bar where the Velcoro men like to drink and talk. A mansion where Frank Semyon stylishly plots. These are all real places in Southern California and we have tracked them down with the help of Caleb Duffy, one of the masterminds behind "True Detective's" locations for this season. Also, we knock on Detective Ray Velcoro's door and interview the lovely person who answers. We've also mapped more locations here: http://projects.scpr.org/maps/welcome-to-vinci/

Detective Ray Velcoro lives and we talk to a real LA trauma surgeon about how it could have happened. Plus a cultural history of cops from Tom Explores Los Angeles and author Joe Domanick brings an LAPD history lesson covering Daryl Gates, decades of corruption and why "there ain't no PD anymore."

Ray Velcoro got two in the chest from someone in a crow mask. We wanted to know what the chances are that we'll see him in the next episode. So we asked a man who knows guns, bullets and death.

Did Det. Ray Velcoro just die? We talk to creative director Patrick Clair and photographer David Maisel about the show's opening sequence. Plus, Tom Explores Los Angeles explains Vernon's (short) history in pop culture. Real-life city manager and author D. J. Waldie tells us what looks real and what doesn't in the show. And where is the microwave radio-relay skyway in the show?

Reporting on Vernon, the city that inspires parts of Vinci in "True Detective, could be a profession that brings you the wrong kind of attention.

In the new season of HBO's noir TV series, Colin Farrell's Det. Ray Velcoro works for the fictional city of Vinci, a city with a lot of secrets. We take a look at its real-life inspiration. (Spoilers!)