Casino Merced

Ok, forgive the formatting. This was originally a greentext post for all the /b/tards at 4chan. It's also a long read but if you can get past that then it is actually a quite interesting story that happened to me years ago.
be 22 active duty air force assigned to Nellis in Las Vegas not disclosing job, but no stranger to weapons and tactics get pulled in to supervisor's office one day told I've just been "voluntold" to participate in a training exercise with DOD no other information given other than reporting instructions pretty much any question I asked was answered with "I have no fucking idea " report to conference room at base hotel next morning per instruction see about 12 other guys from my unit also voluntold to be there five guys enter room in civilian clothes introduce themselves as the "WHITEBOX" Group Assume it's an acronym for something, but never explained told we will be upgrading our security clearances hours of paperwork, only told we are participating in a force on force exercise released back to our unit crack jokes about how the exercise is a lie and we will be experimented on return to regular job and time passes eventually assume that it was canceled and forget the whole thing
about 2 months later supervisor pulls me aside and tells me that I need to report to a briefing the next day says it’s about "some WHITEBOX exercise" has no idea what it is and doesn't seem to care. once again report to base hotel with the other 12 guys WHITEBOX guys show up and pick us up in a van driven off base to some random office building and escorted into the offices of the Department of Energy, WTF? mystery only deepens, what the fuck is happening? what if this actually is some evil experimental shit more hours of paperwork and security/safety briefings by random suits had to fill out and sign a non-disclosure agreement and that threatened arrest if violated required to turn in cell phones and any other electronic devices in our possession our cell phones get locked in a cabinet while the office phone in the room gets unplugged WHITEBOX guys finally return and fire up a power point briefing first slide just titled WHITBOX Exercise 0X slide also labeled in bold red letters "CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET / NOFORN / ORCON this is really starting to feel serious
WHITEBOX Exercise finally explained told that for the next two weeks we will be role playing as OPFOR (opposing forces) we will try to attack and penetrate a DOD facility and carry out a simulated act of sabotage facility is protected by a contracted privately owned security force security group is required by the DOD to carry out this exercise in order to audit their protection every couple of years if we succeed, security company fails the audit and looses the contract the exercise is the conclusion of a two week inspection of the security contractors and their procedures every exercise a random military unit is chosen as OPFOR "reminded that we are silent professionals and that this isn’t something we should be advertising shaving wavers granted and civilian attire only FUCKYEAH.jpg power point scrolls to a page with a google earth screenshot on it instantly recognize the picture it's Area 51 holyfuckingshit.exe are we are being told to break into Area 51? can't be real random unit bro pipes up out of nowhere "Is that fucking Area 51?" we are all fucking stoked later told not to call it Area 51 as that just makes you a total chode Groom Lake, Paradise Ranch, or Homey Airbase are the acceptable names many insiders simply refer to it as “The Base” also reminded of the possible legal action via UCMJ if we go around telling everyone about it One of the WHITEBOX guys is now our designated "insider threat" exercise is designed to simulate that someone inside has been comprised by a foreign government he will provide any information that we ask for that he has knowledge of or access to other WHITEBOX guys handle will handle exercise logistics they will provide any weapons or equipment that we request to carry out mission "within reason" told this is not a COD loadout screen
ground rules established... will only be provided with weapons that we are certified to carry weapons will be armed with blank rounds or completely empty also no vehicles will be utilized by us within the DOD property landmarkers simulating road chases are not authorized our insertion is simulated so we will already be escorted/processed through various checkpoints and dropped off near the base no impractical equipment requests, so no tanks, helos, surveillance drones, or scud missiles, lol any explosives we intend to simulate will be assessed by WHITEBOX so if we want to blow the perimeter fences we will tell them before hand, they will calculate the weight of the bang we would need, it would be simulated by rocks, and then someone would need to hump the weight number 1 rule established and stressed with a very serious tone we will be escorted by WHITEBOX evaluators at all times within the DOD landmarkers at no point are any of us authorized to be alone in the facility actual security is not laxed because of the exercise, nor is this a free pass to roam security personnel can still use real force in the event that we deviate from the established protocols shown various pictures within the airbase that most will never get to see a specific hangar is designated as our target building. we will need to gain access to that hangar and carry out an act of sabotage for our sabotage we will need to ///REDACTED/// obviously we won't be doing it for real so we will actually need complete a random task inside the hangar task will be designed to be as complex and time consuming as the real thing all while being hunted by the security force insider threat briefing continues, various elements of the base security procedures and day to day operations explained however, get the impression that the chosen source is someone with a generic admin position and is not actually involved with security we are also encouraged to do our own research and scour the interwebz for info about the base told to supply the URLs to WHITEBOX if we find anything of interest. sorry if we got your Alex Jones or Art Bell conspiracy blogs taken offline briefing finally concludes, we are reminded of our non-disclosure policy and taken back to Nellis and dismissed for the day
next day we all meet at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada we will be using this location to build our plan of attack and do rehearsals/dry runs it's actually pretty cool because it's on us to plan our op, just a bunch of random Airmen periodically grill our insider with questions and start asking our other WHITEBOX guys for gear we tried to have our insider take pictures of the interior of our target hangar, but he got caught IRL he would be arrested and interrogated by the feds, and the whole op would be dead instead though the guys that caught him received kudos from the inspectors, and he just tells us nope have to rely on a whiteboard sketch of the inside decide to keep it simple, M4 riffles only however I am certified on the Barret M82 .50 cal. we decide that I will carry that heavy mother fucker as well as an M4 and provide overwatch from the distance kind of bummed out because im not going inside it will be on me to neutralize certain security positions that we have previous identified we remind our WHITEBOX guys that the M82 is an anti-material weapon with the ability to disable vehicles they tell us that I will just need to call my shots to the evaluator that I will be partnered with he will radio to the vehicles that they are destroyed and will need to stop driving guess I should mention that is also part of the disadvantage we have we will all be paired with WHITEBOX evaluators who will sort of act as referees during this simulated battle however they will all be wearing bright orange reflective vest identifying them as exercise officials that really fucks our ability to stay hidden and stealthy, but it is what it is also should mention that this is a daytime raid despite our objections sounds like they are setting us up for failure, but they remind us not to think of it like that this is all being done just so the evaluators can get a good look at the security's incident response procedures it's not an unannounced drill, the military doesn't really like to do that kind of thing especially with large scale exercises such as this everyone on the base know we are coming, there's no element of surprise here except with what kind of attack we prep it would be a real hot clusterfuck if the security contractors failed the audit heads would roll, people would get fired, and numerous officers would be relieved of command I still get to attack Area 51 so don't care as this is the coolest thing I've done in the military
our plan is starting to come together over the days decide to sacrifice one of us in a suicide bomb attack figure out which of us is the most "FNG" or lowest ranking and make him do it he will approach one of the ECPs (entry points to the base) on foot wearing a rucksack loaded with rocks (make-believe explosives) he will be wearing a uniform and will identify himself as Air Force and will franticly yell that he needs help we don't anticipate that he will make it that far or that the security will actually swallow this ruse however his goal is to get as close as he can to the ECP and yell allah ackbar and release his dead man's switch and try to take out what he can his evaluatoescort will drop a GBS (ground burst simulator) when he detonates GBS is a little miniature explosive device that just makes a really loud boom anyone who’s been through any type of military training is familiar with them, they are used to add stress and create excitement we are hoping this will be a distraction and will get as much security as possible to converge on that location the rest of us will assault from the other side of the base and try to breach the perimeter several of us will also be rucking explosive rocks for the breach chose a breach point that will have us crossing only a minimal portion of the flightline (place where aircraft operate) if we successfully simulate breaching the perimeter the exercise will be paused and we will be inprocessed through the ECP and brought into the base exercise will resume and we will continue to assault towards the target hangar I will stay outside in my sniper position and try to smoke what I can inside the hangar the team will cover the doors with simulated claymores and take up cover two guys will carry out the simulated sabotage act while the rest cover the doors WHITEBOX doesn't have any inert claymores to provide so the will be simulated with small weighted ammo cans the weight is really starting to become problematic so we abandon the claymores and decide to just cover the doors with firepower would really help if we had a vehicle, but not happening to be fair, vehicles wouldn't make it that close to the base if they tried to attack IRL armored or not
week one down, plan looking solid considering how much of our attack is simulated two weeks of planning is actually excessive not complaining though cause two weeks of hanging out and smoking and joking compared to normal work at Nellis only downside is the hour drive back and forth each day to Creech AFB casino right outside that base with awesome steak and eggs so not too bad though one of the WHITEBOX guys tells us he's actually employed by the Department of Energy he doesn't actually work at Groom Lake, he works at the Nevada Test Range the massive amount of Nevada landscape that is restricted and owned by the feds is actually impressive contrary to popular myth there is road access to Groom Lake via the adjacent test range, but not too many people actually make that drive. the 737 shuttle from McCarran Airport is how everyone gets there since the drive is long as fuck the main paved road through Rachel Nevada that all the tourist flock to doesn't really have any operational use anymore allegedly we will be driving there through the test range via a convoluted series of paved and dirt roads route is CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET, not kidding
DOE dude gives us a tour of the test range one day load cases of water in back of van drive to Mercury Nevada and stop at checkpoint inprocessed inside, get pictures taken and issued escorted visitor passes also required to wear radiation badges once inside get to see all that shit from The Hills Have Eyes, fake towns that were blown up with atomic bombs not as intact as they are portrayed in films though, they are pretty rekt or deconstructed show us a massive crater called the Sedan Crater in the 50's they experimented with using atomic bombs for mass excavation projects hoping they could just nuke the ground and build shit instead of fucking around with bulldozers pretty stupid and impractical but they didn't know any better back then they buried an atomic bomb a half a mile underground and blew it up Sedan Crater left behind as a result and the fucking thing is huge. they allegedly herded cattle down to the bottom of the crater afterwards to test the post fallout effects pretty fuckin savage, and it was actually stunning to look at two hour drive to Groom Lake though endless desert roads now see why we loaded the water, we’d be pretty fucked if the van broke down or got stuck get first distant look at the base without having to enter their checkpoints holyshit.mp4 very few people get to actually see what we are seeing to be honest though, looks like any other air force base I've ever seen except smaller besides the obvious fact that it is in the middle of bum fuck nowhere and its main runway is long as fuck also realize one of the reasons they didn't want us operating vehicles most roads are dirt and the entire lake bed is surrounded by "moon dust" everywhere moon dust is the ultra-fine sand found in certain parts of the desert with the consistency of flour it's also a total bitch to drive in and the security patrols getting stuck is a somewhat frequent occurrence told that they even have some of the AAFES fast food joints there that you find on any other base imagine working at a Burger King that you need a Top Secret security clearance for, how the fuck does that work??? noticed that despite being authorized to be here, we are still being watched by distant security patrols wonder if they know we are the bad guys that are going to be attacking the joint make some minor adjustments to the plan since the google earth pictures lack some detail conclude tour and take the 3 to 4 hour drive back home, most of us slept in the van
arrive at Creech next day and see that more WHITEBOX guys have been added to the mix, now there's like 20 of them for the past two weeks they have been inspecting the security contractors and its procedures you can tell a lot of them are ex-military based off of language and the people that are dipping and spiting in empty water bottles the mood is light, all of the exercise planning is finished, nothing to do the last two days we managed to borrow an empty hangar at Creech and used it as a mockup of our target hangar to run rehearsals no longer asking our insider questions about security, instead start asking completely ridiculous questions about conspiracies for lulz accuse some of them of being reptilians to see how they react, some of them get legit uncomfortable before you go sounding off, doubt they are hiding anything, some folks just don’t get military humor one does, however, and shows us a velcro patch that he wears on his rucksack it's one of those standard patches you spot on a pilot’s flight suit that has the name, rank, branch, and blood type his blood type seriously says reptilian it's obvious that they embrace and poke fun at the reputation this base has, in fact they thrive off of it
the day finally fucking arrives, time to attack this bitch wake up at 0400 and drive an hour to Creech dressed to kill decide to wear DCU "desert combat uniform" pants and a sand t shirt with my personally owned Blackhawk tactical vest to carry spare M4 mags sometimes the military issues some real shitty gear so our unit is somewhat lax and allows us to personally buy our own better equipment if it has command approved use and doesn't break SOPs also wear my empty gas mask pouch attached to my hip and use it to carry spare M82 .50 cal mags also wear a black turban for lulz that I bought off an ANA (Afghani Northern Alliance) dude downrange used to have a guile suite but it got lost on a deployment so that's a no go unfortunately arm up with an M4 with M68 red dot sight and attach a BFA "blank firing adapter" to the muzzle, and load six mags of .556 blanks also provided with my trusty Barret .50 M82 and five mags there is no BFA for the Barret that I'm familiar with so carry that with empty mags, guess I get to cheat with the weight load up in the vans with WHITEBOX team and drive another hour to Mercury get inprosscessed through security checkpoint and receive visitor badges for the test range drive another 2 hour on random roads passing more checkpoints /// REDACTED /// forced to surrender cell phones, personally owned electronic devices and CAC cards (military ID cards) again receive our escorted visitor passes for Groom Lake and now continue down some of the most forbidden roads in American history start unloading as close to our start point as the terrain allows and hump the rest of the distance on foot with our escorts suicide attack bro hangs back in the van with other escorts and is driven to his start point the terrain is favorable and allows us to set up out of sight hence why we chose the spot I break off and try to set up my nest at my chosen OP "observation point" as discreetly as possible not really stealthy cause I'm being followed by a guy wearing an orange reflective vest that says STAN EVAL and he's just casually walking he tells me to set up the Barret, but just simulate your shots by firing the M4 blanks now in a spot where I can observe base activity and provide cover fire for the breach, but I am also the most easy to spot sniper ever now wait for confirmation that our distraction on the other side has happened, taking a real long fucking time
my escort's radio chimes to life and starts talking "attention all WHITEBOX, we now have proper authentication via CASTLE ROCK for initiation of a detachment level exercise" voice on radio proceeds to spit out a long winded exercise safety briefing realize it's been about 40 minutes and we are just now fucking starting another 10 minutes and finally get word that suicide bro is approaching his target escorts all inform us that the security force is responding to reports of an explosion outside of the ECP later find out that suicide bro was stopped and challenged at gun point about 50 meters outside of ECP by a mounted patrol he then just fuck it and started sprinting towards the ECP until they opened fire with blanks and his escort set off the GBS he actually managed to take out the vehicle that stopped him and create several casualties (we gave him the heaviest explosive rocks loadout) overall our distraction was pretty fucking successful give it a another minute or two and finally start shooting and calling my shots to my escort/evaluator he's talking on his radio and relaying my simulated violence, "inform Merc-17 that they are dead from sniper fire" etc... I have predetermined targets to engage based off of what poses the biggest threat to the breach team I actually do some damage and get confirmation of casualties from my escort it's about a 600 meter run to the base perimeter in the open desert so it's on me to try and clear their path as much as I can the plan is to try to lure some security vehicles to our position then eliminate them with the Barret while they are en route the dead vehicles can then serve as points of cover for the breach team as they assault towards the base breach team was also aiming to see if they could snag any security radios from the dead patrols so we can monitor their comms didn't really work out that way however, in the end we simply didn't have all the info about the anticipated security response without giving away too many sensitive details, we all got ambushed by the security from unexpected locations forced to abandon my nest and the Barret to start moving towards another location to back up the breach team that was under fire trade some shots with security until my escort finally announces "ok dude, you're dead. go ahead and lay down" that's it, game over
play dead for about 20 minutes while security cleans up the area breach team gets rekt, we managed to get within 100 meters of the perimeter couple of security dudes approach me and perform a dead combatant body search on me it's a specific type of search designed to search a dead body while also checking for possible explosive booby traps pretend to be dead and let security dudes run my pockets finally one of the evaluators shouts "PauseEx" (pause exercise) we got fucking annihilated, no chance this attack was going to be successful our evaluators tell us that everyone did a great job, HOWEVER.... we are going to continue the exercise because they didn't get the chance to observe much of the internal security components we are going to resume the exercise assuming that we were actually able to get inside that target hangar this will give the evaluators the opportunity to observe the security's recap and recov procedures (re-capture and recovery) we all get magically resurrected from the dead I realize that I am actually going inside Groom Lake! Fucking Awesome...
spend about 15 minutes policing up the area for brass which means wandering around and picking up spent cartridges board vans and get driven around to ECP. realize that only half of the security force is playing in this exercise the rest are still armed with live weapons and are still performing regular protection duties forced to show our visitor passes, names and badge numbers are compared against a master list that the security has /// REDACTED /// /// REDACTED /// notice a homemade sign hanging on the wall at the security center it’s got a picture of an alien with a red X through it that says "no extraterrestrial entities or relics beyond this point" like I said earlier, everyone enjoys the reputation this base has drive to our target hangar, holy fuck! I am now inside Area 51 use of blanks not authorized indoors, everyone is told to clear out weapons rest of the exercise will use simulated firing, the equivalent of pointing your empty weapon at someone and yelling bang sadly not the first time I trained like this, military does it all the time it’s ridiculous and awkward every time, looks like a bunch of kids playing backyard soldiers with sticks security has already reset its posture, they know we are attacking but doesn't know the building we are hitting we all enter the hangar, get the impression that it doesn't actually get used IRL anymore reeks of mildew and no power inside, dust everywhere in the center there is a pickup truck covered with a tarp and roped off with red rope and stanchions, signs posted identifying it as a controlled area told that this is a simulated military asset and this is what we are sabotaging WHITEBOX evaluator pulls a box out of the bed of the truck remember when I said we will have to do a complex and time consuming task to simulate our act of sabotage? it’s a fucking Star Wars Lego kit! I shit you not! evaluators tell us we will need start building it and reach page 12 in the instructions without errors or mistakes kind of wish we went with our earlier plan and brought claymores cause I spotted some sweet chokepoints outside the building to set them up also wish we had the idea of bringing padlocks and chains so we could lock down the hangar and make life more difficult for the security force set up our spots to cover the doors, we are well versed with building clearing tactics so we know what spots to cover to make it hard
WHITEBOX evaluator authenticates over the radio with someone by passing letters and numbers back and forth, process known as sign/countersign voice on radio announces that the detachment level WHITEBOX exercise has resumed showtime! Two unit bros start opening the Lego kit and sorting parts me and the suicide bro weren't supposed to be in this hangar or even on the base to begin with so we don't have points to cover inside come up with idea and ask one of the escorts if we can go out the back on to the flightline plan to walk to two separate buildings in opposite directions and see if we can create distractions evaluators approve the plan, but tell us we can't approach or enter other buildings, nor approach any parked aircraft decide to leave firearms and my tac vest behind for clever reasons if we are unarmed the security will most likely apprehend us, and search us this is more time consuming than just shooting us and will keep them away from the hangar longer exit the back of the hangar on to the flightline and just start casually walking down the tarmac with my escort eventually hear the sound of police sirens in the distance getting louder, hear they come! get the urge to start sprinting but decide not to since it would most likely result in me being tackled on the pavement, fuck that later realize distant sirens are actually responding to hangar after reports of a silent alarm being received so much for the distraction plan
decide not to return to hangar since there is not much I can do unarmed, and continue walking down flightline all the parked aircraft I see are just normal military aircraft, although some do seem to have “enhancements” or cosmetic features that I haven’t seen before ask my escort where they keep all the flying saucers, he smirks and just replies "underground" wonder if there are actually any subterranean levels to this base, suppose a lot of these buildings could support that ask my escort if there are really underground levels, he facetiously says “who knows” white pickup truck with police lights approaching fast pretend not to notice and keep walking voice starts barking at me over a loudspeaker "stop right there! do not move! get your hands up! security mercs climbing out of vehicle with rifles drawn, don't see magazines in the riffles, they are part of the drill they actually try to challenge both of us, escort has to remind them that he is out of play security goons bark at me, "face away from me NOW! keep your hands up!" they are actually pretty intimidating, I comply proceed to have me lay on the ground face down with my arms and legs stretched out yell at me to put my hands in the small of my back, palms together, fingers up big black guy approaches me and actually puts his knee on my neck George Floyd style "don't fight me, don't resist me, or you are gonna get hurt" he says puts me in zip ties and picks me up, see other guards still have weapons drawn on me overall whole thing similar to a gangbanger getting rolled up by the cops black guy puts me in some weird and uncomfortable arm hold tells me to start walking while he steers my body with the arm hold and walks me off the flightline taken to a grassy area, get put back on the ground and searched and questioned /// REDACTED /// I try to bluff and say that the hangar will blow if anyone goes inside, see if that stalls them he tries to question me about it, but I can tell he’s not biting, I decide to tone it down and stay quiet cause the dude really looks like he’s going to fuck me up actually overhear his partner talking on the radio, he’s telling others to exercise caution and beware of possible explosive booby traps lights out, realize that someone put a bag over my head evaluator calls out "EndEX" (end exercise) all portions of the exercise are terminated, it's all over
black security guy cuts my zip ties, takes off the hood and sets me loose later find out that security retook the hangar with no problems my guys inside struggled with the Legos since it was so dark and hard to see instead of immediately going in, security tossed inert CS gas canisters inside none of us brought gas mask since it was something our insider failed to mention evaluator let us build legos for another 30 seconds then yelled “GAS, GAS, GAS” unit bros in the hangar were told to lay on the ground and pretend to be incapacitated security swarmed the place with gas mask and guns, kicked away weapons they got a similar treatment to what I received on the flightline and got hauled out of there we all regroup at the base's main visitor center for the AAR (after action review) overall security responded quite well, only some points were critiqued, nothing failing smoke cigarettes and crack jokes back and forth with the security dudes, finally get to see the human side of the guy who snagged me on the flightline tell him he’s one scary mofo, he smiles and we shake hands security dudes leave, head to base theater for full debrief WHITEBOX guys thank us for our participation, time to head home wait a sec, let’s see some fucking aliens WHITEBOX guy smirks and says he’ll give us the dollar tour another day drive back to Mercury knowing full well that we are not going to hear back from them, especially about a tour return radiation badges to the Mercury office told that if we never hear back from them that it’s a good sign told that if they do call us then our Tricare (military health coverage) will get put to good use whole experience was cool as fuck one of the evaluators hands out business cards for ///REDACTED/// and tells us to look them up when we separate from the military starting pay for the security force is pretty fucking dope and only certain military backgrounds are considered for it return to Indian Springs and hit up the casino for drinks with the original 5 WHITEBOX guys ask if any of the prior OPFOR units actually pulled it off and broke in told that a group of CCT guys from the 24th STS was the closest anyone’s ever gotten but even they still failed makes sense, I’ve heard that those dudes are legit operators tell war stories and get drunk actually receive a letter of appreciation from the Air Force Test Center Detachment 3 from Edwards Air Force Base, California about a month later it thanks me for my participation in an exercise but makes no mention of Groom Lake my participation in a vaguely worded “DOD exercise” actually gets mentioned as a bullet in my annual performance report mfw I attacked Area 51
tldr - me and my coworkers "broke" into Area 51 with automatic weapons so we could put together an X-wing starfighter out of Legos
Thanks for reading. I should mention that I have intentionally withheld a lot of details and even altered a few. I'm not trying to blow up anyone’s spot and compromise shit. Just wanted to share a true story about some cool shit I got to do in my youth. For example WHITEBOX is a completely fabricated name while the whole operation actually went under another random weird name. It still ranks as some of the most cloak and dagger shit I got to do in the military. I actually don’t really tell too many people because it is no one’s business and no one would believe me anyways. I finally figured that enough time has passed and like I said, I have specially tailored this story to avoid leaking any sensitive shit. Overall the base was actually kind of underwhelming. I didn’t really see any earth shattering secrets there. All of the alien and reptilian conspiracy theories were openly mocked and made fun of there. It’s really just a base that gets an extra layer of discreetness and physical security for more sensitive assets and projects to be kept there. The CIA, JSOC and other intel gangs from Washington even have offices out there because it’s just a quiet tucked away place to do business. I will say that their security is no joke and that they have some truly fascinating techniques to detect and deny intruders. Hope you enjoyed.

[EDIT : Updated with Episode 8]
Okay, I'm doing this summary for two reasons: Many people are having a hard time coping up with the plot and the plethora of characters in this season's story, so was I, so I started rewatching the season from Episode 1, and surprisingly, everything started making way more sense. I'd like to urge people to watch the season again, trust me, it seems much better and interesting and you are able to connect the dots well since you know what went down in the later episodes and hence it makes a lot more sense. Also, the other reason why I'm doing this is because I may still have quite a few misconceptions regarding this part of the story so I want others to clear it up for me, wherever I'm wrong. I have stressed over the financial dealings and tried to explain them as much as possible, since these are the places that people get confused the most. However, since I am no expert myself, I may be incorrect in some places.
WARNING: This post will spoil your entire season. Do not read until you've watched all episodes at least once! You've been warned!
Short and semi-chronological summary of the Frank/Caspere/Catalast affair in a chronological order. I've skipped speculation unless strongly hinted by the story itself. I have also skipped the personal subplots of each character and the secondary incidents that are not closely related.

• In 1992, Los Angeles Riots take place and the entire city goes into frenzy. Shops are looted and people killed. A jewellery store called Sable Fine Jewellers is robbed by a bunch of people and the Ostermans, who are the couple running it are murdered by the robbers in cold blood, in front of their children, a boy named Leonard and a girl named Laura, who are hidden by the parents so the robbers don't see them. The security tapes capturing the incident was never found.
  
• Three police officers, namely, William Holloway, Kevin Burris and Teague Dixon used to work in LAPD back in 1992. They were a tight group and along with the chief police accountant at that time, Benjamin Caspere, they had conspired and executed the robbery themselves, using the riots as a guise. The real motive for the heist, however, is more sinister. Caspere was having an affair with the Osterman wife, Margaret. Margaret was pregnant with Caspere and her second child, after Laura, who was in reality, Caspere’s daughter (Leonard however, was not Caspere’s child). Caspere wanted to break off the relationship, but Margaret threatened to go public with their affair. Caspere decided to kill two birds with one stone: he planned the robbery in such a way that they would walk away with a lot of jewellery and Margaret would be gotten rid of. The robbery went as planned and a lot of jewellery was stolen, including a bunch of blue diamonds.
  
• The perpetrators of the robbery used the heavy loot to buy in to their six figure salaries in the corruption and crime filled Vinci, by bribing the mayor Theo Chessani. Over the course of 20 years, Holloway becomes the Chief of Vinci Police, Burris becomes his lieutenant and Dixon is a detective in the PD. Caspere, meanwhile is the Vinci city manager, involved in a lot of deals that goes down in the city.
  
• Fast forward to 2015, the Government is planning to develop a rail corridor passing through the LA Counties near Vinci. All the corrupt Vinci businessmen and thugs are interested in the project and want to buy the land around the rail line, which will be worth a lot after the rail line is constructed, because of the commercial development around it.
  
• Taking advantage of the situation, a Vinci mob boss Frank Semyon works along with Ben Caspere to set up a waste disposal plant around the rail corridor, in order to deliberately contaminate the land, thereby making it really cheap for people, including himself to buy into. They work with a Vinci firm called Catalast run by a certain Jacob McCandless, who buys all of the land so that nobody except the interested parties familiar to them can invest on it. This also gives Frank enough time to come up with some money on his own to buy some of the land.
  
• Caspere quotes a price of $10m to Frank to buy into a part of the land. In reality the price is actually only $7m, but Frank is unaware that he is being hustled. Frank liquidates his assets by selling a lot of his properties and leasing them out but is only able to come up with 5 million. He needs $5m more to buy into the land deal. So he contacts the Israel Russian businessman cum mobster, Osip Agranov, a former associate, to be a partner and invest $5m into the deal, so that both of them can buy in.
  
• Frank cannot pay Catalast directly, so he gives Caspere his 5 million, which is all his life savings, all he had with him, but Caspere obviously has the intention of fucking up Frank's life even more, as he doesn't invest this money at all. Meanwhile Frank and his wife Jordan host a party for the investors, which includes Osip, where Caspere is supposed to come and pitch the land deal to them, but for some reason he never shows up. Osip arrives to the part, but is seemingly chickened out of the deal he had agreed upon with Frank, believably due to Caspere's absence. Frank is furious. It is then shown than Caspere is murdered by an unknown assailant, who wears a bird mask (I'll refer to him as birdman from now on) and he is dumped by the highway in the Ventura County.
  
• Caspere is officially declared as a missing person by Vinci PD and Det Ray Velcoro and Dixon is assigned to investigate. They visit Caspere's mansion, only to find it completely ransacked, hinting the fact the person who killed him was probably looking for something in his possession. Paul Woodrugh, a California Highway Patrol officer, who is struggling to understand his sexuality stumbles upon Caspere's body while on a possible suicide binge out of self-loathing. Velcoro is sent to the scene by Vinci PD and Det. Ani Bezzerides, is also sent there on behalf of Ventura County.
  
• The investigation behind Caspere's death is set into motion. Ray and Dixon are assigned on behalf of Vinci PD, Ani and Paul are assigned on behalf of Ventura County and the State Department. However, each party has ulterior motives they want to achieve on the pretext of working on this investigation. State Attorney Richard Geldof and State investigator Katherine Davis believe that this is a good opportunity to probe into the corruption in Vinci and they want Ani and Paul to probe into the inner workings of the city, using the investigation as a cover. Ani is given explicit instructions to investigate Ray, who the state believes to be corrupt. Ray, on the other hand, is instructed by Burris, Holloway and Vinci Mayor Austin Chessani (referred further as The Mayor) to steer the investigation away from the city and to prevent a lot of exposure. The Mayor believes that the state is not happy that Vinci gets to keep most of it's collected taxes and insinuates that Geldof is probably corrupted and wants to strong-arm Vinci into letting him be a part of their corruption.
  
• Ray and Frank are also each other's informants. The two have a history since Frank helped find the supposed rapist of Ray's wife and they've been working together since with mutual benefits. Frank also puts pressure on Ray to find Caspere's killer since the killer may have all his money that Caspere stashed. Frank is furious when he learns from McCandless that Caspere hustled him over the price of land. He wants to buy into the deal again, so he goes on looking for owed debts and retaking places he used to run
  
• Meanwhile, the three investigators go on looking for clues, and come to hear about a huge party held every month, most probably an orgy, that are filled with hookers and influential businessmen. They learn from The Mayor, Caspere's shrink Dr. Irving Pitlor, Ani's sister Athena and Caspere's acquaintance, a director of the movie he was co-producing, that Caspere was indeed a part of these parties and he also frequented a lot of women, mostly one particular hooker named Tascha. Frank learns from Danny Santos, the current owner of Lux and a hooker in club, about a mansion in Hollywood leased to Caspere by Catalast, where he took all his women, and he passes this info to Ray, who goes to investigate alone in the house. There he finds all sorts of weird stuff that Caspere fetished on, including a camera and a hard drive, possibly containing clues to Caspere's killer. Before he could investigate any further, Ray is shot gunned to the chest with rubber bullets by Birdman and is knocked out cold, while the Birdman makes way with the hard drive.
  
• The investigators find a lot of phone calls from Caspere to The Mayor's house. Ani and Paul go to investigate The Mayor's house without a warrant. There they find his son Anthony 'Tony' Chessani (Tony, in future references) who tells that he works as an organiser and arranges "specialty events" (the orgies maybe?). He claims he doesn't know much about Caspere except for the fact that he worked with his father, The Mayor and has no clue about the phone calls. We will soon come to know that these calls from Caspere were not for The Mayor, but Tony himself. The Mayor comes to know about this surprise visit and is furious, and wants Ani's head on a plate.
  
• In the meantime, Osip completely cans his deal with Frank and leaves, leaving Frank distraught. Stan, one of Frank's closest henchmen, is found murdered. In desperation, Frank usurps Santos and takes over the Lux. Jordan sets up a meeting with her former producer boyfriend (we'll call him 'Dipshit' since this is what frank calls him and we don't know his name). It is implied that Dipshit impregnated Jordan who aborted the baby, causing her to have a condition where she couldn't bear a child. Since Osip has backed off, Frank has to convince Dipshit to invest with him instead, but Dipshit seems unsold.
  
• Frank goes to The Mayor to pay his vig. It seems he's short $10k because of his financial situation. The Mayor isn't happy and hints that there maybe some people interested in Frank's casino. We get to see later on what this really means.
  
• Paul meets up with a friend from his mercenary days. It is implied that both have a homosexual relationship. Unknown to Paul, Dixon is secretly photographing both of them.
  
• Paul also questions hookers and finds from a couple of gay gigolos that Tascha has been missing for several days. Ani and Ray go to investigate a driver of the stolen car that dropped Caspere's corpse. The driver worked for the film company but quit the day before. As they are talking, they hear an explosion nearby and rush, only to find the stolen car being torched by the Birdman. The two chase after him but fail to catch up and he escapes.
  
• Paul meets gets drunk and finds his merc buddy he had a fight with and the two go back to his apartment and have a session of make up sex, which is also photographed by Dixon. Turns out Dixon lost/spent all of his loot from ’92 and he was looking for something to blackmail the PD. It is still unclear though, as to why he was photographing Paul. It also explains why he is still a regular detective, when Burris and Holloway are in such high posts.
  
• Ani and Ray talk to Betty, The Mayor's daughter who reveals that her mother started suffering from schizophrenia when she was young, and was committed to a mental institution. The doctor assigned to her was Pitlor. Seeing all these connections pop up, and also since Pitlor mentioned he knew Ani's father, Ani goes to Elliott Bezzerides to get some clarity. Elliott confirms that he knew Pitlor and they were all a part of a hedonistic movement led by The Mayor's father Theo Chessani. They included The Mayor, Pitlor and Caspere.
  
• The Mayor, still infuriated with Ani, decides to pull some strings, gets a subordinate cop who had a sexual relationship with Ani to slap a sexual harassment case. The IA investigates Ani's departmental sexual relations, with the cop and with her partner Elvis Ilinca, her gambling debts and other professional standards and she is suspended from the department.
  
• Ani and Paul also find one of Caspere's safe deposit box, which contains some mysterious blue diamonds (recall that a bunch of blue diamonds were stolen in 1992). Paul and Dixon follow up on items stolen from Casper's home. A lot of these turn up in pawn shops around California, including more of the jewellery from Caspere. Turns out that a prostitute named Irina Rulfo and her pimp Ledo Amarilla pawned these. Caspere was known to have been a client of Rulfo and the PD believe that Amarilla and Rulfo are the ones who killed and robbed him and decide to go after Amarilla, who is hiding out in his meth lab. This is actually a setup by Burris and Holloway, as it is later revealed that Burris was the one who handed Rulfo the jewels and Caspere’s belongings. The Mayor is also hinted to have conspired. The probable reason for this setup was that the investigation of Caspere was digging open too many graves and discovering closeted skeletons so the bosses decided it was best for them to frame Amarilla and end this investigation once and for all. Dixon was snooping around for more blackmail evidence, so the PD planted a tip through him about Amarilla and he took the bait. The bust results in a massive shootout and there is a huge loss of life. Dixon is shot in his head during the shootout and killed, therefore effectively silenced and the investigation is closed, with the official report claiming Amarilla to be responsible. It is evident that Geldof had made a deal with Holloway, Burris and The Mayor and decided to close the investigation and run for governor, therefore effectively getting off their back and joining hands with them.
  
• Ray quits Vinci PD and becomes Frank's enforcer. Burris comes over to ask if Dixon has mentioned anything about his side activities, or about the photographs that he used to take (he didn't explicitly mention Paul's photos though).
  
• Frank visits The Mayor again, asking about the mysterious death of the owner of the waste management plant he sold. He also asks about the people interested in the casino and The Mayor says there are some 'foreign interests'. Hmmm... very strong foreshadowing there. Blake, Frank's right hand man, been disappearing randomly. Wonder what's going on... Frank suspects that he was muscled out of the rail corridor and feels that Blake may have a part in it. He entrusts Ray to follow Blake and see what he's up to.
  
• Ani and Elvis were serving a foreclosure for a house where a Hispanic woman named Dani Machiado lives. They have a case of a missing girl named Vera, who is the sister of Dani. When Ani goes to check on Dani later on, she gives him a set of photographs from what we can conclude is the "party" referred throughout the series. In these photos are Caspere and a state senator with a bunch of prostitutes surrounding them. Somehow, there are even photos of the diamonds that Ani and Paul retrieved from Caspere's safe deposit box. Seems like the diamonds went missing from evidence. Paul goes around pawn shops enquiring about the diamonds. One of the pawn shop owners tell him that these diamonds are unique and are probably stolen (yeah, no shit!). But the biggest bombshell is the fact that Dixon was looking for them too. Even before Ani and Paul discovered them in Caspere's deposit box, which explains that Dixon was planning to blackmail his former partners in crime by getting his hands on the diamonds.
  
• Ray tails Blake and we finally get to know what's going on behind Frank's back. Apparently the surgeries in seen earlier in Pitlor's clinic were actually cosmetic surgeries intended for these prostitutes for trafficking and the orgy. Tony, according to Pitlor was a 'pimp with a political ambition', he teamed up with Caspere to set up these parties to gain influence with the powerful businessmen (McCandless is one of them), politicians, policemen and mobsters and set up deals that Caspere facilitated on the rail corridor. The people in these parties were recorded as well, which served as a valuable bargaining chip for Tony and Caspere so that they could easily have their way. Pitlor also reveals that The Mayor wasn't a part of this affair. We see that after the death of Casper, Osip wants in on the parties and the railway land and Blake is helping him to do that, and double-crossing Frank in the process.
  
• Frank visits McCandless in a last ditch effort to get himself some land, unnerves him with the story of the death of waste management plant owner. McCandless tell him that if he could manage to get Caspere's hard drive that Birdman stole, Frank would be given five parcels of land.
  
• Davis smells something fishy with Geldof's sudden actions and realizes that he's probably bent and in bend with the Vinci powers, since he suddenly stopped pursuing them and started running for Governor with a massive funding, unaccounted for. She believes that there is a certain connection between him and the powers that be, and the Mexicans surely didn't kill Caspere. She puts up a secret investigative team, off the books, comprising of Ray, Ani and Paul. Ani gets a tip from Elvis who says that a call came to Vera's roommate from her from Guerneville, and also Caspere's GPS had shown that he had frequented that place. Paul and Ani decide to follow up and they find an old cabin there. They also find an outhouse where someone seemed to have been tied and brutally murdered. It is later revealed that it was Tascha, the missing hooker that Caspere frequented, who was killed in the outhouse. She collected evidence as a leverage in order to get out of the parties and it was her that sent the photos to Vera's sister. Unfortunately for her, Tascha was discovered and killed.
  
• Ani asks her sister to get her into one of these parties through her webcam contacts. She goes undercover and successfully infiltrates the party, which we now see is clearly an orgy. We see Geldof there with Blake, confirming Davis' suspicion that he has turned. We also see Osip, McCandless, Tony and Holloway there as well. This pretty much confirms our suspicions. Paul overhears Osip and McCandless talking over a deal. Turns out, Osip is investing $12m in the rail land. Once they leave, Paul breaks in and steals all the contract documents from McCandless' office. Meanwhile Ani finds Vera half conscious and tries to grab her and flee, killing a guard in the process. The trio manage to escape from the scene.
  
• Ray and Paul go through the documents and find out that Caspere's holding company did own some land. The chief treasurer of this company was none other than Blake, himself. It is possible that Caspere bought the land through this holding company using Frank's money, as Ray later tells Frank. The contract was claused in such a way (most probably by Blake) that in the event of Caspere's death, Osip and Tony could buy back Caspere's land shares for pennies (which in all probability, belongs to Frank). This was motive enough for Tony & Co. to kill Caspere, however, this would have set up the clusterfuck that resulted out of the murder, which makes it improbable that they were the ones who did it, since it wasn't really worth the exposure, especially from the state.
  
• Paul investigates and finds out about Holloway's, Burris', Dixon's and Caspere's connection to the '92 robberies. He also finds out that Ani is wanted by the state for questioning over the guard she killed. Ray goes to turn over his report of Geldof and the parties to Davis only to find someone took her out. Soon, state-wide APBs are put on Ray and Ani. The trio connect the dots and it becomes clear that Burris and Holloway were looking for the diamonds since it was an incriminating evidence against them for the 1992 robberies. Dixon was looking for them to blackmail Burris and Holloway. Tascha had probably taken the pictures of the diamond as an evidence against Caspere. It also explained why the diamonds went missing after Ani and Paul found them. The trio contemplate going over to FBI or the Ventura County PD but it seems that there isn't enough evidence to support their cause.
  
• Frank finally confronts Blake, who confirms his worst fears. Turns out Osip became interested in usurping Frank ever since they met in Paris, and Blake was double crossing Frank all along. Osip was the one bringing European women into the country for prostitution. According to Blake, Stan started snooping into the deals and blackmailing Blake to make him a part of the affair, so Blake had him killed in a manner that would make it seem that his death was connected to Caspere. Frank however, refuses to believe Blake's allegation on Stan. Blake confirms that Osip and Tony have taken over his money in form of the land, however, they are not the ones who killed Caspere. At this point the killer is still unknown. Blake tells Frank about Osip's 12 million deal with Catalast where the money would be paid in cash. He also confirms that the Ray's wife rapist intel he supplied to Frank was false. He tells that everybody have been turned by Osip against Frank, including his own men, except for Nails (the scary looking henchman of Frank). Frank kills Blake out of rage.
  
• Frank finds The Mayor heavily drunk in his casino, and spills the beans about Tony to him, about how Tony plans to usurp his father, buy bribing Geldof and working with Osip. The Mayor is unnerved and rushes home. It is implied that an off screen confrontation took place between Tony and The Mayor, which inevitably ended up the Mayor getting killed. The murder is made to look like a suicide where the Mayor seemed to have overdosed on alcohol and prescription pills and drowned. Back in Frank’s casino, Osip arrives and says that he has purchased both the Lux and the Casino by paying the lien (the businesses were double mortgaged, and Frank was in no position to pay up anytime soon). Frank plays along with Osip but later torches both the places to the ground and takes all their earnings in the safe. He plans for a big getaway to Venezuela with Jordan, but before that he plans to sabotage the Osip-Catalast cash handoff.
  
• Holloway and Burris is spooked when Paul investigates them. They blackmail him with the gay photos that Dixon took. Paul falls prey and arrives to the meeting place and finds out that Black Mountain, a Private Military Contractor he used to work for, has now gone through an overhaul and work as security for Catalast. Paul's gay acquaintance actually turns out to work for them. He is taken to a subway tunnel where Holloway confronts him about his investigation, but Paul is able to trick him and knock him out and manages to kill the rest of the Black Mountain soldiers. As he is escaping Paul is shot dead by Burris who was hiding outside as an ambush.
  
• Ani and Ray investigate Tascha’s photos and they find a familiar looking face. Its Caspere’s personal assistant Erica, who looks eerily familiar to the orphaned daughter Laura. The two recall when they had met her while visiting the movie set, and that the only person that she conversed with was the set photographer (the one who told Ray about the parties), and he fit the match of a grown up Leonard Osterman. They suspect that the set photographer is indeed Birdman, because the twins have very much the motive to kill Caspere. They get the set photographer’s address and search his house, where their suspicions are confirmed, when they find the bird mask and the white mask that Birdman wore while torching the car. They also find the rubber shells and the shotgun he attacked Ray with. Inside the house they find Laura handcuffed. She reveals that she was separated from her brother and as she grew up, she took to the streets and gradually worked her way into one of these parties as a prostitute, until Tascha introduced her to Caspere. Soon she became Caspere’s assistant, however she reveals that she would seduce him every night, get him drugged and make him reveal his secrets. Soon, she found her brother, to whom she told the entire thing. However, before Caspere could reveal everything, Leonard kills him out of rage and dumps him by the highway (thereby setting the story in motion). Laura says that Leonard has made a deal with Holloway and Burris to give him the hard drive (which contains nothing, since it auto deleted it’s contents once they failed to put in the right password) in exchange for the diamonds (they didn’t go missing from evidence, Holloway and Burris had them all along). It is therefore evident that Leonard was actually going to kill Holloway and/or Burris.
  
• To stop Leonard from killing Holloway, Ray goes to the meeting place, a railway station, where he finds him. Ray convinces Leonard that he will handle the situation by talking to Holloway while he hides and listens behind. Holloway arrives and He tells that he has the hard drive and the land documents and he will only turn them over if Holloway gives him the diamonds (he has brought fake ones to the deal, anticipating it to go awry). Ray makes him spill everything about the ’92 robberies, while he secretly records it. When he speaks about Margaret’s affair with Caspere and how Leonard's sister is actually Caspere’s daughter, Leonard is enraged and in a fit, attacks Holloway with a knife. A shootout ensues between Ray, Burris, Holloway and Leonard which involves Ray and Burris escaping while Leonard and Holloway are shot by the cops. The recorder is destroyed. Ani sends Laura away from California.
  
• In a last ditch attempt, Ray and Ani plan to flee the country. Frank sends Jordan to Venezuela along with Nails and promises he will be with her in a couple weeks. But first, Ray goes along with Frank to sabotage Catalyst-Osip deal. The duo get the car and guns from the Armenians, drop in to the deal and a shootout ensues where all of Osip’s men including Osip and McCandless are killed. Meanwhile Ani, goes to Pitlor's clinic, only to find that somebody slashed his wrists. Ray and Frank split the $12m and Frank exchanges the money for diamonds. Frank is on his way out of the country when he is subdued by the Mexican cartel. If you recall, Frank had made a deal with the Mexicans for leasing out Lux to them as a front for drugs, in exchange for a talk with Irina Rulfo. The Mexicans didn’t like the club burning to the ground and Frank’s concurrent deal with the Armenians, so they hold Frank responsible and take him to the desert to kill him. Frank still makes them spare him by paying them a million dollars but one of the gang members want the suit he’s wearing, where he has kept the diamonds. Frank refuses to let it go, and the gangbanger stabs him as a result, and the Mexicans drive off, leaving him in the middle of nowhere. Frank tries to walk but he is far from any road and his stab wound is serious. He soon collapses in the middle of the desert and dies.
  
• Ray realizes that he can’t leave without seeing his child one final time, so despite his woes, he drives to Chad’s school. The police seem to be staking it out and when they find Ray driving in, they tag it with a transponder. Ray realizes this and he calls and tells Felicia, the bar owner to make Ani get on board the boat to Venezuela, since he probably won't make it. Ray tries to outrun the cops and drives into the woods but the cops are in his tail. He gets to a forest and runs on foot, but the cops led by Burris are able to chase him and shoot him dead.
  
• In the epilogue, it is shown that Geldof inaugurates the rail line project with Catalast, Tony becomes the new mayor of Vinci with Mr. Chinese Khe Sanh his aide, and Burris the new police chief. We see the Mexicans surrounding Tony, indicating that Tony might have tipped Frank off to them. Ray’s paternity test result shows that he is indeed Chad’s real father. Ani is in Venezuela with Jordan and Nails, and she recounts her story to an LA Times reporter and hands him over the evidence, which include the land documents and the photographs (this is the same reporter whom Ray beat up on behalf of Frank in the first episode for trying to expose corruption in Vinci). It is then shown that Ray and Ani’s encounter in the motel had led to a child between them.
  

I suppose that's all to it. If I've missed something or got anything wrong, do point it out. If you have any other questions related to the plot do ask them.

Okay, I'm doing this summary for two reasons: Many people are having a hard time coping up with the plot and the plethora of characters in this season's story, so was I, so I started rewatching the season from Episode 1, and surpirsingly, everything started making way more sense. I'd like to urge people to watch the season again, trust me, it seems much better and interesting and you are able to connect the dots well since you know what went down in the later episodes and hence it makes a lot more sense. Also, the other reason why I'm doing this is because I may still have quite a few misconceptions regarding this part of the story so I want others to clear it up for me, wherever I'm wrong. I have stressed over the financial dealings and tried to explain them as much as possible, since these are the places that people get confused the most. However, since I am no expert myself, I may be incorrect in some places. I will add the eighth episode and do the necessary updations once I watch it.
WARNING: This post will spoil your entire season. Do not read until you've watched all episodes at least once! You've been warned!
Short and semi-chronological summary of the Frank/Caspere/Catalast affair in a chronological order. I've skipped speculation unless strongly hinted by the story itself. I have also skipped the personal subplots of each character and the secondary incidents that are not closely related.

• In 1992, Los Angeles Riots take place and the entire city goes into frenzy. Shops are looted and people killed. A jewellery store called Sable Fine Jewelers is robbed by a bunch of people and the Ostermans, who are the couple running it are murdered by the robbers in cold blood, in front of their children, a boy and a girl, who are hidden by the parents so the robbers don't see them. The security tapes capturing the incident was never found.
  
• Three police officers, namely, William Holloway, Kevin Burris and Teague Dixon used to work in LAPD back in 1992. They were a tight group and it is believed that they along with the chief police accountant at that time, Benjamin Caspere had conspired and executed the robbery themselves, using the riots as a guise. A lot of jewellery is stolen, including a bunch of blue diamonds.
  
• The perpetrators of the robbery use the heavy loot to buy in to their six figure salaries in the corruption and crime filled Vinci, by bribing the mayor Theo Chessani. Over the course of 20 years, Holloway becomes the Chielf of Vinci Police, Burris becomes his lieutenant and Dixon is a detective in the PD. Caspere, meanwhile is the Vinci city manager, involved in a lot of deals that goes down in the city.
  
• Fast forward to 2015, the Government is planning to develop a rail corridor passing through the LA Counties near Vinci. All the corrupt Vinci businessmen and thugs are interested in the project and want to buy the land around the rail line, which will be worth a lot after the rail line is constructed, because of the commercial development around it.
  
• Taking advantage of the situation, a Vinci mob boss Frank Semyon works along with Ben Caspere to set up a waste disposal plant around the rail corridor, in order to deliberately contaminate the land, thereby making it really cheap for people, including himself to buy into. They work with a Vinci firm called Catalast run by a certain Jacob Mccandless, who buys all of the land so that nobody except the interested parties familiar to them can invest on it. This also gives Frank enough time to come up with some money on his own to buy some of the land.
  
• Caspere quotes a price of $10m to Frank to buy into a part of the land. In reality the price is actually only $7m, but Frank is unaware that he is being hustled. Frank liquidates his assets by selling a lot of his properties and leasing them out but is only able to come up with 5 million. He needs $5m more to buy into the land deal. So he contacts the Israel Russian businessman cum mobster, Osip Agranov, a former associate, to be a partner and invest $5m into the deal, so that both of them can buy in.
  
• Frank cannot pay Catalast directly, so he gives Caspere his 5 million, which is all his life savings, all he had with him, but Caspere obviously has the intention of fucking up Frank's life even more, as he doesn't invest this money at all. Meanwhile Frank and his wife Jordan host a party for the investors, which includes Osip, where Caspere is supposed to come and pitch the land deal to them, but for some reason he never shows up. Osip arrives to the part, but is seemingly chicked out of the deal he had agreed upon with Frank, believably due to Caspere's absence. Frank is furious. It is then shown than Caspere is murdered by an unknown assailant, who wears a bird mask (I'll refer to him as birdman from now on) and he is dumped by the highway in the Ventura County.
  
• Caspere is officially declared as a missing person by Vinci PD and Det Ray Velcoro and Dixon is assigned to investigate. They visit Caspere's mansion, only to find it completely ransacked, hinting the fact the the person who killed him was probably looking for something in his posession. Paul Woodrugh, a California Highway Patrol officer, who is struggling to understand his sexuality stumbles upon Caspere's body while on a possible suicide binge out of self loathing. Velcoro is sent to the scene by Vinci PD and Det. Ani Bezzerides, is also sent there on behalf of Ventura County.
  
• The investigation behind Caspere's death is set into motion. Ray and Dixon are assigned on behalf of Vinci PD, Ani and Paul are assigned on behalf of Ventura County and the State Department. However, each party has ulterior motives they want to achieve on the pretext of working on this investigation. State Attorney Richard Geldof and State investigator Katherine Davis believe that this is a good opportunity to probe into the corruption in Vinci and they want Ani and Paul to probe into the inner workings of the city, using the investigation as a cover. Ani is given explicit instructions to investigate Ray, who the state believes to be corrupt. Ray, on the other hand, is instructed by Burris, Holloway and Vinci Mayor Austin Chessani (referred further as The Mayor) to steer the investigation away from the city and to prevent a lot of exposure. The Mayor believes that the state is not happy that Vinci gets to keep most of it's collected taxes and insinuates that Geldof is probably corrupted and wants to strongarm Vinci into letting him be a part of their corruption.
  
• Ray and Frank are also each other's informants. The two have a history since Frank helped find the supposed rapist of Ray's wife and they've been working together since with mutual benefits. Frank also puts pressure on Ray to find Caspere's killer since the killer may have all his money that Caspere stashed. Frank is furious when he learns from McCandless that Caspere hustled him over the price of land. He wants to buy into the deal again, so he goes on looking for owed debts and retaking places he used to run
  
• Meanwhile, the three investigators go on looking for clues, and come to hear about a huge party held every month, most probably an orgy, that are filled with hookers and influential businessmen. They learn from The Mayor, Caspere's shrink Dr. Irving Pitlor, Ani's sister Athena and Caspere's acquaintance, a director of the movie he was co producing, that Caspere was indeed a part of these parties and he also frequented a lot of women, mostly one particular hooker named Tasha. Frank learns from Danny Santos, the current owner of Lux and a hooker in club, about a mansion in Hollywood leased to Caspere by Catalast, where he took all his women, and he passes this info to Ray, who goes to investigate alone in the house. There he finds all sorts of wierd stuff that Caspere fetished on, including a camera and a hard drive, possibly containing clues to Caspere's killer. Before he could investigate any further, Ray is shotgunned to the chest with rubber bullets by Birdman and is knocked out cold, while the Birdman makes way with the hard drive.
  
• The investigators find a lot of phone calls from Caspere to The Mayor's house. Ani and Paul go to investigate The Mayor's house without a warrant. There they find his son Anthony 'Tony' Chessani (Tony, in future references) who tells that he works as an organiser and arranges "specialty events" (the orgies maybe?). He claims he doesn't know much about Caspere except for the fact that he worked with his father, The Mayor and has no clue about the phone calls. We will soon come to know that these calls from Caspere were not for The Mayor, but Tony himself. The Mayor comes to know about this surprise visit and is furious, and wants Ani's head on a plate.
  
• In the meantime, Osip completely cans his deal with Frank and leaves, leaving Frank distraught. Stan, one of Frank's closest henchmen, is found murdered. In desperation, Frank usurps Santos and takes over the Lux. Jordan sets up a meeting with her former producer boyfriend (we'll call him 'Dipshit' since this is what frank calls him and we don't know his name). It is implied that Dipshit impregnated Jordan who aborted the baby, causing her to have a condition where she couldn't bear a child. Since Osip has backed off, Frank has to convince Dipshit to invest with him instead, but Dipshit seems unsold.
  
• Frank goes to The Mayor to pay his vig. It seems he's short $10k because of his financial situation. The Mayor isn't happy and hints that there maybe some people interested in Frank's casino. We get to see later on what this really means.
  
• Paul meets up with a friend from his mercenary days. It is implied that both have a homosexual relationship. Unknown to Paul, Dixon is secretly photographing both of them.
  
• Paul also questions hookers and finds from a couple of gay gigolos that Tasha has been missing for several days. Ani and Ray go to investigate a driver of the stolen car that dropped Caspere's corpse. The driver worked for the film company but quit the day before. As they are talking, they hear an explosion nearby and rush, only to find the stolen car being torched by the Birdman. The two chase after him but fail to catch up and he escapes.
  
• Paul meets gets drunk and finds his merc buddy he had a fight with and the two go back to his apartment and have a session of make up sex, which is also photographed by Dixon.
  
• Ani and Ray talk to Betty, The Mayor's daughter who reveals that her mother started suffering from schizophrenia when she was young, and was commited to a mental institution. The doctor assigned to her was Pitlor. Seeing all these connections pop up, and also since Pitlor mentioned he knew Ani's father, Ani goes to Eliott Bezzerides to get some clarity. Eliott confirms that he knew Pitlor and they were all a parto of a hedonistic movement led by The Mayor's father Theo Chessani. They included The Mayor, Pitlor and Caspere.
  
• The Mayor, still infuriated with Ani, decides to pull some strings, gets a subordinate cop who had a sexual relationship with Ani to slap a sexual harrassment case. The IA investigates Ani's departmental sexual relations, with the cop and with her partner Elvis Ilinca, her gambling debts and other professional standards and she is suspended from the department.
  
• Ani and Paul also find one of Caspere's safe deposit box, which contains some mysterious blue diamonds(recall that a bunch of blue diamonds were stolen in 1992). Paul and Dixon follow up on items stolen from Casper's home. A lot of these turn up in pawn shops around California, including more of the jewellery from Caspere. Turns out that a prostitute named Irina Rulfo and her pimp Ledo Amarilla pawned these. Caspere was known to have been a client of Rulfo and the PD believe that Amarilla and Rulfo are the ones who killed and robbed him and decide to go after Amarilla, who is hiding out in his meth lab. This is actually a setup by Burris and Holloway, as it is later revealed that Burris was the one who handed Rulfo the jewels. The Mayor is also hinted to have conspired. The probable reason for this setup was that the investigation of Caspere was digging open too many graves and discovering closeted skeletons so the bosses decided it was best for them to frame Amarilla and end this investigation once and for all. The bust results in a massive shootout and there is a huge loss of life. Dixon is shot in his head and killed and the investigation is closed, with the official report claiming Amarilla to be responsible. It is evident that Geldof had made a deal with Holloway, Burris and The Mayor and decided to close the investigation and run for governor, therefore effectively getting off their back and joining hands with them.
  
• Ray quits Vinci PD and becomes Frank's enforcer. Burris comes over to ask if Dixon has mentioned anything about his side activities, or about the photographs that he used to take (he didn't explicitly mention Paul's photos though).
  
• Frank visits The Mayor again, asking about the mysterious death of the owner of the waste management plant he sold. He also asks about the people interested in the casino and The Mayor says there are some 'foreign interests'. Hmmm... very strong foreshadowing there. Blake, Frank's right hand man, been disappearing randomly. Wonder what's going on... Frank suspects that he was muscled out of the rail corridor and feels that Blake may have a part in it. He entrusts Ray to follow Blake and see what he's up to.
  
• Ani and Elvis were serving a foreclosure for a house where a hispanic woman named Dani Machiado lives. They have a case of a missing girl named Vera, who is the sister of Dani. When Ani goes to check on Dani later on, she gives him a set of photographs from what we can conclude is the "party" referred throughout the series. In these photos are Caspere and a state senator with a bunch of prostitutes surrounding them. Somehow, there are even photos of the diamonds that Ani and Paul retrieved from Caspere's safe deposit box. Seems like the diamonds went missing from evidence. Paul goes around pawn shops enquiring about the diamonds. One of the pawn shop owners tell him that these diamonds are unique and are probably stolen (yeah, no shit!). But the biggest bombshell is the fact that Dixon was looking for them too! Even before Ani and Paul discovered them in Caspere's deposit box!
  
• Ray tails Blake and we finally get to know what's going on behind Frank's back. Apparently the surgeries in seen earlier in Pitlor's clinic were actually cosmetic surgeries intended for these prostitutes for trafficking and the orgy. Tony, according to Pitlor was a 'pimp with a political ambition', he teamed up with Caspere to set up these parties to gain influence with the powerful businessmen (McCandless is one of them), politicians, policemen and mobsters and set up deals that Caspere facilitated on the rail corridor. The people in these parties were recorded as well, which served as a valuable bargaining chip for Tony and Caspere so that they could easily have their way. Pitlor also reveals that The Mayor wasn't a part of this affair. We see that after the death of Casper, Osip wants in on the parties and the railway land and Blake is helping him to do that, and double-crossing Frank in the process.
  
• Frank visits McCandless in a last ditch effort to get himself some land, unnerves him with the story of the death of waste management plant owner. McCandless tell him that if he could manage to get Caspere's hard drive that Birdman stole, Frank would be given five parcels of land.
  
• Davis smells something fishy with Geldof's sudden actions and realizes that he's probably bent and in bend with the Vinci powers, since he suddenly stopped pursuing them and started running for Governor with a massive funding, unaccounted for. She believes that there is a certain connection between him and the powers that be, and the Mexicans surely didn't kill Caspere. She puts up a secret investigative team, off the books, comprising of Ray, Ani and Paul. Ani gets a tip from Elvis who says that a call came to Vera's roommate from her from Guerneville, and also Caspere's GPS had shown that he had frequented that place. Paul and Ani decide to follow up and they find an old cabin there. They also find an outhouse where someone seemed to have been tied and brutally murdered. It is later revealed that it was Tasha, the missing hooker that Caspere frequented, who was killed in the outhouse. She collected evidence as a leverage in order to get out of the parties and it was her that sent the photos to Vera's sister. Unfortunately for her, Tasha was discovered and killed.
  
• Ani asks her sister to get her into one of these parties through her webcam contacts. She goes undercover and successfully infiltrates the party, which we now see is clearly an orgy. We see Geldof there with Blake, confirming Davis' suspicion that he has turned. We also see Osip, McCandless, Tony and Holloway there as well. This pretty much confirms our suspicions. Paul overhears Osip and McCandless talking over a deal. Turns out, Osip is investing $12m in the rail land. Once they leave, Paul breaks in and steals all the contract documents from McCandless' office. Meanwhile Ani finds Vera half conscious and tries to grab her and flee, killing a guard in the process. The trio manage to escape from the scene.
  
• Ray and Paul go through the documents and find out that Caspere's holding company did own some land. The chief treasurer of this company was none other than Blake, himself. It is possible that Caspere bought the land through this holding company using Frank's money, as Ray later tells Frank. The contract was claused in such a way (most probably by Blake) that in the event of Caspere's death, Osip and Tony could buy back Caspere's land shares for pennies(which in all probablity, belongs to Frank). This was motive enough for Tony & Co. to kill Caspere, however, this would have set up the clusterfuck that resulted out of the murder, which makes it improbable that they were the ones who did it, since it wasn't really worth the exposure, especially from the state (Note: This is purely speculation, however, it is also strongly hinted by the show).
  
• Paul investigates and finds out about Holloway's, Burris', Dixon's and Caspere's connection to the '92 robberies. He also finds out that Ani is wanted by the state for questioning over the guard she killed. Ray goes to turn over his report of Geldof and the parties to Davis only to find someone took her out. Soon, statewide APBs are put on Ray and Ani. The trio connect the dots and it becomes clear that Burris, Holloway and Dixon were looking for the diamonds since it was an incriminating evidence against them for the 1992 robberies. Tasha had probably taken the pictures of the diamond as an evidence against Caspere. It also explained why the diamonds went missing after Ani and Paul found them. The trio contemplate going over to FBI or the Ventura County PD but it seems that there isn't enough evidence to support their cause.
  
• Frank finally confronts Blake, who confirms his worst fears. Turns out Osip became interested in usurping Frank ever since they met in Paris, and Blake was double crossing Frank all along. Osip was the one bringing European women into the country for prostitution. According to Blake, Stan started snooping into the deals and blackmailing Blake to make him a part of the affair, so Blake had him killed in a manner that would make it seem that his death was connected to Caspere. Frank however, refuses to believe Blake's allegation on Stan. Blake confirms that Osip and Tony have taken over his money in form of the land, however, they are not the ones who killed Caspere. At this point the killer is still unkown. Blake tells Frank about Osip's 12 million deal with Catalast where the money would be paid in cash. He also confirms that the Ray's wife rapist intel he supplied to Frank was false. He tells that everybody have been turned by Osip against Frank, including his own men, except for Nails (the scary looking henchman of Frank). Frank kills Blake out of rage. Soon Osip arrives and says that he has purchased both the Lux and the Casino by paying the lein (the businesses were double mortgaged, and Frank was in no position to pay up anytime soon). Frank plays along with Osip but later torches both the places to the ground and takes all their earnings in the safe. He plans for a big getaway to Venezuela with Jordan, but before that he plans to sabotage the Osip-Catalash cash handoff.
  
• Holloway and Burris is spooked when Paul investigates them. They blackmail him with the gay photos that Dixon took. Paul falls prey and arrives to the meeting place and finds out that Black Mountain, a Private Military Contractor he used to work for, has now gone through an overhaul and work as security for Catalast. Paul's gay acquaintance actually turns out to work for them. He is taken to a subway tunnel where Holloway confronts him about his investigation, but Paul is able to trick him and knock him out and manages to kill the rest of the Black Mountain soldiers. As he is escaping Paul is shot dead by Burris who was hiding outside as an ambush.
  

I suppose that's all to it. If I've missed something or got anything wrong, do point it out. If you have any other questions related to the plot do ask them.