Let me get this out of the way: I was wrong about Velcoro being dead. While I’m glad he’s alive, I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity here. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho famously killed off who was supposedly the lead of the movie, Janet Leigh, very early on in the film. It was brave, it was genuinely surprising to audiences and it gave us one of the most famous scenes in movie history. It’s strange that we live in a time where seeing a character get shot doesn’t seal his fate definitively, we need to see his guts fly out onto the wall. (Where’s The Mountain when you need him?). Velcoro is alive, his narrative has pivoted and we are left with too many actors and not enough minutes per episode. Am I starting to sound bitter? Oh boy, I could use a distraction. And now ladies and gentleman, Mr. Conway Twitty.
It’s unfair to compare the two seasons of True Detective, but since everyone on the internet is doing that anyway, I’ll throw my hat into the ring. And boy, when you do, it looks pretty grim. Think about where we were at this point last season. We had a dream with a monster at the end of it: Reginald LeDoux in a gasmask cooking meth in the woods (which still gives me nightmares). This season we have...a member of the Jabbawockeez running through skid row, and very few leads. If season two is going anywhere, it better start quickly. Right now it seems stuck in LA traffic.
The reason for the slower plot should be obvious to anyone: too many characters and not enough screen time to dedicate to them. That’s why I thought it was not only a brave move to kill off Velcoro, but an economic one as well. With less time dedicated to Velcoro, we could’ve learned more about Bezzerides. Are we any closer to finding out what makes her tick? Do you remember the missing girl that worked on the hippy commune that her father runs? Me neither. Two episodes removed, I wonder if Bezzerides even remembers.
Despite a weak episode, I’m optimistic. Since Pizzolatto seems intent on keeping all four characters alive, this may be a case of “wait and see”. There is still a chance that we’re going somewhere new and interesting. Scenes like Velcoro’s near death experience give me hope, and that seems like a good place to start when discussing this episode, since it was it’s lone bright, blue, spot (light).
Yes, Velcoro is alive! Bolo tie enthusiasts rejoice! During his near-death experience, Velcoro sits across the table from his father, played by Fred Ward, donning a police uniform. No drinks are shared. Instead, Ward shares a cryptic prophecy of Velcoro’s possible death: “They see you. Running through the trees. You’re small. The trees are like giants. Men are chasing you….you step out the trees...and you ain’t that fast. Oh son....they kill ya. They shoot ya to pieces.” Giant trees? Sounds like Northern California to me. Or possibly out in the boonies where the light rail is being constructed. The realization gave me chills, and likely did the same for Velcoro who is left with an uneasy twitchiness for the rest of the episode. He’s trying to hide it, but he’s finally scared of dying. Or at the very least, he’s no longer suicidal. He later goes to a doctor who asks him point blank “Do you want to live?”. It’s left unanswered, but in the next scene Velcoro is drinking water instead of scotch. Baby steps. Who knows? By season’s end we may see Velcoro going to yoga classes and juicing kale. Namaste, Ray.
Prophecy aside, the scene was inherently suspenseful. When we last saw Velcoro he was, presumably, meeting his maker at the end of a shotgun blast. Was he dead? Was he dreaming? Or had he been blasted with rubber pellets and pissed his pants? Ultimately, it was the latter.
Much like how the second episode was necessary to set the motivation of the show’s characters, this episode was (I’m guessing) intended to explore the role love plays in our detectives’ lives. The Rose, sung by a Conway Twitty look alike, is about love: defining what it is and who deserves it.
Bezzerides clashes with our poor resident “hick state trooper” Steve about their brief fling. HR tip #2 for Bezzerides: office romance never works out! Maybe, as the Mayor of Vinci suggests, Bezzerides is better off starting a greek yogurt stand.
Woodrugh continues to fend off sexual advances all episode, from both men and women. We finally learn the inevitable: that he had some confusing homosexual experiences while stationed overseas. Confused seems to be the best word to describe Woodrugh at this stage in the game. At one point, he even asks a prostitute “You do girls AND guys?”. It’s called being bisexual Woodrugh, how did you not learn about that in high school health class? I blame Tami Taylor. Jokes aside, Woodrugh’s confusion is refreshing and makes his character more believable.
Along the way, more light is shed on Velcoro’s quest for familial love. He certainly wasn’t getting it from his father, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in Velcoro’s dream sequence his father occupies the spot usually reserved for Semyon. Velcoro may not fully trust Semyon anymore, especially after being lead into certain death, but for now he’s still the closest thing to family he has. You have to feel for Velcoro, he visits his dad to drop off weed to help with his tremors and has what can only be described as a glaringly one sided conversation. Later, his ex-wife informs him that the state probe is heating up and tries to pay him $10,000 to leave forever. Given recent events, I’m not sure why Velcoro stays to weather the storm.
Semyon is growing on me, and next to Velcoro, he has the most well rounded character traits. He’s a self-made man that wants to pass a legacy of wealth onto his children. Unfortunately, his wealth is gone and, despite his motile sperm, conceiving a child is proving increasingly difficult. He’s impotent both sexually and professionally. Issues aside, what is most interesting about Semyon is his verbiage. He tosses 10 dollar words (like “stridency”) around like he’s scattering gold teeth into the air. It’s one thing to sound smart, and it’s another thing entirely to have actual intelligence. Which category does Semyon fall into? I think for the first time in awhile, Semyon is asking himself that very same question.
And yes, for those scoring at home: Woodrugh AND Semyon hate blowjobs, and Bezzerides gives them out willy nilly. So far, much of what season two has accomplished is establishing a disdain for blowjobs and e-cigarettes. And after all the work that Stephen Dorff did.
Somewhere between conning old business associates out of their money and teeth (gross dude, use one of Bezzerides’ baggies to carry those teeth!), we learn that one of his associates has been murdered. I found the direction in this scene was lackluster. Was the audience supposed to notice that his henchman (R.I.P. Stan) had his eyes burned out with acid, just like Caspere? I can’t tell if that was subtle or sloppy.
When I think back on this episode, that’s the word that keeps coming to mind: sloppiness. Much of the dialogue was too on the nose, including Velcoro’s doctor visit and his interaction with his ex-wife. The same holds true of the action. I love Fred Ward, but did he have to literally toss his badge into the trash? I get it. He’s jaded and stoned, but count that scene as a miss for me. Finally, and this is the most troubling detail, it’s way too convenient that the killer sets fire to the missing car a block away from Velcoro and Bezzerides. Unless he wanted to get caught, that wasn’t a smart move.
Sloppiness aside, while love was likely the intended theme, this episode really only did one thing: dig out more leads in the case and add more details. Catalyst group, police politics, connections to the movie industry, blue diamonds, prostitutes named Tasha and underworld power struggles. Vinci PD versus state cops! Forgive me if I’m bored, and to be honest a little lost, by all of these details. We’re left with a case more confusing than California’s looping, twisting on-ramps. It was an episode that took us from a dream, to a crime scene, to a Bel-Air mansion, to a fertility clinic, to a construction site, to a movie set, to a bike race (Woodrugh likes his bikes), to a sexy night club, and finally to skid row. This episode tried to do too much, spread itself thin and ended up with a disjointed tone. To borrow a line from Semyon’s henchman, this episode was half-great white and half-anaconda. In other words, a confusing mess of a creature.
I felt aimless after watching this episode, in a “where does this story go from here” sort of way. It seems like it’s on a predictable path involving snuff films and the dark side of Hollywood. I’m nervous that the thought process for this season was: replace the supernatural with bizarre sex stuff. But then again I’ve been wrong before.
Finally, speaking of being wrong, I have another theory for you. The gun that was used to shoot Velcoro is flagged as a “police gun with rubber bullets”, but just as easily could’ve been a prop gun from a movie set. As past real world on-set tragedies have proven, prop guns can still hurt people. This isn’t a controversial theory by any stretch of the imagination. Caspere had ties to the movie industry, and his killer likely does to.
Speaking of the killer, if the person that killed Caspere and transported him out of town is the same person behind shooting Velcoro and burning the car...then why return to the scene of the crime? Why leave the camera hard drive behind while murdering Caspere? I have a feeling that unlike last season there isn’t one malignant group or person pulling the strings behind the scenes. Instead there may be at least two competing puppeteers having a tug of war, with Vinci and the light rail squarely in the middle.