Before we get into this episode - which was able to smash away the midseason malaise like Velcoro smashing model airplanes - I’d like to engage in a little thought experiment. This season has been polarizing. There's no denying it. I was such a huge fan of the first season, that I gave this season a leash longer than Velcoro’s bolo tie. Like I admitted last week it has sadly failed to live up to expectations. Many fans are likely considering, to borrow Rust Cohle’s realist philosophy, opting out of a raw deal and walking hand in hand into True Detective extinction. I’d like to spin our buddy Rust’s musings the other way: Nic Pizzolatto and True Detective know exactly what they are, and there’s some victory in that. “What they are” just might not be enjoyable for everyone. But first, let’s play “What If?”
What if this season was only Ray Velcoro and Frank Semyon?
I doubt anyone would argue that Ray Velcoro has been beyond our wildest expectations this season. At first he seemed like a surrogate Rust Cohle, spouting quotable lines, doing drugs, and pushing the boundaries of police morality. In season one we wanted Rust Cohle to catch a serial killer. In season two, I want Velcoro to catch a break. Velcoro wears his pain out in the open, and isn’t numbed to the world like Cohle was for most of season one. I think it’s telling that one of the better lines of the season is on the topic of pain, delivered by Semyon. “Pain is inexhaustible. It’s only people that get exhausted”. To put it lightly: the pain Velcoro has endured this season is astonishing. Much-maligned-mobster Frank Semyon has played a critical role in amplifying Velcoro’s pain. In fact, I’ve enjoyed their relationship so much that I often find myself asking if Paul Woodrugh and Ani Bezzerides are even necessary. Or, in other words: What if this season was about a crooked cop grasping for the shreds of his humanity, while his only confidant (a mobster trying to go legit) is the very man that set him down the path that ruined his life? I’d watch that show in a heartbeat. In fact, if I’m being totally honest, sometimes it feels like I actually AM watching that. Much of Bezzerides and Woodrugh’s story seems like an after thought; a series of tropes slammed into characters that do a disservice to the actors who are trying to play them (McAdams and Riggins-err Kitsch).
Couldn’t much of the actual “case” work that our two beasts of burden (Woodrugh and Bezzerides...and the state attorney I suppose) are performing been handled off screen by bit characters? Remember the two cops who were interviewing Cohle and Hart in present day? By keeping their roles small but important, that left room to build out the season’s mood and supernatural mythos. If you recall, THEY were the ones who got credit for solving the case. Rust and Hart got to do all of the fun stuff. I’ve been consistently bored with the tacked on politics of the season. Leave the politics and the case work for bit characters, I want to see a spiral of birds!
Speaking of supernatural mythos, and moving on from our brief thought experiment, I want to focus on the one major misfire in this otherwise enjoyable episode. The sex party in the woods was a mix of boring and too convenient. Rich dudes banging beautiful prostitutes who take MDMA (Molly to our less “with it” readers), our missing girl that is tangentially related to the case, and a chance encounter with the most important document the investigation has produced yet. Granted I had just been to a Phish show (my first!) the previous evening, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I had accidentally snoozed off and woken up to a Skinemax movie. Bad acting, bad sex pantomiming. Worse still, you can’t watch that scene without remembering the terrifying Carcosa ritual that Cohle and Hart watch on VHS. It’s essentially the same moment of “oh, THIS is the underground stuff that’s going on”. It felt comparatively tame and I never once felt the hairs raise on the back of my neck. Sorry Bezzerides, but the only thing I was worried about was you not being able to keep your drugs down. Without a supernatural element, this “seedy underbelly” felt more like the pale paunch of a Texas oil man. No terror, just softcore porn.
Misfire aside, the episode delivered. The relationship between Semyon and Velcoro was tested in a tense standoff over black coffee. The scene was incredible and I genuinely felt that someone may pull the trigger. Cooler heads prevailed (I have a feeling Semyon grinds his own beans so let’s count this as a victory for coffee lovers). After some tough guy exchanges, Semyon finally exposed himself to Velcoro. “Good - you might be one of the last friends I got”, Semyon says to a hastily departing Velcoro. “Wouldn’t that be fucked up?” Ray smartly retorts. I wanted to yell “KISS ALREADY” but I’ll settle for the bromance that has sustained much of the season finally being out in the open. Like him or not, I still think much of the ire directed at Semyon is due to people not “believing him” as a character, the most common attack coming not from a gunshot beneath a table in a breakfast nook, but instead aimed squarely at his dialogue.
I think Pizzolatto failed the character in that respect, because Semyon is a very real character to me. He isn’t the smartest guy in the room, but he wants everyone to think he is. Have you ever been around a bully who wants to sound intelligent? He uses words that are too big, he makes bad jokes (Mexican standoff with real Mexicans!), he shoves people and he lashes out at anyone close to him. Sounds like Frank Semyon to me. He’s Tony Soprano with a lower IQ and less confidence. In other words, not an easy character to like! I understand the criticisms, and believe me when I say that some of this season’s worst dialogue has been delivered by Semyon, but like I said he, this show, and Pizzolatto are exactly who they are, for better or for worse.
I haven’t mentioned “themes” in quite some time, mostly because it’s been challenging to notice any. It’s no coincidence that the first great episode of the second half of the season was able to deliver a true theme. This episode centered on childhood and children. Everywhere you looked our characters were confronted by the pain inflicted upon children and through those experiences we were able to learn valuable things about them.
I’ll stick with my main man Frank here, who delivered the episode's best (Non-Velcoro) scene. Consoling a murdered henchman’s son is never easy, and is something most henchman’s sons never receive (think of all the orphans James Bond has caused). Vaughn started the scene off awkwardly, but transitioned into the no bullshit zone very quickly. How many people had come and told that kid that everything would be fine? Semyon broke the kid down and then built him up with honesty, bringing him to tears. It may have started and ended awkwardly (Semyon said everything short of calling the kid “Slugger”), but wouldn’t that ring true in real life? There’s no easy way to say “your life is going to be a lot harder now” without stumbling a little. It was a touching scene, and made me root for Frank even more.
Woodrugh had an equally heart wrenching encounter while investigating the blue diamonds. He learns that a mother and father were in possession of the diamonds and were killed execution style in their store while their kids were forced to hide. The LA riots and looting covered up the murder, but left the investigating police officer traumatized as he relived the fate of the children, who had to sit silently and hide while their parents were murdered in front of them. This was the type of scene that I had been waiting for and reminded me of the weeping police officer who knew that the disappearances were covered up in season one. It’s nice to see the “everything is terrible and we’re hard men” facade finally crack under the weight of the atrocities humans are capable of. I just wish it had happened a little sooner this season.
Meanwhile, Velcoro finally came face to face with the reality of his situation (and not just because he was doing blow off of a reflective surface). A cocaine and alcohol fueled bender leaves him whimpering, empty and alone. His son is slipping away and the pending paternity test will leave him completely and utterly alone. Once again, Velcoro steals the episode with a phone call that brought me to tears. He concedes everything to his wife, under the condition that she not go through with the planned paternity test. “Where he comes from, he shouldn’t have to know.” Velcoro pleads with his wife. There are two meanings in this sentence, one is the obvious fear that Velcoro isn’t Chad’s biological father. He’s protecting Chad from the possibility of knowing he is the son of his mother’s rapist. The other deeper meaning is much sadder. Velcoro is begging that his son not know how terrible he has become - a crooked cop, a murderer, a drug addict and a liar. To put it bluntly, Chad was either fathered by a rapist or a murderer. Even though it destroys him, all Velcoro wants is to shield Chad from either of those truths. It’s a pitiful plea, one that I fear is already too far gone to stop. But his wife kindly realizes what Velcoro is doing, and promises to forgo the paternity test. Relinquishing custody of his son is best for Chad, but it still leaves Velcoro absolutely alone in this world. Like I pleaded in episode 2, I just hope Velcoro finds peace before the season’s end.
And that brings us to Bezzerides, who successfully infiltrates a party which somehow has every non-police bit character: Chessani the Younger, The Catalyst guy, The Russian Guy, Frank’s weasley-second in command who I think is named Blake?, and wait a minute...is that the Undertaker’s music? She quickly knifes up, but not before being given pure MDMA. Trust me, having a child molestation flashback on MDMA is a little far fetched, almost as far fetched as the missing girl she was looking for being at the exact same party as Bezzerides. Bezzerides knifes a guy, tackles her demons (sort of), and escapes with the girl. I’m not sure what the fallout will be, but I imagine that posing as a prostitute while you’re suspended for sexual harassment and then killing a billionaire’s bodyguard with a knife isn’t going to blow over. Sadly, I’m still not that interested in the fallout.
For all of its warts, I’m still immensely excited for the final two episodes of season two. True, Pizzolatto keeps raising more questions than he’s answering (Remember the bird mask? What about the rogue Jabbawockee?). Two episodes sounds a lot better than “two hours”, which is really what this amounts to. But with some hard evidence (finally!) and some pissed off murky groups (again, finally!) I have a feeling we’ll be taking that mysteriously predicted Velcoro trip to the woods sooner rather than later. My “bold” (read: incorrect) prediction that someone was going to die early in the season still holds some (filthy Vinci) water. I don’t think all of our heroes are making it out of Vinci alive, but I sure hope they answer some of the shows lingering questions first. Pizzolatto and True Detective may know who they are, but there won’t be any victory for the audience if we don’t know why sticking out the ride was worth it.