I had major food poisoning the night “Other Lives” aired. After viewing it, I decided I really didn’t
want to take the effort to review the episode. This season has been a big disappointment. It’s hard to pin down what exactly has made it
so tedious, but it’s a combination of the actors, plot and artifice of the
story. It’s been hard to care why Frank
is such a bad guy or why Ani can’t maintain a relationship. The series is trying very hard to be strange
and deep and the result has left this viewer too fatigued to want to figure out
if the eight episode series is like the California high speed rail, a train to
nowhere.
In “Other Lives” we are treated to a full on “Sons of
Anarchy” type massacre, which is both ridiculous and cathartic. The aftermath
allowed for a fresh start for our motley crew of detectives. All members, including Frank, have been
humbled by their failings. It was almost
enough to reignite my interest, but the main problem remains, it’s hard to be
interested in the “focal crime.” Ben Caspere remains an elusive ghost. (Is his
last name an intentional reference to “Casper the friendly ghost?)
Episode five highlighted the difficulties of being a family.
Frank and Jordon are unable to conceive after her three abortions. Ray is
desperate to retain his role as Chad’s father. Paul agrees to marry his
pregnant girlfriend, as he confronts his terrible trailer trash mother. And,
Ani continues to be haunted by the ghost of her cult upbringing and strained relationship
with her sister.
The “Church in Ruins” opens with a standoff between Ray and
Frank, after Ray has discovered his wife’s rapist isn’t the man he killed. The
men square off in the kitchen, each with their hand under the table on their
respective guns. Frank denies intentionally misleading the former
detective. Ray wants to know who gave
him the name. A tense truce is reached; Frank desperately wants the hard-drive
from Caspere’s apartment in exchange for the man who provided him with the
“rapist’s” information. After Ray
leaves, Jordon appears with a small pistol drawn and appears shaken.
Ani and Paul call the local authorities to deal with the
possible crime scene they discovered last week in Northern California. They
fear it maybe connected to the missing woman Vera, who was last heard from in
the area. There is no body however.
Ray visits the man who attacked his wife in prison. The man
denies knowing him or the crime. Ray promises a graphic torture scenario,
should the man ever be paroled. Mmm, okay.
Paul contacts a retired cop regarding the blue diamonds
stolen from Caspere’s apartment. The gems were stolen during the ’92 riots and
resulted in a double homicide that left two young children orphaned. The theme
of orphans is alluded to as the retired cop confesses how this case really
disturbed him. (Frank was an orphan, Paul, Ani and Ray all had crazy parents
who failed them.)
Ani meets with her sister to discuss the upcoming escort
party, the type of event they theorize Caspere frequented with other politicians.
The previous episode revealed the connection between Rick Springfield’s plastic
surgery practice, Vinci mayor Chessani and the escort parties. Ani shows off
her knife skills on a wooden dummy while Athena warns her to be careful, as the
women aren’t allowed cellphones or weapons.
Frank and Jordon meet with Stan’s widow. He offers her some
“death benefits” and then gives a sappy speech to Stan’s grieving son. Ray
endures a supervised visit with Chad, who’d rather watch “Friends” then build a
model plan with him. Ray cuts his visit short to use massive amounts of cocaine
and tequila. (Since that always makes one relax and feel positive about the
world!) As Ray sobers up a little, he calls his ex to rescind his custody of
the boy, if she promises not to tell him of his true paternity.
Frank does his gangster torture routine on a Mexican man,
trying to find the woman who pawned the blue diamonds. It leads him to a house where he has a
standoff with the same men who visited his club last week. “Cross that off my
bucket list, a Mexican standoff with real Mexicans!” (Too bad Donald Trump
wasn’t there to get blasted!) The men negotiate a deal involving running
heroine through the club for intelligence on the woman’s whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Ani gets on the escort bus and Ray and Paul
follow her in a car. Ani is wearing a tracking transponder. Once she’s at the
party, she is forced to ingest some “liquid Molly” and it makes her woozy. In the crowd, she sees Richard Geldof, who is
running for district attorney and leading the Vinci corruption case. Outside,
Ray and Paul pick off guards to get closer to the action.
Frank calls Irina and offers her money to meet with him. She
explains she already meet with “El Jefe” and is reluctant to meet anyone else.
(Mayor Chessani?) She finally agrees when Frank assures her she can bring her
people. Frank arrives at the meeting
spot to find her throat slit. The
Mexican mobsters appear out of the shadows.
Their killing “an innocent” and the fact he can no longer question her
about the missing tape upsets Frank. (But as James Darmondy explained in
Boardwalk Empire, “You can’t be half a gangster.”)
Back at the sex party, Ray and Paul observe the CEO of the
Catalyst Corp making a new land deal with Russian mobster Osip. Paul manages to
break in and steal the documents. Ani
fends off middle age creeps and miraculously discovers Vera drugged out in a
corner. (How would she recognize her while high and having never seen her
except in a photograph; I have no idea.) Ani manages to stab the man who wants
to have sex with her and a guard, all while hallucinating about being molested
as a young cult girl!
Ani and the boys escape, with Vera. Paul reads the incriminating contracts by the
light of the full moon. The gang has
finally found some real evidence to expose the Catalyst Corp’s involvement with
organized crime and the rail project.
How that solves the murder, I don’t know.
Two episodes left in this disastrous season. Please no more
aerial freeway shots of L.A.! My best guess is that Pitlor (Rick Springfield)
did everything, not that I even care who tortured a dirty politician. Vince
Vaughn should never act in a drama again, and watch the spray tan as he looks
more and more like John Boehner. I don’t
know if True Detective has been renewed, but I don’t think I’d watch it again.
But like a freeway accident, it’s hard to look away. I still want to see where this season lands.
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