[S2E5] Other Lives ~UPD~
It's only been 66 days since Ben Caspere was murdered, but the lives of the detectives have been altered quite a bit. Each of them looked at the chance to work Caspere's murder as a stepping stone to something better, and where they ended up was anything but.
[S2E5] Other Lives
Paul's mother didn't help issues by stealing his blood money that he kept stored at her trailer. Although he should have thought twice about trusting his own mother given how she talks to him. Calling him out on being gay and crying when he left in anger was just an average conversation for them.
Frank has moved to the burbs, and while he and Jordan are putting themselves all out with truth and such, they get closer to each other. The happier they seem, the more I expect that happiness to be cut short.
By rejoining the investigation, Ray learned Gena's rapist was captured, something she didn't bother to tell him and which sheds a whole new light on his relationship with Frank. Who did Ray kill? Frank tipped off Ray about Gena's attacker, and Ray acted on that tip. Frank has held Ray's life in his hands ever since.
The season is set in California, and focuses on three detectives, Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell), Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) and Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch), from three cooperating police departments and a criminal-turned-businessman named Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) as they investigate a series of crimes they believe are linked to the murder of a corrupt politician. In the episode, the aftermath of the shootout impacts the lives of Velcoro, Bezzerides and Woodrugh, while Semyon keeps expanding his empire and investigating his own henchmen.
While working on Vera's case, Bezzerides finds a connection between her and the cache of blue diamonds found in Caspere's safe deposit box. She asks Velcoro for help but he warns her to stay away from the case, as they are no longer detectives. Nevertheless, Katherine Davis (Michael Hyatt) secretly re-opens the case, as she suspects Geldof is working with Chessani (Ritchie Coster) to help his bid. She convinces Velcoro to join them, intending to help him win the legal custody. However, she also reveals that he is not investigated as Gena's rapist was caught just a few weeks ago, making Velcoro realize that Semyon lied to him years ago. Semyon also talks with Jordan (Kelly Reilly) as their relationship seems to be dwindling. She states that for years, she suspected she could be infertile, which explains why they could never have children despite their many tries. This prompts Semyon to spend more time with her as they look for other methods.
Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "I'm not sure the drama was all that improved, and the dialogue was never more ridiculous, but at least 'Other Lives' left you feeling like you were getting somewhere. Including the end."[10] Aaron Riccio of Slant Magazine wrote, "Ironically, even though 'Other Lives' hints at the different lives its characters could experience at any given moment, it chooses to enmesh them even deeper in the ones they've unwittingly chosen."[11]
In addition to writing for Silver Screen Riot, Eric also writes for Beauty News NYC, a natively digital beauty and lifestyle publication based in New York City, and Morning Ticker, a virtual news outlet. Eric has a background in cinema arts and currently lives in Manhattan, New York and he is also a creative writer with a healthy appetite for photography.
Meanwhile, Iara sabotages the mission and locks Richard behind a hatch, claiming she was unable to forgive him for what happened in the past. With the wormhole not able to take all of the ship back, Niko makes a bold decision to sacrifice herself, splitting the ship in half and allowing the others to make it back home again.
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The title of True Detective season two's fifth episode, "Other Lives," has at least three meanings. On the surface, it's about what happened to our main characters in the 66-day gap between the episodes four and five. It's also about other lives (or, perhaps, former lives) that need investigation. Dive a little deeper, and it's about the people beneath the surface and the lives they lead when they're not cops, when they're not psychiatrists, when they're not wealthy.
Nails is driving. He appears to have some reddish discoloration low on his forehead. They don't speak. "In other news," a woman on the radio says, "construction is set to break ground next week on the state central rail line." Frank turns the radio off and looks at Nails. He doesn't look back.
"Well, he had a lot of photographs," Burris says. This is a callback to the brief few seconds we saw Dixon taking pictures of Paul and his old army buddy and sometimes sexual partner. "Some other stuff. Might have been into some people."
Burris tells Ray that the house he lives in is for Vinci employees. He's not one, so he has to leave. He has 60 days, and he wanted to tell him in person. "Come on, Ray," he says. "You don't want to live here anymore." And it is a little odd, right? Just like the real Vinci, Vernon, those hours are for city employees. Ray quit. Why would he want to live there?
The name is another link to Greek mythology, like Antigone "Ani" Bezzerides, her sister Athena and their father Eliot's commune Panticapaeum. In Greek mythology, it's the river of woe, one of five rivers in the underworld. In Roman mythology, it's the river you'd have to cross to get into hell. In Dante's Inferno, it's the border of hell. It's also a real river in Greece.
Paul's mother pours herself a drink, asks how pregnant she is. "Four moths," Paul says. "Mother of God," his mom says. She's pissed. Says he's good-looking and white, that he could do anything he wants. Instead, he's becoming a husband.
This scene begins in what appears to be hotel room. That woman seems to have called Ani because she got something from her sister in the mail. It was sent other old address. Here sister had been missing for about a month back in episode one. It will be about four months now.
This is another recurring theme: Ani, alone. She's a loner, the sole female sheriff's deputy, if we can judge that based on the shot of her in the otherwise empty women's locker room. And at the beginning of episode three, Ray speculates that somebody has it out for all of them.
They are, at this point, living separate lives in the same house. It's not a relationship in any meaningful sense. She's trying to make it so, by seizing their most vulnerable moment and filling it with brutal honesty. Jordan's extending an invitation to Frank: If she can accept Frank knowing the horrible things that happened to him when he was young and the presumably horrible things he did when he was a full-fledged gangster, then he can accept the dumb things she did when she was in her 20s. Both of them are paying for their pasts now. The question is: Do their pasts have to define their futures?
"My son, I fear, is losing his mind, like his dearly departed mother," Chessani said. "Some people can't handle the deep trip. I fear he is a destroyer. In my day, you understand, it was about consciousness expansion. Tracing the unseen web. Children are a disappointment. Remain unfettered, Frank."
Ray shows him the photograph of Pitlor and Chessani and others standing next to a river in the early '80s, says he knows more than he's letting on. Tells him to talk. Pitlor is calm again, trying to use words to fend off Frank's aggression.
"Kind of day I've had," Ray says by way of explanation, "seeing you pop a few stitches might start to make up for it. Pin-eyed motherfucker. Hooker parties. What you'd call affluent men. Caspere attended. Go."
Ani wants Athena to contact her old friends, the kind who might work as hookers at high-class parties. Athena resists at first. As is the True Detective style, they spend a few moments talking to each other about different things.
Ani persists, says that there's a missing girl and "other stuff." Athena says that she talked to their father, Eliot, the one who runs the commune, and that he said Ani won't call him back. She's never talked about the shooting that happened three months ago, Athena says.
Athena said she had to weigh hanging out with her sister with the probability that she'd just get lectured, which is a callback to episode one. Ani says she's in no position to give lectures. Athena says she's been accepted into CalArts, another sign that she's pulling her life together. Ani is happy, looks down, kicks some sand and says she should buy her sister dinner. She has feelings, for sure. She just doesn't know what to do with them.
Blackmail is also a solid explanation for two other things mentioned in passing. Catalyst Group leased Caspere's car and paid for his Hollywood sex house. Caspere could have blackmailed McCandless (who, based on his interest in the hard drive, probably took advantage of more than the sex swing in Caspere's Los Angeles house) into doing that. Either that, or McCandless was in on the whole blackmail scheme, which seems less likely. The scheme sounds more like it was intended to trap guys like McCandless than bring them on as co-conspirators.
Let's say Frank told Blake, his seemingly untrustworthy redheaded henchman. We learned this week that, when he's off Frank's clock, he associates with Tony Chessani and Pitlor. There's no particular reason to assume that this is a new relationship. In fact, Blake disappeared for what seems like a few days around the time of Caspere's murder, which Frank complained about in episode two. And when Blake returned, he brought news that one of Frank's other henchmen was dead. That's valuable information to have. How did he get it? And where was he? And why? 041b061a72