This episode was much better than the setup that was episode one. We got more information about each character this week and in addition we saw the moves they were making. The opening scene saw Frank lying in bed with his wife talking about his rough childhood, The story he told of his drunken father locking him in a dark basement was chilling to say the least. This man rose up from horrid conditions to be in a position of power and it was full on creepy to hear him say “What if I’m still in that basement? The dark? What if I died there?” What a dark dark thought! This is a troubled man.
We learned a bit more about the death of Casper. It was more brutal than we thought and by the way he had Gonorrhea. Let’s be honest. No one cares about this murder. It’s the dirty deals and people connected to Casper that make this mystery worth caring about.
Motorcycle enthusiast Paul Woodrugh visits his mom and an uncomfortable visit it was. She keeps telling him he can have “his old room.” I don’t know what went on in his old room and I hope it never gets revealed.
I loved the back and forth between Velcoro and Ani Bezzerides as they share a ride. Velcoro would love to bed her obviously and her e-cigarette is driving him crazy. I was looking forward to more of these two together, but clearly that is now over. The next time they are together Ani will be staring down at Velcoro being pulled out of an icey drawer.
I hate to see a decent gangster down on his luck and that is just the case with Frank Semyon. He has gone all in on this rail deal and has basically lost his life savings since Casper died with the money in his possession. So Frank is broke but thinks he can get it all back. I hope he does, however it took him half a lifetime to stack all that cash. Getting it back quickly is easier said than done. I do think I am going to enjoy watching Vince Vaughn play a desperate criminal though. That look suits my boy much better than the high society criminal we saw in episode one.
We know Ali loves her knives and we find out the theory as she laid it out to Velcoro before his untimely demise. She knows she can be overpowered by the opposite sex and plans to bleed the fool who makes the mistake of laying hands on her. She and Paul are the only ones who even remotely want to find Casper’s killer.
I loved the courage that Velcoro’s ex-wife showed when she told him face to face that she is going to force supervised visits on the hot headed detective. This was a bad decision to tell him in person, but she kept her ex in check by telling him she would have a paternity test done. Clearly Velcoro is not the boy’s real father. She also mentions the fact that he killed her rapist, a tidbit that could be used against him as well. She insults her former soulmate by saying “You’re a bad person Ray,” which truly is the worst thing you can say about a person. Simple and to the point, and he knows it’s true by the way.
We see how Frank plans on getting back some fast money as he has his goons beat down another criminal as a threat. Frank is much more a fit for this criminal activity than the corporate type mega deals. It’s like Avon told Stringer Bell in ‘The Wire’, “You not hard enough for the gangster life, and maybe, just maybe you not smart enough for the corporate business world out there.” This episode showed that Frank is plenty hard enough for the gangster world. It’s the corporate dealings that have left him broke and scrambling to get back on top. The upper level crooks don’t have any code at all as they squash guys like Frank as soon as he comes up short on money.
The visit to Casper’s psychiatrist is telling….more about Ani than Casper. The therapist knows her dad and remembers how she was raised. We later find out that Ani is maybe addicted to porn. It started out with case work online then turned to pleasure.
I have no idea how valuable the upcoming flashbacks involving Ray will be. We already know he did regular dirty work for Frank and that he killed the POS that raped his wife. What more trips down memory lane will accomplish remains to be seen. If nothing else, the death of Colin Farrell got many fans worked up after a somewhat disappointing debut episode in the eyes of many fans. I am definitely in a hurry to get to episode three myself. See ya next week and beware of folks in bird masks.