'True Detective' Season 2, Episode 1 - First Episode, Explained Recap

The first season of "True Detective" was notoriously convoluted, with a plot full of various villains that were almost as difficult to keep track of as it was difficult to understand what the hell Rust Cohle was talking about.

Now "True Detective" season two is here, and we have a new set of characters, new location, and new story. Everything seems a little more accessible this season, but we could probably all benefit from a little explainer.

Here's what's going on with those four characters:

Ray Velcoro

Played by the excellent Colin Farrell, Ray is a detective with the police department of the fictional city of Vinci, a corrupt industrial town based on the real-life city of Vernon, California. Ray, like absolutely everyone else on this show, has issues. Our first introduction to him is in a meeting with a lawyer over the custody of his kid, who may actually be the child of the man who raped his wife a little over a decade ago.

Ray has a knack for kicking the crap out of people, and has made a lucrative side job out of doing just that for one of the other main players on the show, Frank Semyon. We'll get to him in a bit. In the pilot, we see that Ray most likely used his contact with Frank to murder the guy who raped his wife, and has since performed some "hits" for Frank, including crippling a reporter who is threatening to uncover the corruption of Vinci through journalism.

Ray also happens to be a raging alcoholic with anger issues who beat the ever-living crap out of the father of his son's bully. Fun stuff.

Frank Semyon

Played by Vince Vaughn, Frank is a former mobster who is attempting to go legit via a complicated plot about holding companies and real estate. The short of it is this: the government is building a high-speed rail through California, and Frank is looking for investors to buy up real estate along the rail line, potentially making him and his partners filthy rich.

Unfortunately for Frank, the city manager who helped put this deal together, Ben Caspere, has gone missing on the day of the big pitch. We find out later that Caspere was murdered in a fairly brutal way (pelvic injury and damage to the eyes are involved) and left on a park bench along the Pacific Coast Highway. It's all trouble for Frank, as Caspere was the public face of the deal and without him there, the foreign investor who was key to the whole thing going through is considering backing out.

Ani Bezzerides

Played by Rachel McAdams, Ani is a criminal investigator with Ventura County and seems to be the only non-corrupt cop on the show. We learn through her ongoing investigations that she has a sister who is doing work as a camgirl and a father who is a long-haired spiritual guru up the coast. She and her sister both seem to be named after Greek figures (her full name is Antigone and her sister's is Artemis, and we'll assume it was a little joke to call Artemis the "goddess of love" because she isn't), presumably by their mother, who was a failed actress who committed suicide.

In this first episode, Ani and her partner end up getting a lead on a missing girl while delivering some eviction papers, and are also later called to the Caspere scene.

Paul Woodrugh

Played by a clean-shaven, short-haired Taylor Kitsch, Paul is a California Highway Patrol officer who ends up on paid leave after reportedly soliciting a blowjob from a young woman he pulled over on the freeway in exchange for letting her off with a warning. We don't see if Paul went through with it or not, and considering his sexual performance issues with his own girlfriend it might not have happened.

In any case, Paul (surprise) also has issues: he seems to be in a deep depression, made worse by being blocked from working, which is the only thing that keeps him sane. Paul ends up speeding down the PCH on his motorcycle at speeds of 100+ mph with his headlights off in a suicide attempt before having a last-minute change of heart, all of which leads him to the Caspere scene.

At the end of the episode, all three of our detectives (or rather, two detectives and a highway patrolman) are at the Caspere scene exchanging meaningful glances, and clearly the motivations for each to solve the case will differ significantly.

This second season seems to lack the metaphysical and occult aspects of the first that seemed to draw audiences in, so whether or not this one will have the same level of interest remains to be seen. The dark, dark tone remains, though, as do the sometimes annoying philosophical conversations.

All in all it was an interesting start, so if the show can keep the momentum going and really play off of the dynamic between the four leads, this should be a good season of "True Detective."