True Detective: Ani Bezzerides

Ani Bezzerides played by Rachel McAdams in the second season of “True Detective”. Her real first name is Antigone. In the first episode, “The Western Book of the Dead”, she really didn’t do  much except send a guy named Steve on his way after he failed to perform in her bedroom and try to bust an online porn operation that turned out to be legal. In addition to looking dumb, she found her own sister, Athena, working there. They have these strange names because their father, Elliot, is a regular guru who dispenses his wisdom at a place called The Panticapaeum. And, lo and behold! After serving some foreclosure papers, the evictee tells Ani and Elvis about her missing sister, who just happened to work at Elliot’s compound.

Off they go and Ani gets in a confrontation with her father. It comes out that her mother is dead and her father did nothing to stop her from “walking into a river.” He adds some more details to her life: she has had a failed marriage and a few relationships. He believes that her entire personality is an extended criticism of his values and that she is “angry with the entire world and men in particular.” She storms off angrily, telling him to help his daughter, meaning Athena. He says, “I just did,” meaning her.

After Vinci city manager, Ben Caspere, is found dead by Highway Patrol officer, Paul Woodrugh at Point Mugu, Ani and her partner, Elvis Ilinca (Michael Irby), meet Woodrugh and Vinci detective, Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell). Ani is tapped to head up a task force to investigate the murder. “Caspere is a window into everything,” she is told by the state investigators who have horned in on the case. As part of the deal with the Vinci P.D., the second lead is Velcoro. Woodrugh is also put on the team as is Teague Dixon, the cop who was investigating with Velcoro when Caspere was only missing.

In the next second episode, “Night Finds You,” we find out that Ani smokes e-cigs. She also tells Ben Caspere’s headshrinker, who knows her father, that when she was growing up with “the Good People” there were 5 kids there: two are in jail and two committed suicide. She’s the only one who left it all behind for a career in law enforcement. She tells Velcoro the reason she carries all those knives. It’s because everyone she encounters might be able to physically overpower her. The “fundamental difference between the sexes,” she points out, “is that one of them can kill the other with their bare hands.” She says that any size man who lays a hand on her is “gonna bleed out in under a minute.” Then she goes home where she is checking out a website featuring “Naughty Cali Angels.” As she is watching a porn video (maybe of Athena?), she gets a call from Elvis who has continued to work on the missing sister report. He says there were calls to the missing woman’s cell phone from Guerneville, the very place that Ani told Velcoro the Good People used to live at.

In the third episode, “Maybe Tomorrow,” Ani spends some time with Paul Woodrugh mainly because Velcoro is a little under the weather, recovering from broken ribs he sustained while looking into Ben Caspere’s Hollywood den of iniquity. They pay a visit to Mayor Chessani’s den of iniquity where his Russian wife and his son add nothing but aggravation, but Ani did manage to see a bunch of real estate documents in the mayor’s home office. Chessani is more than pissed off when he learns about the intrusion and vows to make her walk the plank. “Bezzerides is gonna be running a yogurt stand,” he tells Velcoro.

Meanwhile, Ani’s superior, Davis, suggests that she allow Ray Velcoro to think she will sleep with him because Davis knows Velcoro is dirty and wants to be able to leverage him. There’s a promotion in it for Ani.

Back in her squad room, Steve shows up wanting to take her out for a bite to eat. She gives him the big kiss-off and Steve does not take it well. She warns him to watch his tongue or he “will be carrying your teeth home in a baggie.” On Steve’s way out, Elvis calls him a mama’s boy. LOL! We really think Elvis has a thing for Ani. He seemed threatened by Velcoro too.