I think that scene was supposed to be about the fact that it was supervised. There was so much emphasis placed on Ray's discomfort with it. We know the kid cares because of how upset he was in the back yard.

Yeah, that line was meant to be important for probably more than just one other scenario.

It makes her out to be a selfish bitch is what it does. On the surface you understand it but on a gut level you kind of hate her. It's one of the detective movie tropes I'm most tired of — the long-suffering but somehow totally unlikeable ex-wife.

Those new husbands are stable and all but they just don't tug at the heart like the violent, coke-crazed, alcoholic ex.

I think that was the first time she had that flashback.

But no one else was acting like that. The other girls were hot to trot.

Ok, after another episode in which noir tropes trump verité over and over again I've accepted that this season is not actually a detective story but is about the detective/noir/pulp genre. These characters are supposed to be stock types — the gangster with his moll-with-a-heart, the cop with domestic issues and…

But she went all whoozy and knock-kneed. It was like she'd been slipped a Cosby drug, not a pleasure-inducing party drug. And she was the only woman it affected like that. I guess because she was the only one who wasn't really a whore???

Get out of my mind! (Except about the orgy score; it bothered me, especially when they were sneaking around outside the house to it).

Hannibal's face is a mask. But there are things the audience knows about his likes and dislikes that come from the narrative. Mikkelson's facial expressions for Hannibal, therefore, are almost more of a code than genuine communications of emotions. It's fun for audience to match the expressions Mikkelson makes with…

My problem with this interpretation is that it jibes with Ani's father's assessment of Ani and her sister in the first episode. I'm afraid P's attitude toward him is "The guy's a dick but he makes some good points." I completely disagree with that attitude.

A blackout in which he managed to put his boxers back on.

Ani's sister accepts that she cannot make driftwood "shine like steel…or something" like their mother. So, yes.

I read a comment somewhere else just now where the person claimed that Jordan only exists in Frank's mind. This made me laugh, but now it's bugging me. Why DID Frank say he was alone when Ray asked him? Why not say "No, Jordan's here."? And why would Ray ask Frank if he was alone? Why wouldn't the answer be "Of course…

I think that being a True Detective this season is going to involve accepting responsibility for one's own flawed state rather than blaming other people or events for it. Ray is furthest down this road at this point.

When I'm not half-seriously speculating that the Birdman is Paul I am certain that the Birdman is a woman. If it's like Season 1 the Birdman will turn out to be that drug-addict woman Ray saw outside the apartment in episode one.

Ani is right to care about the missing woman, though. Where she goes wrong in her police work and her life is in trying to be too macho. Caring about missing women is good police work. And women are naturally caring, despite what those pesky PC feminists say. (What a mess this show is).

Well, I imagine that all the time spent on these backstories and subplots means that the killing of Caspere is only thematically related to the business stuff.

Honestly, I thought it was intentionally obvious. To me it was as obvious as the kid not being Ray's son. It has thrown me off a bit realizing that it apparently wasn't supposed to be obvious.

A ha. So it will turn out that the guy Frank had Ray kill was in the way of Frank's success. And it will also turn out that killing this guy somehow set this corrupt chain of events in motion for everyone. I like this theory a lot because it fits with the Oedipal theme. Hmm, is it possible it was Frank's father?