How "Colossal" Was True Detective's Orgy Scene?

Earlier this year when True Detective 2 was filming, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the HBO prestige drama had cast multiple porn stars for a 'colossal orgy' sequence that stars Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams were on set for at a Pasadena mansion.

As this rather lackluster season has dragged on, the "colossal orgy" has been one reason to keep watching week to week. And well, it finally happened—the orgy of all orgies became the backdrop for Ani and co. to further their investigation of the murder of Ben Caspere (via the most roundabout way).

So you know Complex's resident True D fans (and hatewatchers) just had to weigh in on how truly colossal that orgy really was.

I haven’t been very caught up on the current season of True D—occasionally tuning in at bars where dialogue is vaguely inaudible, mostly to make fun of Vince Vaughn's robe and manspreads, etc.—but I glued myself to the projector screen last night, eagerly awaiting the "colossal orgy" that was promised to me. I was ready to make so much fun of it; I mean, knowing Nic Piz, the orgy was going to be terribly over the top (but also possibly the best part of this season just because of its lack of self-awareness and restraint). Instead, it was simply the best part of the season—I say this in earnest—without leaving much room to make fun of it.

Last night, Rachel McAdams' character, Ani (NEVER FORGET HER NAME IS SHORT FOR "ANTIGONE" BECAUSE NIC P CAN'T HELP HIMSELF), went undercover to a depraved sex mansion, where gross old men have sex with call girls—all drugged beforehand [there were giant bowls filled with blue pills but I couldn’t tell you what they were (Ed. note: That was Viagra, Kristen. Bless your innocence.)]. Dressed up in evening gowns, they were then transported on a bus (endearingly dubbed "the orgy bus" in my viewing circle), and then shown around the house like pretty little hors d'oeuvres for disgusting old men to lay their grubby hands on. It was like Eyes Wide Shut, but without capes or masks, making the True D version both less terrifying and yet more skeevy. But that orgy itself was, well hard to say "tasteful," but effective—setting off a terrifying flashback in Ani, whose backstory hints at sexual abuse, some much expected knife-play, and then a chase sequence set to a score reminiscent of a Hitchcock film. Again, "tasteful" is not quite the word, but… It was something.—Kristen Yoonsoo Kim

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did Nic P just deliver the best scene of True Detective season two? Going into last night’s episode, which all but promised the long-awaited orgy scene described months ago as “deliriously vast,” I expected the most ridiculous moment in a season full of ridiculous moments. I expected gross overindulgence, a literal clusterfuck, a True Detective season two signature helicopter shot looking down on a traffic jam of naked bodies intertwined like the highways of Los Angeles.

Instead, we were hit with a legitimately compelling scene that pushed along the mysterious (but still boring IMO) narrative. More importantly, the rape-drug-induced flashback revealed important character development for Ani Bezzerides. How did the daughter of a commune leader become a cop? Because Ani was molested at that commune as a child. The memory also explains why Ani’s so concerned about her sister’s foray into the sex industry. It’s not because she’s some prude or looking to cast judgment on other people while avoiding her own problems. It’s because Ani doesn’t want her sister to suffer the same fate.

We also got a thrilling action sequence almost good enough to wipe away the laughably horrendous shootout at the end of “Down Will Come.” I’ve been praying to the occult gods for Ani to put her knife to work since she first busted it out in the aforementioned shootout, and last night she diced up a guard like she underwent Paul Woodrugh’s combat training. “I think I killed someone.” Guuuurl, no shit you killed someone.

Was this scene or episode enough to save the disaster that has been this second season of True Detective? Of course not. But the orgy didn’t drag the season down further like it seemed destined to when it was announced porn stars would be involved. —Ian Servantes

"Church in Ruins," the sixth episode of True Detective’s second season, provided things that viewers both expected and didn’t expect.

The episode’s preview alluded to the "colossal" orgy sequence that made headlines long before season two premiered. Discussion about porn stars hired and references to Eyes Wide Shut built the scene up to be something simultaneously Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, and Brazzers. A hint of Lynch was present, but all it amounted to was the predictable reveal that Ani Bezzerides (and, most likely, her sister Athena) was sexually abused as a child.

After going undercover as her sister and receiving a pre-party spritz of pure molly, the orgy revives memories of her abuse at the hands of a menacing hippie. That incident was the catalyst for her detachment, resentment, and aggression, but we've known since the season's beginning that something happened to Bezzerides in her youth to trigger it all.

Amidst the not-so-wild fucking taking place in the mansion, more intriguing action occurred. As she promised a few episodes prior, Ani’s knife game left a male attacker bleeding out before he could harm her, and Ray made a Fast & Furious-esque escape from the mansion with Paul, Ani, and Vera (the girl whose disappearance she was investigating) packed into his Charger.

Yet we saw much of this coming, just as we knew Ray nosediving into small ant hills of cocaine was inevitable. What few predicted (or at least I didn’t) was for this to be the season’s strongest episode. Granted that’s not saying much and I doubt the remaining two episodes can rescue the show from the weight of its self-importance and dialogue that never escapes the mouths of actual people, but it doesn’t matter. We're all going to thug it out to see how this thing ends.

True Detective’s second season may ultimately prove the show to be a one-trick pony, but let’s be honest: if you’ve already invested six hours, you might as well go down with the ship.—Julian Kimble

Who would've thought True Detective was actually capable of taking it this far? I'd been lightweight defending this season as not quite the complete trash the Internet is making it out to be, but after a nonsensical (on every level) shootout in episode 4 that I'm confident everyone who contributed to this reaction-list could've directed better, this season began to give me blue balls of both the heart AND mind. Smart money had last night's colossal orgy as being hilariously silly, at best. Instead it was... pretty good?! Stylistically nightmarish, even! Down to that weird but kind of perfect score! My original plan was to try and count every act of depravity on-screen but then wow, Rachel McAdams took the wheel and shit got downright unsettling. Which is to say, True D actually accomplished a feeling they were going for for once this season! Rachel's acting has always been on-par with season MVP Colin Velcoro but she hasn't had the meaty scenes to work with. But wow, that house was terrifying. And the drug induced flashback to the assault we've all been assuming was part of her past? Made my skin crawl.

Ani's affinity for knives has been so over-telegraphed but she really fileted a dude so mechanically and thoroughly that even she didn't realize it at first. It's the first time since Ray Farrell's "death" that I actually shot up in my seat. The True Detectives battling perverse old men is exactly what I expected from this wannabe neo-Chinatown ass season. It's just too bad this is still the worst, most sloppily written mystery ever. A pulse-pounding sequence, a getaway in the full-moon-lit hills and you end on Taylor Kitsch's especially limp line reading of the especially limp discovery that "these documents...have...SIGNATURESSSSS"???? GtfohSmfh. Colin is the best, Vince is the worst career criminal I've ever seen in my life and Taylor should do daytime soaps. Sorry True Truthers, I don't know what lazily written season you're watching but even if these last two weeks are fire, that doesn't save it from an overall C+. For colossal orgy, of course.—Frazier Tharpe

Going into The Orgy Episode, knowing that I’d be writing something about the orgy (more like BOREgy, right?!) my angle was: Does Nic P masturbate to his own material? While I still think the question is worth some spilled ink, it’s not appropriate for the tame, Eyes Wide Shut with less pomp and circumstance, group sex situation we got last night.

I have nothing to say about the various acts of sexual congress glimpsed. (There wasn’t enough male nudity, but that’s not a surprise.) Instead, the only thing I’m really interested in is the music. Cribbing from the David Lynch playbook yet again, the sequence owes serious coin to Angelo Badalamenti, American movie composer and Lynch’s longtime collaborator. Badalamenti loves melodramatic strings, those swelling violins that pole vault so far beyond treacle that they become sublime. Making the score as prominent in the mix as it was during "Church in Ruins" is one of the boldest formal decisions the show has made thus far. Still, this show is not good. I’ll let Willa Paskin say it for me.

Final advice for Nic P: Stop writing dialogue.—Ross Scarano

As an avid hatewatcher of this season of True D, I was fully prepared for the legendary, colossal orgy to be complete and utter gratutitous HBO smut.

While there was a bit of that, with the fully dressed old dudes with writhing naked women on top of them, I was pretty surprised by how tasteful that Nic P's orgy sequence was. Yes, as tasteful as an orgy can be I suppose.

The most surprising aspect of all, was how well-handled the discovery of Ani Bezzerides' sexual assault as a child was. In a TV landscape that just loves using rape as a plot point to move a woman's story forward, Ani's drug-induced flashbacks to her assault felt real and not just exploiting a horrific crime for the mere sake of making us "get her" better.

In light of the New York magazine Cosby cover drop, learning about Ani's past was weirdly perfect timing in telling authentic stories about women's experiences with rape and sexual assault. Did a woman ghostwrite this episode? —Kerensa Cadenas