Inherent Vice (2014)

In writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's neo-noirish, stoner mystery-comedy and crime-drama - it was a convoluted, meandering sex and drug-filled tale (with themes of sex, money, conspiracy and murder) about alleged kidnappings. The shaggy-dog story with an ensemble cast was based upon post-modern author Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel of the same name. This film's unique style and ambiance recalled the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski (1998), and Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973). The film's complexity, multiple characters and the disjointed plotline mirrored the difficulties with understanding the classic, hard-boiled detective and noir film The Big Sleep (1946).

The circuitous, dragged-out, atmospheric, eccentric drama with multiple mysteries and characters was mostly seen within a drug-swirling haze of the POV of the 'unreliable' detective-protagonist. It was set in the psychedelic free-love year of 1970 in Gordita Beach, a fictional town in scuzzy Los Angeles (SoCal) - a stand-in for writer Pynchon's Manhattan Beach. 1970 was a transitional year from the free-love, easy-going and laid-back era of the late 60s, to the harsh beginnings of capitalism and greed in the problematic 1970s. The main turning point between the two decades came at the time of the bloody murders committed by the crazed Charles Manson cult in Hollywood (in the late summer of 1969).

Gordita Beach, California - 1970

There were at least five different strands or plot narratives (of "inherent vice") in the film, adding to its unfocused complexity and lack of clarity: the five main subject areas included: (1) the manipulated fate of rich, guilt-tripping, endangered LA real-estate mogul "Mickey" who was kidnapped to be reprogrammed back to his capitalist self, (2) the on-off relationship between hippiie PI "Doc" and his young and exploited ex-hippie lover Shasta, (3) the wrong career choice of formerly-addicted, family man Coy (now allegedly dead but posing as an undercover informant), (4) the existence of a shady, multi-tentacled international drug-dealing, big-business criminal organization known as The Golden Fang (also a boat and syndicate of dentists) and its cult-run brainwashing Chryskylodon Institute, and (5) corrupt LAPD cop "Bigfoot's" manipulative set up of drug-addled "Doc" to vengefully kill his opponents (i.e., Prussia and Beaverton).

A large group of immoral and mostly weird but supposedly 'respectable' characters (some with very imaginative names) included a frequently doped-up, hippie-beach-bum private detective attempting to understand and solve multiple cases and restore a past love-relationship, a Black Nationalist, massage parlor workers, a vengeful, lumbering cop-detective, communal groupies living with a band, an undercover informant-musician, an uptight Deputy DA, FBI agents, neo-Nazis, an LAPD contracted skin-head hit-man and Aryan brotherhood member, a corrupted hippie-flower child's return after a "three hour boat tour," a pedophilic womanizing dentist, rehab patients being cleaned up and reprogrammed at a strange psychiatric facility, and heroin-cartel cult members dealing in heroin.

By the film's conclusion, the many disappearances and deaths all led to clues suggesting that an international, underworld drug smuggling syndicate known as "The Golden Fang" was involved in a conspiracy with higher-ups in the DOJ and LAPD to control and reprogram a wealthy real-estate developer; the numerous cases (and characters) that the doped-up PI was trying to solve were directly or indirectly linked or tied together.

• the film opened with a voice-over by astrologer Sortilège (singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom), the film's omniscient narrator and the main protagonist's muse or spiritual guide, who provided helpful commentary (often to clarify situations) by suddenly appearing and then disappearing within scenes; she described the first scene: ("She came along the alley and up the back stairs the way she always used to. Doc hadn't seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then, it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower print bikini, faded Country Joe & the Fish T-shirt. Tonight, she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore she would never look")
• inside his messy beach house, continually-dazed, lonely, pot-smoking dope-head/hippie Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) was viewed in a blue haze; he was a private investigator or detective (with mutton-chop sideburns, resembling those of popular singer Neil Young at the time)
• "Doc" was unexpectedly visited by his ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (34 year-old Katherine Waterston, daughter of actor Sam Waterston), but she had changed her look from a year earlier - she sported straight-and-narrow "flatland gear" rather than hippie, flower-child garb, sandals, and a T-shirt; she suddenly materialized in front of him - and for a brief second, "Doc" thought he was hallucinating; she mentioned a familiar request often posed in film noirs: "I need your help, Doc"

Film's Narrator: Astrologer Sortilège (Singer-Songwriter Joanna Newsom)

Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) - An Unexpected Visit

In a Blue Haze, Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) - PI Detective

• Shasta was a sexy, quasi-femme fatale vixen, who suspected that she was being followed; she told "Doc" that she had wanted to make it look like they were having a "secret rendezvous"; she told him about her new lover and sugar daddy - philandering, wealthy and powerful real estate land developer/mogul Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann (Eric Roberts)
• she briefly told "Doc" about how she hoped that he would help her to prevent a "creepy little scheme" being proposed by Mickey's wife Sloane and her boyfriend/lover Riggs Warbling; she was being pressured to provide the "bait" - to have her rich 'sugar-daddy' Mickey abducted and committed to an insane asylum ("some kind of looney bin") for nefarious, psychological reprogramming; "Mickey's" repurposing was also supported by the LAPD's civilian militia - an anti-subversive and conservative group aka Vigilant California
• when invited to stay overnight at "Doc's" place, she declined; she was a bit paranoid as they walked to her car: "Someone may be watching"; feeling unfaithful to "Doc," she tearfully told him: "You never did let me down, Doc... Never....You were always true"; as she drove away in her 1958 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, Can's "Vitamin C" played on the soundtrack
• from his informative Aunt Reet (Jeannie Berlin), "Doc" learned that criminally-involved, white supremacist "Mickey" was Jewish, but had Nazi leanings; the eccentric, often-stoned millionaire, with cheaply-made TV commercials and a real estate empire that extended "from the desert to the sea," was known to hang out "with a dozen bikers, mostly Aryan Brotherhood alumni"; "Doc" viewed one of Wolfmann's TV spots advertising his latest LA-developed neighborhood known as Channel View Estates; as he watched and smoked dope, the confused "Doc" thought he heard the Afro wig-wearing announcer - a LAPD detective known as Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), ask him: "What's up, Doc?"
• the next morning in a doctor's office building, "Doc's" secretary Petunia Leeway (Maya Rudolph) directed him to speak in his private exam room to Tariq Khalil (Michael Kenneth Williams), a member of both a Black Nationalist street-gang (Artesia Crips) and a prison gang known as the Black Guerilla Family; "Doc" was commissioned by ex-con Tariq to locate his Chino "prison buddy" Glenn Charlock (Christopher Allen Nelson) who owed him money; white ex-con Charlock was also known to be a white supremacist and Aryan Brotherhood member; as one of Wolfmann's bodyguards, it would be difficult for black-man Tariq to confront him and ask for the repayment directly; frequently delusional "Doc" frantically jotted down odd reactions and details to remember in his notebook
• the often-disoriented Doc was now involved in both Shasta's and Tariq's cases -- the two investigations seemingly had links between his alluring, tanned, long-haired, and long-legged former girlfriend and her new lover - the ubiquitous real-estate developer "Mickey"
• as "Doc" drove in his car with Sortilège to Channel View Estates, she told him how LA had a long history of minority groups moved out of various neighborhoods (Chavez Ravine and Bunker Hill) by greedy land developers in order to take over their land; Wolfmann's latest real-estate project in S. Central LA (Channel View Estates) had been Tariq's former black gang territory that had been bulldozed down
• "Doc" found himself in the middle of Wolfmann's newest development still under construction; he drove up to a makeshift strip mall composed of a group of trailers; inside an Asian massage parlor (actualy a 'sex parlor' or brothel with a "P---Y Menu", and presumably a money-laundering operation) known as Chick Planet, he was offered various $14.95 'p---y eater specials' by two female workers - an Asian bikini-clad Jade (Hong Chau) and her blonde lesbian partner Bambi (Shannon Collis); after being knocked unconscious by a baseball bat from behind, "Doc" revived and found himself on the ground outside next to Charlock's dead body; he was surrounded by a line-up of police cars and officers with their guns drawn; it was hypothesized that the drug-addled "Doc" might have killed Charlock
• considered a prime suspect, "Doc" was approached by his combative, smug and brutish arch-rival - hippie-hating LAPD Lt. Detective "Bigfoot" (succinctly described by Sortilège: "Well mornin' Sam, like a bad luck planet in today's horoscope, here's the old hippie-hating mad dog himself in the flesh: Lieutenant Detective Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen. SAG member, John Wayne walk, flat top of Flintstone proportions and that evil, little s--t-twinkle in his eye that says Civil Rights Violations"); "Bigfoot" asked: "What's up, Doc?"

"Doc" Finding Himself Next to Charlock's Dead Body at Channel View Estates
	LAPD Lt. Detective Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen (Josh Brolin) - At the Crime Scene and in His LAPD Office

• during questioning (and harrassment) in an LA police station; "Renaissance detective" "Bigfoot" graphically asked if "Doc's" ex-girlfriend Shasta and "Mickey's" now-dead bodyguard Charlock were having sexual relations - a possible motive for the jealous "Doc" to kill him; the detective also asked about the sudden disappearance of Wolfmann - who would soon be regarded as a possible kidnapping victim; it was thought a "cult" might be responsible in "some kind of Mansanoid conspiracy" andhad committed the crime
• "Doc" was aided in his release from the LAPD by his attorney Sauncho Smilax, Esq. (Benicio Del Toro); as "Doc" was driven home, he watched "Bigfoot's" oral and sucking fixation with a frozen chocolate-covered banana; later in the evening, both "Doc" and "Bigfoot" separately watched as the lieutenant was interviewed during a TV evening news broadcast about the Channel View Estates construction site crime scene
• moments later, "Bigfoot" phoned to inform "Doc" that Shasta had also disappeared - just like her boyfriend "Mickey"
• in a related third case, "Doc" was phoned by ex-heroin addict and mother Hope Harlingen (Jena Malone); he met with her the next morning in her Torrance, CA home, where she asked for him to search for her missing husband - presumed dead; he had allegedly been a close friend of Shasta's; she identified her husband as Coy Harlingen (Owen Wilson), a similarly-addicted drug user who was a surf-music tenor saxophone player with a 1960s band known as the Boards, who had together rented a house in Topanga Canyon
• she delivered a graphic, memorable description of how she and Coy met in a squalid bar known as Oscars in San Ysidro, CA (a US/Mexico border town); in a toilet stall where she was inducing throw-up (to vomit up a balloon of dope she had just scored) he was taking a dump on the toilet; shortly later, they started "shooting up on a regular basis" and had a daughter named Amethyst; "Doc" reacted with a feigned scream when she showed him a photo of their daughter - who she claimed was born addicted due to ingesting her breast milk; since then, she had rehabilitated herself and was a drug counselor for juveniles - to "talk kids into sensible drug use"; she also showed off her new set of dentures - necessary since her heroin-use had sucked out all the calcium in her teeth
• according to Hope, she didn't believe that her husband was actually dead from an OD, because she had proof of a recent large and anonymous pay-off deposit to his bank account; "Doc" was given a photo to help identify Coy during his search; out of curiosity, he also asked her how Coy and Shasta knew each other, and she answered: "She picked us up hitchhiking. I think Coy and her somehow stayed in touch, but I really don't know for sure"; the empathic "Doc" accepted the "matrimonial" case, hope-ing that he could restore their marital relationship (at the same time he was trying to restore his own relationship with Shasta)
• "Doc" decided to find out more from "Mickey's" wife Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas); as he drove to the Wolfmann mansion in the Santa Monica Mtns., Sortilège gave another voice-over about his plan: "If Mickey was currently being held against his will in some private nuthouse, then Doc's immediate chore would be to try and find out which one"; "Doc" entered the mansion, wearing a black wig and dressed in a respectable, double-breasted brown suit with a tie; he was approached from the outdoor pool by Sloane wearing a sexy black one-piece swimsuit, whose first words were: "Do you like the lighting?"

Well-Dressed "Doc" Meeting Up with "Mickey's" Wife Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas) and Her Lover Riggs Warbling (Andrew Simpson) in the Wolfmann Mansion

• as the two were being served drinks by leggy, flirtatious house-servant Luz (Yvette Yates), "Doc" pretended that he was a "shrink" who had been promised a financial endowment by Wolfmann for a new wing in his psychiatric facility; but now, due to the donor's recent disappearance, "Doc" proposed refunding the money for the time being; the conniving British-accented wife declared that they had already endowed another rehab facility -- the Chryskylodon ("Serenity") Institute in Ojai, CA; she asked if his facility was a subsidiary; "Doc" also met Sloane's hunky, blonde, shirtless, muscular lover/yoga instructor Riggs Warbling (Andrew Simpson); "Doc" noticed that out by the pool, the LAPD officers had set up a command post, but some were swimming and taking advantage of the "free catering" (drinks and fun)
• in a back bedroom where he was accompanied by the sexy Chicana maid Luz, "Doc" opened a wide walk-in closet door to look at a display of vintage neckties each with a painted naked lady - an objectified collection of women; each of the females depicted had posed for a N. Hollywood artist, even Shasta and Luz herself; Luz began to seduce and kiss "Doc," revealing how the mansion had become a house of debauchery; outside, "Doc" was spitefully assaulted by "Bigfoot" for his presence at the house
• soon after, "Doc" had a lunchtime date on a sidewalk bench in downtown with his new "part-time squeeze" - uptight Deputy DA Penny Kimball (Reese Witherspoon), who knew about the Wolfmann-Charlock case; she was jealous of "Doc's" close relationship with his old girlfriend Shasta; he told her Shasta's account about how she feared that "Mickey" would be kidnapped: ("his wife and her boyfriend were plotting to hustle Mickey into the booby hatch and grab all his money"); he thought Shasta's hunch was helpful although her "brain's all mushed up with dope, sex, and rock and roll"; now, all he knew was that Shasta was missing, Wolfmann was gone, and Glenn Charlock was dead; Penny accused him of being a dope-head and that he might have killed Charlock himself
• inside the Federal Courthouse with Penny, "Doc" appeared to be set up when he was confronted by two FBI agents: Agent Flatweed (Sam Jaeger) and Agent Borderline (Timothy Simons); in their office, "Doc" was questioned about his suspicious recent visit with Tariq, a member of a Black Nationalist "hate-group," followed shortly by the murder of Tariq's prison acquaintance Charlock and the disappearance of "Mickey" Wolfmann; "Doc" asked pointedly whether the agents thought that "Mickey's" kidnapping was actually a Black Panther operation - as a way to make a "political point" or score some ransom money
• back at his office, "Doc" received a flyer with a handwritten note from Jade (from the massage parlor), to meet her at her place of work - the Club Asiatique in San Pedro, CA; she wrote: "BEWARE THE GOLDEN FANG"; outside the club in the dark, she reluctantly apologized to him for setting him up at the massage parlor, to be attacked and charged as a suspect (in Charlock's murder); in exchange for "Bigfoot" dropping charges against them at the Chick Planet, they agreed to put "Doc" "at the scene"; Jade also warned "Doc" about getting involved with a tattooed "bad-ass" named Puck Beaverton
• from out of the misty night fog, Coy Harlingen appeared to "Doc" - and admitted: "I'm supposed to be dead"; he had agreed to join the Vigilant California group and get clean of his addiction; in exchange for his family being financially taken care of, Coy had to fake his death, change his identity, betray all his beliefs, and become an anti-hippie and anti-Commie underground police informant for COINTELPRO while hiding out at his band's house in Topanga Canyon; he explained how his Boards band members didn't know about him, and that he was now "clean" and had rehabilitated himself from drugs
• Coy asked "Doc" to check up on his "lady and a little girl" living in Torrance, CA; Coy was the first to inform "Doc" about a shady organization known as "The Golden Fang" with a heroin-smuggling boat of the same name: ("It's a boat. A big schooner, somebody said. Brings stuff in and out of the country, but nobody wants to talk about it"); once inside the Vigilant California organization, Coy realized it was part of the widespread and ruthless Golden Fang heroin-importing operation

The Golden Fang Viewed by "Doc" and Sauncho Off the Coast

• the next day, "Doc" and his attorney Sauncho spied with binoculars upon the Golden Fang sailing off the coast - a "sizable vessel" owned by a consortium in the Bahamas that often appeared "in the middle of the night, no running lights, no radio traffic"; during lunch in The Fish Place restaurant, the two discussed the boat's history; after WWII, it was bought by a blacklisted actor named Burke Stodger (Jack Kelly) who was forced to sail out of the country, but then remarkably years later, he sailed into the waters off Cuba (the "Bermuda Triangle") with the boat at the same time that his career experienced a major come-back with a big budget major studio; Stodger's "politics" had also miraculously changed
• "Doc" learned from Sauncho about recent rumors that the Golden Fang - a drug smuggling operation - and yacht - was involved in the two kidnappings; it had last sailed with both "Mickey" and Shasta onboard for a "three hour tour" - before they had disappeared; Sauncho postulated: "Mickey Wolfmann may not be as missing as we think?"; it was thought that the DOJ (with the FBI) was also involved and trying to broker a "Vegas deal" with "Mickey" for a well-positioned property: ("They need somebody else on the Strip who is not Italian, you dig? Like Howard Hughes when he bought the Desert Inn...They want white Anglo owners on the Strip. Who better than Mickey Wolfmann?")
• shortly later by phone with Sauncho, "Doc" learned that it was confirmed that Shasta had just boarded the Golden Fang in San Pedro, CA; Neil Young's "Harvest" briefly played on the soundtrack and into the next scene: (Lyrics: "Did I see you down in a young girl's town With your mother in so much pain? I was almost there at the top of the stairs With her screamin' in the rain Did she wake you up to tell you that It was only a change of plan? Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup With the promise of a man")
• that same evening, Penny invited herself over to "Doc's" beach house for pizza, smoking dope, and sex; they watched TV - President Nixon was at a Republican rally supporting the ultra-patriotic, anti-subversive conservative group known as VIGILANT CALIFORNIA; a heckler in the crowd, identified by "Doc" as Coy Harlingen, was arrested; although a reporter ID'd him as unemployed UCLA student Rick Doppel, Penny knew him as an informant ("snitch") named "Chucky" working for the "Red Squad"
• "Doc" - posing as a rock 'n' roll reporter for Stone Turntable Magazine, entered the Topanga Canyon home with his "photographer" friend Denis (Jordan Christian Hearn) to learn more about the band, their followers, and Coy's undercover operation; upon entering, communal hippie-groupies presented them with flower leis, and Jade greeted "Doc"; she directed him toward Coy in the home's kitchen; Sortilège narrated: "Was it possible that at every gathering, concert, peace rally, love-in, be-in, freak-in, here up North, back East, where ever, some dark crews had been busy all along reclaiming the music, the resistance to power, the sexual desire from epic to everyday? All they could sweep up for the ancient forces of greed and fear? 'Gee,' he thought, 'I don't know'"; "Doc" spoke to Coy and told him about his now-sober wife, but Coy responded: "No way I could ever go back to them," but he was still very curious about the condition of his daughter; he wouldn't clearly divulge whose side he was really working for
• as "Doc" departed and gave a lift to Jade and Bambi, Jade explained about The Golden Fang: "They're an Indo-Chinese heroin cartel. A vertical package. They grow it, bring it in, step on it, run stateside networks of local street dealers and take a separate percentage off of each operation"; she added how they were using Chick Planet as a "front to launder money"
• the next day, "Doc" felt he must revisit "Bigfoot" at the "Glass House" (slang for the LAPD building); Sortilège described the police station: "All this strange alternative cop history and cop politics, cop dynasties, cop heroes and evil doers, saintly cops and psycho cops, cops too stupid to live and cops too smart for their own good, insulated by secret loyalties and codes of silence from the world they'd all been given the control"; as "Doc" entered, he remembered why "Bigfoot" might be so "grumpy" and mostly worked alone; it was because "Bigfoot's" former partner - LAPD cop Vincent Indelicato had been shot and killed in the line of duty
• in "Bigfoot's" office as the lieutenant ate another chocolate-covered banana, "Doc" asked him about the department's very-much alive and "resurrected" snitch Coy (seen in a photograph, resembling Jesus' Last Supper - with pizza, that was taken the night before in Topanga); he wanted to know whether the Vigilant California group had been involved in the raid at Channel View Estates - ending with the murder of Charlock; "Bigfoot" responded vaguely, but promised to look into it
• as "Doc" inhaled a joint (through an oxygen mask) in his private exam office, young sexy biker chick Clancy Charlock (Michelle Sinclair/Belladonna) sat down in front of him; she wasn't very upset about her brother's murder: "Glenn was a s--t. Bound to have his series canceled sometime. That don't keep me from wanting to know who his killer is"
• according to Clancy, "Bigfoot" was more concerned about "Mickey's" disappearance than Glenn's murder; she also revealed that "Mickey" had begun to feel guilty about his many millions in wealth derived from his "cheap ugly houses"; he was also taking "tons of acid and peyote"; on a guilt-trip, he had begun to give away his fortune: "Did you hear the Wolfmann's working on a way to give away all of his money?"; apparently, "Mickey" was making plans to build a big place out in the desert called Arrepentimiento ("Spanish for ‘Sorry about that'"), where people could come, find shelter, and live for free; in a drugged-up haze, "Doc" tried to slap himself back to reality; he postulated that someone was against "Mickey's" "big giveaway," such as his wife or business associates; Clancy suggested Puck Beaverton, another one of Wolfmann's bodyguards, and a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, who suspiciously swapped places with Glenn the day of his murder; at one time, she had dated Puck, but now, he had vanished; after declining "Doc's" advances by slapping him, Clancy also stated how "Doc's" ex-girlfriend Shasta was "deeply in love" with "Mickey"
• in the evening, "Doc" found a tropical island post-card at the front door of his beach-house; Shasta had nostalgically and regretfully written: "I wish you could see these waves. It's one more of these places a voice from somewhere else tells you you have to be. Remember that day with the Ouija board? I miss those days and I miss you. Nothin' was supposed to happen this way, Doc, I'm so sorry..."; in a flashbacked memory, he recalled the Ouija board reading with Shasta and Sortilège on the outdoor porch of the latter's house; he and Shasta were directed to a phone number and doper's address at 4723 Sunset Blvd., where in the rain, they came upon a vacant lot surrounded by chain-link fencing - to the tune of Neil Young's "Journey Through the Past"; although they didn't score any drugs, it didn't seem to matter since in his memory, the couple seemed to briefly and joyfully rejuvenate their love for each other
• the next day, it seemed that the postcard had guided "Doc's" journey and investigation; he revisited the site of the vacant lot - now a futuristic, multi-story conical building shaped like a giant golden fang; inside the lobby of The Golden Fang Enterprises Inc. Corporate HQ, "Doc" spoke to the Asian receptionist Xandra (Elaine Tan), claiming he was there from Club Asiatique in San Pedro, CA to pick up a package

Towering Multi-Story LA Building Shaped Like a Golden Fang

Xandra (Elaine Tan) - The Golden Fang Receptionist

Dentist - Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd (Martin Short)

• shortly later in a large carpeted office, dentist Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd (Martin Short) appeared from another floor via an elevator and demanded an ID from "Doc"; the dentist clarified that he was not Chinese, but part of a "syndicate of dentists" set up for tax purposes to save money in the rising new age of capitalism; realizing that "Doc" was a fellow "hippie dope-fiend" from the way he dressed and acted, the hedonistically-perverted and kinky dentist suggested that the two "perk-up" a bit by snorting lines of German pharmaceutical-grade cocaine together; moments later, the womanizing Dr. Blatnoyd (with his pants down) raced out the room after the seductively-dressed Xandra to have sex with her
• "Doc" entered a separate office area - a quasi-dental operating room where mostly young hippie-types were being treated; as he wandered through, with the help of a super-imposed image and flashback to his previous conversation with Hope Harlingen, he recalled how she had bragged about the necessity of having a new set of replacement "chompers" after being a heroin addict; it was obvious that Dr. Blatnoyd was benefiting from The Golden Fang's heroin trade that was ruining users' teeth and increasing his patient count
• "Doc" returned to Dr. Blatnoyd's office where young blonde Japonica Fenway (Sasha Pieterse) was behind the dentist's desk; he recognized her as one of his previous "runaway daughter" cases that he had returned to her parents; she gleefully admitted that she had "escaped" from Ojai's Chryskylodon Institute (a "booby hatch") where her heavily-moneyed parents from Palos Verdes, CA had sent her; it was the same place where "Mickey" had been allegedly committed; it was revealed that Japonica's attorney-father Crocker Fenway in the past had helped finance and establish "Doc" as a PI
• after Denis had rendered "Doc's" car inoperable, the cocaine-high group, including "Doc," Denis, and Dr. Blatnoyd, accepted Japonica's offer to drive them to Doc's beach house in her 1958 Mercedes Benz; on the road, two LAPD officers (Wilson Bethel and Anders Holm) pulled over their car for failing to have its headlights on, although Japonica claimed she could see in the dark; one officer considered the strange group of three or more to be a possible Manson-like cult
• shortly later, "Bigfoot" phoned "Doc" at his beach home to tell him that Blatnoyd was found dead from a "fatal neck injury" next to a trampoline in Bel Air, CA; the two rivals met face-to-face in a Japanese diner, where "Bigfoot" happily confirmed for "Doc" that Coy Harlingen had also died from a smack overdose: ("one less junkie, case cleared"); he also recommended that "Doc" should speak to Puck Beaverton, one of Wolfmann's bodyguards, who was possibly linked to Coy's death; Puck had been found at Coy's Venice, CA drug-dealer who had sold Coy the ultra-potent opioid-heroin that killed him; acc. to "Bigfoot," Folsom ex-con Puck used to work for loan-shark Adrian Prussia, known by "Doc" for his weapon of choice - a baseball bat
• and then, "Bigfoot" revealed that although Dr. Blatnoyd's official cause of death was a neck injury, he actually died of throat puncture wounds (bites from "canines from a mid-sized wild animal"); "Doc" comically hypothesized that Blatnoyd may have ironically died from "two golden fangs"
• "Doc" continued his search for Puck Beaverton, driving in his 1963 Dodge Dart with Sortilège to Ojai, CA - the location of the high-end rehab facility or mental asylum known as the Chryskylodon Institute; "Doc's" muse claimed that the ancient Greek word meant: "Animal tooth made out of gold"; inside the cult-run institution populated with white-robed doctors, and similarly-dressed patients with white gowns, "Doc" was escorted by Dr. Threeply (Jefferson Mays) and Dr. Lily Hammer (Erica Sullivan); an all-day movie marathon of Burke Stodger films ("popular with patients") was being held in the institute's theater; Sortilège commented upon how the cult-run and controlled Chryskylodon was set up to insure a "bottomless pool of new customers" by stringing them out with Golden Fang heroin, and then having them committed to the Institute: ("As long as American life was something to be escaped from, the cartel could always be sure of a bottomless pool of new customers")

The Institute's Chanting Room - Institute Orderly Puck Beaverton (Keith Jardine)

• another group of white-robed and hooded patients, an Advanced Therapy Group, was chanting in a separate room; a hand-painted tie (with a colorful rendition of a nude Shasta, one of "Mickey's" ties in his collection) unrolled down the front of the bearded orderly sitting above the group; he had a prominent swastika-tattoo displayed on the right side of his face; Dr. Threeply explained how the male's tattoo wasn't a swastika, but an ancient Hindu symbol meaning "All is Well"; "Doc" suspected the male was Puck Beaverton !; Dr. Threeply disregarded "Doc's" concerns: ("He isn't a regular employee of the Institute. Perhaps you should pay no attention to that man"); and then "Doc" was shocked to see that Coy Harlingen (supposedly dead acc. to "Bigfoot") was one of the chanters; "Doc" walked off from the group tour as it turned toward a private Zen garden
• "Doc" spotted the two familiar FBI agents seated at an outdoor patio table; he also finally crossed paths with "Mickey" who was comfortably lounging on a lower balcony within close view of the agents; "Mickey" explained to "Doc" why he had been voluntarily kidnapped and committed during his affair with hippie-girl Shasta; he acquired a conscience and came to realize how guilty he felt about the negative effects of his real-estate business; he was to be observed and reprogrammed by his "friends" - e.g., many concerned groups (who opposed his newfound generosity), including his wife, DOJ and FBI officials, and others:
  • "They're helping me wake up from my bad hippie dream...I dreamed I gave away all my money, yeah...I spent my whole life making people pay for shelter, and all along I didn't realize it should've been for free"
• in a subsequent B/W montage, "Mickey" re-emerged as his old self, according to newspaper reports and photos; he was with his wife Sloane at a ceremony kicking off the start of the construction of KISMET - his future Las Vegas casino and resort hotel; the FBI had fulfilled their wish to install a white-guy in Vegas to control the burgeoning influence of the Mafia there
• later one evening in his LA beach house, "Doc" was surprised to see "Bigfoot" playing an extra on the TV series police show "Adam-12"; suddenly, "Doc" was interrupted by the surprise reappearance of Shasta (after her alleged disappearance); this time, she was wearing her normal flower-girl attire from the late 1960s - a puka shell necklace, a Country Joe & the Fish T-shirt, and a bikini swimsuit bottom; she described how she had been away ("family stuff") up north; she told how her relationship with lover "Mickey" was all over ("So what...C'est la vie") - according to her, he had been restored and was back home with his wife Sloane and kids

The Sudden Reappearance of Shasta in "Doc's" Beach House - Now Wearing Her More Familiar Flower-Child Hippie Garb

• "Doc" was interrupted by a phone call from a concerned "Bigfoot" who told him that Shasta was back in town; "Doc" again questioned the questionable lab results regarding Dr. Blatnoyd's death; he also made a veiled threat against the corrupt and dishonest lieutenant: "One county supervisor with a bug up his ass is all it takes to bring you down, Bigfoot"; "Bigfoot's" hysterical and concerned wife Mrs. Chastity Bjornsen (Delaina Mitchell) grabbed the phone to berate "Doc" for harrassing her husband and causing him psychological harm
• after hanging up the phone with "Bigfoot," "Doc" looked up and chuckled; in a noteworthy 8-minute scene (mostly a one-shot sequence), he observed as Shasta again walked into his view - now completely naked; she was now acting much more like her former self, wearing puka shells around her naked chest (and body); she seductively asked if he wanted a sexually-exploited, mind-controlled Charles Manson-type chick - a reference to the way she had been treated by "Mickey": "What kinda girl do ya need, Doc? Maybe a thing for one of those Manson chicks?" (She began to touch herself, circling her finger on her breast's right nipple) Doc: "Whoa... it depends on what, uh, you sure you want to be doin' that?"; she continued: "Submissive, brainwashed, horny little teeners who do exactly what you want before you even know what that is. You don't have to say a word outloud. They get it all by ESP. Your kind of chick, Doc?" Doc asked: "You're the one that's been stealin' my magazines?", to which she responded: "Now what would Charlie do?"

Shasta's Return to "Doc" After Being Corrupted and Exploited

• "Doc" lit a joint, as she walked over and sat next to him on the couch, and took a hit from his joint; she stroked his right leg with her bare left foot and touched herself, as she began to speak about her submissive sexual experiences with her powerful, animalistic lover "Mickey"; she told how all of "Mickey's" lovers (herself, Sloane, and Luz) "adored" his approach; her objective was to stimulate Doc to respond to her:
  • "Mickey - Mickey could have taught all you swingin' beach bums a thing or two. He was just so powerful. Sometimes he could almost make you feel invisible. Fast, brutal, not what you'd call a considerate lover ....It's so nice to be made to feel invisible that way sometimes....He'd bring me to lunch in Beverly Hills, his big hand wrapped around my bare arms steering me blind down those bright streets into some space where it was dark and cold. You couldn't smell any food - only alcohol. Tables full of them and I'll be drinking in a room that could have been any size, and they all knew Mickey. They wanted, some of them, to be Mickey. He might as well have been bringing me in on a leash. He kept me in those micro-mini-dresses, never allowing me to wear anything underneath, just offering me up to whoever wanted to stare, grab. Sometimes, he'd fix me up with some of his friends, and I'd have to do whatever they wanted."
• as she stretched her naked body over Doc's lap, literally draping herself over him - he asked: "Why are you telling me all this?"; she responded by calling herself a "faithless little bitch": "Oh, I'm sorry, Doc. Do you want me to stop? If my girlfriend had run off to be the bought-and-sold whore of some scumbag developer, I'd just be so angry, I don't know what I'd do. Well, I'm even lying about that, I know what I'd do. If I had the faithless little bitch over my lap like this..."; she pushed him into violently spanking her, and then he had aggressive sex with her from behind; afterwards, she said: "This doesn't mean we're back together." He replied: "Of course not"
• Shasta then described how she was brought along on The Golden Fang for a yacht trip ("a three hour tour") up north, and treated as "inherent vice" (a legal term) -- "They told me I was precious cargo that couldn't be insured because of inherent vice"; with a voice-over, Sortilège described the insurance term that implied a fundamental weakness or defect in an object that would inevitably be damaged or deteriorate, e.g., eggs that break, chocolate that melts, and glass that shatters
• "Doc" barged into the office of his girlfriend/assistant DA Penny to report that he had seen "Mickey" Wolfmann face-to-face at the Institute; he asked for her to provide him with top-secret and confidential files on businessman/loan-shark Adrian Prussia (Peter McRobbie); "Doc" discovered that Prussia had been paid by the LAPD to be their "personal hitman" or contract killer, and always "walked" away without any charges; one of Prussia's most egregious murders (ruled a "justifiable homicide") was of "Bigfoot's" former LAPD cop-partner - Vincent Indelicato - in mid-December 1969; it was clear evidence of wide-spread corruption amongst the ranks of the LAPD; "Bigfoot" was still mourning the death of his partner; Prussia was now employed as one of The Golden Fang's baseball bat-wielding chief assassins and drug-dealers
• "Doc" visited Adrian Prussia's LA business - known as Adrian Prussia Finance, where the walls of the office were lined with Adrian's weapon of choice - baseball bats; ("Doc" realized he had earlier been assaulted by Adrian inside the Channel View Estates massage parlor); after a few moments of talk, Prussia summoned his ominous partner or co-worker Puck Beaverton - the swastika-tattooed orderly from the Institute - who was now wearing a puka shell necklace similar to the one worn by Shasta; "Doc" explained to Puck that he was working on the Charlock and Vincent Indelicato murder cases - it was the wrong thing to mention to them
• "Doc" was heavily-drugged with PCP, abducted, and handcuffed to an overhead pipe in a sealed room by Puck, but "Doc" was able to release his handcuffs and free himself; during his escape attempt, he pummeled Puck's head with a heavy toilet lid before injecting him in his neck's jugular vein with his own dope needle; "Doc" then used Puck's hand-gun to fire at Adrian who was lethally hit and died shortly later; in the building's underground garage, "Doc" noticed the corrupt and compromised "Bigfoot" unloading bags of pure heroin from the trunk of Adrian's black 1966 Lincoln Continental into his own 1965 Pontiac Tempest LeMans GTO Convertible; after "Doc" accused "Bigfoot" of "ripping off" the secret "Golden Fang" organization, the cop ordered the delusional "Doc" into his car, and the two drove off together
• at his beach house, "Bigfoot" reunited "Doc" with his impounded junker-car that had been towed away after being illegally parked overnight in front of Prussia's business; after "Bigfoot" sped off in his own car, Sortilège whispered to "Doc": "Doper's ESP, Doc, doper's ESP..."; "Doc" opened his car's trunk and looked down on 20 kilos of planted, smuggled Golden Fang heroin in his car's trunk; it was apparent now that earlier, "Bigfoot" had set him up for accusations of theft so that he would be forced to kill the enraged and retaliatory Puck and Adrian; "Doc" had done "Bigfoot's" 'dirty-work'
• the next morning as "Doc" sat with the 8 wrapped packages of heroin (the "bait") in Denis' apartment awaiting contact with the drug gang, Japonica's attorney father Crocker Fenway called and asked for the return of the drugs; they made plans to meet at 6:00 pm Crocker's fancy restaurant-club in Elysian Park (near Dodger Stadium); at first, "Doc" wondered if Crocker possibly had anything to do with the recent 'accidental' death of his daughter's perverted and sexually-corruptible doctor Dr. Blatnoyd; Crocker sarcastically responded:
  • "And you'd like to know if I did it? What possible motive would I have? Just because the man preyed on an emotionally-vulnerable child, forced her to engage in sexual practices that might appall even a sophisticate like yourself -- does that mean I'd have any reason to see his miserable pedophile career come to an end? What a vindictive person you must imagine me....How about when he forced my little girl to listen to original cast albums of Broadway musicals while he had his way with her?"
• although Japonica was of "legal age," her father still felt protective: "In a father's eye, they're always too young"
• then, they discussed the real matter at hand - Fenway offered a "generous compensation package" for the safe return of the Fang's heroin; to do the right thing, "Doc" suggested a different, untraditional, non-monetary exchange - he proposed freedom for the undercover LAPD informant (and sax player) Coy Harlingen (who had made a "wrong career choice"), so that he could be reunited with his wife and daughter ("He wants out"); "Doc" vouched that he would personally guarantee that if released, Coy wouldn't divulge any "confidential information" about the Vigilant California group
• the "handoff" of the heroin was held on a Sunday morning in an empty parking lot; in his parked car, "Doc" was joined by Denis and Jade who were listening to the radio (Sam Cooke's "(What) a Wonderful World"); a 1962 dark green 4Dr Mercury Colony Park station wagon (with wood paneling) pulled up; a 4-person family (Golden Fang operatives) exited the vehicle -- a blonde Mother (Samantha Lemole), a pig-tailed daughter (Madison Leisle), crew-cut son (Liam Van Joosten), and Father (Matt Doyle); as the heroin was being transferred to the family's vehicle, "Doc" was handed a credit card by the Mother; she asked: "Don't hippies have them?"; the AMEX credit card was imprinted with Coy's name, as the Mother added: "It's not for you. You're supposed to tell him, 'Well done, welcome back to the main herd. Safe journeys. That's journeys plural"; as they awkwardly stood there, "Doc" asked: "So you guys been working for the Golden Fang very long?"; as they walked off, the daughter gave "Doc" the finger
• "Doc" picked up Coy at the Topanga Canyon house, where a Buddhist monk (David Prak) and female groupies were performing a ritual; Coy was relieved: "Everything's cool. I'm officially off everybody's payroll"; parked outside his house with "Doc," Coy become philosophical: "You know what the Indians say. You saved my life," but "Doc" disagreed: "You saved your life, man. Now you get to live it"; it was a wonderful and happy reunion to watch from "Doc's" vantage point parked on the street, as he saw Coy greeted at the door by Hope and Amethyst
• Sortilège spoke about the inescapable passage of time - including both memories and forgetfulness that often cloud our experiences (and have made a clear understanding of the film almost impossible):
  • "Yet there is no avoiding time, the sea of time. The sea of memory and forgetfulness, the years of promise, gone and unrecoverable, of the land almost allowed to claim its better destiny, only to have that claim jumped by evildoers known all too well, and taken instead and held hostage to the future we must live in now forever....May we trust that this blessed ship is bound for some better shore, risen and redeemed, where the American fate mercifully failed to transpire"
• the "blessed ship" (the Golden Fang) was hopefully now gone from memory; "Doc" and Sauncho walked along the shore as the Golden Fang was being brought to shore - apprehended by the Department of Justice and the Coast Guard
• later inside "Doc's" place as he was smoking a joint, "Bigfoot" kicked down his glass front-door and barged in; after "Bigfoot" took a hit and surveyed "Doc's" stash of weed and joints, he began to swallow and engorge himself with all the marijuana on the tray in front of "Doc," and then abruptly walked out the open front door
• in the final semi-happy ending scene set during a drive on a foggy freeway, passenger Shasta laid her head on "Doc's" shoulder as she remembered their unforgettable Ouija board experience with Sortilège a year earlier that sent them joyfully dancing into the rain: "Remember that day, the Ouija board set us off into that big storm? This feels the same way, tonight. Just us. Together. Almost like being underwater. The world, everything gone someplace else"; they both spoke about how Sortilège might have set them up to be together - they had been restored to their former late 60s relationship: ("She knows things, Doc, maybe about us that we don't know"), but "Doc" (with a bright headlight shining on his face) had his doubts: "This don't mean we're back together"; Shasta smiled and concurred: "Course not"