Episode #6

“A wise man once told me that mystery is the most essential ingredient of life, for the following reason: Mystery creates wonder, which leads to curiosity, which in turn provides the ground for our desire to understand who and what we truly are.”

—Mark Frost, The Secret History of Twin Peaks

Inherent Vice is a film that meditates not just on the impenetrable nature of mystery, but rather its reflective nature—the truest mysteries lead not to resolutions, but reflections of ourselves. In the sunstruck and hazylazy seaside mystery that spins from the Golden Fang, ol’ Doc Sportello is able to see himself and his wayward love, Shasta Fay Hepworth. And in the mystery of Inherent Vice, we are able to see ourselves—our loves found or lost or found again or lost forever; we’re even able to see the very world we live in now, with its cruelty and chaos and small kindnesses, in the very world of the film.

And it’s in that world of free-floating fear and stormy paranoia that today’s guest, Drew McWeeny, suggests that decency is the only anchor—that when the bitter doom of a dying era takes hold, that’s when the little decencies matter most. It’s an idea we explore with Drew as Doc is finally drawn into the mystery plot of Inherent Vice, where he becomes lost among its purple-shagged walls, missing real estate magnates, chatty (and canny) counter girls, and a certain hypocritical and heartbroken LAPD detective with a thing for frozen chocolate covered bananas.