'True Detective' Mystery Solved: Paul's Girlfriend Is NOT the Missing Girl

Last night’s True Detective premiere gave us plenty of clues to sift through, and we had our eyes peeled for any possible connections between the three main cops. Which led us to wonder: Is the missing girl Ani’s looking for… Paul’s girlfriend?

When Ani and her partner serve a foreclosure notice, the homeowner tells them they should be looking for her missing sister Vera:

She’s been missing for over a month, the sister says, and she was working as a maid at the religious institute led by Ani’s guru dad.

No sign of Vera at the institute, but later, we meet highway patrolman Paul and his girlfriend, who’s eager to, um, comfort Paul any way she can.

She looks a lot like Vera, doesn’t she? (The hair, at the very least, is a dead ringer.) And we never get the girlfriend’s name or see any of her family, so it’s definitely possible she is Vera. Plus, the episode’s closing credits don’t list character names for the co-stars, so they’re no help.

But we kept digging, which led us to IMDb and the True Detective cast and crew listing. And, lo and behold, we cracked the case!

This is Adria Arjona, who plays Paul’s girlfriend “Emily” (and, by the way, is also slated to star as Dorothy in NBC’s Wizard of Oz reboot Emerald City):

And this is Miranda Rae Mayo, who plays the missing girl Vera:

An honest mistake to make! But clearly, two different actresses and two different characters. So Paul’s girlfriend won’t be revealed to be the girl Ani’s looking for… although maybe their similar appearances will lead to a case of mistaken identity later on this season?

So that’s one True Detective mystery solved… but, of course, many more still left to puzzle over.

True Detective airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.