True Detective S1 (SPOILER ALERT)

Seems like the most logical thing to do. Spoil away.

 

Who thinks MM going on about the 4th dimension was actually the character breaking the fourth wall referencing to us?

Haha I didn't think that I was just trying to follow what he was going on about!

 

What I want to know is what happened to Cohle's daughter...exactly...

 

Where did Cohle go when he was meant to be visiting his Dad, prior to infiltrating the bikies?

Seems like the most logical thing to do. Spoil away.

 

Who thinks MM going on about the 4th dimension was actually the character breaking the fourth wall referencing to us?

This guy does:

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/16/true-detective-episode-5-review-the-secret-fate-of-all-life-is-the-best-episode-yet.html#url=/articles/2014/02/16/true-detective-episode-5-review-the-secret-fate-of-all-life-is-the-best-episode-yet.html

 

Seems like the TV show has become self aware if the characters realise they are being watched lol.

 

Personally, I feel that kind of cheapens the show (pointing it out that it's just a story), I thought the idea was to get immersed in the show?

 

I wonder if they will go back to show how the Dora Lange case was closed. They showed how both Cohle & Hart were "exonerated" for killing Ledoux, but wouldn't there have had to be a full inquest or whatever before the Dora Lange case could be closed?

 

Even 20 years ago, in Texas, you couldn't have 2 detectives on a murder case, struggle to find a lead and then go and murder 2 weirdo's in the bush and just say "oh one of them was a murderer". The evidence/leads/witnesses would have had to be verified at the time.

 

Maybe the new detectives on the case don't really think it was Cohle, but telling Hart it might have been Cohle could get Hart to reveal other stuff about Cohle, and they might think they'll be able to get more out of Cohle to help their investigation if they have more dirt on him.

 

As clever as the series is, we are only being drip-fed info with the aim of deliberately confusing us, kind of like the media did to us last year.

Episode 5 was just marvellous. The final shot was awesome.

Marty’s oldest daughter is going to play a part in all this. The way she is heading, she’d be ripe to get involved with the yellow king.

The pictures she drew in class, the way she arranged the dolls she was playing with… This angle is being developed for a reason.

Episode 5 was awesome. I'm completely hooked. 

Haha I didn't think that I was just trying to follow what he was going on about!

 

What I want to know is what happened to Cohle's daughter...exactly...

 

Where did Cohle go when he was meant to be visiting his Dad, prior to infiltrating the bikies?

He never visited his Dad. That was the lie he told to the Detectives and the one he told in 1995 to cover infiltrating the bikies. Just like I think he is acting crazy so he can investigate undercover and without the Police onto him. Not sure if being seen at the crime scenes are part of his plan.

 

Marty's oldest daughter is going to play a part in all this. The way she is heading, she'd be ripe to get involved with the yellow king.
The pictures she drew in class, the way she arranged the dolls she was playing with... This angle is being developed for a reason.

I am keeping on open mind on how this plays out. I think the families connection with the Yellow King could be anything at this point.

 

Seems like the most logical thing to do. Spoil away.

 

Who thinks MM going on about the 4th dimension was actually the character breaking the fourth wall referencing to us?

This guy does:

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/16/true-detective-episode-5-review-the-secret-fate-of-all-life-is-the-best-episode-yet.html#url=/articles/2014/02/16/true-detective-episode-5-review-the-secret-fate-of-all-life-is-the-best-episode-yet.html

 

Seems like the TV show has become self aware if the characters realise they are being watched lol.

 

Personally, I feel that kind of cheapens the show (pointing it out that it's just a story), I thought the idea was to get immersed in the show?

 

I wonder if they will go back to show how the Dora Lange case was closed. They showed how both Cohle & Hart were "exonerated" for killing Ledoux, but wouldn't there have had to be a full inquest or whatever before the Dora Lange case could be closed?

 

Even 20 years ago, in Texas, you couldn't have 2 detectives on a murder case, struggle to find a lead and then go and murder 2 weirdo's in the bush and just say "oh one of them was a murderer". The evidence/leads/witnesses would have had to be verified at the time.

 

Maybe the new detectives on the case don't really think it was Cohle, but telling Hart it might have been Cohle could get Hart to reveal other stuff about Cohle, and they might think they'll be able to get more out of Cohle to help their investigation if they have more dirt on him.

 

As clever as the series is, we are only being drip-fed info with the aim of deliberately confusing us, kind of like the media did to us last year.

 

I don't think it hurt it at all. I am so into his rambles, that when he started talking about the 4th dimension stuff it really did feel like he was all of a sudden talking to me because in my mind the two detectives were no longer there. It was just me 100% focused on what Cohle was talking about.

 

The Yellow King deal is a play where once you start the second act you go crazy. Now since the start of the second act in this series (ep4), my addiction to this show and the amount of spare time spent thinking about the show...I'm going a little nuts.

 

I see it more of little clues being left for us, telling us once this is over all these characters are doomed to continue doing the same ■■■■ because we will keep rewatching it.

Episode 4 ending was badass

The thing I really appreciate about this show, is that despite it's intricate layers of complex plot and the amount of scope there is for how this could end, we'll know in three weeks time.

 

None of this 'wait seven seasons, and by then, I don't really care anymore' nonsense. I'll get closure on this, while I'm still obsessed with it.

 

Leaving the viewer wanting more, is the hallmark of a truly great TV series.      

Watched E1 thru 4, halfway thru 5 and have 6 on the way down as I type.

 

I'm just going to come straight out and call shenanigans on this thread. I mean, the show is pretty good and all, but it really isn't that deep. It's pretty contrived and the whole "saving these poor victimised women, whilst portraying images of women compromising themselves in every second scene" angle has been done. And done. Not to mention the token religious cult overtones.

 

Maybe it'll improve by E6, but at this stage it seems no more than a convenient way to spend a rainy day on the couch...

Watched E1 thru 4, halfway thru 5 and have 6 on the way down as I type.
 
I'm just going to come straight out and call shenanigans on this thread. I mean, the show is pretty good and all, but it really isn't that deep. It's pretty contrived and the whole "saving these poor victimised women, whilst portraying images of women compromising themselves in every second scene" angle has been done. And done. Not to mention the token religious cult overtones.
 
Maybe it'll improve by E6, but at this stage it seems no more than a convenient way to spend a rainy day on the couch...


I think its intriguing and addictive. You don't have to enjoy it as much, that's cool.
At least give it until the end of ep6!

Lol, righto.

It’s getting rave reviews online, being compared to The Wire…but I think that a bit rich.

I shall shut my trap and just watch :slight_smile:

Good ending to episode 6, showing Cohle's tail lights have not been fixed since his altercation with Hart.

Good ending to episode 6, showing Cohle's tail lights have not been fixed since his altercation with Hart.

Yeah I picked up on that too. Felt like that episode went so fast, I was really looking forward to seeing them catch up. I reckon it will be pretty intense acting, neither trusting the other, not sure what the other might have said to the cops.

 

That girl, is it Bell? From the trailer park brothel? Didn't she have a bit more to say about Dora Lange or who she'd met up with but the 'madam' gave her a look and she kept her mouth shut? I wondered if she was going to provide some more info...

Watched E1 thru 4, halfway thru 5 and have 6 on the way down as I type.

 

I'm just going to come straight out and call shenanigans on this thread. I mean, the show is pretty good and all, but it really isn't that deep. It's pretty contrived and the whole "saving these poor victimised women, whilst portraying images of women compromising themselves in every second scene" angle has been done. And done. Not to mention the token religious cult overtones.

 

Maybe it'll improve by E6, but at this stage it seems no more than a convenient way to spend a rainy day on the couch...

What do you mean about the "poor victimised women angle"? Where has it been done before exactly? It sounds familiar but I can't think of which show... Either way this type of show is a genre and Im sure it will have it's own twist.

 

I guess that's what Cohle's rant was about in ep5. We are watching/observing a story. I expect the next season will be a different genre.

 

This is a pretty cool recap here:

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/02/23/true-detective-season-1-episode-6-haunted-houses-tv-recap/

 

After last week‘s “True Detective” episode, several readers posited a theory: What if Marty Hart and Rust Cohle did not have a real falling out in 2002? Instead, what if they have clandestinely hunted for The Yellow King for the past ten years? What if Cohle is still deep undercover and Hart is his man on the inside? I loved this theory and all week secretly hoped it was true. But, selfishly, I want everything to work out for these guys. I like them as partners. In even the most grim buddy cop stories, you still want the cops to be buddies. But in “Haunted Houses,” both men slip up and shatter the partnership.

So, unless there is a Keyser Soze/Tyler Durden/Atonement – type ontological upheaval I think, based on tonight‘s episode, “Haunted Houses,” what we see is what we get.

The episode opens and closes with Marty fighting for his honor. The first fight technically isn‘t one. Marty is left alone to beat two older boys who had sex with his daughter. In a faded yellow (lots of yellow this episode) holding cell he pummels them with gloved hands. Before doing so Marty declares, “A man‘s game charges a man‘s price. Take that away, you‘ve got nothing else.” He beats the boys not to avenge his daughter. He‘s avenging himself. Marty is fully aware of his daughter‘s complicity in the threesome, but he has a history of reacting violently when someone else claims a woman he considers “his.” When Lisa took another man home Marty broke down her door. He views both instances as a rebuke against his ego: Marty the Father, Marty the Man. Hart‘s toxic obsession with his own masculinity and virility is his undoing.

Marty‘s emasculation is made even more literal when we see him running family errands while toting a bag of tampons. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, of course. While I am married, my wife and I don‘t have any children yet. But I imagine that should we ever have teenage daughters, or even if we don‘t, at some point this husband/dad will be on tampon duty. I like to think that when the time comes I will be cool with it. But for a guy like Marty, shopping for tampons represents an “un-sexy” practicality of womanhood and evidence of the sexual maturity of his two daughters. Both are out of his comfort zone and his control.

It‘s in the strip mall bar Fox and Hound that Marty falls off the wagon. He meets Beth, who reveals she is the same girl that Marty slipped $100 to back in 1995, when he and Rust visited the backwoods harem. Beth is older now, and legal, and she gives Marty exactly what he craves: Youth, desirability, and valor. And so Marty Hart begins another affair. This time with a former child prostitute who approximates his wife and daughters in looks.

As Marty prepares to firebomb his family life, Cohle makes inroads into unsolved disappearances of women and children along the Louisiana coast. In doing so, he finds more connections to the defunct rural schools established by the ministry of Billy Lee Tuttle. Cohle interviews the now retired revival tent preacher we met in “The Locked Room,” who tells him that while attending one of Tuttle‘s seminaries he discovered a cache of child ■■■■■■■■■■■ in a deacon‘s office. While reported internally, the crime went unpunished. Also, in the 1988, a Tuttle “Wellspring Program” school was shuttered due to “children being interfered with.”

Cohle also visits Kelly Rita, the catatonic young girl Hart and Cohle rescued from Ledoux‘s compound. Living in a mental institution, Kelly is silent and glass-eyed until Cohle prods her memories. Was there someone else? She whispers to Cohle, “the man with the scars was the worst…the Giant.” Then she screams uncontrollably.

While examining the new strands of the Dora Lange murder, Cohle also keeps his day job of drawing confessions from suspects. The first real fissure in the Hart/Cohle partnership happens after Cohle finishes interrogating a young woman accused of killing her children in an act of Munchausen by proxy. After calmly suggesting that the mother should commit suicide, Cohle exits the interrogation room and tosses his notes at Marty to type up. Miffed, Marty confronts Rust about his “attitude” and Cohle retaliates by emasculating Marty even further: “I get people to talk, you write the stats.” Without Cohle, there is no Marty.

In 2012, with Rust no longer speaking to them, Gilbough and Papania bring in Maggie to illuminate what happened between the partners in 2002. For the first time we are given her point-of-view. Almost immediately Maggie‘s memories transform Marty into an even greater lout. Once she discovers nude photos of Beth on Marty‘s phone, it doesn‘t take Maggie long to devise a way out. Fortunately, Marty has laid most of the groundwork for her by obliviously, but methodically, alienating himself from his children. When she watches Audrey and Maisie leave the T.V. room the moment Marty enters, Maggie seems proud: She has raised two daughters who know exactly who their father is, and are as disappointed by him as she.

Meanwhile, against orders, Cohle travels to the headquarters of Billy Lee Tuttle. If Tuttle is the Yellow King it isn‘t immediately obvious – yellow tie, pocket square, and gold watch notwithstanding – but he is cagey and oblique as Cohle questions him about his old schools. Tuttle drops hints of his influence – donations to the “state policeman‘s charity” – but on the surface he doesn‘t appear threatened by Cohle‘s investigation into “dead women and children.” As Cohle leaves, Tuttle‘s doors slowly close: “Detective, you‘ll be in my thoughts.” Back at the station Cohle airs his suspicions of Tuttle – with no backup from Marty – and is suspended.

Later at home, Rust is surrounded by maps of Louisiana marked by missing person photos, the ghosts in his house. Maggie then appears at his door, despondent over Marty‘s recent affair. Throughout the series we‘ve seen Rust take his pulse in moments of tension. He knows his levels and has kept control and focus throughout. It‘s only in select moments that Rust‘s armor falls: With Marty at the revival tent, and when Ledoux‘s henchman calls out his “demon.” Maggie breaks him down completely.

Rust Cohle is appealing: He is brilliant, handsome, well read, and physically domineering in most situations. He is, as Maggie claims, a man who knows exactly who he is and there is “no talking him out of it.” I‘ve spent most of this recap beating up on Marty for obvious reasons: His lack of self-awareness and self-control are destructive both to himself and his family: If there is another haunted house, it is Marty‘s. Also, if I had to spend my days being compared to Rust Cohle I‘d probably feel equally insecure. But we should remember that Rust has suffered overwhelming loss: His dead daughter, his lost wife. Given the option, I would take Marty‘s life and Marty‘s problems over Rust‘s any day.

In “Haunted Houses” both Marty and Rust succumb to their desires. Marty craves youth, so he finds women who look like younger versions of his wife. Cohle wants children and a family. You see it when he tells the “Medea” Charmane to kill herself. Cohle has no forgiveness for a person who would relinquish parenthood.

He has sex with Maggie precisely because she is a wife and mother.

The look on Maggie‘s face when they finish isn‘t bliss and it isn‘t love. It is relief and freedom. As she relates to Rust, this was the only way Maggie could guarantee Marty will leave her. She thought of seducing a stranger: Earlier we saw her walk into a bar, bathed in yellow light and wearing a red dress. But she couldn‘t do it. “This will hurt him,” she says. “I‘m sorry, but thank you.” Michelle Monaghan gives an astonishing performance in this sequence, projecting grief, lust, relief, shame and gratitude effortlessly.

Later on, once Marty walks into their dining room – glowing a mustard yellow – Maggie plays her hand: She knows about Beth. She slept with Rust. It‘s over.

Marty‘s final fight for his honor is against Rust. They have it out in the parking lot. Rust takes more than he gives, but what he gives is brutal. At one point Marty is thrown against Rust‘s truck and shatters his brake light. Separated finally, the partners are chewed out back in the office. Rust finally quits and gives up on the department and the partnership.

In 2012, Marty has finally walked out of Gilbough and Papania‘s interview. If Rust is a killer as they are insinuating, he doesn‘t want to hear at. As Marty drives along the bayou he hears the persistent honking of Rust Cohle‘s red pickup truck coming up behind him. They pull over and have what has to be their first reunion in ten years. They agree to get a beer – after a quick glance at Marty‘s car, Rust says that Marty is buying. Marty may not believe Gilbough and Papania, but he checks the bullets in his gun just to be sure. And so Cohle drives off in his red truck, tail light still broken, with Marty close behind.

I want to believe that Marty saw the writing on the wall in 2002. I wish he could have recognized that Dora Lange‘s killer was still at large and that he and Rust had to work together, but that isn‘t what happened. And while I‘d like to believe Rust wouldn‘t have sex with Marty‘s wife, he did. In my first write-up of “True Detective” I said the series had all the familiar tropes of the genre but executed them with brilliance. I should not forget that. While anything might happen, I don‘t think writer Nic Pizzolatto and director Cary Joji Fukunaga are playing tricks on us.

I think they‘re just telling an old-fashioned murder story really, really well.

Please leave a comment or follow me on Twitter: @MarshallCrook

That is a good write up. I believe they are adopting an anthology method for the subsequent series, similar to American Horror Story.

What will make the next episode interesting is that we don't know what lies have been told to the detectives that were interviewing them. I mean, we know some of the things...the D's don't know Cohle infiltrated the bikie gang, the D's think they were under heavy fire when they took down Ledoux...

 

But their stories coroborated extremely well. Too well. When they get together and chat, what will be revealed? Have they met up in the last 10 years? What will they share from their interviews with the D's? Has Marty been thinking that Cohle as right about Tuttle being involved?

 

I remember in the 1st or 2nd episode the Governor/Senator/Commissioner wanted some kind of task force set-up to investigate pagan crimes/attacks against Christianity. Was Tuttle orchestrating the pagan attacks/murders to get more funding/sympathy? Is Tuttle a good guy who doesn't trust the police because he believes they wrecked the vision he had for his schools (somehow)?

 

I'll be a bit disappointed if the show becomes a beat-up on christainity, as in "religious high-ups are all pedos", and not that I necessarily disagree I'm just hoping it will be something more original.

 

I guess whenever I try and predict what will happen, or how it will be resolved, I can only come up with boring endings, yet the anticipation for something amazing builds more and more each episode.

I loved one line when Cohle was interviewing the Munchausen by Proxy woman....If I were you, I'd consider killing myself.

 

Just showed his sensitive side. I think if I'd been a counsellor, I'd give advice like that.

I loved one line when Cohle was interviewing the Munchausen by Proxy woman....If I were you, I'd consider killing myself.

 

Just showed his sensitive side. I think if I'd been a counsellor, I'd give advice like that.

That line is mentioned in the wall of text I posted above....after losing his daughter he has no sympathy for anyone who kills their own kid.

 

Cohle might be deep but I wouldn't call him sensitive. He seems to have a code and anyone who breaks that deserves what comes their way.