True Detective - HBO - McConaughey / Harrelson [SPOILERS]

Cafe Society
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Y’all should go back and watch the first episode again. They’re being pretty deliberate in what they’re doing – setting it up as a child abuse “cult” of the rich and powerful that Rust discovers and (assuming, based on the foreshadowing so far) will probably be martyred for. And if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, Rust will probably be martyred trying to save Marty’s family, but that’s more a random ass guess.

Anyway, 20 minutes into the first episode, Marty gives a debriefing of the murder they just caught (the antler woman) to his boss, and his boss is genuinely shocked – the boss is not part of any conspiracy. However, whenever Marty leaves the office, there’s this high-ranking police officer that looks pissed and he pushes his way into the office, shutting the door – this guy represents, what Rust calls in EP5, a “company man.” Marty even mentions what a dick this guy is.

When Marty gives a press conference on what they found the next day, the same police officer is off to the side, and the show goes out of the way to show him giving a death stare to Marty.

And then, when that preacher stops by the office, as part of that “special task force,” that same police officer is with him, and he actually “pulls rank” to shut Rust up.

…

Also in the first episode the whole “missing child made in error” thing was brought up. It starts off innocently, Rust merely had a hunch that maybe a child in the area could have been connected, just based on circumstance. When he pulls the record and it comes back “made in error” – along with nobody having a satisfactory reason how a child went missing, was never heard from again, but was considered “found” – he gets more curious and looks into it further, and it soon becomes this thread that unravels everything. This is where the scene in the 5th episode comes from, when he’s pulling up all the missing child records and they’re all coming back “made in error.” He’s starting to realize there might be a huge conspiracy underway.

…

The show is also going out of its way to show Marty and Rust are not involved in anyway. Rust definitely knows there’s a conspiracy, and he definitely knows he’s being investigated. Go back and watch the interrogation scenes again, based on knowing there’s a conspiracy. They’re brilliant, everything he says reads in several different ways – sometimes he’s finding out how much they know, sometimes he’s finding out how much they’re connected, and other times he’s playing with the audience and philosophizing about how we’re watching the show and how it relates to what he’s doing as a character (the whole “flat world” thing from the last episode.)

…

Finally, the martyr thing. Again in the first episode, he says he has a cross above his bed because he likes meditating on “allowing your own crucifixion.” It’s the perfect ending – Rust becoming a martyr for this cause, of unveiling this vast, evil conspiracy. Fits into his philosophical mindset perfectly. I don’t know of any other way this season could end.

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Agreed.

My biggest question at this point is wondering if Chamber’s The Yellow King story collection exists in this fictional world. Rust is well read, but there’s been no connection made. I’d guess no, sort of like how zombie movies don’t exist in zombie movies. No genre self-awareness.

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Nice recap, ZebraShaSha.

I think the main reason some folks suspect Marty or Rust are involved is because of all the twists in TV and movies. It’s expected.

I feel bad for Rust. He’s so freakin’ sad. That’s what happens when you look too closely, think too much.

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That’s pretty damn convincing, right there. Also, I noticed that for all his “we’re just puppets, we shouldn’t procreate, maybe it’s better if children die before all the suffering of life sets in,” Rust is quite scrupulous about protecting innocent people and especially children throughout the series. It jibes with him being the savior.

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I agree with the poster above about re watching the interrogation scenes. Rust is definitely seeing how much they know. EP1 he asks how they kept the St Charles murder a secret - and repeated that question on his way out of the room last episode. I also think the beer can people surrounding a beer can person on the table and time is a circle stuff is a test to see how (or if) they react to it. A true detective would know those things are apart of the case. Those guys didn’t pick up on it. Company Men. We’re likely just told that Rust is likely the killer and not doing any investigating past that. That’s how I saw it - the second time.

Re: Marty. He’s most likely not the killer. However, there are theories floating around that point to him. One being a promo poster for the show that was “misprinted”. About 3inches of the top of the poster is cut off and is located at the bottom. It cuts off the top of Marty’s yellow hair. people think it’s a yellow crown.

Excellent show.

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Speaking of theories, someone at Television Without Pity suggested that Maggie’s behind it, because of Maggie’s mother’s accusation – “you destroy everything you touch”. WTF? Maggie?

I did wonder why Maggie’s mom said that. We haven’t seen that Maggie has “destroyed” anything. Both families are intact, although the family visit did seem perfunctory, a duty – not something to look forward to.

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I had missed that line.

I’m thinking the the Maggie storyline is the Detectives curse. It was under their noses the entire time. The abuse of Matrys daughter and the earlier abuse of Maggie. Maggie was abused and then took her place in the “circle”. I’m not sure how any of this ties in with her conversations with her mother or the talk during the basketball game or after.

She delivers some of the most biting and hurtful lines when Rust or Marty dismiss her in converstaions about the case. When she is in the diner with Rust she says “So end of the day you duck under rationalization same as any of em’. You must have been a great husband”. Also, the “You were smarter when you were younger” and “You have developed some sort of selective deafness. You used to not be such a chickenshit” directed at Marty when he is telling her that her problems mean little compared to the case.

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Loving this show so much. So satisfying to watch such an incredibly well-written, beautifully shot show. The acting is phenomenal, across the board.

Speaking of which… my friend Azure is on tonight’s episode. So proud of her for being a part of something like this.

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This was Cdr. Speece, presumably the ranking officer in this region. Too prominently featured to not be important.

In the same episode Hart and Cohle talk to the Sheriff in Erath about the missing Fontenot girl. I forget his name, but he says that the case occurred under the previous sheriff, named Childress. Childress was also the name of one of the officers who moved Francis to and from his cell before he killed himself. In real life two different guys named Childress is a coincidence, in a drama like this it’s a plot point.

My WAG is that Audrey was molested by her grandfather, who is also connected somehow. Marty’s comment about not recognizing what’s directly in front of him (The gang rape tableau with the dolls, the pictures she drew in school) is sad, not just because of what she went through, but because it may have broken the case open in 1995.

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Can you say “least sexy consensual sex scene ever”?

I haven’t gone back to watch yet - was that the suspiciously pissed company man cop glowering at Rust in the chief’s office this ep?

Definitely a lot of material this week about sexual ownership of women. Marty sodomizing the girl he rescued was naaaasty.

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When they were at the trailer park/brothel in 1995, Marty gave the girl a wad of cash and suggested that she make different choices. Cohle, upon witnessing this, asked Hart if it was a down payment.

Rust is right again!

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Man, I really want to hear their talk over that beer. Damn it. This is the only episode so far that feels too decompressed. I’m sure 7 and 8 will ramp up, but thank god this isn’t a 12 parter. I couldn’t take more endings like tonight.

Goddamn, Marty is the world’s shittiest cheater:

[ul]
[li]comes home early[/li][li]does the only load of laundry in his life, and it’s a single pair of clothes[/li][li]showers off the strange at home[/li][li]leaves a flip phone with evidence[/li][/ul]

Shit, man. Helen Keller would have caught him. 2002 Marty never got the chance to see an episode of Mad Men and it shows.

Does Rev. Tuttle [Jay O. Sanders] remind anyone else of Harrison Ford in both size and line delivery?

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Got distracted (husband talking) – so Maggie had sex with Rust because that was the only way she could think of to permanently end her marriage? She didn’t trust herself not to forgive Marty, again? It was her “I fucked Ted” moment? It appears to have worked for her better than it did for Skyler.

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The camera focused on Rust’s broken tail-light at the end, Any significance to that? I’m loving the show and this was a great episode.

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When Marty and Rust had it out in the police parking lot, Rust tossed Marty into the back of the truck and broke the tail light. It’s remained broken since.

I suppose it’s a device to illustrate a broken partnership/ relationship between the two men and that Rust may feels some guilt about the fact that he fucked Marty’s wife.

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Oh, and by the way, could that jail have been any yellower? I don’t get too wrapped up in the conspiracy theory obsessiveness, so I don’t think it means Marty is the Yellow King or anything, but the show uses yellow tones to underline seamy, corrupt places and people. Theriot’s back room was pretty yellow too.

Yup!

Yeah, you could have different reads on it, such as Maggie wanting to prove to herself she was really done, or wanting to hurt Marty as much as she could. But given the themes of the show, I took it as basically a woman can’t hold deed to her own pussy. She had to transfer ownership to another man to really stop belonging to Marty. Ick.

And double ick that she pretty much date-raped a drunk Rust.

Ah! Thank you, I had missed that!

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I see it as her reclaiming her body for herself and fucking whomever she wanted with it, removing herself and her body from any commitment to Marty. She tried to fuck the guy in the bar, but she didn’t because she really wanted to fuck Rust. Following her own desire. I respect that.

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Rust was drunk, but he could have stopped it if he really wanted to. There were a lot of mixed up emotions going on there, and it wasn’t very sexy, but it was consensual.

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Also, she knew it was the one thing that Marty would not forgive.

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Not sure if there will be a “big reveal” in the end, but so far, the point of the show seems to be that regular, everyday people are the most terrifying monsters of all. That’s what Rust has gone on and on about – existential dread, and how cruel humanity is, etc. The world’s a giant “thresher” and we’re all capable of debasement, or amorality, or outright violence if in the right situation at the right time. Even Rust, who’s the most put together and in control character on the show, has moments of weakness – like fucking Maggie.

Point being, the “Yellow King” seems to be more this abstract idea, of humans at their worst. In episode 5, there was a shot of Rust driving his truck with Ginger tied up in the floorboard and an actual yellow crown from a business sign in the background appeared over his head.

Another thought, about the taillight – has Rust’s truck been in storage? He’s been in hiding up until a few months ago, so it makes sense. Seems like he would have repaired it sometime in the last 10 years otherwise.

Also, I thought of another, happier way this could end, but I don’t know how much I like it. It’s clear that the people investigating him now are not investigating on a federal level – Rust’s files from Texas are still sealed to them. Rust also still has a contact with, presumably, the FBI (his “handler”), so maybe he can turn over all the files to them and be vindicated?

One more thing, it’s interesting that they have already “killed off” Tuttle, within the story arch. That’s going to make the last few episodes especially interesting.