Not I buy the whole theory, but it’s fun.
Quite possible. But I don’t think it’s Rust.
He finds the body, drags it out to the tree, poses it, then he sets the cane on fire. So we have to assume he found the body in a place hidden so well that it wouldn’t be found without his involvement. Seems a stretch. If he’s that close to the killers that he could find a hidden victim, he’d know who they were.
But somebody left the body there and then made sure it’d be found, so it’s a puzzlement, for sure.
But, but…
That’s not how it works. 
Maybe we should apply Marty’s line to some of the unanswered questions.
My take on the whole damn thing is that Rust was looking for darkness. He doesn’t have to look anymore. He knows it will be waiting for him and that it’ll be okay, even sweet. My husband and I were both tearing up.
So it was really about Rust and Marty all along. I’m okay with that.
It’s like Pizzolatto wasn’t even listening to us at all!
Goddamn, I mean hot goddamn, what a denouement! I couldn’t have predicted a word of it.
Thanks, HBO, Pizzolatto, and all others involved in the cast, crew, and production – that was a television Experience.
Shit, I’m still processing. I mean, on the surface, it was paint by numbers, but my god the window dressing was worth the price of admission and then some. Who could have predicted it would end on an upbeat?
If I take anything away from True Detective, I take away - much like jazz - it’s the notes their *not *playing. The entirety of the back story of the Tuttle / Childress clan was merely touched upon like the lightest of piano keys where the same material in lesser hands would have been beaten like a high school timpani. What restraint! To suggest the most lurid, creepiest details in impressionistic brushstrokes rather than lurid headlines.
In the barren wastes of TV, “where once there was only dark: If you ask me the light’s winnin’.”
Well that was underwhelming.
Carcosa was *incredibly *creepy though. Not a place I would ever want to walk through at night. shiver
Production values: Astonishing
Cast and acting: Exceptional
Dialogue: Interesting (even with the occasional eyeroll at Rust’s Philosophy 101 and near-death experience)
Plot: I feel like I have seen this one billion times before
Yeah, the cinematography and the look of the production were just outstanding.
I really wish I had not read this thread though, as it just made me expect something *more *to happen.
And I *really *hated that they used the worn out cliche of “Bad guy is fighting with our protagonist and just as he raises his hands to deliver the killing blow, he is shot from behind by the hero’s previously wounded partner.” :rolleyes:
Yeah, the finale was very standard action flick.
Yeah, I wish I had taken Pizzolatto at his word a little more. I think this episode would have been much more enjoyable if I had just watched for a typical detective story, rendered with incredible style and talent, plus a soupçon of eldritch weirdness. I got too wrapped up in looking for clues and trying to predict what crazy things would happen.
I finished the episode, found myself feeling a little let down, then reflected: what? it isn’t strange, dramatic, and appealing enough to our voyeurism to see a family of incestuous pedophile murderers who worship some bizarre offshoot Voodoo god? It’s not thrilling enough to see Rust chase Errol through the totally messed up family catacombs, get stabbed, beat a motherfucker with his skull, and get saved by Marty? Will our thirst for luridness only be appeased if there was also a giant multigenerational conspiracy involving the police and Marty’s family, in addition to having links to the governor?
I think we’ve just all been too conditioned to expect twists. This really was an excellent story, and I will watch the whole thing again with proper expectations, as well as watching next season without trying to pick it apart so much.
That said, I’m not thrilled with the obligatory “atheist has supernatural experience that shows him the error of his ways” bit. Not that I didn’t cry at McConaughey’s performance, but jeez, could we have just left it at a peaceful, warm darkness and not actually trotted out the beloved dead as well? I guess I should be grateful there wasn’t a tunnel with a bright light at the end.
I agree, mostly, but it was still kind of what the story needed, though. That Rust find some optimism in the darkness.
My problem was that it came at the very end of the story with no lead up or indication that that’s where Rust was heading. Contrast it with Marty’s resolution (the understanding that his family loved him even after he’d been an absolute bastard to them), which was properly set up, and more powerful for it, I’d argue.
Just starting on E5, and also page 5 of this thread hands on hips, pants
Can’t believe some of the ‘plot holes’ people think they see. Making perfect sense so far. … huge production values, beautifully crafted script, intriging arcs …
Great series. Hilarious seeing so many pundits across multiple sites looking for clues where none existed.
Just great writing and acting.
Anyone else think that the shot of Rust near the end, when he’s in his hospital bed and the camera pulls into his reflection in the window, made him look exactly like classical images of Jesus?
Yup. I thinkthis Atlantic articleis pretty fair - lots of praise for the quality of the production, reflection about why it felt sort of flat at the end, and a bit of mea culpa for embracing the conspiracy-theory hysteria:
Sepinwall has a post-finale interview up with Pizzolatto. Interesting stuff.
In an earlier interview at the start of the season, he told Sepinwall that he doesn’t care about serial killer stories and that this is the story of these two detectives. Taking that into account, it’s not surprising that people are somewhat disappointed a bit in the plot part of the series - but as a character study it was outstanding.
From the interview I linked to above, I found these two bits interesting:
And regarding season 2:
Let the conspiracy begin anew. It’s all there in the obscure works of Franciscan mystic Telios De Lorca, “and the number of the five stellar blazes, shall be five, and in the transit between borders, five points of the shining quintet will be the sign under which the evening sacrifice is lain.”
