I’m not going to pretend there aren’t little Easter eggs peppered throughout HBO’s “True Detective” for fans to argue over and add more layers to the eight-episode, first season anthology, which came to a close last night. I will say, though, such naval-gazing is unnecessary as the sentient meat of the show’s achievements is found in a narrative built on the idea of character-first and Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Michelle Monaghan delivered.
As a matter of fact, the speculation, as much fun as it may have been for some, was largely all for naught. Who is the “Yellow King” and what clues does Robert W. Chambers‘ “The King in Yellow” hold? Maybe there’s something in there that tells you the real killer was the hillbilly mowing the church grass somewhere around episode four, but looking back on it now it’s clear why those doing the speculation overlooked this gentleman, just as Rust did… You were either too busy caught up in the characters or too busy consuming what writer Nic Pizzolatto and director Cary Fukunaga were willing to give you and how much they weren’t. Fact of the matter is, it didn’t hardly matter.
Theorizing who the killer may be actually proved to be a waste of time as the series’ epilogue proves. This was never about “who” the killer was, but about the two men trying to catch him, and their beliefs, faults and missteps along the way.
“True Detective” thrives on character detail over the course of the series’ first two-thirds as the back-story of an investigation into a series of macabre murders plays out. The first five episodes featuring two investigations, one thought to have been solved several years ago and another picking up where the last left off. At the center of it all we find two men, Rust and Marty, and the show never deviates from that course.
Ever since I first started watching, I wondered how they could wrap this season up in a way that would prove satisfying and it seemed my wonder was based on a false idea of what storytelling has become. So many of today’s films and television shows thrive on cliffhangers and plot twists. Franchises come in parts one, two, three and four and to simply tell a story without some major reveal in the end is forbidden.
Well, “True Detective” doesn’t care much about that at all. The beginning of the first season finale, and even the end of the seventh episode, make it quite clear who the killer is, proving the “surprise” here is the fact there is no surprise. Pizzolatto and Fukunaga depended on the story of Rust and Marty to take them home to the point you don’t need to look for any deeper meaning, you need merely look inside these two men and wonder where they go from here.
Look inside Rust, a cynic and non-believer almost to a fault, and when he says, “Once, there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning,” are we seeing a change? If so, to what degree? Has Marty changed?
Speaking of Marty, what a fascinating conclusion to his character. Rust berating him for the way he treated Maggie only to have her show up at his hospital bedside. His eyes light up, he takes her hand, notices the giant rock on her finger and the tears begin to flow as he realizes everything he has lost. He comes to grips with it though, albeit in a way that sends him to Rust’s room, drinking from a giant sippy cup with a big grin on his face. All that’s left for him is one of the most dysfunctional relationships ever brought to television, but as the series proved, dysfunctional or not, they make a pretty good team.
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