True Detective speculation thread

[wufwugy]

My pick for the killer is the disabled kid. He's faking it and his mom knows. Cool Lester Smooth may be the guy who gets convicted for it originally

[rong]

Coles bangs woody's wife.

[surviva316]

[boost]

Disabled kid?

The uncle?

I'm not sure I can see Lester going down for this, but then again, he may be too much of a commodity for him to not have a sizable role.

My speculation is that it's a group. A cult, and not a serial killer. I think the influence of the cult will have a pretty far reach too, at least on a local level.

[wufwugy]

Disabled dude looked like a kid. If he's uncle then okay. Makes more sense that way. Anyways, I bet he has some sort of key role because if not why is he disabled and why did Harrelson worship his throwing arm?

I like the cult idea, but I don't think it's a cult because I think the first scene shows one guy carrying a body. I'm gonna be very upset if it's either detective. That's just idiotic. For that sort of story, it's better to use a more bland murder. But the cult idea with the xtian politician/connected guy being a part of it, which makes Harrelson sweep it under the rug while McConaughey gets depressed is great

[rong]

According to imdb Lester is only in one episode.

[rong]

Unless the xtian dude was there as nothing more than side role to build Coles' character I think some kind of cover up makes a lot of sense.

Also, that may come to light at the end of the series from the present day interviews and could be the setting for series 2.

[rong]

Actually scrap that. Just read that this is an 8 episode series with a final conclusion and that the characters and story arc will finish and not be carried into the next series.

[wufwugy]

Can't say I'm a fan of McCaunaghey banging Harrelson's wife. I didn't get the impression from Harrelson in the fast-forwards that he hates McCaunaghey like he would if he caught him schtupping his main squeeze

[wufwugy]

I want an old fashion detective story. No need for the backstabbing gotchas that are so prevalent in today's cinema.

Wouldn't be surprised if the killer isn't even a known character for several eps, if at all. I'm not sure how it's usually done, but some mysteries suffer when the eventually discovered killer was somebody the audience saw from the beginning. Not always though

[boost]

According to imdb [REDACTED]

Please think before you post this sorta thing. Speculation should be based on what is in the show. If you want to read future cast lists, synopsis', etc, feel free, but don't just blurt it out like that.

[boost]

I want an old fashion detective story. No need for the backstabbing gotchas that are so prevalent in today's cinema.

Wouldn't be surprised if the killer isn't even a known character for several eps, if at all. I'm not sure how it's usually done, but some mysteries suffer when the eventually discovered killer was somebody the audience saw from the beginning. Not always though

Yeah, I won't mention the name of the show because that's spoilery, but there is a certain show that fell off hard once the curtain started to be drawn back.

[wufwugy]

Hmm I'm not sure I've seen the show you're talking about. I guess that's a good thing

[Hoopy]

I liked the first episode, if the rest are of a similar quality then this is gonna be fun to watch. The idea of having this story only lasting 8 eps and all being done by the same director should make for better continuity.

Speculation time, I don't think we'll see the murderer until late in the season. Maybe they don't even catch the actual killer, it's just a review of how they convicted the wrong person. Cult/sect possibly?

[wufwugy]

WTF are they doing with Woody's daughters? WTF are they doing with Matthew's visions?

[Renton]

i feel like this show is shitting all over true blood with every awesome dystopian louisiana atmosphere it portrays

I guess thats the problem with a show that mostly takes place at night though.

[Hoopy]

Good 2nd episode, I really like the opening sequence. More character development rather than case progression until the end which was nice actually. I don't think the 2 cops doing the interviews suspect either of them, maybe they're just trying prove incompetence.

WTF are they doing with Woody's daughters? WTF are they doing with Matthew's visions?

Inorite?

Woody's daughters could just be a throwback to what his father in law said, Matt's just tripping balls with all the stuff he's taking.

[boost]

Show is out of this world good.

Cool little trivia: The writer is the 2p2 poster Nath's brother.

[Penneywize]

Ahh shit yeah I just had to post here for the following reason:

There are two actors in this show from The Wire. One is Lester. Can you figure out who the other one is?

(I got there with no help from imdb so you try and get there too)

Speaking of HBO series actors, we got Eli on here as well...

[wufwugy]

naw i cant guess which one brotha mouzone is

[Penneywize]

god damn it, am I the one late to the party?

[wufwugy]

my guess is they got the right guy in 95, but there is more than one. so it is like a cult. they probably killed him and found all the evidence that tied him to it, so they closed the case. then something else happened in 2002 that pointed to multiple killers, but probably because it pointed in the "wrong" direction, it was buried, and mccaughnahey and harrelson were some sort of fallout. harrelson may not have been so wittingly. now the 2010 murder brings it back to light, but all the records were destroyed (iirc) so the black detectives are trying to get to the bottom of what happened in 2002

[Renton]

I'm not sure I or the writers really care about the actual murder mystery. It's really just a character drama that is incidentally about a serial killer.

[boost]

This show is just pure television drama porn, but the hardcore artsy kind.

It's like Tarantino's style over substance, but dropping all the cheese and adding the substance back in.

A few times, especially towards the end of this episode, I realized I was touching myself.

[Renton]

Just gonna be a 6 minute long epic ensemble tracking shot on a television series I guess.

[wufwugy]

Not complaining because it's still good, but I'm honestly upset at the plot direction. Ep3 cliff was intense as fuck, and I really wanted to pick up with that intensity in full swing. The show was pointing us towards a big shootout with a pure evil guy. I'm not the biggest fan of the rogue cop trope

[boost]

So, you're one of those guys...

[wufwugy]

The intrigue and mystery is the best part

[wufwugy]

I think I just really loved the plot that I thought was going to happen after ep3. Killing the masked guy, finding his handiwork (being terrified by it), learning that he might not be the only one yet having to push it under the rug for some reason, then learning that he truly isn't the only one from the new murder, would be an incredible plot. It would be so creepy. The rogue cop stuff looks weaker, but we'll see

[boost]

Why do you think that's not where the plot is going?

[rong]

After dropping the fact the Chole had been an undercover dea agent (or w/e) for 4 years, in hind site it seems inevitable that we'd be taking a quick leap down path. I still enjoyed it, it was pretty intense, although it doesn't really fit in with the first 3 episodes of the show.

[wufwugy]

Why do you think that's not where the plot is going?

I thought Ledoux would die in ep 4. Now it seems they may never have caught him, but WH and WW couldn't fix that because they had to sweep their own actions under the rug. Maybe the direction now is WH and WW doing something really bad (really, really bad) and having to hide that. That still doesn't feel right for this show though.

[boost]

What are you even...

This episode was just an aside-- a treat to the audience that the 2012 detectives aren't privy to. There's really not any reason to think e05 won't pick up right where e03 left off, after all this would presumably be the point in which the truth and the texas mission cover-up converge.

edit: I could be wrong here, obviously, but I don't get why you're so sure the plot is heading in some wildly different direction. It's far more likely that this is just another facet of an awesome non-linear narrative.

[wufwugy]

Looks like ep4 picked up where ep3 left off. Perhaps ep4 was to show how they find the Ledoux that was shown in ep3.

[boost]

What? e03 ends on a cliff hanger leading up to the encounter with LeDoux and jumps over the whole Texas thing, e04 goes back on that. e01-e03 were a build up to this midway climax where we find out (at least part of) what they are hiding from the 2012 detectives.

[wufwugy]

the plot i was talking about assumes they found ledoux with 4 eps left, because it will take several eps to do the fallout. because they're taking time to find ledoux, it appears they're going in a different direction. my first guess is one where they don't even catch ledoux yet can't explain why

[boost]

Meh, I don't think it really matters. You're trying to watch a murder mystery, and True Detective isn't a murder mystery.

[wufwugy]

That's part of what I was saying. It works very well as both a murder mystery and character investigation. Besides, it *should* be a murder mystery, just not exclusively. If it didn't have the mystery, it would lose a lot of its intrigue. It's like how GoT benefits from us not knowing who is gonna win the throne and how

[boost]

If the throne never changed hands, GoT would suffer.

If the killer is never caught, TD could be written in a way in which the show would not suffer.

[wufwugy]

because one is 8 eps and another is 80

[boost]

Hey, you loaded up your truck full of apples and drove on down to the citrus convention..

[aubreymcfate]

a bit off topic b/c it's not speculation, but that cartel torture execution story took a gigantic shit on my soul. i wish i could shake my head hard enough to knock that thing right outta there. that was like, unwarranted mental assault. maybe i'm overreacting, but i was also beyond stoned while watching it, so let's just say i was empathizing too much with the scenario in that moment. ugh. :[

[Renton]

you must have been pretty baked to have empathized having a dick and balls

[aubreymcfate]

i'm pretty well-endowed my mind's eye

[aubreymcfate]

honestly though, the most harrowing part of it is the mirror. i mean obviously the tremendous amount of pain is horrific too, not trying to mitigate that by any means, but that's not what gives the tale the kinda claws that can dig that deep under my skin.

[fjuanl]

I don't buy Cohle being the Yellow King. It seems more likely that he starting looking into his theory about people trying to protect Yellow King and meets someone from the cult. Maybe their beliefs appeal to emptiness that his dead daughter created and he starts to get involved. I don't see how Cohle would be influenced by a cult but maybe some drugs were involved.

The altercation that was talked about between Cohle and Hart I would think has to be related to Hart's daughter getting into more legal trouble in the future. Cohle disrespects her in front of Hart. Hart snaps and beats the shit out of Cohle

[wufwugy]

cohle should absolutely not be the yellow king. that's just too......stupid. it's elementary. any hack can trick an audience, but it takes real talent to entice an audience without relying on misdirection

[wufwugy]

Love the direction. Ep5 was what I expected ep4 to be

[wufwugy]

Disliked ep4, loved ep5, disliked tonight's ep. Was uber excited at the prospect of Hart and Cohle learning the higher ups were in some wicked shit, going deep undercover/rogue to catch them, faking the 2002 fallout, and playing the flash forward interrogations in an attempt to get the real culprits to chase Cohle as a suspect but falling into a trap

That can't happen now. I have no idea what will happen now. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of what is left to be done in just two eps, but we'll see

[Renton]

[boost]

Disliked ep4, loved ep5, disliked tonight's ep. Was uber excited at the prospect of Hart and Cohle learning the higher ups were in some wicked shit, going deep undercover/rogue to catch them, faking the 2002 fallout, and playing the flash forward interrogations in an attempt to get the real culprits to chase Cohle as a suspect but falling into a trap

That can't happen now. I have no idea what will happen now. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of what is left to be done in just two eps, but we'll see

You'll have to call a plumber if you get any more sand caked in your vagina.

[wufwugy]

TIL you think expressing a preference is bitching and moaning

[Renton]

God that was so good.

[boost]

God that was so good.

I agree, but it's definitely getting a lot of hate.

[wufwugy]

I liked the finale, but I think it going the way it did shows that certain aspects of the show should have been rewritten. For example, viewed as a whole, there is a bit of incongruity in the killings. They started out as some sort of ritual sacrifice of grown women that involved drugs, sex, and symbolism. Then suddenly it became about child abductions and molestation, some of which involved death, but some that didn't. Then it ended as a smorgasbord of craziness.

I think this is a fantastic example of a first or second draft of the details of the murders, but a lot of it needed to be changed, so that things tie together like they would in real life. The problem doesn't involve things like the detectives thinking it was one thing then finding out it was another, but that the audience is shown it's one thing, but then that thing loses its meaning.

Other examples of things throughout that should have been changed are Rust's delusions and the Audrey symbolism. The writer could have created the Rust delusion in the finale to start with, but after writing the whole show, it became unimportant and provided nothing to the story or character. The Audrey symbolism also fell flat because it was between a line of too specific and not specific enough. What I mean is that by going in the specific direction, which the show kinda did, it plays really well to simply suggest that she may have been a victim -- perhaps have Marty think she may have been a victim -- but leave it at that and make it a question that can't be answered. Or by making it non-specific, it plays well as a milieu setter. IMO the show dropped the ball by making it both and neither instead of one or the other. I wasn't one who was upset there was no Audrey payoff -- I honestly hoped there wouldn't be because I thought making it personal to Marty was the wrong direction.

Anyways, I think the finale was about as good as it could be given the previous 7 episodes, and if any real issue lies in the finale, it's actually in some of the exposition/rising action needing a rewrite

[boost]

I thoroughly enjoyed the finale, but I think that's a very well written critique and I have to say I agree with it.

Still GOAT tier though.

[aubreymcfate]

I want moremoremore of Errol Childress. What a fascinating villain that we got to enjoy for all of 2 seconds. (Also, that spooky, twiny music box music... that was perfect.)

[wufwugy]

I spent some time last night playing through how congruity with murders could be achieved, and I think I discovered that doing so would make the show far creepier. It seems HBO did a lot to keep the scare factor from reaching a certain threshold, and perhaps because of this, we're left with non-frightening and unexplained things like the Yellow King and Carcosa (the name). Those are a little too esoteric and ultimately not that meaningful. It seems HBO wanted things that were more enticing to the audience on an episodic basis, not something that is particularly realistic in retrospect