Last night was the True Detective Season 1 finale. I, for one was disappointed. Not that the ending wasn't dramatic, and suspenseful. It was, but it didn't feel to fit the character of the show. All the exposition done through secondary characters; the tent preacher, and his fall, the series of schools, the room full of devil catchers at the end of episode 6 when Cohl goes back to the school.
It turns out the spaghetti monster was the lawnmower man, a relative of the Tuttle family, we met innocuously at the end of episode 3. He seemed a tangential character. It was an inventive twist to bring back someone we took little notice of. Was he The Yellow King? We're left to assume that. His house was a hoarders paradise, and the labyrinth on the property was chock full of devil catchers of all size, which was a really cool effect. But this shit sty was the headquarters of a cult that had such reach, and influence that dozens of murder, and missing person cases were swept away for over a decade? It was a disappointment to have the Tuttle family idiot be the Yellow King. What was their involvement, aside from hiding some evidence? I wanted to know more about the cult. How active were Tuttles, or other Louisiana notables in the cult? How expansive was cult? It covered up so many missing/murder cases. It had to have been huge.
And how, how, how did the police know to get there (and where) while Hart and Cohl were wounded after the Yellow King confrontation? Did they all of a sudden get cell reception in that pit - you know, the reception they couldn't get in the driveway? The house land line didn't work, and who would have called anyway? After the attention to logic, and the what if's, the what abouts, the how does this fit, the this doesn't, to have the police just show up was a serious departure from the series' cohesive attention to detail.
Marty, after being visited in the hospital by Maggie and the girls, breaks down as if he finally realizes all that he's lost. Then nothing after that. Did he begin to get to a good place with Maggie. Reconciliation? More importantly, did he begin to get to a good place with his daughter Audrey? We haven't seen interaction between those two since the "captain of the varsity slut team" incident. So much of the series was the development of Cohle, and Hart from 95, to 02, to present. Watching Marty Hart's demons consume his relationship with his family, and his first mistress was really compelling. What happened after the hospital visit, Shit. What happened after he broke down when Maggie held his hand? I wasn't hoping for a reconciliation, but we spent 7 episodes watching Marty's self destructive nature fuck it all up. Did anything happen?
Rust, who was the most seriously wounded and the more deeply scarred personally, lets us in on his near death experience. His description of the warm darkness, feeling his daughter's love, and wanting to stay there was an uncharacteristic bit of light in his personal darkness. McConaughey's character is the glue of the series, and I almost shit myself when it looked like he was mortally wounded. I mean, shit, no cell reception, who's gonna navigate that labyrinth in time to keep him from bleeding out? It also felt odd that Cohl and Hart seemed to have become kind of buddies. Every cop show has the partners as buddies. True Detective introduced a really cool dynamic by having these 2 not like each other the whole time. "If you were drowning, I'd throw you a fucking barbell."
The strength of the show has been it's introduction of interesting characters, whether they are major or minor to the narrative. The destructive personal natures of Hart and Cohl was also compelling. Hart lost a battle with it, and Cohl accepted it. It looks like they've come to some sort of terms with that, and maybe even personal redemption. Looking at the stars, and noting how the dark has more territory was interesting. I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe almost dying does that. On balance True Detective has been outstanding. The finale left me wanting more, and if there's a season 2, I'm there.
Seriously, how the fuck did the police know where they were?
So the phone Marty picked up in the house was a piece of junk no connection. I'm assuming after he stuck the gun under her chin, and said "where's the phone? Everyone has an f***** phone" she produced one. It's the only way the police could have known where they were.
ReplyDeleteYes. That is correct! How did the writer of this article miss that detail???
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DeleteBut who called? The house phone was dead. We never saw Hart make a call. The woman certainly would not have called. I don't like the assumption that she produced a phone unseen in the narrative. They never tied up the narrative where the police suspected Cohl either. Him leading Hart there, and then calling the police (not sure they ever did, but OK) would still fit the theory as Cohl as suspect. Great show - sloppy finale.
DeleteHow does "the author miss" something that wasn't shown.
I think that before they got out of the car it could be (i could be wrong but this was my interpretation) assumed that they made the call and then used the whole "I need to get to a phone" excuse thing to get into the house and look for the spaghetti guy since they didnt' have probable cause then hart was like "screw this" and forced the door open. But then why did he try and use the phone there? Compared to how PERFECT the rest of the series was in terms of paying attention to detail and not missing a beat, this, along with the ending ( like you said) was kinda sloppy. Another notable fact throughout the series was how harts daughters drew strange rapey pictures and played with dolls raping each other and the older daughters comfortable getting in the car with more than one guy. This might suggest that some of his family was in on something not presented in the series. In other words, this, along with some other clues throughout the season suggests that there are more "bad guys" out there but I'm not sure if the 2nd season will address these things.
DeleteI hope not because, like i said, this season was PERFECT aside from some minor things at the end.
Maybe rust and marty were being tracked by the detectives who were investigating them, that's why marty met with detective papania and dropped him a huge hint that they were onto something conclusive. He knew papania was the more convinced of the two that rust was guilty so he met with him knowing that he would be more likely to be tracking their movements should the worst happen, surely marty and cole would know that signal would be patchy in such a rural place and wouldn't rely solely on a phone call. I know rust and marty would know if someone was following them on them isolated roads to carcosa but papania may have placed a tracking device on their car and followed close behind but out of sight, then called in backup when the tracker had stopped. I thought the same thing as you about the convenience of the police arriving in time but I think there are ways it can be explained without being too far fetched. Just my own theory but I still loved the show from start to finish.
ReplyDeleteits very very simple read Tammy's post above.
DeleteIt's a possibility but It doesn't seem likely in my opinion. I don't think for a second the woman would fear the consequences of not producing the phone enough to give it to marty if she had one. The residents don't strike me as people with any need for a phone or connection to the outside world. Plus the fact that marty met with papania alone without rust tells me that he wanted someone to know they were going into the unknown because he has a family whereas rust didn't care about living or dying so the prospect of dying didn't matter to him. Also the house was in a very isolated location and rust was very badly stabbed, if the police only set out if marty rang from the house I think he would have bled out way before they arrived. I think if the detectives even slightly suspect that rust is a serial killer they would be keeping tabs on him.
DeleteI may be over thinking and completely wrong of course but I'd rather think of a more detailed explanation as opposed to taking the easy way out of assuming the crazy woman was afraid of being shot and pulled a second working landline phone out of her backside so the cops can call for backup.
I was with Tammy until you brought up a very important fact- there is no way Rust would have survived the time it took for the police to have responded to a call in BFE. I'm amazed Marty did - an axe in the chest???
DeleteIt was a hammer, the claw of it stuck into his chest. Yes I would be suprised if someone would survive that but who knows maybe his lungs were so full of tar from rusts second hand smoke that the hammer didn't pierce them ;)
DeleteGreat show - agreed. I always like the characters more than the investigation storyline. The attention to detail throughout was amazing, so for that reason I was surprised at the holes.
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