On the same night that Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor at last night’s Academy Awards, True Detective hummed quietly along into the night as we keep trying to figure out who the Yellow King is. We were given another straight forward episode but one that brings us ultimately closer to our end game. We find out the cost of this case on both of Marty Hart’s and Rust Cohle’s lives. They both still have unpaid debts that they need to tend to.
“After You’ve Gone” is the first episode of the season that isn’t primarily told through flashbacks. In fact, the only flashbacks in the episode were when Rust and Marty told the other what they’ve been up to since 2002 and they were short and sweet. Well, maybe not sweet. Both Rust and Marty have lived in states of isolation and loneliness since their breakup. After Marty quit the force after a gruesome homicide of a baby, the people in his life all pushed him away after they realized how much of a hypocrite he was. Meanwhile, Rust tried to isolate himself from others by going to Alaska but told Marty he came back because of the loose ends of the Dora Lange case. Which sounds like BS because he seems like he missed friendly human contact by the way he was asking Marty personal questions, which he never did prior to this episode, and by complimenting Marty’s investigative skills.
We find out, in a flashback scene, that Marty ninja’ed himself into one of Tuttle’s homes and obtained a lot of evidence of molestation as well as a video that convinced Marty to help Rust to complete what they started. Rust starts talking to potential witnesses which include a former student that went to a school that was funded by Tuttle who is now a prostitute and a former maid of his who seemed to know a lot. She also happened to know that the family name of the man with the scars on his face is Childress which should ring some bells. If it doesn’t, let me refresh your memories:
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW SNAP.
Marty tries to talk to the sheriff from episode 1 who was in charge of the Marie Fontenot case some more questions about it but the sheriff keeps dodging so Marty and Rust decide to take extreme measures. They kidnap the dude on Marty’s fishing boat and feel like it’s a good time to have the man fitted for a couple of jumper cables with a car (or maybe a boat?) battery attached to the other end. Rust is about to go Jack Bauer on his ass. Meanwhile, Papagania and Gilbough are driving around the bayou looking for one of the churches that Rust told them about during his interrogation. They come across Errol who tells them how to get back to the road. However, Errol looks a bit different this time. He looks like the spaghetti monster with the scars on his face that Marty and Rust has been looking for. And apparently, his family has been here for a very long, long time…..because time is a flat circle.
My theories/observations/tumblrs/tweets blog post for True Detective will be out either tomorrow or Wednesday morning.
