True Detective Season 1 Episode 8 “Form And Void” Recap: “L’Chaim Fatass”

I don’t know if everyone got what they wanted out of the True Detective finale last night. Hell, I doubt everyone got to watch it when they wanted to due to the whole HBO Go fiasco last night. What the hell was that? I was at a lovely True Detective themed party last night that was thrown by a friend of mine that came complete with cajun food, green spaghetti, chocolate antler chip cookies, Jameson, and Lone Star Beer (We only had the bottled beer though. They apparently don’t deliver cans to this part of the country). Unfortunately, there was no cocaine, meth, and sub machine guns but it was a hell of a party…..other than the whole HBO Go going to hell on us part. Kind of put a damper on things. But it worked this morning when I woke up and I got a chance to watch anyways.

Even though the show left a lot of questions unanswered, I was very satisfied with the ending. Did we ever get to truly find out who the Yellow King was? Did Audrey ever come in contact with the cult? Was Senator Tuttle the mastermind behind the Carcosa cult? Does Diet Dr. Pepper taste the same as regular Dr. Pepper? And how about the questions that were brought up in this episode? What happened to Errol’s dad and why is he tied to a bed in the shed, crucifixion style? Why was Errol emulating different voices and accents? Can we find out more about that cult compound that Rust chased Errol through? We never found out the answers to these questions but the show was never about the case but the journey these men took throughout this season and how they changed at the end of it. And change they did. Marty finally came to terms with the fact that he wasn’t as great a guy to his family or in general as he should have been. Rust finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel during his near death experience that gave him cause to have hope.

The journey in this episode was equal parts creepy, hilarious, and thrilling. When we got our first look at Errol’s life at the beginning of the episode, it was both eerie and a tad disappointing. Errol was a beast that invokes fear but he wasn’t the genius evil mastermind that I had hoped he would be. The scene where Errol was painting the schoolhouse yellow (did anyone else catch that?) while the students came out to play was super creepy. Also, while Rust was looking for Errol in the Carcosa compound (btw whoever did the set design on the place deserves a medal), the voices and things he said were bugging me the hell out. That scene was one of the most thrilling scenes on TV in awhile. I found myself almost wanting to scream at Rust….telling him “No, no, no. Don’t go in there! He’s GONNA KILL YOU!” The final fight scene between Marty, Rust, and Errol was well done. Most of Rust’s and Marty’s interactions through out this episode were hilarious. Especially this part:

The drive to Errol’s headquarters felt like something we’ve all seen before. The conversation where Rust judges Marty and Marty getting annoyed about it. The fact that Rust tasting aluminum and ash in the air again. I guess it was the show’s way of coming back full circle….a nod to a theme earlier in the series.

However, there was one thing that did bother me about this episode. I’m hoping I’m not over or under thinking this and I’m hoping the readers can help me out with this. Why did the freshly painted green house stick out like a sore thumb? The whole idea of Marty figuring out the freshly painted green house and comparing it to a later picture and using that to find out that the painter was probably Errol seemed kind of flimsy to me.

How does everyone else feel about that? What did everyone else think of the episode last night?