Whew – take a collective deep breath. True Detective is back. After a disappointing second season that saw very little critical acclaim, the future of the show was cast in doubt. But, HBO elected to roll the dice and shoot season three. They cast Mahershala Ali as the lead, and from a story standpoint, it certainly seems like Nic Pizzolatto tried to take it back to its season one roots. So far, so good. Let’s hit the review.
Let this serve as your final reminder that there are definitely spoilers within this post. Episodes one and two both dropped last Sunday, and I’ve given y’all an entire week to catch up. But, if you don’t want the show spoiled, DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER.
Okay – those of you left, you sure you want to read on?
LFG
True Detective S3E3
In seasons past, episode three gave us some wild and gnarly shootouts. They sure bucked that trend in a more methodical dialogue centered episode three for season three. But, if you were listening carefully, there was still a wealth of information being thrown at us. Not to mention, we got West’s badass line, “motherfucker….give me two fingers of Southern Comfort.”
Any you lead you thought you may have had after the first two episodes – well, shit. I don’t know what to tell you. Episode three just threw a million wrenches into it. Literally, new details here, there, and everywhere to point you in about a million different directions. I love it.
Most importantly, in my opinion, we realize that Wayne actually finds the murder scene – deep into the woods, hidden. There are dice from Will’s Dungeons & Dragons set, toys, a bloody rock with hair on it, and a bag that wasn’t Will’s. Wayne tracks the scene to the mysterious new farmhouse, where they talk to the farmer. How did no one talk to this guy? Turns out, someone did talk to the guy! *Gasp* someone in a white suit showed him a badge and started asking questions about the murder.
We also found out that Will wasn’t actually friends with the Boyle kid, who he claimed to be hanging out with on the night of the disappearance. Tom thought they were best friends, but can’t account for seeing them together because they “always went to his house.”
This is crazy shit. It advances our detectives a layer deeper into the mystery and brings with it a horde of new, unanswered questions. It’s obvious that Will played D&D, but with who? Cue Roland jotting that ‘secret friend?’ note down. Pair this with the murder scene and you realize that there was something going on far beyond a simple kidnapping. My theory after week one was that the home life that the kids lived was so demoralizing that it made them susceptible to something like this, as they would theoretically be trying to escape that home life. I’m going to hold onto that one for a while.
Then we meet the OCOC/Hoyt Foods people, and the reward. Apparently, their board voted to contribute and cleared it with the county prosecutor’s office. West and Hays are now dealing with a ton of false leads from bogus tips called in by people who are just looking for that reward. It certainly, and conveniently, makes it harder to sift through what’s actually true.
We get some major revelations concerning how far gone Wayne’s memory is starting to get in 2015. That’s going to play a huge role in how this all ends up.
And, the trash man is jumped – based on what we know and have seen, I am about willing to bet a kidney that he is the man who is wrongfully convicted of the crime.
The Clues
The hallucination – Holy shit – “what you left in the woods” is a DOOZY. “I lost Becca” – “No you didn’t. Not the way you think you did.” There are things going on in Wayne’s mind that he’s trying to sort out.
The brown sedan – well, I’ll be damned. Suddenly, people are going to start talking about seeing some bougie brown sedan around town. The problem is….there was no brown sedan in the final reports as the interviewer points out in 2015. Was that intentional? Could this be the first real clue we have that there was some sort of cover-up?
The photo album – Wayne finds the photo of Will in an old photo album. He’s posed the same way that they found him dead in. Whoever committed the murder, did they know about this?
The notes – they read, ” ITS ALRIGHT, Its OKAY, I’m ALWays here, DON’T LISTEN, I’LL ALWAYS KEEP YOU SAFE, Have a good night” – thanks, Reddit! How are we not talking about these more?!? Why does Julie have these notes and who is writing them?
Remaining list from last week:
- Dolls
- Peephole
- Amelia’s book
- Devil’s Den
- The note
The Suspects
There are only a couple of new people to add this week, and three episodes in, it’s way too early to start taking people off the list.
Amelia – That’s right. I’m adding Amelia here. There’s just something unsettling about how easily she can lie. She charms the cops to get info – not unlike what she does to Wayne! Plus, her line in the first couple of episodes about flying to different cities to pretend to be someone else is heavy. I still say there’s something in that book.
Kindt – couple of things…holding the press conference about the dolls and greenlighting the reward. Both of those things greatly impacted the investigation in negative ways. The press conference tipped their hand, while the reward flooded the detectives with meaningless and distracting information. Could this have been done intentionally to cover something up?
The black man and the white woman – the couple the farmer was talking about. Judging from the preview for episode four, Hays and West find the man, and we’ll learn more about them next week.
Remaining list from last week:
- Tom Purcell
- Cousin Dan
- Brett Woodard
- Ted LaGrange
I’m pretty we’ll be removing LaGrange from this list. Likewise, I’m about ready to pull Woodard off as well. I want to see what was in that bag before I do, though – because it sure as shit looked like it could’ve been a body.
Thoughts
I don’t think there’s a single strong lead in this series so far. Wayne’s rule that “everybody’s lyin” seems to be the case here. I think it’s entirely possible that Wayne actually solves the case in 1990, but can’t remember it in 2015. I don’t know – but I’m holding firm in that he’s eventually going to piece it all together by reading Amelia’s book.
Questions moving forward
From E1 and E2:
- Who did it?
- Who do they incarcerate for it in 1980?
- What happened ‘between Julie and her father’ that they allude to?
- How the fuck is Julie alive?
- What happened to Amelia?
- What happened with Hays’ daughter?
After E3:
- Who’s driving the brown sedan?
- Why does Wayne keep a gun with him in 2015?
- What is he “withholding?” Or, specifically, what did he leave in the woods?
- The fuck was in that bag that Woodard went and got?
- Does the interviewer from 2015 possess new information/evidence about the case?
Feel free to posit your theories in the comments below!
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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