TRUE DETECTIVE: SEASON ONE EPISODE 6 - PREDICTIONS ABOUT EPISODE SIX HAUNTED HOUSE

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW ABOUT THIS SHOW.

So as I last posted, I've become a fan of the show. The Princess was recently in town visiting her folks, and she had not heard of the show. She and I watched the first three episodes, so that makes a full twice I've watched the episodes of season one.  It's so well done, and so multi-layered that I've missed stuff.

I'll be without any real quality television entertainment after the last episode of TD airs in early March. Sort of like after Homeland or 24. I got through one season of Nurse Jackie, but the novelty soon wore on and I didn't find it enjoyable.

Back to TD. I didn't catch, for instance, in episode 2 when the detectives visit Dora's mother at her trailer. While there, the camera pans a couple of times past a picture on the mantle, featuring men wearing what appear to be black KKK hoods on horseback with a man hanging from a tree. The picture wasn't that great and I didn't try to pause it because I'm not so good at freeze framing, but I didn't see that the first time I watched episode 2. I can't claim independent discovery of this, I read in another review of that episode about the picture, and didn't remember seeing it, so I looked for it the second time around.

So one commenter on the link below notes that the highly disturbing beer can figures, five of them, that Rust makes during his interview/interrogation resemble not only the 4 Klansmen and the hanged man but also the Barbie diorama that Hart's daughter makes.

Here's an excellent link to a TRUE DETECTIVE DISCUSSION that has lots of other good links. Or you can just google and find some other interesting theories about what might happen in the last three episodes. I was going to say "to tie it up" in the last three shows, but as my friend Max pointed out, it doesn't matter how it ends because you know it will be like Folger's Coffee, good to the last drop.

In addition to the history of Carcosa and the King of Yellow, the comments to the post above have some great theories about what might be the plotline for the final episodes. Remember, this TD train with this story and cast stops in 3 weeks.

The acting. The writing. The film work. The casting. It's all so spot on. I think that's what attracts me. As a former cop, I see things I saw in old partners, none like Rust but many like Marty. Many like Marty. The hard drinking, philandering but "good hearted" type. There is no cop type, of course, but I swear more than one partner or co-worker at the department had many personality traits in common with Marty.

I've known so many detectives, good ones and bad ones, and part of me is listening like the two interviewing detectives, as I would when listening to a detective run down a case to me in my office or on the phone.

First, as far as gun spotting, after the Ledoux "shootout", I think I was right calling Marty's gun as a K frame Model 66. I clearly saw a round butt on his handgun when holstered at the Ledoux lab, and again it appeared to me to be a Smith with adjustable sights thus it's not a J frame.

Likewise, I keep thinking that maybe Rust is carrying a Sig of some sort. I definitely saw a hammer when he was taking aim at the fleeing methman (in watching a clip review on one of the sites), which no Glock has. It would likely either be in 9mm or .40 caliber.

It's clear that Rust is nobody's fool. Early on in the interrogation, when he demands a six pack, he mentions that just like a cheeseburger and a coke, the "you want this to be admissible, don't you" line tells me that Rust is far ahead of them.

That can cut both ways. The writer of the show said in a media interview that the drinking would mean the interview would be inadmissible. However, at least in Texas, intoxication does not always preclude admissibility of a confession or statement by the accused, what matters is the comprehension, ability to understand what is going on, and the understanding of the waiver of their rights. The conduct of such a person is also admissible, despite later claims that it was drug/alcohol induced nonsense.

Clearly, Rust is in possession of his mental faculties. One might reasonably argue, I think, that a heavy, daily drinker like Rust might not be normal until he has some kind of BAC (blood alcohol level) going on.

The only way in which admissibility of a taped statement would occur would be if Rust were the bad guy. So either way, early on, he's let them know he knows what they're up to and they are not seeking his assistance in solving the cases.

Marty figures this out as well.

Some interesting theories and questions I've read elsewhere that I think could occur:

-We know from episode 6 preview that Rev. Tuttle is interviewed by Rust. We know the 2012 cops think Rust killed Tuttle. Is Tuttle the Yellow King or his servant?

-Hart's eldest daughter is showing classic signs of child sexual abuse acting out. The Barbie diorama. The explicit journal diagrams shown at school. And the fifteen year old caught in the act Goth threesome. I don't believe Hart to be a molester, but what about his Father In Law, about whom we know little.

-I don't think either Rust or Marty are the serial killer, or even performing a copycat continuation of the killings. No, I think it is others, as spoken about with the talk about the location where the Yellow King is in Carcosa, who might have been getting killed by Rust.

-Certainly, a man of Rust's experience and intelligence would not keep anything incriminating in a storage shed. But it will be interesting to see what is in there.

-What did Rust do from 2002 to 2010? What was the issue that split him from Hart? To their favor, they honor their regard for one another and perpetuate the lie of the shootout for at least 17 years.

-One interesting theory puts Rust still working undercover for the Feds (no expiration date, baby) but assigned to Louisiana Homicide to look at the larger number of similar disappearances and killings of children, without the knowledge of his superiors or co-workers.

-It's interesting the 2012 cops interview Hart's wife.

-It strains credibility, in the modern world, that a UC narc in Texas could just transfer in 1995 to Louisiana. You couldn't, unless you were a fed and just pretending to be a State police. As a Texas cop, and I have not heard whether Rust was a Texas cop or a Fed. We know he was working for the feds, but not in what capacity.

As a Texas cop, you'd have to go to the academy again, as Louisiana laws are far different from the other 49 states and there was no reciprocity back then to just laterally transfer from one state agency to another.

But it's easy to put that aside with all else the show has going for it. I'll come back and add some more ruminations later. It would be nice if there were more TV that offered an escape like this.