True Detective Roundup (S3E6) *SPOILERS*

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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 S3E6

Whew – how they manage to make these episodes more and more intense and pressure-laden is beyond me.

They don’t waste much time in this episode, Wayne and Roland interrogate Tom after the woman who is thought to be Julie called into the police station and said, “I know what he did.” Kindt adds that that “sure sounds like an indictment.” Suddenly, Tom is in their cross hairs, and he absolutely breaks down, seemingly conveying every emotion on the spectrum except for happiness in the scene. Scoot McNairy is stealing the show here.

We find out that the call came from a truck stop, but Wayne doesn’t want to tell Kindt and company about his theory that the evidence was planted at Woodard’s house. That would definitely do Tom in and they aren’t so sure he’s guilty yet.

More relationship strain between Wayne and Amelia – Wayne seems to take issue with Amelia writing another book, taking advantage of the crime happening to make a buck.

Then, we get a major revelation – Wayne and Roland go speak with Tom’s old boss, who reveals that Tom was on thin ice before he quit anyway…”didn’t quite jell with the co-workers.” Turns out some of the guys at the shop saw Tom heading to a gay bar. Imagine the time and place – was probably hardly acceptable to be a gay man in bumfuck nowhere in 1980. Posing as straight, it’s no wonder Tom was such a tortured dude.

We circle back to Harris James – Wayne and Roland visit him while he’s the Chief Security Officer at Hoyt Foods in 1990. There’s ‘Hoyt Foods’ popping up again. James is an arrogant sumbitch. That’s for sure. He mentions that he did see Tom across the street, “watching them,” when they processed the scene at Woodard’s house. Crazy.

Amelia goes to a home for runaway girls to poke around and do research for her next book. She finds a girl who actually recognized Julie, and man – I can’t help but feel uneasy. Looks like it’s going to be explored more in episode seven, but it certainly feels like Amelia is starting to get too close to this thing for her own good. But, again – we hear tale of “the pink rooms.” The girl mentions to Amelia that Julie used to talk about living there…being the queen there…crazy stuff.

Cousin Dan shows back up! He looks like a cracked out meth-head with great hair. Some heavy shit in this conversation, but Dan essentially hits Roland and Wayne up for $7,000 before he’ll reveal all he knows.

Right now, there are people trying to make sure that none of your questions can ever be answered.” -Cousin Dan

Tom heads to the police station, but finds that Roland is gone. So, naturally, he decides to eavesdrop on a couple of cops conveniently talking about how Roland and Wayne went to meet with Dan.

Uh oh.

Cut to 2015, and we just casually learn that Henry and Elisa are having an affair. Oops.

Later on, Roland drives Wayne home, but Wayne isn’t having any of it – they argue and Roland essentially drops, “this is why I’m where I’m at and you’re you” on Wayne. It didn’t seem like this was big enough to cause their falling out, but who knows? We’ll see.

Now, it’s go time – Tom finds the hotel Dan is staying at and confronts him. Wants to know what he’s selling the cops and beats the shit out of him. Dan says he know who was giving Lucy money. That’s big – reminding Tom that Lucy had plenty of money to run off before she died. We don’t see how this scene ends, but the last line comes from Tom: “give me a reason not to murder you.”

FUCK – could it have possibly been TOM that murdered Cousin Dan and dumped his body in a quarry?!?!?

We cut to Wayne who is back at the old Purcell house – he goes to the peephole, rolls up a piece of paper, and slides it through. It wasn’t a peephole, after all. The kids were using it to pass notes to each other….at least that’s the implication here.

Fast forward to 2015, and Roland and Wayne are talking in Wayne’s office. Sad to see how much Wayne’s mind is slipping, but he does tell Roland that should he get in too deep with Elisa, he’ll play the crazy old man card.

Now, it’s time for the heavy shit. Tom, having seemingly lost his mind, gets his gun and decides to break into the Hoyt mansion. Must’ve been tipped off by Dan. He walks down to the basement, which leads to a dark, menacing looking hallway.

He raises his gun, opens a door and walks in. Flipping the light switch, you immediately notice that THE WALLS ARE PINK. “What the hell?” he mumbles……“Julie?”

Chills.

Harris. Fucking. James. walks up behind Tom, and the episode cuts to black.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. Balls.

THE CLUES

Okay, so we essentially saw the “villain” – the big reveal, Tom finding “the pink rooms” at the compound of the head honcho of the Hoyt family. All signs point to the dude who went on an African safari being the culprit. But, there are still so many moving parts….so much evidence, and so many clues that it’s still nearly impossible to tie it all down.

It’s weird, but brilliant – we have this wealth of clues and now we know who’s at the top, but we have no idea how it all connects.

Remaining list from last week:

  • Dolls
  • Peephole
  • Amelia’s book
  • Devil’s Den
  • The “ransom” note
  • Notes in the journal
  • The brown sedan
  • Photo album
  • The toys in the woods
  • Fingerprints on the bike
  • Julie’s fingerprints in Walgreen’s
  • Walgreen’s security footage
  • “They” went into the woods
  • The backpack
  • Julie (maybe) calling into the police station

THE SUSPECTS

Whatever the dude’s name was…the head of the Hoyt family – Gotta be him, right? I mean….we essentially saw who did it. We know!

Remaining list from last week:

  • Cousin Dan
  • Kindt
  • The black man and the white woman
  • The priest
  • Lucy Purcell
  • Freddie Burns
  • Harris James

Okay, Tom is officially off the list now. That dude is broken, and after discovering whatever he discovered at the end of the episode, is completely absolved. I’m also thinking he’s probably dead, too. Bummer.

This is like the clues list, though – we have all these people that are shady as shit, who seem to be wrapped up in this thing, but we have no idea how.

Cousin Dan obviously knows what’s going on. Lucy seems riddled with guilt because of something. Kindt is still in the fold, though I feel like it’s more likely he’s just trying to wrap up the case for political reasons and nothing more nefarious than that.

Harris James is essentially a hitman – I think it’s pretty clear that he was the one to plant the backpack and shirt on Woodard’s property. I’d also be willing to bet that he was the one going around asking questions immediately after the event.

And, we still don’t know how Freddy plays into it all, though it’s likely he just saw one of these Hoyt minions with the kids or something.

With only two episodes left on the season, there’s a shit ton of loose ends to tie up.

THOUGHTS

There’s still an awful lot to mull over. This episode was emotionally draining though, and it certainly feels like we got to the big reveal pretty early…nice touch, and now it has me obsessing over how this all connects. Two more episodes of this insanity.

My best guess is that Hoyt foods guy (do we know his name?) lost his daughter/granddaughter/whatever, took advantage of Lucy’s instability, and essentially kidnapped the kids. Shit went sideways and Will was accidentally killed…then, this whole thing spiraled out of control.

I could be wrong, but I feel like Julie’s dead, and I feel like that’s what Tom is discovering at the end of episode five. The bad guys won this round, but we’re going to see how it all shakes down.

QUESTIONS MOVING FORWARD

From E1 and E2:

  • Who did it?
  • 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?

After E4:

  • What else, exactly, does the interviewer from 2015 know?
  • Who killed Cousin Dan?
  • What is Amelia hiding about her past and why is she hiding it?
  • Did Lucy know anything about this happening?
  • Did Freddy see something when he ran away into the woods?

After E5:

  • What happened to Harris James?
  • Something happened between Wayne and Roland that Wayne doesn’t remember. What was their falling out over?
  • What was Julie referencing when she called the police station and said, “I know what he did?” Could this be the “falling out” mentioned in E1?
  • What did Wayne and Roland do? “How you gon’ talk to them doing what we done?”

After E6:

  • Whose car does Wayne keep seeing parked outside his home in 2015?
  • What exactly are the pink rooms and what does Tom find in them?
  • What does Cousin Dan know about this whole thing?

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

After E4:

  • The fuck was in that bag that Woodard went and got? Practically, a damn armory…
  • Does the interviewer from 2015 possess new information/evidence about the case? In short, yes – we just don’t the full extent of her knowledge.

After E5:

  • Who got blown up at Woodard’s house? A lot of damn people….and he also forced Hays to shoot him dead. Wild ass shit.
  • Is Roland still alive in 2015? He is! And, for some reason, he’s living alone, deep in the woods, with a kennel full of dogs.
  • Who do they incarcerate for it in 1980? Woodard.

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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