The Secret Fate of All Things - True Detective

Episode Five (only three more!)

"The Secret Fate of All Things"

I write these timeline updates for my own sake more than anything, as I find it helps me put the pieces together.

1995
A meeting brokered by Ginger with the Jesse Pinkman of mid 90s Louisiana, Reggie Ledoux's assistant cook, renders little.  Except for the chance to tail the guy to his hideout.  Cohle irritates Hart even as they dodge booby traps surrounding the stick sculpture laden hideout.  Getting the drop on Ledoux, Cohle identifies himself as a police officer, gets Ledoux on the ground and handcuffs him, while Ledoux spouts some Carcosa-related nonsense.  Cohle asks him about the antlers to which he gets no response.

Hart pokes around until he finds some starving slave children locked away and decides to blow Ledoux's head off, circumventing the judicial system.  This is unfortunate.  Jesse Pinkman tries to escape but trips his own booby trap and his body is separated into two large parts, with many other smaller parts, rather than the normal version of his body which is one large structure.

Hart and Cohle go about setting the scene to make it look like they faced heavy fire to justify the shooting, along with concocting the plan for why they could not call for back up and generally getting their stories straight.  They are greeted as heroes and even the CO is congratulatory of Cohle. No one thinks twice about it. 

Marty and his wife begin to reconcile.  Cohle meets a woman who manages his nonsense well.

2002
We have a new timeframe to add to the mix.  This may be in addition to 1995 or it may be in place of 1995 going forward.

Marty's oldest daughter is dressing very goth-ish and being a general pain to him.

Cohle's reputation as the master interrogator brings him to be called in like a closer in a baseball game to get a confession out of whoever the cops can't get over the hump for the admission of guilt.  One subject in a double murder confesses and then immediately looks to make a deal in exchange for telling Cohle about the real Dora Lang killer who is, according to him, still out there murdering.  Cohle brushes this off but when the guy mentions the Yellow King, it opens the old wounds and Cohle begins smacking the guy around until the other cops pull him off. 

Cohle enlists Marty to help him run down this lead.  It appears they are still partners, as their desks remain across from one another.  The suspect commits suicide shortly thereafter.  He opens his wrists on his cell's bed frame after fielding a call from, ostensibly, his lawyer.  Which is obviously a lie as the call is from a payphone in the middle of no where. 

Cohle begins retracing his steps through the investigation, going back to the shuttered school where they got some guidance from a guy cutting the grass.  He finds that either someone has returned to this location or the stick sculptures are breeding.

2012
The questions from the detectives get more pointed and they get more dialogue than ever before.  Rust continues to push to see their file on the new murder and they continue to push Rust about his comings and goings.  The barren file leaves Rust dissapointed and feeling his time is wasted.  This coincides with the detectives actively pointing the finger at him.  With nothing else to gain, Rust walks out.

This was more a background interview than interrogation considering how little they have to go on.  But it's clear they find Cohle's tale more specious than anyone ever before.  The detectives are trying to feel Cohle out and hope he messes up, while Cohle is trying to pull any information possible from the detectives about the fresh case. 

In the end, Cohle spends a day talking a lot about nothing and giving the detectives nothing.  Not that it would be admissable anyways, dudes been pounding beers all morning*.  However, he now knows exactly how lost and hopeless they are on this case, and they they like him for the murders.  The big reveal before he walks is that he's been hanging around murder scenes a lot lately.  Cohle 1, Detectives 0.

* For those criticizing the dialogue in these scenes, Cohle is basically filibustering without letting them know he is filibustering.  One of those criticisms where what you see on screen is clearly a conscious choice of the author, done to bring about a certain result.  Criticizing before seeing the picture is one of the biggest faults of television writing there is.  The criticisms of the show in general seem to be a result of it not being in line with the the preferences of the individual, rather than stemming from well founded opinions on the state of the storytelling or development of the characters.  It harkens back to my biggest criticism of television discussion: a show/series not meeting your personal expectations or taste is in no way indicative of the quality of the show/series.  It is why I don't presume to review or critique (both are prone to bias of personal opinions/preferences, as well as difficult to do piecemeal) shows, but rather observe and discuss.  Besides, some people are only happy when their miserable.  A friend and former food server, commented once about complaining restaurant diners, stating simply "some people go out to have a bad time" and I think that's the crux of much criticism directed at a show like this.

The interview with Marty goes similarly, and he resists any suggestion that Cohle may have something to do with the murders. But he stays.  And chuckles, letting the detectives know Cohle got one over on them.

Odds and Ends

• Robert Chambers' Yellow King causes insanity and suicide to many who encounter it.  
• The mention of the Yellow King drives Cohle to immediately assault the suspect.
• The suspect commits suicide shortly after a phone call, perhaps from the so-called Yellow King
• Interestingly, it does not appear the detectives are going to pursue the largest lie of all, that Marty murdered Ledoux and he and Cohle covered it up.
• The 2012 detectives are constructing a narrative and asking them to buy in.  A few episodes back Cohle commented on how their 1995 investigation was about constructing a narrative.
• The lack of response on the antlers is telling
• Ledoux sounded more like a follower than a leader when spouting his nonsense.
• The Ledoux shooting doesn't get a Rob Riggle "in the faaaace!" because his face was completely blown off.  I don't think it can be in the face when the face is now gone.  The face has to still be in place.
• Cohle isn't even upset at Marty, he's just kind of like "Well get the cuffs off him, let's figure this out"
• There is something to be said for their partnership, despite all their sniping.  Even as they get going, Cohle irritates Hart to no end by putting down his "hunting".
• Hilarious moments like that are made more hilarious by the placement of a joke in such a non-jokey show.
• The King in Yellow wasn't enough.  I have some physics reading to do.
• I vehemently do not believe there is any sort of 1:1 connection between Chambers' (or Bierce's or Lovecraft's) work, and the series.  If the strongest connection is the oblique, vague references Chambers makes to the Yellow King and the oblique vague references Pizzolatto makes to it.  
• Ledoux has to be dead in order for the new killings to be a mystery
• Reading Chambers has brought to mind Vonnegut, as has this series on occasion.  Cohle is getting into the fourth dimension and multiple existences and the role time plays in that.  I think he is a Tralfamadorian
• No one would doubt this guy is an alien
• Or maybe WE ARE THE TRALFAMADORIANS!* 
• Possibly Rust knows he's a fictional character? Living the same story over and over, in syndication?

* Now, think about all the things Cohle is talking about,"[...] "Is he a man railing against an uncaring god? Or is he a character in a TV show railing against his audience? Aren't we the creatures of that higher dimension? The creatures who can see the totality of his world? After all, we get to see all eight episodes of his life. On a flat screen. And we can watch him live that same life over and over again, the exact same way." 
 
Ahhhhhhhhh! 

Questions/Answers

• Will the show stick with this format, telling the story entirely through interviews with Marty and Rust?
• So far, but if we wrap up the old case next week I wouldn't be surprised if there's a shift afterwards.
• Would not be surprised is Marty walks out of the interview.  He seems more uneasy with everything.  Cohle seems to be more at peace and willing to stick to his story, even as they catch some lies, willing to accept whatever consequences come his way...even though he's the one they're looking at. 
• Turns out it is Cohle who walks out once he sees the thin file and learns he is a suspect.  Nothing more for him to gain.  Cohle went in there with a specific objective, and accomplished it

• Is there a cover up that Marty and Rust are complicit in? 
• They surely fed some lies to people to do Rust's UC work, and I'm sure they weren't the last fibs they spread in the interest of solving the case.   
• Murdering Ledoux.  They have a wild tail to cover that.  

• What happened with Rust to put him where he is now?
• See above.  Also ingesting drugs, chemicals via his undercover and narco work. 
• I'm sure eating all those drugs with the biker gang didn't help 
• Maybe this is an act?  He's going on and off the grid conducting his rogue investigation.  Maybe he is under freaking cover again.  It could be anything.

• Will Marty and Rust have differing accounts? 
• So far they are covering different ground it seems, rather than giving accounts from different perspectives on the same particular events. 
• Even as they start to point the finger at Cohle, it seems like Marty will stick to the story.  If not for some shred of loyalty remaining to Cohle, but to avoid implicating himself. 
• Nope!  They have this practiced.  They practically make the same sound effects.

• It seemed like we should take what they are saying at face value.  How reliable are the narrators?
• Hmm.  Well we have the first fib we're aware of, with Cohle's alibi.  Now he's getting into his survivalist dad, and while it sounds plausible it seems like anything related to this has to be taken with a grain of salt
• Reading The King in Yellow, particularly the first story "The Repairer of Reputations", unreliable narration has to be considered.  The narrator in that story makes Arthur Anderson accounting look legit.
• Very unrelated, but making my way through this book it seems like Vonnegut took a lot of inspiration from it
• Little lies crack the stories throughout, until the big one where the dialogue from Hart and Cohle completely detaches from reality.  They are in no way reliable narrators at this point.  
• Many of the lies are based in truths.  Cohle tells them he got a tip from an old CI on Ledoux's twenty.  Which he did.  Except he doesn't tell them about the rouge undercover stash house heist and Ginger kidnapping which led to it. 
• What does the "throwdown in the woods" refer to?  
• Apparently the marshals, troopers and Rust and Marty heading down to this meth lab of Reggie Ladue.  Nothing like a Walter White whitey tightey gas mask get up to set the scene 
• Nerp.   Just Hart and Cohle sidestepping booby traps, murdering Ledoux, and covering their tracks with and epic story

• When will they reveal to us the 1992 murderer? 
• It could be next week, it could be the finale, the way this is set up
• Unless there's some interesting timeline adjustments, Episode Four is a big week 
• The revealed who is named as the murderer in 1992, Ledoux
• As far as everyone except for the two detectives, Cohle, and maybe Hart who simply doesn't want to believe it,this is the accepted truth
• The two detectives may not believe it was Ledoux, but that doesn't mean they have the right suspect now
• Oh, also, who is doing the murdering?  Both in 1992 and 2012?
• Reggie Ledoux?
• Maybe not?
• Did Marty and Rust arrest the right guy?
• Didn't arrest anyone.  Shot the dude.
• What caused the split between Marty and Rust after a seven year partnership?
• An 'altercation'.  Possibly either staged by Cohle to give him a reason to go rogue, or sincere parting, possible due to Cohle's desire to re-open the case
• 
  
• When will they reveal to us the 1992 murderer? 
• It could be next week, it could be the finale, the way this is set up
• Episode Five.  Maybe

 New Questions

• What does the crown symbolize?  
• Are Cohle's hallucinations going to reappear?
• Is Marty's daughter going to bite it?  Or disappear/get murdered by Ledoux 2012?
• Are the new investigators looking into the shootout in the woods, or are they primarily focused on Cohle? 
• It seems like the lie has little to do with the story going forward, except that the result is Ledoux is dead.

It was clear the show was never just about apprehending the 1995 killer, based on all the other threads they opened up early on.  The series would not live and die with the reveal of whodunnit back then.  Thus, the ability to reveal the throwdown in the woods merely four and a half hours into the eight hour series.