Justified Season Five - Through Eight Episodes

Crowders

1. Boyd is frustrated with efforts to get Eva out of prison
2. Boyd’s supplier tries to double cross him so he heads to Detroit to confront them
3. Turns out the supplier (Sammy Tonin) operation is in disarray. Tonin is double crossed/murdered by Picker. Boyd gets picker to take him and Duffy to the Canadian wholesalers
4. Canadians offer one final shipment to Boyd. Picker to make introduction to new Mexican wholesaler for Boyd
5. Boyd visits Paxter for help with Evan, becomes enraged by him. Does the murder to him. Wife sees but they are like let’s exchange cash for a NDB here.
6. Sheriff Mooney tries to pin Paxton's beating on Boyd but Paxton's wife, Mara, purposefully does not identify Boyd as the culprit and tries to strike a deal with Boyd
7.  Still no progress on getting Ava out of prison, as the judge is not buyable or threatenable
8. Boyd quells a minor uprising by his dealers by offering free drinks and a timetable for fresh drugs, after Duffy's attempt to do so fails
9.  Sheriff Mooney tracks Mara down to threaten her into identifying Boyd
10. Boyd's shipment gets hijacked and all his people get dead. 
11. Boyd gets angry at Duffy, accusing him of stealing the shipment 
12. Paxton instructs Mooney to kill Boyd
13. Boyd and Ava have a falling out of sorts during his visit, where he's more concerned with what information Ava can provide him about the drug caravan robbery than about how they are going to get her out of prison .  She's mad he's not even giving her a "hey holding up okay?" and more or less blaming her (rightfully, but he doesn't need to say it) for the whole situation
14. Boyd and Mara get the drop on Mooney and get him to report to Paxton he killed Boyd
15. Which leads to an upset Boyd and Mara having tattoo touching time.  A reminder of Boyd's Aryan beliefs, which I'm sure he still holds but doesn't practice actively.
16. Boyd traces the hijacking to Johnny
17. Paxton apparently goes for the fake Boyd hand as proof Boyd is dead but will still proceed against Eva
18. Eva is under female guard protection at prison.  The guard gives another hack what for after getting out of line with Eva
19. Boyd, who is aware Messer is a CI, gives Raylan the phone number to track him
20.  Boyd makes Johnny an offer which Johnny rebuffs.
21. Boyd stages Paxton's suicide, getting Eva out of prison, w/ a side of revenge
22. The hack who has it in for Eva stages his own stabbing to keep Eva in prison
23. HR has it in for Johnny who turns the tables on him by giving his henchmen his own share of the hijacking
24. Boyd pays for Eva's protection in prison
25. Eva's protection double crosses her
26.  Carl is kidnapped by the Crowes
27. HR under gunpoint covertly notifies Boyd that he's under duress and the Johnny exchange isn't going to go as planned
28. After Carl makes his way back, Boyd proposes a Crowe-Crowder alliance
29. Boyd restores Eva's protection
30. Ava is pulled into the religious circle in prison as a means of protection
31. Ava gets the smuggler plumber caught w/ drugs so she doesn't have to bang him
32. Johnny and Boyd both, separately, go to Mexico to gain the favor of the Cartel
33. Cartel chooses Boyd, doesn't want dead Americans on their side of the Rio Grande
34. Danny and Dewey for some reason start a shootout in the Mexican desert, killing Johnny and his crew
35. Boyd kills Johnny
36. Boyd manages to get drugs back to USA, aware of a double cross in the works

Crowe

I think the Crowe family is working along the lines of a classic bad guy group, albeit with some combined roles. 

• Darryl: The Big Bad 
• The Haitian: The Dragon. The person Darryl directs his idiots to in order to deal with their problem.  Completely unrattled by the marshals.  Advises Darryl on their next cash cow.
• Danny: Could be The Dragon if The Haitian stays in Florida, but most likely The Brute.  If he did take on Dragon responsibilities, I get the sense he'd fail at them.  Does the dirty work taking out Dylan.  Preoccupied for much of his scenes with firecrackers.
• Wendy: The Dark Chick.  A city mouse while the rest of the family are country/swamp mice.  Resourceful (causing the car crash) and able to act like a person in order to speak to the marshals.  This is low bar, but it is relative to the rest of the swamp people
• This is Justified/Elmore Leonard so there isn't a clear Evil Genius, but it appears most of the brain power is supplied by a team effort between Darryl and Wendy (per their conversation they shooed Dylan away from)

1. Dewey: Given a settlement for being operating on and punched in the face a bunch of times
2. Dilly & associate: Kill Coast Guard Officer
3. Darryl & sister: Makes deal with marshals to end his parole and hand over the CubanSister: drives Cuban to the marshals until he takes her hostage, but causes a car accident and escapes
4. Cuban: Tries to escape, but caught up by the marshals and shot and killed 
5. Darryl's parole is lifted due to his cooperation.  Advised by Haitian to get a hand into Dewey's $300k
6. Darryl & Co. surprise Dewey by showing up in Harlan, with a reminder of Dewey's Aryan beliefs
7. Darryl eggs Dewey on to get a rebate from Boyd for Audrey's
8. Boyd turns Dewey right back at Daryl telling him to stand up for himself
9. Darryl is amused and impressed by Dewey's newfound confidence.  He side steps it though and shows Dewey he's sussed out Messer's skimming and eggs Dewey on to kill him
10. This attempt goes badly and Dewey has to hunt Messer down in the woods
11. Dewey is picked up by some hikers
12. Darryl gets Dewey and takes him to finish the job, but Messer has died and his body is found by the police 
13. The littlest Crowe is taken by Raylan to put pressure on them to leave Harlan
14. Danny takes everything in the world as an insult and sucker shoots the Haitian
15. The Crowe sister visits Harlan to help with Kendall's case
16. Raylans GF checks in on Kendall
17. GF is run off the road by Danny 
18. Danny & Dewey kidnap Carl
19. Carl is let out by Raylan 
20. Boyd and Carl come back at the Crowes 
21. Boyd Proposes the Crowes and Crowders link up rather than fight.   
22. Danny and Dewey kill a bunch of Johnny's crew in Mexico, putting them/Boyd on the bad side of the Cartel
23. Wendy neutralizes the child services threat by complaining to Alison's boss
24. Kendall calls Uncle Dad
25. Uncle Dad makes off with Kendall
26. Wendy enlists Raylan to find Kendall, promising info on the rest of the Crowes

Raylan

1. Last season, arranges hit on Augustine via Tonin/Picker
2. Goes to Florida to track down Dilly and the Cuba (and can see his kid in the process).  Casually mentions Dewey's windfall in earshot of The Haitian
3. Makes a deal with Darryl to find the Cuban
4. Talks with Sutter about how Sutter would find reasons to avoid his family so he wouldn't have to leave his family at the end the weekend (Raylan then avoids seeing his kid)
5. Goes to meet the Cuban, shoots Cuban when he tries to escape
6. Fails to mention he was in town when Skyping with Winona and the baby 
7. Art asks him about why Sammy Tonin would contact him and secretyly investigates into Sammy
8. Raylan is called to jail by Loretta and also meets her social worker.  Doesn't get Loretta out of jail.  Decides to "have a talk" with her boyfriend, Derrick
9. Raylan moves into the seized house of a Detroit money launderer
10. Raylan tries to bang the social worker
11. Raylan talks to Derrick but ultimately has to rescue him and Loretta from drug dealers
12. Raylan eggs on the money launderer, flaunting that he's living in his house and drinking his wine
13. Rachel and Raylan flip the bangmaid and get her to rile up the money launderer by telling him his gold is stolen, directing his ire at Wynn Duffy (installer of the safe which housed said gold)
14. Raylan offers protection to Duffy as he is a target, even though Raylan engineered the whole situation as a ploy to draw out the money launderer
15. Money launderer tries to kill Duffy, is shot by Mike
16. Ultimately, Tonin being dead severs the direct connection between Raylan and Nicky Augustine's death, but perhaps someone like Picker could link them and create a world of trouble for Raylan.
17. Vasquez and Art inform Raylan Messer, who is a CI, is missing, and Raylan has to track him down
18. Raylan runs across the Crowes  and Boyd in his investigation, including a 14 year old bartender at Audrey's
19. Boyd connects Raylan to Messer's phone, which has a GPS
20. Raylan connects the buzzards to Messer's body
21. Raylan's new gal pal mentions a child she had to seize
22. Raylan goes back to Audrey's to take the littlest Crowe into state custody
23. Art speaks with one of the Canadian heroin suppliers who tells him Sammy Tonin used to brag about having a "Kentucky lawman in his pocket" and directs him to Picker who is hanging with Wynn Duffy as of late
24.  A Tonin hitman takes out the Canadian who directed Art to Picker
25. Art brings Picker in, Raylan speaks with Picker, Picker directs Art to the dead FBI agent
26. Picker directs them to a warehouse where the Tonin hitman goes crazy with an automatic weapon
27. Art and Raylan catch Theo Tonin
28. Raylan has a talk with Art...all but admitting his part in Augustine's death
29. Art cannot even look at Raylan except when he is punching him in the face
30. Raylan and Rachel bond a bit.  
31. Raylan tries tracking down the Crowe who ran his GF off this road, but is blocked by a safe word
32. Art put Raylan on garbage duty
33. Raylan and Art have it out, Raylan asks for a transfer 
34. Raylan  helps Wendy locate Kendall, becomes aware of Boyd's activities in Mexico
35. Raylan gives Kendall $ 

Whistle Past the Graveyard - Justified

Written by Chris Provenzano who wrote two great Season One Mad Men episodes, "Shoot" and "The Hobo Code" (eight and nine) which is when I would say the show really showed what it was made of.

Directed by Peter Werner of last season's "Kin" which involved the hill people

I'm going to guess the goal of this episode were to figure out a way to get Raylan and Wendy together with a common interest.  Justified is pretty precise with its plotting but if there was one that ever felt like, filler is too strong a word but you know what I mean, it was this one.  Boyd and Ava both progressed, albeit at a slug like place.  It is the sort of episode that if Lost did one like it, I'd be furious for a week.

EDIT: From Yost: Once [actor] Edi Gathegi wanted off the show, and we decided to kill Jean-Baptiste in episode 5, I just looked at it and said, “Well, we’re gonna be short an episode, so we better come up with one now. Instead of trying to stretch out the last three episodes [of the 13-episode season], let’s put something in now. What can we do?” I thought it would be cool if there was something about Kendal and Wendy, and that it would be a cool idea for an episode if Raylan had to come in and help Wendy. That’s basically all I had. I came in with that on a Monday, and we broke the episode on the Monday, we wrote the outline on the Tuesday, and Provenzano started writing it on the Wednesday. We just had to really jam that in, and then we went back to put stuff into [last week's] episode 7 with Kendal calling Uncle Jack ...

Fortunately, this isn't Lost, it's Justified, which manages to churn out episodes every week that could stand alone better than any other serialized show does.

Uncle Jack, not the namesake of the Breaking Bad prison hit specialist, but an actor who also appeared on Brooklyn Nine Nine Tuesday evening, appears to be above board at first.  He drives a nice car and has a rapport with Kendall and wears a jacket.  If you ever want instant respect, wear a jacket.  It will get you picked as foreman during jury duty, or it will get you elected Tribe Leader on Survivor.*  He also has a respectable job in the energy industry.


* And also the first contestant voted out.  Go Marlins!

Except none of these things really.  Even the jacket is undercut by the ugly shirt he's wearing underneath it.  Kendall trusts him not, eventually revealing the he knows Jack is in fact his father.  This after the rest of the front dissipates, and while he's not a Crowe by blood, he acts almost like a relatively white collar version of them.

In true Justified fashion, he has zero wits about him.  After the half baked idea to take Kendall to Cedar Point (never a good idea to abduct a kid in order to take him to Sandusky) he loses him after half a second and requires Wendy to get Raylan to fix things up.  The carrot for Raylan is information about the Crowe/Crowder activities and location.

So, here we have Raylan aware of what Boyd is up to just as C&C Heroin factory are coming home.

At the end, there's a nice moment with Raylan trying to get Kendall out of Harlan alive, giving him th Caller #7 money.  Even if Raylan came by the means and the money dishonestly, and planned to spend it on himself, he ultimately uses it in the interest of a noble cause.  So maybe if they play the song again this season, it's related to Kendall, and Raylan's unique perspective on being raised by a criminal. 

And by the way, the money Raylan gave to Kendall is begging to get stolen by his Uncle Brother or something.


Justified Identifiers

• Woman shooting a long gun (Wendy with the garbage bag shotgun)
• A bag of money ($35k, now $20k after the car, makes Jack a target)
• Double cross is in the works (Crowe on Crowder)
• Lack of other marshals (Hey, Raylan is on "vacation" though)

After You've Gone - True Detective

2010
Rust returns to Louisiana after an eight year hiatus in Alaska working fishing boats and bars.  He picks up the Lang investigation again with one of the boys suspected of being molested.  Several things:

• Another reference to the spaghetti monster with scars on his face
• Marie Fontenault saw the animal faces

Going full SEAL Rust answers the questions, yes he did break into Tuttle's house and no he did not murder him.  He finds evidence as damning as if he found the actual bodies in his attic.

2012
Hart's skeptical and ornery, but his indebtedness to Rust for the '95 shooting pulls him into Rust's investigation.  Rust goes to the board of exposition for Marty's and our benefit....just long enough for Rust to share what he found in Tuttle's safe, pictures of blindfolded women in the woods surrounded by men in animal masks.  Not only that but he shows Marty the video tape of something so gut wrenching that Cohle gives Marty the flask to steel himself before Marty yells and shuts it off before getting to the end.

Marty says a de facto farewell to Maggie.  It's clear he doesn't have any connection to his daughters.

The video is enough for Marty to go full bore into the investigation, calling old friends, using his PI resources.  They get another reference from a distantly related Ledoux to the scarfaced man.  An older woman, possible a Tuttle domestic servant, implies spaghetti monster may be an illegitimate child from one of the Tuttle (Sam's granschild), given the scars by his father.  She provides the name Childress as a possibility for the bastard.  It's unclear if Sam is the father of Billy Lee.

The reports related to the Fountaineau case are signed off by a deputy who is now the sheriff of another parish, who also mentions a Childress (a sheriff invovled to the Fontaineau case) name in conversation with Hart.  He stonewalls Hart from there, but Cohle takes over for some enhanced interrogation.

Papania and Gillbough (henceforth known as Fuck & Suck, per Marty) are driving around the bayou and encounter a man cutting the grass in a cemetary who they ask for directions.  You can't help but think Cohle would have talked to this guy a bit longer.  I wonder if this is the same guy Cohle and Hart talked to outside the school way back in the season.  That guy also l had contracts to do the cemeteries and schools. (!)

(!)
First viewing: got an unsettled feeling about this, an I knew for sure Rust would've spent some time with this guy.  
Second viewing:  I almost missed it.  I think we just met the killer (possibly the Yellow King if the YK is a human, rather than something they all worship).  I thought that was a light blonde stubble on his face, but practically by accident I noticed it was scars.

I am cheating here, but I had to look it up.  Lawnmower Man was indeed the same guy cutting grass from earlier in the season.  The difference?  He had a beard then.

Old Questions

• Did Marty and Rust arrest the right guy?
• Didn't arrest anyone.  Shot the dude.
• Looking more and more like a big 'no'.  And by arrest, we mean murder
• Rust points out Marty caused a lot of this by not murdering Ledoux 

• 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 
• Ending his partnership with Marty, frustrated at the roadblocks to what he believes is a case that should be reopened 
• Drank and spent eight years of boats in Alaska

• What's the revival minster's involvement with the task force? 
• Working for the Tuttle school/task force is spurned by Tuttle.  They ended their relationship shortly after due to the photos he finds, and the Penn State-ish investigation 
• It's more about the task force's connection to Tuttle to the Tuttle family to these rituals

•  Oh, also, who is doing the murdering?  Both in 1992 and 2012?

• Reggie Ledoux?
• Maybe not? 
• Lawnmower man 

•  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
• Thought we had it.  But the end of episode seven appears to have shown us for real 

•  Is Marty's daughter going to bite it?  Or disappear/get murdered by Ledoux 2012?
• Probably not.  Marty has little to no contact with them and they seem to be leading relatively successful lives so far as a (medicated, but not starving) artist and an AmeriCorps volunteer. 
• What seems more important is what happened to her when she was younger, and it increasingly seems like her grandfather molested her, being one of the "rich men who go to devil worship" and causing the drawings, Barbie placement, and her need for medication later in life.
• 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.
• This is what leaves the case open enough for Cohle to revisit it, and the cover up is what pulls Marty in long enough to show him what he has.

 New Questions

• What are the paper stocks in Rev. Tuttle's safe?
• Who is the father of the spaghetti monster?
• Ultimately, what is Carcosa?  Is it a location? 
• I think it is just the name for the location where they do the deeds. 
• The domestic's cry about death not being the end is probably tied into the ritual
• The ritual may believe these girls pass on to another plan
• Carcosa, in the original Brose piece, is the setting for a being who returns to his town (I guess) after dying
• What is the sheriff's connection to Fontaineau and the Tuttles?
• What caused the scars?
• Who is the guy cutting grass?  Who is his family, the one that's been around these parts for a looooong time?
• What is Senator Eddie Tuttle's involvement at this point?
• Will Rust's hallucinations come back?
• Did the YK folk do something to the boy that rendered him immobile? Or was this sleep paralysis?
• What are the green ears?

The Notes You Don't Play
A lot has been made about the female characters of True Detective, or lack thereof.  I think the environments the show is about and that the characters look naturally tend to be male dominated, especially in the 1995 flashbacks, so it would stand to reason that most significant characters are male.

Rust keeps bringing up "dead/missing women and children".  True Detective has so far been a story about invisible victims, people who nobody cares about.  Rust has been trying to "speak for those dead" to quote Homicide.  It's a population that doesn't get attention because of poverty or location or both.  It's difficult for a television show to explain the absence of something or show a negative.  It's the notes you don't play, as Miles Davis says.  It's the same problem Season Five of The Wire ran into.  So while it's difficult to explain absence and show a negative, it's even harder for the audience to pick up on it, even when done correctly.

Additionally, it's no secret the show is about Rust and Marty.  I believe everything else in the show is in the service of telling us about Rust and Marty.  So the explanation for why a particular character may not receive as much attention as Rust or Marty is probably because the show is about Rust and Marty, rather than that character.  

In short, if you are the sort of person who viewed The Wolf of Wall Street (or Goodfellas for that matter) as a glorification of the life, rather than an indictment via realistic depiction, then this is not the show for you.

Mini Mysteries
The show has done a good job since the first episode of putting out enough plot lines, raising enough questions and developing the two main characters enough that the show does not wholly hang on Who Killed Dora Lang?  much like Twin Peaks built up enough story around Who Killed Laura Palmer? and the opposite of what The Killing did with Who Killed Rosie Larsen?

Every few episodes has had a mystery unfold for us. With the overarching question of these murders obviously spanning the series, though broken into two part, pre and post Ledoux, we've had other questions raised and answered such as
Who do they like for the murders?  Ledoux
What was the showdown in the woods? Hart murdering Ledoux then Cohle covering up for him
What ultimately separated Hart and Cohle? Maggie
Who broke in to Rev. Tuttle's place and killed him?  Cohle for the former, and likely his weird pagan circle for the latter.
And finally, we come to episode eight with much filled in, but enough questions raised to pieque interest, prominently, what causes the Spaghetti Monster to do these things, and can Cohle and Hart stop it?



 Odds and Ends

• Rust makes a few more references to life being a circle, except now he's looking to tie it off
• The sheriff golfs with a gun strapped to his back
• Marty says he doesn't drink much anymore but we see him surfing Match.com with Jameson, or watching tv with a beer.
• Cohle and Hart have always been very different but they are living very similar lives at this point in 2012, shuttling themselves between work and home, without anyone else in their lives.
• Hart is doing a lot of Rust-esque investigations.  Last week we saw a lot of characters resurface giving the series symmetry.  This is another type of symmetry, if not tessellation.
• Hart's daughter and Rust both express interest in painting
• Treme had a Mardi Gras episode where Annie went into a rural area and it was all a bit weirder and creepier.  It seems like it has some kissing cousin relationship to the sort of Mardi Gras that spurned these rituals apparently practiced by the Tuttle extended clan
•  Hart & Cohle take a page from Tony Soprano and the Stugots from "Funhouse"
• Hurricanes again lead to chaos, lead to opportunity for these acts
• Rust is going to the electric chair if anyone gets hold of his storage locker, due to the Tuttle photos and video
• The former domestic servant flips out at the mention of Carcosa, not unlike other characters we've seen, and not unlike Chambers' characters who go insane after reading The Yellow King
• Him that eats time, hims robes it's a wind of invisible voices
• Death is not the end, rejoice.
• Parliament of Owls is one of the production stickers are the end.  I've been into Twin Peaks lately
• The  preview has a voice over "take off your mask" a quote from The Yellow King.  The response is "I wear no mask".  The implication is the YK's face is so horrifying that surely it must be a mask.  Mr Spaghetti Monster Grass Cutter has quite a few scars.
• Marty never wanted to see something like the baby in the microwave again.  But the video does just that
• The show, while being super weird and creepy, does not get gratuitous with these shots.  The important thing in the scene is Marty's reactions, not the grotesque scene he is seeing.  For all the grief True Detective gets about being gratuitous, this is a good counterargument
• Cohle has talked about the end of human existence and tying off the circle.   Marty said so long to his wife.  Reason enough to believe one or both will not make it out alive next week.
• Rust has some sort of knife/leatherman type thing hanging from his belt where his badge would be.
• When they're questioning the mechanic, Rust and Marty are back to looking like cops, talking to this guy, and Rust has his ledger.  Just like old times.

Justified Season Five - Through Seven Episodes

Crowders

1. Boyd is frustrated with efforts to get Eva out of prison
2. Boyd’s supplier tries to double cross him so he heads to Detroit to confront them
3. Turns out the supplier (Sammy Tonin) operation is in disarray. Tonin is double crossed/murdered by Picker. Boyd gets picker to take him and Duffy to the Canadian wholesalers
4. Canadians offer one final shipment to Boyd. Picker to make introduction to new Mexican wholesaler for Boyd
5. Boyd visits Paxter for help with Evan, becomes enraged by him. Does the murder to him. Wife sees but they are like let’s exchange cash for a NDB here.
6. Sheriff Mooney tries to pin Paxton's beating on Boyd but Paxton's wife, Mara, purposefully does not identify Boyd as the culprit and tries to strike a deal with Boyd
7.  Still no progress on getting Ava out of prison, as the judge is not buyable or threatenable
8. Boyd quells a minor uprising by his dealers by offering free drinks and a timetable for fresh drugs, after Duffy's attempt to do so fails
9.  Sheriff Mooney tracks Mara down to threaten her into identifying Boyd
10. Boyd's shipment gets hijacked and all his people get dead. 
11. Boyd gets angry at Duffy, accusing him of stealing the shipment 
12. Paxton instructs Mooney to kill Boyd
13. Boyd and Ava have a falling out of sorts during his visit, where he's more concerned with what information Ava can provide him about the drug caravan robbery than about how they are going to get her out of prison .  She's mad he's not even giving her a "hey holding up okay?" and more or less blaming her (rightfully, but he doesn't need to say it) for the whole situation
14. Boyd and Mara get the drop on Mooney and get him to report to Paxton he killed Boyd
15. Which leads to an upset Boyd and Mara having tattoo touching time.  A reminder of Boyd's Aryan beliefs, which I'm sure he still holds but doesn't practice actively.
16. Boyd traces the hijacking to Johnny
17. Paxton apparently goes for the fake Boyd hand as proof Boyd is dead but will still proceed against Eva
18. Eva is under female guard protection at prison.  The guard gives another hack what for after getting out of line with Eva
19. Boyd, who is aware Messer is a CI, gives Raylan the phone number to track him
20.  Boyd makes Johnny an offer which Johnny rebuffs.
21. Boyd stages Paxton's suicide, getting Eva out of prison, w/ a side of revenge
22. The hack who has it in for Eva stages his own stabbing to keep Eva in prison
23. HR has it in for Johnny who turns the tables on him by giving his henchmen his own share of the hijacking
24. Boyd pays for Eva's protection in prison
25. Eva's protection double crosses her
26.  Carl is kidnapped by the Crowes
27. HR under gunpoint covertly notifies Boyd that he's under duress and the Johnny exchange isn't going to go as planned
28. After Carl makes his way back, Boyd proposes a Crowe-Crowder alliance
29. Boyd restores Eva's protection
30. Ava is pulled into the religious circle in prison as a means of protection
31. Ava gets the smuggler plumber caught w/ drugs so she doesn't have to bang him
32. Johnny and Boyd both, separately, go to Mexico to gain the favor of the Cartel
33. Cartel chooses Boyd, doesn't want dead Americans on their side of the Rio Grande
34. Danny and Dewey for some reason start a shootout in the Mexican desert, killing Johnny and his crew

Crowe

I think the Crowe family is working along the lines of a classic bad guy group, albeit with some combined roles. 

• Darryl: The Big Bad 
• The Haitian: The Dragon. The person Darryl directs his idiots to in order to deal with their problem.  Completely unrattled by the marshals.  Advises Darryl on their next cash cow.
• Danny: Could be The Dragon if The Haitian stays in Florida, but most likely The Brute.  If he did take on Dragon responsibilities, I get the sense he'd fail at them.  Does the dirty work taking out Dylan.  Preoccupied for much of his scenes with firecrackers.
• Wendy: The Dark Chick.  A city mouse while the rest of the family are country/swamp mice.  Resourceful (causing the car crash) and able to act like a person in order to speak to the marshals.  This is low bar, but it is relative to the rest of the swamp people
• This is Justified/Elmore Leonard so there isn't a clear Evil Genius, but it appears most of the brain power is supplied by a team effort between Darryl and Wendy (per their conversation they shooed Dylan away from)

1. Dewey: Given a settlement for being operating on and punched in the face a bunch of times
2. Dilly & associate: Kill Coast Guard Officer
3. Darryl & sister: Makes deal with marshals to end his parole and hand over the CubanSister: drives Cuban to the marshals until he takes her hostage, but causes a car accident and escapes
4. Cuban: Tries to escape, but caught up by the marshals and shot and killed 
5. Darryl's parole is lifted due to his cooperation.  Advised by Haitian to get a hand into Dewey's $300k
6. Darryl & Co. surprise Dewey by showing up in Harlan, with a reminder of Dewey's Aryan beliefs
7. Darryl eggs Dewey on to get a rebate from Boyd for Audrey's
8. Boyd turns Dewey right back at Daryl telling him to stand up for himself
9. Darryl is amused and impressed by Dewey's newfound confidence.  He side steps it though and shows Dewey he's sussed out Messer's skimming and eggs Dewey on to kill him
10. This attempt goes badly and Dewey has to hunt Messer down in the woods
11. Dewey is picked up by some hikers
12. Darryl gets Dewey and takes him to finish the job, but Messer has died and his body is found by the police 
13. The littlest Crowe is taken by Raylan to put pressure on them to leave Harlan
14. Danny takes everything in the world as an insult and sucker shoots the Haitian
15. The Crowe sister visits Harlan to help with Kendall's case
16. Raylans GF checks in on Kendall
17. GF is run off the road by Danny 
18. Danny & Dewey kidnap Carl
19. Carl is let out by Raylan 
20. Boyd and Carl come back at the Crowes 
21. Boyd Proposes the Crowes and Crowders link up rather than fight.   
22. Danny and Dewey kill a bunch of Johnny's crew in Mexico, putting them/Boyd on the bad side of the Cartel
23. Wendy neutralizes the child services threat by complaining to Alison's boss 

Raylan

1. Last season, arranges hit on Augustine via Tonin/Picker
2. Goes to Florida to track down Dilly and the Cuba (and can see his kid in the process).  Casually mentions Dewey's windfall in earshot of The Haitian
3. Makes a deal with Darryl to find the Cuban
4. Talks with Sutter about how Sutter would find reasons to avoid his family so he wouldn't have to leave his family at the end the weekend (Raylan then avoids seeing his kid)
5. Goes to meet the Cuban, shoots Cuban when he tries to escape
6. Fails to mention he was in town when Skyping with Winona and the baby 
7. Art asks him about why Sammy Tonin would contact him and secretyly investigates into Sammy
8. Raylan is called to jail by Loretta and also meets her social worker.  Doesn't get Loretta out of jail.  Decides to "have a talk" with her boyfriend, Derrick
9. Raylan moves into the seized house of a Detroit money launderer
10. Raylan tries to bang the social worker
11. Raylan talks to Derrick but ultimately has to rescue him and Loretta from drug dealers
12. Raylan eggs on the money launderer, flaunting that he's living in his house and drinking his wine
13. Rachel and Raylan flip the bangmaid and get her to rile up the money launderer by telling him his gold is stolen, directing his ire at Wynn Duffy (installer of the safe which housed said gold)
14. Raylan offers protection to Duffy as he is a target, even though Raylan engineered the whole situation as a ploy to draw out the money launderer
15. Money launderer tries to kill Duffy, is shot by Mike
16. Ultimately, Tonin being dead severs the direct connection between Raylan and Nicky Augustine's death, but perhaps someone like Picker could link them and create a world of trouble for Raylan.
17. Vasquez and Art inform Raylan Messer, who is a CI, is missing, and Raylan has to track him down
18. Raylan runs across the Crowes  and Boyd in his investigation, including a 14 year old bartender at Audrey's
19. Boyd connects Raylan to Messer's phone, which has a GPS
20. Raylan connects the buzzards to Messer's body
21. Raylan's new gal pal mentions a child she had to seize
22. Raylan goes back to Audrey's to take the littlest Crowe into state custody
23. Art speaks with one of the Canadian heroin suppliers who tells him Sammy Tonin used to brag about having a "Kentucky lawman in his pocket" and directs him to Picker who is hanging with Wynn Duffy as of late
24.  A Tonin hitman takes out the Canadian who directed Art to Picker
25. Art brings Picker in, Raylan speaks with Picker, Picker directs Art to the dead FBI agent
26. Picker directs them to a warehouse where the Tonin hitman goes crazy with an automatic weapon
27. Art and Raylan catch Theo Tonin
28. Raylan has a talk with Art...all but admitting his part in Augustine's death
29. Art cannot even look at Raylan except when he is punching him in the face
30. Raylan and Rachel bond a bit.  
31. Raylan tries tracking down the Crowe who ran his GF off this road, but is blocked by a safe word
32. Art put Raylan on garbage duty
33. Raylan and Art have it out, Raylan asks for a transfer 

Raw Deal - Justified

Justified
Episode 05-07
"Raw Deal"

Written by VJ Boyd who wrote the great "Get Drew" last season

Directed by Bill Johnson, of "Hatless" mentioned below

After a layoff for the Olympics, Justified returns.

As a general rule, when someone is sold religion, they have to be skeptical at first and then gradually buy into it or the organization.  House of Cards played on this in Season Two.  It's sort of like this.  Boyd went through a Christian revival after he got out of prison in Season One, and now Ava may fall under that umbrella as well.  If not for the religion, for the benefits of being with the group preaching it.

Skeptical > Curious/In need > Zealot > Lose faith again

Rachel is acting like Art's deputy chief deputy, and it's pretty clear she's the frontrunner again to be the new chief deputy following Art's mandatory retirement.  If nothing else, Art has made her a buffer zone between him and Raylan so they don't have to speak.  Not only that, but Art is giving him the least desirable assignments.  Apparently the marshals take walk ins*, like a police station.  I don't know if I could find the local marshal office to be honest, even though the marshals play a bit more prominently in the District, as there's no sheriff.  The end game is for Raylan to quit, or at minimum for Art to never deal with him again.  Essentially, Art put Raylan on McNulty's boat or in Lester's pawn shop.

* Hearken back to Art introducing Raylan to the office, explaining it's a small office so they all do all the marshal jobs (prisoner transport, witness security, etc).  If there is one thing Raylan is really good at, besides absurd accuracy when he's shooting people, is finding people.  Except when they are right in front of him, like in "The Gunfighter" or this episode.

Unfortunately, he's not the best at prison transport, whether on or off the clock., either.

Wendy makes the first savvy move in going to Allison's supervisor.  So often those in public positions want to take the path of least resistance (e.g. Vasquez), and that's what Allison's unseen boss does by suspending her.

The interaction between TJ and Raylan provided a lot of insight to Raylan's mood

Raylan goes down a LemonLyman rabbit hole responding to T.J's blog post.  Unfortunately he pokes the bear a bit and gets his bank accounts drained.  Raylan seems utterly unconcerned by this, which probably means he only has a few bucks in there.  Turns out he was on a date of sorts when the card was declined, as TJ hoped.  But the dude is so self assured his reaction is to follow up on locating TJ rather than betray a hint of embarrassment to Allison.  Contrast this with Wendy who so often immediately becomes defensive when opposed, probably due to insecurity and unrealized potential.

The hacker must have found his talent and enjoyment for hacking when he was confined to bed rest recovering from cancer at 14, the same age he mentions he started "freaking phones" at.

For maybe the first time, Raylan is impressed at a criminal, particularly TJ's one legged escape.

It does renew a sense of competitiveness in Raylan, trying to find a pressure point on the Crowes, even as he takes vacation time.  He does this via Wendy (Dylan, unrealized potential, drag on her life).  And the bonds are already weakened with the youngest Crowe, trying to find someone outside his immediate family circle to take him in.  The voice on the other end of the line, calling him "Kiddo" didn't seem to have an accent, at least not a thick one.  And the corny joke that he pre-empts seems like the kind a Little League coaching wholesome family patriarch may use.

Really, Raylan is annoyed and pissed off at the whole Art situation, and everything involving TJ cooks his grits even further, making Raylan look a bit smaller and more dickish than usual.  We probably haven't seen him in this state of mind since Season One's "Hatless".

Body Count
Champion backgammon player
RIP Johnny Crowder, who we thought was dead a whole bunch of times prior to him laughing his way to the great holler in the sky at Boyd's hand.

Odds & Ends
The marshals office is growing.  They have an IT guy, Chris, and another marshal (Nelson?)Most disturbing part of the episode was in retrospect the toothpaste that the 'nice' guard providedThe sort of things only Justfied does: One legged computer hacker,  online backgammon ring (instead of poker)I think the Richard Kimball reference is the sort of lousy joke marshals hear all the time and have to pretend to laugh at, or view with total contempt.  Like when Michael Scott refers Oscar as "Oscar the Grouch"  Anyone who works a service job with nametag feels this pain.Again, thinking Ava is going to bite it...not willing to do what it takes to survive and upsetting the status quo can't bode well for her seeing Season Six.  I think I would also like to see a totally unhinged Boyd for thirteen or fourteen episodes.One of the problems with Raylan implicating himself as an FYI to Art, but not enough for Art to be required to turn him in is that Art lacks the context which led Raylan to his decision.Art's great but I didn't appreciate his "own dime" reference to Raylan visiting Florida, considering Art was the one who pushed him to go to Florida and see them, while Raylan, albeit not for noble reasons of being a good steward of taxpayer funds, did all he could to avoid making that tripRaylan could be well suited for air marshal duty.  We know he would meet the firearms requirement.  And he wouldn't have to interact with people much anymore.  Further research indicateds air marshals fall under TSA, under DHS.  So, no.

Posted via Blogaway

Haunted Houses - True Detective

Okay here we go.  Episode Six.  The dots aren't so much connecting as converging.

2002
Marty and Rust are diverging at this point already, as indicated in the previous episode, and this week we see the events leading up to their split.  A lot of characters from the first half of the series pop up again, creating a symmetry to the series.

Cohle
Cohle is still digging for information to see if the Yellow King killings are still covertly happening, and still pissing off everyone within the state of Louisiana.  He questions

1) Father of a missing boy Rust suspects may be another victim of the Yellow King.  The boy went to a Tuttle school which causes Rust to look into further

2) The, now former, currently alcoholic, tent revival preacher we saw in Episode Three, who lets him know he parted ways after finding photographs indicating boys are being "interfered" with, which the leadership (Tuttle) decided to handle internally, i.e. not handle.

3) The surviving girl who they pulled out of Ledoux's hideout in Episode Five.  She is now mostly catatonic, but she responds to Rust enough to indicate there is a third man, a giant, who was the worst of all when it came to torture.  This makes Rust think more than ever that the Yellow King is still out there.

3A) Cohle gives his theory to Marty and the major, linking Tuttle schools to the murders.  The major tells him to steer clear of victims families.  No need to create murders where there are no murders.  Which Cohle technically follows.  But, he goes and sees

4) Tuttle, who we saw trample on the original investigation under the guise of pulling it under the umbrella of anti-Christian crimes back in Episode Two.  Rust speaks to Tuttle under the auspices of digging up some records he was unable to find from the individual administrators of the Tuttle schools.  Rust knows he's not doing to get anything of use from Tuttle, and confirms this when Tuttle pretends to offer a clerk to help him under the caveat that they conveniently lost some records to flooding.  Rather than be there to get records, Rust is probably there to get a read on Tuttle

When Cohle, having done the opposite of the spirit of the major's orders, is suspended for 30 days and 30 hours of counseling, which even Marty thinks his harsh.  Rust goes on hiatus from the Five O.

Marty
Marty beats up the boys his daughter was with, telling them prison is not going to treat them well.

Living the family life and running running family-type errands, he runs into the girl from the Bunny Ranch back in Episode Two, now a sales associate at T-Mobile, and looking remarkably like Lisa.  She sees him at the bar across the strip mall, probably not coincidentally, which leads to them talking, catching up, and banging.

His brand new T-Mobile phone accepts pictures because its 2002.  Unfortunately it does not have a keyguard and Maggie finds the pictures after she becomes suspicious about Marty washing his own clothes.  She goes to revenge bang some dude in a bar.  She can't go through with it. 

Final Countdown
Rust gets a confession from a mother who keeps killing her kids.  He helpfully suggests she commit suicide, as prison will not treat her well.

Maggie settles on revenge banging Rust instead in a setting that recalls Rust mowing the lawn.  She tells Marty.

Marty attacks Rust, currently suspended, in the parking lot.  They have it out.  The post fight breakdown in the major's office concludes with Rust resigning.

2012
We get a POV from Maggie as well, as the detectives try to get to the root of the Rust-Marty split.  She doesn't provide any information.  Nor does Marty.  The only thing Maty gives the detectives is he mentions a case that may speak to Rust's state of mind (the aforementioned mother).  It seems like the sort of thing that may be plausible enough for a cop to believe, without giving them any useful information. 

We find out that Tuttle overdosed in 2010, following two unreported break ins at his residences.

Marty winds up leaving the interview unimpressed and tired of these detectives.  Rust catches up with Marty on the side of the road and they go off to get a beer.

Thoughts

• Marty and Cohle have been together in the past and separate in the future.  At this point in the story, that is reverse, as their partnership ends in 2002, and they meet back up for the first time in 2012.  
• I think 2002Marty's daughters are watching The Simple Life (Dumb blondes in cracker country)  EDIT: Probably not, that show debuted in 2003
• Marty gave the girl (Beth) at the Bunny Ranch $20, which Rust posited was a down payment.  Turns out, that was the case.  She clearly feels indebted to him, along with some other issues.  Beth is aware of Marty's family because of his errands
• Two very clear shots of devil and angel figurines in Beth's apartment
• We as the Tralmafadorians viewing this get to see Rust's suggestion to the SIDS mother, something no one else is aware of besides Rust.  We don't know if the mother followed through or not, but it brings to mind the secret phone call that leads to the Yellow King informant-wannabe killing himself (which the 2012Detectives believe Rust made). 
• Where do they find these girls? 
• I hope we get to see The Giant.  Perhaps a nod to Twin Peaks?
• Sad to see the captain replaced by the major.  Big fan of the actor,Kevin Dunn.  But there needs to be someone who likes Cohle even less to jump to the suspension.
• Man, Marty got that mad about Rust mowing his lawn.  No surprise he lost his mind.
• Rust's tailight which was broken during the fight with Marty is still broken, ten years later, when we see him drive off at the end of the episode.  
• Those wounds are still open
• Reggie Ledoux is not even mentioned by name.
• Rust could actually think he is looking out for the SIDS mom in a twisted way.  But there's also always been a premium placed on saving kids in this series, and this could be just an unforgivable sin in Rust's eyes, wanting to exact justice, her death, in some direct way.  
• They way he says it is so unexpected
• Both Beth and Maggie order dirty martinis. Maggie's is "extra" dirty

Q&A

• 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
• Marty and Rust have both ended the interviews.  Maggie is interviewed, but not taped, so we don't get a date stamp.  She's as reticent as Rust and Marty to tell them anything they don't already know, including her relations with Rust.
• Who is the mean looking old man uniform cop?  He stormed into the major's office (through Marty who muttered "...dick...") and slammed the door, stood prevalently at the press conference and ushered the reverend around.
• Still unnamed, but he is in the room when Rust is suspended.  It's unclear his actual rank, but his pull and political positioning is enough to put him there, unquestioned by anyone.
• This is the second time he's popped up in a situation directly related to Tuttle.  
• I've been wondering what he's said to the captain when he ran in after Marty, and now I imagine it was something about Tuttle.  
• Did Marty and Rust arrest the right guy?
• Didn't arrest anyone.  Shot the dude.
• Looking more and more like a big 'no'.  And by arrest, we mean murder
• What caused the split between Marty and Rust after a seven year partnership?
• Ultimately, the fist fight in the parking lot, directly spurned from Maggie banging Rust and telling Marty, spurning from Marty banging Beth. spurning from him giving her a twenty seven years prior
• 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 
• Ending his partnership with Marty, frustrated at the roadblocks to what he believes is a case that should be reopened
• Where is Marty's wife in 2012?
• Not with Marty, fo sho.
•  What's the revival minster's involvement with the task force? 
• Working for the Tuttle school/task force is spurned by Tuttle.  They ended their relationship shortly after due to the photos he finds, and the Penn State-ish investigation

New Questions

• What evidence has Rust gathered over the last ten years?
• What did Tuttle know and when did he know it?
• Was the boy found at Ledoux's connected to the Tuttle schools?
• Just how Penn State are the Tuttle schools?
• What is the connection between the Yellow King and Tuttle?
• Did Rust murder Tuttle? 
• More from last week's episode, but what was it that happened with Marty's daughter to result in the drawings, Barbies and now the dudes in the car?

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.