This critic thought Hays was burning someone else’s clothes? Whose? He stripped the guy they killed in the barn before they buried him and took his clothes home to burn? Why would he do that? Maybe Hays being shirtless was a clue that it was his own clothes he was burning? Seems obvious.
This critic thought this one-eyed guy was the same as the last one? All one-eyed guys aren’t the same, particularly when the damaged eye is on the right side for one guy and left side for the other.
8
While I really don't want them to cross over, the idea of a young Marty Hart and a young Roland West both scowling at a suspect would be kinda cool.
2
Watching this show is sleeping walking through a really unfortunate attempt at drama
It’s so bad I can’t even fall asleep
Why watch?
I have found many things about this season both frustrating and disappointing, but about halfway through, this episode for me clicked into a deep and satisfying groove that felt very much like the chemistry and tone of season 1. Ali Dorff have had a slow burn but the alchemy of their relationship has moved into a transcendent realm — and I thought the long shot of Ali in 2015, alone and blinded by a spill of light surrounded by the mysterious darkness — well I thought that was inspired
3
This difficult to follow and hear show is tiresome. Liking the acting, I’ve stayed with it hoping the time spent would reveal worth, now I’m not so sure. It doesn’t add up and all seems inconsequential, a chase with no end.
One of the things I think we'll learn in the final episode is that Roland threw a lot of shade on Hays to save himself, and that's why Hays is taken away in the last scene of Ep7. Roland doesn't want to be the only one blamed for shooting Harris. This betrayal is why Hays distrusts Roland (he hasn't forgotten) and pretends to know, or suspect less than he does.
If the one-eyed man (a symbolic Tiresias?) is actually a "procurer," I will be surprised and disappointed, as Hays seemed to be when the interviewer mentioned it.
"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King." On one level, Hays and the one-eyed man are the same. Looking forward to how it all resolves ... or doesn't.
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@Redsetter119 you're thoughts on Roland having ratted out Hayes are interesting. I was also wondering if Amelia is somehow involved and gave Hoyt the Head's up after she caught her husband BBQing his clothes.
1
The interruptive in this sentence does not dictate verb agreement. It would simply sound better as "no one ... has had the power ...":
"The dots are not quite connectable yet, but Hoyt, Harris, Lucy, Dan and the one-eyed man are all playing roles here, and no one, not least Hays and West, have had the power and political will to get to the bottom of it."
6
This was the first episode, where I could hear Detective Hays's dialogue without needing a rewind. Crystal clarity must finally be needed at this stage — near the end (ironically)?
5
Thank you, I thought it was just me. I totally love the series but I'm forever asking my boyfriend, "What did he just say?"
6
@linda levine I have to watch this show with closed caption on:)!
10
I miss 50% of the dialogue. I have to repeatedly rewind. It's very frustrating.
4
Just to clarify, there are two different black men, each missing an eye. The first black man interviewed is Sam Whitehead, portrayed by actor John Jelks. The second one eyed black man is identified as Mr. June and implicated as the ‘procurer’, played by actor Steven Williams, who many remember from 21 Jump Street. The two actors don’t look alike and each character is missing a different eye. Mr. June is missing his left, while Whitehead is missing his right. I wonder if writer Nick Pizzolatto did this on purpose to see how many people we get tripped up by these two characters. I find it interesting that people watch this excellent show with keen, sleuthing eye, and yet mistake these two characters as one.
17
I’m pretty sure Hays was burning his own clothes in that barrel, to destroy possible evidence, like bloodstains.
I don’t feel much chemistry between the characters. It’s as though the actors on the set really didn’t like each other and could never get that out of the way of their work. And nobody talks like people really talk. So, the whole thing has a kind of stiff formality. But then the scenes are constantly shuffled, so trying to keep up with what is going on mostly distracts you from how weird everybody is.
2
@Gary Davis
I think we're supposed to feel that Roland likes Hays begrudgingly. Roland was probably born a southern good ole boy who hated blacks, but he really likes Warren and admires his detective skills (yet also fears Hays' obsession with solving the case despite multiple dangers). I think the Vietnam War did much to improve race relations in the USA. White draftees fought side by side with black draftees in a war that was insane from every angle. Post-war, vets probably felt they had more in common with other vets despite any racial or class differences. Roland is not an East Cost liberal eager for integration and racial harmony. He's a blue collar southern white man who loses status with integration, but he genuinely likes and admires his black partner.
17
I think the analysis is spot on and don’t understand the barbs. Pointing out that Elisa is well meaning and yet part of the “Unsolved Mysteries” genre is adding value. Pointing out that the “blessed restraint” allows us to appreciate the acting is blindingly obvious
4
The one-eyed man whom they had originally questioned about buying the corn husk dolls in 1980 is NOT the same man who castigated Amelia at a book reading a decade later.
20
I wonder why Tobias is doing the recaps for a show he obviously doesn't appreciate (I guess the paycheck). Half of the time, he confuses analyzing the episodes for the enlightenment of the viewer with reviewing the show. He thinks Pizzolatto is pretentious, while I see ambition and artistic vision. Does he think any one who subscribes to HBO is searching for a traditional police procedural? However the final episode "wraps up", I've loved this third incarnation of "True Detective".
30
@Brazilianheat Completely agree. He barely watches the show -- there have been 2 black men with milky eyes for starters. I see nothing pretentious here -- artful visuals, superb acting and a singular glance into how loss impairs the human spirit.
23
We now have a fourth timeline (Becca going to college). I'm starting to think that the current timeline isn't so current anymore since the scene with Roland getting the license plate number of the car outside Wayne's home seemed like another memory. I love how younger Wayne seems to be aware of this future self remembering him. Gives it just the right element of supernatural creepiness like Rust's residual drug hallucinations in season 1.
22
@Jessica excellent point regarding the memory of Roland getting the license plate and completely agree regarding the supernatural creepiness, well put!
2
"The one-eyed man whom they had originally questioned about buying the corn husk dolls in 1980 — the same man who castigated Amelia at a book reading a decade later — is identified as a possible “procurer” for a pedophile ring."
Not the same man. The man they questioned really had no connection. The man at the book reading (who is probably this Watts/Mr. June) is a different guy.
36
@A.C. When the woman who made the dolls was interviewed, didn't she point to her left eye as the man's "dead eye"?
5
@A.C.
I'm still confused by the man at the book reading. If guilty, why would he make himself so visible, and be demanding justice?
nonetheless, Here’s how I’m putting it together at the moment:
Lucy’s comments to Amelia about the state of her 'soul' and 'children should laugh' revealed her involvement. For the money, she worked with the One-Eyed Man to sell her children, but also because she thought it would give them a better life than she and Tom could provide. And also maybe, because Mr. Hoyt was the biological father of Julie (her previous 'job' with the Hoyt’s).
So on Halloween, she and Mr. Watts gained the kid’s trust in this plan, which the notes between Will and Julie indicate. At some point, Will balked, and his death may have been accidental. Did Lucy or Watts place Will’s hands in that pose—out of 'caring,' as Amelia suggested?
Consoling the Hoyt daughter with a replacement, not pedophilia, was the real motivation for the abduction. Hoyt, a powerful man, likely thought he could get away with anything, buy people’s silence. He couldn’t buy Lucy’s, so Harris James killed her, as Dan said.
Why the rift between Becca and Wayne? Maybe Amelia shared with Becca the real reason that Wayne withdrew from the case, and why Amelia’s many insights were ignored.
In a few days, we’ll know if my or anyone else’s harebrained theories are even close!
5
@trudy
it turns out I got it mostly right! I got that will's death was accidental, but not specifically who did it. And it turned out the rift between Becca and Wayne was not that significant after all...
Great catching the quick picture of Woody Harrelson on the front page of the newspaper. But argh, this show is so predictable!
9
@Nancy Morgan
and McConaughey right beside him.
2
@Nancy Morgan Wasn't that Matthew M. next to Woody H. on the front page of the newspaper? It was so quick, I thought it was.
1
@Nancy Morgan No disrespect, but why watch something you hate, I wouldn't. Or, is it like the imp of perversity, as Poe wrote, like sticking one's hand in the flame?
I wonder if we are ever going to find out if Julie is alive?
8
Was the ghost in the bedroom Harris James? Two things: The ghost is wearing a jacket and tie while James is no longer wearing a jacket when he's shot. And it's not the same tie. And unlike the rest of the ghosts, Harris James wasn't killed by Wayne. OK, he's merely a memory in a failing brain, not a fictional ghost who obeys rules about what to wear, but still....
I suppose it was Mr. Hoyt's daughter and the one-eyed man who were the (assumed) mixed-race couple? Since daughter Hoyt had lost her child, was she out looking for a replacement when she and Watts found the kids' mother and brother were willing to sell the kids? Maybe Mr. Hoyt's connections led him to the one-eyed man who was part of the pedophile ring from Season 1 and hired him to find a replacement little girl for his daughter? Will Woody Harrelson do a cameo in Episode 8? Looks like Season 3 reminds us so much of Season 1 because they're two parts of one story.
Why was the boy posed in death to look like his pose in the confirmation snapshot? Was that preacher involved? How did Amelia die? Did Hoyt do her in because she learned something while researching the second book? Why is Wayne estranged from his daughter? Did Roland see a car outside that window last week? Is it possible Wayne's still alive only because Roland has been lying to his old friend to protect him from the bad guys? Where's Julie now?
Questions, questions, and only one episode to go.
16
@B. Anderson
My goodness! It's Mr. Green in the library with a candlestick...!
I'll be pleasantly surprised if the writers connect all these sub-plots and tidy-up these loose ends in one more hour... Unless the finale is so compelling, viewers will tune into Season 4 for a continuation of this mystery mess.
1
seems to me the biggest missing puzzle piece is whatever was the reason for and the timing of Amelia's death. If that was alluded to at any point, I missed it. Is it significant to the story that her passing is not commented on in any detail? When the one eyed man behaved in such a menacing way toward her, it seemed to suggest some plot potential. Is Becca's estrangement from Wayne related in any way to whatever has caused Amelia to no longer be alive? Was the reclusive heiress involved in the abduction (or detention) of Julie, in reaction to the tragic loss of her own family? Is Julie now in the pink room in the basement of the Hoyt home?
7
@trudy Amelia died of cancer. It was mentioned in episode 1.
9
@A. Skoble
thanks. i missed that.
2
Pizzolatto = Pretension, pomposity, obviousness, self importance and a snail's pace.The contrast with Chris Lang's "Dark Heart", which fully lives up to its name, or "Unforgotten" makes True Detective Season 3 often feel like silly self parody.
7
@George
I wouldn't say TD is more pretentious or pompous, but it's definitely more macho, and women are never any good (in seasons 1 and 3). The men in TD tend to swig from liquor bottles more often and talk in more apocalyptic tones. I think TD is beautifully shot. At least twice an episode, I notice how aesthetically compelling the show is and feel lucky to be viewing something with such high cinematic/aesthetic standards. I watched an episode of 'Unforgotten." I liked it, but, in terms of production values, it felt cheap. TD feels like a movie. I've rewatched seasons 1 and 2, even though I know how their stories end. I enjoyed them just as works of cinematic art.
6
@Anti-Marx
Everything on HBO must have a quota of sex and alcohol (True Detective, Sharp Objects, Big Little Lies). Everything on Showtime must have a quota of infidelity and or womanizing (Californication). If Better Call Saul were on HBO, Jimmy would be a drinker, and he and Kim would have more sex. If Better Call Saul were on Showtime, Kim would have an affair with Howard.
7
@Anti-Marx
Right on! But I think HBO could break through its stereotypes by hiring Vince Gilligan himself as a writer/director. At minimum Gilligan could
1) provide an intelligent, riveting script (a rarity!)
2) assemble a strong, unconventional cast,
3) elicit great ensemble performances.
Many commenters like to speculate about foreshadowing, character development, plot twists, etc. That’s fine. But I’m just too lazy. I don’t mind some obfuscation, murkiness, and lack of momentum in a story. But it’s the producers, directors, and writers (actors, too) who are PAID to create a quality product. Not me.
It's NOT the same man they questioned in 80. They have the affliction in different eyes, even, but if that wasn't plain enough they're clearly portrayed by different actors. Good grief, Scott.
31