Some Evidence Towards the Solution of "True Detective," and My Theory of the Crime

I've been hashing this out in emails with friends. I have a good theory, I think, but I think TV's Andy Levy found undeniably great evidence, which he shared on Twitter.

I don't know if you can figure out everything from his clue, but I think you'll agree that the below is Definitely Something.

If you don't want anything spoiled, don't read any of the below post. Andy's clue is too good to not be a genuine clue, and I think my theory is right too.

There was a weird picture in the first murdered girl's mom's house. Bizarre, actually:

Bizarre. And five guys.

When Woody Harrelson's daughter arranged her doll in that horrible way, it was also five guys.

Five guys again, gathered around a victim.

Look at what Cohle made with his cut-up beer cans: Five guys again. No victim here, but perhaps Cohle is hoping to find them before they find their next victim. (Note that one "doll" is seen here on its back, but he later stands this up with the others.)

He also notes that the Matthew McConnahey character's name -- the odd name "Rustin Cohle" -- is an anagram for "Coils Hunter." The "coils" being the odd spiral symbol the cult tattoos its victims with.

Now here's my theory. I'll put some white space between this sentence and the theory; scroll down a bunch to see it.

This is not a murder cult, exactly.

It's a euthanasia cult.

I say that because the entire theme of the show is Cohle's dark philosophy of existence being hellish, and death being an escape. The solution to the deaths will therefore echo that.

The murders will not be murders-- murder is an external threat, but that's not what Cohle has been selling all season. He's been selling a philosophical menace-- the menace of existence itself.

So the "victims" come to the cult for "release."

Here's further evidence of this: Cohle says that consciousness is an evolutionary mistake. It separates man from nature. Consciousness, he says, is the source of our suffering.

He also says the way the dead bodies were staged is an important symbology -- the symbology has meaning to the one who posed the bodies.

And what is that symbology?

In death, the human bodies were turned into animals, with antlers-- they had been stripped of their sorrow-making consciousness, returned to a natural state of stupidity.

I think "Carcossa" refers to this state, this state of non-consciousness. That is what Carcossa is in this telling -- the plane of non-consciousness.

Further adding to my return-humans-to-nature proof is the fact that the three bodies have been found, so far:

1. bent over a tree, on the haunches, like a rabbit -- like an animal of the land

2. floating in the river -- like a fish in the water

3. suspended in the air between trees -- like a bird in the sky

Meanwhile, the painting found in the abandoned church wall also featured a hermaphrodite -- again with antlers. Returned to a state of non-consciousness.

I think the mixture of meth and LSD is self-induced. I think the purpose of it is to destroy the mind -- perhaps to put the victim into a coma (like Cohle's daughter was in).

And then the body is killed, it slips tranquilly from the non-consciousness of coma into the "deeper dark" of death.

So who are the five men in this cult? The best guess would be 1, Reverend Tuttle (who died), 2, Governor Tuttle, 3, the unnamed sheriff who permits the whorehouse at Spanish Lake to operate, 4, possibly the black pastor shown in episode 1 (Levy says this actor is too big for a bit role, and must have a more prominent role later), and 5, possibly the white preacher at the revival tent or Woody Harrelson's father in law.

Why did they form the cult? I think it will be revealed they all had a close connection to a child who died, and all went crazy with grief. Similar to Cohle's grief, but unlike him, they decided to do something about it. (Changed: I thought they'd be connected to Marie, the missing girl, but Comment 164 explains why I no longer think she's "missing.")

One last thing: the female victims, so far, are probably victims of molestation by family members or other trusted person. It might be this pain that drives them to the cult's horrible form of release.

Point is, the show is telegraphing pretty hard, I think, that Woody Harrelson's daughter was molested (possibly by him, but more likely by his father-in-law).

Ergo, she will likely run away from home and fall into the evil suicidal embrace of the cult, and seek her own ticket to Carcosa. The last episode will probably involve an attempt to save her from this self-chosen fate.

posted by Ace at 04:50 PM

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