True Detective 3.7: Merge!

Lots of True Detective Season 3 has been about merging - of past and present, of inner and outer realities, of lies and truth, of life and death, of course - but tonight's episode 3.7 provided one of the best merges of all: of the sicko pedophile-murder ring of the first season with the ring under investigation in the third season.



That news comes in the form of a newspaper front page - the Daily Advertiser from Louisiana - from 2012, with a picture of the one and only Detectives Rust Cohle and Marty Hart (hey, that's actually two, but you know what I mean), and the report from the TV interviewer, pointing to the front page on her MacBook Air screen (I'm actually writing this on a MacBook Air right now), saying that the serial killer Cohle and Hart brought down might have been part of same ring Detectives Hays and West were investigating all these years, too.

Well, they're still investigating this, and they haven't completely fleshed out the scope of the ring that they were beginning to piece together in phase 2, in 1990, but what they've most been focusing on in all three phases is who kidnapped Julie and killed her brother.   The why is leading them to think all kinds of things, like Lucy's overdose was the result of a hot shot someone gave to her, and people in the police, such as Harris, are working for the ring.

And we find out what the bad thing was that Hays and West were talking about last week.  Actually, I spotted two.   They killed Harris, that's certainly bad, even though he more than deserved it.  But they also feel responsible for Tom's suicide - assuming it was a suicide, as West insists - and not another murder, as Hays in 1990 is strongly suspecting.  Either way, that's a bad thing Hays and West were involved in.

Only one more episode in this excellent season, with a lot to reveal.  What happened to Amelia (what did she die of)?   Will Hays have enough of his mentality left to solve the case, and appreciate that he solved it after he solved it?

I don't know.   But I'm looking forward to next week to find out.

See also True Detective 3.1-2: Humanistic Disturbances of the Soul ...True Detective 3.3: Unquestioned Witnesses ... True Detective 3.4: All Hat, No Answers ... True Detective 3.5: Tour de Force Scene in the Present ... True Detective 3.6: Great Conversations

And see also Season Two: True Detective: All New ... True Detective 2.2: Pulling a Game of Thrones ... True Detective 2.3: Buckshot and Twitty ...True Detective 2.4: Shoot-out ... True Detective 2.7: Death and the Anti-Hero ... True Detective Season 2 Finale: Good Smoke but No Cigar

And see also Season One: True Detective: Socrates in Louisiana ... True Detective Season One Finale: Light above Darkness

 
 philosophic crime fiction:  The Plot to Save Socrates