True Detective, Season 3 (spoilers ahoy!)

[DocZaius]

Anyone watch the first two episodes? What's your theory on whodunit?

 

[Swamp Queen]

It’s out? Had no idea!

 

[divits]

.....the least likely person.

 

[DocZaius]

Yes, they released the first two episodes over the weekend.

My theory: it was the wife's cousin. He wasn't spying on Julie because he's a perv, but because he's her real father. Not happy with Mom and Dad fighting all the time, she and her brother agree to go live with the cousin for a while. Something goes wrong, maybe an accident, and the brother dies, Julie and the cousin leave town and set up another life somewhere. The cousin goes back for the boy's funeral to keep up appearances.

I'm probably way way off.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Just watched the first two last night. I think the cousin is involved, but the burial of the boy was too ritualistic so more has to be involved. Got the feeling the schoolteacher knows more than she is letting on as well.

 

[divits]

Yes, they released the first two episodes over the weekend.

My theory: it was the wife's cousin. He wasn't spying on Julie because he's a perv, but because he's her real father. Not happy with Mom and Dad fighting all the time, she and her brother agree to go live with the cousin for a while. Something goes wrong, maybe an accident, and the brother dies, Julie and the cousin leave town and set up another life somewhere. The cousin goes back for the boy's funeral to keep up appearances.

I'm probably way way off.

Pretty good guess. I just don't see the doll tie in with that scenario.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Pretty good guess. I just don't see the doll tie in with that scenario.

Only two dolls, might be convenient to put them out there to get investigators to find the body and throw them all track. just for the sake of discussion.

 

[DocZaius]

I'm thinking the two dolls belonged to the kids - each got one on Halloween. Julie left one near the spot where Will died, and the other near the cave where they left his body. I don't think the killer/kidnapper is connected to the dolls.

 

[Slevin]

Yes, they released the first two episodes over the weekend.

My theory: it was the wife's cousin. He wasn't spying on Julie because he's a perv, but because he's her real father. Not happy with Mom and Dad fighting all the time, she and her brother agree to go live with the cousin for a while. Something goes wrong, maybe an accident, and the brother dies, Julie and the cousin leave town and set up another life somewhere. The cousin goes back for the boy's funeral to keep up appearances.

I'm probably way way off.

That would be the most Arkansas thing ever

 

[Slevin]

It’s got to be something a little deeper and darker than these theories though. They spent 2 years writing it to bring it back to S1 level darkness just for it to be an accident?

 

[DocZaius]

The third episode was a little slow, but with the revelation that they were meeting someone at a secret place in the woods and had toys the parents didn't know about...

My theory is out the window. I mean, there's no reason to have secret playdates with their "uncle," right? There's nothing wrong with hanging around with him, he even lived with them for a while.

No, it's someone else, probably someone we haven't met or someone we met only briefly.

 

[DocZaius]

Welp. This Reddit thread has some pretty good theories:

 

[Slevin]

The third episode was a little slow, but with the revelation that they were meeting someone at a secret place in the woods and had toys the parents didn't know about...

My theory is out the window. I mean, there's no reason to have secret playdates with their "uncle," right? There's nothing wrong with hanging around with him, he even lived with them for a while.

No, it's someone else, probably someone we haven't met or someone we met only briefly.

Yeah it’s definitely going to get a little darker than that. Like I said they spent almost 3 years writing this to bring it back to its roots. Gotta be some weird stuff going on

 

[DocZaius]

A few random thoughts after watching Episode 4:

Still no closer to figuring out who the killer is. Theories abound, and the most intriguing one that internet folks are latching on to is that Amelia is involved.

I don't think so, I think she's just found her calling as a writer and she's pissed that her husband is such a sourpuss who doesn't support her. Plus, I think in 2015 she's dead, and this show really needs a last-episode showdown with the real killer.

In this episode, she's being real flirty with him (in 1980) and his efforts to match her seem pretty weak. Also, HBO had a prime opportunity to see her naked (in 1990) and flubbed it. So far, not one boob has been shown in this season.

The racist old lady who made the straw dolls seems like she was lying - why? Pretty clear to me that the old one-eyed black fellow who lives on the wrong side of the tracks had nothing to do with it. Why would he be on the "white" side of town on Halloween, giving out straw dolls to kids? Surely, someone would have noticed.

That said, the racist old lady isn't the only one who brought up a one-eyed black guy. The old black guy they found pointed back to the chicken plant, everyone who works there has lost a body part.

Again, we're pointed back to the chicken plant. The chicken people clearly have something to do with this, just like the big church people had something to do with it in Season 1. One popular theory is that the daughter of the owner lost a child and so they kidnapped Julie as a surrogate.

It's the chicken lady, for real.

And then there's creepy cousin/uncle Dan, whose bones were found at the bottom of a quarry in 1990. Did he know something?

Good job to Purple Hays for sifting through the video to find a 1990 image of Julie:

From the video, it looked to me like she was running from someone. 1990 Hays I think was right - she's still in danger.

2015 Hays knows his son is banging the documentary lady:

Props to the Indian guy for using Claymores to blow up the local rednecks. From the trailer, looks like he got one of the FBI guys, too. If he lives, they're gonna put him away for that.

That long-haired kid who stole Will's bike is going to confess, I just know it, he's breaking down in that interrogation room. That part of the story is pretty clearly influenced by the West Memphis 3 (I think the WM3 are guilty as sin, but a lot of people are convinced they were railroaded, based largely on the confessions of one of them and a police force feeling pressure to catch the killers - but that's another thread). The DA is going to convict him, despite Hays' protests, which leads to Hays' career being derailed and a lot of guilt he feels afterwards.

So I think the 1980 story is wrapping up, they're not going to come close to solving it - they'll end with the conviction of the long-haired kid (maybe his buddies, too). We still have very little idea of what they found in 1990, but I expect the Attorney General (the former DA) is going to shut them down.

Here's a little easter egg from the trailer to next week's episode:

Hmmm... interedasting...

 

[TheDouglas78]

Honestly glad they are hopefully tying up the 1980s thread, the inception, in an inception is was really bad in the last two episodes. The wife also had the said the same think about the chicken factory owners. I still think the wife is involved on some level, but not the ultimate killer.

 

[DocZaius]

So, episode 5 was released early because of the Superbowl.

I don't like how Woodard was the wrongly convicted man. No one posthumously convicts anyone, at least since the middle ages. That's a huge waste of resources for no reason. And I find it really unlikely that his kids are going to hire a lawyer to exonerate him of those particular murders when he clearly murdered all those rednecks and cops. More, they were estranged from him at the time - for all they knew, he really did kill kids.

Hays is really a dick to his wife, but he's not wrong.

We do have some confirmation of a conspiracy and cover-up in this episode. The planted evidence, the missing crime scene cop, a confirmed connection between Lucy and the note, the missing fingerprint exemplars, etc. Lucy's overdose was maybe not an accident. Most surprising I think was the revelation that Hoyt and Hays had a meeting that Hays never mentioned to his partner.

I think it's looking more and more like Lucy arranged to have Julie go live with her "real" father, and she was brainwashed to accept him and to reject Tom. Her call in to the hotline... she's clearly not in her right mind. Also, she gave confirmation that she was separated from her brother before he died - she still thinks he's merely "missing" and not dead.

So then we really have two potentially separate crimes - Julie's kidnapping and Will's murder. Were they really the result of one criminal episode by the same perps? Or was Will killed by someone else entirely? Seems odd that you would kidnap one kid, and then go back and murder the other.

 

[DocZaius]

Episode 6 thoughts:

Turns out Tom is gay, I bet Roland is, too. Roland never got married, his relationship with the woman in the 1990 timeline was touchy when the subject of marriage came up, he lives alone when he's old, and he clearly felt a lot of sympathy for Tom.

Hays suspects Roland of being part of the cover-up. His loss of memory at the end of the episode was an act. Roland lied about not seeing a dark sedan out the window, and that proved it to Hays.

They are gonna kill the former state trooper in 1990 after figuring out that he killed Tom, pretty clear. Roland might be the one to pull the trigger, given his possibly gay feelings for Tom.

The landscaper seen outside the window of the girl in the shelter is none other than little Mikey, who had a crush on Julie as a child. He's hiding her or knows something significant about where she is.

Finally, the correct one-eyed black guy! Will Amelia tell her husband? Who is he? Was he involved in the kidnapping? He seemed pretty worked up about Julie.

 

[Slevin]

Episode 6 thoughts:

Turns out Tom is gay, I bet Roland is, too. Roland never got married, his relationship with the woman in the 1990 timeline was touchy when the subject of marriage came up, he lives alone when he's old, and he clearly felt a lot of sympathy for Tom.

Hays suspects Roland of being part of the cover-up. His loss of memory at the end of the episode was an act. Roland lied about not seeing a dark sedan out the window, and that proved it to Hays.

They are gonna kill the former state trooper in 1990 after figuring out that he killed Tom, pretty clear. Roland might be the one to pull the trigger, given his possibly gay feelings for Tom.

The landscaper seen outside the window of the girl in the shelter is none other than little Mikey, who had a crush on Julie as a child. He's hiding her or knows something significant about where she is.

Finally, the correct one-eyed black guy! Will Amelia tell her husband? Who is he? Was he involved in the kidnapping? He seemed pretty worked up about Julie.

Remind me where it came out that tom was gay? I totally missed that part

 

[DocZaius]

Remind me where it came out that tom was gay? I totally missed that part

Fans were predicting it, based on some subtle feelings, but in the latest episode the detectives were searching his apartment and Roland found a brochure from a church offering conversion therapy.

It makes sense, in retrospect, especially with Cousin Dan making comments about Tom, saying in the first or second episode that Lucy needed a strong man and Tom wasn't that, calling him "Tom Purses," etc.

 

[Slevin]

Fans were predicting it, based on some subtle feelings, but in the latest episode the detectives were searching his apartment and Roland found a brochure from a church offering conversion therapy.

It makes sense, in retrospect, especially with Cousin Dan making comments about Tom, saying in the first or second episode that Lucy needed a strong man and Tom wasn't that, calling him "Tom Purses," etc.

I’m really digging this season because there’s so many tiny insinuations that you need to watch this thing 3-4 times to catch it all.