True Detective

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Great ending to a great story. Glad the "green ears" wasn't what everyone thought it was, too! Rust talking about his daughter was heart-wrenching, as was Marty seeing his family together again. Rust's "Anything that's left in the room, I don't need." line was especially poignant as Marty helps him away. My only complaint is that the show could have used a few more episodes to fully flesh everything out, but as it is, I am completely happy with the 1-8 run.
 
I thought the finale was awesome. Edge of your seat, tense, gut wrenching. One of the best series I have seen. What I like about the show is that it doesn't treat the audience like we are stupid. The writing was top notch and the story was incredibly realistic. No supernatuaral element. No nice and tidy ending with everything wrapped up in a pretty bow. The clues were there throughout and the overall story holds up under scrutiny. Do we have all the answers? No. Do we have the biggest answers? Yes. Errol was the Yellow King and the killer of all those women and children.

Looking forward to a S2. While I do think there is more material related to the Yellow King case, I would prefer it, if the next season did focus on entirely different characters, story, locale, etc. Otherwise, it risks diluting the masterful experience that was S1. Just my opinion.

Invictus - we are of the same mind when it comes to the show. Pretty much agree with everything you have posted about it - including the ending.

Deckard - I don't want to start an argument with you. Just offering up some advice. You are a man with strong opinions, which I can respect, but you do come off as a bit of a know-it-all sometimes which can be off putting. Example: you completely dismissed the screencap spoiler because it didn't fit in with your view of how the show should end. You want answers to every single question this show raised, but like the charctacters say, there are no completely satisfying endings. Not all questions get answered. Not all bad guys get caught. The darkness may be winning, but the light is catching up. You just have to accept it and enjoy the show for what it was. Life isn't perfect and neither was this show, but it came pretty darn close, IMO. :peace
 
I didn't dismiss anything. You need to learn to read.

I have known Errol was the killer since like the 5th/6th episode when most people figured it out. It was completely obvious he was the spagetti monster and all over Reddit and everywhere else. Your screencap was no revelation and came way late in the game.

And you were not correct about Errol being the Yellow King. He is/was not. He is simply a henchman/pawn for the cult who went his own way. So I wouldn't be so quick to brag considering you were actually the one who was wrong and guessed yellow king rather than killer.

I chose to believe other possible theories like Audrey's possible involvement due to red herrings that were intentionally put there by the director and ended up being meaningless to the case and went a step further and expected more of the loose ends tied up and the show didn't go that far. I'm by no means bummed about it.

My theory was also not proven incorrect if you really want to get technical. The cult is still out there and Sam Tuttle banged alot of virgins(Errol is the result of incest and why theres no records) so it's entirely possible Maggie's father could still even play a role unknown to us. Not that I still believe or play into it, just possible if others still want to believe.

Also I was never married to any of those crazy theories, I would change them week to week because it was part of the fun. People who are angry at the theories are idiots. They are the only thing that made this whole show fun. It was visually stunning, it was well acted, it was intense, but the episodes were not fun. The speculation in between made it fun and all of those theories brought to light details that would have otherwise gone over alot of people's heads.
 
Deckard, you just proved my point with your reply. I am not going to waste my time quoting your responses because there is no reasoning with you. You are correct and the rest of us are wrong. It must be so tedious for you to put up with all us imperfect people. I have better things to do with my time. Have a nice life or a miserable one. Choice is yours. :wave
 
Honestly, I have no idea what you're on about now? You singled me out, you act as though I'm making things up or calling you an *******, all I'm saying is your theory was as incorrect as anything I believed.

Yes. After the reveal in episode 7 that he had the scars/burns on his chin, it seems like Errol is the Yellow King. Going back to his first appearance in episode 3, the screen cap all but confirms it. The writers were giving us a clue. I must have seen that scene 5 times and read the sign, but didn't look at it part by part. Good eye on some viewer.

You were wrong. Errol was the Spagetti Monster and a murderer but he is not the Yellow King. So what part are you on about exactly?

You're telling me I'm dismissing things, I'm open to all theories that could possibly make sense like Audrey, who in reality was part of the detective's curse and went over Marty's head that she needed her family and help but could technically also still be interpreted as a loose end.

That is not the case with your Yellow King theory. We know for a fact he was not the King or even a high member of the cult. Errol was a pawn. Are you saying that the eight men in the Marie Fontenot video was something we all imagined? I honestly don't get it.
 
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Honestly, I have no idea what you're on about now? You singled me out, you act as though I'm making things up or calling you an *******, all I'm saying is your theory was as incorrect as anything I believed.



You were wrong. Errol was the Spagetti Monster and a murderer but he is not the Yellow King. So what part are you on about exactly?

You're telling me I'm dismissing things, I'm open to all theories that could possibly make sense like Audrey, who in reality was part of the detective's curse and went over Marty's head that she needed her family and help but could technically also still be interpreted as a loose end.

That is not the case with your Yellow King theory. We know for a fact he was not the King or even a high member of the cult. Errol was a pawn. Are you saying that the eight men in the Marie Fontenot video was something we all imagined? I honestly don't get it.

What about the theory that Errol was BOTH the Yellow King and the Spaghetti monster? When Errol was talking to his gf, he talked about "ascending" and "leaving his mark". When he was taunting Cohle into following him into the underground fort (Carcosa?) he said that Reggie and Dewall were mere acolytes. All those statements sound like someone who thinks pretty highly (kingly?) of himself. There are several articles on the finale that are naming Errol as the Yellow King. There are also several articles that say he is not the Yellow King. Why can't you consider the possibility that he could be the Yellow King? Unless we hear it directly from Pizzolatto's mouth, I think we can draw our own conclusions. Are there still members of that cult out there? Certainly seems so. Where are all these so-called "facts" that he is not the Yellow King?

And you rub me the wrong way when you make inflammatory statements like "you're wrong" and "you need to learn to read", etc. That is what I am on about.
 
The first part, he's qouting the movie north by northwest, his accent is nonsense. Nic himself has already commented about the accent. So we have heard it from the writers mouth as you say. It was simply how he learned to speak becaue he was abandoned at a young age. He is the product of incest from Liz Childress and Sam Tuttle.

The second part was not him speaking. Rust was imagining and hearing those things himself in his head. He even hears him say "Look what they did to me, the same thing I'll do to all men and women" It's why Rust hears Errol everywhere but can't hear Marty. It's why he trips out visually he has sysenthia.

You should spend some time on Reddit theres alot of explanations and answers even from the writer that will straigten out your confusion.


The Tuttles founded the cult, Sam banged alot of virgins which branched out the blood line to the Childress and Ledoux. Errol's dad involved and hurt him and eventually in 1995 Errol went it alone and grew beyond the cults control. This also explains why Rust found the video tape of the rape with 8 men in Tuttle's safe. He the incestual grandson of Sam Tuttle.
 
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Redditt? OMG! The theories there are enough to make your head spin! :lol Some were good, but many were totally off base.
 
:lol Nah not the Reddit Theories, the Recaps. Some people have made some great timelines and they have transcripts from the commentary with Nic Pizzolatto from some website's finale recap where he mentions how Errol is just mimicking the tv and does not actually have any accent. Or you can just listen to it.

I watched the finale 4 times and spent like another 4 hours reading Nic's comments and the timelines. Really puts the whole case in perspective and has alot of other cool things people missed.
 
The first part, he's qouting the movie north by northwest, his accent is nonsense. Nic himself has already commented about the accent. So we have heard it from the writers mouth as you say. It was simply how he learned to speak becaue he was abandoned at a young age. He is the product of incest from Liz Childress and Sam Tuttle.

The second part was not him speaking. Rust was imagining and hearing those things himself in his head. He even hears him say "Look what they did to me, the same thing I'll do to all men and women" It's why Rust hears Errol everywhere but can't hear Marty. It's why he trips out visually he has sysenthia.

You should spend some time on Reddit theres alot of explanations and answers even from the writer that will straigten out your confusion.


The Tuttles founded the cult, Sam banged alot of virgins which branched out the blood line to the Childress and Ledoux. Errol's dad involved and hurt him and eventually in 1995 Errol went it alone and grew beyond the cults control. This also explains why Rust found the video tape of the rape with 8 men in Tuttle's safe. He the incestual grandson of Sam Tuttle.

Do you have any direct links to where the writer confirms plot points? I'm interested in reading them.
 
Oh, actually, they asked him about it too(no surprise) :

Errol seemed to consume a lot of pop culture. He had stacks of DVDs and books and magazine in his house, he watched North by Northwest on television. What was his relationship to it?

I had an entire biography for Errol. For example, he taught himself to sound like other people by watching movies on his VCR. That’s why one minute he can sound like Andy Griffith inviting you to the fishing hole, and the next second he sound like James Mason, and then the next, he can sound like something otherworldly. So yeah: if we’re talking about the stories we tell ourselves, if identity is a story, this killer we get to know a little at the end, his identity seems completely fluid, depending on what story needs to be told, or, in the case of the North By Northwest scene, whatever story is in front of him.


The leatherface victim aspect(proves to me he's no king) :

Would it be fair to interpret from the series as a whole that Errol was trying to expose the monsters who made him, his family, by leaving clues that implicated them?

Yes. You can tell there are certain times he wants people to notice him. Childress was signaling to the authorities both his presence and the presence of the men who made him. And Cohle and Hart don’t get absolute justice at the end. Cohle says, we didn’t get them all. But they got a branch from a big rotten tree, and Hart says, we got ours, and basically, the rest of the tree is up to other people



Childress doesn't kill anyone til 95. The cult existed and murdered tons of girls well before that thus Errol can not be the head of that cult.

Speculation now : I don't even think The Yellow King is a person, it's the sun. Rust points out they celebrated Saturnalia, a festival of light. Combine it with the hole for the sun right over the alter and it makes alot of sense. It also makes sense in the context of the sky, the dark and stars. Those stars are just far away suns. And it's kinda twisted that this dark cult that spreads evil (the black stars represent evil in general) worships the sun.
 
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No worries, like i said, theres others if you wanna dig around. The fan made timelines are amazing, if I find them again I'll definatley post them.

And heres just another good story recap I found that seems pretty accurate to me based on everything I'm reading.

-Errol (Childress) is the child of Billy Childress. The person in the shed is Billy Childress, who abused Errol viciously and Errol is now torturing his Dad for the childhood abuse he endured. For more proof, refer to a quick glance at the Tuttle family tree. Sam Tuttle had Elizabeth Childress as a mistress, who gave birth to Billy. This point is under construction and I haven't fully hashed it out.

-Errol is a serial killer and worked with DeWall and Reggie to do the public ritual killings. Errol leads this effort because of the abuse he himself endured from Sam Tuttle and other family members, both physical and sexual (Something along the lines of "What they did to me, I will do to all the children of man"). Reggie and DeWall also endured similar abuse and were thus willing assistants ie also priests, acolytes. Notice that Reggie and Errol have identical spiral tattoos made with an incision.

-The dozens of missing children with "made in error" tags in their files were killed for cult rituals and/or sexual abuse by Sam Tuttle/the family as a whole. These were not public killings and are buried in the yard. Remember also that Sam Tuttle "liked them that one time, and never again." Meaning he preferred to rape them when they were young and virgins.

-The Tuttle family is an abomination sick combination of incest, sexual/physical abuse, and extremist/fundamentalist backwoods regional-culture-based cult worship. These three parts are necessary and separate elements (incest, abuse, and cult worship) that come together to form the story of the Tuttles. Refer to Errol's half sister detailing her (probably first) rape by Sam Tuttle for more details. Carcosa was built by the Tuttle family, not by Errol.

-It is difficult if not impossible to know who the 5 members of the video were, beyond that they were all definitely a part of the extended Tuttle family. It is wholly possible that Errol, Reggie, and DeWitt were not even a part of this group. It is almost assured that Billy Lee Tuttle was one of the members, given his possession of the tape. In addition, he was a pure-breed Tuttle. Someone should make a list of possible suspects (should not include Maggie's father)

-The cover up is ongoing, likely driven by Edwin Tuttle. My best guess is that he is also one of "the 5." Refer to the FBI discrediting stories that Errol was related to the family. (we know for a fact he is)

That's all I can think of right now. As an aside, some are a bit too concerned with the meta of the story. It's easy to draw relations to any set of mythos you wish, its the nature of myth. Homage and allusion should not be confused for meaning. Overall, overanalyzing ends up overcrediting Nick P's story here - the storytelling and directing is detailed, but not to the point that some of you are analyzing. And that's okay. And yes, I think Rust's 'transformation' at the end is quite a weak plot point and development, but that's a different discussion altogether and just my opinion.
 
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Just read a tiny blurb about the direction S2 may be heading:

As for the focus of the second season, Pizzolatto has been mostly mum but he dropped a good-sized hint in an interview following Sunday’s finale with Hitfix’s Alan Sepinwall.*“This is really early, but I’ll tell you (it’s about) hard women, bad men and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system,” he told Hitfix.Pizzolatto and execs at HBO and Anonymous Content, which co-produced the series with HBO, are expected to powwow this week to hammer out more details.
 
He also hinted prior to that interview that it would be in southern cali and kinda based on the Manson killings.
 
Man, I loved this series. I can see why some people may have been disappointed by the ending or may have felt it was cut too short, but I was very satisfied with the finale, I though it ended perfectly. There's a conflicted feeling with stories like this, that we know there's so much more to it out there, just beyond reach, but we never get to find out. A lot of weird tales are like this, as are true crime, which is another reason I felt the series was brilliant. It leaves this itch in your imagination about the who and what's that are still out there, and depending on your personality, can drive you nuts and disappoint you or leave a fun mystery for you to chew on for a long time.

Sure, the season could have easily supported a few more episodes, but just because it could doesn't mean it should. The cult and the Yellow King are fascinating, but the story with Errol and the two detectives is what it was really about. Of course, I'd love to have an entire other season devoted to the cult, but I'm happy with the story we got.

I don't feel the Yellow King was ever a person, it's most likely the god or central aspect of the cult. I'd have to watch the episodes again, but does anyone mention the Yellow King in the sense of it being a person? Like, I know "who" the Yellow King is? It's a small thing, but saying, I can tell you who the Yellow King is, is quite different than saying I can tell you about the Yellow King. But, I can't remember now anyway.
 
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