I like how it ended. I enjoyed the miniseries from start to finish and have no complaints (other than the showdown between the detectives and Childress). I like it better when primary story is told, while leaving other things open.

So, this show is a big winner for me.

a lot of the stuff with the paintings looking similar / similar motifs all over, I think can be explained in that it's a motif for the pervasiveness of the Tuttle/Childress clans, how long their roots have been dug into the community, and how their influence and tracks show up in all kinds of places

Good post.

The thing I'm most disappointed in is never seeing exactly how the guys like Reverend Tuttle interacted with the guys like Reggie Ledoux and Errol. After they had the shootout in the jungle and MM went to see Tuttle, I think we all expected something to come from that and nothing did. It's very clear both high society and backwater crazy people were involved yet that was never explained beyond "some of them were relatives." That doesn't exactly sit right with me.

I still think it's a near perfect show and an awesome character study and I loved every minute of it. These two feelings aren't mutually exclusive at all I don't think.

lol? I just wanted to see more of the cult that was the whole focus of the show. It was unsatisfying to just have a showdown with the lawnmower guy and that's that. Nick Pizzalotto saying "naw bros it's a character study" is a total cop out. It sure seemed like a detective mystery story to me. Two detectives riding around in a car trying to solve a case. In a show called True Detective. Looking for clues, doing detective type stuff.

And Rust going on about the "sprawl" of the thing. Oh hey the sprawl is just one dude apparently.

And of course a story can be both a character study and an engaging mystery. They aren't mutually exclusive. I liked the character development of Rust and Marty but just because that was good doesn't forgive a really lackluster conclusion to the mystery. Which is why people saying "it's a character study" are missing the point.

imagine going through there on meth & LSD (the combination of those two drugs has been describe as an "introspective nightmare")

Green paint on the house was National treasure type ****. I loved the show (esp first 5) ep but was a tad bit disappointed by ending. I think if the show had a few more episodes it would have really helped. Everything felt a bit rushed to me.

Worst part to me is they kidnap a sheriff to question about the Fontenot case. He says it was Childress, they believe him, and nothing else comes of that.

Actual Police Investigative Work Done on True Detective Finale, Angers Thousands

Thought the Carcosa scene was amazingly well put together. The house, the woods, the building were all hauntingly ****ing creepy.

Enjoyed the show with a few caveats. Really wish it could have been a bit more like season 4 of the Wire somehow. Also, I'm a huge huge sci-fi fan, and I would have loved if there was some outer-space epic type material. Thought they might go that way with after all that vortex stuff, but never followed through. Also, 20 some odd years later I still can't look at Woody Harrelson without thinking of that dopey bartender from Cheers. Then I want to do my Cliff Clavin impersonation which annoys the **** out of my wife. Still, a top three all time show for me.

+ 1 that finale ep was bad.

I thought the Carcosa scene was a little derivative of...video games, of all things. MM is walking around this creepy place where he could be attacked at any time while the omnipotent directionless voice of Errol speaks to him (but at the same time, he can't hear WH shouting?). In a show that's been very good about not being like Lost, having to suspend disbelief felt out of place. The environment was very cool and creepy though.

Massively let down.

And for everyone upset about the lack of attention to Audrey, think about how little you would care (with the exception of a few posters who discussed it endlessly here) about that side plot and demanding resolution if you never read this thread and never saw the comparison screenshot of the mental hospital mural w/ the picture at WH's home.

Thanks for that, Reddit.

Is anyone upset about the lack of attention to Audrey? I thought they might come back to that in the finale but I'm not disappointed that they didn't. I'm disappointed that the finale kind of sucked.

The doll scene was easy to notice without Reddit or screen grabs...

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See: Homeland

Uh, yes?

Among several others, Neuge, the puppy eating guy, etc.

The lack of attention to something that needed no attention? No, not really. Angry teenage daughter is an angry teenage daughter.

The last episode's pacing was a bit off for a single episode standing alone(no intercutting of multiple plots, just an A-plot for the first 40 minutes and then a B-plot denouement to play us off).

It was just fine for the last 1/8th of a single coherent story, though.

Cohle not being able to hear Hart was actually very believable. It shows the extent of the maze, and various portals had stuff in them, which would further dampen the sound. Lawnmower man's voice was only directionless until the end, as far as I could tell. I don't remember any panning until the final room, though I wasn't sitting in center position when watching the show, so there's a possibility a lot of it was panned toward the right and I wouldn't have noticed subtle panning based on where I was sitting. I'm guessing he had set up a vantage point above the maze where he could see, or he was playing with the rat that he knew could only go in one direction based on how the maze was set up (he also could have been in a central location that gave the directionless feel of the voice, but that idea is kind of a stretch) . It stands to reason that he knows every nook and cranny of the maze, so I didn't have a problem with any of that scene at all logistically.

"Is that all there is?"

Like some of you, I felt a little let down at the end of the final episode. Maybe not so much about the lack of explanation for Audrey's behaviour as by the fact that all they got was Errol, that Sherriff Geraci had so little to tell them, and that there is a clear implication that the higher ups got covered up. And by the closing scene.

Then I got to thinking about the connection between Rust's closing line and his rant at the revival tent. I had previously suggested that his nihilistic outbursts were a sign, not of firm conviction, but rather of inner conflict. And the conflict was about matters that were fundamentally religious. If one buys his nihilistic expostulations as genuine, then the closing line is more a betrayal than a mere letdown. But if you thought Rust was a man who protested too much, then the line becomes indicative of the beginnings of acceptance.

The negative philosophy was a form of running away, lashing out and self-punishing in reaction to the flawed world that contained his daughter's death. So was the drinking and drug use, and the dangerous undercover work. The disappearance to Alaska - a place he did not like - after Tuttle got the system to stymie him and Maggie destroyed his only remaining human connections, was another manifestation. But a man remembers his debts, and eventually a man realizes he cannot be responsible for it all himself. He needs help, and even then it can't all be accomplished.

Rust woke up in hospital sharing with the audience a sense of let-down. He didn't get the death he sought - to be reunited with his daughter. He didn't take down the whole conspiracy. The monster at the end of the story was perhaps a little less than what had been hoped for. But that is as it should be, or at least, the way it is. When one looks up at the rural Louisiana night sky, it isn't pure white, just less totally black than it used to be.

When we consider that Pizzolato and Fukunaga produced a closing episode that puts the audience in a very similar emotional state to Rust Cohle, maybe we too will find acceptance and the realization that maybe we don't need to feel so let down after all.

Literally no one in the audience wants to be in a similar emotional state to Cohle. They want to see a satisfying ending.

In before "Pizzalotto turned the trope of detective stories delivering satisfying endings on it's head! Masterful! Brilliant! BRILLIANT!!!"