Very nice post. Guess I was neglecting how they had put it in the hands of the authorities.

I lol'd at this on twitter - only way ending could have been worse:

Hard to believe the people saying Cohle's monologue at the end is a betrayal of his character. I thought it was fairly clear all of his nihilistic rants were a defense mechanism because he actually felt that everything mattered so much. In fact, I seem to remember reading an interview with Pizzolatto where he explicitly stated as much.

The green paint also served as another vehicle to show what a badass detective woody is. After Rust said "without me, there is no you" earlier. I loved it right after woody put that together Rust said "**** you, man"

Though the finale was great. Shows how elite this season was that there is almost no finale that would have lived up to expectations.

Exactly. During the whole show, Rust was a grieving man who lost the most important thing in his life - his daughter.

So did they have the schoolyard scene with the boy holding the ball coming up just to show that was how he got his victims or am I missing something that that stood for?

Well, obviously. It's been discussed itt here and there. In '95 it is definitely a defense mechanism. This can't even be in dispute - his actions and words don't match. Obviously a nihilist doesn't try to solve murders in the first place. Etc.

put me in the column of people who wold prefer they never do a season 2, but will watch it when they do.

Would be down for a Cohle prequel though.

The text of his police interview and his intent to "tie it off" shows he's belief-wise the same guy in 1995 & 2012. There is no development there. He does not change until his revelation.

with a freeze on the air five

then credits

Oh man just no, what?

In '95 he's working a regular job, more or less getting on in life, he even starts dating a woman eventually. Now you're saying the actions of this man is the exact same as the man who literally tries to drink himself to death and nothing else. Really, really? I mean, no. You aren't allowed to hold that position having seen the show because it isn't there.

Season 2 has not new story/people

I don't these things are mutually exclusive - you can believe there is nothing waiting for you when you die, think humans are delusional, yet still be a decent person, try to do good, be interested in things. Besides he never claimed to be a nihilist directly. So to have this belief system developed over a lifetime wiped out from a dream you had in a coma is pretty hokey.

I said belief-wise there's no indication he's transforming to something other than a nihilist at any point, until the very end which is stilted and uneven and doesn't fit the rest of the series, or with his character who is not driven by emotion.

Not sure what you were attempting to say there, but my point was that I'm not convinced the writer can live up to his season 1 writing, and mood.

But if he can, amazing. He will go down as a GOAT writer.

What I'm saying is even if season 2 sucks it won't effect season 1 at all.

Ya that's not really how I view shows or trilogies etc...

I found the Matrix sequels totally ruined my overall feeling for the first matrix movie. I've felt the same about some recent awesome French shows like Braquo (GOAT s1, awful s2-3). So for me anyway, if s2 of True Detective is a stinker, it takes some of the shine off. But that's just a personal opinion.

that was legit amazing

lol @ hating that ending

The Scarface killer was creepy. Him watching those schoolkids, ugh. Part of his madness was was apparently revenge for getting burned. He spoke in different accents that he got possibly from watching TV movies. Strange to have that Cary Grant movie playing. All kinds of kids clothes in the house. Sick sex. ugh. He left the dead Dora Lange in public because he was crazy. He was no mastermind. His crimes were covered up by other persons like Ted Childress and Billy Tuttle. He led Rust into "Carcosa" and called him a priest. It is likely that most of the five perpetrators, if they included Reggie, etc, are dead now. Eddie Tuttle still needs to be checked out. Was that Errol's father's dead body in the bed? Have we seen him before?

hell yes, blood meridian miniseries on HBO would be great.

probably not word-for-word correct, but Woody comments that there's a lot more dark than light in the sky, and MM says "in the beginning it was all darkness. Looks to me like light is winning"

that's because you are start listening to him speak and ignoring his actions

What they messed up in the finale is the scale. Throughout the series, this conspiracy was built up and built up - it was multi-generational, it was all across the state of Louisiana, it involved an indeterminate number of men. The evil caused by this conspiracy seemed to creep into everyone's lives (i.e. Audrey) without them even realizing it.

And then the finale focused on one crazy-ass, multi-voiced backwoods psycho serial killer. It sort of fulfilled this weird fetishization that we have now for psycho serial killers as super human creatures that are supernaturally cunning and powerful. This focus on the one man psycho machine betrays the rest of the series because it doesn't seem so "grand" anymore as it did throughout the rest of the series - the evil doesn't seem as systemic and pervasive as it was portrayed earlier. I'm not saying that a satisfying conclusion would have been for Rust and Marty to catch the rest of the conspiracy members. But just having the one throw away line about 'we can't get 'em all, but we got our man' is a HUGE ****ing cop-out. Such an ending undermines the entire rest of the series.

That being said, the acting by all was great.

Co-sign. Just shaking my head at some of these criticisms..