True Detective

[warren oates]

Not necessarily a huge fan of the exposition dumps we've been getting as the show hurtles toward a conclusion. Or of Cohle's Alaska gap story (which makes his unrepaired tail light even sillier), but whatever. My favorite part was the throwaway asides to Cohle's friend (and landlord and employer?) the bar owner, who seems to drink himself into a perpetual half asleep slouch on the customer side of his own bar. A lot of ominous foreshadowing going on regarding the fates of the two leads. I predict that Marty gets shot (maybe even to death) and that Cohle solves the case alive but then ultimately kills himself (see: his expressed need to finish this before he says that he'll tie things off; also what he says this episode about there being nothing after death; and of course, his long-held better-never-to-have-been-born brand of nihilism). Crazy how it looks like

SpoilerShow

The Lawnmower guy is, in fact, the Yellow King. Oh, and by the way, Cohle's ninja B&E flashbacks provided some of the weakest and least convincing images in the entire show.

[flyonthewall2983]

Someone on AVC suggested as a knowingly crazy notion that Marty's wife might be The Yellow King.

[mfunk9786]

How could that possibly be the case?

[flyonthewall2983]

I thought it had some legs until I remembered (just now actually) that she was a doctor, and not affiliated in anyway with the Tuttle schools or churches.

[warren oates]

Well it's true that it may not be

SpoilerShow

the Lawnmower Guy, who surely is the scarred green spaghetti monster in the police sketch. There may well be a higher Tuttle pulling the strings.

[mfunk9786]

He just has a little bit of a beard there, I don't think we've seen the actual scarred man yet.

[warren oates]

Really? Even considering the very precise way that guy at the end was photographed, so as to reveal so much more scarring in a cut to the closer angle with different lighting?

[Mr Sausage]

I couldn't tell if that was scarring, just a beard, or a beard obscuring some scarring.

If it was scarring, it's a lot less than you'd expect given how he's been described up to now.

[mfunk9786]

Exactly, he hardly looked like a burn victim.

[warren oates]

It'll be one of the bigger surprises of the show for me if this detail is somehow intended as a red herring. We're in the home stretch, with one episode to go. Why would there be more than one creepy ominous scarred guy we've seen before briefly yet should have noticed better, who the younger detectives also fail to notice? That more than anything, plus the very deliberate feeling of that end of show reveal makes me think it can't be anyone else in that sketch.

[Mr Sausage]

A. I rewatched the moment and I still can't tell if they're scars or the prickles of a dense beard.

B. Where have we seen him before? The groundskeeper at the school in ep. 3?

[warren oates]

Yeah, I believe that's where the frame grab in the list of suspects linked a few pages back comes from. The Tuttle school they were called away from abruptly, to which Cohle later returns. You guys are watching in 1080p, right?

[Mr Sausage]

Rewatched that scene as well. Again, it looks like he might be scarred (his beard doesn't grow between his chin and lower lip), and Cohle only sees him from the left side. When Hart honks the hurt, the man turns and we glimpse what almost looks like scarring on his right side. Cohle turns at the same moment, so he misses it, too.

So, I don't know, maybe. Still seems light for the 'spaghetti monster'.

[warren oates]

Okay, I rewatched end end of episode 7 too. On an almost 50 inch HD monitor in 1080p. And everything about that final moment, from the place in the episode to the narrative construction of the scene and visual design of the shot is screaming "this is the guy!" But about the amount of facial scarring and the texture of the scars revealed at the end of the final camera movement? It couldn't be more clear on my set-up. So I suspect at least part of this confusion might a problem of image resolution.

[flyonthewall2983]

B. Where have we seen him before? The groundskeeper at the school in ep. 3?

It's got to be him, because we see Rust find some more Yellow King paraphernalia at the same school in 2002 at the end of episode 5.

[Mr Sausage]

Funny that everyone notes the scars, yet Cohle doesn't even notice when he meets him (tho' the scene subtly explains this by having the scars be mostly on the right side, which Cohle never gets a good look at).

[mfunk9786]

I love the idea that we're debating resolution and high definition when it pertains to something that's supposed to be an obvious reveal. I think the lawnmower guy's involved, but I don't think he's this scarred guy everyone keeps mentioning.

[YnEoS]

For whatever it's worth, I though it was clearly intended to show he was scarred in the same area as the spaghetti monster we keep hearing about. But I did find the amount of scarring the the semi-hiddeness with the facial hair was less than I had anticipated from the description.

I think we're clearly intended to make that connection, but I also wouldn't be surprised if there was someone else. Also wasn't the scarred man also supposed to be a giant? was he gigantic? Maybe I'm confused.

[Feiereisel]

For whatever it's worth, I though it was clearly intended to show he was scarred in the same area as the spaghetti monster we keep hearing about. But I did find the amount of scarring the the semi-hiddeness with the facial hair was less than I had anticipated from the description.

I think we're clearly intended to make that connection, but I also wouldn't be surprised if there was someone else. Also wasn't the scarred man also supposed to be a giant? was he gigantic? Maybe I'm confused.

Let's also remember the source of the information: a terrified and hallucinogen-dosed child, if I recall. It could be a matter of perspective, perception, and relative size.

Did anyone else also notice he seemed to be mowing the grass in a circular pattern?

[EddieLarkin]

There is very obvious scarring around his lower face that I picked up on as soon as the sun glare shifted, and the idea that he might not be "the scarred man" is, to me at least, preposterous at this stage in the story.

As for the giant, I believe that was supposed to be Reggie Ledoux, who I think was listed as 6'7 on his rap sheet.

[feihong]

Lawnmower guy has to be the spaghetti monster. I agree that the scarring looks pretty weak given the descriptions that we've had, but the fact that that description comes from children may be the reason no one has been able to pinpoint this guy until now. There's a whole collection of indications, along with the fact that the guy is the bumper that ends the episode. Why would he be there if he wasn't important?

I really liked this episode, for the Wicker-Man-like villain reveals, the way all the creepy symbolism is started to come together, and for the way the episode focused on time working its wear on the detectives.

The scene that floored me was the one where Rust and Marty narrate to one another their typical day, and we see accompanying images of their actual daily activities. It was so mournful and nostalgic. I don't recall seeing anything as special as that on television since the days of Homicide: Life on the Street.

[warren oates]

The scene that floored me was the one where Rust and Marty narrate to one another their typical day, and we see accompanying images of their actual daily activities. It was so mournful and nostalgic. I don't recall seeing anything as special as that on television since the days of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Agree. It's worth noting too how this is the only flashback in the episode that isn't straightforward, that does harken back to the unreliability we saw in the interrogation room flashbacks, as each man exaggerates both how much he's got going on his own and how he really feels about it, not to mention glossing over the serious drinking it seems like they both do regularly to cope with the loneliness.

[feihong]

It also seems to set up some sense of impending doom in the story. These guys really have nothing left in their lives but to do this one thing, to see the revelation of his hideous secret to its end. And the scene seems to suggest that both detectives are haunted and unfulfilled in their search for truth.

[domino harvey]

I thought the detail of Harrelson browsing middle aged women's profiles on Match.com was great-- a perfect capsule of how far he's fallen in stature and pull in the meantime

[Murdoch]

Interesting that folks are debating the Lawnmower Man's identity as the scarred man, I thought his scars were pretty clear and his ominous little aside to himself after the detectives drove off was just hammering home the point that he's this mysterious spaghetti man (how creepy is that nickname?).