This... This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean
when I'm talkin' about time, and death, and futility. All right, there are
broader ideas at work, mainly what is owed between us as a society for our
mutual illusions. Fourteen straight hours of staring at DB's, these are the
things ya think of. You ever done that? You look in their eyes, even in a
picture, doesn't matter if they're dead or alive, you can still read 'em. You
know what you see? They welcomed it... Not at first, but... right there in the
last instant. It's an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now
they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just... let go. Yeah, they
saw, in that last nanosecond, they saw... what they were. You, yourself, this
whole big drama, it was never more than a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb
will, and you could just let go. To finally know that you didn't have to hold
on so tight. To realize that all your life - you know, all your love, all your
hate, all your memories, all your pain - it was all the same thing. It was all
the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being
a person. And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it.
--Cohle, as a montage of female victims from case files reiterates his narrative.
A lot of the show’s fascination and intrigue often stems
just from McConaughey, in full-on monologue-mode, completely speaking from this
dark place and reflection on what he has seen in the past, perhaps read and
felt was insightful, the camera devoted just to him. The man can hold you in
his grasp, as he doles out a lot of intense and cerebral babble that goes over
most people’s heads (Hart often registers a consistent look of aggravation and
disapproval) which is why he’s often introverted and angst-ridden. As he sits
in 2012 with the camera pointed at him, Gilbough and Papania get a lot more
than just details about the past case involving him and Hart…they get diatribes
and a little man cut from beer cans describing a locked room where hopes and
dreams and all that reside but never see fulfillment.
Another victim with similarities to Doris is discovered
after a lot of off-duty investigation by Cohle, studying past cases and staring
at many dead bodies. Hart, meanwhile, is trying to keep his wife happy and
satisfied (although she clearly knows something is distancing them, not just
the job) while coming to terms (not too easily) with Lisa’s deciding to go out
on dates. At a honky-tonk, Hart sees her with another guy (while out with his
wife and her friend, hoping to fix Cohle up with someone as to bring down his
toxic levels and maybe draw from him anything other than negativity), unable to
keep his cool. She is dismissive (and why not?) of his attempts to control what
she can and cannot do. Cohle digs at Hart with subtle jabs but never explicitly
mentioning the affair while mowing his lawn (and talking to Maggie, who later
calls him up, fishing to see if he’ll tell her anything) brings out further
tension between them. The case does appear to be going upward instead of
stalling endlessly without success, as a task force plans to take it from them
if there was no mobility. Hart tries to assure Maggie that the case will be
taken from them so she can see him more (while it is actually Lisa keeping him
away from home a lot), but Cohle isn’t about to give it up without a fight. The
second victim, with cuts very close to Doris (along with having meth and LSD in
her system), considered a victim of Andrew at first, is the catalyst.
Questioning a preacher and those in his flock who might have known a potential
suspect in Doris’ death ultimately doesn’t prove fruitful or multiplies, except
to encourage Cohle’s vocal disdain and unyielding criticism of Christianity and
evangelical worship, against those who preach and those willing to be “suckered”.
Hart and Cohle have quite a row about this under at the back of a tent revival
service (the preacher, portrayed by Shea Whigham pastured the burnt church
discovered at the end of the previous episode) in one of the episode’s main
highlights. Visiting the grandfather of their other victim, Rianne, they learn
she was part of a church (no longer open) and ran off with a drug dealer and
sex offender named Ledoux. Ledoux knew Doris’ ex in prison…the LINK.
Hart’s own demons surfacing, while his measured appearance
to Gilbough and Papania is a front that hides transgressions he’s not proud of,
he asks Cohle about whether or not one man can be in love with two women. He’s
trying to make sense of his strong feelings, working through them while Cohle
just considers that bad men are needed to keep other “bad men from the door”.
Cohle talks like this all the time. He rails against a typical conversation and
eschews simple platitudes. It does make Cohle interesting, although he’s a
bummer to be around. Yet Hart’s wife is drawn to him. This is quite a development in that Hart realizes that Cohle might also be drawn to his wife and is not having none of it. Yes, this follows that ego problem with men who cheat on their wives but cannot stand the thought of it happening to them.
4/5
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