True Detective Theories: Was Rust Cohle the ‘True’ detective?
By Josh Hill
The second season of True Detective is still a ways away as production is scheduled to start this month but hasn’t yet. Not even the cast has been announced which means that anything can happen at this point in regards to the new story and the new season next year.
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But one thing we do know is that season one is in the books and there are many fans going back to pick out little things about the series that are both geeky yet probably a big part of the story that we may have been missing. There’s no Blade Runner moment that is in there that will change your idea of the story, but there are more subtle things to be picked at in the nerdiest of fashion.
Perhaps the nerdiest of all is the title — True Detective.
It’s just a title on the surface but after watching the series even once, it becomes apparent that the singular nature of the ‘True Detective’ title may be on purpose. Rust Cohle is the baddest detective you can come across, but he’s also the smartest and was instrumental in solving the Yellow King case.
Marty, on the other hand, wasn’t so instrumental in finding clues as much he was there to mess things up. We all love Marty in his own loathsome way, but he really caused more harm than good. He would have arrested the wrong guy, he killed Reggie Ledoux thus complicating things, but he came through in the end to save Rust.
But there was only one true detective out of the two, and that was Rust. It’s a nerdy thing to take away but it’s one of the subtleties that make the series as amazing as it is.