“Time is a flat circle, everything we’ve ever done or will ever do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.”




And so I find myself once again, staring into the bottom of a whiskey bottle, pouring over haunting memories of a crime so awful, so obscene that even the cruel seas of time couldn’t wash away. Try as I may to make sense of the world, the Darkness that hides in the plain sight will forever torture me.

I’m of course talking about True Detective Season 2.

It’s been nearly four years since Vince Vaughn taught us the meaning of the word “apoplectic” and here we are again at the beginning of the much anticipated, True Detective Season 3. As the first two episodes aired, everyone was dying to know: Was True Detective good again?!


Spoiler alert: Yes.

True Detective Season 3 finds its success by returning to what made Season 1 so much fun while subverting its own formula in interesting ways. Season 3 introduces us to Detective Wayne Hays played by Mareshala Ali, a Vietnam veteran who is working a case involving two missing children in 1980. In a similar fashion to Season 1, the story is told over several timelines the initial layer is Hays being deposed on the case ten years later in 1990. It is later revealed that story is again being recounted by Hays in 2015 as he is being interviewed on the case for a true crime show.


Photo : Warrick Page/Courtesy of HBO ( (Vulture )

This set up, in many ways identical to the setup from Season 1 is one of the ways True Detective makes it clear which previous season it’s taking its lead from. We are treated to three versions of our lead, Hays (1980), Hays (1990), and Hays (2015). No doubt a large chunk of the mystery this coming season will be how much info each version of Hays doles out, and how reliable and honest a narrator he is. This is especially dubious considering Detective Hays has serious memory problems that worsen as he ages. Together, the Hays and the Audience are gonna have to piece together what is missing from his memories.


Something worth noting here is one of the Season 3’s biggest differences from its past two seasons. There appears to be only one lead, Detective Wayne Hays. Season 1 was very much about the dichotomy between Detectives Rust Chole and Marty Hart (The divine pairing that is a key reason why we care about True Detective today). The themes of competing viewpoints of morality and justice were emphasized through their relationship. Season 2 was bloated with not two, but four lead characters, each with complicated and nuanced emotional hang up train wreck nightmares that carried the smorgasbord of themes and unfinished ideas for the season.


But with Season three we just have Hays. Now Hays does have a partner, Detective Roland West, who will clearly be a key component in fleshing out the message of the season. But we are not really being told his story or his perspective the way we would have been in previous seasons. Barring a notable change in the narrative in the upcoming weeks, it seems that this is Detective Hays’ story. It could be argued though that we have three different Hays to contend with.

So what about our boy Hays is important? What is the secret to the show? What happened to the Purcell kids? Well right off the bat I’m gonna throw a few crazy theories at you. As always, my theories are subject to change, and are (often) disproved by the very next episode. But let’s have fun with it:

It doesn’t matter who killed the Purcell kids. This entire season is about one thing and one thing only: Wayne Hay’s deteriorating mental state. In 2015 the man’s memory is shot, and the point is the season will be to unravel what he’s forgotten and why he’s forgotten it. The murder/kidnapping is incidental as a framing device to explore the lasting trauma of PTSD and Alzheimer’s.



The murder/kidnapping is a metaphor for the shame and horror of Parents who don’t want to be parents. Parents don’t want to be parents; they don’t want to serve as mothers or fathers. This ties to, surprisingly enough, Season 2 and its themes of fatherhood and paternity, as well as Season 1 and the relationship between Fathers and Daughters.



and its themes of fatherhood and paternity, as well as Season 1 and the relationship between Fathers and Daughters. Wayne Hay’s memory problems stem from his time in Vietnam. Either through an injury or chemical exposure or similar trauma.



Hay’s (20015) does not remember the truth about his daughter Rebecca.



Theory 2 merits its own post which I will share in the coming weeks, but to start the season lets dive into our first impressions of Detective Way “Purple” Hays.


Hays (1980-1990)

Right off the bat, kind of a badass right? He’s a Vietnam vet, specifically he was LRRP. The show explains well that that basically means he was a badass Rambo solo stalking in the jungles tracker type. Skills we see him get a lot of use out of in his detective work.




“To go and to come back….ever be some place you couldn’t leave and couldn’t stay, both at the same time?” – Brett Woodward

His time in Nam and his PTSD are worth considering here. At a certain point Hays and West interrogate a man named Brett Woodward, affectionately known as the “Trash Man”. The Trash Man was also a Vietnam, but in contrast to Hays he has not adjusted well post war. Hays admits that he needed a year to wind down after the war, and in his empathy it’s clear that while outwardly he has control of his demons, he was far from unscathed.


Hays also makes it very clear he has no interest in getting married, or having children or starting a family. He says that it wouldn’t be fair. We already know that he does end up doing exactly that, and it’s likely that this dramatic shift in character will come with serious and personal repercussions. I expect to learn what made him change his mind on the matter at what cost, and if it is something he would come to regret or embrace.


Hays (2015)

“You’re having memory problems. Henry is coming over with the people from the TV.” - Wayne Hays


This is where truth lies. In 2015, as Hays is being interviewed, we are given an almost birds eye view on everything that happened in the past, with some notable missing gaps. So in this timeline Hays, with the help of his son, is once again going over the case. By insinuating the catastrophe of “what happened in 1990” it sets up some delicious and torturous tension as each time we return to the past, knowing that something terrible is about to happen. I predict what ever happened in 1990 will overshadow the kidnapping and murder in 1980 by a lot, considering the weight of the deposition and the interest of the delightfully scummy TV Interviewer.

However it’s made very clear that Hay’s is no longer his sharp self. He trails off in interviews and seems to have trouble remembering things. He is our unreliable narrator that has all the answers. It’s not obvious what his problem could be but his behavior is remarkably similar to some Alzheimer’s patients. Which brings me with a heavy heart to his daughter, Rebecca.


“Maybe you guys can see about getting Becca out here. I’d like to see her.” - Wayne Hays

Rebecca is gone, and he doesn’t realize it. I’m not sure if she’s dead, or if there was some horrible falling out, or worse.


But we are treated to several seasons of Hays (2015) asking for his daughter. Each time, his son informs him that “She’s fine” “She Just called” “You just saw her a few weeks ago”.

Notably, there is a heartbreaking and tense scene where Hay’s is eating with his Son’s family. He again asks for Rebecca, this time to his son’s frustration. His Daughter In law answers his questions; again repeating the “She had just called line”, but Hays seems to not really understand the answer and repeats his questions. His son snaps and leaves the table then.


It’s Alzheimer’s. The repeated questions. It could be that Rebecca died, and they have told him over and over and over again and he just never remembers so now they have settled on this happy lie. Maybe she isn’t dead but she doesn’t want anything to do with him. Having known several people with Alzheimer’s in my life the conversation at the dinner table was heartbreakingly familiar, and I fear what the truth could be.

This illness of Hays (2015) is punctuated in the horrifying final scene of Ep. 2, when Hays comes to wandering the streets at night, disoriented and in front of a burning home. This scene is particularly haunting, I want to say.


Intrepid readers: Anyone know where he was and what the significance of it is? Did I miss something obvious or has it not yet been revealed?


Alright that’s all for now. Future write ups will be a bit shorter but we need to cram two episodes worth of impressions into once post.

Assorted musings: