Welcome to our weekly breakdown of the minutia of Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective. While Brian Grubb provides his always excellent coverage of the series (here’s his write-up of the most recent episode), here — as we have in the past with Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Better Call Saul, and Mayans M.C. — we will look at some of the details viewers may have missed; references to other shows, movies or books; and theories on particular suspects. We scour Reddit threads, social media, and podcasts in an attempt to curate the best intel about each episode.

As there is only one episode of True Detective left this season, it may be instructive heading into the season finale first to identify what we do know and explore the questions that still remain. We should note, also, that back in January, there was some question about how long the season finale would be. Show creator Nic Pizzolatto wanted a longer finale, while HBO preferred a finale that clocked in under an hour. It appears as though Pizzolatto won that argument, as the finale clocks in at an hour and 16 minutes.

What We Know So Far

— Julie was abducted by the Hoyt family and lived in a pink room in the basement of the Hoyt home.

— Officer Harris James planted the evidence implicating Brett Woodard in Will’s murder and removed the set of fingerprints from the Purcell evidence box. Harris James also apparently killed Lucy Purcell in 1988, Cousin Dan in 1990, and murdered Tom Purcell and staged it as a suicide in 1990. Purcell was working as the head of security for Edward Hoyt.

— In 1990, Wayne Hays and Roland West killed Harris James and buried his body after a botched interrogation. Edward Hoyt was aware of this the next morning. In fact, Mr. Hoyt seemed to be aware of every step of Hays and West’s entire investigation.

— The morning after Harris James is killed, Mr. Hoyt met with Wayne Hays. Afterward, Hays dropped the case and quit the force, while Amelia dropped the sequel to her book on the investigation.



— In 1977, three years before Julie Purcell disappeared, the husband and child of Isabel Hoyt (Mr. Hoyt’s daughter) passed away in a car accident. Isabel Hoyt was never the same.

— Mr. June — the black man with the dead eye — stayed in the main house on the Hoyt Estate and lived in the basement level, apparently with Julie Purcell. He was close with Mr. Hoyt, tended to Isabel’s needs, and appeared to be Julie’s caretaker during the time in which she lived in the Hoyt House. None of the other household staff members were allowed in the basement. It also appears that Mr. June and Isabel were the black man and white women seen by the farmer, and who who gave the Purcells the dolls on Halloween night. Isabel also likely gave Will and Julie the toys found in the box where they were playing near the farmer’s house.