Time is a Flat Circle: Examining True Detective, Season One by Melissa Milazzo & Adam Stewart & Mark Stewart

Author:Melissa Milazzo & Adam Stewart & Mark Stewart [Milazzo, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sequart Organization
Published: 2019-01-10T20:00:00+00:00

Mister Miracle stars Shilo Norman, an escape artist who battles to free the world from the clutches of a dark god. Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #1 (September 2005). Written by Grant Morrison, with art by Pasqual Ferry. © DC Comics.

This competing story dynamic cuts to the heart of True Detective, as Rust serves an autocritical function. His profoundly reductive point of view shines an unforgiving light on the stories that make up True Detective’s world, be they Marty’s tales about family and masculinity, Reverend Theriot’s brand of religious revivalism, or Rust’s very own cathartic narratives, which is what he calls the tools he uses to extract confessions from criminals. The trick the show plays is to fool the viewer into thinking that Rust’s take, while horrible, has a firmer hold on the show’s reality than anyone else’s. It does this in a number of ways. McConaughey’s considerable charm is a significant start in making Rust a persuasive character. Rust is also presented as a man who has little if anything to gain by being right. Unlike Marty, who actively benefits from his personal fictions in that they mask or legitimize his bad behavior, at least in the short term. More subtly, the show works to reinforce the dominance of Rust’s worldview by aligning it with the iconography and philosophy of the villain’s, thereby lending it an all pervasive, quasi-supernatural authority.

Of course, the apparent objectivity of Rust’s worldview is ultimately undermined and reframed as yet another cathartic narrative. In his case, designed to lessen the pain and guilt he carries in the wake of his daughter’s death. In his original recounting, her passing is a blessing, an escape from “the sin of being a father.”[199] But ultimately, Rust, like Shilo, finds himself face to face with a competing story he can’t overcome. In the darkness - for Rust a coma, for Shilo an encounter with Omega in the heart of the black hole - both characters encounter the love and, implicitly, forgiveness. Consequently, all the talk of life traps, and Omega and flat discs and Carcosa start to look very shaky. Other possibilities present themselves, other stories, like the hope that Rust and Marty can truly be friends, or that Shilo can free himself of the guilt that’s dominated his life. Worlds where, to quote Rust, the “light is winning.”[200]

Intriguingly, Reverend Theriot’s sermon in the True Detective’s third episode presents us with an alternative, positive spin on reality, one which echoes the worldview Rust adopts in the closing moments of the show. However, the cut that aired positions Theriot’s speech firmly in the background, thereby largely obscuring its content. An alternative edit that foregrounds Theriot’s sermon can be found on the HBO’s Youtube channel.[201]

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