True Detective - Season 3 (1 Viewer)

[The Drifter]

Saw EP07 of TD S03. Wow. This show is amazing. Each episode keeps me on the edge of my seat, and it's primarily just dialogue - without much (if any) action. Everything is coming together re: all of the plot-lines, and there were some questions answered (or at least addressed) in EP06 - EP07. SPOILERS below:

-The scene at the end of EP06 when the "father" of Julie/William finds the pink room was extremely unnerving, especially when the chicken factory boss creeps up behind him...Obviously he killed the father, and left the body on the top of that staircase/walkway, where he was later found. The father did not kill himself, but it was made to look that way.

-The chicken factory boss also almost certainly killed Lucy (in the seedy hotel outside of Las Vegas) and made it look like an OD.

-Not that surprised to see that Wayne & Roland "kidnap" the boss from the chicken factory & interrogate him in that barn...which led to his death. Obviously there was something bad that happened between them, which led to their estrangement after 1990 - we just didn't know what it was, until now.

-Also, Wayne's Alzheimer's/memory issues in 2015 are getting worse, as seen when he thinks an unknown young woman is his daughter & that he's taking her to college...which is also shown in this episode:

IIRC, for the first time in S03, we see a scene outside of the three regular eras (1980, 1990, and 2015). This was the one where Wayne Hays was taking his college-aged daughter to school, presumably for her freshman year. I suspect she was around 18, so that would probably be around the 1999-2001 time-frame. I was surprised that they showed this, since IIRC it's the first time they time-jumped to a scene outside of the three regular eras. In any case, good sequence.

In EP08, hopefully they'll wrap up all of the loose ends & we'll find out:

- Exactly how Amelia dies - presumably sometime in the 1990 time-frame (or right after)?!
- Exactly how the milky-eyed guy (Mr. June?! Watts?!) was involved in the case. As has been implied in EP06-EP07, he was almost certainly involved - in some capacity - in the kidnapping of Julia & Will's death.
-Did Will die because he was a "barrier" to the kidnapping of Julie?!
-How do the creepy straw figurines fit into Will's death?!
-It doesn't appear that Hays & Roland ever locate Julie in 1990. So, where is Julie in 2015?! Is she still alive?!

 

[Sam Posten]

I don't think we'll get all the answers we are hoping for. Some stories don't wrap up in neat little bows.

The question becomes how bad will the blowback be from fans if the sotry is NOT resolved well?

 

[TravisR]

Michael Rooker!

 

[Lord Dalek]

I don't think we'll get all the answers we are hoping for. Some stories don't wrap up in neat little bows.

The question becomes how bad will the blowback be from fans if the sotry is NOT resolved well?

Well Season 1 didn't resolve everything and the Season 2 blowback was over it being plain ol garbage

 

[Walter Kittel]

There are a lot of unresolved elements, so I suspect we'll be left with a number of unanswered questions. Hopefully the main elements will get some degree of closure.

- Walter.

 

[The Drifter]

I agree the finale of S03 probably won't answer many (or any) of our unanswered questions. I don't mind ambiguity in some cases, but it would be nice to get some answers to at least some of our questions. I suspect the involvement of the milky-eyed man won't be completely explained, but at the least I would hope we find out how Amelia died.

 

[TravisR]

I'm sure murder investigations (especially ones that would involve vast conspiracies) have many things that never get figured out.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Yeah, I think too many years of viewing procedurals on network television has conditioned me to the idea that crimes are generally wrapped up. The real world differs greatly...

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17896034/murder-crime-clearance-fbi-report

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don't need a resolution to all of the plot threads - what I do want is a resolution for the characters. We've been in Wayne's head for seven episodes so far; I just want to feel like we get some closure on his journey. Whether or not the case is completely wrapped up is far less important to me.

 

[Sam Posten]

Yup!

 

[ScottH]

I don't know about all that Sam but I enjoyed the season very much. Possibly even more than season 1. The finale felt a little lazy with the one-eyed guy sit down narrative basically telling the audience everything that happened.

Did they ever say what happened to the wife?

 

[Walter Kittel]

Re: Sam's post (# 30) - Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The truly surprising thing about season three was there was something like a happy ending for the season. Not sure how I feel about the plot element of Hays solving the case only to have it slip away from him it at the last moment due to his infirmity. Was it appropriate, or simply a dark joke to play on the character? I don't know. The show implies that Henry will close the loop at some point in the future.

For my money, Roland had the some of the best lines of the series. His insult driven dialogue in the bar had me rolling with laughter; with his 'cyclops' line coming in at a close second.

We never did find out what happened to Amelia Hays (but given Wayne's age and the absence of a link to the main narrative) I assume she died of natural causes, something age related, or possibly an accident; but completely innocent and normal in its circumstances.

Overall, I do like the idea that sometimes things just happen and there isn't always an overarching, interlocked conspiracy. Enjoyed the season and thought all of the roles were served well by their respective actors.

- Walter.

 

[ScottH]

For my money, Roland had the some of the best lines of the series. His insult driven dialogue in the bar had me rolling with laughter; with his 'cyclops' line coming in at a close second.

As great an actor as Mahershala Ali is, I thought Stephen Dorff stole the show this season and deserves Emmy consideration.

 

[TravisR]

Did they ever say what happened to the wife?

They might have said early on. I just assumed it was cancer.

For my money, Roland had the some of the best lines of the series. His insult driven dialogue in the bar had me rolling with laughter; with his 'cyclops' line coming in at a close second.

I loved that too. Follow by the badass, "Can't live with it? Then fuckin' don't."

 

[The Drifter]

Brilliant final episode to TD S03. This ended in a way that was the complete opposite of what I thought would happen, but it was great because it was so unexpected. Very satisfying. So, to sum up (and don't read any further if you haven't seen the final episode - I could use SPOILER tags, but then the whole thing would be SPOILERS):

-Will died due to a tragic accident (fell and hit his head, while trying to rescue his sister) and Julia wasn't "kidnapped" for any sadistic/nefarious purpose, but to serve as a "surrogate" daughter for the disturbed woman whose own daughter had died in an accident. This disturbed woman was the daughter of the big shot who owned the chicken factory, and it's very possible that Julia was actually his daughter (that he had with Lucy). Lucy was initially onboard with his "taking" Julie (since she was being paid off), but then she probably started having second thoughts & said she was going to expose the whole thing, which is why the chicken factory guy killed her in '88 & made it look like an OD - in that hotel room outside Las Vegas.

-The "pink room" was just that, a room that Julia was kept in to keep her from prying eyes & to isolate her from the rest of the world. Julia was given a drug in order to keep her docile, but she eventually escaped & since she couldn't remember what had happened in her past life (due to the drug and/or being too young) she ended up wandering/drifting, which is how/why her fingerprints were found @ the Walgreens in 1990....which eventually led her to:

- The truth re: what finally happened with Julia was exactly what Wayne & Roland found out during their investigation. I.e., she ended up being taken care of by nuns at a convent, stayed there for a while afterwards, and unfortunately died there. The scene when Wayne & Roland stood in front of her grave (with the nun) was sad, but it was also nice for them to get closure on a case they had been investigating (off and on) for 35 years.

-Wayne's daughter is alive & well in 2015.

-Great dialogue-free sequence when Roland & Wayne were driving in the car, and the scenes seamlessly went from 1980, to 1990, to 2015, and back again, etc. Well-done.

-The sequence when Wayne thought the ghost of his wife was telling him that Julia was still alive, etc. were just delusions, and nothing more.

-Fantastic final scene, i.e. the flash-back sequence showing Wayne alone in the jungles of Vietnam. Well-done, and great way to close out the series.

Re: why/how Amelia Hays died, it seems obvious that the reason had nothing to do with the case (as some of us initially thought), but - as has been said - almost certainly due to natural causes/illness (cancer?!) and/or an accident.

I also thought it was funny how Roland got into the huge fight at the bar by instigating an argument with that guy who was twice his size; great scene. The insults were hilarious However, it was amazing that he walked out of there alive - but you knew he obviously survived.

 

[ScottH]

-The sequence when Wayne thought the ghost of his wife was telling him that Julia was still alive, etc. were just delusions, and nothing more.

I suppose it's possible, but that would mean the entire sequence where he goes to see Julie and forgets why he's there was also a delusion. I think that was real. I suppose you could still question whether that was really Julie though.

 

[The Drifter]

I suppose it's possible, but that would mean the entire sequence where he goes to see Julie and forgets why he's there was also a delusion. I think that was real. I suppose you could still question whether that was really Julie though.

Good point. I definitely think the scene when Wayne went to the house of the grounds-keeper & his family - and forgot why he was there - did happen. But, your post (and another one I just re-read) is making me re-think my thoughts on the ending. So, yes, maybe the nun(s) did lie to Wayne & Roland about Julia dying, in order to protect her from anyone nefarious that came looking for her. And, maybe Julia was the wife of the groundskeeper & mother of the child, that Wayne went to see (and forgot why he went). I.e., it's possible that - as Wayne suspected - the groundskeeper with the family was the same kid who had a crush on Julia when they were children, and then re-connected with her when he coincidentally saw her at the convent, years later (as Wayne imagined).

However, it's also possible that the the nun was telling the truth to Roland & Wayne, and Julia did die in the convent.

I guess that still leaves the story open-ended.

In any case, my thoughts on this series & especially the final episode haven't changed. Brilliant.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Ending on a happy note. Who knew? I guess if you choose to believe that Wayne's encounter with Julie and her child was delusion, that's okay, but I choose to think it's there because it happened, and his son and daughter did come by to pick him up. And his last memory of his wife was them cementing their relationship and heading off into the light together. Hey, I got some closure. More than I expected from this series. I think all the false leads and then leading to a simple explanation could be considered by some as a cop out and a big stall to stretch the series out, but sometimes that's just the way it works. I for one, am not playing the cynic on this one. Enjoyed the ending.

 

[The Drifter]

Yeah, I definitely don't see the scene where Wayne went to see the woman he thought was Julie & her daughter (i.e., the wife & child of the groundskeeper) as being a delusion and/or in his imagination. Obviously, Wayne & Roland ran into the groundskeeper when they were leaving the convent (after being told that Julia died there) - so, the existence of the groundskeeper & his young daughter was already established prior to this scene.

The big question here is: Is the groundskeeper's wife Julia, who was "hidden" by the nuns in order to protect her? Again, we don't find out definitively & will never find out at this point, which is fine with me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Re: Sam's post (# 30) - Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The truly surprising thing about season three was there was something like a happy ending for the season. Not sure how I feel about the plot element of Hays solving the case only to have it slip away from him it at the last moment due to his infirmity. Was it appropriate, or simply a dark joke to play on the character? I don't know. The show implies that Henry will close the loop at some point in the future.

For my money, Roland had the some of the best lines of the series. His insult driven dialogue in the bar had me rolling with laughter; with his 'cyclops' line coming in at a close second.

We never did find out what happened to Amelia Hays (but given Wayne's age and the absence of a link to the main narrative) I assume she died of natural causes, something age related, or possibly an accident; but completely innocent and normal in its circumstances.

Overall, I do like the idea that sometimes things just happen and there isn't always an overarching, interlocked conspiracy. Enjoyed the season and thought all of the roles were served well by their respective actors.

- Walter.

This weekend I finally finished this series off and liked it better than the first season. I thought Roland was great too. He had me laughing my butt off during that bar scene and seeing the one eye dude. That "cyclops MF" line was classic. I loved the scene outside the bar with the stray dog as it gave us how Roland started taking in stray dogs and saving them.

I think Amelia Hays died from cancer or some other illness. I do believe Henry will bring closure to the loop and that it wasn't a delusion. I'm not sure Wayne has drifted off for good. They gave you the option to think that maybe Henry investigates and is able to tell Roland and his father the final piece of the puzzle during one of Wayne's lucid moments. If you don't think that then it's your option to think otherwise.