In a one hour span, this weeks episode “The Secret Fate of All Life”, reached the depths of a power house film. The benefit of a 4 episode build, and some brilliant writing by Nic Pizzolatto.
In the last episode Marty and Rust’s “off book” investigation came to a boiling point, when for the sake of a lead on Ledoux, Rust was dragged into an armed robbery by his old biker contact Ginger. The ill planned robbery quickly slips into chaos and the episode ends with Rust pulling Ginger out of damnation, in a 6 minute ‘one shot’ that is sure to be studied by film students for years to come.
Episode 5 begins with Rust and Ginger sitting in a bar, waiting on Ledoux’s cooking partner Dewall. He enters, they all sit down, and Cohle begins to give his pitch about the fictional drug exchange. Dewall isn’t fooled in the slightest, instantly rejecting Cohle saying “you gotta shadow on you”. After some threatening words Dewall leaves, triggering Marty who’s waiting outside, to follow. The “bird dog” tactic pays off, leading the boys to the layer of the beast.
Though the area is fortified with “redneck defense systems”, such as trip wire explosives and “Devil Traps”, Marty and Rust are able to sneak onto the compound without incident. Getting the drop on both Ledoux and Dewall. Now for the first time we see the biggest difference between the 2 narratives. Marty and Rust in the past and present lying in their depositions about what happened in “the big shoot out”. While we, the audience, are fortunate to view the truth from the outside.
Marty cuffs Ledoux and proceeds to search the rest of his dark and seedy den. Ledoux begins to speak..
“Its time isn’t it?”…. “I know what happens next, I saw you in my dream, your in Carcosa now….. with me, he see’s you”…”You’ll do this again”………”time is a flat circle”
Meanwhile in the back Marty finds 2 children chained and abused, causing him to come out and serve immediate justice, blowing Ledoux’s brains out. In this we once again see Martys heart force him into an impulse decision. Reminding us all that, despite what his wife says, he is a good person, and he does care.
The execution spooks Dewall who runs. Rust takes aim, but before he can shoot, Dewall steps on a landmine and is destroyed in the explosion.
Though the details of how they took out Ledoux may differ between narratives, a truth still remains, Ledoux is dead. And as Marty and Cohle wrap up the first 4 episodes with their well constructed lies, and life philosophies, it seems we’ve come to the end of Act 1.
Now Marty is painting a picture for detectives Papania and Gilbough of “the good years”, leading up to 2002, where supposedly something happens that scatters everyone to the wind.
Rust, meanwhile, is recalling the “assist” that left his “world undone”, in an interrogation with Francis, a suspect in a double homicide. Believing he’s headed to jail, Francis blurts out some info to Rust hoping it’ll save his hide.
”I know about that woman y’all found out in the woods way back, ……the antlers… Y’all never caught the man that did that. He’s been out there killing…. I met him once. There’s big people who know about him. Big people.” ” I can tell you about The Yellow King”
This sets Cohle off and he proceeds slap the hell out of Francis to get a name, causing the cops outside to pull him off, and resetting the stage for Act 2. The next day Rust and Marty head out to the prison to speak to Francis. On the way, Cohle lays out a theory that maybe the Christian Task Force was involved in some way, based off their sudden and eager interest to take over the case. Cohle also mentions how “Carcosa” the “Yellow King” have now been mentioned 3 times by 3 different people. A reference to a book of short stories written in the late 1800’s called “The King in Yellow”, in which the characters go mad upon reading the 2nd act of a play by the same name, and also refer to the city of “Carcosa” several times.
“The King in Yellow” was inspired by the short story “An inhabitant of Carcosa”, in which a man wakes up from a long sleep to find himself in the after life, and walking the apparent ruins of his beloved city, Carcosa. As the clues build it seems more and more likely that there is an underlying religion or cult, revolving around “The Yellow King”, and “Carcosa”, which may serve as a sort of after life for it’s followers.
When they get to the prison they find Francis had committed suicide in his cell. After reviewing the security footage Cohle determines that it may have had something to do with the phone call Francis took from his lawyer right before he cut his wrists. The investigation seems to run dry. Leaving Marty unconvinced and Cohle reinvested in the obsession. The episode is wrapped up by Cohle in both the present and past. In his interview with Papania and Gilbough, he once again goes into a metaphysical monologue, laying out the “M-Brane Theory”
“It’s like, in this universe, we process time linearly,” he says. “Forward. But outside of our space time, from what would be a 4th dimensional perspective, time wouldn’t exist. And from that vantage, could we attain it, we’d see” … “Matter in a super position, every place it ever occupied. Our sentience just cycling through our lives like carts on a track. See, everything outside our dimension, that’s eternity. Eternity looking down on us. Now, to us, it’s a sphere. But to them, it’s a flat circle.”
And to us, the audience, its a flat T.V screen. We are able to sit outside in our own “eternity” and view the space time continuum of the characters in this series. We see the truth and lies alike. And as we see those lies and life philosophies shift and get stripped away, we are left with a truth. A philosophy to live by. And the champion of that philosophy, Cohle, the True Detective.
This show is turning out to be a map of our own repetitive lives, and the world of entertainment in which we are stuck. Watching the same stories, retold, in our lives, and on the screen.
Highlighting our own dark repetitive existence, and…
“That is the terrible and the secret fate of all life, you’re trapped, by that nightmare you keep waking up into” – Cohle
The interview with Papania and Gilbough comes to an end and Cohle, less than impressed with the detectives case file, starts to deflect their accusations and leave. Suggesting that getting a look at that case file, and a read on the “company men”, may have been the only reason he submitted to the “Consultation”. 
Finally we see Cohle in 2002 working the case alone, back at the school that was shut down by hurricane Andrew. The same school that he was at, questioning the Lawnmower man, when Marty honked his horn calling him back to the car. The episode ends with Cohle searching the dark school where he finds some more disturbing clues. Some chalk drawings of dead children and a thicket of “Devil Traps”.
What would have happened if Marty hadn’t honked that horn? What if Cohle had been able to question the lawnmower man further? What do these new clues mean? Will we all go crazy in the 2nd Act?
We have one long week to wait, and 3 more episodes to find out.
