Okay, this is going to be a tldr, but this show's been so engrossing that I just had to research the show, and the stories surrounding it.
I must say that this is way deeper then what I initially thought it was. Its pretty apparent that this show isnt your average police procedural, but is a show with very heavy themes thats encapsulated in strange philosophical allusions and bizarre mythos, which has inspired renowned authors to incorporate it into their own work. Having delved into researching the mythos, the clues and the meanings behind it all, Ive realised that whatever happens, be prepared, because things will absolutely get stranger and bizarre as we learn more and more as things move along. Before we take a closer look at the show, its very important to understand where Nic Pizzolattos gotten his influences from.
It all begins with a short story, written by Ambrose Bierce in the late 1800s, called An Inhabitant of Carcosa. Its basically about a man from Carcosa whos awakened and finds himself in a bizarre place. Hes looking for the ancient place called Carcosa. (read the synopsis
here, and the story
here). Its very eerie stuff, much like Bierce other work, like An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
Robert W. Chambers, was inspired by short story, and incorporated it into his own work, called The King in Yellow, released in 1895. The book consists of a collection of different horror stories, some of which that references a forbidden play called "The King in Yellow". The play in question is never revealed in its entirety. Only a few excerpts are directly from the play, which adds to the mystique about the work. Any other information we get besides the excerpts are from the characters when they recount reading it.
The first 4 stories are particularly of interest, because besides mentioning the play in question, they mention two other devices as well to some degree:
- An unknown entity called The King in Yellow
- A Yellow sign
Whats interesting to note is that the play is divided into two acts. Why is that important?
All of the excerpts come from Act I. The stories describe Act I as quite ordinary, but reading Act II drives the reader mad with the "irresistible" revealed truths. "The very banality and innocence of the first act only allowed the blow to fall afterward with more awful effect." Even seeing the first page of the second act is enough to draw the reader in: "If I had not caught a glimpse of the opening words in the second act I should never have finished it [...]" ("The Repairer of Reputations").
Does this seem familiar? If not, heres an excerpt form an interview with the
creator:
Episode four is the beginning of Act Two. Suddenly, the rhythm of the entire show changes. The slow part is over now. The first three episodes move at a very deliberate, almost funereal cadence, like youre marching toward something. And what youre marching toward is that final image in episode three.
What hes referring to here? Lets see what Cohle said at the end of act I:
You, yourself, this whole big drama, it was never anything but a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb will and you could just let go, finally know that you didn't have to hold on so tight. To realize that all your life, you know, all you love, all you hate, all your memory, all your pain: it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person. And like a lot of dreams
there's a monster at the end of it. - Cohle
Much like the characters in the book, Cohle knows the irreversible truth, because he has read the play. Hes telling us how it is, because hes receptive to the truth. His behavior, his visions, his insomnia, his ramblings, all point to the fact that he is enlightened. The detectives in the opposite side of the room arent seeing the whole picture. Theyre just trying to find out who the killer is and call it a day. Theyre missing the entire point. The videotaping isnt for them; its for
us to figure out the real truth, making
us the audience, the True Detectives. The show is essentially the play, because this show is about the The Yellow King, and we, the audience are the the ones who are transpiring down into the realm of madness that it encapsulates, in the quest to find out the truth. Were being awakened from our dreams, and what we may find will make us question everything around us.
The most prominent author to expand on the yellow mythos was H.P Lovecraft, who incorporated many things from into his own work. Lovecraft came up with Cosmicism, which is a philosophical belief that states that humans are utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Concepts like good, evil and feelings are fictitious; the only thing that exists is egotism. We humans are so wrapped up in our own selves that were not seeing that were not nearly as important or influential as we think we are. Were absolutely powerless, and hold as much significance as mere insects. There are much greater struggles between much greater forces at play, but since were so insignificant and too wrapped up in ourselves, were simply unable to see the whole picture.
Pizzolatto have much like Lovecraft, and Chambers before him, masterfully incorporated different fictional works along with philosophies about self, the world around us and what we perceive reality to be. Its all masterfully scattered throughout the episodes, and it is for us to open our eyes to find the truth.
Dora Lange: Our victim. She seems to be the victim of a bizarre ritual, being stripped naked and having antlers attached to her head. She also appears to be in a praying position, as well as being blindfolded. She has a weird spiral on her back as well. Lets take a closer look at spirals. What do they mean? Heres an excerpt from the site
Whats Your Sign:
"In terms of spirituality, the spiral symbol can represent the path leading from outer consciousness (materialism, external awareness, ego, outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, nirvana, cosmic awareness). Movements between the inner (intuitive, intangible) world and the outer (matter, manifested) world are mapped by the spiraling of archetypal rings; marking the evolution of humankind on both an individual and collective scale.
Moreover, in terms of rebirth or growth, the spiral symbol can represent the consciousness of nature beginning from the core or center and thus expanding outwardly. This is the way of all things, as recognized by most mystics.
The next big clue is that a girl reports being chased in the woods by a bizarrespaghetti faced monster. Strange, but we have nothing further to go on from here. Later on in the episode, Doras ex Charlie talks about of her becoming a nun, and something about meeting a king. So what we can deduce so far is that shes been involved with a weird sect like group, and that shes met the supposed leader of said group. The last thing worth mentioning in this episode is that Cohles drinking
Lone Star beer. Why is that interesting? If we look at Cassilda's Song, which is one of two direct excerpts from the actual play of The King in Yellow, Black stars are mentioned to rise in Carcosa.
Strange is the night where black stars rise,
And strange moons circle through the skies,
But stranger still is
Lost Carcosa.
In Episode 2, We meet the victim's friend, who tells the detective that Dora found a church. She also says her eyes... there were something wrong with them. She further mentions that she stopped seeing her much when she moved to a place down south around "a Spanish lake". Theres also a shelter where girls used to stay. This all sounds awfully suspicious, doesnt it?
If we take a look at Chambers book, we can see that lake
Hali is mentioned in two stories, as well as being referred to in Cassilda's Song in the play.
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
Notice that theres also a mentioning of
twin suns Lets save that for now, as well touch on this later.
After receiving Doras diary, they discover references to The King in Yellow. She wrote:
The Kings angels were marked; they became his angels.
"I closed my eyes
and saw
THE YELLOW KING
moving through the forest"
She has also written down Cassildas song, repeating IN CARCOSA several times. She further mentions BLACK STARS and has drawn stars and moons as well. The diarys however not the only clue that they found. They also find a leaflet advertising a church. Notice that the leaflets yellow (thats no coincidence). Also, take note of the
fire behind Jesus, as its a clue well also touch on latter.
This is also the
first time we see Harts daughter project the potential abuse shes been through.
Later on, we see that both the commander and the governor have sent down a task force to see what and how much Hart and Cohle have gathered. They also seem awfully insistent on taking over the case. This seems odd at first glance. By the looks of things, it seems that theyre not comfortable enough having Hart and Cohle digging around. Very suspicious.
Finally, we arrive at the church that the leaflet originated from. Its awfully hidden, but unfortunately for them, its been
burned down and abandoned for a long time (These worshippers seem awfully fond of fires). Right after they step out of the car, Cohle sees crows out in the field forming a
spiral (Awfully similar to the one behind Doras back). After they step inside, they find a painted naked woman on the wall with antlers on her head. In the last shot, we see the sun being reflected in the water. The shot represents the
twin suns from
Cassilda's Song, its being alluded that the place theyre in is very close to Carcosa.
This world is a veil, and the face you wear is not your own
- Preacher Joel Theriot
In preacher Theriots sermon (which can be viewed in its entierty here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_y5AcBV0x0), he talks about the things in this world arent real, and that we are strangers to ourselves. Our true face is not known to us, because the face we wear is not our own.
With that in mind, lets look at the second and last direct excerpt from the play The King in Yellow Act 1, Scene 2d (known as The Mask in the book) to see if we can find a connection:
Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
It is unknown who the stranger is, but it is believed to be
The King in Yellow, or a servant of his. With all this talk about our faces not being that of our own, perhaps the preacher is not really preaching about Jesus here
.
When our detectives talk to the preacher, we learn that he was affiliated with Billy Tuttle, the powerful spiritual leader whos not only related to the governor of Louisiana, but who also lobbies for the creation of a special task force focusing on "anti-Christian crimes. As Hart talks with some of the women there, he learns that Dora was accompanied by a tall man with a
burned face(!). There seems to be lots of fires, burnings and faces surrounding these guys.
The real question is though, who is this burned man? Whoever he is, he seems to be in the center of it all.
Could he be the man without the mask?
As the episode 3 continues, we find out that Harts daughter has drawn some pretty obscene pictures of people performing sexual acts on each other. One of the depicted men
even has a ski mask on. I dont know about you, but those are very specific pictures for a little girl to draw, who should be oblivious when it comes to sex. No, whats happening here is that shes clearly being groomed. While her parents were too busy arguing with each other, they failed to pick up on the fact that external forces were influencing their daughter in very obscene ways.
So why didnt she say anything? The answer is not far away. As we previously stated, according to Doras diary:
The kings angels were marked. They became his angels. What has that to do with anything, you ask? Were jumping forward now, but at the end of episode 5, Rust discovers paintings on the walls of the abandoned school Light of Way. The paintings portray angels with blood coming from their ears, mouth and eyes, which symbolises that they shall not see no evil, hear no evil nor speak no evil. Also, fast forward to 2002 when Hart is confronting his daughter about her lewd behavior. Look at her eyes. She is looking at him in a weird way. Remember hearing about this weird behavior before? This is consistent with Doras friend in episode two, who stated that her eyes... there were something wrong with them. You can see where this is going, but the sad truth is that Hart and his wife have had no idea about what has been going on with their daughter for so long.
Moving along in episode 3, we learn that many cases have been labeled as being made in error. One of those cases involved a Rianne Olivier, who incidentally also had a spiral(!) on her, very similar to Dora Lange. When Hart and Cohle visits her grandfather, they learn that his granddaughter attended a defunct school called Light of Way, owned by none other than our pal Reverend Tuttle, who needs no further introduction at this point, before running off with Reggie Ledoux. When they go to investigate the school, they meet a man who awfully resembles a certain spaghetti monster. Before Cohle can investigate the school further though, hes called back by Hart because of RNI (Records and Identification) identifying Ledoux.
Episode 3 (and Act 1)
ends in a eerie way with Cohles speech and Ledoux creepy appearance, further spiraling us down into the path of madness.
