What do you make of all the theorizing that went on around the show? The resolution to the murders was fairly straightforward the crazy Spaghetti Monster did it but there were many clues and Easter eggs planted along the way about this sprawling Tuttle/Childress/Ledoux conspiracy.
Most of that was definitely deliberate the lawnmower driving in circles at the end of episode seven, the use of spirals and stars. Some of it wasnt intentional, like when the truck was driving by and theres a yellow crown in the background. Ive been sent a lot of this stuff because my agent is a huge fanboy. He sent me The Simpsons yellow king thing, and the one where the guy has an actual actor playing the yellow king. As much as we in development might have wanted to see the general sort of feeling of conspiracy and learn more about what this cult might have been about, the weight of the story needed to focus on Marty and Rusts relationship.
Looking at the comments on several reviews of the finale, theres a particularly heavy obsession, borderline insanity, with why the clues about Martys daughter Audrey (the drawings, dolls, and crown) were never addressed.
I never read into what she was doing as having any relation to the crimes or the cult. I read Audreys behavior as being the direct result of an inattentive father. Seeking male attention in other places, or even seeking to get into trouble, perhaps, to get the attention of her father; it was not related to the killings or anyone around them. I dont even remember seeing the spiral in her room. The general chatter around those things is great, but its probably the kind of chatter that wouldnt have happened had all those episodes been released at once. The anticipation-speculation that comes with a weekly schedule is a double-edged sword. Because people have more time to talk about things, some crazy ideas get a lot of attention.
Another of Rusts hallucinations, this one a cosmic blue vortex, arrives at the worst possible moment. How was it described to you and what were you going for?
I dont know if I could tell you what Nic originally had envisioned without getting in trouble. We landed on the spiral formation of the clouds as a wrapping-up of the symbology, or at least a book-ending of the symbology. I liked the idea that we could actually see Carcosa and black stars. If you look really closely, you can see black orbs floating in it. It was important to me that if were gonna talk about these things, lets see them one more time before we finish.