It stars [OSCAR WINNER] Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Cohle and Hart, detectives in the Louisiana State Police. I won’t bore you with all the details of the story, except to say: If you haven’t watched it, stop what you are doing and watch it now. There is only one episode left, airing this weekend, so you have plenty of time to watch start to finish. Also, there are spoilers through episode 7 in this post because I can’t predict how this crazy train might end if I can’t talk about what just happened.
So onto those theories: Geekboys have been abuzz. Showrunner Nic Pizzolatto used the strange fiction piece, The King in Yellow, as a literary overlay for the show. Coupled with occult elements, hallucinations and the type of nitpicking that made nations out of fans of weird TV from Twin Peaks to X Files to LOST, there are A TON of theories. Blogs have popped up to discuss the imagery in Hart’s house, the murals on the walls of locations that show up for 10 seconds, the existential diatribes of Cohle and where his fingers are placed on his beer can every time he utters the word, “time.” It’s A LOT of info to say the least. And most of it … way off course.
It’s a detective show, after all. A brilliant one, but still … it’s right there in the title. The two main characters are typical heroes: flawed and therefore worthy of suspicion, but ultimately, capable of heroic deeds. So, while cults of the weird are out there shilling theories of supernatural pagan deities, graphic hallucinatory all-is-lies, and trustworthy guy is really solely the monster theories, there are much more linear and logical endings to this fantastic show than all that.
The Millstone
In the last episode, Marty tells Rust that “if you were drowning, I would throw you a barbell,” and it reminded me of this verse in the Gospel of Luke.
Considering the entire series has been building up to some religious perversion … the Rev Tuttle and his network of private schools where children disappear and teachers leave, I don’t think looking at a spiritual source is out of bounds. We’re gonna find out what we’ve expected since the Tuttle Task Force showed up and claimed “satanic involvement.” It’s the Tuttles, these men of power, means and faith who’ve killed and harmed these women and children. Rev. Tuttle is dead, but his legacy is alive (and maybe that’s what Aunt D meant by “death is not the end”). Will Rust and Marty be able to wipe out a whole network of obscene corruption? Who knows. But I think the whodunit is straightforward.
The Mirrored Martyr
Even the most casual of watchers knows that Rust and Marty mirror one another. By his tone, his look and his circumstance we assume that Cohle is a loose cannon, the unpredictable one, the wild card. But his behavior is steady, and in practice it’s Marty that acts like a lunatic. By the look of things, Rust went from a respected and talented detective to a suspect and a wreck. But in truth, he has changed very little. Marty, on the other hand, talks a big game about valuing his life, his family, his manhood. But his life is crumbling all around him. He has no contact with his daughters, has no interest in feeding his manhood or furthering his career. Rust has been willing to die (fade off into the ether, experience oblivion, etc) since the first episode. We expect him to sacrifice himself or destroy himself in the end. What does that mean for his mirrored-image, Hart? He may end up being the martyr.
The Misdirection
Anyone who’s paid attention knows that there is something going on with Marty’s family, especially his daughter, Audrey. There are those sex drawings, the weird gang-banging dolls, the troubled teen act and sexual deviancy and above it all, just a ton of symbolism that matches up with the craziness of the larger story. In spite of all that, we get the smallest mention of them in the last episode when Marty asks Maggie for an update. Where will they fit in? Will Audrey have been one of their victims, like Johnny Joanie, somehow privy to the horrific acts of the Men in the Masks?
I hate to say it, but this is Lolita imagery.
The Madness
Above all, the theme of The King in Yellow is that it’s a story within a story, and one that, if read in its entirety, draws the reader into madness. In the story, no one can experience the second act of the play without descending into abject terror and lunacy. There are characters we’ve already met who’ve been a part of the greater story … the one that Cohle and Hart are trying to puzzle out … whose minds are not entirely their own. Dora Lange’s mother and her headaches. Aunt D whose family believes she has dementia. LeDouex who seems to spout nonsense to Rust, and who certainly played an integral role in the Men in the Masks schemes. The girl in the mental ward who was made to watch and is now mostly catatonic. Will we all be mad by the end? I think in true hero fashion, Cohle may be the only one who escapes it.
The Moral
When I think about what this show makes me feel, it’s mostly disgust at what men, especially men in power, can and will do to women and children. I hope this show doesn’t disappoint with its ending (I don’t see how it could, really), but what I mean by that is that I hope the moral isn’t quite so Law&Order:SVU. What has happened to all the victims is horrific, and I hope the Men in the Masks are revealed, reviled and rebuked (maybe even castrated). But more than that, I want Marty and Rust to come full circle.
My favorite book is a small little classic by Henry James entitled, The Turn of the Screw. It’s a story told by two narrators: a young governess, and one of her charges as an adult. It’s a story full of ambiguities: what can we believe about what the narrator says. She thinks the young kids she’s watching are seeing ghosts. She thinks she is going crazy and maybe seeing them too. She promises us she loves the children and wants only to protect them, and we believe her. Mostly. Until the end, when while trying to protect young Miles from the ghosts that may or may not have ever been there, she smothers him to death. That book was touted as a ghost story, something supernatural to scare guests at a dinner party. But in truth, it was never the ghosts who were a danger to the children, but the one who told us about them.
What do you think is going to happen Sunday night? Will Rust and/or Marty die? Will we find out Audrey plays a bigger role? Maybe even Maggie and her family … could her stodgy, old dad be part of the Men in the Masks? Will it go full-on crazy and somehow reveal a legitimate Yellow King in Carcosa?
