'True Detective' Retro Recap: 'Seeing Things'

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

After a stellar and engrossing series premiere to True Detective, I have to admit that I was a touch worried that the second episode would drop off in quality a little bit. After all, this is the first season of a brand new show and that tends to offer up an uneven first year of storytelling.

But my fears and concerns were nothing more than a giant waste of time, because "Seeing Things" continued to focus on everything that made the premiere so great. It was still dark and dreary, in fact one could say episode two went to some uglier places if that's at all possible, and the characters remained rich and vibrant, and we actually managed to learn more about them as the hour went along. What surprised me most however, was the fact that this particular episode managed to pull off something incredible...it lived up to the show's namesake by giving us an in depth look into the life of a detective. 

The detective's life and career on screen has always been romanticized and embellished, and while we know that it isn't at all Murtaugh and Riggs blowing bad guys away left and right, we rarely get that inside look into exactly how tedious their jobs can be. These are men and women who spend their days collecting facts and piecing together the final moments of a person's life. We have come to expect shows about detectives to be filled with something more exciting than the mountain of interviews they conduct to put the case together, but this episode decided to go outside the norm since we were witness to Hart and Cohle, beating the streets to figure everything and anything out they could about what happened to poor Dora and well...the show actually made it compelling. After all, we are as much in the dark as they are, and every step they took toward finding information about her killer left me on the edge of my seat. 

But in between all of that, our characters shined once again and this episode truly took a focus on Cohle, giving us insight into what molded him into the cynical man we are presented with and well, his backstory was absolutely tragic yet fascinating. Truly the man has been through hell when it comes to his career in law enforcement. But despite learning about all the tragedies he has experienced, and learning about all the dark places he has been in his life, you're left wanting to know more about him. Specifically, if his career was this awful, and this trying...why did he stick with it for so long? I feel as though we are just scratching the surface with Cohle and I'm dying to know more. 

Either way, this was another impressive episode, and while the case hasn't exactly blown wide open yet with any major clues outside of the lovely image they found in the burned out church, I love that the stage is slowly being set for the rest of the season. Clearly the pressure these two men are facing to find the killer is going to play a huge part in how this story unfolds since we already know in present day there are new twists to this case and new victims popping up, but what I'm most curious about; is what exactly drives these two men apart and what kind of fallout is going to occur if we discover they make the wrong collar? Well, no time like the present to have those questions answered, time to return to HBO GO and find out what happens next. Until next time.

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