'True Detective' Retro Recap: 'Haunted Houses'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

For each and every one of us out there, there is unfinished business that resides within our heart. It may be something simple, something that we wish that we said to someone important long ago. Or it may be something major, a mistake we would love to correct, or a relationship we wish we could somehow rekindle; but make no mistake about it, these are moments and memories we carry with us and what we do with those dangling threads is important to say the least.

The best case scenario, is that we can face them head on, admit where we went wrong and find beautiful and wonderful resolution internally with them before letting them go. But often times, they eat at us, despite our best efforts to keep such negativity at bay, and if we let these issues take root within our soul and grow, they can be our undoing, and when it comes to True Detective the latter of those possibilities is exactly what catches up to Hart and Cohle years after their sloppy and fevered handling of the Dora Lange case and the botched arrest of Reggie Ledoux.

"Haunted Houses" is an episode that took us back to the basics of police work that we were introduced to in the first couple of episodes since Cohle has poured his heart back into the Lange case. The Tax Man returned in this story as we watched him methodically begin to put the pieces together on a strange little quirk to the case he thought was closed so many years ago, the fact that a lot of missing people seem to be tied to the area where Dora and Marie went missing, leading Cohle all over the bayou in an unofficial investigation that manages to ruffle the feathers of state facilities and the mighty Billy Lee Tuttle.

But while Cohle works to right the wrongs he's set forth in a productive manner, Hart simply regresses. After years of keeping the drinking to a minimum and quite frankly, finally keeping it in his pants, everything falls to pieces as he begins a new affair. While it's never directly stated that the incidents at the Meth Lab are the driving force behind his stupidity, something has to be forcing quite a change in his personality and his actions are enough to drive him back to the womanizing bastard we have come to know, and his inability to make peace with his past...is what eventually forces his wife into Cohle's arms and puts an end to Rust's time on the force after one incredible fight between the two men.  

Oddly enough, it's clear that this episode is another filler one for certain, but it's another serviceable one since it allows the story to finally bring us into present day. Everything that can be wrapped up is done so with a neat and tidy bow, except for the Lange case, and seeing as how Rust finally made contact with Hart, I would imagine that means it's finally time to solve this thing once and for all. It doesn't matter that the plot wasn't advanced too far this episode, since once again the characters shine and draw us in with their incredible stories, what matters now is that it's clear that there will be no filler past this point. It's all about the hunt for the Carcosa and The Yellow King from here on out in what should lead to a stunning conclusion. Until next time.

---