'True Detective' Retro Recap: 'Form and Void'

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

The season finale, is a tricky, tricky venture since a television show has to wrap up every thread and nuance that it has presented to its audience all season long in around thirty to sixty minutes. If it can pull that off, then it's remembered as a true gem in the series and if it cannot well...the ire of the fans will come calling.  

Thankfully, the first season finale of True Detective; "Form and Void", managed to deliver on all fronts. All the answers we were waiting for popped up in this story and well, any way you slice it, this was a spectacular episode through and through, it was an absolutely thrilling tale that gave us a proper and satisfying ending for Hart and Cohle's journey and perhaps the biggest surprise of all, this was a damn scary episode, one that kept me on the edge of my seat courtesy of some wonderful writing when it came to the mysterious murderer that these two men have been after for years. 

After all, introducing the killer of this story and making him a complete and colorful character in an hour's timeframe is quite the challenge, but the show rose to the occasion and introduced us to one disturbing and disgusting man in Errol Childress. It turns out the undocumented son of William Childress was more than happy to hide away from the world when he wasn't committing murder by living deep in the Bayou, in a house filled to the brim with garbage with his little sweetheart that just so happens to be related to him and to make matters worse (yes, that's possible) Errol has his father's corpse on display in a work shed where he is happy to visit his pappy and chat it up on a regular basis. Those little tidbits were enough to establish just how disturbed this man truly is and just how much danger Hart and Cohle were going to be in. 

It led to one incredible showdown between the two Detectives and they finally closed in on Errol thanks to revisiting a lead they missed ages ago and this is when the show dove right into terrifying territory since the entire chase through what turned out to be Carcosa was the stuff of nightmares. Between the piles of soiled and bloody clothing and the large amount of scattered bones and mummified remains of human beings, there was nothing comforting about this chase. It really seemed as though these two men were walking into a trap from which they would never exit and considering how ugly that final battle was between the surprisingly strong Childress before the throne of The Yellow King, well it only made me believe this was the end for Hart and Cohle until a bullet from Rust's gun found its way into the monster's head.

It made for another grand surprise considering the subject matter of this tale...a happy ending. This is a season that went to the darkest of places, places that most stories will never go and yet it ended on a beautiful and hopeful note. One where all was right in the world, seeing as to how peace was made between Hart, his wife and his daughters, and the fact that Rust made peace with the demons within and most importantly...peace was made for the dead. Either way, what an absolutely stellar finale, and it was great to see Rust and Martin complete an incredible journey, and finally become the heroes we knew they could be by helping the light...conquer the dark. Until next time.

---