By Dustin Rowles | True Detective | March 8, 2014 |
By Dustin Rowles | True Detective | March 8, 2014 |
There has been a lot of talk about the misogyny of True Detective, and Nic Pizzolatto has played coy with his response. What if the reason he’s playing coy and not defending himself too much is because he doesn’t want to give away the ending?
That’s the beginning the premise for the latest, mind-blowing True Detective theory from L.O.V.E.. You’re going to be skeptical, and trust me, so was I, but this theory actually seems to work. I’m going to paraphrase L.O.V.E. here because he drinks when he theorizes, but all the credit goes to him.
The first thing you have to ask yourself is why are there no Tuttle women? There are plenty of Tuttle men in True Detective, but how do they continue the Tuttle bloodline? The men had to be born of women, but who were they?
Well, they’re not immaculately conceived. In fact, L.O.V.E suggests that the most recent victim, Stephanie Kordish — the Lake Charles murder — may very well been one of them. She died in 2012. Dead at 20, she may be the child of the Marie Fontenot and one of the Tuttles. Marie Fontenot, after all, appeared to be pregnant, a detail I had not picked up on, but the photograph is convincing.
Audrey also drew a picture of a pregnant girl (among her other drawings).
Remember, the eldest Tuttle, Sam, only likes them “that one time.” The girls are kidnapped, impregnated, then murdered. The baby boys live and prosper. The girls are are kept an eye on, and when they become of a fertile age it’s time for the ritual. Then the cycle repeats itself, and the bloodline remains pure.
The above part of the theory is sound, and there is photographic evidence to support it. Here’s where it gets wild: Maggie (Michelle Monaghan), after having sex with Rust, tells Marty she hasn’t been fucked like that since before the kids were born, right? Is it possible that the Hart kids are not Marty’s, or at least that Audrey is not?
Is it possible that Maggie’s family is part of the the Tuttle tree. That she was impregnated by a Tuttle or one of the 5 Horseman? It is a family filled with incest. “This is old-timey incest sh*t where they insure the bloodline continues so that death is not the end.”
Earlier this week, in one of L.O.V.E.’s drunken theory binges, he also suggested that True Detective might have taken its inspiration for the Hosanna Church scandal in Louisiana. Since then, that theory has gained some independent traction, specifically on The Daily Beast. Besides the Satanic molestation angle, there is an incest angle. Child swapping.
There are two types of women in the Tuttle clan, L.O.V.E. suggests. Those that are to give birth to keep the bloodline alive (then sacrificed), and those that are protected blood. Maggie is of the protected class. Her dad is one of the rich guys. So are her children. But they are still part of the ritual.
The theory works. It’s a little too neat and coincidental — to have all of these characters so intertwined — but that’s often the nature of storytelling.
I will add support to this theory by reiterating that in an interview earlier this week, Michelle Monaghan did say that her entire family would be back for the finale. Also, why else would the father-in-law be introduced early on in the series, only to disappear? And remember the final lingering shot in the last episode, not of the Spaghetti Monster, but after that? Of the boat? Maggie’s father has a boat, and as Joanna suggested over on Vanity Fair, the Yellow King may not be a person, but the boat.
Boom! True Detective solved.