True Detective Season 3: The 5 takeaways from The Hour and the Day
By John Dotson
This week on True Detective, Hays and Roland learn of a man with a dead eye. Here are the five takeaways from the latest episode!
Haven’t tuned in to catch the latest episode of True Detective on HBO? Spoilers ahead!
The last episode of True Detective brought us a few answers involving the Purcell investigation. Hays and Roland discovered the area where Will Purcell was killed, while Hays found a disturbing old photograph of Will posing for communion that mysteriously matches how they found his body. And the detectives get a lead involving a description of two suspects in a brown sedan. The show also wrapped with a head-scratcher showing Brett Woodard carrying a green bag that looked like a lifeless body.
This week, we find out what was in the bag and the answer is quite explosive. We also learn where the creepy little straw dolls came from and who bought them. The answers all lead back to a man who is said to have one dead eye. Last but not least, we may have a theory about the whereabouts of Julie Purcell.
There’s a lot to unpack from the latest episode, so let’s get right into it. Here are the five takeaways from this week’s episode of True Detective!
#1 A communion explanation
The episode hit the ground running this week by answering questions with Detective Hays and Roland questioning the priest who did Will’s communion. While nothing seemed suspicious about the man, he did offer a few leads for the detectives. The first being that the children spoke of hanging out with an aunt while they were away. The weird part about this is the Purcell kids do not have an aunt. The priest also tells them the creepy straw dolls come from a nice old woman named Patty Faber who sells them at local fairs.
Finally, the priest describes the prayer-like pose in the photo of Will’s communion as symbolic of his rebirth in Christ. Obviously, this could mean whoever rested Will that way could have ties to the church. Because of this, the priest agrees to let them sit in on service for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, no one who fits their description of the suspect turns up.
#2 A dead-eyed suspect
Upon their visit to Patty Faber, the woman was just as sweet and unsuspicious as the priest described. She confirms to Roland and Hays that she does make the creepy straw dolls and that she had sold a ton to a man long ago. The man she describes is an African-American male who has one eye that is dead or filmy from cataracts. To make things even stranger, he claims to have bought all these dolls for his “nieces and nephews”– refer back to the “aunt” description in takeaway #1.
The dead-eye leads to a man named Sam Whitehead who lives in a trailer park. Once they get to the suspect’s location nothing goes according to plan. When greeting Mr. Whitehead he is immediately confrontational exclaiming to the neighbors that he is being racially persecuted for the death of white kids. He also seems very adamant about where he was on the night of their deaths. Problem is, all of his uproars cause his neighbors to get hostile against Detective Hays and Roland. They end up being able to get some answers from Mr. Whitehead but the hostility of the situation cuts the visit short and leaves Roland with a broken windshield. Sam Whitehead did not come off suspicious but did he have something to hide?
#3 Insights into the Purcell family
The episode also gave small intimate character moments from Tom and Lucy Purcell. Halfway through the episode, Roland had to bail Tom out of a situation at a bar where he confronted a man who was sleeping with his wife.
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The scene gave some room for Scoot Mcnairy to show off his talents and what a valuable performer he is for the industry. Him pouring his heart out to Roland in the car is absolutely devastating and shows the beginnings of Roland becoming a friend to Tom as he offers him his couch to sleep off his misery.
The moment is complimented by a scene later in the episode involving Amelia visiting Lucy Purcell. In the sequence, Amelia is bringing a bunch of items of Will’s to the Purcell house when she encounters an extremely drunk and vulnerable Lucy. She invites Amelia into her home and starts unloading all her sins upon her. Lucy suggests she has a “whore’s soul” and tells Amelia she was not a good mother. The moment becomes even more heart wrenching when she looks through the box of Will’s items and finds an art project that says “I love Mom.”
Amelia says she can talk to her boyfriend Hays if she needs anything, but despite her good intentions, Lucy becomes volatile by the notion that she should talk to a cop and throws Amelia out.
What can be gathered from these scenes is the motivations behind Tom and Lucy’s inevitable breakup as well as Lucy’s self-destruction. The question remains: Did Lucy kill herself or did someone kill her?