True Detective Season 3 recap: The 5 takeaways from If You Have Ghosts

4. Tom Purcell knows something

The most disturbing and revealing moment involved the hotline phone call from Julie Purcell. After Hays discovers that evidence might’ve been planted at the crime scene, they both get word about a strange phone call came in that they both need to hear. This leads them to bring Tom Purcell in to hear the message for himself because it involves him heavily. As they sit him down at the interrogation table, Roland walks over to the tape player and hits the play button.

In the recording, it’s Julie Purcell freaked out telling the hotline operator to tell the man on tv–her dad, Tom– to leave her alone. She also says, “I know what he did.” She also says. “Where’s my brother, Will? I don’t know what he did with him.” and “We left him resting.” This is followed with Julie saying once again, “Tell him to leave me alone!”

Needless to say, if true, it looks like Tom was more involved than he is saying. But did he actually kill Will Purcell? Seems doubtful but I’m not convinced he is ignorant to everything.

5. No country for old men

Finally, the episode wraps on its highest note yet. The end of the show saw Hays reunite with his partner Roland in the 2015 timeline. Both men are now in their 70s and Hays wants to convince Roland to help him solve this 30 plus-year-old mystery.

What we learn from this sequence is Roland and Hays have not spoken to each other in 24 years. The reasons why are not specific except that Hays did something to hurt Roland a long time ago and he never apologized.

As they are catching up, it’s revealed that Hays discovered that Lucy Purcell wrote the kidnapping note to help Tom let go of losing his children. Roland and Hays also imply that they killed someone back in the 90s but they do not say who. Given the cryptic nature of the conversation, one can assume it’s either James Harris or Dan O’ Brien.

It’s clear that Roland is now an old and lonely man living an isolated life with nothing but his dogs. He seems very resentful of Roland and most of this comes out during the conversation–despite his best efforts. Roland attempts to not be confrontational because he knows Hays is losing his mind. As he lashes out though, Hays becomes vulnerable and apologizes for whatever he did and that he is also sorry for having no memory of it.

As they both share a very powerful and emotional moment, Hays eventually wears Roland down convincing him to help him solve the Purcell mystery. Roland attempts to refuse but it’s clear he sees that Hays is feeble and will do this crazy mission with or without him. So he reluctantly agrees to join Hays in his old man detective routine.

Final thoughts

It’s amazing how the season keeps creating more intrigue as questions keep getting answered. It will be interesting to read all the theories that spawn from this episode after the reveal of Julie’s message to Tom. We have only a few episodes left and it’s unclear where the show is heading, and that is fantastic for us viewers.

The performances continue to be outstanding, especially from Stephen Dorff who gave a very heartbreaking scene at the end of this episode. Regardless of how the series concludes, one cannot deny Ali and Dorff have tremendous chemistry as performers.

What did you think of the episode? Do you think Tom killed his own son? Tell us in the comments below!

True Detective airs Sundays at 8/7c on HBO.