True Detective Season 3, Episode 6 recap: The 5 takeaways from Hunters in the Dark

#4 Did the real dead-eyed man appear?

One of the more curious moments in the episode was the surprise appearance of the dead-eyed man. In the sequence, Amelia is at a book signing reading a portion of the work to the crowd. Shortly after, she begins taking questions from the audience members in attendance when a mysterious man asks if the rumors were true that Julie is still alive. She answers that they did find fingerprints but then the man starts pressing about whether they know where she might be. She then notices this mysterious man is an African-American male with one milky dead-eye.

Once she realizes this, her face changes and becomes concerned. The man becomes angry and protests that her book is doing nothing but milking off the tragedy. He storms out slamming the book down and startling the crowd. The question still remains: Who is this dead-eyed man and how does he fit into the big picture of Will and Julie Purcell’s disappearance?

#5 The discovery of the pink room

The episode came to a dynamic turning point this week with a strange eerie finale that answered a major question. Where is the castle with a pink room? Once Tom Purcell is freed from jail his first action is to confront Roland but he is not in his office. While he is there though, he overhears a couple of officers discussing the fact that Dan O’Brien is back and demanding money in exchange for information.

Being furious, Tom tracks Dan down at a hotel where he used to do meth an assaults him in his room demanding he tells him what he knows. At first, Dan fights back but Tom is so enraged he overpowers him into submission. Dan reveals that Lucy was taking money from someone very powerful and that’s how she was able to leave. Tom then says tell him the name or he has a reason to kill him.

Later in the show, we see Tom driving up to a big mansion with security and the gate says, “Hoyt.” Tom gets out of the car and jumps the fence holding a revolver. He breaks a window and makes his way inside the mansion. As he does this, the scene cuts to a surveillance room and someone is watching Tom make his way through the house. Tom then finds a long narrow hallway with a steel door cracked open.

As he goes through the door, he sees another mysterious door at the end of that hallway. When he opens it the room is completely dark but once he switches the light on, it’s revealed to be painted pink– just like the one Julie described to other friends. He slowly walks in stunned and then has a perplexed expression as he seems to notice something.. He says the word, “Julie?” At this point, Harris James slowly walks up behind him and the scene cuts to credits.

Other reveals

• We finally figured out who was in that hotel room with Eliza, which turned out to be Hays’ son who is cheating on his wife with the documentarian.
• The small peephole from the season premiere turned out just to be a method to pass notes through the wall.
• The DA shut the 1980s investigation down after the backpack and burnt shirt were discovered at Woodard’s residence.
• Hays in the 2015 timeline might be hallucinating the dark sedan outside his home. This is revealed when Hays asks Roland to check but nothing ends up being there.

Final Thoughts

That final moment raises just as many questions as it answers. It’s clear from the last episode that both detectives end up knowing something from this event. Will they end up saving Tom? Did they kill Harris James? Was Julie in the pink room with Tom? What we do know is the Hoyt family was definitely involved but the motivations remain unclear. I just really hope Scoot Mcnairy’s character makes it out alive of the Hoyt mansion.

What are your theories? Why did the Hoyt family take Julie? Tell us in the comments what you believe happened or tweet us @HiddenRemote!

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