True Detective recap: The 5 discoveries from Now Am Found
By John Dotson
This week on True Detective, all of our questions involving Julie Purcell are finally answered. Here are all the major discoveries from the Season 3 finale!
The last episode of True Detective brought some answers that left many of us cold. Tom Purcell was killed and placed in such a way to make it appear as a suicide. We also found out what happened to Harris James and how he disappeared.
Turns out Roland and Hays killed him while secretly beating him for answers. And to top everything off, Edward Hoyt found out about it and showed up outside the home of Detective Hays demanding to talk or he would go to the police with what he knew about James.
Today, we finally have made it to the end and all of our questions are finally answered. While some people online might feel left unsatisfied due to unfulfilled theories or predictions, the conclusion at its core is a very gratifying endpoint for the central character of Hays–brilliantly played by Mahershala Ali. This was never just about a mystery of two missing children but about a broken old man trying to puzzle the most grieving parts of his regretful life back together before he loses his mind for good. It’s a fantastic episode with quite a bit to unpack, so let’s jump right into it!
Here are the five craziest discoveries from the Season 3 finale!
1. Edward Hoyt has secrets
The episode kicks off with a subtle memory of Hays visiting Amelia teaching a class but then quickly escalates to the encounter with Edward Hoyt. While not much was revealed about how much Hoyt knows about what went wrong with Will and Julie Purcell, it’s clear that he is involved and trying to protect someone or something.
During their contentious conversation, Hoyt reveals that he knows Harris James was killed because his pager has a tracking microchip to his whereabouts. He also tells Hays that their vehicle was spotted on surveillance just after James left. Despite all of this, Hays remains resistant to giving up that he or Roland killed him. Hoyt also hints that his child died and something about his wife Ellen being sick, which puts Hays back into Detective mode saying, “You got something you want to get off your chest?”
The conversation turns ugly as neither side wants to reveal what secrets the other is hiding. Hoyt hints that as long as he isn’t looking for Julie no one else will–meaning he will not look for her either. Hays makes another threat about revisiting the conversation one day and Hoyt offers him a warning and a reminder that he knows he killed Harris James. Hoyt then leaves Hays in the middle of nowhere with no ride home.
Later in the episode, Roland gets the idea to visit the old Hoyt estate which is now abandoned and wants to see the area the maid mentioned no one was allowed to go into. The two men break into the manor cutting a chained gate, then a few moments after we see Roland and Hays walking down the same long narrow hallway as Tom Purcell just before he died. Roland and Hays finally see the pink room inside a castle. The overwhelming nature of the discovery is so tormenting that Roland shows some bitter resentment for Hays not saying anything about Hoyt for 25 years.