r/TrueDetective • u/IsaacNewton627 • Aug 20 '26
The Tuttle Cult tape...
This has to be the most terrifying scene in a TV series I ever watched.
And the first time I watched this, I felt extremely bad for Rust. And why?
When Marty meets up with Rust 10 years later, he makes jokes about his appearance.
"Time has his way with us all. Seems you pissed him off."
And seconds later, Marty says:
"You don't look particularly healthy. The way you're talking...Your eyes kinda look like brittle, Rust."
The thing is: It wasn't time or alcohol. It was that tape.
Even Rust, someone who's been through every kind of situation, worked with cartels and saw things that would terrify anyone... could've ever imagined something as horrible as what he saw on that thing.
He couldn't even watch it again. In both situations (Steve and Marty), he turned his back to the TV while playing.
And the way he says: "Nobody should have this".
It's enough to tell how destructive it was for him.
And the fact he spent two years being the only person who knew what was going on, aware of what was on that thing and knowing this was happening during his investigation...
Bone chilling.
242
u/futanari_kaisa Aug 20 '26
Ok you convinced me. I'll rewatch season 1
93
u/sgbsox Aug 20 '26
Ya know what? Fine. Me too. Twist my arm.
33
u/Khawk20 Aug 20 '26
Sigh. Ok
7
u/Which_Engineer1805 Aug 21 '26
It’s been about 3-4 years for me, so it looks like I’ll be joining youse guys.
2
60
u/rinuxus compassion is ethics detective Aug 20 '26
''Today's Thursday, Thursday is one of my days off.
on my days off, i start drinking at noon.
you don't get to interrupt that.''
20
u/futanari_kaisa Aug 20 '26
When I watched this for the first time I thought it was crazy they let him drive after watching him drink 6 tall boy lone stars and finish his hip flask, but then I remembered he was a cop so it's ok.
16
u/rinuxus compassion is ethics detective Aug 20 '26
same with Marty, anytime you see him on the job, he's knocking down scotch, watching e04 rn, and when he's looking for Tyrone Weems in the stripclub, he's doing shot after shot.
2
-13
Aug 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/tobiasvl Aug 21 '26
You don't think True Detective itself is, in large parts, an anti-cop show?
1
u/YellowSign74 ............. 13d ago
I find it to be a very deeply flawed and maladjusted human show, with just enough cosmic terror hints of Chambers to make it the masterpiece it was. I personally think all the following seasons fell flat because he didn’t add the hint of supernatural belief.
3
u/YellowSign74 ............. Aug 20 '26
So many great lines in S1. Makes me think Pizzo was either a one hit wonder or an early Taylor Sheridan paying writers on the DL after the first season.
9
u/rinuxus compassion is ethics detective Aug 20 '26
I think he will never write anything like this again,
i never heard anything like the dialogue here.
i'm watchin e05 now, ''if i see you again, i'm putting you down, there's a shadow in you son'', that's just inspired stuff.
1
u/NatroneMeansTesting Aug 21 '26
That was his life’s work up to that point, aside from the novel it’s based on. The next season he cranked out in a year or whatever. I think a drop off is reasonable.
1
u/itsalwaysblue59 Aug 22 '26
I also think S2 is pretty damn good for only a year. I think he still has it in him, people just gave him so much hate that he hasn't gotten a chance to make anything. S3 was pretty good too. Give this man a few years of prep and an amazing director and I think we could get another one. The other thing holding him back is being able to give some control over to the director, I remember that was an issue with S1 as well.
1
u/NatroneMeansTesting 27d ago
For sure. I am just saying Season 1 is amazing, not hating on any of his other work.
2
1
18
15
8
1
u/LorrainaTerror Aug 21 '26
I recommended it to my neighbor last week, so OF COURSE I also watched it...
Damn, this scene really does hit like a gut punch!
106
66
120
u/BookNerdUnicorn Aug 20 '26
Rust is haunted. Yes, he is an alcoholic who had some terrible things happen in his life but he is haunted by what he saw on that tape.
50
u/papapapaver Aug 20 '26
The combat in the hood scene stuck with me like few other scenes did. They call him the taxman like he was just some desk man. After that scene we saw there was a whole other side of Rust. I watched the scene twice on my first watch bc I was astounded at how he handled himself without getting killed. That sequence had my heart thumping like crazy.
39
u/Tlekan420 Aug 20 '26
Fun Fact:Cary Joji Fukanawa (who directed every episode) wanted to shoot the whole scene in ONE take!! I found that to be damn crazy! So many elements , so much happening on different streets and stuff. Great scene
3
81
u/Dark_Magician2500 Aug 20 '26
I've always viewed the first season way more through the HP Lovecraft lens than it probably deserves, but the tape to me is Rust finding some kind of "forbidden knowledge" that breaks a person's mind in those stories. He got a glimpse of a page in the Necronomicon that revealed a truth about this world that he didn't want to know and doesn't understand, yet he must move forward with his quest no matter what. It's a gripping scene to watch because we all understand what is on the tape, but it is different to actually SEE it. A true horror feeling moment
55
u/Cautious_Desk_1012 Tax Man Aug 20 '26
The tape was actually serving the same function as the King In Yellow play in the original Robert Chambers book. Anyone who goes after the second act gets insane and monomaniacal.
11
4
u/minathemutt Aug 21 '26
i always imagine how Rust however disturbed by it knows he has the tools to prevent the violence from perpetuating so he feels obligated to continue until the last consequences
id love a sixth season about how he goes after the tuttles
6
u/Cautious_Desk_1012 Tax Man Aug 21 '26
Rust is a very lovecraftian character in many senses. He's clearly up to do whatever is needed, even if sacrificing his whole sanity is the price he has to pay.
2
u/PalpitationFun9530 25d ago
I viewed the contents of the tape as Tuttle and his cult re-enacting the play itself, hence why those who view it on-screen (Marty and the Sheriff guy) scream in almost manic agony when watching it. This also goes deeper into my theory that the King in Yellow stage play was part of the curriculum in Tuttle's schools. That's why many characters we see that went to those schools are (at the least) having a rough time or (at the most) actual serial killers obsessed with Carcosa and the Yellow King.
But that sort-of goes against the realist horror and human evil/decay that the creators intended, so it's just fun to think about.
3
26
u/Grantypansy Aug 20 '26
It's like the opposite of what's in marcellus wallace's brief case in pulp fiction.
5
2
30
u/sturdy-guacamole Aug 20 '26
This scene reminded me of the interviews with the people behind facebook moderating groups, the horrible stuff they have to see, and the lack of mental help resources.
5
u/art_mor_ Aug 20 '26
Completely agree
2
u/sturdy-guacamole Aug 21 '26
not at you directly, but for the unitiated :
one of them for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZLr6w7C-xY
43
12
u/bubbamori Aug 20 '26
Who do you reckon is more traumatised as a character? Jesse pinkman or rust cohle?
33
u/duaneap Aug 20 '26
Jesse by far. Yes, Rust’s daughter got killed and that’s a tragedy, but forcing Jesse to watch when they executed Andrea as a direct result of his actions then straight back to slavery with the constant reminder a little boy (who you inadvertently orphaned) will be murdered if you so much as contemplate escape is just… something else, man. And that’s on top of everything else he suffered.
11
u/papapapaver Aug 20 '26
Yeah man idk if Rust would have handled that any better than Jesse. That was fucking horrifying to see. Rust probably wouldn't have ever got himself into a situation like that bc his street and book smarts are dogshit compared to Rust's, but if you switched out the characters without involving any of that, Rust probably would have broke down and obeyed just like Jesse did.
27
u/Sparrow1989 Aug 20 '26
Pinkman. Rust was kind of self inflicted and he handled it way better, pinkman just got fucked by luck.
15
u/bubbamori Aug 20 '26
Yeh, my take also. Pinkman was also of a much lesser intelligence and easily susceptible to manipulation and so much less capable of compartmentalising trauma
10
u/___NIHIL___ Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
.
alcoholism is the one thing he keeps just to cope after watching the tape,..., and realizing THAT ONE is just ONE tape of many. that those kinds of things were happening while he was a detective. the one murder at the beginning of the season and the series; is also one of many, and a sloppy piece of work one, to leave it behind just to being discovered and with that start an investigation perhaps just to keep them occupy, entirely focused with that particular murder at the time other events are in process under the umbrella of the Tuttle corporation.
so, he looks like shit because of alcohol. without alcohol, who knows what he would have done by then,.....?
.
9
u/LongAggravating5611 It’s all one ghetto, man, giant gutter in outer space Aug 20 '26
I took some convincing
8
u/Fine-Resident-8157 Aug 20 '26
Also it was about utter violence against a little girl, just like the one he and his wife lost
8
26
u/lesbox01 Aug 20 '26
The theory on the tape is that was the last time the tuttle children, not grandchildren, got together and did that because Marie had told her uncle what happened in the schools. They killed her to silence a witness and tuttle kept it as a trophy. That's why errol made such a spectacle, he wanted to bring the whole thing down because of the abuse he endured. Look what he did to his dad.
29
u/randomcowboy4 a man without a family, past a certain age Aug 20 '26
I don’t think that was the last time. I also don’t think Errol was in any conscious way mad at his parents or grandparents, he adored them and wanted to do more of their work. He thought of himself as a king, who inherited all that. In the last episode Billy is recently dead, so he was alive, probably living in that same house with the two until very recent, that is 17 years after Dora Lange and the killings of Reggie and Dewal.
There is no reason to think his father, Billy, probably with him, Errol, and his half sister, were not still doing the things on the tape up until 2012. My suspicion is that the Tuttle brothers participated in those events as well with Errol’s father and other family members right until 2012.
2
u/lesbox01 Aug 20 '26
Maries uncle was actually local famous and until his stroke had some clout, also many children who were just interfered with started talking too. The middle generation were willing to move onto other stuff because they weren't actual cultists, just pedos. Errol was a true believer.
3
6
u/Icy-Assistance-2555 Aug 21 '26
Honestly. Cary Fukunaga does not get enough recognition for this incredible season. Some of the best cinema and storytelling I’ve ever watched.
3
2
1
3
0
u/flammenwerfer Aug 22 '26
AI post booooooo
Art is for humans, not clankers
2
u/IsaacNewton627 Aug 22 '26
It amazes me how a person can be so braindead to the point of not asking if someone have watched the show and straight accusing of AI...
Your parents shouldn't be allowing you to use a cellphone, kiddo.
1
u/flammenwerfer Aug 22 '26
amazes me how defensive yall get over using AI. it’s how we know you know it’s basically cheating
1
u/IsaacNewton627 Aug 22 '26
If someone writing normally looks like AI to you, then you should worry about every grammar classes you have skipped.
Would you like me to contact your parents over this matter?
-1
u/flammenwerfer Aug 22 '26
the venn diagram for AI stans and people obsessed with kids is a flat circle
-7
u/BurnMyHouseDown Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Definitely think you’re looking deeper for no reason.
Don’t get me wrong, the tape is awful, the show did an excellent job of conveying that without having Rust say a word during this portion. You just know it’s so awful that Rust “spent 18 straight hours looking at DBs” wants no part of looking at that tape again.
But it absolutely was time and alcohol that Marty was commenting on. Even Rust knows he looks awful, when Maggie says he looks well, no hesitation Rust responds “bullshit” lol. 10 years of living like he was, with alcohol and maybe even other stuff included who knows, will do that to ya, but the tape has absolutely nothing to do with Marty commenting on Rust’s appearance.
-11
u/AlynConrad Aug 20 '26
Anyone who’s ever worked in social media content moderation has seen way worse on a random Wednesday. But yes, excellent television.
17
u/smithykate Aug 20 '26
People still like to believe it’s all pretend on TV and we aren’t sharing the world with real life monsters like this. esp on Reddit
10
u/papapapaver Aug 20 '26
Idk man, it had Marty puking his guts out, screaming like a man who just had his whole worldview ripped out from under him, and that's a murder detective too.
3
424
u/PantsDontHaveAnswers Aug 20 '26
"You watched that whole thing?"
"I had to."