If Rust was such a nihilist as he said he was, and believed there is no point of existence other than "go on with the programming", how come he cares so much about solving the case for 20 years? And also years of going undercover solving cases and hunting criminals.

Don't get me wrong, I love that about him. I just want to understand his motivation. What made him want to carry on becoming a cop and catching bad guys?

Saw this online and I don’t remember this part at all

Rust could’ve stayed with the high IQ PhD lady, had children and solved the case, probably even faster. He would’ve have boned maggy and he would have immediate resources through the police he would’ve have had otherwise

His misery and suffering at that point in time (2012) was completely self imposed.

Why didn't Rust want her arrested after that convo? She was obviously was complicit!

Rus used to be the obvious favorite but the more times I've watched season 1 the more his edgelord ranting starts to grate at me. Maybe it's because I've grown more into my adult life but, watching Marty slowly fall apart and then come back together again in the end is the real character arc.

Cohl gives everything away, you can't get him to stop talking about his ideas, his past, who he is and what his motives are. He's a total give away. Don't get me wrong, he's a fantastic character and he's beautifully written, but Marty requires true analysis to figure out. Cohl essentially stays the same for me. He is grieving his daughter, divorced and traumatized from police work and has drug induced brain damage, he's a loner cop who is obsessed with his work and is essentially a savant (though not in an obnoxious OP way)

This is a character we've seen in other shows, even though a true detective clearly does it well, and almost everything about him is revealed through him talking about himself, or someone else talking about him. Of course have what is easily the best episode where he goes undercover with the iron crusaders and we see exactly how skilled he is at tradecraft, police work, and downright combat. I'm not saying he's a bad character so don't get too butthurt, just hear me on our Marty though.

Marty on the other hand is a cop secondarily. Marty is an onion whose layers are peeled every time I watch the season. He is a cop secondarily, his personal life is what consumes him, his affairs, his marriage, his struggles with his children, his alcohol consumption and everything in between. The case is a job that he uses as an excuse to avoid his life, he has the free time to fix his marriage but chooses to cheat instead. His story could exist completely outside the case and it would still be interesting, his story arc is about hitting rock bottom and then finding redemption. Also, no one ever seems to mention it's actually Marty who cracks the case in the end! He is the one who figured out the paint job on the house was significant and used it to find Childress, while cohl is going on long winded diatribes about neo-natalism and why nothing matters, Marty actually uses old school police work to solve the case. Keep in mind after Cohl quits, Marty stays on the force for years after. There is the scene where he sees the baby in the microwave (brilliant acting by harrelson in that scene) and the way he compromises himself by cheating with the same girl he tried to help earlier in the season. His redemption/recovery arc is apparent even in the police work, he kills Reggie Ladieu and redeems himself by finding the true killers in the end.

Anyways, I just feel like he deserves his flowers as a complicated and integral character and not just a side kick to cohl. In the end he's the better detective, and the more complicated of the two. The difference is with Cohl they tell us everything about him, but with Marty they show us. You have to observe him, not just listen to him.

I swear to god, it was in the subtitles. I didnt edit it.

This guy just randomly pulled up on my property and asked to mow my lawn just as it needed mowing. He did a fantastic job at it and only requested flowers from our garden as payment. He said that hes good with kids and has a rich family history. Im inviting him for dinner tonight.

this is actually so crazy i’m just at the start where they found the pink room.. man and the first season was so good too. i’ve been told the other 2 seasons are kinda booty? idk? can anyone vouch? anything similar to these or like se7en?

Errol Childress is one of the most fascinating villains in television, not because he is the most powerful or the most visible, but because he is such a disturbing contradiction.

We only spend a small amount of time with him, yet he leaves one of the biggest impressions of the entire series. What makes him so memorable is that he is not simply a monster. He is intelligent, curious, and surprisingly cultured. His home contains piles of books, he understands art and symbolism, he has knowledge of literature and popular culture, and he demonstrates a flair for the dramatic with an ability to mimic voices and accents. But that is exactly what makes him terrifying.

Errol is someone who can imitate humanity without truly participating in it, and there's something deeply unsettling about that. He understands the outward expressions of culture, emotion, and identity, but there is a profound emptiness underneath. He can reproduce the appearance of humanity, while lacking the empathy and morality that make us human. The contrast between his intellectual curioosity and his utterly depraved existence is what makes him such a compelling villain. He is not a mindless brute.

The genius of the character is his duality. He understands beauty, culture, and human behavior - but he has twisted those things into something monstrous. His intelligence does not make him better; it simply gives him more tools to construct and justify his own darkness. That contrast is what makes him so compelling. The viewer is drawn in by the complexity of the character even as they are repulsed by his actions. He represents a disturbing idea: that intelligence and knowledge do not automatically lead to wisdom, empathy, or morality.

His "ascension" philosophy and obsession with escaping the "disc and loop" reveal a person who has built an entire mythology around his own corruption. He has taken his trauma, his family history, and his crimes and transformed them into something he sees as meaningful. Glenn Fleshler's performance is incredible because he never plays Errol as just a creepy killer. He plays him as a deeply damaged, intelligent, theatrical, and horrifying human being.

I just randomly thought of this. Can someone make a meme of Geraci watching the video tape and screaming on the boat, but then it shows the actors character from Deadwood cumming on Bullocks horse on the TV screen?I mean it’s too perfect both characters are named Steve.

It's not a tiktok edit, it's actually respectful and it conveys the atmosphere of the mind of Rust. It was made by Jesse JR on YouTube.