"Justice Is Not Ours To Deliver. Justice Is Not In Our Power, It Is In His..."
With the fourth episode of True Detective's debut season reinventing how stylish and powerful particular levels of drama upon the small screen can ultimately become, with the famous and unbelievably tense one-shot biker gang escape laying the ground for familiar set pieces in the the likes of Game of Thrones and Daredevil, this week's episode of HBO's crime series understandably fails to feature anything as majestic or jaw-dropping, instead continuing to prolong a sense of quieting and growing desperation as the many strands of the central investigation continued to both confuse and intrigue. With most of the action switching between the 1980's and 90's this week, "The House and the Day" did manage to tick off a solid amount of unanswered questions presented in previous weeks, with the origin of the creepy, The Wicker Man inspired dolls being revealed alongside the background regarding the young Purcell's rather spooky hand gestures when his body was found back in the opening episodes. With religion seemingly the go-to answer behind such mystery, the visit to the local church and priest of course had to involve a overarching off-kilter vibe, with the leading notion behind the main suspect relying on their attendance to the local parish not exactly seeming to bother such parish's leader who felt more inclined to speak in riddles than genuine answers. Elsewhere, the visit to the local caravan park in order to identify the black male seen in the out-of-place sedan both reminded of the tension which True Detective is ultimately renowned for whilst bringing to the forefront more than ever before the notion of the underlying racial politics which Season Three has embraced, with both Hays and Roland understanding the nature of a society where cops are more likely to shoot a white man in a moment of tension rather than feel the heat of shooting their black brothers in arms in the same exact instance.
With an episode which was determined to build as much character development as humanly possible, the moments away from the central investigation involved a sombre, heartwarming first date between Hays and Amelia, the beginning of an unbreakable bond between Tom Purcell and Roland, with the latter attempting to save the former from his trainwreck emotional and mental state, and even a chance for Lucy to partially redeem herself during a total emotional release in front of Amelia before resorting to her true, monstrous nature by coldly screaming racist slander after being convinced of Amelia's attempts to woo her into sharing secrets she is clearly unwilling to spill. With the beauty of the beginning steps of Hays and Amelia's relationship being contrasted with the complex manner of their family life in the 90's, Hay's return to the Purcell investigation results in a complete change of personality, proving that the angst and depressive state he was in was undoubtedly due to a feeling of uselessness and inadequacy, and even with the added emotional response to Amelia's focus on her book detailing the case which has transformed both his career and his life, the unbreakable bond between two people very much in love is one of the more upbeat notions of a series dripped in melancholy and regret. With old man Hays admitting that the Purcell case is the only thing keeping him fresh and alive, his attempts at locating both Roland and new facts about the case from Sarah Gadon's crime reporter seem to emphasise the fact that no matter how far down Hays digs, the truth may still never come to light, and with so many answers still floating around in the world Pizzolatto has built this time around, Season Three's conclusion may be the most compelling one yet.
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