November 30, 2024

‘True Detective’: Breaking Down Every Suspect And Fan Theory

“True Detective” spoilers ahead…

This week’s “True Detective” answered some big questions for the series, and only some of them had to do with a serial killer.

We finally know the truth about why Cohle and Hart parted ways in 2002 (Maggie), and the little girl they rescued from Reggie Ledoux revealed that the man with the scars, first mentioned at the revivalist tent in 1995, is a very serious person of interest. It’s not yet clear whether the man with the scars is the Yellow King, but I get the feelings that they’re one in the same.

The Internet is running rampant with theories about who this person might be. Below, I’ve compiled the most talked-about suspects and the strongest evidence for them being the Yellow and the hardest proof against it. Be sure to vote in our poll at the end.

Rustin Cohle
Argument For: The 2012 detectives do make a pretty compelling case for Rust being involved in some regard. What was he doing at Lake Charles crime scene without it being in the papers? Also, he might have killed Tuttle.
Argument Against: He seems like the only person who is really concerned about getting to the bottom of the killings. His sizing up of Reverend Tuttle and continuing the investigations are good signs of where this guy stands.

Martin Hart
Argument For: He mentions killing a ten-point buck during episode 5, just like Dora Lange’s crown, a detail the Internet has latched onto. It seems too deliberate to be anything but a clue or a red herring. Also, yellow hair!
Argument Against: Hart doesn’t handle the beating he dealt to Audrey two “friends” very well. Does he really have it in him to kill women and children?

Billy Lee Tuttle
Argument For: There are so many suspicious things happening around this dude that it seems impossible that he is not heavily involved in some way. There’s his connection to the schools, Dora Lange attending a ministry from one of his former students, his task force stepping in, the way doors to his office close without anyone touching them. Creeeeeepy.
Argument Against: He dead. Tuttle died under mysterious circumstances in 2010, and Rust is a key suspect in that case. The governor’s cousin couldn’t have had anything to do with the Lake Charles killing.

Governor Tuttle
Argument For: All of the disappearances and secrets around them feel like the work of someone in power. There’s a clear connection to the governor’s cousin, but with him dead and gone, there needs to be something to link the killings to the Tuttle schools.
Argument Against: We have yet to meet the governor, and wouldn’t it be kind of anticlimactic for him to show up in the last episode and say, “Hi, I’m Governor Tuttle. It was me the whole time”?

Errol the Lawnmower Guy
Argument For: The helpful guy outside the Light of the Way school is the perfect combination of seeming totally innocuous but still tenuously connected enough to be the killer. His placement outside the school where Cohle later finds the wood trap makes him mighty suspicious. Plus, he kind of looks like the green spaghetti monster.
Argument Against: He doesn’t exactly match the profile of the powerful man we’ve been led to believe is behind all of this.

Charlie Lange
Argument For: Dora’s ex is the first person aside from her to mention the Yellow King, and he seems to know something about what Reggie was up to.
Argument Against: He did seem pretty broken up about Dora’s murder, and he definitely didn’t do it since he was locked up.

Hart’s Father-in-Law
Argument For: He’s a rich dude. At this point, any rich dude is a suspect.
Argument Against: It would be kind of lame.

Maggie Hart
Argument For: Who could see this coming? Plus, it might explain her daughter’s drawings and doll positioning.
Argument Against: It would ruin the show.

‘True Detective’: Who is the Yellow King?

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