True Detective “Who Goes There” 

Marty’s ex-girlfriend Lisa is what Rust refers to as “crazy p*ssy.” She tries to talk to Marty after he appears in court on a case, but he’s done talking to her. She tells him she deserves respect and Marty tells her that’s what he’s giving her. He doesn’t come across as entirely sincere so Lisa decides to have a talk with Maggie. As a result, Maggie packs Marty’s bag and leaves him a note. So Marty isn’t in the best head space when he and Rust get a very good lead on Reggie Ledoux.

Turns out Dora’s ex shared a cell with Reggie. He showed Reggie a few Polaroids of his girl and that’s probably what put her in harm’s way – at least, that’s what Rust tells Charlie. Marty isn’t happy with Rust about that, but Rust doesn’t care. Charlie asked about them having a word with the parole board before it even occurred to him that he put Dora in danger. So Rust says f*ck him.

The only known associate they can find for Reggie is a man named Tyrone Williams. Marty tracks him down and discovers Reggie cooks exclusively for the Iron Crusaders now. That’s good (and bad) news because Rust has an in with that biker gang from his narco days. He’s not sure if his contact will be happy to see him so he needs Marty to back him on this. And they’ve got to do it off book. So to help get Marty’s head right for this job, he agrees to have a little talk with Maggie. Since Marty’s visit to her job didn’t go so well, Marty wants to try this new tactic. But Maggie isn’t interested. Although she doesn’t use the “D word,” she doesn’t seem remotely interested in a reconciliation. But she thinks it’s interesting that Rust is trying to rationalize Marty’s actions. She wonders what kind of husband he made. Ouch. Based on Rust’s reaction, that may have been below the belt.

Rust digs into his footlocker of goodies – the remnants of his former life in narco. He’s stolen some cocaine from the evidence locker at work for his cover story and he puts on the persona of Crash, a guy who used to have dealings with the Iron Crusaders. He takes time off work citing a need to see his sick father in Alaska and he and Marty go to Texas. Rust is able to re-establish his connection with Ginger, but Ginger wants him to do a job before he lets Rust anywhere near his cooker. They’re going to dress up as cops and hit a stash house in the projects. Rust doesn’t see a way out of this, especially since this might be his only opportunity to get Ginger alone. He’s high and if it’s his only in, he’ll take it. Things go wrong quickly, but Rust is able to get himself and Ginger out of the projects. The other guys aren’t so lucky.

Now that Rust has Ginger where he wants him, he’s gonna work him over and get as much information on Reggie as he can.

Some things to ponder:

It’s interesting to see how far Rust is willing to go to get the job done. He tries to avoid killing when he’s working the job for Ginger, but those guys have itchy fingers and they don’t like black people. If this gets back to him (which it hasn’t yet), he’s going to jail. Maybe he thinks he belongs there. Gilbough and Papania definitely don’t guy his story about his sick father, especially since they can’t find any records of his father having leukemia.

Does Rust really think there’s any hope for Marty’s marriage? He needed his partner in the right head space to back him up, but it’s cruel to give him false hope. Does Marty even deserve a second chance? He claims he’s still reeling from his father’s death a year ago and he knows he’s drinking too much. So that makes it okay to cheat? He says he’s always liked something wild. And I guess Lisa was that. But even if Maggie does give him another chance, we know they aren’t married now. But he does seem genuinely invested in keep his family together.

True Detective airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.