WiC Watches: True Detective season 3

Episode 2: “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye”

After a well-paced, portentous premiere episode, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” slows things down so we can get to know the supporting characters. Amelia Reardon, the teacher Wayne met in the premiere. stands out the most. There was an immediate attraction between them then, and here it plays out in a warm, extended getting-to-know-you scene in a Fayetteville bar. Ali and Ejogo do a great job selling the chemistry between these characters, and although they both say they’re not the marrying kind, it’s easy to see how they end up together.

But this is Ali’s show, and he is splendid, changing his performance is subtle ways depending on the time period. Whenever we are, Wayne is taciturn, tending to speak in mumbles. As a younger man in 1980, there’s a vulnerability to him he doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with, while he’s harder and more assured in 1990. But while whose two versions of Wayne are cut from the same cloth, the one in 2015 almost seems like a different person. The anger bubbling underneath the surface is all but gone, replaced by a resignation and confusion that could be a sign of encroaching dementia. The best scene of the episode is the last, when Old Wayne, in his pajamas, stumbles onto an empty street, haunted by his past.

As for the actual police plot, we don’t get a ton of movement. Thanks to help from Amelia, Wayne and Roland learn that, on Halloween night, Julie may have been given a doll like the one Wayne found near Will’s body. Wayne wants to ask people in the area if they can search their homes, hoping to find a clue before the perpetrator can hide it, but an ambitious district attorney is afraid of offending constituents, so he announces the development on TV, resulting in a flood of useless tips. It looks like politics are going to slow this investigation down.

Also, Wayne and Roland engage in some good old-fashioned police brutality against a child sex offender in the hope of beating a few clues out of him. They’re unsuccessful, but that does tell us the lengths they’ll go to for their work.

Also, in 1980, Wayne learns that Julie is still alive. I’m looking forward to seeing how all of this collides. How about you?