WiC Watches: True Detective season 3

Episode 5: “If You Have Ghosts”

We’ve gotten to see Mahershala Ali show off in old man makeup for four episodes now, subtly changing his speech and mannerisms to differentiate the young Wayne Hays from the old. This week, Stephen Dorff gets the same chance as Old Roland, and he is splendid. I’ve thought of True Detective season 3 as Ali’s time to shine, but it’s looking more and more like a two-man job, with Ali and Dorff taking the place of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson from season 1, right down to the prospect of seeing the two reunite after a long absence to finish the work they started years ago.

Do the similarities to season 1 make this season less enjoyable? Not really, not when the quality is this high. The best scene of “If You Have Ghosts” is easily the last, when Wayne and Roland reunite after 25 years of not speaking to each other. We aren’t told exactly what pushed them apart, but it’s hinted that they may have killed — or disappeared, or something — a police officer named Harris James back during the second investigation, in ’90. Why? Well, all we can do is speculate, but based on what we learn in this episode, I’m guessing James is the one who planted Will’s backpack at the house of Brett “Trashman” Woodard following the 1980 shootout between Woodard and the mob of angry local dads, which we see in gory detail at the top of the hour. I don’t know if we’re completely done with the ’80 timeline, but we now know why the first investigation fizzled out: the authorities blamed Will’s murder and Julie’s kidnapping on Woodard, partially because of Will’s backpack, a backpack Wayne thinks was planted on the property. (The why is something we still have to get to.)

And also Woodard shot or booby-trapped a bunch of guys to death on his front lawn. That can’t have helped his case.

These plot details are all well and good, but the real fireworks happen when Old Roland picks at the scabs that have been festering ever since he and Wayne parted ways back in ’90. He lays into Wayne for failing to keep in touch, and for failing to apologize for something vaguely terrible he did way back when, but instantly folds when Wayne reveals he can’t remember what he did wrong but apologizes for it anyway. There’s still a lot of affection between these two, perhaps more so now that they’re nearing the end of their lives, and even though Dorff’s old man makeup isn’t as detailed as Ali’s, he still sells Roland’s resentment and vulnerability. It’s touching stuff. I am all for an old man moody buddy mystery thriller.

But we don’t get it yet. Plot-wise, it feels like a lot of this season has been about setup, but that’s part and parcel of the mystery genre, and typical of a novelist like Pizzolatto. With all the complicated track the show is laying, I’m betting the train is going somewhere well worth the trip.

Detective’s Notes

• Woodard doesn’t get to exonerate himself for Will’s murder because Wayne kills him during the shootout, although it’s clear by that point he wanted to die. Mahershala Ali gives a wonderfully pained performance in this scene. Get that Emmy.
• Roland, on the other hand, never married or had kids, although we see that he was living with a girlfriend, Lori, in ’80. I wonder why it didn’t work out for him.
• We get more relationship development between Wayne and Amelia, both in ’80, when they have sex for the first time, and in ’90, where they pick at other’s failings in the way only an old married couple can. I thought the sex scene felt too mannered, too stagey, too carefully blocked, but the arguments felt right on target.
• Another big plot development: in ’90, a girl who may or may not be Julie Purcell calls in to the police tip line and implores “the man on TV acting like my father” to leave her alone. Tom Purcell is well and truly flummoxed, as am I. I can’t quite tell what the officers think.
• “You’re looking good, Purple. Who’s that old man with ya?” Old Roland hasn’t lost his sass.