One episode into season two of True Detective and Reddit is already off and running

Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch and Rachel McAdams instead of Woody Harrelson and Matty McConaughey. The highways of California versus the swamps of Louisana. The twang of The Handsome Family’s guitar against Leonard Cohen’s electronic bass line.

A lot has changed from season one to last night’s season two premier of True Detective. What’s one of the very few common denominators between the two, you ask? If you guessed “crazy, terrifying Redditors popping off theory after theory based on things you didn’t even notice happened in an episode”, you hit the nail on the head.

Reddit is a scary place to begin with. Redditors will hunt you like wolves, smelling weakness and pouncing on you just when the time is right. They’ll follow you from subreddit to subreddit, stalking your every move and downvoting your episode reviews on the Battlestar Galactica sub from 2008. But theorizing about Nic Pizzolatto’s disheartened views on humanity is right in their wheelhouse. I would have been toast by McConaughey’s first sip of Lone Star in season one if not for Reddit. So instead of me tripping over my own feet trying to write a recap, here are some of the most popular theories and posts from r/TrueDetective.

True Detective – 2×01 “The Western Book of the Dead” – Post-Episode Discussion

Great summary. The two big things I was still confused about after first watch were:

Did Tim Riggins take that girl up on her proposition after pulling her over? Probs not, as he seems like a by-the-books kind of cop and I also didn’t even connect the bathroom scene with that situation right away. Guessing she just accused him after he arrested her.
Was Riggins’ (get used to that if you’re gonna read Bottlegate blogs about True Detective because I’ll be lucky to know his characters real name by the end of the season) girlfriend the missing girl McAdams was looking for? Still up in the air but I doubt it. I think it’s probably more likely the girl with the scar on her face that was serving Farrell and Vaughn at the bar is her. The girlfriend seems too obvious for a show like this.

Nice little homage to Matt/Woody in the Opening Credits