The series premiere.
Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, January 3, 1995. State homicide detectives Martin "Marty" Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rustin "Rust" Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) investigate the murder of a prostitute, 28-year-old Dora Lange, found in a sugarcane field outside of Erath. Her corpse is positioned against a tree as if in prayer, her head is crowned with deer antlers, and her body is surrounded by twig latticeworks closely resembling Cajun bird traps. Marty and Rust turn to a five-year-old missing-persons case of a child named Marie Fontenot. Around the same time, another child claimed to have been chased through the woods by a "green-eared spaghetti monster." At the insistence of his wife Maggie (Michelle Monaghan), Marty invites Rust to dinner, but is infuriated when Rust arrives drunk. While following up on the Fontenot disappearance, they discover another twig latticework, ostensibly placed in recent times, inside her dilapidated playhouse.
Seventeen years later in May 2012, the balding Marty and shaggy-haired Rust are separately interviewed about the Lange investigation by detectives Thomas Papania (Tory Kittles) and Maynard Gilbough (Michael Potts). As we flash back to that time when they were partners, we see how different they look, and start learning how they ended up where they are. Marty and Rust have not spoken since an altercation in 2002. The crime scene of a recently slain woman closely resembles the Lange murder scene, suggesting that despite Rust and Marty's claims of apprehending the killer in 1995, the killer may remain at large.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Rust already distinguishes himself by carrying an eight-inch wide ledger as his notepad instead of the easier-to-carry notebook most detectives use. Its pages are unlined so he can do things like sketch the murder scene more easily.
- Broken Ace: It's also clear from the first minute that he's a deeply sad man and has little in his life. Just the anniversary of his daughter's death is enough to make him lose sobriety.
- The Alcoholic: Rust is a straight example, getting sodding drunk on the anniversary of his daughter's death and admitting he usually doesn't 'cause he has a problem with it.
- Cold Open: The opening shots are of a man carrying a body on his shoulders through a field in the dark. We won't find out who that man is until near the end of the series.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Dora Lange has half a dozen stab wounds to her abdomen, as well as one or two other injuries. It's later surmised she was raped before death, although they don't ascertain that at the time. She also has antlers stapled to her head, although that probably occurred post-mortem.
- Failed a Spot Check: Marty didn't suspect that Rust had a drinking problem because he never came to drink with him and the boys. In the present day, that might be a trigger that someone can't drink, but in 1995 it doesn't occur to him.
- Human Sacrifice: Dora Lange's body is found in a simulacrum of this. Her body is posed kneeling with hands clasped, surrounded by wooden sculptures with antlers stapled to her head.
- Innocently Insensitive: Marty's kids ask Rust if he's ever shot anyone. A classic example of this trope.
- Karma Houdini: Papania and Gillbough show the two pictures of a new murder very similar to Dora Lange's, implying whoever killed Dora is still out there.
- Off the Wagon: Cohle shows up to dinner at Marty's house drunk.
- Pet the Dog: Cohle apologizes for showing up drunk and manages to make his way through the dinner well.
- Significant Birth Date: Inverted. In 1995 it was January 2nd, the anniversary of Cohle's daughter's death. It's terrible enough that it's enough to get him to drink.
