History Series / TrueDetective

* LayoutOfASeason: The first three seasons (those written by the original creator) had roughly similar episode breakdowns:

* AnArmAndALeg:
** One character is found frozen into a "corpsicle" after several days. The police only realize he's still alive when an officer accidentally ''[[LiterallyShatteredLives breaks off his forearm]]'' and he screams in pain. The hospital has to remove both his legs as well, and his remaining arm isn't looking great, either.
** It's also mentioned that people who work at the fish cannery often lose bits of their hands and fingers. We don't see it happen, but we do see one minor character with two missing fingers. [[spoiler:This becomes significant in the final episode, when they find matching handprints in Tsalal]].

* WhamShot: Seems to be one to close each episode.

** One character is found frozen into a "corpsicle" after several days. The police only realize he's still alive when an officer accidentally ''[[LiterallyShatteredLives breaks off his forearm]] and he screams in pain. The hospital has to remove both his legs as well, and his remaining arm isn't looking great, either.

** In Season 4, Annie Kowtok, an Indigenous activist against the mining operations is found murdered. Her case goes cold; Evangeline Navarro claims that if Annie had been a white woman, the Ennis police department would have solved it in the case in a matter of months.

** Season 3 averts this, as rape actually isn't the motive for Julie's disappearance.

** ''Definitely.'' Although there actually isn't that much sexual assault shown on-screen, this show goes a long way towards looking at the aftermath of some pretty horrific ritual sex-crimes both in terms of the areas where such crimes took place, and the psychological effects they have both on the victims and the people who tried to stop them.

* SatanicPanic:A RunningTheme:

** It also gets several references in Season 3, including the famous belief that ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' was Satanic. Which is in fact a RedHerring to underline how different the mystery of Season 3 is than Season 1.

** [[spoiler: in the videotape, there are five men, all dressed in a twisted version of ''Courir de Mardi Gras'', that torture and kill Marie Fontenot]].

* ArcSymbol: Letters and the written word in general, possibly pertaining to the season's theme of memory. The season's intro song is "Death Letter". Wayne and Roland find some notes written to the kids. A letter is sent to the Purcell's [[spoiler: by Lucy]] telling them not to worry. Wayne reads Amelia's book to gain insight on the mystery. [[spoiler:Tom Purcell's suicide is faked by dumping his body with a forged suicide note]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of true crime stories and conspiracy theories. [[spoiler:While Elisa suspects the death of Will Purcell and disappearance of Julie Purcell are tied to a child trafficking ring, the former was a genuine accident and the latter a non-malicious (but still illegal and harmful) kidnapping by a mentally ill woman from a rich family. Hoyt, the local business tycoon supposedly at the heart of the conspiracy, is actually a despondent alcoholic who mainly wants to protect his family and company's reputations, and the lone surviving kidnapping conspirator is guilt-ridden and quickly confesses when Wayne and Roland confront him years later. The district attorney/attorney general who wanted the case closed is implied to have done so out of convenience and political ambition rather than to cover up a vast conspiracy. In the end, while the original murder and kidnapping were still tragic, the Hoyt family's attempts to cover it up ruined even more lives]].
* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler:The nuns fake[d Julie's death from AIDS so that she could escape her traumatic past]].

** [[spoiler:After slaying the entire lynch mob and a couple of police officers responding to the scene, [[ShellShockedVeteran Woodard]] tells Wayne to put him down, which he does with great reluctance. It had already been established that Woodard was severely troubled by the war and his inability to readjust to civilian life, so him feeling suicidally depressed isn't surprising. It's clear he felt the only thing he was good for was being a soldier, so he wanted to go out fighting. It also explains why he had more respect for Wayne, [[WorthyOpponent a fellow veteran]], and thus wanted him to take the shot]].

* TheKindnapper: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:Isabel thinks she's doing this to Julie, and so does Junius, but only because he isn't aware that Isabel is ''drugging'' Julie to make her seem happy. When he figures it out, it helps her to escape]].

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Following from Season 1's ambiguous Lovecraftian Horror, Hays occasionally influences past events when he has dementia-related hallucinations. Younger Hays stares at where 2010s' Hays will be, and looks discomfited. At one point the elder Hays possibly causes a door in 1990 to swing open when he hallucinates the decades old memory. Or the door randomly swung open as they sometimes do.
* MexicanStandOff: One took place between Woodard, the vigilantes accusing him of being a pedophile and responding Arkansas State Police after the vigilantes tried to breach his house, which was rigged with a Claymore.

** Lucy is believed to have accidentally OD'd after spiralling into addiction in despair. [[spoiler:Hoyt killed her because she asks for more money]].
** This is one of the theories floated for Harris's disappearance. [[spoiler:Wayne and Roland killed him.]]

** The Purcells: Tom and Lucy with Julie and Will. [[spoiler:Although they're a far more dysfunctional version.]] Lucy only has one brother, too, which implies she falls into this trope.

** Junius. [[spoiler:He helped Isabella to kidnap Julie after Isabella accidentally killed Will, but he's motivated solely out of love for Isabella and a hope that she'll recover following the death of her husband and daughter, as ''he'd'' raised her basically like his own child.]]
** ''Woodard''. He is a FriendToAllChildren who is wrongly suspected of being a pedophile as he is homeless due to his Vietnam-triggered PTSD. [[spoiler:After he's attacked by corrupt hicks who believe that he's the killer, he turns the tables on them, killing several of them in a shootout and bombing.]]

** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Wayne and Roland killed their chief suspect after kidnapping and beating him, but they were genuinely trying to find out what happened to Julie and to avenge Tom].]

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Jacob [=McCandless=], the CEO of Catalast Group in Season 2, and Hoyt of Hoyt Foods in Season 3, [[spoiler:who allowed his daughter to kidnap a child and (accidentally) murder another, and chos to cover it up years after the fact.]]

* AbusiveParents: A running theme.

* ArmoredClosetGay: [[spoiler:Paul]] in Season 2, and [[spoiler:Tom]] in Season 3.

** In Season 1, Hart and Cohle are both very flawed men who do morally questionable things throughout the first season, but they are well-intended protagonists who try to stop an unambiguously evil cult with no redeeming qualities, who rape children and commit murders.
** In Season 3, [[spoiler:Wayne and Roland killed their chief suspect after kidnapping and beating him, but they were genuinely trying to find out what happened to Julie and to avenge Tom.]]
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Jacob [=McCandless=], the CEO of Catalast Group in Season 2, and Hoyt of Hoyt Foods in Season 3, [[spoiler:who allowed his daughter to kidnap a child and (accidentally) murder another, just choosing to cover it up years after the fact.]]

* HowWeGotHere: The two detectives narrate the story leading up to the present. At around the end of episode 6 and moving into episode 7, the story catches up with the present, after which the story is told more or less in a linear progression (with the exception of the odd flashback). Season 2 and 3 changes back more and more often, but it also has multiple elements of HowWeGotHere due to being set over multiple timelines.
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Baked into the premise. The killers escape from justice for a great number of years in all seasons, but are eventually caught. The only subversion so far is [[spoiler:Isabel Hoyt]] in Season 3 as [[spoiler:she]] is already dead, but it still goes for [[spoiler:Junius, at least in the sense that he gets his karma by learning that Roland and Wayne can't give him the punishment he deserves]] rather than going to prison.

* RapeAsBackstory: One of the criticisms leveled at Seasons 1 and 2 is that this shows up with alarming frequency in the background of every single major female character, except Maggie. In Season 1, Beth, Dora Lange, and obviously all the victims of the cult are rape victims. In Season 2, Ani was [[spoiler:kidnapped and raped by a member of her father's commune]] and Ray's wife was raped by a meth addict. Season 3 averts this, as rape actually isn't the motive for Julie's disappearance.

** ''Definitely.'' Although there actually isn't that much sexual assault shown on screen, this show goes a long way towards looking at the aftermath of some pretty horrific ritual sex-crimes both in terms of the areas where such crimes took place, and the psychological effects they have both on the victims and the people who tried to stop them.
** In Season 2, Ray's wife was [[spoiler:raped by a meth addict who knew Semyon, and Chad may be his son.]]

** Season 3 has Roland and Wayne. Wayne starts off the timeline as the extremely chill, stiff-upper-lipped stoic, while Roland is a blustering hothead. This changes when Roland gets promoted later on, and changes even more dramatically after Wayne's memory loss.

** The Church at the end of episode 2 ("Seeing Things") with the [[spoiler: painting of a naked woman with antlers on the wall.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: Nic Pizzolatto stated in an [[http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/true-detective-creator-nic-pizzolatto-looks-back-on-season-1/3 interview]] that the reason [[spoiler: Serial Killer Errol lapses into a random British accent is because after he was burned as child, he taught himself to speak again through watching old video tapes.]]

* ArcNumber: Five, which is heavily associated with [[spoiler: the Cult of the Yellow King]]. Examples include:

** Spirals. They're drawn on the murder victims, which helps link the murders together. When a perpetrator is revealed, [[spoiler:he's mowing the lawn in a spiral. In the season one finale, Cohle sees a spiraling vortex in a starry abyss in the darkness of Errol's inner sanctum. Reggie Ledoux and Errol Childress have spiral brands on the back of their necks, as well]].

** Circles are a recurring metaphor. Cohle in particular talks about cycles repeating themselves and people moving in circles. Marty's marriage cycle of fighting and then reconciling is visually described when he rollerskates in a ring with his family. As his kids go to take "one more lap around," Marty begins to reconcile with Maggie and start the cycle over again. In 2002, Cohle revisits the Dora Lange crime scene and sees a wreath of branches and twigs at the tree where they found the body. And in 2012, Cohle describes his own life as a circle several times. Reggie Ledoux says, "Time is a flat circle."

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Surprisingly closer to the upbeat end of the spectrum. Hart and Cohle manage to kill Errol Childress and survive, becoming FireForgedFriends in the end. Hart manages to at least come to terms with his relationship with his family, and is genuinely relieved to see them when they visit him in the hospital. Cohle also manages to find hope in the world, after believing that he will reunite with his daughter and father in the afterlife. However, the other cultists remain at large thanks to their ties to political or religious power players, and some have even died without getting any retribution, but the detectives have at least managed to put down the worst one. The cult won't be able to be as active with the attention on them.]]
* BlatantLies: Cohle and Hart insist that Cohle took personal time in 1995 to visit his ailing father, to cover for [[spoiler: his brief trip to Texas and their involvement in the Beaumont shootout.]]

** As they leave the Bunny Ranch, Marty gives $100 to Beth, one of the Ranch's underage girls, to try and get her out of prostitution. Rust quips that Marty's putting down "a down payment" on the girl, which raises Marty's ire. Seven years later, [[spoiler: Marty's having an affair with Beth.]]
** Rust talks in episode one about how a seemingly insignificant detail can lead to a revelation and a crack in the case, then in episode eight he's dumbfounded when [[spoiler: Marty notices fresh green paint on a house.]]

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Well, half-sister, anyway. Errol's, specifically.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: The Green-Eared Spaghetti Monster discussed early in the show and the Lawnmower Man who gives some exposition in episode 3. They [[spoiler: turn out to be the same man as well as one of the primary killers in the conspiracy. Lampshaded by Cole in the final episode, where he resents the fact that he came across the monster back in 1995 without noticing the facial scars and the size of the man because he was dirty and sitting on a mower.]]

* TheConspiracy: [[spoiler: It's a group of killers, some of whom are connected to politics and the police.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the StrawNihilist and MisanthropeSupreme tropes, as well as Thomas Ligotti's philosophically pessimistic, anti-natalist beliefs as he depicted in his book The Conspiracy Against The Human Race. Pizzolatto showcases just what kind of person would believe something like that: someone who's been deeply disturbed and broken by the world around them. Cohle isn't some philosophical crusader who sees the truth, he's a miserable, deeply hurting human being who uses pessimism and nihilism as coping mechanisms for his inability to face the grief and sorrow he feels after losing his daughter. It takes him [[spoiler: facing death from Childress]] to realize that he has something to look forward to and that perhaps there is something still worth living and fighting for.

* DramaticIrony: In episode 7, Papania and Gilbough get directions from a man they meet on the road. The audience is then treated to [[spoiler:the close-up of his face: his cheeks are covered in scars, fitting the murderer's description that Rust and Marty got from the surviving victims and didn't share with Papania and Gilbough.]]

* EurekaMoment: [[spoiler: Marty connecting the green ears on the portrait of the "Spaghetti Monster" with the freshly-painted house.]]

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite both being extremely cynical and flawed anti-heroes, Hart and Cohle are both utterly horrified and enraged by the [[spoiler: ritualistic rape, torture, and murder of children]] that they uncover that has been (and continues to be) perpetrated by [[spoiler: the cult]], and by the end of the series are utterly fixated on bringing them down even at the cost of their own lives.

* FliesEqualsEvil: During the climax, before Hart finds the [[spoiler: corpse of Billy Childress]] in the shed, the reveal is heralded by the sound of flies.

** Audrey's macabre display of her toys and the grouping of Rust's tin men (which he makes throughout the interview) lead up to [[spoiler: the videotape in Episode Seven, which is the first display of the Yellow King cult's ritual]].

** Two more visual clues leading to [[spoiler: the videotape]]: the first appearance of Ledoux at the end of Episode Three, animal-like in his underwear and gas mask, and the picture of Dora Lange during ''Courir de Mardi Gras''.

* GetAholdOfYourselfMan: Cohle to Hart after [[spoiler: Hart's wife leaves him.]]

-->'''Sheriff:''' Them symbols, they're Satanic. They had a "20/20" on it a few years back.

*** A figure in the evil cult is called the Yellow King. When Cohle reaches [[spoiler: Carcosa, he comes across a room with an altar resembling a throne upon which a macabre collection of bones is on display, draped in tattered yellow robes]].

*** "Carcosa" is occasionally mentioned. In the book it's the land ruled by the King in Yellow. It's unclear what it means to the cult, although the season finale implies [[spoiler: it is the derelict complex located on the property of the SerialKiller]].

* InterrogationFlashback: The story is framed by the two detectives interviewing Hart, Cohle and Maggie separately 17 years after the case was investigated.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Several moments throughout the show remain unexplained -- Dora Lange seeing "the King in Yellow walking through the forest" when she closes her eyes, the various quotations from the play, Miss Dolores' freak-out about Carcosa and "him who eats time, in robes," [[spoiler:Cohle seeing a swirling, starry abyss during the final confrontation,]] and multiple references to "black stars," among others. Whether those are just {{hallucinations}} or there is actually some supernatural force at work is never disclosed.

* PoliceCodeForEverything: Cryptically police codes are thrown around alot.

* QuestionableConsent: The circumstances that lead to Rust and Maggie having sex is purposely unclear whether it was consensual on Rust's part. While he does give in to her advances, he at first resists and only reciprocates when Maggie forcefully kisses him. It's also made clear that he's drunk at the time, while Maggie is sober. She's also aware that what she did to Rust was wrong, tearfully apologizing, but it's never acknowledged as rape. Later, Marty points out in the final episode that Maggie told him it wasn't Rust's choice, implying that Maggie knows it wasn't consensual. Rust, on the other hand, disregards this and claims he did have a choice, and that he blames Marty more than anyone.
* RedHerring: Fukunaga referred to the BigBad of the show as the Beast in the Tall Grass. Early on, Cohle and Hart talk about the villain who's still out there, and the show cuts to a man striding ominously through tall grass, but we learn later that this is actually [[spoiler:Reggie Ledoux, the man they chased down midway through the show. The real Beast in the Tall Grass is actually Errol Childress, who is introduced and reintroduced while cutting overgrown lawns]].

** [[spoiler:Carcosa, Errol's massive structure of bone, bodies, and wooden structures,]] is an entire infrastructure of crazy.

-->'''Marty:''' [[spoiler:That's the last thing I remember. I was on the ground. Sirens. Saying my friend's name.]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler: Rust]] leaves the force after being suspended and subsequently attacked by [[spoiler: Marty]].
* ShoutOut: Has its [[ShoutOut/TrueDetective own page]].

* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: After [[spoiler: a fistfight with Hart in the parking lot of headquarters, while Cohle was on suspension,]] Rust decides he's had enough of it and quits. [[spoiler: Though it turns out later that it was at least partially because he wanted to investigate the case without oversight telling him not to.]]

* ThatOneCase: Cohle is convinced that the 1995 murder case is still unfinished. He continues working it long past its closure, believing that there are additional perpetrators to be found and that the crimes are still ongoing. [[spoiler: He's right.]]

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Ginger's [[ASimplePlan ill-conceived heist]]. He and his biker goons immediately make themselves conspicuous in the ghetto by dressing as cops while not doing anything to conceal their long hair and beards. They break into a rival drug dealer's house while leaving their getaway car unattended, take the dealer and his friends hostage, and quickly draw the attention of all the other dealers in the neighborhood. The bikers find themselves surrounded and then dead after they foolishly shoot one of the hostages and instigate a bloody firefight.]]

** Reggie Ledoux has a hut where [[spoiler:he tortures kids. Hart's immediate reaction after seeing it is to the execute him.]]
** [[spoiler: Errol Childress's "Carcosa"]] functions as his chamber of horrors and as a temple.
* TurnInYourBadge: Leroy Salter suspends [[spoiler:Rust, briefly before he quits for good, following the latter's CowboyCop antics and reopening of old cases.]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Some [[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/07/the-satanic-child-sex-abuse-case-that-may-have-inspired-true-detective.html media sources]] have speculated that the Hosanna Church Sex abuse scandal (and the somewhat dubious story given by the main culprit as to the supposedly occult motivations for his crimes) was a direct inspiration for the disturbingly similar abuse meted out by the [[spoiler: Tuttle]] schools.

** "The Secret Fate of All Life". [[spoiler: Hart and Cohle track down Reggie Ledoux, and Hart snaps and executes him after discovering two children in a TortureCellar, provoking the two of them into a cover-up. Papania and Gilbough accuse Cohle of the 2012 murder and a few others. And then there's the school...]]
** "After You've Gone", the penultimate episode. [[spoiler: There is a group of men involved in the murders, including many higher-ups. There are possibly dozens of victims, many children. And it's strongly implied that the Lawnmower Man from Episode 3 is the Spaghetti Monster.]]
** "Form and Void", the first season finale. [[spoiler: The final showdown of the season happens when Cohle and Hart finally track down and kill Errol Childress, the Spaghetti Monster and one of the group's foremost acolytes. While chasing him into a horrific compound near his house ('this is Carcosa'), Childress sneaks up on Cohle and ''brutally'' stabs him, and buries an axe in Hart's chest. Nonetheless, Cohle manages to kill Childress, and both men survive the ordeal to become FireForgedFriends.]]

** At the end of the first episode, [[spoiler: the 2012 detectives present Cohle with a new crime scene that has similarities to the Dora Lang murder]].
--->'''Cohle:''' [[spoiler: How can it be him, if we already caught him in '95?]]

--->'''Cohle:''' [[spoiler: Maybe you'd better start asking the right fucking questions.]]

--->'''Cohle:''' (Reading the diary) I closed my eyes and saw [[CosmicHorror the King in Yellow]] moving through the forest.

---> [[spoiler: Lawnmower Man: (as the camera pans out and the lighting changes, revealing his scars) My family's been here a long, long time.]]

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte The Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte]]. Figures of the folk saint are seen in Caspere's apartment and the house used by Amarilla's associate. Amarilla himself also speaks of the Santa Muerte [[spoiler: just before he is shot by Velcoro and Woodrugh]].
* ArmouredClosetGay: Paul. He makes an exaggerated comment about wanting to beat up a 'fag' who was flirting with him, he watches male prostitutes from his apartment balcony at night, and requires Viagra and intense concentration to maintain an erection with his girlfriend. We later learn that he had a sexual experience with a fellow male mercenary while stationed overseas. It later comes back to bite him in the ass, as [[spoiler: if he had just been accepting of who he was, he wouldn't have been blackmailed into attending the meet that wound up getting him killed]].

* BaitAndSwitch: The premiere opens with a tease that it'll have a similar setup to Season 1, with Velcoro being interviewed along with a flashback to the time he's talking about.
* BatDeduction: Ray [[spoiler: putting together who the kids in the picture grew up to be based on seeing them as adults, and that they were behind Caspere's murder]].

** The killer, who is at first presented as the main threat of the season, [[spoiler: but is really just another consequence of the CollidingCriminalConspiracies plot, and turns out to be easily the most sympathetic antagonist.]]
** The local Vinci government is introduced as being blatantly corrupt, and we are almost immediately told that they prosper by exploiting workers and bullying naysayers. Their cops openly discuss their criminal interests among themselves while the Mayor overlooks.

** The real twist is that [[spoiler: all of these groups are connected. The Catalast Group, the corrupt police, Osip, Frank's men, and even the victim were working together to exploit the above land deal. The District Attorney, and later gubernatorial candidate, joins the group later on. The implied BigBad is the Mayor's ambitious son, who has been blackmailing everyone in a bid to solidify his own power base in Vinci.]]
** [[spoiler: Several Vinci police officers and the victim were involved in a much older plot, in which they committed a double homicide-robbery that left them quite wealthy and a pair of children as orphans. This subplot is revealed to be the killer's motive, and the cause of much grief for the Catalast Group as they attempt to recover missing blackmail material.]]

** Frank Semyon lives in a glassy, modern mansion in the Hollywood Hills. He reveals in episode two that it's been double-mortgaged. [[spoiler: In episode five, it is revealed that he and Jordan were forced to sell, and downgrade to a suburban home in Glendale]].

** The mansion in episode six, where the [[spoiler: sex party attended by various powerful men, and an undercover Bezzerides, is held]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Miguel Glib, Paul's friend and former lover from his Black Mountain days. He is introduced as seemingly wanting to rekindle his friendship with Paul, and convince him to be accepting of his homosexuality. [[spoiler: He is later revealed to be a HoneyTrap working security for Catalast Group, and blackmails Paul into attending a meet which ends up getting him killed]].

** [[spoiler: One of the girls at the sex parties tried to do the same thing, but was discovered and murdered in a cabin in the woods]].
** [[spoiler: Teague Dixon takes incriminating photos of Paul with another man, threatening to reveal his homosexuality he has fought so hard to keep secret. These photos are later used by Holloway and Catalast Group to coax him into a meet which winds up getting him killed]].
** [[spoiler: It is later revealed that unlike Holloway and Burris, Dixon wasted away his share from the 1992 robbery, and was planning on getting more money from them by threatening to reveal their complicity in the robbery/murder. Burris then sets up the shootout in episode 4 by tipping off Amarilla specifically to get Dixon killed and silence him]].

* BodyguardBetrayal: Blake Churchman, one of Frank's men, is [[spoiler: secretly working for Tony Chessani and Osip trafficking girls for parties in his spare time. In episode seven he informs Frank that Ivar has also been bought by the Russians]].

* TheButlerDidIt: [[spoiler: The set photographer, actually]].

*** Woodrugh is an ArmouredClosetGay who has great difficulty engaging in sex with his girlfriend and is deeply ashamed of a previous sexual experience. He's accused of soliciting a movie star for a blow job, an embarrassing charge that he denies.

*** Caspere [[spoiler: is revealed in the finale to be the illegitimate father of both Len and Laura, the "orphans" of the 1992 Jewelry store robbery. Len only learns this well after murdering him and Laura never learns it, even though she slept with him while infiltrating his sex parties.]]
** The futility of corruption
*** Velcoro [[spoiler: murders the man he thinks raped his wife, only for the true rapist to be caught years later. He has a near total HeroicBSOD when he realizes he sold his soul for nothing.]]
*** Woodrugh [[spoiler: brings home a bag of cash from working as a Private Military Contractor in Iraq. It's unclear what he did to earn or steal it, but reporters accuse his unit of war crimes. Then his mother finds the money and blows it all anyway.]]
*** Bezzerides [[spoiler: sleeps with a subordinate, then blows him off when he tries to make a relationship of it. He then accuses her of sexual harassment, and after the TimeSkip it's shown that it's severely damaged her career.]]
*** Semyon [[spoiler: has a huge deal fall through due to Caspere's murder, and is forced to burn every bridge he's built to dig himself out of the hole it left. When Velcoro comes, gun in hand, to Semyon's house to confront him, Semyon basically admits that Velcoro is the closest thing to a friend he has left.]]
*** The Mayor of Vinci [[spoiler: is a pathetic day drunk with no real responsibilities with a ridiculous family and a trashed house. It is later implied that despite all the power he holds in Vinci, he had no idea his son was in cahoots with the Russians to try and take his place]].

* ChekhovsGunman: The people who killed Caspere and attempt to blackmail those involved in the conspiracy are revealed to be [[spoiler: the orphaned Osterman children from the 1992 jewellery store robbery, AKA the kids in the photograph AKA the set photographer and Casperes assistant]].

** Detective Ray Velcoro is in the pocket of Frank Semyon, and acts as police muscle for him [[spoiler: until he quits Vinci PD in episode five]], in addition to abusing police resources to exact personal revenge for his son.
** [[spoiler: Detective Teague Dixon is revealed to have been manipulating the Caspere investigation for the Vinci PD and secretly following up on diamonds stolen from Caspere behind the taskforce's back]].
** [[spoiler: Vinci Police Chief Holloway, who throughout most the season is seen as neutral, is seen in cohorts with Chessani's son, [=McCandless=] and Osip at a party in episode six. In episode seven, he is shown to be in cohorts with Catalast Group, and orders their security guards to kill Paul]].
** [[spoiler: Lt. Kevin Burris is implied to be the 'tall, thin, white cop' that paid off Ilina to pawn Casperes possessions. In episode seven, he is shown to be in cahoots with the whole conspiracy, and murders Paul after he escapes Holloway and Catalast security]].
** [[spoiler: In episode seven it is revealed that whilst Burris, Dixon and Holloway were working for the LAPD in the 90s, they used the 1992 riots as cover to commit a brutal jewellery store robbery which left two children orphaned. They then used the stolen diamonds to buy into the Vinci crime syndicate, and later joined Vinci PD with six figure salaries]].

** Tony Chessani, Austin's son, has 'political ambition' and would likely wind up just as corrupt (or worse) than his father. [[spoiler: In the season finale this becomes reality, as he is shown being sworn in as the new Mayor of Vinci]].

* DarkestHour: As of the season finale, [[spoiler: Davis and Woodrugh are dead, and Ani and Ray are both wanted for murder.]]

** Bezzerides. [[spoiler:When she finds her missing person whilst undercover at a sex party, she stops at nothing to get her out safe, killing one man and seriously injuring another. The fact she does all this ''whilst drugged'' makes it even more impressive]].
** Even after being stabbed in the gut and stranded in the middle of the desert, [[spoiler: Frank]] is able to walk a considerable distance before finally checking out. Even after he collapses, in his mind he is still walking.

** Ray Velcoro has a substance abuse problem, anger issues and is in the pocket of a career criminal. On top of all that, he is separated from his wife and estranged from his son, (who is likely not biologically his).

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Paul is killed by Burris after barely escaping with his life. Velcoro gets killed after a tracker is placed on his car when he visited his ''biological'' son one last time. Frank's deal with the Mexicans catches up to him and he dies slowly from stab wounds. Burris, Geldof, and Tony Chessiani get away with their crimes, Tony even becoming Mayor with the Mexicans as his henchmen and Geldof being elected Governor. Bezzerides managed to escape the US, have Ray's child and deliver the evidence to a reporter with a history of crusading against Vinci corruption, but she, Jordan, and Nails are most likely going to have to remain on the run for the rest of their lives. Even if the truth comes out, everyone's lives have been completely screwed over.]]

* EliteMook: Catalast Group attempt to silence the protagonists by hiring a company called Ares Security, [[spoiler: who are actually highly trained mercenaries who previously worked for Black Mountain]]. [[spoiler:They were able to kill Velcoro in the forest]].

* ExactWords: After Frank makes a deal with the Mexican cartel. He asks them to arrange a phone call with a missing Mexican girl, and then to arrange for Frank to see her. They arrange a 30 second call where Frank gets minimal information, and then let him see her ... after they murdered her. They then expect him to keep his half of the bargain.

** Before his wife was raped and he descended into corruption, the long haired and moustached Velcoro was a clean-cut sheriffs deputy (seen in a flashback). He gets this again after the mid-season the TimeSkip, shaving his moustache.
** Before leaving the US for Venezuela, [[spoiler: Bezzerides]] dyes her hair black and cuts it short.

* JurisdictionFriction: Between state, county and local law enforcement. Woodrugh (California Highway Patrol), Bezzerides (Ventura County Sheriffs Office) and Velcoro (Vinci Police Dept) must work together in the Caspere murder case. They eye each other suspiciously when they all meet at the crime scene, and their respective superiors are later seen arguing over who has jurisdiction over the investigation. The body was found in Ventura County so the Sheriffs Office has primary jurisdiction. However, Vinci PD already has an investigation open into Caspere's disapearance/kidnapping and they have possession of the evidence from his house and office. With the unspoken threat that Vinci PD will refuse to cooperate with a Ventura County Sheriffs investigation, a compromise is reached with Bezzerides being the primary investigator on the case and Velcoro as her partner and second-in-command. The Highway Patrol's claim to jurisdiction is the weakest but they have the backing of the state attorney so Woodrugh is allowed to join the investigation as a junior investigator. The real reasons for this jurisdictional fight are political. The state and county governments are fighting Vinci's government over tax revenue and they want to use the investigation to obtain leverage that will let them eliminate Vinci City as a political power in California. The Vinci City officials want to avoid this at all cost and Velcoro is tasked with tanking the investigation if necessary.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Burris, the only remaining perpetrator of the '92 jewel theft, gets away with only a bullet to the arm after killing two of the top billed stars. Tony Chessani and Geldof, who are arguably the masterminds behinds the conspiracy, are never brought to justice, and become Mayor of Vinci and Governor of California respectively. However, there is a possibility that Bezzerides releasing her evidence to the press can change things, but whether it is successful or not is never shown.]]

** [[spoiler: Frank's imagined conversation with Jordan may be a short afterlife experience, or a dying hallucination.]]
** [[spoiler: Ray's similar hallucination after being shot by the Birdman, where his father describes him being chased in a forest by men with guns, implies that Ray could have temporarily visited a sort of afterlife where time doesn't exist. Or again he may have just dreamt it.]]

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:All the male main characters are killed, while the female one survives.]]

** The first is between Ray and Frank, after [[spoiler: Ray discovers the info Frank gave him on his wife's rapist, which caused his initial descent into corruption, was false. Frank insists he thought it was legit, and they eventually part, alive, on neutral terms]].

--->'''Frank:''' That's one off the bucket list, a Mexican standoff with actual Mexicans.

* MushroomSamba: Ani goes undercover as a prostitute at a sinister gathering of corrupt politicians and businessmen. On the way there, she gets dosed, and then has to get in, get what she's looking for, and get out alive while trippin' balls and flashing back to her abusive childhood.

** [[spoiler: Bezzerides is drugged and ''lifted off her feet'' in a chokehold by a bouncer whilst undercover at a sex party. Thankfully, her knife skills come in handy and she escapes alive, unlike the bouncer]].

* NeverSuicide: It is strongly implied that [[spoiler: Tony Chessani]] murdered his father and made it look like he overdosed on drugs, fell in the pool and drowned.
* NewscasterCameo: Several real-life media agencies appear in the series. TMZ reports on the scandal between Woodrugh and Lacey Lindel, and FOX broadcasts show both Geldof declaring his candidacy for governor and Ray's [[spoiler: fugitive status and later death]]. A CBS news crew is also seen covering the Vinci workers protests in episode 4.

** Frank is challenged to a fist fight by Danny Santos, and despite being 'really little' and 'old' compared to the obese club owner, proceeds to savagely beat him and remove his grill.

** Velcoro, once again, brutally beats a man guarding [[spoiler: the sex party Bezzerides infiltrates in episode six]].
** Frank smashes a whiskey glass into the side of [[spoiler: Blake's]] head, pushes the shards into his skull by standing on his head, and strangles him. He then shoots him in the stomach and lets him bleed out, slowly.
* NoKillLikeOverKill: [[spoiler: After shooting and killing Osip in the head, Frank unloads the rest of his clip into the corpse. He had some anger issues to work out.]]

* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Caspere was sleeping with Laura and Leonard's mother, fathering at least Laura. She then unknowingly seduced him in disguise to find out about the men who killed their parents.]]

** Paul is told by the California Attorney General that if he succeeds in managing the Caspere case he will be promoted to detective. However, he is less than enthused, requesting simply to 'go back to the bike' and traffic duty once the case is solved.

* ThePlan: A complicated one was set up before the beginning of the season: [[spoiler: Semyon conspired with Catalast Group's predecessor company to massively pollute the land that was going to be developed by the addition of a high speed rail corridor. This dropped the value of the land to pennies on the dollar so that they could buy it up, and then sell it back when the value skyrocketed due to rail development.]] It worked out for everyone except [[spoiler: Semyon]].

** Velcoro also has his moments. Upon discovering a soundproofed room full of suspicious contraptions, creepy music and easily half a gallon of blood on the floor, his first thought is to ''holster his weapon'' instead of clearing the rest of the house. [[spoiler: It later results in him getting shot. Twice]].

* PreMortemOneLiner: Also delivered by Frank before he decides to strangle [[spoiler: Blake]] to death.

** Frank gets another one in the finale, following up on his earlier BadassBoast to [[spoiler: Osip.]] He then fires a single bullet to the head.

* PrivateMilitaryContractor: Woodrugh, a military veteran, worked for "Black Mountain" before he joined the police, an obvious stand-in for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academi Blackwater]]. He's very defensive and secretive about his actions during the war, hinting at the accusations of war crimes that Blackwater drew during the same war. Black Mountain later re-brands itself as "Ares Security", and begin servicing only one client: [[spoiler: Catalast Group]].

** Katherine Davis, a States Attorney. She reopens the Caspere case after it is improperly closed by Geldof, presumably in collusion with the Vinci government so it can be resolved properly. She even declares Bezzerides and Velcoro 'special investigators' so their identities can be kept a secret. [[spoiler: Because of her desire to reveal the corruption surrounding the deal, she is murdered in episode seven with one of Ray's guns, framing him as well]].
* ReassignedToAntarctica: A few months after the gunfight in episode four, Bezzerides, the leader of the Caspere investigation, has been demoted to sergeant working in evidence storage. Velcoro, the second in command, quits Vinci PD and begins working as security for Frank. Also a case of SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome, as the shootout was incredibly dangerous to both police and public (many officers and civilians were killed), and resulted in the case being closed unsatisfactorily due to the prime suspect being killed. The unspoken implication is that the higher ups scapegoated Bezzerides and Velcoro.
* RecycledPremise: Frank Semyon's plot is largely lifted from ''Film/TheLongGoodFriday'': A happily married mob boss is on the verge of going legitimate by making a huge land development deal in partnership with a foreign crime organization, but finds himself under attack by unknown agents. Struggling first to keep the deal together and then just to stay alive, he uncovers that [[spoiler:his number two has betrayed him, so he kills him personally]]. Ultimately, [[spoiler:he assassinates an enemy leader, but gets murdered anyway, leaving his wife a widow]].

** [[spoiler: Ray notes that the Birdman shot him with less-lethal riot shells, specifically adding "You know, like cops use." That, plus the Birdman's slim, tall figure, suggested Burris as the man under the mask. Burris turned out to be corrupt, but it was Leonard Osterman who wore the mask.]]
** Similarly, after the cops were made aware of the Osterman orphans, before [[spoiler: realizing they were Erica and the set photograher]], the only characters of that age and similar complexion were Chessani's kids.
** Ray's son. Given the reveal that [[spoiler:the rapist he murdered turned out not to be the guy]] and that this information was supplied by the prominently redheaded Blake, it's easy to read between the lines and see that [[spoiler:he raped Ray's wife and is the father of her son. Only, it turns out, Ray is actually the father after all.]]

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: State Attorney Katherine Davis and Detective Paul Woodrugh]] in the penultimate episode.

* SecondLove: [[spoiler: Ani for Ray.]]

* SetTheWorldOnFire: [[spoiler: After Osip and his men betray Frank and buy out his casino, club and men, Frank retorts by setting both buildings on fire, rupturing the gas lines and getting the hell out of dodge]].

* ScareEmStraight: How Velcoro elects to deal with his son's bully; brutally beating the boys father in front of him and threatening to harm his family if he continues bullying other kids.

* ShoutOut: Has its [[ShoutOut/TrueDetective own page]].

* ASimplePlan: Episode 4 has Ani, Ray, and Paul tracking down a possible suspect, who happens to be a gang leader. When the gang's hideout is found, they are informed that the nearest SWAT will take some time to arrive, possibly giving the leader time to slip away from them, so Ani decides to stage an impromptu raid using the officers from the task force, believing it to be an dangerous but not insurmountable mission. [[spoiler:The result is downright carnage, as the gang discovers them, and pins them down with automatic fire while attempting to escape by driving through a nearby demonstration. This attempt fails as their car crashes into a bus, so the gang instead tries to shoot their way out. All of the gang, most of the taskforce and a number of civilians are caught in the crossfire]].

** Vinci's mayor, Austin Chessani, is the embodiment of this trope. He openly gropes his [[TrophyWife trophy wife's]] ass during a formal fundraiser, grossly misuses city funds for his own personal gain and drinks in the morning whilst meeting with police detectives.
** Most of the men who attend the sex parties organised by [[spoiler: Chessani's son, Blake and Pitlor, including the State Attorney General and various congressmen]].
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: Ani has Ray's child in Venezuela.]]
* StoryArc: Several happen after the murder of Caspere.
** Velcoro is tasked to retrieve whatever was taken from his secondary residence by the [=VPD=] and by Frank, which includes a hard drive that contains "incriminating" data.
** Bezzerides and Ilinca work on a missing person's case that concern an ex-maid who went missing and was last seen staying at her father's "spiritual" commune.
** Woodrugh goes to investigate the cache of diamonds that Detective Dixon previously investigated and learned that they were among several diamonds that went missing in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots.
* StraightGay: Paul. However this is helped by the fact he actively goes to [[ArmouredClosetGay great lengths to hide and conceal his homosexuality]].
* SuicidalOverconfidence: Danny Santos, the [[FatBastard corpulent]] club owner, seems to think that he would be able to kick Frank's ass. Needless to say, [[TheToothHurts It doesn't go too well for him.]]

* TelevisionGeography: Being roughly a seven hour drive away, it's pretty weird that the party Ani goes to in Monterey was getting its girls from LA.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: At the end of the second episode [[spoiler: Ray is shot twice, and then the episode ends.]] The tension is undercut somewhat, given that [[spoiler: Velcoro]] is shown in the premiere trailer for season 2, participating in several scenes that had yet to occur by the time episode two rolled around.

* UndyingLoyalty: Franks bodyguard, Nails. Unlike the other hired muscle, he never leaves Frank's side once, and [[spoiler: Blake reveals that unlike himself and Ivar, Nails was never bought. Long after Frank is dead, Nails is still keeping Jordan and Ani safe.]]
* UriahGambit: The big shootout in episode four is revealed to have been this. The cops were given false intel and Amarilla's men were warned about the raid by [[spoiler: Burris]]. The primary target was [[spoiler: Dixon]] and any of the other characters getting killed would have been a bonus.

** Bezzerides is a bit of a mess after she [[spoiler: kills a bouncer whilst undercover at a sex party in episode six. The fact she was drugged probably doesn't help either]].

** "Down Will Come." [[spoiler:Velcoro, Bezzerides and Woodrugh lead a raid against Ledo Amarilla, a local pimp and suspect in the Caspere case. Amarilla's gang proves to be prepared for the detectives' arrival and initiate an extended and bloody firefight that results in the deaths of the gang members, several civilians, [[SacrificialLion Teague Dixon]] and the rest of the raid team save for the three main leads. In addition, Mayor Chessani, Caspere and Caspere's psychiatrist Dr. Pitlor are revealed to have been in business together for decades, Bezzerides is suspended from her precinct due to a sexual harassment complaint and Woodrugh's girlfriend reveals that she is pregnant.]]
** "Other Lives" [[spoiler: Three months have passed and every single character is exactly where they said they didn't want to be. Ray has become Frank's muscle, Frank was forced to sell most of his expensive items, Paul's a detective, and Ani's still banned from the Sheriff's Department. The case is secretly reopened when the Attorney General begins running for governor, raising Davis' suspicions. Dixon, who died in the shootout, turned out to be much more important than believed when it's discovered he was looking into the disappearance of Caspere's diamonds before Caspere was murdered in the first place. Alicia's rapist turns out to have been alive after all because Frank gave Ray a fake name.]]
** If you thought the detectives were at a low point in "Other Lives", [[FromBadToWorse things get worse]] in "Black Maps and Motel Rooms". [[spoiler: Velcoro and Bezzerides are fugitives after Velcoro is framed for the Davis' murder and the body of the security guard Bezzerides killed is discovered. Woodrugh receives blackmail photos of his homosexual relationship. Meanwhile, Semyon is forced to burn down all of his business to avoid having to hand them over to the Catalast Group. As Velcoro and Bezzerides have sex, Woodrugh goes to confront his blackmailers, finding out that his old PMC is also in league with Catalast, and is killed while attempting to escape.]]
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: Uttered by a hallucination of Jordan as an injured Frank vows that he will "never stop moving".]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Jordan:''' Oh babe, [[DeadAllAlong you stopped moving way back there]].]]
* WhamShot: Paul escapes the underground tunnels of Vinci with the crucial evidence in hand, [[spoiler:and Lt. Burris walks up behind him and shoots him in the back, killing him.]]

* WhiteCollarCrime: Frank is attempting to move up from the blue collar crime of running clubs and pushing drugs to investing money in illicit land deals involving big businesses and the government. [[spoiler: It later falls through after [=McCandless=], Osip and Caspere screw him over, and he is forced to go back to his blue collar crime roots just to keep money coming in. He later admits he isn't cut out for that sort of work, and also reveals in the season finale that he never wore a suit until he was 38]].

** As Ray leaves Franks house after confronting him at gunpoint about [[spoiler: the false information he gave to him about his wife's rapist]].

** [[spoiler: Paul's lover, Miguel, and the rest of his Black Mountain buddies are revealed to be working security for Catalast Group, and attempt to kill him in the penultimate episode under orders from Holloway]].

* YouAllShareMyStory: The first episode has three police protagonists investigating their separate cases when, at the tail-end of the episode, [[WorkingTheSameCase everything is tied together when Caspere is found murdered.]]

* ArcSymbol: Letters and the written word in general, possibly pertaining to the season's theme of memory. The season's intro song is "Death Letter". Wayne and Roland find some notes written to the kids. A letter is sent to the Purcell's [[spoiler: by Lucy]] telling them not to worry. Wayne reads Amelia's book to gain insight on the mystery. [[spoiler: Tom Purcell's suicide is faked by dumping his body with a forged suicide note]].

** The rednecks who keep [[BullyingADragon harassing]] [[ShellShockedVeteran Woodard]] [[spoiler: all get blown to shreds and gunned down by him after they surround his house with the intention of murdering him.]]
** Although she is also a JerkassWoobie, a lot of sympathy is lost for [[spoiler:Lucy Purcell]] when flashbacks reveal that she knowingly [[spoiler:sold her daughter to an insane heiress and, although she was devastated upon learning that Will had accidentally died in the "exchange", she kept quiet about it in exchange for more money.]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Hays figures out that Julie Purcell is still alive and happily married with a child, however his dementia strikes ''just'' as he's pulling up to her house to confront her. Even so, everything else in his life (besides the aforementioned dementia) is good, he has rekindled his friendship with Roland and his children are both doing well. Henry also seems to be aware that the address is significant.]]
* ConnectedAllAlong: If not the second season, the third is definitively confirmed to take place in the same world as the first one, with [[TheCameo cameo]] appearances from Rust and Marty, and an explicit CallBack to the Yellow King cult murders. Hays' interviewer in 2015 references the cult and their crooked spiral motif, though he explicitly denies such a cult was involved this time around.
* CrazyPrepared: [[spoiler: Woodards's]] house is riddled with mines, booby traps, and hidden guns in the event that the racist townspeople come after him.
* CreepyDoll: The white dolls leading to [[spoiler: Will Purcell's body]].
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of true crime stories and conspiracy theories. [[spoiler: While Elisa suspects the death of Will Purcell and disappearance of Julie Purcell are tied to a child trafficking ring, the former was a genuine accident and the latter a non-malicious (but still illegal and harmful) kidnapping by a mentally ill woman from a rich family. Hoyt, the local business tycoon supposedly at the heart of the conspiracy, is actually a despondent alcoholic who mainly wants to protect his family and company's reputations, and the lone surviving kidnapping conspirator is guilt-ridden and quickly confesses when Wayne and Roland confront him years later. The district attorney/attorney general who wanted the case closed is implied to have done so out of convenience and political ambition rather than to cover up a vast conspiracy. In the end, while the original murder and kidnapping were still tragic, the Hoyt family's attempts to cover it up ruined even more lives]].
* DeathFakedForYou: [[spoiler:The nuns fake Julie's death from AIDS so that she can escape her traumatic past.]]

** [[spoiler: After slaying the entire lynch mob and a couple of police officers responding to the scene, [[ShellShockedVeteran Woodard]] invites Wayne to put him down, which he does with great reluctance. It had already been established that Woodard was severely troubled by the war and his inability to readjust to civilian life, so him feeling suicidally depressed isn't surprising. It's clear he felt the only thing he was good for was being a soldier, so he wanted to go out fighting. It also explains why he had more respect for Wayne, [[WorthyOpponent a fellow veteran]], and thus wanted him to take the shot.]]
** Junius. [[spoiler:He says he's waited for months, if not years, for Wayne and Roland to find him. When they reveal that they have no authority to punish or imprison him, Roland coldly tells him to kill himself.]]
* DueToTheDead: Will Purcell's body is arranged in an attempt at twisted kindness, posed in a similar way to his first Communion photo and sheltered by a cave.
* FreudianTrio: Amelia is the naive but well-intentioned superego, Roland is the ego, trying to hold back Wayne's impulses but always being tempted by them, and Wayne himself is the id, though he is also confronted by a variety of separate ids (Lucy, Woodard, Junius, all to a greater or lesser extent).
* TheKindnapper: Deconstructed. [[spoiler:Isabel thinks she's doing this to Julie, and so does Junius, but only because he isn't aware that Isabel is ''drugging'' Julie to make her seem happy. When he figures it out, it helps her to escape.]]
* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler:Amelia is this to Wayne in the present after she dies.]] [[spoiler:Julie was also this to Mike, although he was eventually able to get her back.]]

* LastStand: [[spoiler: Woodard, when confronted by a lynch mob, retreats to his booby trapped house and prepares to go out guns blazing. He ends up killing all of his attackers and a couple police officers responding to the scene, but is shot by Hays]].

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Following from Season 1's ambiguous Lovecraftian Horror, Hays repeatedly influences past events when he has dementia-related hallucinations. Younger Hays stares at where 2010s' Hays will be, and looks discomfited. At one point the elder Hays possibly causes a door in 1990 to swing open when he hallucinates the decades old memory. Or the door randomly swung open as they sometimes do.

** Tom is revealed to have committed suicide in the 1990s, apparently because [[spoiler:he killed his son and abducted and killed his daughter. He didn't; he was framed by Harris.]]
** Lucy is believed to have accidentally OD'd after spiralling into addiction in despair. [[spoiler:Hoyt killed her because she asks for more money.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Roland and Wayne's aggressive interrogation of [[spoiler:Harris, although he did assist in child abduction]] resulted in [[spoiler:his death, which gave the Hoyts the material they needed to blackmail Wayne into dropping the case]] and ultimately ruined Roland and Wayne's friendship.

** Surprisingly, [[spoiler:Julie for Mike.]] He's also able to recognize her when ''nobody else is.''
* RedHerring: With the StealthSequel reveal, viewers would expect that Julie Purcell's kidnapping and her brother's death must be related to something rather sinister with many high level cover ups. [[spoiler:It turns out Julie's kidnappers weren't a pedophile ring at all, simply a powerful family with a mentally fragile woman who thought Julie must be her daughter after her real daughter died tragically. And the Attorney General who always seems interested in shutting down the case as soon as possible isn't (presumably) in cahoots with the Hoyts, he simply is a grandstanding politician who wants to look good for the press at the cost of a case being closed prematurely.]]

** The older Roland's dogs clearly become this for his relationships with Wayne and Tom, as he meets his first stray dog after being beaten up following his devastation over [[spoiler:Tom's suicide]] and [[spoiler:Wayne's demotion.]]
** [[spoiler:Julie]] turns out to be a victim of this at the hands of [[spoiler:Isabel Hoyt]] after the death of [[spoiler:her own daughter, Mary.]]
* SaintlyChurch: Although a grittier version, [[spoiler:the church helps the deeply traumatized Mary/Julie to fake her own death in an attempt to help her recover from her abduction.]]

** [[spoiler: Woodard is posthumously convicted of the Purcell murders by Wayne's superiors. This is motivated by the shoot-out he'd been in, the discovery of Will Purcell's backpack at his house, and the preexisting mistrust the townsfolk had towards him for being a lowly scavenger and a non-white one at that. As the future segments quickly reveal, it wasn't him.]]
** [[spoiler:Tom also becomes one after his apparent suicide]] after people finally become suspicious that [[spoiler:Woodard]] wasn't actually the killer and kidnapper after all.

* StealthSequel: It is revealed that season 3's story is in the same continuity as season 1, when Rust and Marty's exploits in 2012 are brought up as being similar in nature to Hays and Roland's case. Specifically [[spoiler:little children being kidnapped, which is being covered up by people in power, possibly in connection to pedophile ring]]. The twist being here, that [[spoiler:the case Hays and Roland are pursuing is ultimately revealed to be a result of very mudane (and not quite as sinister as original persumed) causes, rather than the machinations of some complex and nebulous conspiracy that Rust and Marty were up against]].

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The 5th episode has a recording of a Arkansas State Police 911 operator talking to someone who claims to be Julie. She says that she doesn't want to go back and see her father.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: One of the season's recurring themes given how many examples there are.
** Lucy [[spoiler:sold her own daughter, which led to her son's accidental death.]] She's devastated, but not devastated enough to tell anyone, which ultimately results in ''everything'' bad happening, especially [[spoiler:her husband's murder and frame job.]] But she's so broken down, miserable, and seemingly aware of her faults that it's possible to feel some sympathy with her.

** [[spoiler:''Isabella''.]] While [[spoiler:she was a fanatical kidnapper and (admittedly accidental) murderer who imprisoned a young girl after killing her brother, and drugged her with ''lithium'', she was also completely emotionally and mentally broken, even slipping into a vegetative state, following the deaths of her husband and daughter in a car accident. After that, she only showed happiness when she was with Julie and, after Julie escaped, Isabella committed suicide.]]

** [[spoiler:Ginger gets dumped in a ditch by Cohle, but otherwise escapes all punishment for his drug stash invasion and general scumbaggery]].

* SouthernGothic: Oppressive heat, lots of death, dark secrets, decaying farms, all tied up with family, religion, and Voodoo... yeah, it's Southern Gothic.

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: Name-dropped in an episode.
-->If it's in the papers, it's white children.

** The tongue found at the facility [[spoiler:was not placed there by the killers, and there is no explanation for its appearance.

* BaitAndSwitch: Hank is obviously getting the classic {{catfishing}} treatment from his Russian bride-to-be, so we know what to expect when he arrives to pick her up from the airport. The plane empties out with no Russian bride in sight, leaving Hank expectedly heartbroken... but what's this? A beautiful Slavic-looking woman emerges from the cabin, [[spoiler:and she promptly shuts the cabin door, revealing that she's a stewardess]].

** [[spoiler: It's all but stated by the end of Part 4 that Navarro shot a man who had abused and murdered his wife in cold blood, and that Danvers helped cover it up.]]
** [[spoiler:Hank Prior, right before he has is brains blown out, says that he didn't kill Annie Kowtok, and was just asked to move the body.]]

* MailOrderBride: Danvers teases Hank about his "mail order bride," but it's actually even more pathetic than that: He's been sending money to an obvious {{catfishing}} swindler posing as his Russian girlfriend.

* ArcSymbol: Spirals. Annie K has a spiral tattoo that she saw in a recurring dream. Clark gets a matching one. A spiral is drawn on one of the scientists' heads.

* DirtyCop: