Every Main Character From True Detective Ranked From Worst To Best
4. Amelia Reardon - Season 3
The True Detective anthology isn't just about cops solving a crime, but civilians/non-police taking it upon themselves to investigate the crime too.
At the start of season three we're introduced to High School teacher, Amelia Reardon. What initially looks like simply a romance plot for Wayne Hays, broadens and expands into an independent narrative where Amelia becomes the third detective in the season- and she's the one who solves the damn case!
Her questions and curiosity might have aggravated Wayne, but she asked enough of the right ones to write a book that pieces together all the clues of the Purcell investigation. Ironically, if Wayne had actually read her book the information he amassed over the years, twinned with her personal recollections would have closed the case long ago.
While her absence in the modern timeline is never explained in the TV release, the DVD/Blu-Ray box sets reveal the circumstances of her death and it is truly heartbreaking. There's no twist, no mystery assassin or tragic accident. She just went to bed one night, and never woke up again.
Amelia is not just well-written but very well acted, and Carmen Ejogo finds the right balance between charming seductress and tenacious investigator.