True Detective Season 3: 8 Ways It's Saved The Show

Season 2 episodes tended to just fizzle out; aside from Ray Velcoro’s cocaine-induced dancing, it’s hard to remember a single scene of note from the series whatsoever.

One of the most subtle - yet effective - changes this time around is cutting to black at the absolutely perfect time. When Native American Vietnam vet Brett Woodard plants the C4 by his front door with ‘Front Towards Enemy’, the episode ends just as the door is booted in. On a basic level, we obviously know the explosion is coming and that a shootout is to follow, but there’s so much more to the scene than that.

A key theme is that evil doesn’t have to try hard to hide its face; hence front towards enemy.

Without any words, we’re told that Woodard and Hays share a close, almost methodical relationship with violence and that Woodard has been planning on going out like this for a long time. Also, despite Woodard ultimately being convicted of the central murder (likely by planted evidence), it paints him as the victim.

Tom’s anguished whisper of ‘Julie’ just as he enters the pink room of the mansion is a brilliant tease to keep viewers hooked too.