True Detective Season 3: What Does The Ending Really Mean?

2. Is He Dead Now?

Rejecting the Jacob's Ladder theory, then, there still needs to be a meaning for those closing moments (and personally, I don't think he was dead all along). Instead, it seems more likely that the references to Jacob's Ladder were designed to further create ambiguity and obfuscate the truth - there are plenty of other red herrings along the way, after all - but also to connect to the importance of finding Amelia again.

We hear Wayne and Amelia talk of his time in the army earlier in the episode, and she references the fact he only joined because, if he died in Vietnam, his mother would be well compensated.

Going back to Vietnam, then, is True Detective's way of telling us that Hays has now passed. In 2015, he's found a sense of peace. The case is over, and he's got his family back. He's found Amelia, and with her leading him out of the door, it's like her leading him to the place he can move on. Going back to Vietnam, the place where he somewhat expected to die, is a great way of tying his entire life together at its very end.

So much of Hays has been defined by his service, and mostly his skills as a tracker. That's what led him to the police force, and to the Purcell case. That case, in his old age and illness, is that one thing he had left to track, and in turn, keep him on track. With it now over, and his family back together, his service is over, and he's finally allowed to get off track, to rest in peace, or more bleakly, get lost in the jungle (i.e. his dementia), hence why it goes back to Vietnam.