TCTTS said:
Part of me really, really wants to see a surprise Rust Cohle appearance toward the end of the season. Maybe HBO managed to keep a McConaughey return top secret, and Cohle is brought in as a special consultant, given his ties to the town/case, or is there to see Rose and gets swept up in the case.
That said, given that Cohle is one of my favorite characters of all time, and was so perfect through those eight season one episodes, I also don't want to risk the character being sullied in any way. Especially if it's not Pizzolatto writing his dialogue. That, and it would almost assuredly detract from the whole female detective angle, if a male character had to come in and help them close the case.
But man, to see Rust Cohle one more time, ten years later, and get a Contact reunion with Foster to boot...
This episode confirms there's not a potential link between Rust and season 4, it's absolute that his roots go back to this town. It would make less sense if Travis wasn't his father to me. Also, the name Tuttle showing up again isn't an accident. Also, Danvers is Cohle in this story and Prior is Hart. Danvers lost a child while Prior is the one with the family though since Prior is young he's less skeptical than Hart was in season 1. Danvers is the broken one who's stuck in the darkness, but is able to push through because she's got nothing left to lose, the world has taken from her what she held dearest. Prior has more to lose because he has a family, she has to pull him along until they get to the finish line, if it exists.
100% agree that I don't think they should bring Cohle in and I don't think they will. I think it does a disservice to the season if they do that, feels almost like cheating. It potentially impacts season 4's ability to stand on it's own merits. They've done just enough to make it work without crossing the line IMO.
The first thing I thought of when the frozen guy screamed was Se7en, it was startling. I don't see how anyone frozen for a couple of days could be alive.
But I do have a theory as to why they did that, specifically pointing to the audience that things can survive in the ice much longer than we think. At least with the removal of the bodies from the ice we know there's more there, as there were only 3 people visible at the end of the first episode. I'm looking forward to finding out more about the people they found since they were found without clothes, but the clothes that were found near the site weren't enough for the people they found. There's gotta me more than one guy involved because he couldn't single-handedly pulled off this job with all those other men.
Minor gripe: are we really supposed to believe that they didn't have the bodies under 24 hour surveillance? A frozen block of several people, which is the biggest piece of evidence in the show, was just left alone in the ice rink? Come on.
Theory:
The bacteria the scientists have been studying is reanimating and has infected some people in the research facility. Whether it's on purpose or accident is the question to me. Granted if this is the case then it's a little too close to some of what happened in the show I previously referenced, Fortitude, which I won't spoil if anyone here is interested in it.
