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"Form and Void" is the eighth and final episode of the first season of True Detective. It first aired March 9, 2014 on HBO.

Summary[]

The scarred killer, Errol Childress is shown in his home, a large, messy house. He lives and has sex with his mentally challenged half-sister, spouts his philosophies in a variety of voices and accents, and keeps his father's corpse in a shed out back, which is covered in arcane paintings. He is also shown painting a school building, where he watches two girls spinning in circles and uneasily makes eye contact with a young boy.

Cohle and Hart interrogate Geraci, getting him to talk by showing him the cultists' tape of the Fontenot sacrifice. They learn that the sheriff at the time of Fontenot's disappearance was named Childress, and covered up her disappearance.

They hit another dead end in the investigation until Hart notes the significance of the Erath "spaghetti monster"'s green ears and the possibility that the green may have come from paint. Tracking down houses painted in the area during that time, they find a small business called "Childress and Son", which employed a man with scars on his face.

Driving to the home of William Childress, the owner of the business, Cohle immediately recognizes it as the home of their killer. Errol Childress, the scarred man, flees and is pursued by Rust and Hart into a large overgrown labyrinthine structure in the woods - Carcosa. In the innermost chamber of Carcosa, Cohle hallucinates a spiraling alien galaxy when he is suddenly attacked by Errol. After a struggle with Errol, who stabs Cohle in the stomach and throws an axe into Hart's chest, Cohle finally shoots Errol in the head, killing him. Papania and Gilbough, who were called to the scene by Hart, arrive with backup and find Hart clinging to the unconscious, critically wounded Cohle.

After a long stay in the hospital, both men manage to recover from their wounds. There, Hart wheels Cohle out of the hospital and they talk in the parking lot. Cohle reveals that when he was comatose, he felt the presence of his daughter, and has come out of the experience with a significantly more hopeful outlook on life. Cohle describes a universal battle between light and dark. Based on the night sky, Hart notes that the dark has much more territory. Cohle responds, "Once there was only dark. You ask me, the light's winning."

Quotes[]

  • "Once there was only dark. You ask me, the light's winning." -Rustin Cohle
  • "I have very important work to do. My ascension removes me from the disk and the loop. I am near final stage. Some mornings, I can see the infernal plane" - Errol Childress

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest starring[]

  • Ann Dowd as Betty Childress
  • Glenn Fleshler as Errol Childress
  • Michael J. Harney as Steve Geraci
  • Veronica Hunsinger-Loe as Teacher
  • Kurt Krause as Chad
  • Johnny McPhail as Robert Doumain
  • Terry Moore as Lily Hill
  • Erin Moriarty as Audrey Hart
  • David Stifel as Billy Lee Childress
  • Madison Wolfe as Audrey Hart
  • Rachel Wulff as News Reporter

Advertising and marketing[]

Promotional Photos[]

True Detective Season 1 (2014)

101. "The Long Bright Dark"
102. "Seeing Things"
103. "The Locked Room"
104. "Who Goes There"

105. "The Secret Fate of All Life"
106. "Haunted Houses"
107. "After You've Gone"
108. "Form and Void"


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See also: S1S2S3Night Country
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