True Detective S1 Episode 4
I’d heard good things about episode four and while it’s centered around the long take at the end, what impressed me was the thorough evisceration of Marty’s masculine self-image in this episode.I think we’d need to reach the act of physical castration to emasculate him any further after everything went awry
As events progress, there’s this subtle transition in the episode where Marty goes from Alpha male to the Beta role. The episode opening with him interrogating the prisoner as he did was an assertion of dominance over another male. He does the same in the courthouse scene when he blows off the woman he’s having his affair with in another show of dominance. He frames his actions as being her fault and she was the one that needed to deal with it. Not in public though as that would tarnish his image of family man and good cop, emphasis on man.
When he’s looking for information about Reggie Ledoux, Marty feels as if he’s in his element at last. The bar at the strip club feels like the territory that suits him best given his chosen vices. He looks comfortable and when pressing the bartender for information about Ledoux, he leverages his badge as a symbol of power. The reluctant bartender finally volunteers information to Marty but again only after a show of dominance.
It finally falls apart when these actions have consequences associated with them at last. The woman Marty’s cheating with personally informs Maggie about what’s been going on behind her back and given their relationship was already strained, she leaves with his daughters. Marty’s been engaged in a slow descent since the show started but he’s in open freefall now.
He gets exceptionally drunk and tails a stripper so he can find someone that might actually have information about Ledoux’s whereabouts. He doesn’t keep it cool or play things right now though, he’s angry and volatile. He pulls his gun on the man he’s looking for to squeeze information from him as the good cop facade he’s been putting up is no longer present. At this point Marty’s like a wounded animal, lashing out at anyone that dares come too close. After calling Rust, he’s off to the hospital to make a fool of himself in front of his estranged wife. Until now, Marty’s generally gotten his way by throwing his weight around as a state police officer but he’s rebuked by a doctor witnessing him harass his wife. Marty’s in someone else’s territory now, he can’t lean on his badge to protect him as he’s not operating in the capacity of law enforcement. This is the doctor’s turf and he’s not tolerating Marty’s behavior. Security is called and we see Marty finally yield to an authority figure outside of the police hierarchy.
Between Marty finding Reggie Ledoux’s location and showing up at the hospital, Marty calls Rust with information about associates of Ledoux. We know Rust used to be a deep cover narco agent and he once ran with this particular biker gang. His past is catching up with him in a strange way that gives us a scene where he hauls out a red footlocker and reviews the contents. It’s a tangible act of revisiting a past that’s been hidden and locked away for one reason or another. The bottle of alcohol is important since it’s a symbol of who Rust used to be, not who he tries to be now.
The episode’s focus is heavily on Rust from here on out. He’s the one that retrieves Marty from the hospital. He takes him to a bar after where there’s an interesting scene where Marty takes Rust’s cigarette and begins smoking while Rust has a drink himself. It’s the transition moment where they’re briefly equals, partners sharing each other’s vices, before Rust becomes the dominant one of the pair. He reprimands Marty for his actions and reminds him of what his real responsibility is at the moment. Marty submits by listening to what he has to say rather than challenging him at every turn as he was apt to do prior to these events.
We finally get to see what Rust is truly capable of afterwards. We had a taste of it when he got information about the location of the bunny ranch in an earlier episode. Rust doesn’t need to talk tough, he is tough. He knows that and that’s enough for him, it’s not something to be broadcast like Marty thought it should have been when he was asserting his own masculine image. Rusts’s theft of the coke demonstrates the lengths he was willing to go to in order to solve the case and his discussion with Maggie regarding Marty is less delivering an olive branch for him and far more an admonition of his irresponsibility.
It’s obvious how much of Marty was bluff and bravado come the biker bar scene. When Rust enters the bar, he’s at home, these are the sort of people just like him. They don’t frighten him and there’s this sort of unspoken respect among peers. When Marty grows tired of waiting for Rust and enters the bar himself, he realizes how much of his authority came from his gun and his badge, not himself. It’s clear that neither token has power here and brandishing one would just provoke patrons unafraid of either. He’s unceremoniously thrown out of the bar and humiliated by the jeers and beer bottles thrown his way.
Of course, this leads to the final long take that’s the most popular element of the episode. While both the action and tension displayed are good, it’s the decision to make this a long take that’s most intriguing. It serves as a reflection of this iteration of Rust that we’re fully seeing for the first time. It’s an extension of the focus and control Rust has over the current situation. The very nature of the long take requires getting everything right in one go and that’s exactly what Rust does.
While watching this episode, I mused to myself early on why Marty, as a macho character, didn’t gain more traction among people who lament the state of the American male since he has so much in common with the kind of person that would decry such a thing. It became clear that Marty had more in common than I thought with the sort of person that would often express this vocally as his insecurity would mirror theirs. The real tough guys don’t have to announce it, they know they are. Sorry, Marty, Rust’s the man now.
