This won’t be a long post, just two quick thoughts. I just finished the season finale of True Detective, season 1. I’m not going to offer up a full review because I’m late to the party and it’s already been done, and far more thoroughly than I could. Also, SPOILER ALERT.

First off, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) ends the season with this quote: “You’re looking at it wrong. Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning.” I’ve seen this quote heralded as a generic good vs evil mantra as well as a more specific God vs Satan, but I see in this bit of dialogue a bit of Zoroastrianism. The idea of the light vs dark, good vs evil, and that good will, is destined to, win. Too universal? Okay, maybe you’re right. But in addition, Zoroastrianism teaches that the reason good will triumph over evil, and the good God is Ahura Mazda, is through the good works that we as people do. Tie this in with the fact that Rust and Marty just defeated a very evil man, though hardly evil itself, and it fits. Think about that for a second, True Detective does not want you to believe that everything is grand at the end, there is still a far bigger conspiracy in play than these two ordinary men will ever be able to tackle, but the world is a little better. That’s the only kind of victory that counts because eventually these little victories end in Ahura Mazda’s triumph and paradise on earth. Is this what Nic Pizzolatto was going for? Probably not, but it’s nice to use a random bit of knowledge I learned in college that will likely never come up again.

My second thought is something I believe is called The Inverse Allegory of the Cave. It’s a darker look on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. If you’re not familiar with this and can’t be bothered to click the link I just provided, it’s basically this: Man is in a cave, the light he sees are really only reflections. If he becomes enlightened enough, he will emerge from the cave and see the true light. Now that’s a really complex philosophical idea condensed into a simple thought, but you get the idea. The Inverse Allegory of the Cave is basically the same thing except when the enlightened man emerges from the cave, he only finds a deeper darkness. Sound a bit like ol’ Rust Cohle? When he tells Marty of his near death, when he let himself go into a deep darkness where he could only feel his daughter’s love, this is that inversion. True Detective has the nerve to suggest that not only will the enlightened man emerge from the cave to see, not a light but a darkness, but that maybe that darkness isn’t such a terrible thing. Love can exist in the black as well.

I guess maybe these two ideas aren’t all that compatible, what with the light and dark imagery and all, but at least maybe it’s some food for thought.