Rust Cohle Is An Optimist
With another season of 'True Detective' behind us, let's revisit the best one.
*Ahead are spoilers for the first and fourth seasons of True Detective.
I would love to attend a party with Rust Cohle.
We’d either have profound conversations about the nature of humanity or I’d listen to him talk shit about all the other numbskulls at the function who think they’re the cat's pajamas. There’s no better way to spend a party.
Although, it might be hard to get Rust there in the first place.
He thinks he’s “bad at parties,” which is his topical definition of a “pessimist,” a philosophy he claims to espouse.
According to Webster, the definition of “pessimist” is:
“a person who is inclined to expect poor outcomes.”
Well, the truth is, based on that definition, I don’t believe Rust Cohle — the stern, sagacious homicide detective played masterfully by Matthew McConaughey in the first season of True Detective — is a pessimist at all.
In fact, I think he’s an optimist.
Before we go any further let’s examine the definition of “optimist”
“a person who is inclined to be hopeful and to expect good outcomes.”
Essentially, the antonym of “pessimist.”
It might be hard to believe that Rust expects good outcomes when he says “human consciousness was a tragic misstep in evolution,” and that human beings should “walk hand in hand into extinction.”
The basis of True Detective has always been about exploring what’s beneath the surface of humanity. Considering his views on human consciousness, Rust may seem like the epitome of darkness, but, under the surface, he is filled with light.
The light within Rust Cohle has simply been buried by horrible circumstances that were out of his control. When he was a child, his mother abandoned him. Then his daughter, Sofia, was killed in a car accident at the age of two.
Even one of these horrible tragedies would destroy a lot of people. To have both happen, well, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rust had the constitution for suicide. The death of his daughter sent him down a horrific spiral of drugs and murder, but even through that horror, he pulled himself out of it.
As the show demonstrates (and McConaughey depicts with fucking perfection), these tragedies have affected Rust, but they didn’t break him.
If he truly had zero hope, his programming might force him to get out of bed in the morning, but there’s no way he would do a worthwhile job like a homicide detective. He wouldn’t let Maggie set him up with other women and he especially wouldn’t start another relationship with Laurie.
Rust has been through more than anyone can imagine, but he is not an inherently dark character. That’s why, ten years later, the creatives making the new seasons of True Detective look to the first as the model for greatness.
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