True Detective's Season 1 Flat Circle Easter Egg Happened On The Fly
Catching the killer wasn't the point of "True Detective" season 1. In fact, even when the killer was caught, that was far from the end of the story. Fans of that first season may still be haunted by Marty Hart's (Woody Harrelson) acknowledgment in the final episode, "We ain't gonna get them all. That ain't the kind of world it is." "Them," in this context, refers to a group of influential Louisianians who had been committing horrific crimes against women and children for decades. And the fact that most of them remained at large was perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole season.
In the eighth and final episode of "True Detective" season 1, Marty and his detective partner Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) find and kill Errol Childress (Glenn Fleshler). Childress was the son of William Lee Childress, who in turn was the illegitimate son of Sam Tuttle, patriarch of the Tuttle family — a powerful dynasty with members in prominent societal positions throughout Louisiana and possibly beyond.
This family formed the center of the so-called "Carcosa" or "Yellow King" cult responsible for the aforementioned crimes. This means that when Errol is felled by Marty in episode 8 "Form and Void," the other cult members either remain at large or have long since passed without being held accountable.
Throughout this first season, there are multiple markers used to symbolize this horrific cabal of psychopaths, the most salient being a recurring crooked spiral. And for the longest time, it seemed showrunner Nic Pizzolatto and director Cary Fukunaga had always planned to plant a spiral/flat circle Easter egg in a crucial scene featuring Errol, as part of a larger plan to pepper their show with various clues. But it turns out, that wasn't exactly how things happened.
Lawnmower man
First seen in the inaugural episode "The Long Bright Dark," etched into the back of murder victim Dora Lange, the spiral symbol shows up a few more times throughout the first season of "True Detective," doubling as a motif for the Carcosa cult and the show's preoccupation with the nature of recurrence and time being a "flat circle."
In episode 3 "Seeing Things," we're introduced to Errol, who became known as "Lawnmower Man" among fans, due to the fact he's shown riding a mower on the grounds of an abandoned Christian academy. Then, Rust and Marty spent the next four episodes chasing down leads before seemingly solving the case by killing drug dealer and Errol's co-conspirator Reggie Ledoux (Charles Halford).
But as episode 7 "After You've Gone" draws to a close, Errol, once again astride his infamous mower, reappeared when detectives Thomas Papania (Tory Kittles) and Maynard Gilbough (Michael Potts) stopped to ask him directions. After the detectives left, a wide shot of Errol revealed he'd been mowing the turf at a cemetery in a spiral pattern.
Everyone from Reddit sleuths to Entertainment Weekly was struck by this detail, which when coupled with Errol's ominous delivery of the line, "My family has been here a long, long time," basically confirmed he was indeed the "monster at the end of the story," as Rust put it. But it seems neither Nic Pizzolatto nor Cary Fukunaga planned on including this Easter egg until the day of shooting. In fact, the fastidious Pizzolatto has his director to thank for this particularly subtle yet effective detail.
The 'perfect place' for an Easter egg
Speaking to Esquire, Cary Fukunaga revealed how he came up with the whole spiral mowing pattern while shooting the scene in question:
"That wasn't scripted. Literally I asked the guy who takes care of that cemetery not to mow the lawn for a while so we could actually have [Lawnmower Man] mowing. And then when we got there, it just occurred to me that if we had a crane shot, it would be the perfect place to shoot a spiral. It kind of took a little bit to explain to the special effects guy what I wanted. He thought I was just making a race track. I was like, 'No, no, as you come around come on the inside of your line, you're making a spiral.' It's not a perfect flat circle."
If nothing else, Fukunaga's revelation reminds us that the first season of "True Detective" was truly a collaboration between him and Pizzolatto, despite the latter often getting much of the credit. This is just another reason why it's such a shame Fukunaga struggled so much behind the scenes and wouldn't return to the show.
Meanwhile, the spiral symbol remains significant in the world of "True Detective." It made a brief appearance in season 3, forming a loose connection between seasons 1 and 3 where it was once again tied to pedophile rings. Then, the spiral showed up in the trailer for "True Detective" season 4, suggesting the upcoming run of episodes could revisit the storyline from season 1. This is an intriguing prospect, considering the Carcosa cult didn't begin and end with Errol, and there's plenty more justice to be meted out in this most chilling of "True Detective" cases.