‘True Detective’ Season Finale: The Yellow King, The Fate Of Our Heroes And The End Of Reddit Theories

The “True Detective” season finale, titled “Form and Void,” will be the final chapter for Rustin Cohle and Marty Hart as they solve the Yellow King case. While many will be sad to say goodbye to Rust’s pessimistic worldview, or Hart’s ego/masculine pride getting the best of him, or the incredible story crafted by Nic Pizzolatto, many others will mourn the end of countless hours of speculation on Reddit.

The final episode of the first season of “True Detective,” airing on Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on HBO, will also be the last episode for Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The series will likely continue with a second season featuring new actors, new detectives and a new case.

During the first season of “True Detective,” fans were swept up by the mystery behind the Yellow King and the mysterious cult as well as the fascinating -- and flawed -- characters of Cohle and Hart. As each episode aired, every clue and revelation only added to the mystery and the show became the perfect fodder for water-cooler conversations that would last a week.

Nowhere was the “True Detective” conversation more impassioned than the dedicated subReddit. Fans on the forum would tear through each episode for clues, background hints and more evidence, just like real detectives.

From theories and speculation about the Yellow King, who is the “green-eared spaghetti monster,” theories about Audrey’s behavior, what role Maggie plays and general episode discussions have led to thousands of comments, many of which are lengthy and quite detailed.

Reddit sleuths were also quick to find photos, to point out background clues, such as the similarity between a flower painting hanging in the Hart’s bedroom and the mural in the psych ward that Cohle visits, and even created a case file. Other clues, such as the positioning of Aubrey’s dolls and Cohle’s beer can men, were also dissected at length.

Leading up to the season finale, Reddit users hunted down clues in the teaser clip and from Instagram to finalize their theories, including the Yellow King is nothing more than a drug-induced hallucination. That’s not to say all the discussion has been serious and there have also been plenty of crazy speculation.

The end of “Form and Void” and the conclusion of the first season of “True Detective” will also mean the end to the fun speculation on Reddit. There will be some post-mortem discussion about all the speculation, if any of the theories were accurate and a further examination of clues that were overlooked. Luckily for fans, while “True Detective” may end on Sunday, there is at least one more round of Monday discussion.