‘True Detective’ episode 3 preview: Rust Cohle and lawn-mowing mayhem

Who knew that Martin Hart loved to mow his lawn so much?

The latest sneak peek from Sunday night’s “True Detective” is incredibly intense, and there is a little bit of irony in that courtesy of the fact that it revolves around a subject so mundane as lawn-mowing. Woody Harrelson’s character gets extremely upset upon the discovery that not only is his fellow detective Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) devoting himself to lawn care, but he is doing so at his house … without his permission.

There are a number of different ways that you can take this from a psychological viewpoint.

1. As someone who saw his own hopes and dreams of having a family unit fall apart, maybe Rust sees the Hart family as an opportunity to integrate himself somewhere, and to find some sort of value.

2. After seeing some pretty strong evidence of Hart’s extramarital ways in this past episode, perhaps Rust has decided to act on a certain level of morality here, and wants to take on some duties of this family that have been neglected. It’s another way, after all, to get under Martin’s skin and make him feel somewhat inadequate and not worthy of the family that he has. (There has to be some serious resentment here from Rust’s standpoint that this man gets a family, and he does not.)

3. Maybe Rust just really likes to mow some lawns.

There is also something rather subtle in here that is worth point out, even if it may seem rather cheesy at first. Were this sneak peek been from 2008 or so, there is no question that McConaughey would be filming this scene without a shirt on. The fact that he specifically is sporting one here does show just how he has changed as an actor, and the cognizance to make sure that these sort of stereotypes are not forever attached to him.

What do you think is going on in this clip? Share below.

Photo: HBO