At the end of the latest episode of True Detective, Tom Purcell sneaks into the Hoyt estate, where he finds a soundproof room with pink walls where Julie was presumably being kept hostage. With that twist, the new prime suspect is evidently Mr. Hoyt (who has no first name yet), a powerful local businessman who seems to be a fictionalised version of an actual Arkansas billionaire, Tyson Foods C.E.O. Don Tyson.
Although a number of leads have connected back to Hoyt throughout the season, the man was allegedly out of the country on a hunting trip when the Purcell kids went missing. So we haven't actually seen Hoyt on the show yet, even though he's been a presence throughout the season.
Or have we?
In Episode Six, True Detective fans spotted a familiar face in Harris James's office.
Yep, that's actor Michael Rooker, who you might remember from Guardians of the Galaxy and The Walking Dead.
And shortly after fans noticed, HBO officially confirmed that Rooker had been cast to play Hoyt. It seems clear that HBO kept this role under wraps throughout the season to set Rooker's Hoyt up as a major character in the final two episodes.
Since we know that the Hoyt estate had the "pink room" that Julie spoke about to other runaway girls, and we know that Lucy Purcell formerly worked at Hoyt farms, along with a number of other clues, it seems pretty obvious at this point that this will all connect back to Rooker's character.
At this point, the only mystery remaining is what happens to Wayne Hays and Roland West in 1990 when the case is re-opened. We know that Harris James somehow ends up dead, along with a number of other people connected to the case. My hunch is that Hays and West take matters into their own hands in 1990, and are making an effort to cover up their murder of James in 2015. But, that leaves us to wonder what, exactly, happens to Rooker's Hoyt in 1990.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
