‘True Detective' Season 1 Finale: [SPOILERS!] Alternate Endings, Unanswered Questions And Theories Debunked! What's Next For The Groundbreaking Show?

The series "True Detective" from HBO had its much anticipated ending. In a show that brought up too many questions, some of them will remain unanswered.

Hitfix had a long interview with series creator Nic Pizzollatto that serves as the best postmortem for what was hailed as "The Greatest Show on TV."

It turns out that "True Detective" was really just about the detectives. Rust and Marty (played by Best Actor Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson) seek to resolve a case that they have spanned seventeen years.

The creative and imaginative (sometimes creepy and weird) minds of the audiences have suggested that the film is a metaphor, or a microcosm of sorts. The reception was not so different from the different interpretations of "Lost."

The ending was just about as 'happy' as it could get, with neither of the lead characters getting killed. It also did not skip the bounds of realism. It didn't turn into a spaghetti Western with the two heroes taking on all the killers, riding into the night.

Let's hear the explanations from the series creator. From Hitfix:

Q: The next season of the show will have all new characters, which means Pizzolatto had the freedom to end this any way he can. Why did he choose that particular ending?

"For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand. And it would have been the easiest thing in the world to kill one or both of these guys. I even had an idea where something more mysterious happened to them, where they vanished into the unknown and Gilbough and Papania had to clean up the mess and nobody knows what happens to them. Or it could have gone full blown supernatural. But I think both of those things would have been easy, and they would have denied the sort of realist questions the show had been asking all along. To retreat to the supernatural, or to take the easy dramatic route of killing a character in order to achieve an emotional response from the audience, I thought would have been a disservice to the story. What was more interesting to me is that both these men are left in a place of deliverance, a place where even Cohle might be able to acknowledge the possibility of grace in the world."

Q: The viewers had so many references tied into the series and it was reflected in all the theories it has spawned. How did the creator feel about this?

"I felt like, look, it's all good, and I really mean that. To me, that is what it means to connect and resonate with people. It means that they are going to project onto the work. There's never been anything I didn't love that I didn't connect with on a personal level because to some degree, I projected upon it. That said, I think I've made clear that my only interest in the Chambers stuff (Robert W. Chambers wrote "The King in Yellow") is as a story that has a place in American myth. And it's a story about a story that drives people into madness. That was mainly it. Beyond that, I'm interested in the atmosphere of cosmic horror, but that's about all I have to say about weird fiction. I did feel the perception was tilted more towards weird fiction than perhaps it should have been. For instance, if someone needs a book to read along with season 1 of "True Detective," I would recommend the King James Old Testament. I wouldn't tell anyone to go buy Robert Chambers. It's not that great a book. Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner I think are in there far more than Chambers or Lovecraft. But again, I guess I hope that these 8 chapters, once the totality of it is evident, it might provoke a re-evaluation. But if it doesn't, I'm very happy with the reaction we've had. It couldn't have been better. I'm just surprised by it. I remember talking to you three months ago and having to convince you: "This just sounds like every other show," "I know, I know." And now my wife read a comment the other day that said I live out in the desert, and I run some kind of cult. (laughs) I don't know what I can say about that. I think this show answers everything it told you to ask. The questions it didn't tell you to ask are questions best left to one's self."

Thus, True Detective was one hell of a story about two men's journey from night into light.

What about Season 2?

"Okay. This is really early, but I'll tell you (it's about) hard women, bad men and the secret occult history of the United States transportation system."