Rustin “Rust” Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) is deeply gifted, but deeply pessimistic. Accused of being a serial killer when we meet him during Season 1 of “True Detective,” he recalls the last words of drug manufacturer Reggie Ledoux (Charles Halford), and philosophy enters the room in the form of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence. “Someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve ever done, or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again. And that little boy and that little girl, they’re gonna be in that room again. And again. And again. Forever.”
Rust is, of course, misquoting the criminal slightly. Ledoux says, “I know what happens next… you’ll do this again. Time is a flat circle.” Cohle’s response is facetious, “What is that, Nietzsche?! Shut the f*** up.” Ledoux and Rust alike are indeed quoting Nietzsche. His concept of eternal recurrence suggests that the endlessness that is human existence, though not life itself, means that you will live your life over and over again. You will do the same things and see the same sights, meeting the same people.
It’s from his work of fiction, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” Nietzsche, speaking as Zarathustra, saw this as a good thing on a conditional basis — you have to make your life worthy of living over and over again, but if you do, imagine the rewards you’ll reap. Rust, descending into depression driven by decades of agony, can only see the dark side of such a notion.
Rust Cohle sees Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement as a negative one
While Friedrich Nietzsche himself might find the notion of reliving the same events the same way every time fun, Rust sees the Nietzschean concept of an endlessly reoccurring life as nightmarish. Considering what he’s seen and done, that’s not surprising. Rust’s success traps him; life becomes an endless cycle of horrible crime — horrible criminal — application of sometimes-faulty justice. He falls into depression, alcoholism and PTSD, isolating himself from everyone and everything. Time does, indeed, become a flat circle for him.
At the end of Season 1 of “True Detective,” Rust’s belief justice is restored when he and Marty finally manage to figure out who really killed Dora. It turns out her murder — along with the deaths the cops were trying to pin on Rust — are the handiwork of Errol Childress (Glenn Fleshler) and the Tuttle family cult. Errol is killed, Rust is reunited with his family and the future generally looks brighter — and order has prevailed, in spite of any imperfections Rust or the world at large might have.