时长:00:59:42 / 首播:2014-01-12
Louisiana, 1995. Detectives Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rustin "Rust" Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) investigate the ritualistic murder of former prostitute Dora Kelly Lange, found with a symbol painted on her back and wearing a "crown" of deer antlers. A twig latticework, like a Cajun bird trap, is found with her body. Cohle is convinced that this is not the killer's first victim, but Hart is skeptical. Their investigation brings up the case of Marie Fontenot, a little girl whose disappearance five years earlier was not investigated. Another report is brought up, of a little girl who claimed to be chased through the woods by a "green-eared spaghetti monster." Hart invites Cohle over for dinner, unaware that it is Cohle's deceased daughter's birthday. Cohle reluctantly accepts but, losing a battle with alcoholism, turns up drunk. Hart and Cohle follow up on the Fontenot disappearance with a visit to Marie's uncle Danny. In a dilapidated playhouse, Cohle finds another twig latticework.

Seventeen years later, Hart and Cohle are interviewed separately about Dora Kelly Lange by Detectives Thomas Papania (Tory Kittles) and Maynard Gilbough (Michael Potts). Hart and Cohle have not spoken in ten years following a falling-out in 2002. Cohle is shown a photograph of another girl whose body has been found posed in similar fashion to Lange. Papania and Gilbough want to know how the killer could have struck again if he was caught in 1995.