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Contains spoilers for 'True Detective' season 3 episode 5

'True Detective's third season is at an important juncture. It is somewhere between finding out the truth and realizing that what they knew was just an illusion. With just three more episodes to go, each one in the season roster is important and will definitely give us more answers. It's hard to say if you'll know everything you want to in this season since it's so similar to season 1 that didn't give us all of the truth (read: the identity of Yellow King), the next couple of episodes will definitely tell us what happened to Will and Julie Purcell. 

In the last episode, Arkansas investigators Wayne Hays and Roland West decide to team up on a "senile adventure" and figure out what happened in the Ozarks with those two missing children back in the '80s. Hays reaches the point where he feels like he cannot take the memory loss sitting down and really needs to find what happened all those years ago when they were investigating the case. His Alzheimer's makes it impossible for him to recollect the details of the Purcell case so he takes the help of Amelia's books. He starts to connect dots that he didn't see the first time - like the similarities between the ransom note and Lucy Purcell's words to Amelia ("children should laugh") and cannot rein in his guilt anymore. It is possible that Hays perhaps doubts that he may have been responsible for some coverup that led the police to close the case. With Julie Purcell resurfacing in the 1990 timeline and Elisa Montgomery's podcast interviews from 2015, Hays definitely feels that he didn't do a good job. 

In episode 6, both Hays and West start revisiting the discrepancies in the Purcell case that were forgotten over the years. The duo will put everything in perspective and walk through every single detail, suspects, and evidence that they had once gathered. In the present time, with Lucy Purcell already dead in the 1990 timeline, they start looking at the things that didn't quite fit with Tom Purcell, the children's father. In the last episode, in the 1990's timeline, the caller on the phone who claimed to be Julie did single him out. Although it was seen as a red herring initially, there's a possibility that Tom could have been the reason behind the disappearance. This is the first time that any fingers have been pointed in his direction, evidence-wise, and the detectives definitely wonder what happened. However, something did get him off the hook and the present time Hays and West look at him with a fresh pair of eyes again. 

They also suspect it could be the Purcells' cousin Dan, who has been a mysterious character right from the start. Although Lucy doesn't reveal much, she does say that he was like an uncle to the kids. However, there is no evidence to this claim and the detectives wondered if he was more interested in her than being a father figure to Will and Julie.  In the next episode, he will appear and the duo will question him about the case. However, he appears to be looking for the kids too. 

The mysterious Harris James will also make an appearance in the episode. The promo for the episode shows a cryptic conversation between Hays and Harris where Harris says, "I'll admit I miss cruising around eating doughnuts" to which Hays replies with disdain, "I don't eat doughnuts". This scene definitely implies that Harris was a dirty cop who probably rose through the ranks because of how much he helped cover the criminal's tracks in the case. He was the person who knew about the brown sedan that Elisa mentions - so clearly, Harris knows a lot. 

Catch episode 6 of 'True Detective' on Sunday, February 10 at 9 pm on HBO.  

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