After You've Gone
performed by Loudon Wainwright III

In 2012, Cohle prods a disinclined Hart to assist him in finding the man with the facial scars by reminding Hart that he, in addition to Cohle, owes a moral debt for what actually took place in 1995. He takes Hart to a self storage facility where he convinces him of the existence of a cult that mixes elements of the courir de Mardi Gras, santeria and voudon in its rites and shows him evidence he has compiled linking Tuttle and possibly others in the disappearances of dozens of women and children going back to the 1980s. Cohle admits burgling Tuttle's homes to obtain proof of his complicity, including photographs and a videotape of the ritualistic sacrifice of Marie Fontenot years ago. However he denies killing Tuttle, speculating that others believed Tuttle was going to be blackmailed over the videotape and killed him to prevent it. Hart finds a Ledoux relative who confirms that Reggie and DeWall were connected to the man with scars, and locates a former domestic who worked for Tuttle's father Sam when they still lived in Vermilion Parish. She recalls a scarred boy who was one of Sam Tuttle's illegitimate grandchildren from his "other" family, named Childress. Hart also discovers that the Vermilion Parish deputy originally handling the Fontenot disappearance was Hart's old friend (and Cohle's antagonist) Steve Geraci, who concealed the fact in 1995 and has since gone on to become a parish sheriff. Feeling out Geraci, Hart concludes that a coverup of Marie Fontenot's abduction was engineered by then-Vermilion Parish Sheriff Ted Childress. Hart and Cohle kidnap Geraci to coerce the details from him. Meanwhile, Gilbough and Papania are lost trying to locate a rural church Cohle mentioned in his interview and ask directions from a man on a riding lawnmower in a parish cemetery. Impressed by his local knowledge, Papania nonetheless fails to notice his badly scarred lower face before driving away. The man thinks aloud: "My family's been here a long, long time."