True Detective episode 5 was a turning point for the show but introduced several new questions.

The episode began with Cohle and Ginger (who was captured last episode) trying to get closer to Reggie. The first person they talk to, DeWall, is suspicious of their intentions (“There’s a shadow on you, son”) and leaves quickly.

We cut to Hart trailing DeWall which leads them to Ledoux’s headquarters that we first laid eyes on at the end of episode 3.

Entering the compound.

They start moving in quietly and undetected, but in 2012 the two detectives are telling the new detectives a story in which gunfire is flying at them left and right. This is another instance where we see Hart and Cohle lying to the present day detectives. It’s a beautiful scene to watch: Hart and Cohle lying in the present as we see the truth of the past play out on screen.

In reality (1996), we see them enter Ledoux’s compound. They nab Ledoux peacefully. While Hart’s securing the area, Cohle spots someone else and tells him to put down the supplies he’s holding.

Hart opens a large crate inside the compound, and inside he finds two children trapped on a bed. He heads straight back outside and shoots Ledoux in the head point blank. This alarms Ledoux’s partner who Cohle was holding up, and he begins to run away. He accidentally trips on the security wires and blows up. Cohle then shoots several rounds of ammo so they can develop a story in which the detectives were attacked by gunfire by Ledoux and company.

2002.

With their men killed, the Dora Lange case is now supposedly closed. We see a new time period set in 2002, and Cohle talks to the detectives in 2012 about how you make the same mistakes over and over again in life.

Indeed: Maggie and Hart are back together (but for how long?), their daughter Audrey is having problems (as a child she drew inappropriate pictures in class, and now she’s getting caught hooking up with two guys simultaneously in a truck), and Cohle is once again a successful interrogator who gets bothered by one of his criminals. See the circles forming? Ultimately we can’t change our lives and the same problems will keep coming up, Cohle tells the ’12 detectives.

Is it Cohle?

And then we learn what’s been hinted at for a while: The ’12 detectives think Cohle is the guy at the center of all these murders. He’s been seen at crime scenes over the past month, and the cops think he’s been “pushing” the case all along.

During this revelation, in 2002 we see Cohle revisiting the abandoned school that we saw earlier in the season. He’s looking around after his ’02 interrogation gig in which he hears again about the Yellow King, and comes across various sketches on the walls similar to ones we’ve seen. There are also several devil’s nests.

We’re left on a cliffhanger: The ’12 detectives ask Hart why he and Cohle fell apart in ’02.

Do you think Cohle is the mastermind behind the murders?

Meanwhile, check out a promo for next week’s episode which airs Sunday, February 23, at 9 p.m. eastern/pacific on HBO:

Note: An earlier version of this recap said that they lied to the ’12 detectives for the first time in this episode, which is not true.