Lets talk about Detective Marty Hart. Marty is the “normal type” of detective. Or, at least, that’s how he decides to describe himself. Marty is a guy who is stuck in the story. He does not have the bird’s eye perspective over the narrative the way Rust does. He tells Rust at one point that sometimes he wonders if he’s a good guy. Rust seems to assume that they’re both bad guys, but it is a good question, is Marty a good guy?
Marty cheats on his wife, Maggie, over and over again. He says his biggest sin was not paying enough attention to his family. When Maggie and him, sit down with their elder daughter because she has been drawing sexual images in school, he should be attentively addressing his child and dealing with the matter. But throughout the whole “intervention” he seems much more concerned with the basketball game that is on in the background.
Marty is not the garden-variety adulterer. Marty is violently possessive of his first mistress. He breaks down her door and threatens violence because of his jealousy. And he met his second mistress while she was an underage prostitute. (They don’t hook up until she’s of age, but still.) So Marty isn’t looking like all that good of a guy.
But Marty has a simple soul. Honestly, I think this does excuse some of his behavior. The whole show you can see how he falls victim to his passions. He isn’t good at controlling his lust or his anger. And he does try. It seems he tries the whole time.
I really think he desperately wants to be a good person, a good father and a good husband. He just might not know that it is this that he wants. For instance Maggie says, “You know, Marty’s single biggest problem was that he never really knew himself, so he never really knew what to want.”
Marty is from Louisiana. In my last article when I talk about how people bury their heads in the swamp, I think that should include Marty. Rust says this to Marty, “You, these people, this place, it’s like you eat your f*ckin’ young, and that’s all fine as long as you got something to salute, huh?”
Rust is saying that people in Louisiana, Marty included, will do all the evil they want, and “that’s all fine” if there’s a chain of command, or some pretense, maybe even spiritual, for that behavior. I think Marty’s ignorance, and weakness is suppose to make him endearing. Marty is like a bird with a broken wing. We just want him to fly.
Marty flies. Marty is a knight. The whole time we feel like Marty’s contribution to the partnership is dealing with people, and staying out of Rust’s way. Rust is the genius detective. But at the end it is Marty who makes the essential discovery about the freshly painted house, and this is the connection that directs them William Childress, the “Yellow King.” Marty is a true equal to Rust.
Marty flies. He flies when he cries when he wakes up to his family in the hospital and says he’s doing “fine.” He’s not doing fine, he is flying.
The story of Rust and Marty is an incredible bromance that span’s over a twenty-year period. At the end, the bodies, and the spirits/philosophies of Marty and Rust come together. There is a synthesis of character. I strongly believe this synthesis is essential to understanding the moral position of “sincerity,” that is introduced in the final episode.
