Shea Whigham in HBO’s True Detective

“Is that Eli?” was the question that popped out when Preacher Theriot appeared in “The Locked Room,” the third episode of HBO’s “True Detective.” And yes, it was indeed Shea Whigham, best known for his portrayal of Eli Thompson on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”

We have been watching “True Detective” all along but, to tell you the truth, it’s been slow going. “They’re building a mood” was one explanation for dragging it all out like this. There are only 8 episodes in the season and the whole story of this crime that is under the microscope is supposed to wrap up by the end of the season. If “True Detective” returns for another season, it will move on to another crime. So this season we have two detectives, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), talking separately to two other detectives, Maynard Gilbough (Michael Potts) and Thomas Papania (Tory Kittles) about the ritual rape and murder of Dora Lange, years after the fact. This was the first case Hart and Cohle worked on together and we get to know what they were like back in the day through flashbacks into the investigation of the case. But what we don’t know yet is why Gilbough and Papania are looking into it and interviewing the two of them separately.

Anyhoo, Shea Whigham is not the only Boardwalk Empire actor to show up in the “True Detective” series. Glenn Fleshler also plays Errol, with an appearance in this episode and in the 7th and 8th. Fleshler played George Remus on “Boardwalk Empire”

Don’t know if Whigham will return as Preacher Theriot but there was a slight connection in “The Locked Room” between the Preacher and Dora, aside from her attending services in Eunice. She went to a school that was part of Tuttle Ministries and the preacher mentioned that he got his start in the ministry at Tuttle in Baton Rouge. Their investigation led them away from Preacher Theriot and in the direction of one Reginald LeDoux who was connected to Rianne Olivier, a girl Cohle thinks was murdered the same way as Dora. LeDoux was also a cellmate of Dora’s ex-husband.