"Haunted Houses" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American anthology crime drama television series True Detective.
The episode was written by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, and directed by executive producer Cary Joji Fukunaga.
The season focuses on Louisiana State Police homicide detectives Rustin "Rust" Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Martin "Marty" Hart (Woody Harrelson), who investigate the murder of prostitute Dora Lange in 1995.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 2.64 million household viewers and gained a 1.1 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
Marty (Woody Harrelson) visits the two adult boys who had sex with Audrey (Erin Moriarty) in jail and makes a deal with them; if they will take a beating from him and agree to stay away from his daughter, he will drop the statutory rape charges.
Rust then visits Pastor Joel Theriot (Shea Whigham), now a disillusioned alcoholic, who mentions that the schools are related to Wellspring, a part of Tuttle's ministries.
Theriot claims that when he worked at the ministry, he found evidence of child molestation and brought the information to the deacon, Austin Farrar, who did nothing.
Rust ignores the warning and questions Billy Lee Tuttle (Jay O. Sanders), who claims that Austin Farrar was fired for embezzlement before he died in a car accident.
Jim Vejvoda of IGN gave the episode an "amazing" 9 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "We find out why Marty Hart and Rust Cohle had such a bitter falling out in 2002, and finally meet the power player somehow involved in the cult killings, in this fairly by-the-book (but still gripping) episode of True Detective.
I felt this on a profound level while watching 'Haunted Houses', which isn't the first season's best episode, but still managed to sink its hooks in me with the placement of one conspicuous corporate trademark.
"[7] Gwilym Mumford of The Guardian wrote, "We finally learned exactly how our detective duo's relationship went south – but bigger issues came to the fore, such as: exactly what was Cohle up to in his years 'off the grid'?
"[9] Kenny Herzog of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "True Detective works as television because of how well it functions as a play, where no matter how big the name, everyone’s there to serve a part.
"[10] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "True Detective shows that Louisiana is filled with conspiracies, large and small.
"[11] Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Things should certainly get interesting if they do.
First because they both are no longer lawmen, but also as the tail light on Rust's truck illustrated, still broken after all these years since their parking lot fight, there are still plenty of things between them to work out.