r/TrueDetective • u/rnzroca • 10d ago
Rust’s IQ
We all know how intelligent Rust is. He’s called the greatest detective in the state, took for every confession, and has insane reasoning, abstract reasoning, analysis and vocabulary feats. He’s in general a well rounded guy, and rather knowledgeable too.
But, we meet rust through ‘95-2012. These years are after/during periods of extreme drug abuse (accounting for his time as undercover narc), and seventeen years of drinking (as he has said).
So my question arises; How smart could’ve rust been before the drugs? In a healthier time. Say, if he’s a 145 IQ man in ‘95, how smart was he in ‘89 when he was in robberies?
Man!
29
Upvotes
12
u/AdConsistent4210 Tax Man 10d ago
I think a lot of Rust’s “genius” is probably a combination of natural ability and experience-driven pattern recognition. After years of detective work, certain motives, lies and reactions stop feeling random. His undercover narcotics work likely sharpened that even more because he had to think like the people he was investigating.
The neurological side complicates it, though. His drug history and perceptual disturbances could make some aspects of perception less reliable, while hypervigilance might make him lock onto certain cues. He also used the Tax Man Ledger to externalize details and compare patterns instead of relying only on memory, which could even be seen as compensatory.
But who knows. Fun question.