The tongue was used awfully, I agree. Three options I can think of and they‘re all terrible. a) Hank, who staged the scene of the murder cut the tongue. Most believable angle. But why keep it? And then, why put it there? Makes zero sense. b) Those mean cleaning ladies put it there to start off the investigation (as if a bunch of frozen bodies wouldn‘t be enough). Makes no sense. Even if: why not hint at it when being brave enough already to confess it all anyway. c) it‘s the supernatural, stupid! Most likely cop out scenario I believe. Connects with Danver‘s scene eating an orange at that table. (Yea, makes no sense either).
That‘s one of my main irks with this season: it‘s all so fecking nebulous, except for the utterly clichéd characters, could be, this could be that: that‘s not how you do a good mystery, it‘s fecking nonsense. Why did Navarro see the damaged icebear? That wasn‘t part of her story. Marty never had hallucinations, that wasn‘t part of his story. Hence why they worked - it was alsosatisfyingly explained with Cohle‘s backstory working undercover, doing drugs.
And the brooding foreshadowing (and some red herrings at first watch) with Marty‘s kids drawing spirals, staging scary scenes with their puppets or drawing a women with flowers on her belly or wearing a crown while playing outside never was never played out as some mystic, supernatural thing but happened at the side, possibly even unnoticed by many. (Also tied in beautifully with Rust‘s comment on how the early demise of his child spared him the sin of becoming a father all the while we see Marty trying to stage a happy home for his children while terrible things happen outside, even the marriage being fake already and those drawings etc just highlighted that those kids can‘t be protected and it‘s a very nihilistic and terrible message that fitted that show and atmosphere perfectly.)
wish they‘d gone full blown horror/camp with this one - but even the portrayal of Annie Ks (also hated hiw those that were meant caring for that woman the most always called her „ Annie K“) killing wasn‘t really terrifying nor was the raid of the mad cleaning ladies on the station griping - it was filmed instead utterly ridiculous.
end of rant