If you weren’t quite sold on Issa López’s True Detective: Night Country before, it’s safe to say you probably are now after last night’s gripping Episode 2. Especially if you’re a loyal fan of the HBO crime anthology’s vaunted first season
[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]
Night Country established explicit links to the franchise’s debut instalment starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Beyond the recurring spiral motif that’s apparently “older than the ice” of Ennis (more on this later).
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It turns out the ghostly “Travis” who led Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) to the Tsalal Arctic Research Station scientists’ icy grave through the spirit realm is none other than Travis Cohle — estranged survivalist father of McConaughey’s Rustin Cohle.
The elder Cohle, who has since died of leukemia according to Rose, was briefly mentioned in season 1. Rust noted how his old man had relocated the entire family to Alaska when he was a child, and that he had “some pretty f***ing strange ideas.” The nihilistic apple doesn’t fall too far from the metaphysical tree.
Back to the matter of the spirals, some of you may recall they appeared on the sacrifice victims of the child-abusing Tuttle death cult featured in True Detective season 1; Tuttle being the sinister presence behind all the evils we witnessed in Lousiana.
And who did we learn was partially funding the Tsalal Arctic Research Station through a shell company? As discovered by the young Officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), none other than Tuttle United.
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It’s certainly no coincidence that True Detective: Night Country and True Detective season 1 have essentially been bridged in such a fashion. In fact, not only is the internet hailing the former as a direct sequel to the latter, but many are now theorising Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle may actually appear later in season 4 to definitively solve the mystery of “Carcosa” and “The Yellow King.”
Consider us intrigued.
