Man, True Detective: Night Country is off to one helluva start.
The 4th and latest installment of the True Detective saga stars Jodie Foster as detective Liz Danvers, and Kali Reis as Evangeline Navarro, a state trooper adamant on solving a cold case from her past. Together, the two work to find what exactly happened to eight research scientists who disappeared, only to be discovered frozen in the Alaskan tundra. And without getting into spoilers, let’s just say that so far, Night Country is much more like the universally loved True Detective Season 1, than the previous 2 seasons.
The second episode aired last night, and it brought up quite the fan theory… so if you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to scroll on through. Granted, it’s not much of a true spoiler, but if you want to watch the episode first, be my guest.
The first season of True Detective starred Matthew McConaughey as detective Rust Cohle, a hard nosed emotionless detective that is battling demons from his past.
During the season, we learned that Rust once lived with his father in Alaska, but he refused to discuss what it was like to his fellow detectives. Rust mentioned that his dad had leukemia and he took time to visit him (or at least that is what he told his superiors).
With that being said, Night Country features a ghost-like figure named Travis, who communicates with a woman named Rose while she’s skinning a wolf. We later find out that Travis did in fact die.
However, here’s where it gets interesting….
Rust Cohle mentioned in Season One that his father’s name was Travis, and considering he grew up with his dad in Alaska, it was confirmed that the Travis in True Detective: Night Country is Rust’s father.
In episode two, Navarro pays a visit to Rose to ask about seeing Travis. That’s when Rose admits that Travis was her old flame back in the day. Rose admits that the last time she saw Travis alive, he confessed he had leukemia and was nearing death. Instead of letting the cancer take over his body, he decided to end things by walking out into the brutally cold conditions in Alaska, and succumb to the elements.
So, now that we know Travis is Rust’s father, the question is…
Will we get an appearance from Matthew McConaughey, AKA Rust Cohle at some point in the season? I’m hoping so, because Rust Cohle has been my favorite character on the show to date. Odds are extremely low, but that would be the ultimate twist.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
