Warning! Contains major spoilers for True Detective season 4.
With new story developments in its second episode, True Detective: Night Country has set up a season 1 retcon that may eventually confirm a 10-year-old theory. Serving as the fourth installment in the True Detective series, Night Country continues the show’s storytelling trend by introducing a self-contained storyline that unfolds in a whole new location. Also, like every season, True Detective: Night Country introduces two new characters as its leads who work in law enforcement and find themselves in the middle of a twisted murder case.
However, despite having a standalone narrative, True Detective: Night Country drops several references to season 1. While some of these references come off as mere name-drops and nods to season 1, others seemingly hold immense significance in the show’s overarching storyline. One of these easter eggs in True Detective: Night Country already seems to be rewriting the events of season 1.
Wait, Is True Detective Bringing Back Season 1’s Big Villains?
The identity of True Detective: Night Country’s villains remains a mystery, but an episode 2 clue suggests season 1’s main antagonists might return.
True Detective: Night Country May Confirm The Spiral’s Supernatural Origins After All
True Detective season 4 has already hinted at the spiral’s connections to the Yellow King
Although True Detective season 1 never explicitly explained the supernatural origins of the crooked spiral symbol, it featured several scenes that raised the possibility of mystical forces at play. For instance, season 1 featured a scene where Rust Cohle could see a flock of birds forming a spiral in the sky above a location touched by the Yellow King cult’s evil. Similarly, Cohle also sees a spiraling vortex when he makes it to the center of Carcosa in season 1’s finale, which has been theorized to be a portal that leads to Carcosa beyond the material world.
However, despite featuring these visual cues, True Detective season 1 left some room for ambiguity by previously revealing that Rust often gets hallucinations caused by neurological damage from drug abuse. Unlike season 1, True Detective season 4 has seemingly taken a less ambiguous approach towards its supernatural elements. In its initial episodes, the show has already established that something otherworldly is at play in its central murder mysteries by hinting at how its characters like Navarro and Rose can see things beyond humanity’s plane of existence.
While visions of her spirit animal often guide Navarro, Rose can interact with the dead and even sees Rust Cohle’s father, Travis, in True Detective: Night Country‘s episode 1. In a scene in season 4’s episode 2, Rose also talks about the spiral and says it may be older than the Alaskan snow, alluding to its origins and potential connection to the Yellow King/Hastur. With so many clues surrounding the spiral’s metaphysical undertones in the first two episodes, True Detective: Night Country might confirm that Rust’s visions were not a figment of his imagination.
True Detective: Night Country Could Be Revealing The Tuttles Are Still Active
True Detective season 4 has already linked the Tsalal murders with the Tuttles
True Detective season 1 revealed that the Tuttles cult had been defunct after most members of the Tuttle family passed away. Errol Childress was the only distinct link in the family, trying to keep the cult’s traditions and rituals alive. Following his death in True Detective season 1’s finale, The Tuttles and their cult’s dark influence should have ended for good. However, True Detective season 4 is now starting to hint that traces of the Tuttles family and their malicious practices may still exist, and the roots of their cult might have even spread to Ennis.
While investigating the background of the Tsalal facility in True Detective: Night Country‘s episode 2, Danver’s protégé, Peter, discovers that it was being funded by an NGO. Upon tracing the NGO’s taxes, he discovers that it was connected to a shell company called NC Global, which was run by Tuttle United. By drawing connective threads between its central mystery surrounding the strange deaths of the Tsalal researchers and the Tuttles, True Detective: Night Country seems to be implying that the Tuttles may still be out there somewhere.
What Does The Spiral Really Mean In True Detective: Night Country?
With so many spiral motifs in True Detective: Night Country’s episodes 1 and 2, it is hard not to speculate their meaning in the overarching story.
Why True Detective: Night Country Retconning Season 1 Actually Makes Sense
Retconning season 1 is risky, but may benefit True Detective: Night Country
By establishing that the Tuttles may still be active, True Detective: Night Country is, in many ways, retconning season 1. While only time will tell how the season will execute this retcon and tie its mysteries into the narrative seeds sown by season 1, the rewrite seems to make sense. Although True Detective season 1 is still touted as one of the most memorable television seasons ever made, many viewers were dissatisfied with its ending because it did not completely resolve the supernatural aspects of its storyline, avoided delving deeper into the inner workings of the Tuttles, and left many questions surrounding the cult’s scale unanswered.
Retconning what happened to the Tuttles and their cult allows True Detective: Night Country to finally bring a semblance of a resolution to season 1’s supernatural elements. Although season 4 still has a standalone narrative like its predecessors, rewriting some season 1 plot threads enables the show to explore what it had initially promised. True Detective: Night Country has undoubtedly taken a bold creative decision by presenting itself as a loose extension of the series’ best installment, but it might benefit from it if it brings some closure to season 1’s open-ended mysteries.
True Detective
In this anthology series, each season follows a different detective or set of detectives as they forced to confront some horrific truths about their town and themselves. No matter the setting and characters, each detective must unravel lies and clues to solve the chilling mysteries around them.
- Release Date
- January 12, 2014
- Cast
- Matthew McConaughey , Woody Harrelson , Colin Farrell , Rachel McAdams , Taylor Kitsch , Mahershala Ali , Carmen Ejogo , Michelle Monaghan , Michael Potts , Ray Fisher , Jodie Foster
- Seasons
- 3
- Story By
- NIC PIZZOLATTO
- Writers
- Nic Pizzolatto
- Network
- HBO Max
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu , HBO Max
- Directors
- Cary Fukunaga
- Showrunner
- Nic Pizzolatto
