True Detective: Night Country is filled with references and connections to True Detective season 1. What does it all add up to? Polygon follows the spiral.
True Detective: Night Country’s premiere last week signaled a return to form for the series, introducing a chilling (pun intended) mystery in form of the disappearance of a group of arctic researchers and a compelling pair of protagonists in the form of Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis). Their case is miles away — both linearly and literally — from the one True Detective dealt with in season 1. And yet, the show keeps echoing key details of that season, complete with all those supernatural elements, and of course, that goddamned creepy-looking spiral. What does it all mean? Follow me into my Rust Cohle-shaped hole as I obsessively connect the dots.
[Ed. note: spoilers for True Detective: Night Country episode 2.]
The first and most prominent reference to the previous seasons of True Detective is the crooked spiral, a symbol tattooed on the forehead of one of the Tsalal victims found frozen in the ice by Chief Danvers and her team. The symbol is a direct reference to the events of the first season, tied to a Louisiana-based sex cult being investigated by Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rustin “Rust” Cohle (Matthew McConaughey), and features prominently in several key shots from the official trailer for Night Country.
Episode 2 places its connection specifically with that of murder victim Anne Masu Kowtok, who had the symbol tattooed on her, as did her boyfriend Raymond Clark, the only member of the Tsalal research crew believed to be alive (and the current primary suspect behind the killings). And, of course, we definitely see the symbol again when Danvers and Navarro investigate Clark’s trailer, where it’s scrawled in black and red marker on the ceiling above an effigy dressed in what appear to be Anne’s clothes.
