‘True Detective’: Investigating All the Easter Eggs and References in ‘Night Country’
HBO’s anthology series True Detective is back with a new season. True Detective: Night Country takes us to a remote part of Alaska for a mystery surrounding the deaths of a team of researchers. Night Country may be a new vibe for the series, but it still finds ways to connect to the previous seasons.
The fourth season of True Detective is the first to receive a subtitle, making it stand out in the series. Night Country welcomes us to a whole new world where the setting is just as much a character as the actors. In Ennis, Alaska, the days of full darkness add to the feeling of desolation in the vast frozen landscape just as a research team disappears. Led by Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), the local police search for the scientists who seem to have just walked out of the station and disappeared. When Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) shows up, Danvers and Navarro find connections to the unsolved murder of an Indigenous woman named Annie Kowtok.
Although season 4 may seem like a departure for the series, it still has the creepy vibes of season 1. And fans of True Detective have plenty of reasons to keep their eyes peeled: According to season 4 showrunner and creator Issa López, “It is its own story, but it’s still connected. The spiral is there, the way that there are those dark and ancient gods (perhaps yes, perhaps not) working behind the scenes. It is the same universe.”
Let’s unpack all the Easter eggs and references in Night Country so far.
Episode 1
Opening quote
Before the episode begins, a quote appears on screen: “… For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake.” The quote is attributed to a fictional character named Hildred Castaigne, the unreliable narrator in a story from The King in Yellow. The collection by Robert W. Chambers heavily inspired Nic Pizzolatto when developing the first season of True Detective. This quote, however, never came from Castaigne. López wrote the quote to connect the series back to season 1. Although it may not actually be from Castaigne, the quote fits the vibes of seasons 1 and 4 perfectly.
Tsalal Arctic Research Station
The Tsalal Research Station, where the researchers disappear from, comes from a Jules Verne novel. The book, An Antarctic Mystery, partially takes place on an island named Tsalal, where Indigenous peoples attacked white colonists. Tsalal’s people are seemingly killed off by disease before an earthquake destroys the island. Themes from that novel may play a part in Night Country. Tensions between Indigenous people and corporations harvesting the land are already evident.
The Thing DVD
While investigating the abandoned scientific research station, Danvers looks over the entertainment system. On the shelf is a DVD of The Thing. The movie doesn’t connect to True Detective, but the classic horror film—about workers at a remote scientific research station in the Arctic who are attacked by an alien that was frozen in ice—shares elements with Night Country.
Spirals
Wonky spirals featured heavily in the first season of True Detective. It was the main symbol of the pedophile ring the detectives uncovered. In Night Country, Danvers unpacks evidence photos and places them around her in a spiral pattern. It also looks like the deceased Annie K. had a spiral tattoo. The spirals may not connect literally back to season 1, but they seem to signify a connection to the unfolding mystery.
Lone Star beer
Danvers drinks the same Lone Star beer as Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) did in True Detective season 1.
Scientific and philosophical names
A running theme in season 1 of True Detective was the debate between science and religion. Night Country, set in a town that might be rife with supernatural happenings, has two characters with names referencing great logical thinkers of our time. One of the missing scientists is named Ralph Emerson, after the transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. There’s also a baby named Darwin. Obviously, that’s a nod to Charles Darwin—the father of evolution.
Episode 2
HUGE Rust Cohle connection
In season 1, Rust Cohle reveals he lived in Alaska with his survivalist father, Travis Cohle, for most of his young life. Setting season 4 set in Alaska lends itself to establishing a Cohle connection. During the first episode, a ghostly man appeared to Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) and showed her where the missing scientists were. While Navarro and Rose discussed the discovery in the second episode, Rose confirmed the ghost man’s full name was Travis Cohle. We also learned Travis knew his death from leukemia was imminent and chose to end his life on his own terms, by walking into the ice.
Danvers and Cohle similarities
We learn during the second episode Liz Danvers’ mantra is “ask the right questions.” She repeats it to her protégé Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) so they can begin to understand the mystery of the frozen scientists. It is very similar to something Cohle says at the end of the first episode of season 1, telling other officers to ask “the right f***ing questions.” Like Cohle, Danvers also seems to have lost a young child. Cohle lost his daughter in a car accident, which led to his divorce and played a large role in his substance abuse. Danvers comes off as gruff and kind of awful, but it seems like that covers a deep pain connected to the loss of her child.
The Tuttle family connection
Peter’s research on how the Tsalal Research Center receives funding reveals another connection to season 1. The villainous and very disturbing Tuttle family cult had many connections with deep pockets. Peter found the parent company funding the station was NC Global Strategies, a subsidiary of Tuttle United.
More spirals
Navarro realizes that the crooked spiral appeared on the forehead of one of the deceased scientists. The spiral matches the tattoo on Annie K. Rose tells Navarro the spiral is very old, possibly even older than the ice. Even without the pedophile ring connection, the symbol still goes back to the Tuttle cult, whose members worshipped the Yellow King, which is where the spiral comes from. In literature, the King in Yellow is also called Hastur in the Cthulhu mythos. Much of Cthulhu lore centers on ancient star creatures hiding in remote, frozen places, waiting for the right time to emerge.
The Thing connection
We saw the DVD copy of The Thing in the first episode, but it seems the research in the station is also connected to the film. The Tsalal facility, much like the mission in The Thing, focuses on finding ancient microorganisms in the ice. Once the microorganisms were recovered, the scientists believed they could be used to cure things like cancer.
Straw dolls
During season 3, the detectives found straw dolls near the victim’s body. The dolls became a huge clue in the case. In episode 2 of Night Country, we see straw dolls decorating the trailer discovered by Navarro and Danvers. The life-sized straw doll wearing human clothes upped the creepiness.
“Twist and Shout”
In the opening of the first episode, the scientists disappeared while one of them watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The TV was stuck repeating the parade scene, where Ferris lip-syncs to the song “Twist and Shout.” When Danvers heard the song, she freaked out until she found the plug to turn off the TV. We heard this song again in episode 2, coming from the radio during a happy dream Danvers has about her son, which explains why it bothered her so much.
This article has been updated.
(featured image: HBO)
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