Where "True Detective" goes, fan theories follow — and one, about how the newly released Season Four may connect to the first, seems particularly plausible.
After a five-year hiatus, the HBO show kicked off with its Alaska-set fourth season Jan. 14, starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis.
Compared to past seasons, "True Detective: Night Country" appears to veer more overtly toward the supernatural. That's best exemplified in the character Travis, who turns out to be a ghost.
Let's break down what we know (so far) about one of the season's most haunting mysteries — and a convincing fan theory.
OK, so: Who is Travis?
Here is what we know so far about Travis. First: He's dead. Second: Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw), another mysterious character, can see him.
Towards the end of the premiere episode, Travis beckons to Rose from her kitchen window. She follows, and they walk into the polar expanse that happens to be her backyard. He does a strange dance and then points in a direction over his shoulder.
Rose, seemingly trusting this man, follows his lead — and the police seem to trust her and follow.
In the ice, they find the missing people that first prompted their investigation — scientists from a local research station. They are frozen solid, with their agonized expressions preserved.
When Navarro (Reis) asks how she found the bodies, Rose says, “Travis told me.” Navarro responds, "Travis is dead."
Rose's supernatural capabilities are not explained, yet. Neither is Travis' identity or what he did as a member of the living.
Is Travis Rust Cohle’s father?
The first season of "True Detective" was set in Louisiana, but Alaska figured into the storyline through Rust Cohle's (Matthew McConaughey) backstory.
Rust's background emerged slowly. How did this enigmatic character end up in a precinct outside of New Orleans, waxing on about nihilism and shocking his reluctant partner Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson)? It turns out the wiry, sharp-as-heck detective partially grew up in Alaska and lived with his survivalist father — whose name, coincidentally, was Travis.
Fans online think Travis might be Rust's long-lost father. But does the theory hold up?
Here's what we know about Rust's dad, based on the little that was shared during Season One.
- Rust's parents met in Galveston, Texas. When his father returned from fighting in Vietnam, his mother left the family.
- The father and son moved to Alaska and had, according to Rust, a tense but working relationship.
- Rust said his father was disappointed that he left for Texas as an adult.
- Rust never confirmed what happened to his father, but we know he lived the rest of his life off the grid. At one point, Rust tells investigators that he visited his father in Alaska who was dying of leukemia — but this is a ruse to distract from the undercover sting he was operating at the time. Investigators find "no record" of a Travis Cohle in Alaska for the past 30 years.
Showrunner Issa López confirmed during an appearance on "The Watch" podcast that the season is in conversation with past seasons, revealing the spiral sigil from Season One will, indeed, appear.
But will Rust? Time will tell.