'True Detective: Night Country': Could the 'ghost' who guides Rose Aguineau be Rust Cohle's father from Season 1?
Contains spoilers for 'True Detective: Night Country'
ENNIS, ALASKA: The previous three seasons of HBO's crime series 'True Detective' were totally unrelated, sharing no connection between the characters and their plotline. However, the fourth season seems to have a deep connection with Season 1, which came out ten years ago.
The two episodes of 'True Detective: Night Country' that have been released so far, introduce us to Rose, who follows the ghost of Travis and discovers the dead bodies of missing scientists. The plot has left the viewers wondering if Travis is connected to McConaughey's character from Season 1.
Is Travis related to Rust Cohle?
Here's what we know about Travis: He suffered from leukemia. He is dead and an old woman named Rose can see his ghost.
In the first episode, we saw the ghost of Travis, guiding Rose into the polar expanse, doing a strange dance under the dark sky amid freezing weather, and pointing towards the pile of naked bodies of researchers who went missing from Tsalal Arctic Research Station.
Admirers of the show speculate that Travis is Rust Cohle's father, who also shares the same first name. Moreover, the startling resemblance between Rust Cohle from Season 1 and Travis from Season 4 is hard not to notice.
In Season 1, we learned that Rust lived with his father in Alaska and later moved to Texas. At one point, Rust was seen telling the investigators that he visited his father in Alaska who was dying of leukemia. However, the investigators found no record of anyone named Travis Cohle in Alaska for the past 30 years.
Who is Rose Aguineau?
In Episode 2, it was revealed that Rose Aguineau was Travis' lover and she was with him during his last moments. However, she doesn't appear to be Rust Cohle's mother as they don't share the same last name.
Moreover, in Season 1 of 'True Detective', it was established that Rust's parents met in Texas. When his father returned from fighting in Vietnam, his mother abandoned the family. During the conversation, he mentioned only about his father living in Alaska.
Perhaps, Travis began dating Rose after Rust moved to Texas. It is also possible that Rust and Rose met when Travis was in the last stage of leukemia.
For the unaware, Season 1 ended with Rust finding that the Tuttles were still out there with enormous power and wealth. Meanwhile, Season 4 follows up on that with the reveal of Tuttle United funding Tsalal.
The researchers at Tsalal were working on sequencing the DNA of an extinct microorganism that could be a game changer for the health industry as their discoveries could cure cancer, autoimmune diseases, and genetic disorders. Their mysterious death raises tons of questions to be unraveled.
The latest season of 'True Detective' may address the loose ends to the spiritual and supernatural elements of Season 1's Tuttle villains.
