‘True Detective: Night Country’ Confirmed the Travis Cohle Fan Theory

True Detective: Night Country is off to the races. The new season stars the great Jodie Foster, who plays Chief Liz Danvers, a bristly—but skilled!—detective. Alongside Foster is Kali Reis, who makes her television debut as Evangeline Navarro, a passionate state trooper who is determined to solve a cold case from her past. The mystery at hand? Danvers and Navarro have to figure out what happened to eight research scientists who mysteriously disappeared…. then froze into a naked corpsicle in the Alaskan tundra.

The second episode of the anthology series aired Sunday night on HBO and Max. If you had any doubt, it’s loaded with more clues—and even some answers. We want to discuss one moment in particular: One of best fan theories from the first episode was inspired by Travis, the ghostly figure who leads Rose Aguineau to the scientist sundae special. (Sorry.) Many viewers speculated that Travis could be the father of Rust Cohle, our favorite nihilist detective from season 1. At one point in True Detective‘s inaugural season, Cohle mentioned that his father, Travis, moved his family to Alaska when he was a child—and that he had “some pretty fucking strange ideas.”

Sunday night’s episode must’ve heard the fans chirping—the theory was confirmed almost right away. Early on in episode 2, Navarro pays a visit to Rose and asks her about seeing Travis. Rose reveals that she and Travis were an item back in the day—and that the last time she saw Travis alive, he was suffering from leukemia. Apparently, Travis was a bonafide baker, bringing some croissants to Rose on his last visit. The two shared the night together, then Travis decided to walk out into the cold and let the elements take him, rather than succumb to cancer. Rose says his full name, Travis Cohle, giving us the verification we needed to dream up about a dozen new theories about what this connection could mean.

Travis isn’t the first callback to season 1. Ennis has spirals everywhere, just like the ones seen used by the Tuttle cult members on their sacrifice victims. Speaking of Tuttle, we also learned from Officer Prior’s research into the funding at Tsalal station that it is partially funded by Tuttle United! If you need a reminder: Tuttle was behind the sinister schemes in Louisiana. So, could the cult have its evil reaches in a place as far out as Alaska?

Now that we know the mysterious figure in the snow really was Rust Cohle’s father (or, at least, his ghost), fans are even wagering that Rust might make an appearance in season 4, finally solving the mystery behind The Yellow King and the meaning of the spirals. We’ll just have to keep tuning in to find out.

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