Episode 2 of True Detective Night Country was released last night and spoiler alert, I really enjoyed the episode. This seasons ominous clues and supernatural feel were only reinforced and expanded upon. Sadly, however, I can say the same about the mundane sex scenes and dialogue exchanges. Despite any issues, I’m proud to say that I was wrong about a lot of my predictions. Usually, the twists are something that can be seen a mile away but in this case, I think the show’s disguising everything well. Let’s spiral on down to the end of the world.

I didn’t mention the Travis Cohle (Rust’s father from season 1) theory last week. I thought the theorized reference would have been a cheap way to make this season interesting. I thought it was fans being fans and linking everything together for no real reason. I was wrong though, and I should have brought it up. Travis Cohle was the dancing ghost from episode 1 and if I had to make a positive out it, I would say that it infers that Rust’s supernatural connection is hereditary. Which honestly, kind of detracts from his character. Instead of solving the supernatural on his own, he had more knowledge on the subject than maybe we first realized.

We also learned that Tuttle United is the organization that funds the research facility. This is another low hanging fruit reference to True Detective season 1. Billy Lee Tuttle was related to Erol Childress, who we know was deep into the Carcosa cult. The research facility is studying ways to advance the length of life and so I believe that Tuttle’s connection could be a red herring and not so much as evidence that the researchers are cult members by proxy. However, we can’t rule out that possibility sense it was said that the researchers break industry standards by never rotating shifts with another crew. They live there 24/7. What’s their purpose? What’s their entertainment?

Sebastian Lund, the lead researcher was found amongst the frozen ‘corpsicle’, and as he was being excavated, his arm broke off causing him to scream like a madman. Frozen body and all, he somehow survived. I assume he knows everything about the case and will come out of his coma to be an ex machina at the end of the season to set things straight. If this turns out to be true, much of the clues being dangled in front of us is a misdirection, which I did theorize in last weeks review.

I have to talk about series review from critics on the internet. These are people who got to see the season before the general audiences. Now, they can’t spoil details or the ending, but what they have discussed is the themes. I’ve heard a few times that the theme of the show and ending represent feminism. This shouldnt be a shock because the show is lead by two women and features more women than it does men. What’s this mean though, that the show’s ending represents feminism? I think it means that the victims or would be victims of such cult crimes, women, are the ones who invoke violence on the men in the research lab. At this point, if I had to guess, its because the research facility was poisoning the water supply, not the mine.

If we look at the mine owner Kate, we obviously know that she’s a woman, and if the themes of the show are correct, I don’t think a woman will be the ‘villain’ at the end of the day. She’s already shown to be a sympathetic character based on Jodie Foster cheating with her husband so I think she’s a red herring but who knows? Last week I mentioned that she could be the girl from Darwin’s picture, because Kate is responsible for the mine poisoning the town, however now I see that it’s more complicated than it already was. If the research lab was poisoning the water, then she’s not guilty of the initial crime, and so if there is criminal activity happening at the mine, then she could not be involved. There’s so many moving parts that it’s impossible to be sure of anything.

Which brings me to what Rose said at the beginning of the episode. Some spirits come because they want something, some come because they miss you, and some come to take you with them. That’s at the heart of the supernatural stuff we’ve seen and will continue to see throughout the season. I think the polar bear for Liz is coming to say they miss her, representative of her dead son. Rose’s Travis is coming out of his need to disclose information and Annie K’s ghost is coming back to take those down with her. Navarro’s visions are more nuanced, encompassing all three of the scenarios. Until more details are released, there isn’t enough to bite into just yet.

All this leads to the main mystery discovered, which is that Clark was Annie K’s boyfriend and bearer of the spiral tattoo from True Detective season 1. The spiral is actually a reverse spiral of the original seen in season 1, which is speculated to mean that it’s signifies an inverse of the crimes of the first season. Where girls were the victims, in this season, the girls are the one committing the crimes. It’s really impossible to tell what’s going to happen or what happened based on the lack of evidence but here’s my guess; I believe that Annie K was sacrificed to become the woman from Darwin’s drawing.

The trailer decorum and the accompanied dummy with Annie’s pictures behind it marks the place of her rebirth. She died to be reincarnated as the ghostly figure, which Clark brought back using the trailer as a ritual location. My evidence of this is from a shot from a trailer that shows a woman with tattoo’s of lines around the midway of her fingers, which is where the fingers were cut off in Darwin’s picture. The hand in the trailer was touching another persons hand that was tattooed in unfamiliar markings. Maybe it was Clarks, maybe it was someone else. Bare with me, my theory gets even more wild. Instead of the dummy being reborn, what happens is that Annie’s consciousness takes over Clark as he sleeps. The “She’s Awake” line is potentially Annie’s conscious taking over Clark. Which he could know that his lab team is poisoning the water, which is essentially the problem with the towns culture, and so she uses him as a totem to carry through her actions.

That’s a ton of speculation from me and I don’t believe that my theories are correct based on the fact that this is only episode 2 and they’ve revealed so many clues and plot points that can’t possibly be deciphered without more information to work off. However, I think I’m stumbling down the right path. There’s a hand print from the crime scene that’s yet to be identified, the mine is yet to be examined, Dr. Lund is yet to wake up, and Clark is yet to be found. Until one or more of these has been cleared, I can’t feel confident in any of my theories.

Does it all tie back to season 1’s occult? I don’t believe so. I think its the same idea just presented in different ways as it’s all an interpretation of the supernatural that can’t be explained. It would reason that the different cultures would translate the phenomena a little differently. Enough to have similarities but different in practice. I do believe this case to be an isolated incident though. We haven’t heard of missing girls like season 1. We haven’t heard of monsters or consistent victims popping up either. Until we get more victims, I can’t say that this is a grand conspiracy. I have a feeling that all this hoopla, though entertaining, is a distraction from something more simple.