History Series / TrueDetective

* CallBack: Apparently the Tuttle family from the first season was funding research at Tsalal Station. Also, Rose's deceased romantic partner is named Travis Cohle. A relative of Rustin Cohle, perhaps?

* LethalNegligence: What ends up killing [[spoiler:Julia Navarro]] in "Part 4". [[spoiler:She has a mental health episode and is found wandering around while taking off her clothes in midwinter. She resists Danvers (who tries to help her) and is having hallucinations. Instead of being declared a danger to herself and others and getting committed, she is checked into the Lighthouse, a local mental health facility. As a voluntary facility, they just let her ''walk out'', no questions asked and no one the wiser. Evangeline learns of her sister's SuicideBySea and does ''not'' react well, blaming the staff for neglecting Julia.]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: There are hints of the supernatural from the first episode this time around, but it's ambigious whether or not they're real.

** Someone or something is roaming the dark halls when the delivery guy arrives four days later after the science team goes missing.
** Both Navarro and Danvers hear eerie voices tell her "She is awake"; in the case of Danvers, she hears her dead son, Holden.
** The bodies of the Tsalal Crew are found by a woman who's led out on the ice by what may be the ghost of her dead husband. The delivery driver who discovered Tslalal Abandoned in the first episode outright says that the dead wake up during the long night in Ennis, but this could just be local folklore.
** When the bodies are in the process of being excavated at the start of episode 2, a hand gets severed, and the body it's removed from starts thrashing around and screaming. Rigor mortis and the howling winds, or did they somehow survive? [[spoiler: Danvers is talking to a surgeon about a person being operated on just afterwards, but it is not clear to whom they are referring. It is found out in episode three that it was Anders Lund and he survived the operation, although horribly injured and amputated along with being shellshocked by the events on what happened at the ice. It is heavily implied that he dies at the end of the episode.]]

* TheNothingAfterDeath: Danvers believes in this, and is skeptical of the claims that the dead walk in Ennis.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Ennis is portrayed as being in near-total darkness from mid-December to at least mid-January; while the sun does go down at the latitude given (68 65N) in late November and does not rise again until mid-January, it remains just below the horizon and the town would experience twilight conditions, not total darkness.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Ennis is portrayed as being in near-total darkness from mid-December to at least mid-January; the only town in Alaska with comprable conditions is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utqiagvik,_Alaska Utqiagvik]], whose darkness starts in mid-November, and have some level of 'civil twilight' where some sunlight is visible. Once the sun sets in Ennis, it doesn't seem to rise, which simply doesn't happen outside of the Poles. Later episodes show that there is ''some'' civil twilight, but only once one goes a bit further south.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: In Episode Two, the date on Danvers' computer is December 21, 2023, exactly one month before the episode's airdate.

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: While directing a child to seek shelter in a bathtub during a gun battle, Cohle gestures with his gun and points the barrel right at the kid's head.

* ToxicInc: Silver Sky Mining, which runs the mine that employs half of the population of Ennis, is polluting the area and affecting the Native population disproportionately, as they can't afford the overpriced food in the town's stores, and can't drink the poisoned water. [[spoiler:Part 5 reveals that both Silver Sky and Tsalal are both funded by Tuttle Ltd., and Danvers makes the connection that Tsalal fabricated pollution numbers to make it seem like Silver Sky is less harmful than it actually is.]]

%%* DeepSouth: Season 1 takes place in Louisiana.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: It's almost inconceivable at that the hardened, cynical veteran Cohle could be disturbed by anything, so when he very overtly stands with his back turned to the cult videotape as it plays, you know that it's some [[TakeOurWordForIt seriously twisted stuff]].

* DirtyCop: [[spoiler: It's all but stated by the end of Part 4 that Navarro shot a man who had abused and murdered his wife in cold blood, and that Danvers helped cover it up.]]

** Both Navarro and Danvers hear eerie voices tell her "She is awake"; in the case of Danvers, she hears her son, who might be dead.

* ToxicInc: The mine that employs half of the population of Ennis is polluting the area and affecting the Native population disproportionately, as they can't afford the overpriced food in the town's stores, and can't drink the poisoned water.

* CallBack: Apparently the Tuttle family from the first season was funding research at Tsalal Station.

* AuthorAvatar: But not for the author of the series. Rust's nihilistic philosophy is straight out of Creator/ThomasLigotti's ''The Conspiracy Against the Human Race''. (Ligotti's Lovecraftian fiction is an acknowledged influence on this series.) Rust's childhood in rural Alaska is probably a nod to another modern weird fiction writer, Laird Barron, with whom he shares this background.

* AmbiguousDisorder: [[spoiler: Errol's half-sister]] suffers from some kind of mental disability, but nothing is ever made explicit about it.

** When the bodies are in the process of being excavated at the start of episode 2, a hand gets severed, and the body it's removed from starts thrashing around and screaming. Rigor mortis and the howling winds, or did they somehow survive? [[NothingIsScarier This is never addressed or elaborated upon.]] [[spoiler: Danvers is talking to a surgeon about a person being operated on just afterwards, but it is not clear to whom they are referring. It is found out in episode three that it was Anders Lund and he survived the operation, although horribly scared and amputated along with being shellshocked by the events on what happened at the ice. It is heavily implied that he dies at the end of the episode.]]

* MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome: Several years ago, Navarro and Danvers worked together on the Annie Kotwok murder case. Kotwok was an Indigenous activist and Navarro, who is Indigenous herself, points out that had she been White, the case would have been solved quickly.

** In Episode 3 we find out that [[spoiler:the screaming man was Anders Lund and he somehow survived the ordeal and the surgery, despite being horribly scared. He does not react well when he wakes up.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: Evangeline Navarro, an officer from the Alaska State Troopers, has this opinion of Ennis's police force. After the murder of Annie Kotwok, an Alaskan Native activist protesting against the mining operations in Ennis, Navarro claims that if Annie was a white woman, the police would have solved the case in a matter of months.

** Episode 3: [[spoiler: In the last scene Navarro and Danvers see the last video from Annie Kotwok before she got murdered. Annie reveals she found something under the ice, and is petrified. She tries to say something but is dragged away by something not seen.]]

* NotQuiteDead: The Ennis Police are understandably shocked when they accidentally break a whole forearm off one of the frozen scientists... and he starts screaming in pain.

* WhamShot: Seems to be one to close each of the first three episodes.

* LethalNeglect: What ends up killing [[spoiler:Julia Navarro]] in "Part 4". [[spoiler:She has a mental health episode and is found wandering around while taking off her clothes in midwinter. She resists Danvers (who tries to help her) and is having hallucinations. Instead of being declared a danger to herself and others and getting committed, she is checked into the Lighthouse, a local mental health facility. As a voluntary facility, they just let her ''walk out'', no questions asked and no one the wiser. Evangeline learns of her sister's SuicideBySea and does ''not'' react well, blaming the staff for neglecting Julia.]]

* PsychoPsychologist: In Part 4, Julia is checked into the Lighthouse, a local mental health hospital. [[spoiler:They just let her ''walk out'', no questions asked, despite the fact that she had been walking around half-dressed midwinter, attacked a police officer, and has been experiencing hallucinations, because they are a 'voluntary' facility. Evangeline does ''not'' react well, as the Lighthouse's neglect directly led to her sister's suicide.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Ennis is potrayed as being in near-total darkness from mid-December to at least mid-January; the only town in Alaska with comprable conditions is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utqiagvik,_Alaska Utqiagvik]], whose darkness starts in mid-November, and have some level of 'civil twilight' where some sunlight is visible. Once the sun sets in Ennis, it doesn't seem to rise, which simply doesn't happen outside of the Poles. Later episodes show that there is ''some'' civil twilight, but only once one goes a bit further south.

** The caribou heard in the opening scene gets collectively spooked by something happening under the ice they are standing on and run away in such a fear that they all jump down what looks like a suicide height cliff.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:At the end of Episode 2, when all of the corpses are thawed, it's discovered that two of the researchers are missing. One was previously accounted for as the screaming corpse; the other, Raymond Clark, becomes the prime suspect.]] [[spoiler: In Episode 3 we find out that the screaming man was Anders Lund and he somehow survived the ordeal and the surgery, despite being horribly scared. He does not react well when he wakes up.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: Evangeline Navarro, an officer from the Alaska State Troopers, has this opinion of Ennis's police force. After the murder of Annie Kotwok, an Alaskan Native activist protesting against the mining operations in Ennis, she claims that if Annie was a white woman, the police would have solved the case in a matter of months.
* PsychoPsychologist: In Part 4, Julia is checked into the Lighthouse, a local mental health hopsital. [[spoiler:They just let her ''walk out'', no questions asked, despite the fact that she had been tryign to strip in midwinter, attacked a police officer, and has been experiencing hallucinations, because they are a 'voluntary' facility. Evangeline does ''not'' react well, as the Lighthouse's neglect directly led to her sister's suicide.]]

* TragicKeepsake: Danvers has a stuffed polar bear missing one eye that belonged to her son, Holden, who died under unknown circumstances prior to the start of the series. Its resemblance to an actual polar bear that's been seen by both Danvers and Navarro has yet to be explained. [[spoiler:She piches it out into the snow on Christmas day when Navarro questions why she keeps it around, despite not believing in an afterlife.]]

** Episode 2: [[spoiler: The first scene where it's revealed that Anders Lund is (barely) still alive.]] [[spoiler: Last shot is of the thawing ice clump melting enough for the police to realise that one of the scientists is missing.]]
** Episode 3: [[spoiler: In the last scene Navarro and Danvers see the last video from Annie Kotwok before she got murdered, turns out she found something under the ice, and is petrified. She tries to tell something but is dragged away by something not seen.]]
** Episode 4: [[spoiler:Danvers finds Navarro in the basement of the dredging platform, bleeding from her hears after a vision of her dead sister, Julia.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: Danvers had a son at some point who seems to have left behind a stuffed polar bear as a TragicKeepsake, but it's unclear if he's actually dead; Danvers is established to be a divorcee, so he could simply be living with the other parent.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Ennis is potrayed as being in total darkness from mid-December to at least mid-January; the only town in Alaska with comprable conditions is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utqiagvik,_Alaska Utqiagvik]], whose darkness starts in mid-November, and have some level of 'civil twilight' where some sunlight is visible. Once the sun sets in Ennis, it doesn't seem to rise, which simply doesn't happen outside of the Poles.

** The bodies of the Tsalal Crew are found by a woman who's led out on the ice by what may be the ghost of her dead husband. The delivery driver who discovered Tslalal Abandoned in the first episode outright says that the dead wake up during the long winter in Ennis, but this could just be local folklore.

The fourth season, titled ''True Detective: Night Country'', is set in Alaska and it stars Creator/JodieFoster, Kali Reis, Creator/FionaShaw, and Creator/ChristopherEccleston. It is the first season not to be written by original series creator and writer Nic Pizzolatto. The series premiered on January 14, 2024.

** It is implied that Bezzerides childhood, growing up in a spiritual commune, may have also been abusive. She tells Dr. Pitlor it was a 'fucked up' environment for kids, given that out of the five living in her house she was the only one who didn't commit suicide or go to jail. [[spoiler: It is later revealed she was kidnapped and repeatedly molested/raped for a week as a child by a member of her fathers commune]].

* GenreShift: Downplayed. While both the first and second seasons are detective dramas, the first season examined rural Louisiana and flirted heavily with elements of the CosmicHorrorStory, while the second season is more of an urban neo-noir. The third season then returns to the rural South, but has very few SouthernGothic elements and is much more grounded about poverty.

** Spirals. They're drawn on the murder victims, which helps link the murders together. When a perpetrator is revealed, [[spoiler:he's mowing the lawn in a spiral. In the season one finale, Cohle sees a spiraling vortex in a starry abyss in the darkness of Errol's inner sanctum. Reggie Ledoux and Errol Childress have spiral brands on the back of their neck, as well]].
** Horns are also a recurring theme. The first case involves a murdered woman with horns placed on her head. There are a few drawings of women with horns on their heads. Ginger the biker has a chest tattoo of horns curving up to the sides of his neck.

** Mirrors. In 1995, Cohle uses a tiny mirror for meditation. In 2002, Beth's room contains several mirrors of different sizes. In 2012, Hart's office and living room both have large wall-to-wall mirrors, while the bar where Cohle works has a mirrored back wall.

** Velcoro has become a drunken mess since he made a deal with Semyon, who complains that Velcoro is "getting a load on" during their meetings. When Velcore cleans up and goes sober, Semyon says its nice to speak to him when his head isn't nodding. It doesn't last, however.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Miguel Glib, Pauls friend and former lover from his Black Mountain days. He is introduced as seemingly wanting to rekindle his friendship with Paul, and convince him to be accepting of his homosexuality. [[spoiler: He is later revealed to be a HoneyTrap working security for Catalast Group, and blackmails Paul into attending a meet which ends up getting him killed]].

* CantStopTheSignal: [[spoiler:Ani hands over her case file on the corruption in Vinci over the journalist Ray assaulted in Episode 1. Whether or not it will lead to a new investigation remains an open question.]]
* TheCasino: Frank owns the Vinci Gardens Casino to use as a legitimate front to his illegal activities. At the end of episode one, an intoxicated Bezzerides is seen being escorted from one by security.

*** The Mayor of Vinci [[spoiler: is a pathetic day drunk with no real responsibilities with a ridiculous family and a trashed house. It is later implied that despite all the power he holds in Vinci, he had no idea his son was in cohorts with the Russians to try and take his place]].

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The second episode ends with a guy wearing a bird headdress gunning down Velcoro with a shotgun. The victim then squirms on the floor before the birdman makes a point blank gut-shot of uncertain fatality. The next episode reveals he was not killed but shot with rubber bullets.

** Ray Velcoro. The only reason he descended into corruption was to avenge his wife after she was raped, and only remains in Frank's pocket so he is able to provide for his son. Despite his violent and sometimes erratic tendencies, he is shown to care deeply about others; warning a group of children not to play near toxic waste and later tackling Bezzerides out of the way of a moving truck whilst they pursues a suspect, whilst having ''multiple cracked ribs''.

** When Frank and his men search a house used by Amarilla's associate who pawned Casperes things, they are confronted by the Mexican gang who want to do business with Franks club (previously owned by Danny Santos).

* ReallyGetsAround: Detective Liz Danvers is revealed to be hated by the women of Ennis, Alaska for sleeping with many of their husbands. She's also had a sexual relationship with her boss and keeps a Tinder account to use for hookups when she gets lonely during the cold months in Alaska.

* Whamshot: Seems to be one to close each of the first three episodes.

** The caribou heard in the opening scene gets collectively spooked by something happening under the ice they are standing on an run away in fear.