Erling Eliasson gets to the point as Travis in “True Detective: Night Country.”
Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
Update: showrunner Issa López has commented on the fan theory. See below.
True Detective Season 4 has returned with a chilling new mystery of missing persons and a murdered activist. But fans of Season 1 have spotted a potentially curious connection, proposing that the dancing ghost named Travis from Season 4, episode 1 is none other than the dearly departed daddy of Season 1 detective Rustin (aka Rust) Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey.
Let’s dig into the fan theory, the clues from episode 2, and what True Detective: Night Country showrunner Issa López has to say on the matter.
Who is Travis?
Fiona Shaw as Rose on True Detective: Night Country.
Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
This was one of the burning questions raised by episode 1, as the ghost of a dead man named Travis (Erling Eliasson) led local Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) deep into the icy landscape to the frozen corpses of the missing scientists.
In episode 2, Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) visits Rose’s home, and more information on Travis spills forth. He was once a lover of Rose’s, but not a reliable one. His ghost shows up now and again. But she notes, “Death didn’t change him. F***** only comes when he wants something.”
The short scene makes clear that Travis was a hard guy to know, coming into Rose’s life with homemade croissants and a song, then after the love-making, wandering off. She recalls their latest meeting to Navarro, then notes he died by suicide, intentionally “wandering into the ice.” This means of death could explain his ghost’s appearance, barefooted and underdressed despite the frigid temperatures. But more crucial to True Detective fans is why he walked out onto the ice.
“He didn’t want the leukemia to take him,” Rose explains. That little clue could confirm an early fan theory.
Is Travis the father of Rustin Cohle from True Detective Season 1?
Matthew McConaughey and Erling Eliasson in True Detective
Credit: Anonymous Content/Lee Caplin/Picture/Passenger/Kobal/Shutterstock / Michele K. Short/HBO
In this franchise’s wildly popular first season, McConaughey played detective Rust Cohle, an enigmatic figure prone to morose and mystical poetry. (“Time is a flat circle.”) While that season was set in the humid horror of Louisiana, Rust mentioned that he used to live in Alaska with his survivalist father, with whom he has a strained relationship. Could it be a coincidence that Season 4 is set in Alaska? This latest reveal about Travis suggests it is not.
For one thing, Rust’s dad was named Travis. And for another, Rust told investigators interrogating him that Travis Cohle was dying of leukemia. Now, in context, Rust used the illness as an excuse for doing some off-the-books investigating while he was supposedly caring for his sickly father.