Night Country’s Opening Quote Is A Major Hint Its Repeating Season 1’s Mystery

Summary

• True Detective: Night Country shares occult themes with season 1, featuring ghosts, supernatural occurrences, and a grisly crime.
• The setting of Night Country in the Alaskan perma-night adds a sinister and mind-bending atmosphere to the show.
• The opening quote, attributed to Hildred Castaigne from The King In Yellow, establishes a connection between Night Country and season 1, exploring themes of the supernatural and spirituality.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for True Detective: Night Country, episode 1True Detective: Night Country has already featured several links back to the original series of the hit anthology, but one of the most intriguing is its opening quote. Already, the fourth season of Nic Pizzolatto’s brooding, sprawling crime saga is touching on some of the same occult themes explored in season 1. The appearance of ghosts, seemingly supernatural occurrences, and a mysteriously grisly crime are all reminiscent of the show’s first incarnation, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.

In some ways, True Detective: Night Country and season 1 are very different. Whereas season 1 utilized its swampy Louisiana setting to create a stifling sense of claustrophobia and conspiracy, Night Country relies on the pitch-black cold of the Alaskan perma-night. The sinister, mind-bending potential of midwinter in the Arctic circle is already on full display in season 4, with characters seeing and imagining things, and a very real sense that something terrifying is lurking in the shadows. However, despite telling different stories, the two seasons share a connection with the darkness – demonstrated by Night Country‘s opening quote.

True Detective Makes Up A Quote From Hildred Castaigne, Who Is From The King In Yellow

True Detective: Night Country episode 1 opens with a sinister warning, attributed to Hildred Castaigne, declaring, “…For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake.” Castaigne is the fictional protagonist in Robert W. Chambers’ 1895 work The King In Yellow – a work referenced throughout True Detective season 1. Such an explicit callback clearly establishes a link between the two stories, whatever their other differences.

Interestingly, the opening epigraph does not actually appear in the original The King In Yellow story. Instead, it has been made up by writer and director Issa López to convey a very deliberate message. By ascribing the quote to a character associated with The King In Yellow, López is making it clear that Night Country will explore similar themes of the supernatural, spirituality, and the potentially corrosive influence of belief in the afterlife.

What Do The King In Yellow Connections Mean For True Detective: Night Country?

Where both True Detective seasons 2 and 3 eschewed the more occult elements that took center stage in season 1, The King In Yellow connections prove that Night Country is returning to the show’s roots. One of the key concerns in the original story was the mystery around whether the satanic worship of Carcosa had any validity, or whether Cohle really could see things beyond the temporal plane. Already, Night Country is taking a similar approach.

In episode 1 alone, Fiona Shaw’s Rose Aguineau has been led into the arctic wilderness by a ghost, Jodie Foster’s Liz Danvers has imagined a hand grasping her shoulder, and multiple characters have referenced someone being “awake“. Coupled with the misattributed The King In Yellow quote, all of these incidents add up to a series that is as much a supernatural horror as it is a murder mystery. True Detective: Night Country may ground itself with believable and compelling characters, but the show is already suggesting that there’s more to the central puzzle than meets the eye.