Episode 2 of “Night Country” confirmed that, far from just being a callback or homage, the spiral symbol is central to the mystery propelling this latest season of “True Detective.” The motif was first seen in the 2014 pilot episode of the show, tattooed on the back of murder victim Dora Lange. Throughout that first season, the spiral continued to appear and seemingly represented the cult carrying out these ritual killings. It also seemed to represent Rust Cohle’s famous theory that “time is a flat circle,” symbolizing a view of existence as time continually spiraling back on itself, repeating prior events with only very slight deviations.
Since then, show creator Nic Pizzolatto has returned to the symbol, most notably in season 3 when a documentary filmmaker points to it representing child abuse rings. Still, there was never any confirmation of exactly what the spiral was supposed to mean, and that wasn’t the only symbolism in season 1 that remains mysterious. The original episodes are packed with imagery borrowed from a stunning array of cultural sources in general. One of the more intriguing examples was antlers, which, much like the spiral, are first seen adorning Dora Lange’s body.
So intrigued by this macabre visual flourish was Rust Cohle that even he couldn’t help but immediately ask Reggie Ledoux (Charles Halford) — one of the abusers whom Rust and his detective partner Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) hunt down — “Why the antlers?” Of course, we never really get a solid answer to this question, as much of “True Detective” season 1 relied on mysteries going unsolved to establish an overriding sense of doom. Now, however, Issa Lòpez appears to have picked up this particular baton and, much like with the spiral, is running with it in “Night Country.”
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