At the end of “True Detective” season one — which started life as a novel and a stage play — Rust Cohle sits in a wheelchair outside the hospital where he’s being treated following his confrontation with serial killer Errol Childress. He’s joined by Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and, in a reflective and touching scene, tells his detective partner that in the coma from which he’s just awoken he felt the presence of his late daughter. He also reveals that while looking out from his hospital room at the night sky, he realized how the universe itself is “just one story, the oldest; Light versus dark,” to which Marty replies with a pessimistic, “It appears to me that the dark has a lot more territory.”
But as Marty helps his friend towards his car, Rust, the previously jaded and cynical detective, looks up at the star-filled night sky and in an uplifting moment of optimism delivers the line, “Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light’s winning.”
Since “True Detective” season 1, we’ve had two further seasons that strayed away from cosmic horror influences and, though season 3 made reference to the inaugural season, seemed wholly removed from the universe originally established by Nic Pizzolatto. Now, though, we have “Night Country,” which in its very first episode feels as if it’s picked up right where Rust left off and is putting his grand “light vs dark” narrative to the ultimate test.