True Detective S4's Flanagan Show Connections

The Mysterious Disappearance at Tsalal

True Detective: Night Country, the fourth installment of the HBO series, begins with a compelling hook in its opening episode, where it highlights the sudden disappearance of a group of researchers. The episode's end reveals that the researchers were buried in ice by something or someone, leaving the show's biggest mystery unsolved: What happened to the researchers at Tsalal?

True Detective- Night Country

This central overarching mystery has sparked numerous theories, with some connecting it to the show's first season, while others point toward Alaskan myths and climate change themes. However, one connection between True Detective: Night Country and a Mike Flanagan Netflix show might offer some answers to this enigma.

Kali Reis as Det. Evangeline Navarro and Jodi Foster as Det. Liz Danvers in True Detective season 4

The Tsalal Reference and Edgar Allan Poe

The central mystery of True Detective: Night Country revolves around a group of missing scientists who worked at the Alaskan research facility called Tsalal. Interestingly, Tsalal is also the name of a remote island in Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, where the titular character and his fellow explorers arrive during their expedition.

Arthur Pym and Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher

While Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher does not directly adapt The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, it subtly refers to the book and the island by revealing that Mike Hamill's Gordon Pym had been on a bizarre global expedition and explored obscure parts of the world.

Mark Hamill as Arthur Pym on the phone by a portrait of The Fall of the House of Usher family portrait

The Tsalal reference in True Detective: Night Country might hold the key to understanding what happened to the researchers. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket dabbles with themes of survival, isolation, and intercultural conflicts, serving as an allegory for moral degradation in the name of exploration. Similarly, True Detective: Night Country seems to be presenting a closer reimagining of the novel's ideas.

Fiona Shaw as Rose wearing an orange-brown coat with fur hat in True Detective Night Country

Unraveling the Mystery of Tsalal

In The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket's Tsalal arc, the central explorers get ambushed by the indigenous people of Tsalal, leading to a clash that highlights the darker aspects of their quest for discovery. This narrative device mirrors the events in True Detective: Night Country, where the researchers at Tsalal likely descended into moral degradation in their pursuit of knowledge, leading to conflicts with the locals.

An image of Liz Danvers in True Detective: Night Country over a shot of Navarro and a shot of her looking at photos

The suspicious locals, possibly responsible for Annie K's murder, ultimately turned against the researchers, resulting in a series of events that remain shrouded in mystery, including seemingly supernatural elements. As these connections unfold, True Detective season 4 continues to captivate audiences with its enigmatic storytelling and hidden references.