Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘True Detective: Night Country’ builds a twisted mystery for the audience, made even darker by its setting in the Alaskan town of Ennis during its long polar night. Staying true to its roots, the tone of the show remains rather realistic, with the characters and the place appearing closer to reality, even with the supernatural elements in the season. When it comes to digging into the mystery surrounding the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, a number of companies fall under scrutiny. Are any of the companies mentioned in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Real? SPOILERS AHEAD
Silver Sky Mining, NC Global Strategies, and Tuttle United are Fictional
‘True Detective: Night Country’ is a fictional show created by Issa Lopez, with everything from its plot, characters, and the places mentioned in the show mostly fictional. The companies mentioned in this season are also entirely fictional and are created simply to serve the plot. But there is an interesting detail that cannot be ignored.
In the second episode, Peter Prior tells Liz Danvers that when he did some digging on who funds Tsalal, he discovers that, on the surface, it is funded by an NGO, which in turn is owned by a company named NC Global Strategies. It is actually a shell company that belongs to Tuttle United, which is known to have dabbled in almost everything that makes it lots of money. If the name “Tuttle” sounds familiar, it is because it harkens back to the Tuttle family in ‘True Detective’ Season 1.
In the first season, the Tuttles are a powerful family, with Billy Lee Tuttle being the head of the Tuttle Cult, which is behind all sorts of horrific crimes, especially the ones involving children. Billy Lee Tuttle’s cousin, Edwin Tuttle, is first the governor and then a Senator, which places him in an extremely powerful position and also explains how he must have used his influence to keep the crimes of his family hidden for such a long time. By the end of the season, Billy Lee is dead (mostly likely killed by his own family or the members of the cult after Rust Cohle steals incriminating evidence from his house), and Edwin Tuttle has been exposed via the evidence that Rust made sure he would see the light of day if he didn’t make it out alive. Still, it might not be enough to get the senator and the rest of his family and cult, which haunts Rust, but there is nothing he can do about it.
Considering how rich and powerful the Tuttles are in Season 1, it doesn’t feel like a coincidence to see them in a position of wealth and power once again, using that wealth and power to fund something that people barely know about. By far (that is the second episode of the season), nothing much has been revealed about Tuttle United and how much of a role it will play this season, but it does make one curious. It is possible that we might see someone from the Tuttle family further down the line in Season 4, and considering how much this season already hints at connections to Season 1, it would be interesting if the characters mention the Yellow King and the cult debacle from Season 4.
Most probably, the mention of the name Tuttle is purely a throwback to Season 1, an Easter egg left for the audience, and doesn’t connect to the Tuttles from the case handled by Marty Hart and Rust Cohle. Still, if all the seasons exist in a shared universe, it would be one hell of a coincidence that a powerful family named Tuttle is involved in two horrific crimes while also being indulged in some truly shady practices.
Read More: True Detective Night Country is Inspired by Real-Life Unsolved Mysteries
