True Detective: Night Country Ratings Continue to Grow With Episode 3

Despite facing stiff competition for viewership on Sunday night, True Detective: Night Country has continued its impressive ratings run for HBO. Coming an entire decade after the first season of the series, Night Country has reinvigorated the interest of fans who lost interest in Seasons 2 and 3. Each week, the new season of True Detective has posted great premiere night ratings for HBO, proving that the franchise has a lot of juice left in the tank.

The second episode of True Detective: Night Country delivered 2.6 million viewers last Sunday night, topping every episode of The White Lotus, another hit anthology series on HBO. In week three, those numbers spiked even higher.

Episode 3 delivered 2.7 million viewers on Sunday night, despite going up against the highly anticipated NFC Championship game on Fox. Those numbers combine live viewers on HBO and Sunday night viewership on the Max streaming service, where episodes are uploaded at the same time they air.

These numbers are promising for True Detective, as we’re seeing something of a resurgence for the series after a couple of lackluster installments. Not only have both the reviews and ratings been high, but Night Country has also featured a lot of connections and callbacks to that beloved first season. Writer/director Issa Lopez took over the creative reins for this new season, which features Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in the lead roles.

Is Travis Rust Cohle’s Father?

There’s a lot of evidence to support the popular fan theory that the ghost we’ve seen in True Detective: Night Country is actually the father of Rust Cohle, the character played by Matthew McConaughey in the show’s first season. Rust mentioned at one point that his father moved to Alaska and was dying of cancer, but there was never complete confirmation that he was telling the truth in that moment.

What we do know, however, is that his father’s name was Travis and that the Travis featured in Night Country was living in Alaska while dying of leukemia. In the latest episode, Rose also refers to him by his full name: Travis Cohle. Turning on subtitles reveal that the last name is indeed spelled the same as Rust’s.

There has been no confirmation that the two characters are connected, but all the evidence revealed so far points to the notion that Rust’s dad is deeply connected to the Night Country story.