True Detective Season 1-4 Timeline, Explained

True Detective Season 4, Night Country, brings the HBO crime anthology series’ overarching narrative closer together than ever before. It can all get a bit confusing, so below, we’ve explained how the True Detective timeline fits together.

True Detective Season 1-4 Timeline, Explained

Part of what makes True Detective‘s in-universe chronology tough to keep track of is the show’s narrative structure. This is especially true of Seasons 1 and 3, as they both unfold across more than one timeline. Seasons 2 and 4 are more straightforward by comparison, although they still contain flashbacks to earlier moments in time.

In practice, this means True Detective‘s four seasons technically take place before, after, and even during each other. Here’s how that breaks down, year by year:

1980

• Detectives Wayne Hays and Roland West investigate the disappearance of Will and Julie Purcell (Season 3).
• Will Purcell is found murdered, however, Julie Purcell remains missing (Season 3).

1990

• Hays and West re-open the Purcell investigation (Season 3).
• Marie Fontenot’s mother reports her missing (Season 1; occurs off-screen).

1995

• Detectives Marty Hart and Rustin Cohle investigate Dora Lange’s murder (Season 1).
• Hart kills suspect Reggie Ledoux after discovering two children he abused and kidnapped. He and Cohle cover up the murder (Season 1).
• The Dora Lange case is declared closed (Season 1).

1996

• Cohle starts dating Laurie Spencer (Season 1; occurs off-screen).

2002

• Cohle launches a new, unauthorized investigation into Dora Lange’s murder (Season 1).
• Cohle breaks up with Laurie Spencer (Season 1; occurs off-screen).
• Cohle and Hart fight after Cohle sleeps with Hart’s wife (Season 1).
• Cohle quits the police force and (supposedly) moves to Alaska for eight years (Season 1).

2006

• Hart quits the police force (Season 1; occurs off-screen).

2012

• Detectives Thomas Papania and Maynard Gilbough interview Cohle and Hart after the Dora Lange case is officially reopened (Season 1).
• Cohle and Hart overcome their differences and successfully hunt down Dora Lange’s killer, Errol Childress (Season 1).

2015

• Hays participates in interviews for a true crime program. These sessions reveal a connection between the Purcell case – the spiral symbol – and Cohle and Rust’s earlier investigations into Dora Lange’s murder (Season 3).
• Hays solves the Purcell case, although Julie’s ultimate fate remains ambiguous (Season 3).
• Detective Ray Velcoro, Detective Sergeant Ani Bezzerides, Officer Paul Woodrugh, and crook Frank Semyon investigate the disappearance (and later, murder) of Ben Caspere (Season 2).

2017

• Annie Kowtok is found murdered in Ennis, Alaska. Detective Evangeline Navarro and – after Navarro is transferred to the Alaska State Police – Detective Liz Danvers both fail to close the case (Season 4).

2023

• Eight men vanish from Tsalal Arctic Research Station outside Ennis. Annie Kowtok’s severed tongue is found on the scene (Season 4).
• All of the Tsalal workers except one, Raymond Clark, are found frozen together on the outskirts of Ennis (Season 4).
• Danvers (now Ennis Police Chief) forms an uneasy alliance with Navarro to solve the Tsalal case and determine how it’s connected to Anne Kowtok’s murder (Season 4).
• Danvers and Navarro’s investigation unearths two links – the spiral symbol and the malevolent Tuttle family – to the Dora Lange case over a decade earlier (Season 4).

Related: Is True Detective Season 4 Based on a True Story?

How Does Rustin Cohle’s Dad Fit Within the True Detective Timeline?

Something we haven’t covered above that many fans are fixated on is how Rustin Cohle’s father, Travis, slots into the wider True Detective tapestry. Several characters reference Travis in Season 1, but he doesn’t show up in person until Season 4 – supposedly as a ghost!

This tracks with what we know about Rust’s old man from True Detective‘s first season, which strongly implies that Travis is either dead or close to it. Travis appearing in Ennis also lines up with established lore, as Season 1 makes it clear he spent at least some of his life in Alaska.

Where things get a bit murkier – and why Travis isn’t included on our True Detective timeline – is the exact timing of his death. According to Season 4, Navarro found the elder Cohle’s remains an unspecified number of years before the events of Night Country proper. As such, we can’t know when Travis met his end – but we can make an educated guess.

Given Navarro is at most in her late 30s, Travis likely died around 2010-2012, assuming she found his body when she was in her late 20s. Alternatively, this could’ve happened when she was a teenager or even a child. Regardless, the overall timing seems to fit the existing timeline (just!), although some Redditors remain convinced Travis’ inclusion in Season 4 is actually a continuity error.

True Detective: Night Country is currently streaming on HBO and Max, with new episodes dropping on Sundays.