True Detective has all the time been a present stuffed with unusual symbols and half-hidden clues, and Evening Nation isn’t any exception.

Placing apart the spirals and the Misplaced-style polar bear sightings, although, there’s that Billie Eilish-backed opening sequence. As all the time with Nic Pizzolatto’s present, the opener includes a jumble of images that is related to the sequence, this time themed round an appropriately darkish and snowy drive alongside a rural street as Eilish’s 2019 atmospheric hit “bury a pal” performs.

So, whereas we’re pondering over our post-ep burning questions, let’s break down these photographs. What glimpses will we get in these 90 seconds, and the way would possibly they be related to the story?

True Detective: Evening Nation‘s opening sequence: Attainable clues

A full bathtub

That is the very first thing we see in conjunction with that snowy street, and it is obtained a darkish liquid sloshing round inside it. Water or blood? Like lots of the issues on this record, it is tough to know if the bathtub is an indication of one thing to come back – does somebody die in a shower, as an example? – or only a metaphor for one thing.

An orange

There’s an orange rolling alongside the street! That is a bit odd, is not it? The identical orange pops again up in peel type afterward within the sequence, floating underwater. In episode 3, Navarro picks up an orange that is been discarded by one of many locals recruited to seek for Clark. Later the orange rolls again to her and he or she hears a voice saying “assist us”. We’re submitting this one beneath “could also be vital additional down the road.”

A stuffed polar bear with one eye sitting on a rocking chair, and an actual polar bear with one eye

One-eyed polar bears are a little bit of a theme right here, aren’t they? In episode 1, Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) finds a stuffed toy model in her home that she appears to attach with an unsettling reminiscence, whereas Detective Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) sees a real-looking polar bear whereas driving by means of city. You’ll be able to see each within the opening credit.

Useless, frozen figures rising from the ice

These are the useless figures we glimpse on the finish of the primary episode, which make up the corpsicle Danvers and officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) are tasked with excavating from the ice. Yep, it is the crew of lacking scientists from the Tsalal Arctic Analysis Station, in an enormous frozen tangle.

A Tsalal Arctic Analysis Station signal studying “operation in progress”

Tsalal is the present’s first major setting — the place the place Danvers begins her investigation into the lacking scientists. The sequence primarily takes place across the fictional Alaskan city of Ennis, however the analysis station’s point out in the primary credit (plus the actual fact the station itself is proven) means it has a bigger half to play.

Nothing creepier than an deserted analysis station.
Credit score: Michele Okay. Quick/HBO

A girl sinking beneath the ice

Foreshadowing for one thing that can occur within the present, or only a metaphor? Tough to say at this stage, however we will hazard a guess as to who the girl is — she’s carrying a coat with an APF (Alaska Police Drive) patch on the shoulder, so it appears seemingly she’s with the police. Danvers?

A deer cranium floating underwater

May this be a reference to the poor animals that go thundering off the sting of that ice cliff in episode 1’s very first scene, seemingly pushed to insanity by the oncoming lengthy evening?

Bloody garments on a washing line

It is tough to say precisely what this picture means, however washing bloody garments might be a reference to making an attempt to wash up a criminal offense scene.

A smashed automobile windscreen

We see a short shot by means of a splintered windscreen of a home with a automobile beside it. There’s not a lot we will glean from the home, however the damaged windscreen might be vital. Will one of many characters get in a automobile accident on the snowy roads? Or have that they had an accident up to now?

A lot of tubes stacked on cabinets

These are the cylindrical tubes that Danvers finds on the analysis station in episode 1. Geology instructor Bryce (Donnie Keshawarz) tells the police chief in episode 2 the scientists have been utilizing ice coring making an attempt to sequence the DNA from an extinct microorganism that might doubtlessly cease mobile decay. Bryce explains the challenge was extraordinarily tough attributable to myriad elements together with the extraction course of. Maybe the analysis being undertaken by the scientists might be vital down the road?

Grave markers

Shortly after the proof tubes we see a number of crucifixes with dates marked on every. These are presumably graves, however the true placing element is the date: Every cross is marked with the 12 months 2023.

A protest signal

We see a short glimpse of two protest indicators in a single shot, and the phrase “defend our water” is obvious on one. Ennis is clearly within the midst of an environmental battle. In episode 3, we see activists assembly to announce the information of one other stillbirth.

The laboratory is a key location.
Credit score: Michele Okay. Quick/HBO

A laboratory

Presumably that is a part of the Tsalal Arctic Analysis Station.

A curved archway on the facet of the street

Are these…bones?

A deer

There is a deer with glowing eyes! May this be the residing model of the poor beast whose stays are floating underwater?

A round hatch floating underwater

No concept, nevertheless it appears seemingly that is related to the analysis station.

The ultimate body of the opening credit adjustments each episode

Wait, that final body wasn’t the identical ending as the primary episode! We’re pondering the final picture within the True Detective: Evening Nation opening credit adjustments every episode to disclose a vital location for the approaching episode. We’re monitoring all of them right here:

Episode 1: The within of an ice cave

One of many ultimate pictures is a fast journey by means of an icy, underground tunnel, proven after a fast flash of skeletons embedded within the ice. An actual location within the present, or simply an atmospheric monitoring shot? On the finish of episode 3 we see a video of Annie’s ultimate moments, and he or she seems to be in an underground ice cave — so it looks as if this icy tunnel from the episode 1 credit might the place she was killed.

Episode 2: A creepy shrine-like wall of pictures and lights

On the finish of episode 2, Danvers and Navarro discover their technique to lacking scientist Raymond Clark’s creepy trailer (which you too can spot the outside of within the opening credit), which is stuffed with cloth weavings, an entire wall of crimson yarn and images, and a large spiral on the ceiling. Pictured on the finish of the episode 2 opening credit, it is a fairly essential discovering, as Danvers and Navarro now consider Clark, who’s lacking from the corpsicle, to be alive and related with Annie.

Episode 3: A fishing hut on the ice.

The man Navarro is seeing within the present, Eddie Qavvik (Joel D Montgrand), has a fishing hut out on the ice — a blue home with crimson trim and a wreath. That is the situation we see within the ultimate shot of the episode 3 opening credit. Will it’s vital additional down the road?

The best way to watch: True Detective airs Sunday nights on HBO/Max at 9 p.m ET/PT.