‘True Detective’: Who Was Rose Aguineau Before She Moved to Alaska?
‘True Detective’ Episode 4 just aired, and instead of shedding light on some pretty deep mysteries it only complicated things now the showrunners introduced several other levels to what appears to be the chilliest ghost story in the ‘True Detective’ Universe. We know that Rose is a hermit who lives separated from the rest of the Ennis, and has a tendency to speak to the dead. But the latest episode revealed some bits and pieces regarding her mysterious past. Let’s see who Rose was before she came to Ennis.
Rose Aguineau is not Rose’s real name
Rose Aguineau seems like a pretty insignificant character in the large scheme of things. She supposedly lives alone in the middle of nowhere; we can see her preparing her own food, netting, and surviving off the harsh wilderness of Alaska, about to be shrouded in a long night. Despite being a secondary character with only a few scenes in the show, even before the show was released it was clear that she would have a bigger role than we are expecting. Rose was described as a hermit with something to hide in her past, well Episode 4 revealed a fraction of that “thing” that Rose has to hide.
In the first episode, Rose was crucial in discovering the frozen bodies of Tsalal researchers. Her “dead” husband Travis was the one who pointed her in the right direction. In the second episode, we learned that Travis does indeed speak to Rose regularly, and this started happening soon after his death. You see Travis was suffering from Leukemia and was about to die, he decided to take his own life into his own hands and walked into the Alaskan Ice Fields, never to be seen alive again.
We were also under the impression that Rose was a bit crazy, considering that she talked about speaking to the dead as it’s the most normal thing in the world. Rose explained that according to her theory, Ennis is where the fabric of everything unravels and it’s expected that it’s going to be at the center of the supernatural phenomena.
I’m not sure how much I’m buying it, but the latest episode revealed more about her and her “hidden” past. Navarro also mentioned that Rose is not really her true name.
Rose was a scientist before she moved to Alaska
Navarro asked Rose who she really was before she moved to Alaska and Rose told her the truth before telling her the truth. She mentioned how she was a professor at a fancy university and she was writing fancy and meaningless words. One day while publishing the article Rose was fed up and she decided to move to Alaska, leaving her life behind. It’s unclear whether Rose met Travis in Alaska or before she moved North. It’s also unclear how long they were together.
How is Rose connected to Rust Cohle?
Following the release of the first episode theories resurged regarding Travis and the connection between Rust Cohle. Travis mentioned that his father lived in Alaska and that he was Travis, this was enough to make some connections. But apparently, Rose referenced Travis as “Travis Cohle” and that was enough of a confirmation. We don’t know whether Rose is Rust’s biological mother since he never mentioned her living in Alaska, but now that Navarro mentioned that’s not her real name and Rose revealed that she used to live somewhere else it’s possible.
Is it possible that Rose is connected to Tsalal station?
The nature of Rose’s former work is unknown at the moment but knowing that she was some kind of a researcher or scientist makes it really likely that Rose didn’t move to Ennis on a random whim as she implied. It’s possible that her own research was connected to Tsalal’s research or something about the mines but she is just keeping it quiet due to both mine and the research station being quite unpopular around town.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!