[SPOILER ALERT]

One thing True Detective (2014) has consistently done right is open with absorbing, evocative opening credits. The second season’s artful blend of character profiles and California landscapes was positioned against the heavy, thumping bass of “Nevermind,” the gravelly and poetic spoken word track from music legend Leonard Cohen. The song, selected by True Detective music supervisor T Bone Burnett, comes from Cohen’s 2014 album “Popular Problems” and resonates perfectly with the drama’s nihilistic themes of meaningless and futility.

“The war was lost. The treaty signed. I was not caught. I crossed the line.

I was not caught. Though many tried. I live among you. Well disguised.

I had to leave. My life behind. I dug some graves. You’ll never find.

The story’s told. With facts and lies. I had a name. But nevermind.

Nevermind. Nevermind. The war was lost. The treaty signed.

There’s truth that lives. And truth that dies. I don’t know which. So nevermind.

In retrospect, many of “Nevermind’s” lyrics fit beautifully with the events of the season.

Screenwriting professors will often tell you that every good narrative is only one character’s story, no matter how many people it takes to tell it. For example, Six Feet Under (2001) is Nate Fisher’s (Peter Krause) story. The Big Bang Theory (2007) is Sheldon’s (Jim Parsons) story. The Walking Dead (2010) is Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) story. And so on…

“The war was lost. The treaty signed. I was not caught. I crossed the line.”

The main character of True Detective‘s second season debateably could be either Ani Bezzerides (Rachel McAdams) or Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell). The characters relied on each other for development, though only one of them survived. Looking at Ani as the series’ focus, those lyrics resonate. At the completion of the finale, the other major players died, and the corrupt are still in power. Ani wasn’t caught, but the cycle of corruption continued with a new wave of individuals in power.

“The story’s told. With facts and lies.”

Ani provided all the information about the conspiracy to a reporter colleague, but the new mayor Chessani’s (Vinicius Machado) people continue to flood the media with their version of the events.

“There’s truth that lives. And truth that dies. I don’t know which. So nevermind.”

Ani lives while Ray and Paul (Taylor Kitsch) die. And the fate of the information she gives the reporter goes unanswered - will it see the light of day and bring the corrupt to justice? We’re left wondering, not knowing which way the story went.

“I was not caught. Though many tried. I live among you. Well disguised.”

By the end of the series, everyone in the corrupt Vinci police and business world was hunting Ani, who escaped to safety in Venezuela where she lives among the citizens.

These lyrical clues are one thing, but the True Detective team took the importance of the lyrics one step further. They made visual switches within the show’s opening credits in a way that likely went past 95% of viewers unnoticed, but which paralleled the fates of the characters on the show.

Here’s the original sequence as it aired during the season two premiere:

By episode seven, the silhouette of Paul appeared on the word “dies,” Frank (Vince Vaughn) on the word “kills,” Ray on the line “You turned me in, at least you tried, you side with them, who you despise,” and Ani on the earlier line “I had to leave my life behind.”

Indeed, the theme song was prophetic of each character’s thematic outcome from the start. It’s hard to know if the show’s creators planned this correlation from the start, but they clearly caught on to the parallels as the story progressed.