True Detective Season 4's penultimate episode is coming to Max earlier than expected

After years away, True Detective finally made its return to HBO this January with the new season titled Night Country. As always, the anthology series told a dark and moody storyline laced with flashbacks to the past. In this case, police officers Liz Danvers (Oscar winner Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) are investigating the disappearance of eight research scientists from a base in Alaska. The remote region and the fact it’s perpetual night clouds the investigation.

Making things trickier is Liz and Evangeline have problems with each other involving a murder case from years earlier. To top it off, there’s the hint that the murder may have a supernatural element involved.

The show has been well-received by critics, and fans are eager to tune in to HBO every Sunday night to see it. However, there’s a very good reason why fans are going to get the penultimate episode a little earlier than expected.

Why is the next episode of True Detective Season 2 coming out earlier?

Per TVLine, Episode 5 will air at its regular time, Sunday, Feb. 11, at 9/8c on HBO. However, it will first be available to stream on Max on Friday, Feb. 9 at 9/8c.

The reason for the early release is obvious, as Sunday, Feb. 11, happens to be the Super Bowl. HBO knows that it’s likely over a hundred million viewers will tune in for the big game and that the ratings for Episode 5 will suffer. Releasing the episode early to build up the buzz before the game makes sense. 

This is only for this week as the season finale is set to air and stream at the usual time on Sunday, Feb. 18, at 9/8c. Football fans don’t have to worry about missing this key episode for the big game, as even HBO doesn’t want to compete with the Super Bowl. 

True Detective: Night Country Episode 5 streams Friday, Feb. 9 on Max and airs Sunday, Feb. 11 on HBO.