Whale bones, creepy caves, and one hell of a cover-up. These are just a few of the subjects on our minds as we head into the season finale of True Detective: Night Country.
At this point, it seems unlikely that all of our questions will be answered—at least in a way that satisfies most viewers. And I’m okay with that. True Detective: Night Country has walked a compelling line between the natural world and the supernatural, resisting—possibly outright refusing—to embrace one or the other. Created, written, and directed by Issa López, season 4 is a haunting addition to the franchise, and one that I hope leads to more creators exploring the world of True Detective.
To briefly recap the season so far: During the region’s annual period of darkness, a group of male scientists who mysteriously wandered off from Tsalal Research Station in Ennis, Alaska were found dead, frozen in a violent “corpsicle” on the ice. Captain Danvers (Jodie Foster) is called in to investigate and begrudgingly accepts State Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis)’s theory that the event is related to the unsolved murder of local Indigenous activist and midwife Annie K. Along with junior cop Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), Danvers and Navarro set about connecting the dots—or following the spiral, rather—to Raymond Clark, a Tsalal researcher who didn’t die with the rest of his team and has gone MIA.
Meanwhile, Danvers is haunted by the death of her husband and their son, and struggling to connect with her stepdaughter Leah (Isabella LaBlanc), who is exploring her Indigenous identity and getting involved with a group of local eco-activists. Navarro is reeling from the death of her sister and worried that she, too, is afflicted by the same mental illness, which also consumed their mother. And then there’s the end of episode 5, which we’ll get into in a second.
Episode 6 is set to air February 18 on HBO and Max. Ahead of the Night Country season finale, here are all of our lingering questions.
Who—or what—killed those scientists?
This is the biggest pressing question, of course. Were the scientists killed by a “weather event,” as Anchorage officials are insisting? Were they murdered by someone with connections to Tuttle United—run by the corrupt family behind the events of season 1—or a competing corporate interest? Were they killed by a supernatural entity, the “she” the men keep referring to? Or was it the one-eyed polar bear? Maybe it was an attack coordinated by the eco-activists that went awry. Maybe Jodie Foster is Cthulhu. WE JUST DON’T KNOW.
What do Silver Sky Mining and Kate McKitterick have to do with it?
In episode 5, we learn that Officer Woman-Hater Hank Prior (John Hawkes) is in the pocket of Big Mine, working with Kate McKitterick (Dervla Kirwan) of Silver Sky Mining—a company with ties to Tuttle United, which also funds the Tsalal Research Station. Tsalal provides data on pollution in the area, which means that Tuttle is manipulating the data to make it look as though its mining operations aren’t polluting the water in Ennis.
After getting Anchorage officials to declare that the researchers died from a “weather event,” McKitterick wants Prior to get rid of Otis Heiss—a former Tsalal researcher who is now indigent and addicted to heroin—before he can show Navarro and Danvers how to enter the tunnel system under Ennis, where Annie K. was murdered.
It would make narrative sense if Silver Sky was behind Annie K.’s murder; she was a prominent voice in the protest against the mine. Annie was stabbed 32 times, which seems like overkill, but Silver Sky would make it want to look as though she was murdered by a jealous lover or a violent local. That said, it’s hard to believe that Tuttle and Silver Sky are behind the corpsicle of dead researchers. They’re probably just as surprised as the cops that Annie K.’s severed tongue wound up at the research station.
What will happen to Peter?
At the end of episode 5, Hank shows up at Danvers’ house to retrieve Otis Heiss, who’s shooting up in the bathroom to shake his withdrawal so he can guide Danvers and Navarro to the tunnel entrance. Following a tense confrontation, Hank warns Peter that “blood is blood” and raises his gun toward Danvers; Peter shoots his father in the head. That head shot was clearly the result of long-simmering resentment and years of abuse that have made Peter feel incapable of making his own choices. Unlike his dad, Peter decides that women are not the reason for his problems, even if Danvers won’t let him go home to his family at a reasonable hour.
Anyway, Peter is left to clean up his dad-mess while Danvers and Navarro head out to the ice. Between his wife kicking him out for prioritizing work over his family and now—gestures wildly—this, I’d be surprised if Peter stays on with the Ennis PD. He is going to be haunted for the rest of his damn life.
Is Navarro going to be okay?
This is a toughie! López and her writers have done an excellent job navigating the story of Navarro and her sister, exploring the complexities of mental illness in their lives. Navarro is struggling to reconcile possible psychosis with her Indigenous beliefs, and some of that stress seems to be the result of internalizing the casual racism she hears every day from people like Danvers. Rose Angineau (Fiona Shaw) warns Navarro not to confuse the spirit world with mental health issues, reinforcing that these two concepts can and do co-exist, but are often conflated.
Navarro’s story speaks to specific lived experiences, of course, but as a viewer on the outside of that perspective, I find it fascinating how this narrative echoes the debate over whether this season is supernatural or not. It can be both, and it probably is—just as her late sister, Julia, was mentally ill and connected to the spirit world.
What’s going on in “night country,” exactly?
We learn from Otis that Raymond Clark—the researcher who was romantically involved with Annie K. and apparently very fond of making his RV look as murderer-friendly as possible—went into the “night country.” In fact, Otis says, “we’re all in the night country now.” (One hell of a final line for episode 4.) Piecing together the evidence, Danvers and Navarro determine that “night country” is the name given to the tunnels below Ennis, where Annie K. was killed. What sort of business is being conducted in these tunnels? What is Silver Sky hiding down there, besides evidence of Annie’s murder? What did Annie find in the night country?
And what about the spirals?
We learn that the spiral symbols are being used by hunters to warn others of thin patches in the ice where they can fall through into the tunnels. But that doesn’t explain Annie’s big spiral tattoo. Earlier in the season, a friend of Annie’s explains that she got the tattoo because she kept having nightmares, and the only thing that made them stop was getting a spiral tattoo. Raymond got a matching tattoo two days after Annie’s body was found.
We also know that this spiral is similar to the one that features prominently in season 1, and that López has discussed how Night Country is a “dark mirror” or inversion of that season, which is why this spiral is drawn in the opposite direction. But does the spiral have any additional meaning or bearing on season 4? Another thing López has mentioned is the setting and exploring places where the barrier between this world and the supernatural is thin—sort of like how the spiral is used to mark places where the barrier between Ennis and the underground ice caves is thin.
Will we ever see Rose again?
God, I hope so. Talk about effective storytelling: Rose is a minor character, but she’s so fully conceptualized and realized that she could easily be the focus of an entire show. Same goes for many of the supporting characters this season—Qavvik, Leah, Kayla. They’re all so compelling. I almost don’t want to say goodbye.
(featured image: HBO)
