'True Detective: Night Country' Delivered a (Mostly) Satisfying Conclusion
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Looking for True Detective: Night Country Season 4, Episode 5? Read our recap here.
Damn! All that was missing from Danvers's Force-ghost moment was an obligatory Bill Withers needle drop. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This recap has been tough to write—and not just because approximately three bazillion things happened in True Detective Night Country's sixth and final episode.
Honestly, I'm a little sad! This means I have to say goodbye to you. Who will comfort me when I'm in the middle seat of an airplane? Read my very-wrong Carcosa theory? Call me "a white, liberal, millennial with a quota left to fill in the virtue signaling department," in the comments just because I called The Office's Benihana episode a little bit racist?
So, unless you want me to start emailing you recaps of the other show I watch with this level of fire and fury (The Bachelor), this is my goodbye. Now, let me wipe my tears and start this recap.
A Few More Spirals For the Road
Will you indulge me another few spiral emojis? I need them for some heavy lifting. Before we isolate a few plot points, let's run through the absolute basic beats of the finale—mostly as it relates to the conclusion of the Tsalal case. We'll save the supernatural tomfoolery and Peter Prior B-plot for later on.
🌀 Raymond Clark lives! While digging around the ice caves, Navarro and Danvers find out that Clark and his fellow goons (we don't like the Tsalal scientists now!) built another laboratory under their main headquarters. It was buried in the ice the entire time. Our heroes bind Clark in a chair and resolve most of the case in one fell swoop. Per Clark, here's the official™ explanation of Tsalal's research: "We were digging for the DNA of a microorganism contained in the permafrost, which could potentially save the world." Sure, Jan.
🌀 Just for the record, Clark kindly delivers this callback to season 1: “Time is a flat circle and we are all stuck in it.”
🌀 Let's stick with the research for a minute, then we'll get to Annie K. Turns out, Silver Sky isn't totally to blame for the pollution in Ennis. Via some sweaty exposition from Clark, we learn that Tsalal intentionally poisoned the water in Ennis. Apparently—to quote Mr. Clark again—"solution from the mine softens the permafrost," which allowed them to "extract the DNA with much less damage." I don't understand exactly what that means, but it sounds pretty evil! We can safely tuck away the Silver Sky plot. (But not the Tuttle connection, which never leads to a true payoff.)
🌀 Those bastards killed Annie! While Annie was dating Clark, she figured out that Tsalal was poisoning Ennis. So... she destroyed their research. All of it. One day, deep within the ice-cave lab, the scientists killed her for it. Even though Clark allegedly loved her, he finishes the job.
🌀 Congrats to the fans who supported the crab-factory theory—it's a winner. Earlier in the season, Danvers and Navarro questioned two women (named Bee and Blair) from the local crab factory about the spiral symbols. Well, they also handled janitorial duties at Tslal. During one shift at the laboratory, when Bee was mopping the floor, she saw water seeping into the ground. She found the hatch, poked around the underground station, and figured out that Tsalal was behind Annie's murder.
🌀 What happens next? Well, Night Country truly misses another needle-drop opportunity here. Why not set the Tsalal beatdown montage to Shania? Bee gathers a group of Iñupiat women and invades Tsalal in the middle of the night. Thinking Annie rose from the dead to kill them (there's our "she's back" explanation!), Clark hides underground and holds the hatch shut. The women march the scientists outside, drive them into the wilderness, order them to take off their clothes, and force them to walk until they freeze to death. Recounting the night to Danvers and Navarro, Bee delivers this brilliant line: "I guess she ate their fuckin' dreams from the inside out and spit their frozen bones." Oh, and how do our detectives feel about this? Let's just say it's a Wheeler situation. Bee and her crew delivered justice for Annie just before the beginning of episode 1.
[Willem Dafoe Green Goblin Voice] PETAH PRIOR!
(Too much? Too much.) [Ed. note: Glad you're finally taking my advice about all caps.]
I know I popped off on the poor guy last week. Many loyal readers (including my colleagues at Esquire) told me I was wrong about the final scene in episode 5—that Peter Prior shot Hank because he was about to kill Danvers. My answer? I don't think Hank would've shot either of them.
That said, I was hoping for some sort of final-act redemption for the kid—but we don't really get it. Prior spends nearly the entire episode cleaning (often literally!) his own mess. His goings-on this episode include, but certainly aren't limited to: Cloroxing the hell out of Danvers's house, repairing his relationship with the least amount of effort imaginable, and enjoying a nice hang with Rose, where they dispose of his father's body together.
Night Country admirably resolved a ton of plot threads, but sending Prior to the bench like he's Klay Thompson, while Danvers and Navarro solved the Tsalal case? It didn't feel like the best use of the character, who was already one of the weakest players in Night Country.
Give Jodie Foster Her Emmy!
Where do we even start with Danvers and Navarro? Over the course of the episode, they basically reenact the BEEF finale. Deep breath, Brady, you can do this without spiral emojis. After the detectives extract SparkNotes from Clark, Danvers tries to get some shuteye, while Navarro watches the man. Bad idea. Overnight, the power goes out and Navarro seemingly allows Clark to run outside and die in the storm. Navarro gets an earful from Danvers. ("I am not merciful," she yells, when Navarro brings up her son, Holden. "You understand?") Then, Danvers—she needs her beauty sleep!—attempts to sleep again.
Well, the next person to wander into night country? It's Navarro. She returns to the desert dream world—and might even stay there for good—but Danvers rushes outside and promptly falls into the ice. Navarro pulls her out. While Danvers recovers, they finally have a heart-to-heart moment. Danvers asks what Holden said to Navarro in the spirit world. "Holden says he sees you," Navarro replies. I don't need to tell you how much this line hits, but here goes: Holden, who seemingly died in a car accident, has appeared to both Navarro and Danvers throughout the series. Bolstered by the absolute peak of Foster and Kali Reis's powers, this moment feels beyond cathartic. Holden sees his mother—and by finally acknowledging that the dead can speak, she sees him, too.
It feels just as freeing for Navarro, too. We see this in episode 6 especially, but Navarro wrestled with spiritualism the entire season. Rose tells her not to confuse her beliefs with mental health issues. Danvers outright says any mention of the undead is mumbo-jumbo. But as episode 6, pushes forward, so does Navarro's desire to go. Whatever called Julia and her mother, she wants to follow it. In this moment—when Danvers accepts her and will let her walk into the depths of Ennis—Navarro finds peace.
At the end of the episode, daylight finally returns to Ennis. Without telling Danvers, Navarro moves out of her home—leaving behind Holden's stuffed polar bear and footage of Clark's confession. Next, we have another instance of season 1 nostalgia: Danvers recaps the case to a camera and a couple of police officers. (She's just missing the Lone Star beer!) We're left to assume that she leaked Clark's confession to the world.
The final shot? We see Danvers sitting on her deck—and Navarro walking outside to join her. "This is Ennis," says Danvers. "Nobody really leaves." We're left to wonder whether Navarro physically stayed in Ennis, or committed suicide in the wilderness, following in the footsteps of Julia and her mother. I'll let you run wild with speculation here, because it's a beautiful moment—and I want to leave it at that, for now.
Graduation From Night Country (Friends Forever)
I promise that Vitamin C is my last needle-drop suggestion. I have to hand it to Issa López and the rest of Night Country's cast, crew, and creative team—they delivered a brilliant entry in the True Detective canon. Zombies, Rust Cohle's daddy, a top-tier Jodie Foster performance, and a star-making turn from Kali Reis. Night Country wasn't perfect, sure, and it certainly won't leave a season 1-sized footprint in television history. But it never had to reach a McConaughey-esque zenith. To put it like Danvers, Night Country asked—and answered—the right questions. Like it or not, Lopez put a definitive bow on the Tsalal case, wrote a heartening conclusion to Danvers and Navarro's relationship, and left the supernatural of it all (somewhat) in the air. It gives us something to talk about, right?
Without further ado, readers, I release you to Reddit. Thank you for following along with Esquire's recaps.
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