Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster takes on her first starring role in a television series in 50 years with HBO’s True Detective: Night Country. The fourth season of the award-winning anthology series marks the first season without creator Nic Pizzolatto guiding the action. Instead, Night Country has Issa López at the helm as writer, director, and showrunner of what is easily the best season since the series’ first, proving a fresh set of eyes was exactly what was needed in this case.

Season one starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and season two focused on characters played by Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, and Rachel McAdams. Season three, which debuted in January 2019, starred Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, and Stephen Dorff. Season four marks the first time the central characters are two powerful, uncompromising women detectives, Ennis Police Chief Elizabeth Danvers (played by Foster) and Alaska State Trooper Evangeline Navarro (played by Kali Reis).

And now, on with the recap. Spoilers ahead!

Season four episode one begins on December 17, the last sunset of the year in Ennis, Alaska. The opening scene focuses on the Tsalal Arctic Research Station and shows the researchers going about their lives inside the facility. Suddenly, one of the men, Clark, starts convulsing. When he stops, he says, “She’s awake.”

A delivery driver arrives on December 20th and attempts to deliver supplies, but he’s unable to locate anyone. He drops his keys, and while retrieving them, he finds a severed human tongue on the floor under a table.

Over at a fish processing plant, Alaska State Trooper Evangeline “Angie” Navarro (Kali Reis) investigates a report of an injured man in need of medical attention. It’s obvious he was hit in the head with a metal bucket, and she questions the women working nearby. One admits to hitting the man but only after he punched her friend/co-worker. Navarro correctly assesses the problem and places the man under arrest.

She pauses wrestling the prisoner into submission to take a call. Whatever the call’s about stops Navarro in her tracks.

Ennis Police Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) reports to the research station to begin the investigation. She’s joined by father and son officers Hank (John Hawkes) and Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), who fill her in on the basic details. The researchers are all gone, and none of the vehicles are missing.

After gathering information on the researchers’ last known contact with the town (it’s been a week), they do a more thorough examination of the facility. Food and drinks are still out on tables, and a DVD of Ferris Bueller is still playing. Peter’s cursory review of the facility reveals it’s been in existence 18 years, and the researchers were looking into geology, biology, and climate change in the Arctic.

Liz discovers a handwritten creepy note on the whiteboard that reads: “We are all dead.”

Hank thinks they probably went out to do research, but Liz pieces the clues together and determines they have been gone for at least 48 hours. And it appears they left their cell phones behind. Who does that?

Against Hank’s objections, Liz wants to immediately call in rescue and helicopters to begin a search. Liz also quickly figures out that based on the marks on the tongue, it belongs to a Native American woman. (The marks come from working on repairing fishing nets.)

Elsewhere, Rose Aguineau (Fionna Shaw) is working processing a dead animal when she hears someone call out to her. She sees a man standing a short distance away and not dressed for the freezing weather. She says, “Hello, Travis. What do you want?”

Liz makes it back to her office and finds Agent Navarro waiting for her. Navarro is certain the severed tongue belongs a woman who was murdered years ago, but Detective Danvers is equally sure it doesn’t. That woman died six years ago, and this tongue is still fresh. Navarro won’t be dissuaded, and Danvers reminds her she was tossed off that case years ago and is a State Trooper now – not a member of the Alaska Police Force.

The tension between the two officers is palpable, and it’s obvious there’s bad blood between them. Still, Navarro got under her skin and after she leaves, Liz tells Peter to find the dead woman Anne Masu Kowtok’s file. (Anne went by “Annie K” while alive.)

All of this must wait when Liz receives an angry call from her daughter’s 16-year-old girlfriend’s mom. Liz’s daughter, Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc), made a sex video with her girlfriend and the girl’s mom is justifiably upset.

Liz picks up Leah and while arguing, they narrowly miss getting hit by a drunk driver. The driver, Stacy, is an alcoholic whose license has already been suspended. Fortunately, she’s not injured, but she is placed under arrest.

Agent Navarro meets with Ryan, Annie’s brother, to discuss the case. Navarro learns Annie never talked about Tsalal. Ryan’s a miner and Annie used to be an activist who wanted the mines shut down, so they butted heads a lot before she died.

Navarro’s next stop is to check in on her sister. She’s mentally unstable and just called 911 saying someone is inside her apartment. The officer who responded to the call knows Navarro and did Navarro a favor by keeping the call private.

Navarro’s sister Jules apologizes for being a problem and says it was just a little freak-out. Angie promises to help her and promises not to send her to a hospital right now, if she thinks she’ll be okay.

Back at the police station, Liz and Peter dive into researching the source of Tsalal’s funding. Stacy the drunk interrupts their work, yelling from her cell. Hank tries to set her free, but Liz puts her back in the cell to dry out. She also tells Hank she needs Annie K’s files since he took them home when the station experienced flooding.

Hank drags his feet and Liz winds up calling Peter after work hours and asking him to secretly retrieve the file from his dad’s house. (Liz’s need for Peter to be at her beck and call causes tension between Peter and his wife, Kayla.) Peter does as asked and successfully grabs the file without his dad knowing what he’s doing.

Peter delivers the box of files to Liz’s house and demands to know about the case since he stole the box from his dad. Liz explains Annie K was stabbed 30+ times and her tongue was missing. Liz also reveals Navarro was first on the scene, got way too close to the case, and was taken off it by Hank.

The crime scene photos show the brutality of the murder, and Liz explains they never figured out what was used to stab her. The wounds are star-shaped, and the public was never told that her tongue was missing.

Annie K was an activist, protester, and midwife. She had a lot of enemies, and Liz believes they’ll never find her killer.

Navarro’s had a rough day and shows up at Qavvik’s door, ready to work off stress with a little sex. They’re not in a relationship but these visits apparently happen a lot. She feels comfortable enough to use and then steal his SpongeBob toothbrush. Qavvik insists he’s going to stop answering when she calls.

Leah drops our first hint that there’s a drunk driving accident in the family’s past. She tells Liz she doesn’t really need to be her mom and that her dad would have understood. Liz refuses to be drawn into this conversation.

Liz drifts off to sleep and hears a child calling out, “Mommy.” She replies, “Holden,” and then experiences the feeling of a hand touching her shoulder and someone saying, “She’s awake.” She jerks awake and is shocked to find a stuffed polar bear with only one eye on the floor by her bed.

Navarro is clearly still working the Annie K case and calls people who knew her. As the call cuts out, she, too, hears the whispered words, “She’s awake.” She slams on the brakes and stops just feet from a real-life polar bear with one eye standing in the middle of the road.

Liz lays out one-sheet biographies of the missing Tsalal researchers along with dozens of photos retrieved from the research station. She then goes through Annie K’s files and discovers that in one of Annie’s mug shots, she’s wearing a pink parka that appears to be ripped on the bicep. A photo of the researchers shows one of them wearing that very same parka but with a patch where the rip now is.

Rose sees Travis again outside her window, and this time she follows him out to the middle of nowhere. He does a series of dance moves and then points to his right. She heads the direction he indicates.

Liz returns to the research facility by herself and quickly discovers Navarro has beaten her there. Liz shows her the photo of the man, Raymond Clark, wearing Annie K’s parka and they go through his room. The parka isn’t there.

Liz thinks Navarro should let Annie’s case go because it’s not going to get solved. Navarro reminds her the case isn’t closed and describes everything she saw when she discovered her body. She had broken teeth and broken ribs, and she was kicked after she was dead.

Navarro believes that since wasn’t white, the police didn’t care enough to find the killer.

Peter calls with news that Rose found the missing researchers. Danvers and Navarro hurry to the scene via helicopter, and Rose says that Travis showed her the location. Navarro seems shocked because the Travis she’s talking about is dead. Rose is well aware of that.

Episode one ends with a glimpse of the heads of some of the researchers sticking out of the snow, faces frozen in expressions of terror.

(Opening intro by Rebecca Murray. Recap by Alison Helms.)

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