With just a few episodes left in True Detective: Night Country, we seem to be no closer to finding out what happened to the researchers at the Tsalal Research Facility. One thing is for certain: Night Country is unlike any of the previous three seasons of the Emmy Award-winning series.
Episode three ended with two jaw-dropping scenes. In one, Dr. Anders Lund sat up in his hospital bed and, in a demonic voice, said, “Hello, Evangeline. Your mother says hello. She’s waiting for you.” In the other, a cell phone video shows Annie saying, “My name is Annie Kowtok. If anything happens to me…” before the phone is ripped away and she screams.
As episode four opens, Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) can’t sleep, so she watches the video of Annie Kowtok again. She focuses on the last part of the video and sees bones in the ice.
December 24th – the seventh day of night
Officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) is the bearer of bad news when he tells Liz the Anchorage Police Department is early and packing up the bodies of the deceased research team at the ice rink. Liz spots Julia (Aka Niviana), Evangeline Navarro’s sister, outside stripping off her clothes, visibly distraught. After telling Peter to call Evangeline and tell her to meet at the station, Liz tries to help and comfort Julia.
Evangeline (Kali Reis) thanks Liz for helping with her sister, but when Liz tries to ask if Julia will be okay Evangeline changes the subject back to the case. She isn’t pleased to hear Captain Connelly is there and warns that he better not take this case away from them. Before leaving, Evangeline tells Liz they need to talk about Annie’s video.
Liz is shocked when she gets to the station and sees Captain Ted Connelly (Christopher Eccleston) is there. Ted informs her he’s going to stick around for a while but assures her he’s not taking the case away. However, she needs to get everything under control.
Liz reveals they’ve learned the researchers died before they froze, and Ted’s not sure he wants to know how she knows that. Liz also confirms that they’re treating this like a murder case. As for the Annie K video, Ted suggests she keep it on a need-to-know basis.
Evangeline checks her sister into The Lighthouse, a care facility for people dealing with addictions. She assures Julia it won’t be like the other places she’s been to. The sisters have an emotional goodbye, even though Evangeline insists she’ll come visit her on Christmas.
Liz asks Peter to find anyone in the past who’s had similar injuries to the dead researchers, and Peter comes up with a name: Otis Heiss. In April of 1998, Heiss had burns on both corneas, ruptured eardrums, and self-inflicted bites. Heiss is a German national with almost no records – not even an active bank account. There’s been no registered address for him for the past eight years, but he does have a long criminal history and was in and out of rehab. Also, there’s no known cause of his accident.
Liz wants everyone to look for this guy, but Peter reminds her all available units are out looking for missing researcher Raymond Clark.
Navarro and Liz have determined Annie was killed in an ice cave, but there aren’t any caves near where her body was found. Liz believes Annie was killed in one place and dumped in town to send a message.
Liz and Navarro visit Adam (the geology teacher), and Liz wants Navarro to step in front of her when his wife answers the door. Navarro realizes why and wonders if there’s anyone in that town Liz hasn’t slept with. Adam confirms the bones in the video are whale bones and that there is an ice cave system nearby, but the caves are death traps and people don’t go near them.
Adam suggests they need a guide to take them. Or they can track down the person who mapped the cave system. Coincidentally, that person is none other than Otis Heiss.
Meanwhile, Julia’s sitting in her room at The Lighthouse when an orange rolls out from under her bed. She hears whispering, checks under the bed, and sees her dead mother.
Navarro joins Rose (Fiona Shaw) at her house for dinner. She asks about Rose’s life before she moved to Alaska, and Rose says she used to be a professor. Rose tells her it is quieter here, except for all the dead.
When Evangeline calls to check on her sister on Christmas Eve, Julia lies and says everything’s good. In reality, Julia’s out in the cold during the call. After telling Evangeline she loves her, Julia strips off her clothes, neatly folds them, and then walks off onto the ice.
Liz is called to the mining company offices after the doors were spray painted with the word “murderers.” Kate wants to press charges against Liz’s stepdaughter, Leah, and Liz asks her not to do that.
Leah (Isabella LaBlanc) reacts to Liz’s anger over the mining office’s graffiti by packing her bag and leaving with Peter’s wife, Kayla (Anna Lambe), who’s waiting for her outside. Liz isn’t happy but jumps back into watching the Annie video. She then watches the video taken at Tsalal. She calls Evangeline to tell her someone cut the power to the facility. The same thing happened in the cave where they shouldn’t have been in power in the first place. Liz thinks the cave must have had a power generator.
Liz is in no condition to handle the job after having a few drinks and orders Peter to go with Navarro to see Oliver Tagaq again since he has access to generators. Peter’s not happy about it since it’s Christmas Eve and he has a family, but he can’t say no to his mentor.
Liz visits Connolly, and he admits she was a better cop than him, but he sent her away because she was terrible with people. And after Jake and Holden, it got worse. He doesn’t sugarcoat his words and says no one wants to work with her.
Liz shouldn’t be driving but she heads home anyway and gets into an accident. The one-eyed polar bear is outside her car.
There’s no sign of Oliver, but Navarro and Peter find a rock with the same spiral symbol as Annie’s tattoo. They learn Oliver left the day after Navarro and Liz saw him. None of Oliver’s friends acknowledge knowing anything about the mysterious symbol.
On their way back, Navarro receives devastating news from the Coast Guard that Julia is dead. She orders Peter to go be with his family and heads to The Lighthouse, furious that they just let her sister leave. She screams and takes out her anger by destroying a few items in the waiting room.
Outside, she sees the guy she arrested for domestic abuse in episode one and picks a fight. She winds up on the losing end as his friends join in on the beating.
Peter tries to apologize to Kayla, but she knows he’s not sorry. He’ll always be at Liz’s beck and call.
A beat-up Navarro shows up at Eddie Qavvik’s (Joel Montgrand) place and as he tries to help her clean up, the rock she found at Oliver’s falls out of her pocket. She wonders why Eddie’s alone in life. He reacts by pretending he’s going to propose to her but pops her finger back into place instead. She begins to cry, but more so for her sister than from the pain.
Liz is having flashbacks of playing with her son when she’s awakened by Navarro. Navarro fills her in on Oliver and that she lost his rock with the spiral symbol. When Liz tries to move a box, the bottom breaks out and Navarro sees the stuffed polar bear with one eye. She asks if it belonged to Liz’s son, Holden, and Liz becomes angry and says there’s no dead out there waiting for us. “The dead are dead,” says a hungover Liz.
After Liz tosses the bear outside, Navarro tells Liz that her sister killed herself last night. Julia walked out into the sea until she drowned. Navarro believes it’s a curse and that it’s coming for her next. Liz gets angry and says she’s doing the same thing she did with Wheeler (from episode three). Liz is certain that Navarro saw something in that room – a ghost or a spirit or something. A quick flashback shows a woman who resembles a zombie, but Navarro claims she saw nothing.
Peter calls to say they spotted something and sends Liz a photo. It’s of a man (believed to be Clark) walking and wearing Annie’s pink parka. Liz and Navarro immediately head to the dredges.
They spot the symbol painted inside the huge ship when suddenly a man takes off running. Liz gives chase, but Navarro hears her name whispered, and when she looks into the water, she sees her sister’s body floating face down. Navarro sees wet footprints and decides to follow them.
Liz believes she found Raymond Clark, but it is Otis Heiss. Clark gave him that coat.
Navarro finds a decorated Christmas tree, and when she turns around to help Liz, Julia – dead and blue – is there in front of her, making noises.
Otis is asked where Clark is and he says ominously, “He’s gone. He went back down to hide. He’s hiding in the night country. We’re all in the night country now.”
Episode four ends with Liz discovering Navarro sitting in front of the tree. Blood is running out of one of her ears.
- True Detective: Night Country Episode 1 Recap
- True Detective: Night Country Episode 2 Recap
- True Detective: Night Country Episode 3 Recap
- True Detective: Night Country Episode 5 Recap
- True Detective: Night Country Episode 6 Finale Recap
