Review of 'True Detective' Episode 6: 'Night Country' Finale Wraps Up Story Threads — Spoiler Alert

HBO / Courtesy of Michele K. Short / True Detective: Night Country

Heading into the finale of “True Detective: Night Country,” there are two major mysteries that need to be solved: what happened to the Tsalal scientists, and who killed Annie Kay? Yes, these are the same mysteries Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reese) have been tasked with solving from the beginning, but given the shocking events of the final episode – Hank (John Hawkes) is dead! His son, Pete (Finn Bennett), killed him! Otis (Klaus Tange) is dead too! -Episode 6 involves tossing multiple balls into the air with ease.

Not only do we have urgent commitments as a trio, but we also have emotional baggage to sort through and bonds to form. Considering how much land needs to be covered, much of it is still in the dark, Episode 6’s length of 75 minutes makes sense.

Despite these obstacles, Issa Lopez, the author of “Night Country,” managed a commendable job of tying everything together. Lopez directed each episode and was given sole writing credit for the last hour. Some arcs could have taken longer to develop, and I’ll go to my grave demanding a clear resolution for Kavvik (Joel D. Montgrand), but “True Detective” season 4 succeeds where it most.

What matters: Revealing the truth is not just surprising, but joyful. Figuring out who did what and how is only half the story, and things get awesome in the second half. So, let’s start there: after hitting the ice caves, running into Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell), and interrogating him quite brutally, Denver and Navarro discover that Annie Scientists had killed.

How? Well, Annie began investigating the research base while she was dating Clark to gather proof that they were fabricating environmental studies to benefit their sponsor, the mining business. We’re staying. Except, it turns out, scientists weren’t doing it — not at all: “We were putting pressure on the mine to produce more pollutants,” says Clark. The more pollutants there are in the ground, the softer it will be The permafrost, and the softer the permafrost, the easier it will be for scientists to extract and study a miraculous microorganism that could “change the world.”

Unraveling in True Detective: Episode 6's Mind-Bending Twist and Annie's Vengeance Unleashed"

Sure, bud. Not because I don’t think science is real, but rather because I don’t think a group of guys living in constant isolation are capable of thinking enough to be trusted with Such grand, world-saving murder-justifying conclusions. Besides, maybe finding a cure for cancer doesn’t justify murdering the woman who ruined some small part of your research and broke one of your toys, which Clark repeatedly insists he did. I loved Annie. I say it again… sure, friend.

But this is where Episode 6 gets interesting. When Danvers and Navarro press Clark about what happened to the scientists, he claims it was Annie. “I kept seeing her and hearing her voice, more and more,” he says. “I knew she would come back.” So, when the lights went off at the base and Clark had visions of a seizure, he quickly ran through the station and hid in the tunnel, holding the latch so that Annie’s spirit could not reach him.

This seems too far-fetched for Danvers, and when Clarke starts ranting about how Annie has been living “forever” in the caves of Ennis – “Before she was born, after we all died, time ran a flat The cycle is there, and we’re all caught in it” – Our disbelieving law-enforcer walks out of the room.

“Time is a flat circle.” Very good. Honestly, I can’t believe Lopez went there. Even though she’s been constantly alluding to Season 1 throughout “Night Country,” bringing back the most quoted (and misinterpreted) line in franchise history — right in the middle of your finale — is a huge step.

Fans will either sit up and clap or roll their eyes so hard they’ll fall off the couch, but why it worked for this critic, dear readers, made it impossible not to think about Season 1 from that moment on. Go. And Season 4 wants you to think about Season 1 when it reveals its second major mystery: What happened to the scientists?

In a way, Clark is right. Annie Kay’s vengeance spreads throughout the station that night, and everyone involved in her death is punished. This took the form of about a dozen native women who discovered who killed Annie and took justice into their own hands. Led by Bea (Diane Benson) and Blair (Catherine Wilder) – two women seen working in a fish-cleaning factory in the first episode, Who Navarro interviewed after Bea saws Blair’s abusive ex-boyfriend with a metal bucket – The group breaks into the research center armed with guns, round up every rogue scientist, and put them on ice to die. Thrown away. Technically, B said

The scientists might have survived if Annie’s spirit had been forgiving enough to let them find her clothes, but “I think she wanted to have them. I think she ate their bullshit dreams from the inside and spat out their frozen bones.” Gave.

With a little foresight, the ending checks a lot of boxes. It explains what happens to the scientists, it ties together the two central cases of the season, and from a thematic standpoint, it’s incredibly rich. All those connections to “True Detective” Season 1 are a reminder of what it was, the good and the bad, and how it treats women falls firmly under “bad.

“For Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), their investigation begins with a dead woman brutally murdered and graphically displayed by a mental patient. They solved the case and found justice, as best they could, but there was very little focus on who Dora Lang was, instead on the twisted world she was trapped in. Since the beginning, Night Country has been devoted to Annie’s culture, mission, and community impact.

The finale, in which her closest allies band together to defend her, offers an emotional depth that the first season of “True Detective” lacks. didn’t have. (It also gives zombies new resonance, because we don’t need to feel so bad for all those frozen people, or for the less-than-civilian way they were displayed.)
Not airing for five years and with a new creative team, “True Detective” Season 4 continues the franchise to re-imagine what it could be. There’s a lot left to do, but like the finale, “Night Country” pulls it off. Bring on season 5.