Night Country – Part 3 of the True Detective series opens with the faint memory of Detective Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) meeting Annie Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen). Navarro shows up at her home to arrest her for trespassing but is astounded by Annie’s defiance and her running a birthing clinic. Navarro gets roped into helping with Grace’s Oopik’s (Ippiksault Friesen) delivery and only continues to be dazzled by Annie. Annie agrees to peaceful arrest after the baby is safely delivered.

December 22, is the 5th day of the darkness in Ennis and when local officer, Hank Prior (John Hawkes) brings in local hunters and survivalists to aid in the search for Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell). Navarro doesn’t bother hiding how she feels about his move before he starts handing out orders.

At the Ennis Police Station, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) unsuccessfully attempts to reach Hank by radio while Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) updates on the expected arrival of the forensics technician and Anders Lund’s (Porsteinn Bachmann) condition. Although all 19 boxes of evidence from Clark’s trailer have arrived, Liz isn’t happy about them being placed in evidence lockup. As information is passed back-and-forth she assigns Peter with the tasks of opening Annie’s phone and getting Navarro temporarily transferred to the Ennis station. When Liz immediately picks up on Peter’s discomfort with the latter, the rift between her and Navarro is finally explained through a short reenactment of the William Wheeler (Kasper Leisner) case.

Wheeler is introduced as a hard case with a proclivity for domestic violence and young girls. After his last stint in the pen, he takes up with an 18-year-old that he eventually ends up beating to death. Liz claims he had already committed suicide when they arrived on the scene but the reenactment proves different.

Navarro receives the order from Lulu (Grace Anderson) to return to the Ennis Station where she and Liz spend several hours analyzing the trailer evidence. After what appears to be hours the only progress is that despite Annie and Clark’s happiness, it appeared as if they wanted to keep their relationship quiet. Their luck changes when they discover a photo that not only appears to be taken by a third party but is stained with blue hair dye.

The discovery of the dye leads them to Susan Ineak (Birdie Trainor), who admits to lying to Navarro during the original investigation. Susan doesn’t need to explain why once her young daughter emerges from a back room seeking comfort. Liz relies on her previous parenting experience and the promise of mac and cheese to draw the girl into the kitchen. Susan admits that she gave the men at the Tsalal Station haircuts. Although she advised against it, Annie would accompany her on one visit. This is where and how she met Clark, who immediately became fixated on her tattoo. Susan also explains the tattoo as something that Annie would commonly dream about. Getting the tattoo stopped her dreams. From their first meeting, Annie and Clark’s relationship would evolve into a romance. Clark is described as being a little strange but otherwise completely harmless and in love with Annie. Despite that, Annie was transformed and wanted to keep their involvement secret.

When Liz returns to the questioning she and Navarro learn they’ve completely overlooked Olivier Tagaq (Lance Karmer), a sound engineer. He would have likely been missed again if it wasn’t for the fact that Susan was dating him at the time. She can’t say much about Oliver’s current whereabouts, but the case is kicked into overdrive when she claims that she reported all this to Hank.

Unable to control her rage and excitement over the huge discovery, Navarro thinks the worst as she and Liz attempt to reach Hank. While she takes his absence as guilty hiding, Liz fails to get the case from various angles. The mine, Tsalal, Annie’s tongue, the bodies on the ice, and faith are also quickly discussed until Liz receives a ping on her phone. Although she contributes the ping to Tinder, it’s unclear whether she is being honest or attempting humor.

Peter returns to the thawing crime scene at the ice rink when he receives an unexpected visit from Hank. Hank makes a crude attempt to apologize by giving Peter a pair of ice skates from his childhood and encouraging him to share them with his own son, Darwin Prior (Xavier Osmanson). Peter hardly has time to answer Hank’s inquiries about Liz and Navarro before they arrive. Initially, Liz finds herself playing mediator between Hank and Navarro, but that quickly changes too when he sets her off. Although the encounter ends with coffee in Hank’s face and the order to get back to the search, it doesn’t satisfy Navarro. Her predicament only gets worse with Peter’s news about the weather further delaying the forensics guy. Liz ends up accepting Peter’s offer to call in his cousin the veterinarian.

Navarro questions Eddie Qavvik (Joel Montgrand) at his ice fishing cabin. Although he can’t personally offer any information about Oliver, he knows a guy who could likely provide more. The problem is he isn’t willing to ask the guy for help until Navarro agrees to reveal something personal. Navarro storms off and gets halfway to her vehicle when she decides to accept his offer. His inquiry into her mother reveals that she was a local girl from a gold mining camp who fell in with an abusive man at an early age. When the man started abusing Navarro and Jules (Aka Niviana), they returned to Alaska. It was around this time that she started hearing voices. She would one day leave and never return. Navarro would later discover that she was killed and the perpetrator never arrested.

Leah Danvers (Isabella LaBlanc) attends an anti-mine meeting where she learns that Aviaq (Aviaaja Arens) and Joe Carter gave birth to a stillborn. The protestors appear to think this is just one of many examples of how the mine is poisoning their town.

Liz is in the middle of researching the case when her attention is drawn to what sounds like a closing door. Finding Leah in her room with anti-mine paraphernalia and the tribal facial markings leads to an argument. Liz makes her wash the markings off her face while warning her about the dangers of protesting the mine.

While leaving Qavvik’s cabin, Navarro spots what looks like a child in the distance running. Navarro attempts to catch up but slips on the ice and hits her head. She appears to be transported to the desert, among car wreckage where he is visited by a young child. He touches her on the shoulder and says, “Tell my mommy.” The experience only lasts a few seconds and when she comes out of it, she receives a call from Kenny Hogan (David Shackelford) who tells her that Jules had a breakdown at work and ran out. Navarro somehow manages to track her to a deserted area, sitting in the middle of the snow.

Returning home in the middle of the night, Peter not only wakes Kayla Prior (Anna Lambe), but he wakes Darwin in an entirely different room. After getting him calm and back to bed, Kayla confronts him about the long work hours. He attempts to blame the erratic schedule on the case but Kayla blames it on Liz. Her point is seemingly proven when his phone starts buzzing in the other room.

On the 6th day of darkness, December 23, Liz joins Peter and his cousin, Vince (Vilhelm Por Neto) at the thawing crime scene, where Vince shares his theory about the researcher dying before they were frozen.  Liz doesn’t appear to believe him but he makes a pretty convincing case, although he admits they can’t be entirely sure without a postmortem, which will have to be done at the Anchorage lab. Navarro soon shows up with the news that she’s tracked Oliver to a nomad camp on the North Shore.

Liz and Navarro don’t receive the best welcome when they arrive in the nomad camp. Oliver’s even less so when they are finally shown to his property. They virtually end up trespassing onto his property and find him sitting in his rocking chair, brandishing a rifle. Their encounter is even shorter, but Oliver appears astounded to learn that the Tsalal scientists are dead. He’s almost unbelieving as he runs them off his property.  As they retreat from the camp, a call comes alerting them to Lund’s wakening at the hospital.

Upon arriving his scream can be heard from the hallway and they learn that he is in much worse condition than anyone expected. He continues to rant uncontrollably while Liz attempts to question him. All she gets is that they woke something that is now coming after them. A disturbance in the hallway draws Liz’s attention while Navarro just lingers, almost stunned, in Ander’s room. Anders receives a creepy message from Anders about her mother waiting for her before he dies.

The episode ends with Peter opening Annie’s phone and sharing a short, ghastly video with Navarro and Liz. It almost looks as if Annie is in a cave or some sort of cavity, but she is obviously being pursued by something that scares her.

 

True Detective Review

One of the best episodes yet thanks to Ander’s creepy performance in the hospital. With the Walking Dead culture and subcultures a lot of people will probably throw off on the scene, but I personally found it creepy. It was especially so when Navarro was left alone with him. There were also a lot of exciting reveals that I won’t spoil for anyone who’s skipped ahead. With all that in mind, this episode was easily a 5 out of 10 and well worth a watch. I also find myself starting to grow more of a connection with the characters and their stories, although I could do without all the Hillbilly references.

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