Is it any wonder the supersized finale of "True Detective" Season 4 leaves us with more questions than answers? The series leaned heavily on the supernatural throughout its six-episode run, landing somewhere between the real and the imagined to solve both central mysteries in a seriously surprising way. Here's that bonkers "True Detective: Night Country" ending, explained.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Showrunner Issa López wrote and directed the finale episode, which sees Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) commune with the spirit world to crack the Annie K. and Tsalal cases. López initially conceived of "Night Country" as a standalone series, then reshaped it into a fourth season of "True Detective." Her singular point-of-view (along with the wonderfully evocative Alaskan setting) has been a welcome refresher for the franchise.
But the finale makes clear that "True Detective" might not have been a grand or metaphysical-enough sandbox in which to stick López's "Night Country." The series draws on Native mythology to tell a story ultimately about female oppression and rage, as well as mother nature's revenge against exploitation. These are big themes that didn't get enough airtime in a short season which also had to follow the beats of a police procedural, albeit an elevated one.
So when we're left with the supernatural still looming (in a bigger way than it did in the Season 1 finale) and Navarro's fate up in the air, the finale feels a bit undercooked. Below, we piece together every beat of this deeply odd, but nonetheless satisfying series: What happened to Navarro? Is the supernatural real? How does the orange point the way? Read on for the "True Detective: Night Country" ending, explained.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the "True Detective: Night Country" finale.
Clark Explains Annie's Murder
Danvers and Navarro crack into the underground ice cave where Annie K. was killed. They find the prehistoric whale fossil and a Tsalal laboratory built beneath it, plus a star-shaped tool that matches Annie's murder weapon. (That fossil held the miracle microorganism Tsalal was researching). Clark appears looking like a madman, and they chase him through a shaft that leads directly to Tsalal Station.
With some torture lite, Clark tells all: He loved Annie, but she got wise to Tsalal's dirty deeds. After pushing the mine to produce more pollution in order to soften the permafrost, the scientists successfully extracted the miracle microorganism's DNA. Annie snuck into the underground lab and destroyed their research. Lund caught her and stabbed her, then the other scientists joined in to kill her.
In flashback, we see a tortured Clark suffocate Annie to death when her wounds initially didn't kill her. The scientists then called the mine for help, and Kate sent Hank to move Annie's body to the villages. Clark thinks Hank cut out her tongue to make it look like a politically-motivated killing.
Danvers and Navarro Commune with the Spirit World
HBO
In another flashback, Clark recounts how the Tsalal scientists were killed. When he heard Annie's screams, he hid in the shaft as his colleagues were taken and held the hatch tight as someone tried to pry it open. Clark had been hiding in the underground lab for weeks, coming up for food (the supply guy saw him) and to locate Otis Heiss and ask him how he survived his injuries all those years ago. He thinks Annie was the incarnation of some supernatural female force that's been hiding in the caves for all time.
Danvers takes a brief nap and finds that Navarro let Clark walk out into the blizzard and kill himself. From there, the power goes out and the supernatural takes hold in the station. Both women confront their greatest fears and desires out on the ice. Navarro's mother reveals her Iñupiat name in a wartime vision, and Danvers falls through the ice when she sees her son grasping for her beneath the surface. Navarro pulls her out and warms her up by the fire, revealing that Holden told her he "sees" his mother in a vision. At this point, Danvers is a believer.
(Meanwhile, Pete cleans up the crime scene at Danvers' house and makes up with his wife, Kayla. Then, Rose helps him slip Hank and Otis' bodies into the sea.)
The storm breaks the next morning and Danvers and Navarro enjoy newfound clarity. Navarro was "so wrong" to have feared visions that ultimately led to a reunion with her mother. "If you decide to [disappear], just try to come back, okay?" Danvers tells her, referring to Navarro's perennial desire to...commit suicide? It's unclear. In one last aha moment, they think to look for hand prints on the hatch where Clark hid and find a print with two missing fingers. It matches the hand of Blaire, the crab factory worker who was abused by her husband in Episode 1.
The Women of Ennis Killed the Tsalal Scientists
They head to Beatrice's house (she's the Native woman who's been sheltering Blaire since she left her husband), where a host of other Native women are staying. Beatrice was a cleaner at Tsalal; when she stumbled upon the secret hatch, she realized the scientists killed Annie and she recruited Blaire and a group of Native women to avenge her death.
In a flashback that looks like a B action movie, we see the women take the men at gunpoint, force them to remove their clothes and send them out onto the ice to either find their clothing and survive or succumb to the supernatural female force they woke by digging into the permafrost.
"They did it to themselves when they dug in her home in the ice, when they killed her daughter [Annie] in there," Beatrice says. "I guess she ate their f—king dreams from the inside-out and spit their frozen bones." Danvers and Navarro will keep the women's secret and maintain that the scientists died due to an avalanche. In one last win for the supernatural, though, Beatrice reveals that she didn't leave Annie's tongue on the floor of the station.
In classic "True Detective" style, we flash-forward to Danvers giving her version of events to Internal Affairs. We learn that Navarro disappeared, leaving the SpongeBob toothbrush for Kovic and Holden's polar bear plushie for Danvers. She also recorded Clark's confession about the pollution, and Danvers leaked the video to shut down the mine.
We then see Danvers and Leah roadtrip to a scenic cabin on a lake. Danvers sits on the porch as Navarro steps into frame beside her. In voiceover, the investigators ask whether reported sightings of Navarro could be true (i.e. she's living off-the-grid in Ennis). "I don't think you'll find Evangeline Navarro out there on the ice," Danvers answers. "This is Ennis. Nobody ever really leaves."
'True Detective: Night Country' Ending, Explained
HBO
Did Navarro die? We think so. She has no reason to just...hide out (?) in Ennis. The show doesn't want us to think of it as a suicide, though. It's more like she communed with the spirit world and now exists somewhere in-between (as Danvers begged her, "Try to come back").
Problem is, "True Detective: Night Country" never tied a neat bow on the supernatural elements of the story. So Navarro's new existence as an incarnation of the female force-slash-goddess of Ennis feels like a wild left turn.
More Questions
The biggest plot hole: Who actually killed Wheeler's wife? We never learn, but we get one last flashback to hammer home Danvers and Navarro's guilty consciences. As soon as Navarro shoots Wheeler (which Danvers would have done anyway), they hear a baby cry from the next room. In killing the wrong man, they made an orphan of that child.
Is the supernatural real? We think so. Who left Annie's tongue at the station? What force led Danvers and Navarro to fall through the first layer of caves and into the secret Tsalal lab? Why does Navarro keep seeing oranges, her mother's favorite fruit? Why does her mother's cross necklace show up in Danvers' hair?!
You could read the show completely literally (Native women avenged Annie by sending the scientists to their deaths), but that doesn't explain our characters' shared visions. If we're meant to take this female force that dwelled in the ice caves as simply a metaphor for female rage and mother nature's revenge, then the show has given it a TON of leeway. Too much to just brush aside.
On that note, what's up with the oranges? The finale makes clear that the oranges lead to hints and answers — like when one rolls toward the spot where Danvers found Annie's tongue. Notably, oranges were a favorite of Navarro's mother, whose murderers were never brought to justice. So we're reading oranges as physical objects the spirit world (including Navarro's mother) uses to communicate with the put-upon women of the here-and-now.
All seasons of "True Detective" are now streaming on Max.
