True Detective season 4, aka True Detective: Night Country, wrapped its six episode run on Sunday, February 18, with a thrilling finale. There have been multiple mysteries at the center of the season that Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) were trying to solve: what happened to the Tsalal scientists? Who killed Annie Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen)? And is this season connected to True Detective season 1?
The finale answered all of these, but if you still have some questions, we're here to help break down the True Detective season 4 ending (SPOILERS ahead). But first a quick recap (for more in-depth background, read our full episode recaps).
True Detective season 4 kicked off with the disappearance of scientists at the Tsalal Research Center outside of the small town of Ennis, Alaska, just as a stretch of days without sunlight begins. Chief of Police Liz Danvers is called to investigate, eventually finding the Tsalal men frozen, save one, Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell). Trooper Navarro, who previously worked with Danvers before the two had a falling out, believes there is a connection to this case and the unsolved murder of Annie Kowtok years earlier, particularly when a tongue believed to belong to Annie is found at the scene.
Despite pressure from her superiors and the town's powerful mine, Danvers begins to believe there is more to the case as well, teaming up with Navarro to try and figure it out. But there's something else going on with this case, as both Danvers and Navarro experience supernatural moments during their investigation. Ultimately, they are led to an area locals call "the Night Country," where deep secrets and evils are hidden.
Alright, let's get into some answers.
Who killed Annie Kowtok?
After tracking down the ice caves where they believe Annie was killed, Danvers and Navarro explore the winding, dangerous caves, ultimately finding missing scientist Raymond Clark, who immediately runs from them.
In the chase, they discover a lab setup in the caves, including a star-shaped drill, which matches the stab wounds Annie had. Clark appears to have vanished until they find a hidden passageway that leads to a ladder, which takes them back to Tsalal. The hatch was hidden in the floor, which is why they missed it previously. Eventually Danvers and Navarro are able to apprehend Clark and tie him up to answer their questions. First and foremost, what happened to Annie?
Clark is adamant he loved Annie, but she discovered what he and the other scientist were doing. While searching for a DNA strand in the permafrost they believe could have great benefits to the world, they discovered the pollution from the Silver Sky Mines made it easier for them to extract what they were after, so they hid the true environmental impact of the mine. However, that led to a rise in cancer and stillborn babies, particularly amid the indigenous people of Ennis. When Annie discovered this, she destroyed their findings.
One of Clark's fellow scientists found her first and stabbed her. Clark tried to stop them, but the rest of scientists came down and pulled him off, leaving him helpless as they continuously stabbed her. But Clark was not innocent. As Annie still clung to life, Clark suffocated her until she was dead.
They then ask him why they cut out Annie's tongue, but he didn't know about that, saying a cop — Hank Prior (John Hawkes) — came to move the body and must have done it.
Who killed the Tsalal men?
With one mystery solved, Danvers and Navarro then want to know what happened to the Tsalal men. Clark believes it was Annie that killed them, or at least her spirit, which he believes has been in the caves forever. He explains after he had his mysterious seizure the night everyone went missing, he believed it was Annie's spirit awakening, so he ran for the hidden hatch. Despite some of his fellow scientists trying to open it, Clark held it closed. He then heard them screaming, so he continued to hold the hatch closed even as something else tried to pry it open.
Danvers and Navarro are stumped. The only other clue they find is that the cold preserved some imprint of the tongue Danvers found at the station initially.
Danvers tries to get some sleep while Navarro watches Clark, but she wakes some time later when it gets even colder in the facility. She finds Navarro outside and Clark frozen in the cold. Danvers is furious at Navarro as their only witness is now dead.
The blizzard forces them to shelter at Tsalal and face some of the emotional issues they both have been dealing with all season. Navarro has another vision where she learns her Iñupiat name, while Danvers experiences her own visions, including of her son Holden. While experiencing a vision she falls through the ice, but is rescued by Navarro.
Recovered and with the storm over, Danvers and Navarro prepare to head back into town. Navarro mentions how she herself feels like she has been "holding the hatch" to keep things together, which sets off light bulb in Danvers. She rushes back to the hatch and gets a UV light, revealing handprints are still visible like the tongue imprint. One stands out, a woman's hand that Danvers recognizes belongs to Blair Hartman (Kathryn Wilder), the woman Navarro helped in the first episode that was being abused.
They go to Hartman's house, where she is staying with Bee (L'xeis Diane Benson), who worked as a cleaner at Tsalal. She explains she found the hatch and lab in the caves, realizing the scientists killed Annie. Instead of going to the police, she and a group of other women went to the station with guns and forced the scientists out into the cold. She says they didn't kill them, just let them go out there, saying if the spirit of the caves wanted to take them, it would. Navarro and Danvers ultimately decide it's not worth bringing these women in for the killing of the Tsalal men. Navarro has one question though, why did they leave Annie's tongue? But the women don't know what Navarro is talking about.
Other True Detective season 4 questions?
A few other quick things to hit on with the True Detective season 4 finale:
Prior (Finn Bennett), with Rose's (Fiona Shaw) help, is able to get rid of Hank's body, clearing him of the killing. Rose sums up the series' theory on grief to Pete, explaining that losing someone is not the worst part, it is what comes after, living without them, that is the hardest. Thankfully for Prior, he seems to reconnect and come to an understanding with Kayla (Anna Lambe) and maintain his family.
Danvers and Leah (Isabella LaBlanc) also forgive and reconnect with each other.
Navarro ultimately leaves Ennis, but she leaves behind her cell phone for Liz to find, with a video of Clark explaining they falsified the mine's pollution data and it’s at dangerous levels. This helps lead to the mine being shut down.
All of this information comes out as Danvers is giving a deposition about the investigation. At the end, they ask what happened to Navarro. Danvers says she doesn't know, but we see Navarro walking into a snowy valley, like her sister Julia had done before her. At the Tsalal station, Danvers asked if she chose to make that walk to come back. That leads to the final image of Danvers at her cabin sitting on the deck. We see Navarro there as well, standing apart from Danvers and the two not interacting.
With all the supernatural elements to this season (including the tongue, which is never explained) and Danvers admitting in the deposition somethings you just can't explain, this final image is definitely ambiguous, with seemingly two possibilities: Navarro is alive and went into hiding, but still connects with Danvers, or that Danvers feels her spirit with her after all they've been through together.
Connections to True Detective season 1
While True Detective is an anthology series, tackling a different story with new characters each season, True Detective season 4 made a number of call backs to True Detective season 1.
The most notable was the spiral symbol. It was explained this represented the spirit of the caves this season. But back in season 1, it was a symbol that was often used in reference to its own mysterious, possibly spiritual figure, the Yellow King.
Season 4 also opened with a reference to the Yellow King, showing a quote from Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow short story collection, which many viewers parsed through to try and predict the mysteries of season 1.
But perhaps the most notable callback to season 1 is in the finale Clark says that "time is a flat circle." This line was made famous by Matthew McConaughey's Rust Cohle in season 1. Its repeating was no accident, as season 4 creator Issa López explained.
"It's a gift for the fans of the first series and it's an acknowledgment that we exist in the same universe and that's a truth that applies to both series," said López. "But it had to be on the lips of the scientists to exist and I do believe that Annie has forever been in that cave, will forever be and all of us are condemned to repeat that cycle of learning, and rebirth."
True Detective season 4 is available to watch in its entirety on Max in the US, and Sky Go and NOW TV in the UK.
