Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/HBO
After six weeks of speculation over who killed Annie Kowtok and the Tsalal Station’s research scientists in True Detective: Night Country, we finally have our answers. And, to my surprise, they were laid out without a heavy hand. They were delicate kernels of a greater truth, placed carefully throughout the 75-minute finale of the anthology series’ fourth season. That hasn’t always been easy for Night Country, which had more than a few bright spots, but spent its previous five episodes relying too heavily on cliffhangers and minuscule glimpses of the larger picture.
But the finale brought it all together in a concise, affecting manner. It confirmed that Night Country did indeed have a creative intention beyond HBO execs looking to restart one of their biggest series of the last decade. The finale gave us the answers we so desperately craved, without too many red herrings or disappointing twists. I much prefer the way showrunner Issa López tied things up than how another recent, similarly chilly mystery did. The Night Country finale made good on its connections to the series’ brilliant first season, taking the anthology’s core themes of cosmic justice and the battle between ancient good and evil to fascinating new places.
Part of why this episode was so solid was because it was largely set in one location. Night Country deftly crafted its small-town Alaskan setting at the start. But toward the end, it became frustrating when characters received phone calls to tell them where to go next—an age-old hack to transition from scene to scene. Episode 6 opens with Chief Danvers and Trooper Navarro digging into the ice cave where Annie K. died, hoping to find some kind of explanation behind the video of her screaming demise. They find an opening and climb down, assuming it’s safe. “Can’t you hear it?” Navarro asks. “She’s calling.” Moments later, Navarro falls through a fault in the ice like she’s in an Indiana Jones temple, and the floor beneath Danvers gives way.