This article on the HBO Original and Max series True Detective Night Country Season 4 Episode 1, “Part I” contains spoilers.
The Matthew McConaughey)and Barry Jenkins produced series, The True Detective Night Country, an episode titled “Part I,” gets off to an auspicious start with two scenes that are unnerving, to say the least. The area has been losing sunlight for weeks. In the opening scene, a group of caribou runs off a snow-covered cliff, reminiscent of lemmings, as if trying to outrun the sunset.
The next is a group of scientists appearing to enjoy a night off at their facility in the middle of the desolate Alaskan wilderness. The guys are reading, cooking, and eating, and others are blaring Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on the television. Then, one of them notices Clark begin to shake and convulse uncontrollably. He asks, “Are you okay?” Clark responds ominously, “She’s awake.”
The next scene is a delivery man dropping off weekly supplies. As he enters, the lights are flickering, and no one is home or answers his calls. He looks around, and the television still blares Matthew Broderick, singing badly, “Twist and Shout!” Puzzled, he then notices something lying under the kitchen table. It’s a bloody tongue that appears to have been ripped out of someone’s mouth.
Max’s True Detective Night Country Season 4 Episode 1 Recap: Who is Liz Danvers?
Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) is the Police Chief in Ennis, Alaska. Her team is on the site of the missing eight research scientists for the TSLALAL Station. The company is a geology research-funded company studying climate change. They left behind pretty much everything. Even their cell phones, which are lined up on a table quite intentionally. Also, someone wrote on the dry-erase board that says, “We are all dead.”
There is tension between Liz and her underling, Hank (John Hawkes), but we aren’t sure why yet. He thinks they should wait to announce the men are missing because they could be out on a “geek” mission. She disagrees, noting the processed cold cuts left out in the kitchen are spoiling, which takes atleast 48 hours. This means they have been missing for two days.
Hank’s son, Peter (Finn Bennett), is also a trooper on the scene. That means he is put in the middle between them. Liz explains to him that the tongue is human, of a “native” woman because the marks are of someone cutting a fishing line with their teeth. The tongue has special meaning to a prior case in Liz’s past. That’s why a state trooper is in Liz’s office when she gets back.
Who is Evangeline Navarro?
When we meet office Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) of the Ennis, Alaska, police force, she is protecting a citizen from domestic abuse. A man attacked a factory employee, a woman, and her coworker hit him with a metal bucket in self-defense. The man is knocked out cold. After Navarro questions the victim, he awakes. He’s then arrested for assault and battery. She then gets a call and heads over to Danvers office.
It was the murder of a woman named Annie, of Inupiaq descent, who is indigenous to northern Alaska and parts of Canada. When they boh found her, we are now assuming she must have been missing her tongue. For some reason, Navarro is no longer part of Danvers’s squad, and we aren’t sure why. What is evident is something happened professionally between them that has quite a bit of tension. Navarro even refers to Corsaro (Christopher Eccleston) and infers an affair with Liz.
Navarro gets a call from a police officer. They were called to her sister Jule’s apartment. She called the police in hysterics, thinking someone was inside. However, when the police arrived, the door was bolted from the inside and would not let anyone in. Jules clearly has suffered a mental break. We don’t know what type or her history.
Who is Anne Masu Kowtok?
Anne Masu Kowtok is a local Inupiaq woman found brutally murdered six years ago. Navarro was the first officer on the scene. People called her “Annie K.” She was stabbed with a sharp object 32 times. Annie’s tongue was also missing. That fact was left out of the papers. Liz goes over the case with Peter.
Peter was ordered to grab the Kowtok file from his father’s home. Why? They transferred files to his home when there was a flood at the station. Peter arrives with the box of files on the case. She goes over the murder with him. Annie was an activist and protestor. The local population has been protesting the local mine owned by the Tslala Corporation.
She explains that the case has driven Navarro crazy for years. After Peter leaves, Liz notices one of them is wearing a parka. The jacket has a smiley face patch on the upper left arm. (From the picture, it looks like Clark.) Liz makes the connection that Annie was found wrapped in a very similar coat. One with a rip on the top left arm where a patch may have once been sewn.
True Detective Night Country’s Season 4 Episode 1 Ending Explained: Where are Missing Researchers?
True Detective Night Country ends with a local trapper named Rose (Fiona Shaw) locating the missing scientists. We aren’t sure what happened to them. However, she was led there by a vision of a dead man named Travis. We also do not know the connection of Travis and Rose. She finds three men with their heads sticking out of the snow.
They are frozen solid, and their mouths are open. As if they are screaming.
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