‘True Detective’ Recap – ‘Night Country: Part 1’

1/15/2024

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Jodie Foster as Detective Liz Danvers in Episode 401 of ‘True Detective’ – ‘Night Country: Part 1’. (Photo Courtesy of Michele K. Short/HBO.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Four Premiere of ‘True Detective’. To revisit the Season Three Finale, click here.

For the most part, crime dramas that revolve around murder in small towns… feature a pretty familiar environment. A small town in a rural corner of the world, or the deep south, where the people that live there… play by their own rules. Wherein secrets are kept and are no one’s business but those that live there and those who know and deal with the police, will fight tooth and nail to keep their secret just that. Leading to a sorrowful and unsettling murder case that ends in darkness, and sometimes flirts with supernatural elements, and reminds us that there are places in the world where evil resides and transforms people. That formula exists because it allows for the viewer to be detached from the reality that darkness is everywhere and these kinds of problems happen on city blocks as much as they do in Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska or Georgia, and properly help the viewer explore their own questions about the nature of murder, and it is a supremely effective formula.

In fact, it was recently used to much success and fanfare, in the first season of True Detective on HBO. Because Rust and Marty went all over the bayou to solve their case and dealt with mysticism and off kilter characters that truly showcased a world beneath our own. One that helped us to learn some powerful lessons. But while this formula is indeed tried and true, and when done right can bring about incredible acclaim, it is indeed heavily used and has yet to really reinvent itself and offer something new. At least, that was the case until last night. For ironically, the return of True Detective, offered up quite the variation on this old-school formula. One where the show will challenge the audience like never before in the weeks to come, by pondering deeply upon a particular question. In that… what if there was more to our world than we actually knew and it and the darkness we put into the world manifested into something awful.

A feat that ‘Night Country: Part 1’ accomplishes by taking us into the town of Ennis, Alaska. An isolated berg that harbors a clash of two worlds, the modern one and its industries and the people that have lived there for generations, and on December 17, the night that night becomes the norm for this part of the world… something strange takes place. In that, a research facility, one focused on climate change and the ills of the world, finds itself in the middle of something seemingly mystical. In that, one of their members returns from the chill of the world beyond in a strange mental state. One where he declares that ‘She is Awake’ before the lights go out… and everyone in the facility… disappears. Prompting the police to get involved two days later when a delivery man discovers that the only trace of humanity that remains in the facility, is a severed human tongue and well… that’s when this story begins to take some fascinating turns.

Kali Reis as Trooper Evangeline Navarro in Episode 401 of ‘True Detective’ – ‘Night Country: Part 1’. (Photo Courtesy of Michele K. Short/HBO.)

Because the tongue, may or may not belong to an Indigenous woman named Anna that was brutally murdered ages ago in a case that moved Trooper Evangeline Navarro off of the Ennis Police Force and into the world of state trooper work, because of how passionate she was about the case. Giving rise to an investigation for Detective Liz Danvers that well… quickly uncovers old secrets in a town that is deeply removed from the world. Giving rise to that slice of Twisted Americana with a frozen twist since Ennis is indeed cut off from the world and filled to the brim with generational secrets, and nepotism since this town, and its job networks, is all the people that live within it know. But it doesn’t take long for this case, to step away from those core elements and offer that change up.

For a deep dive into the case and Navarro’s obsession with it, reveals that there is also some deeply embedded racism and prejudice in this town. The kind that so many have either tolerated or celebrated, so that it has a home in this town, and that reality and the obvious, brewing clash to come regarding it, is something we really haven’t seen on the show before and should offer incredible commentary on our modern world. Not to mention… the mysticism here is strong and well… shockingly real in many ways. Because it really seems as though something dark has descended upon Ennis, something that forces the power to flutter and brings about odd visions for some… the kind that allowed for the missing eight men at that remote outpost to be found and well… their fate was terrifying and supernatural in nature.

Since they were discovered to be all assembled in a pool of water, one that froze and claimed them all. Leaving all of us to wonder what would have inspired such an act and whether or not… there’s more at play in Ennis than expected. Which does bring forth, a unique new season for the show, one that really does have us spilt mentally as to whether or not something ethereal is happening here. Something we only briefly considered in season one, before it became apparent the killer wasn’t mentally okay. But a spirit helping the discovery here, combined with the strange occurrences in this town, really does make it seem that this series is about to dip into something original and refreshing, and perhaps will be steeped in the many legends our world harbors about spirits that demand justice from beyond the grave and what better place to accomplish that, than at the end in the world, under the cover of darkness in a place so desolate and removed from civilization… that anything can happen. Until next time.

The Horrific and Mysterious Fate of the Missing Researchers in Episode 401 of ‘True Detective’ – ‘Night Country: Part 1’. (Photo Courtesy of Michele K. Short/HBO.)

Watch ‘True Detective’

0 Comments