True Detective: Night Country aired its penultimate episode on Friday, two days early because of Sunday’s Super Bowl, a fairly common practice.
I’d argue this episode of True Detective: Night Country was actually a lot better than previous ones, particularly the last two, and it has now sparked additional theories about what’s going on, given what we now know about past events and where it looks like things are headed. This is not based on any screener watching (which I don’t have), but just my own observations.
There appear to be two main halves to this. The idea, of course, is that the corporate mining company, owned by season 1’s Tuttle corporation, is exceedingly corrupt. It is incredibly likely they commissioned the killing of activist Annie K in some form or another, and at least Hank was tasked with moving her body, though not killing her, he claims. I am also willing to chalk up at least some of the supernatural elements and hallucinations here to the mine poisoning effectively the entire town. Navarro’s visions, which are the worst of anyone, can of course be explained by her family’s longstanding deteriorating mental health and likely schizophrenia.
I do not, however, believe it’s possible for the entire series to end without some element of the supernatural coming into play. There is going to be something hidden in those ice tunnels that has great significance, and I cannot imagine what it’s going to be, as it has to be more than the missing guy they’re trying to find. And I mean, I’m pretty sure he couldn’t be surviving in a random ice tunnel all this time.
The repeated line “she’s awake” all throughout this season has to mean something of significance and it’s hard to see how that is not going to be supernatural in some way. I suppose this could be the ghost of Annie K, but given that she was in the ice tunnel itself when she apparently died screaming, I don’t think so. Rather, this feels more like some “mystical ancient spirit of the land” or something, rising up against the poisoned town, the mine, and most recently, the scientists drilling into the ice for the key to immortality, while simultaneously covering up the pollution of the mine itself that has killed so many residents and their children.
There are a few tangential theories here. One is that Peter Prior killed his father because he was about to reveal that he killed Annie K. Though given the events of the show, I’m not entirely sure how this makes a ton of sense. We’d need a whole lot of explanation for that one, as I don’t think the foundation is there to support that. At least not right now.
Another one is that the scientist murders were conducted by some of the “elder” natives of the land. Like the crab woman who was shown this week and the cleaning women who were previously interviewed. Maybe even Navarro’s Qavvik. A theory is that the scientists were flash frozen by the crab machine, something it could theoretically do, but the logistics of doing that would be…interesting, to say the least. This would contrast the “they saw something in the cold, it scared them so bad they all instantly died of heart attacks and froze” idea, as I’m not sure how that explains the gently folded clothes. Again, this would require a lot of further explanation to make sense.
I am leaning into a combination of the mystical and the corrupt. The mine almost certainly had Annie K killed, though by who exactly, I’m not sure. Then, it feels like some sort of vengeful spirit is responsible for “retaliation” perhaps like, a literal ghost presence or maybe working through some of the locals. There’s just too much of the supernatural here to fully be explained away by Navarro’s schizophrenia or delirium from mine poisoning.
I’ve had my issues with the season but I’m curious to see how they wrap this all up next week.
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