It is great to talk about this series again. We are already into the third installment of its fourth iteration and this outing of TRUE DETECTIVE, NIGHT COUNTRY, holds strong to the series’ intent. What makes a true detective? It is someone who is willing to go into the darkness to reveal the evils that mankind wrought and along the way brave the darkness that they may reveal & face it about themselves. Season One set the tone and it can be argued that the following seasons did not display that tone quite as boldly but were nevertheless effective in giving us the nasty underbelly of mankind’s vicious side. Season Four, however, captures the proper tone once again in spades.
“Part 3” has us deep in the case at hand; it has to for the season is far too short. But, it also backtracks a bit. If you just run with my terminology here, we are starting to crack open the darkness of this gruesome crime. Our ’corpsicle’, as it thaws, reveals six bodies. Remember one of them, Anders Lund proved to be alive and lies in a coma. But there are eight scientists so, one is unaccounted for and thus, thought to be the perpetrator of the crime. He is Raymond Clark and the manhunt across the tundra is on to find him, led by Captain Hank Prior. Time is running out on this body of evidence as the bodies begin to thaw. A proper forensic team is hard-pressed to get to the makeshift lab but a veterinarian does pass judgment that the victims had to have died before being frozen because you just die peacefully when one freezes to death and these poor souls did not go peacefully.
But in this land of darkness, there is more darkness yet to reveal; the personal darkness at the underbelly of Chief Liz Danvers and Officer Evangeline Navarro. It would not be TRUE DETECTIVE without it. We see several moments in this episode with them in arguments with people or in deep introspection of their actions. Danvers recalls for Officer Peter Prior the William Wheeler case, a murder-suicide. It starts with her pulling up a stool and telling him but for us, it ends in a flashback scene. But what she tells him and what we see do not coincide. She isn’t telling him the truth – there was no suicide. Interestingly, Peter lied also. Liz thinks the bruising on his face is from hockey play not from his father’s hand.
Danvers & Navarro spend time going through boxes of content pulled from Raymond Clark’s trailer in hopes of finding clues or evidence. Remember, Narravo is on the case now because of Clark’s romantic link to Annie Kowtok. You know, we as viewers have to listen and follow closely in this tale because a lot is said as the plot gets more convoluted. We even have to follow conversations with the hairdresser who dyed Kowtok’s hair. It seems she introduced Anne to Raymond when she went out to cut the scientist’s hair. Annie & Ray hit it off and the hairdresser ended up seeing someone from Tsalal also, a man named Oliver, who was no longer working there. Is this scene unnecessary padding or important? It turns out it is, of course, important. A ninth person associated with the research station who left it a time back is missing. Can he be found and what does he know? Almost as a throwaway line, the hairdresser mentions she called the police regarding Annie & Ray upon her death, but Danvers & Navarro react as if that was news to them. The scene ends with them asking who she talked to. That line proves the more important line of the scene; when they found Oliver he wasn’t too talkative or cooperative, but implicating Hank Prior for obstruction of a case sure is.
It is inferred by the opening of the next scene that it was Captain Hank Prior who took that call, who mysteriously has been keeping radio silence while on his manhunt. It is great how this tale manages to get the audience in on the detective work. Navarro eventually gets to call out Hank for hindering an ongoing investigation. Heated words are exchanged between them as Danvers notes she will write him up for it. Hank Prior proves to be one to watch out for. He has ulterior motives for certain.
The biggest breakthrough for the case comes at the end when Pete can show Danvers & Navarro Annie’s last video off of her phone and Anders Lund awakens briefly before he dies. That’s when a supernatural twist kicks in. The season has danced around it but it just slapped Navarro in the face when Lund spoke to her or did he?
Episode 4 is bound to reveal more of the dysfunction our leads have on the family front while staying true to the difficult case before them. Is Hank Prior on the up-and-up? Will Oliver or someone else finally talk? Will Raymond Clark be found? What exactly has Annie’s phone revealed? Ask questions and stay on the case with us here at HBOWatch.
Season 4, Episode 4: “Part 4” Debuts: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 04 (9:00 – 10:00 PM ET/PT) on HBO.
