True Detective (Night Country) Episode 1- Recap and Ending Explained: The remote wilderness in the polar night is a scene for something grisly and macabre. Everyone would rather stay indoors. At least that is what director Issa Lopez focuses on in this anthology’s return after five years. The biggest challenge for this True Detective installment will be if it can hold a candle to the stellar Season 1. Things do look good with ‘Part 1’ setting the mood, introducing the characters, and establishing Night Country. Ennis looks cold (the vast sprawling snowscapes), feels cold (the sounds), is cold (human equations), and heats up (for the audience) right from the outset. 

True Detective Night Country focuses on Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) overcoming their complicated past to learn the truth about the eight missing scientists. Why were these scientists in a remote location? 

True Detective (Season 4) ‘Part 1’ Recap

Season 4 of True Detective starts off with a chilling quote “…For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake.” December 17 is the last sunset of the year where audiences see a man clad in due train his rifle on a pack of caribou that run off a cliff. 

The story proceeds to the Tsalal Arctic Research Center, where a group of scientists seem to be off duty. At one point, a man named Clark starts convulsing and cryptically says “she’s awake” before the lights go off. 

Days later, a delivery guy enters the location where the supernatural element of a figure dashing by quickly is seen. He explores the facility and discovers a human tongue beneath a table. 

When the police show up, they explore the possibility of the scientists having gone for a “walk.” Liz Danvers, though, is not buying that theory and commences the investigation. The scientists last had contact with the town over a week ago. Per Danver’s understanding of things like Mayo and the smell of clothes, she establishes that the disappearance was 48 hours ago. Have they just disappeared? A whiteboard at the Tsalal Arctic Research Center has the words- “WE ALL ARE DEAD.” 

This case has eerie similarities with another one, connected with Trooper Elizabeth Navarro. She is a war veteran who did not solve the case of Annie Kowtok, who was stabbed 32 times, suffered a star-shaped wound, and also had her tongue cut off. 

Navarro is keen to get to the bottom of that, but Danvers is reluctant to allow her a way in. When talking to her team, Liz Danvers says that the place kills people. That could be the excuse the police use, but she is not all in for that. Danvers’ determination is such that she sends Peter Prior to get the relevant case files from his father’s house. 

The episode establishes Navarro as someone who is not one for restraint in cases of violence against women. It comes across through Liz Danvers’ words and Navarro’s actions. As Navarro drives her car, a polar bear stands in front of her car. The sight of the animal does not shock her as much as it’s missing eye does. (There could be some reference to this in a later episode)

A woman, the same one who wanted to shoot the caribou, seems to have killed one. As she cuts it open, she sees a vision. At night, she sees the same man who leads her on a walk through the blizzard. He is barefoot in the snow and performs a dance before pointing and vanishing. 

True Detective (Season 4) ‘Part 1’ Ending Explained 

Liz Danvers explores the stolen casebox and sets up the photos in a circular fashion. (One hopes that True Detective Night Country explores the symbol and doesn’t just forget about it as Game of Thrones largely did). She realizes that the Annie Kowtok case and the one of the missing scientists has a link. One of them has, or seems to have, Annie K’s parka. Until anything further comes to light, it simply remains an assumption. 

How Many Scientists are Confirmed Dead in True Detective Season 4?

Liz Danvers drives back to the Tsalal Arctic Research Center and finds Navarro snooping around. After threatening to arrest her for trespass, she lets slip that the cases may be connected. The two investigate the scientists’ quarters, but only get cold vibes from either side. Meanwhile, a helicopter with a searchlight is flying over the ice. This may be to try to see if the missing scientists are actually on some expedition deep in the wilderness. 

Liz gets a call that a woman named Rose Aguineau made a discovery, following which she and Navarro head to the location in a chopper. The camera moves back and we see a circle of onlookers staring at three corpses buried in the ice. Their mouths are open with their tongues…it didn’t seem quite clear with the ice and snow. This is the exact number hinted to us in the opening credits (pay attention to these for clues from the week’s episode).

Does this also mean Billie Eilish’s ‘Bury a Friend’ is a cue to the killer’s identity? 

Who helped Rose Aguineau make the discovery?

Evangeline Navarro asks Rose Aguineau how she managed to find the exact spot. She simply replied that Travis showed her the spot. The Trooper paused and faced the civilian to remind her that Travis is dead. All she did was reply, “I know.”

Who is Travis? Are the two cases connected? Also, the camera showed the audience three bodies. Where are the other five? It’s highly unlikely that only 3 /8 were shown to spare the audience. 

Find out next week when True Detective (Season 4) returns with ‘Part 2’ on Sunday January 21.