True Detective: Night Country recap: “You’re not terrible”

Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) can’t sleep. It’s December 24, the seventh day of night, and the Chief is kicking off Christmas Eve by doom-watching that haunting ice-cave video of Annie Kowtok being killed. Adding to that holiday cheer is the unwelcome news that Captain Connolly (Christopher Eccleston) is early packing up the Corpsicle bodies for Anchorage—and is sticking around Ennis to mitigate the messy mine conflict—and the fact that Danvers discovers Navarro’s younger sister having a shirtless mental episode in the middle of a snowy street.

Just a few weeks ago, such displeasures would set off our token “Alaska Karen” but episode four of True Detective: Night Country sees a slightly warmer side to our frosty police chief, who wraps a parka around Julia Navarro (Aka Niviâna) and gently calms the skittish, shivering woman. Liz calls in Evangeline (Kali Reis), who thanks her before checking Julia into the Lighthouse psychiatric center. It’s a clear thawing between the reluctant partners, a necessary one as this week’s episode plunges the women even deeper into the icy mysteries surrounding the murders and the culture of Ennis.

They do get a significant lead via Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), who manages to track down the medical records of Otis Heiss, a German national who had similar injuries to the Corpsicle crew: ruptured eardrums, burnt corneas, etc. (“You’re not terrible” is the closest Liz can get to giving the deputy praise.) With no records of employment, registered address or anything else to trace him, Heiss (Klaus Tange) is a veritable snow ghost but Danvers deems him a person of interest in the Tsalal case, so they add ol’ Otis to the ongoing Raymond Clark search.

And despite initially believing that ice caves like the one found in Annie K.’s video don’t exist near Ennis, Danvers’ former geology-teacher fling dispels that assumption when Liz and Evangeline turn up at his house, much to his wife’s annoyance. (“Is there anyone in this town you haven’t fucked?!” Navarro rage-whispers when they arrive.) In fact, there’s an entire system of such caves bordering Brooks Ranch but the cops would need an expert to guide them there, someone like the person who mapped out the cave system—you guessed it, Otis Heiss.

But before they can pursue Otis, Danvers has a little parenting problem to deal with first: Kate McKitterick (Dervla Kerwan), the owner of the Silver Sky mine and the wife of yet another one of Liz’s lovers, calls to tell her that Leah (Isabelle Star LaBlanc) was caught vandalizing the mine building. She convinces Kate not to press charges because it’s Christmas, but that doesn’t mean things are all that merry and bright over at the Danvers residence. The crevasse between mother and stepdaughter fractions even further, with Leah choosing to spend the holidays over at Prior’s and Liz left with an uncooked turkey, a bottle of vodka, and that awful Annie K. clip.

Navarro’s not having the jolliest Eve, either. Things start off very strong, with coupes of bubbly and a full spread over at Rose’s (Fiona Shaw), plus a sweet SpongeBob toothbrush surprise from Qavvik (Joel D. Montgrand). But then a drunken Danvers calls her with a theory about the power being cut in both the Annie K. recording and that video of the Tsalal scientist mysteriously seizing before the researchers’ disappearances. Liz wants to re-question Oliver Tagaq, the equipment engineer from the research station, but she’s too wasted to drive, and Navarro doesn’t want to investigate with a plastered partner. Enter: Prior, who is not paid nearly enough. Oliver’s hut is largely abandoned by the time Navarro and Prior get there, though, with the only traces being left-out food and a spiral drawn on the floor. The Tsalal vibes are real.

And things only get worse for Evangeline. On the way back from the camp, she gets a tragic call from the coast guard. Julia, who she believed to still be at the Lighthouse, had left the center and died by suicide, walking out onto the frozen ice until she drowned in the Ocean below. Navarro takes the enormity of her rage and grief out on the Lighthouse staff and three local men on the side of the road, before showing up bloodied and battered at Qavvik’s for comfort.

The awfulness of the women’s evenings converge on Christmas morning, as do their ideas of morality and mysticism. “It’s a curse,” Navarro worries about Julia’s death. “Something calls us and we follow. It’s calling me now.” Questions about whether her anguish is of the supernatural or psychological sort will have to wait until next episode, though, because their argument over the living and the dead gets interrupted by a message from Prior. A man has been sighted wearing Annie’s pink parka out near an old gold-dredging machine. Could it be Clark?

No, it’s not Clark, but it is Otis Heiss, who is scared and strung out (Liz spots some syringes and spoons nearby) and tells Danvers that Raymond “went back down to hide” in the night country. “We’re all in the night country now,” he says. And if the night country is less a material world and more a metaphysical one, it’s clear Navarro is already there: having followed the vision of a dead woman down to the lower levels of the dredge, Evangeline is found by Danvers sitting on the ground, staring cryptically at a Christmas tree and suffering a bloody, ruptured eardrum.

“Come on, baby, now. Come on and work it on out,” croons a spooky cover of “Twist And Shout” over the credits. Four episodes into True Detective: Night Country and it’s getting increasingly harder to work it on out: how Navarro’s visions and Danvers’ past and the racial tensions of Ennis and Annie’s pink parka and ice-cave systems and ruptured eardrums and Matthew McConaughey all connect and consolidate. It’s a lot of ground to cover in just two more episodes, two less than the previous seasons. How will Night Country do it? Well, it’s a mystery.

Stray observations

• Poor Hank (John Hawkes): As we all assumed, his foreign fiancée really is a catfish, a fact made even sadder by the champagne chilling in the fridge and the rose petals sprinkled all over the bed. He, like Captain Connolly, finds solace in the adventures of Buddy the Elf. Who knew yuletide Will Ferrell comedies were the go-to comfort movies for Ennis’ middle-aged and melancholy men?
• Poor Julia: Before she took her life, Navarro’s sister saw an orange roll out from beneath her bed at the Lighthouse center. So it does look like we’re following The Godfather rules where citrus fruits are concerned. Given that Evangeline had a similar experience during last week’s episode, does that mean Navarro will, too, soon succumb to the “night country”?
• Poor polar bear: Every time the dude tries to cross the road, one of these damn detectives nearly runs him down. Really not helping the whole “women can’t drive” stereotype, ladies.