Why The Season Finale of “True Detective: Night Country” Worked Well
This past Sunday night, the fourth season of True Detective wrapped up. I didn’t get a chance to start it on the first Sunday it aired, so my wife and I recently binge watched to catch up. It was tough to do it that way, because you need that break between episodes not only to digest, but to calm your anxiety. I wanted to take a look at why the season finale of True Detective “Night Country” worked well.
Living in Jersey, it’s hard to connect with the feeling you must have when you live in the part of Alaska that has 30 days of night from December into January. This season of True Detective took place in the fictional town of Ennis Alaska. As each episode progressed and we got deeper into the season, you quickly realized something – there were supernatural forces that were in play. For this installment of the anthology series, I think that made it extra eerie and interesting.
The finale worked, because they wrapped up some things for us, but also left a few key points ambiguous. The main one being……where is Navarro? Is she out there roaming the ice, or is she a Ghost. Does she live off the grid and come is it those she cares about? It’s great that we can make our own assumptions. The vagueness works so well!
Annie K was brutally killed because she found out what was going on at Tsalal. She also killed the team of men responsible for her murder. Or at least her essence and the vengeance of those who mourned for her killed them. Either way you look at it, it works. Karma was fired up and everyone knew it. As Annie’s lover Ray Clark said, “She’s Awake!”. Karma from her brutal killing had it’s revenge on the men of Tsalal. I also thought it was emotional and powerful to see the Alaskan Native women band together to get justice for her.
Where did her severed tongue come from? I believe Hank Prior, who admitted to moving her body, cut it out to throw people for a loop. Now, how did it appear years later, on the floor of the Tsalal station? Again, that’s for us to believe what we want. But I think it was the one of the many roaming dead of Ennis helping to tie these cases together.
It was a strong season finale to a True Detective season which kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved it and I hope you did too!