True Detective Season 4 Ending Explained: How Does Night Country End?

This article contains spoilers for True Detective: Night Country episode 6.

Coming in at a full two episodes shorter than previous seasons, True Detective: Night Country has a lot to accomplish in its sixth and final episode.

Going into “Part 6,” viewers still don’t know who killed Annie Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen), what happened to the dead scientists (plus the missing Raymond Clark), or what’s going on with the shady partnership between Tsalal Arctic Research Station and Silver Sky Mining. And that’s not even to mention all the spooky ghosts and ghouls prowling around Ennis, Alaska.

Thankfully, the True Detective: Night Country finale provides answers to most of these questions while giving us some tools to make educated guesses about the others. Here is what happens in True Detective season 4 episode 6 and what it all means.

Where Has Raymond Clark Been Hiding?

Episode 6 doesn’t take too long to find Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell). As Otis Heiss (Klaus Tange) claimed, the missing paleo microbiologist has been hiding in the ice caverns under Ennis. It turns out that that the ice caverns are a pretty comfortable hiding spot since there’s a secondary laboratory within them that the Tsalal team used when searching for ancient bio-organisms within the permafrost. Within that lab is also a ladder that leads to a hatch underneath the floor of the Tsalal Research Station itself. That’s why a witness thought he saw Raymond Clark in the station even after all the scientists went missing. Because he probably did.

It’s a good thing that Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) find Clark early on because he has a lot of explaining to do. In fact, the next two sections of this article are sourced almost exclusively from Clark’s lengthy interrogation at the hands of the investigative pair.

What Was Going on Between Tsalal and Silver Sky Mining?

For a small town in the middle of nowhere, Ennis just happens to be home to two enormous institutions: Tsalal Arctic Research Center (funded in part by Tuttle United) and Silver Sky Mining. Danvers and Navarro were confident that there was some connection between the two and Clark (after a bit of torture) is kind enough to confirm that suspicion.

As Clark explains it, Tsalal’s mission to find a microorganism that could stop cellular decay was actually a successful one. This is a huge deal as it means they basically found the cure for death nestled safely underneath Alaska’s soil. The scientists quickly realized, however, that the only reason they could crack through the permafrost without destroying the cells within was because Silver Sky Mining’s pollution had softened the earth. More toxic waste in water meant more waste in the ground which meant a softer permafrost for extraction.

Tsalal pushed Silver Sky to produce more pollutants, reasoning that poisoning an entire town (consisting of mostly indigenous Alaskans) was a solid trade off for this scientific breakthrough.

Who Killed Annie K?

The scientists of Tsalal Arctic Research Station killed Annie Kowtok a.k.a. Annie K. Some were more responsible than others (Anders Lund in particular) but they all contributed to her death. And that’s because Annie discovered Tsala’s dirty little agreement with Silver Sky as someone was bound to do.

Annie spent enough time around her lover Raymond Clark to learn the ugly truth and in response she descended into the secret ice caverns and began to destroy all of their work. Awakened by the noise, the scientists rushed down to stop her and in the process killed her with their distinctive tools that left star-shaped wounds on her body.

Clark claims to have not been involved in the moment at all but the objective recollection from True Detective‘s cameras reveal that he was the one to tearfully deliver the killing blow via strangulation. One thing that Clark isn’t lying about is the fact that he has no idea who cut out Annie’s tongue. He does mention that someone with the police, undoubtedly Hank Prior (John Hawkes), came to dispose of the body.

What Happened to the Tsalal Scientists?

And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for. What prompted the inciting events of this series in which seven able-bodied men ran naked into the Alaskan tundra and froze to death? Who killed these scientists? The answer to that turns out to be: a whole bunch of working class ladies.

Raymond Clark is adamant that Annie K killed his friends and he only survived since he hid underneath the hatch. It doesn’t matter that Annie isn’t actually alive because “She’s been hiding in those caves forever. Before she was born, after we all die. Time is a flat circle and we are all stuck in it.” He said the thing!

Danvers and Navarro aren’t quite convinced so they do a little further digging and uncover some handprints on the top of the hatch in the research station. Tellingly, the handprints have only three fingers. This leads them to the home of Blair Hartman (Kathryn Wilder), the meek cleaning woman who has attacked by her drunken ex in episode 1 and the only woman in town missing precisely those two fingers. An indigenous woman named Beatrice (L’xeis Diane Benson) answers the door alongside Blair and she lets Danvers and Navarro in on what happened to the scientists.

Beatrice, Blair, and a whole host of other local working class women that includes Nurse Ivy (June Thiele), Grace Opak (Ippiksaut Friesen), Janice (Mary Lou Sicksik), and Alma (Annemarie Ottosen) uncovered the truth of what was going on at Tsalal and what the scientists did to Annie. They took their role as stewards of this land seriously and paid the scientists a friendly visit.

Armed to the teeth, the women of Ennis forced the scientists to undress and drove them out into the middle of nowhere and set them on their way. Beatrice claims this wasn’t a cold-hearted murder but a test, saying “If she wanted them she would taken them. And if not, their clothes are there for them. They’d be half frozen but they’d survive. But they didn’t though. I guess she wanted to take them. I guess she ate their fucking dreams from the inside out and spit their frozen bones.”

Danvers and Navarro wisely decide to just tell these women that the case is now closed and head off.

What’s Next for Danvers and Navarro?

Every season of True Detective brushes up against the occult but True Detective: Night Country takes things to the next level. There are many strange happenings throughout these episodes. What’s notable is that each of them could have either a rational or supernatural explanation and the show never commits to which one is true. That tradition continues all the way through to the end of episode 6.

In its final moments, Night Country flashes forward to May 12, the first long day of the year. Danvers is meeting with investigators who have some questions about her and Navarro’s very busy December. Here we learn that the deaths of Otis Heiss and Hank Prior have been blamed on a drug deal gone bad, Raymond Clark’s confession video leaked, and Silver Sky has closed its mines. One question lingers, however: what became of trooper Navarro? She hasn’t been seen since that eventful New Year’s Eve. All Danvers has to say to that is “Let’s put it this way: I don’t think you’ll find Evangeline Navarro out there on the ice.”

So…Navarro is probably dead, right? Earlier in the episode when Danvers and Navarro are freezing to near-death at Tsalal, they have a conversation about all the weird things they’ve been experiencing. Navarro talks about how she’s seen Danvers’ dead son and even muses that her sister Julia may have had the right of it when she walked out into the elements to her death. There’s another spiritual world there beyond our own and Navarro wants to experience it.

“You told me back then that you want to do it,” Danvers tells her friend later on. “You know, walk out … disappear. If you do it, if you decide to, just try to come back, ok?”

Navarro’s fate ultimately comes down to however you interpret the phrase “you know, walk out … disappear.” If that sounds like Navarro wanted to get out of Ennis, Alaska then she’s probably alive and living her life elsewhere. If that sounds like she wants to “walk out” a little more permanently, then she’s probably not.

Either way, Navarro does make good on her promise to return as the final scene of the season sees Danvers and Navarro wordlessly reuniting. Is this Navarro coming back to Ennis on vacation? Or is Danvers finally able to see ghosts like a real Alaskan? Even if True Detective: Night Country knows the answer, it’s never going to tell.

All six episodes of True Detective: Night Country are available to stream on Max now.

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