The finale of season 4 of True Detective has finally aired: what really happened to the frozen scientists and Annie Kowtok?
Season 4 of True Detective will not have failed to make an impression. In addition to giving pride of place to an Alaska Native culture that is rarely highlighted, or showing strong-willed women among the members of the cast, its chilling story steeped in mystery was able to keep spectators in suspense until the end.
Night Country was treated to a much larger audience than the very first chapter of True Detective. And inevitably, the finale was eagerly awaited by the public, seeking to finally obtain an explanation for two closely linked cases in the town of Ennis.
So, have Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) got the last word on the scientists’ cold deaths and the brutal murder of Annie K?
Warning: this article contains spoilers from season 4 of True Detective
True Detective – Night Country: what happened to Annie Kowtok in season 4?
Annie Kowtok was an activist opposing the Silver Sky Mine, which was polluting the waters of the town of Ennis. She was murdered, and her body found in the mine bore the scars of 32 blows from a star-shaped bladed weapon.
In the final episode, Danvers and Navarro discover that Annie was not killed by mine workers or its owners. In reality, it was scientists from Tsalal station who murdered her, using a tool used to work ice – hence the star shape on the young woman’s body.
Annie actually discovered the secret of the station and the scientists, working in concert with the mine to cover up their misdeeds impacting the city’s water. Furious, she destroys the work of the scientists, who realize it: it is Lund who is the first to hit her with his improvised surin. But soon, all the scientists join the crime scene and participate.
If Raymond Clark claims not to have harmed Annie, the series shows us the opposite: while the young woman returns for a brief moment, still breathing, he decides to suffocate her. The scientist claims to have loved her, but he nonetheless remains complicit in the situation. By finishing the work of his colleagues, he will prevent Annie from recounting the attempted murder, but above all from revealing the secret of the Tsalal station.
Ultimately, the station calls on the company running the mine to dispose of the body. This is where Hank Prior finds himself involved: the police officer will be responsible for disguising the crime to create false leads, in exchange for a promise of promotion. Unfortunately, the arrival of Liz Danvers will subsequently prevent him from obtaining the coveted position of police chief of Ennis.
What secret did the Tsalal station scientists want to hide?
If the rumors surrounding the station say that the scientists never succeeded in decoding the DNA samples, the truth is quite different: the researchers had made enormous advances, but to the detriment of the quality of the water of the station. city.
In reality, Tsalal Station was not used to cover the mine’s impact on Ennis’ water supply. It’s actually much worse: scientists were encouraging the mine to pollute even more than necessary. Because once polluted and reheated, permafrost becomes more malleable, allowing the simplified extraction of samples necessary for researchers’ study of the microorganism.
The agreement is therefore mutual: the station uses the mine to facilitate its work by polluting, and the mine is covered by the station which falsifies the reports of pollution of Ennis’s water. This is where Annie K discovers reality, from simple notes from Raymond Clark, her lover.
However, if the police were indeed led on false leads, other people understood what was going on: the Native American women responsible for the maintenance of the Tsalal station.
What happened to the scientists in True Detective: Night Country?
After deciding not to speak to the police, knowing them to be too powerless or even incompetent in the face of industrial companies, the maintenance workers having discovered the truth took revenge in their own way by killing the station’s scientists.
It is by chance that a cleaning lady discovers the existence of the trapdoor leading to the ice extraction room, which is also the scene of the crime. Many clues, like the tool-like marks on Annie K’s body or notes left there, help her understand what happened. Subsequently, the station employees will investigate and discover everything: the assassination, but also the station’s shenanigans in collaboration with the mine.
Aware that their testimony will never be enough to bring down a powerful company, the natives take revenge in their own way: they kidnap the scientists, take them to the ice floe and force them to undress before letting them wander off into the night.
The cleaning lady explains to Danvers and Navarro that the researchers had a chance to return: their clothes were waiting for them in case the ice (personified as Annie Kowtok returned for revenge) did not kill them. Which explains why the victims’ belongings were carefully folded. But in such conditions, their chances of survival were close to zero: it is very likely that the cold made them lose their minds, which would then explain the self-mutilations.
However, the story told by the cleaning lady does not serve as a confession: it is, after all, just a simple story. No one will therefore be arrested for the murder of the scientists, whose death was disguised by the company behind Tsalal, citing a meteorological incident.
Why was Annie K’s tongue found in Tsalal station?
Annie Kowtok’s language is the element that will not get a clear answer in the finale of season 4 of True Detective. However, several avenues remain to be explored.
The mysticism surrounding the town of Ennis seems to point to a supernatural event, but there are other possibilities regarding the language of the deceased.
First of all, one of the characters could have lied. Raymond Clark lied about never harming Annie K: he is seen finishing the job and choking her, killing her with his own hands. As for the natives who led the scientists by force onto the ice floe, their “stories” may have deliberately left out details.
However, another lead concerns Hank Prior. We know that it was him that the mine called on to create false leads by getting rid of Annie’s body. It is entirely possible that the corrupt police officer had the idea of cutting out the tongue to make the murder appear as a warning against militants.
From there to knowing how the language could have ended up in the station, the series does not give any further answers. Did Hank go to the station before the delivery man passed by and raised the alarm when he found his tongue? Did the natives leave the organ they would have kept for some strange reason? Raymond Clark or another of the scientists could also have dropped the language, preserved until then for equally obscure reasons, without being able to pick it up when the natives came to take revenge.
But in reality, the organ serves above all as a metaphor: in the town of Ennis, we don’t talk. We stay silent, even if it means obstructing a police investigation, and fend for ourselves.
What happens to the police at the end of season 4 of True Detective?
In the finale of Night Country, it is Liz Danvers who is questioned, concerning the disappearance of her colleague Hank Prior. In the official version, Prior kidnapped and murdered Otis Heiss, before disappearing, probably swept away in the storm.
In reality it was his son who got rid of his body, after killing him to protect Liz Danvers. The young man continues to work at the police station, despite the traumatic events.
For her part, Evangeline Navarro has disappeared. She finally returns her toothbrush to her companion, and leaves one last gift in her wake: a filmed interview with Raymond Clark, just before he ends his days in the storm. The scientist reveals everything about the misdeeds of the Tsalal station as well as the mine. If we see the two police officers together, it remains very likely that this is just another apparition that Liz Danvers is witnessing.
The latter will publish the video, making sure not to be identified as a whistleblower. Faced with public pressure, the two infrastructures were then closed.
Explanation of the ending of True Detective by showrunner Issa López
True Detective showrunner Issa López spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the Night Country finale. And especially on the involvement of Raymond Clark, who was never convicted of the murder of Annie K.
“It was a tribute to many things. Some of the best Sherlock Holmes stories are the ones where he walks away after finding the murderer, shrugging his shoulders and saying, “Well, I guess we’ll never know what happened.””I unfortunately believe that we cannot always wait for justice to be done legally. Very often, we have to fend for ourselves.”
“In many stories of murders and disappearances of indigenous women, it is outside agents who arrive and solve the case. So I found it interesting to let women intervene for themselves and tell things in their own way, to choose the ending that suits them.”
True Detective: Night Country is available in full on Prime Video’s Warner Pass.
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