The finale of season 4 of True Detective has been released, and lifts the veil on the many mysteries of Night Country. But who took Annie Kowtok’s tongue and put it back in the research station?
Several mysteries animated season 4 of True Detective: while a group of scientists is found dead on the ice floe in Alaska, the investigators discover that the case is linked to another, that of the murder of a Native American woman from the town of Ennis.
Night Country may have only lasted six episodes instead of the usual eight for the True Detective series, but this season 4 will still have been generous to its spectators. If there was no shortage of mysteries and astonishing twists, the finale will also have provided its share of answers.
However, there remains one plot which seems not to have found a clear resolution: Annie K’s tongue, found in the Tsalal station by a delivery man. Who cut out the victim’s tongue? And who left it there?
Annie K’s tongue is found at Tsalal station in season 4 of True Detective
Several avenues present themselves to True Detective viewers. We know that the freezing of scientists and the murder of Annie K are linked, but the culprits are not the same.
The researchers killed Annie Kowtok, who had discovered the terrible evils encouraged by the station. Once dead, the young woman was taken by a corrupt police officer, Hank Prior, to disguise her death as an assassination by miners, taking advantage of her status as an activist against the Silver Sky mine.
As for the scientists, they were killed by Native Americans who discovered their guilt in the affair of Annie K and the pollution of the waters of the town of Ennis.
But no one admits to having cut this language: neither Raymond Clark, nor the natives. As for Hank Prior, he died before the end of season 4. So, who cut off this part of the deceased’s body?
Who left the tongue in season 4 of True Detective?
The first suspect would be Hank Prior: by disguising the murder, he could have cut and kept his tongue to make it appear as a warning to the activists protesting against the Silver Sky mine. But then he would have had to return to the station just after the researchers were taken away and before the delivery man arrived, to deposit the tongue.
For his motive, it could either be a desire to cover his tracks, or on the contrary to indirectly help Liz Danvers to understand the link with the researchers, by dint of being consumed by guilt… which however does not correspond to the motivations of the character in the rest of the season.
As for the natives, if they could indeed have taken the organ and then left it at the station as a sign of their passage, the theory is not sufficiently solid: when the body was discovered, it is unlikely that their first reflex is to further mutilate Annie K to plan revenge. Especially since at the time, the station’s involvement in the murder was not yet known.
Finally, the last suspect could be Raymond Clark. If he tells Danvers that he does not see what she is talking about when she addresses the question of language, we know that he did not hesitate to lie to her during his confession, asserting that he would never wouldn’t have raised his hand on Annie K: the series shows us the opposite, when he is the one who definitively ends his lover’s life by suffocating her.
Another avenue to consider remains that of the supernatural. According to the natives and Raymond Clark, Annie returned to take revenge and devour the culprits, becoming the avatar of an unnamed entity living in the ice of Alaska. However, this does not explain why his tongue would have been cut out in the first place.
For her part, showrunner Issa Lopez laughs at the question. She explained to The Hollywood Reporter that she preferred to maintain a certain ambiguity on the subject: “So many people working with me were like, “What, really? You’re not going to tell us?» You know, in life, we are not always given all the answers automatically. Some you have to find for yourself. I’m not going to do all the work! “
Season 4 of True Detective is available in full on Prime Video’s Warner Pass.
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