True Detective
Night Country Pt. 5
Directed by Issa López
Written by Issa López, Katrina Albright, Wenonah Wilms, & Chris Mundy

* For a recap & review of Pt. 4, click here.
* For a recap & review of the finale, click here.
Julia’s body is cremated and her ashes are given to Evangeline, who’s been allowed to be present throughout the whole process by the Indigenous woman working on Julia’s remains. It’s December 31st, the fourteenth day of night in Ennis. Otis Heiss has been recovering. He talks about meeting and talking with Clark. He doesn’t know where Clark went after they met. Heiss doesn’t remember previously raving about the “Night Country.” He does remember Clark saying: “She‘s awake.” Danvers wants to talk about Heiss’s incident 30 years prior. He mentions a cave in when a man died getting trapped in the ice. He and others tried to get help but it was a blizzard. He talks about “something screaming” and the others following the sound. Then everything went to nothing, as his corneas burned and eardrums ruptured. Danvers breaks out a map so Heiss can point out where they were at the time. She wants Otis to take them back there despite the fact he says it’s basically a big death trap. He doesn’t want to go, especially since he’s jonesing for heroin.

Things aren’t going so well for Peter. He’s kicked out by Kayla.
Navarro and Danvers talk a bit more, as Evangeline asks how Leah’s doing. Danvers worries about her daughter becoming “one of those crazy radicals.” Navarro doesn’t believe they’re crazy, and Danvers doesn’t quite, either; obviously Liz is worried because she knows the risks for Indigenous people speaking against the mine, not to mention for Indigenous women specifically. (Also an interesting note that comes across casually: Evangeline is bisexual.) While Liz worries for her daughter, Leah’s smearing the black paint across her and her girlfriend Sheri’s faces at another protest. The protest turns violent fast. Sadly we see Sheri abandon Leah while one cop wearing riot gear beats on Leah. Thankfully Navarro’s there. She saves Leah from further beating and takes on the cop that was beating the girl up. The whole protest in general is a mess, but it certainly doesn’t help that Leah was tied up in it. Navarro takes Leah out of there afterwards and while she’s mad, she’s questioned by Danvers’s daughter: “I mean, whose side are you on?” Of course Liz is absolutely livid, no surprise. It’s hard to blame Leah. She wants to be connected to her culture and she wants to help fight for it. Danvers, as a white woman, despite her best intentions cannot understand the place from where Leah is coming. So she winds up having Leah booked on charges.
There are connections found between Tsalal and Silver Sky. Not unexpected. But will that lead Danvers any further to the truth behind the researchers’ deaths? Danvers has to go see Kate McKitterick and Cpt. Connelly concerning the protest. She also tells Navarro there’s another reason she wants to speak with Kate. What could that be? Liz doesn’t do a whole lot of smiling, so it must be something juicy. She heads over to the Silver Sky office to meet Kate and Ted. A video of Navarro and Danvers was found on security footage at Silvery Sky. Liz explains the abandoned cave and Heiss. Kate then says there’s no murder case. There’s supposed results claiming the researchers died in an avalanche event. Connelly goes on and on, but Liz refuses to believe this theory: “Fuck you and your fucking weather event.” Liz brings up Silver Sky bankrolling Tsalal and the “conflict of interest” inherent in that. She’s not giving up on things. After the meeting, Connelly talks about the Wheeler case and says there “was no suicide” despite the story we’ve heard/seen so far. What really happened that day? Connelly seems to be threatening to use this against Danvers. Not good, for anybody.
Later on, Kate tells Cpt. Prior that Liz won’t stop. She says Liz cannot find the cave. Hmm. Prior suggests bringing this to Connelly, but Kate claims Ted is “a political animal” and is fucking Liz which makes it all the more tangly. After a bit more talk and a very dangerous suggestion, Hank says: “I‘m not a killer.” But Kate wants what she wants. Is this the same thing that happened with Annie? Did Ms. McKitterick need a problem to go away when Annie was protesting? And did Hank arrange Annie’s murder? Damn.

At the laundromat, Qavvik returns Navarro the spiral stone from Tagaq’s place. He also brought a guy who says his grandfather told him to “walk away” whenever seeing those spirals. Apparently the spirals were a warning to hunters in “places where the ice would swallow them whole.” The kids would purposely crack the ice and go into the caves anyway. The guy says his grandmother was mad at them for it and told them “the Night Country” would take them. Navarro thinks they can get into the ice caves and tells Danvers, but Liz says it’s all over. Ted is shutting things down, particularly with his leverage concerning the Wheeler case. This doesn’t stop Navarro, but Danvers insists they have to let this go and that Evangeline must let Annie go. Navarro charges Liz with holding the guilt: “You carry her now.”

After the family mess between Liz and Leah at the cop shop, and Navarro leaving with Leah, Hank recalls a time when young Peter slipped into the water and under the ice. He had to rush ahead of the current to smash open the ice and save little Pete. A harrowing experience. “Fuckin‘ family,” Hank says.
Out on the ice, Navarro and Rose open up a hole to the water. Navarro empties her sister’s ashes into the ocean, to let Julia go where she intended. She hears a ghostly voice from the darkness while her light flickers. She steps away a little and sees a flicker of the vision she saw of the overturned, wrecked vehicle, the place where she saw Holden. Then the ice cracks. Rose tells Navarro to lie down and they manage to get to safety. It was like Navarro was in another world entirely. She didn’t hear Rose calling her back closer to shore. Lucky it wasn’t worse.

Liz tries to talk with Leah. Her daughter is concerned for the water, their community, the mothers losing children, and all the things Annie fought for, whereas Liz is desperately just trying to keep what family she has left. At least before Danvers goes she gets a sliver of brightness out of Leah. Yet the darkness is lurking closely. When Liz leaves, she’s followed by Cpt. Prior. She goes to see the corpses from the village. She sees the stillborn children who were born and died on the same day. She looks the mine’s poison directly in the face for the first time. She’s trying to understand. Danvers goes back to the station and runs into Hank briefly. Then she and Peter put their heads together. She asks whether he talked to someone about Wheeler and figures out that Peter is a little too naive, especially about his own father. She’s pissed off and just wants Peter to ask whatever questions he has about Wheeler. Peter finally asks the right question: “Did you know Wheeler was left handed?” Liz replies no. Peter discovered someone flipped the photos of Wheeler’s victim, among other things. He then asks if Danvers and Navarro shot Wheeler but made it look like suicide. Liz only says that Peter needs “to learn when to stop asking questions.”
Heiss isn’t well, but Danvers claims she has what he needs. Ole Liz was sneaking into the evidence room at the cop shop earlier before she ran into Cpt. Prior. She’s using this to help get her and Navarro what they need. They’re going to head for where Annie died and get into the ice caves at the highest point like Navarro suggested already. Heiss points out the spot on a map, then he’s able to go chase the dragon and quell his addiction for a little bit.
That’s when Cpt. Prior shows up claiming he’s been asked to take Heiss in. This is suspicious to Liz, who thinks she should call Ted. Suddenly Hank gets a bit rough and even pulls his gun after Otis returns from the bathroom. Liz tries to reason with Hank. When Otis moves he gets a bullet in the shoulder, then one in the back of the head. Peter’s already there, after being given a key to stay at Liz’s house, so he interrupts things with a gun drawn. His dad tries to talk him down, however, he refuses to lower his weapon. Hank then reveals he didn’t kill Annie, he only moved the body. He raises his gun, about to shoot Liz, when Peter shoots dad in the head. Immediately, Peter drops his own gun and Liz goes to comfort him. An intense, shocking moment of violence.

Navarro gets there soon and advises Liz not to contact Cpt. Connelly. She thinks Ted will “bury every single one of us.” She devises a theory: Hank was never here; he came to get Otis, shot him, but had an accident while trying to get rid of the corpse. They’ll pass it off as a chaotic accident. The storm will cover their tracks, too. Even Peter agrees with the plan, in spite of his traumatised perspective currently. Either way, they get to cleaning the place. Peter offers to clean the place while Navarro and Danvers go to the ice caves together; he’ll get a bit of help from Rose, as well.

Not a nice night to head out to the ice caves, as a nasty storm bears down on Ennis.