True Detective: Night Country recap: It’s hunting season
The search for Clark, clues, and character connections ominously cracks on in "Part 3"
TV Reviews True Detective
Is Raymond Clark—that spiral-tattooed scientist who somehow wrenched himself free from the Corpsicle last week—the man responsible for those Tsalal deaths? Eh, likely not, given how early in the season it is for True Detective: Night Country. But Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) still need to track the dude down to get answers not only about what happened to those freeze-dried researchers out on the ice that night, but also Annie Masu Kowtok’s still-unsolved murder case from six years earlier.
We get a glimpse of Annie K. (Nivi Pedersen), a year before her death, at the top of this Sunday’s “Part 3,” which opens with Navarro seeking out the activist on charges of trespassing and vandalizing the Silver Sky Mining facilities. The only problem? Annie moonlights as a midwife and there’s a very pregnant woman who’s 10 centimeters dilated and wailing from a baby pool that requires her immediate attention before Evangeline can slap on some cuffs. Annie and a group of fellow doulas help the mom-to-be deliver, but the newborn worryingly doesn’t cry upon birth, forcing Annie into action. Concerned but capable, she performs CPR on the infant, and it’s as nerve-wracking as anything the show has put up so far—but finally the babe unleashes a wail to match mama’s. The women sob in relief, and even Navarro is misty-eyed as she completes Annie’s arrest.
Flash forward to the present—December 22, the fifth day of polar night, to be exact—and to the ice, where Hank (John Hawkes) has enlisted a band of gun-toting, camo-wearing civilians to join the Alaska Police Force in hunting Clark down across the tundra. Back at the police station, Danvers isn’t thrilled by this development in the slightest but she has other pressing concerns: namely, the 19 boxes of evidence they pulled from Clark’s creep-mobile. She tells Peter (Finn Bennett) to call in Navarro’s trooper command to get her temporary transfer approved, but the deputy’s confused: “I thought you hated Navarro?” She clears it up for him in a reductive bit of characterization: “I do. I hate everyone. I hate you.”
It’s through Peter’s pestering that we get more intel into exactly what drove such a wedge between the two women: the Wheeler case, a messy murder-suicide between a repeat criminal and his 18-year-old girlfriend. After a long history of abuse, “we knew how it was gonna end, but there was nothing we could do,” Liz rues. “And then we got the call.” Navarro took their failure particularly hard, and things turned so ugly between the police partners that Evangeline was transferred over to the troopers.
But the not-so-affable pair are now stuck together—pardon the Corpsicle pun—investigating Ray and Annie’s secret relationship and how it all ties back to Tsalal. Using a mix of personal photos, hair-dye splotches and, uh, Ariana Grande’s discography, they manage to deduce that someone had to know about the couple and that person was Annie’s hairdresser, Susan (Bridie Trainor). The local stylist used to go to Tsalal to give the men haircuts—Annie tagged along once and instantly hit it off with Ray, while Susan cozied up to an equipment engineer named Oliver Tagaq, who quit the research station right before Annie was killed.
They’re details Susan didn’t reveal to Navarro all those years ago because she was worried she’d face the same gruesome end as her friend. However, she did notify police about Annie’s connection to Clark following her death, she asserts, a little fact that Hank Prior failed to tell Navarro before she was transferred out of the APF. Evangeline is furious, accusing Hank of being part of a wider mine-focused conspiracy to silence Annie’s murder. For her part, Liz is more ticked off at Hank’s jibes that she’s going “Mrs. Robinson” on his son and throws a coffee in his face accordingly.
In another bout of professional misbehavior, Danvers has Peter call in his veterinarian cousin to come inspect the Corpsicle (hey, he works on large animals!), as the forensic tech is still delayed due to a blizzard. Vince the Vet (Vilhelm Neto) believes the men died before they froze: “Cold makes their heart rate drop, their breath grows shallow. They basically fall asleep…this is not how you die in the cold.” Instead, he surmises that it was cardiac arrest or sheer fright that killed them, but he can’t be sure. After all, he’s just a vet.
And Navarro uses her own personal connections—i.e. her brewer-with-benefits Qavvik (Joel D. Montgrand)—to trace the whereabouts of Oliver Tagaq (Lane Karmer). Susan the Hairdresser had warned the women that Oliver wasn’t exactly “looking to be found,” living out of a nomad camp on the north shore, and that proves to be true: Instead of cooperation, he welcomes them with a firearm.
On the drive back from camp, the duo gets word that Anders Lund (Þorsteinn Bachmann)—the other scientist who is alive but has been in a coma the past few days—is awake. They zoom over to the hospital to question him but bro is in bad shape: multiple amputations, lost eyesight, the works. They do manage to extract a few bits of information in between his roars of pain: “We woke her, and now she’s out there in the ice. She came for us in the dark.” Who is “she”? Danvers doesn’t find out, as she’s pulled out to break up a fight happening in the waiting room, but Navarro chillingly does. “Your mother says hello,” Lund croaks out right before he flat-lines. “She’s waiting for you.”
Equally unsettling is a video Peter found on Annie K.’s cell phone, presumably the last before she died. “I found it, it’s here. I found it,” Annie says to the camera, right before she’s seemingly attacked on the ice, her screams of terror reverberating off the hospital walls.
At the halfway point of True Detective: Night Country, we’re left with far more questions than answers (though one fan theory has seemingly already been affirmed by showrunner Issa López—more on that in a second). How is Navarro’s mother connected to the Tsalal mystery? Where has Ray run off to and does he have ties to a certain cultish family? What’s the meaning behind that recurring one-eyed polar bear? How has it taken this long for an HBO series to figure out how to light night scenes without making us question our eyesight? And, most importantly, exactly what does Liz Danvers’ Tinder profile look like?
Stray observations
- First thing’s first: Yes, the fan theories that Rose’s late partner Travis (Erling Eliasson) is the survivalist father of Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) are seemingly correct. Not only does he share the same surname and shaggy ’do of the season-one lead, but Lopez left a cheeky little Twitter comment that affirmed that Travis “comes directly from the mythology of the first season.” So the references to the first season are no longer mere fan service but canon connections. If that means a McConaughey cameo is to come, well, that sounds alright, alright, alright.
- Speaking of references, Navarro and Qavvik have a “quid pro quo” haggle à la Clarice and Hannibal, but here it’s sweeter than that The Silence Of The Lambs scene—the brewer wants to actually get to know the woman he’s sleeping with, in exchange for forking over info on Oliver Tagaq. Evangeline opens up about her mother: She left Ennis when she was 15, meeting Navarro’s dad in Boston but leaving him when things turned abusive. After returning up north, she began suffering episodes and hearing voices, similar to Navarro’s sister, until one day she ran out into the ice and never came back. The authorities never found her killer, which all-too-neatly explains Evangeline’s dogged determination to crack Annie’s case.
- Let’s talk about those oranges: There are a few in the opening credits, and now Navarro finds a whole one out on the ice while searching for Clark. She throws the fruit out into the glacial darkness, and it freakily comes rolling right back. Are we following Coppola rules here? If so, Evie, you in danger, girl.
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Why is Peter’s wife surprised that her cop husband has to work long hours on a mass-homicide case that they’re under a deadline to solve?
Because we needed one more trope in here! The one-eyed polar bear demands it!
While I’m enjoying this season, the sheer number of tropes and cliches is a little depressing. It’s just a hair short of being very well written.
I’d argue what’s more dissettling about the writing is its peaks and valleys, which are some of the more significant in recent memory.It can be superb – the wrong question scene, for instance – and then only a few minutes later be just terrible.
she’s not surprised. she’s disappointed because he’s not home that often.
Seems like his being a cop is more of a recent thing and that she’s more annoyed about him being at Danvers’ incessant beck and call. But yeah, I was kinda like, “We get it!” Danvers sending a demanding all caps text at 3:30 am was a funny detail to me, though.
I was thinking the same thing. Most cops aren’t snowballed like that constantly.
Especially since she’s a nurse…she should understand working long/wacky hours.
Exactly what I thought as well.
She explicitly stated that he was not a cop when they got together. So…. yes?
To play devil’s advocate here – and by no means am I on her side on this – but they live in a small village in remote Alaska. Murder, much less mass murder, seems to be a rare occurrence, so the amount of commitment a small-town police force would need to devote to a crime like that is not something locals would be familiar with, even a cop’s wife.
It’s not unfathomable that Peter’s wife was deprived of her husband BEFORE the mass-homicide, and now the holidays are here, further magnifying his absence. Additionally, do selfish people not exist in the real world, even during times of turmoil?
Did I miss something or is Liz lying to Pete about that Wheeler flashback? Cause he was very not dead when they arrived on the scene.
I’m curious about that too!
yeah, what she told him was not at all what we actually saw. I assume she doesn’t want him to know how the guy actually died (guessing either she or Eve shot him)
Danvers was being an unreliable narrator with Pete about the abusive husband case she and Navarro worked on. As we saw in the flashback, he killed his wife, but he was alive when they got there. I’m guessing Danvers or Navarro shot him in cold blood (pun intended). This is part of their complicated dynamic, a bond they both don’t like.For a person who just got into acting, Kali Reis is doing some great work here. And playing off Foster very well.Let’s give it up for Jodie Foster’s face. Expressive, aged beautifully, wonderful in the light—I loved that mirror scene in the bathroom. I like she’s playing a prickly character usually not associated with her recent work. Danvers is an asshole, and slightly (or more) bigoted, but she has a heart, loves her kid, and has some respect for the native population of her town.I’m down with this show becoming a Stephen King story. I was thinking of The Outsider. A malevolent force Annie found in the ice that took her over and maybe killed her horribly from the inside out. Maybe the “she” in the scientist’s “She’s here!” was the demon taking her form?
That parallel’s season 1’s ‘story of the shootout’ on the first suspects pretty well, actually! With the other connections we’ve seen (including lines lifted wholesale) I bet you are right about this.
Oh no, a character might specify a name! Better put him back in a coma!
people really think Jodie Foster is good looking?
oh ya
Absolutely! Some so much so that they would try to kill the president just to impress her!
Yes; amazingly, people can have different opinions than you!
The first step toward solving your problem is to admit that you have one. Thank you for being brave and sharing with us that you do not find an objectively* attractive woman to be attractive. Now you can begin to heal.
*: Once someone attempts to kill a president in a person’s honor, that person’s attractiveness is no longer questionable.
it’s all subjective. But thanks anyway.
It’s really a shame he didn’t have better aim. Could have really made her proud and saved us all a lot of hassle.
OK, I’m not disagreeing that Jodie’s attractive, but I wouldn’t use the fixations of a nutbar – even if the president he tried to kill was Reagan – as proof of that.
Sorry that people age.
I mean…
I find it very refreshing that she looks like she hasn’t had injections, fillers and/or plastic surgery and she looks her age.
What is your point?
Yep. Good looking enough that somebody once tried to kill the president, just to impress her.
My wild speculation: the “she” will have something to do with the legend that Pete’s kid drew the creepy drawing of (cut to grandma’s dramatic storytelling in a later episode), but that’ll be the spiritual interpretation while the scientific one will be the microorganism was “reawakened” by the project (perhaps by doing something unethical like killing Annie for her tissue) and had some unanticipated negative effects.
So…season 1 of Fortitude?
Thank you for stating the glaringly obvious. It’s not as if that was intentionally made about as explicitly obvious as possible in the episode or anything.
Danvers most likely killed the abuser. That would explain Navarro’s anger toward her. Navarro seems to be a rule follower for the most part (despite her own history). Danvers seems more likely to have crossed the line.
Halfway through and feeling like we know very little so far is a little troubling. I guess it was around 2/3’s of the first that they figured out the suspects and had ‘the shootout’ (I.e. murdered the 1 man in cold blood when they saw what he’d been doing and let the other explode on his own i.e.d.) so maybe the pace is on and I’m worried for nothing.My guess is the combination of gas that causes hallucinations coming off the mine’s improper operation along with some sort of ‘global warming releasing old bacteria sciencey blah blah blah’ will end up being the culprit, while covered up by the Tuttle corporation. Just a guess though.
I think I would’ve liked this season better without any of the references to S1. I assume we’re going to get a timejump at some point in the next episode, so conceivably much of what we are learning now is set-dressing for later drama. That said it does seem like it needs to pick up a bit.
It’s weird to me that they didn’t lean into this season being a direct sequel to season 1 as it appears it will be. I don’t mind the connections so long as they work and make sense–always the problem with any mystery/detective show–if it doesn’t stick the landing then it can’t be considered a success, so I’m interested enough to keep watching, but I’m worried it won’t pull it all together in a satisfying way.
That’s because this wasn’t even intended to be True Detective, let alone a direct sequel. It was a completely separate show that HBO decided to shove under the True Detective umbrella, at which point they then added in the callbacks to season 1.
Ah gotcha–I had read that it was intended to be a sequel to season 1, but perhaps what you say here is correct. I haven’t seen anything to that effect but haven’t really dug into the history of this particular season.
Are you sure that’s true? I can’t find anything saying that.
I agree — if this story will remain grounded as the prior seasons, then the entire town has been slowly poisoned by a gas leak from the mine. People are hallucinating, and so they’ve been believing in crazy things and acting cray. I have no problem with this revelation.
Season 4 – The Gas Leak season. Coincidence? I think not.
You’re idea of murder in cold blood is a bit different than mine. They were literally SAing children. No cold blood murder there.
I mean, they were law enforcement so it’s definitely murder? Not suggesting it wasn’t warranted or that I would have done anything differently, but it was definitely murder. No matter how heinous the crime, it will always be murder if a member of law enforcement shoots a handcuffed suspect in the head. That’s pretty basic. That being said, Cohle’s line of “nice to see you finally commit to something” right after he shoots him absolutely cracks me up.
I mean, Marty and Rust knew they were in the “wrong” how they went about everything, in regards to protocol. Otherwise they wouldn’t have lied about it. But if you recall, the compound was lined with traps and the guys were armed. Cold blooded, or not, it was also a bit of self defense. Seeing the kidnapped kids, just made them think they found their guys.
They weren’t supposed to go in without backup I think was how it started, and I’ll give you the guy killing himself on the trap was his own fault entirely, but you can’t really be arguing that shooting a guy on his knees in handcuffs was in any way ‘self defense’?
If you remember, the scene leading up to it, Marty was arguing for calling in backup. They both knew going in, they were in the wrong. Also, not saying they could have played the self defense card unless they lied about the situation, which they did. What I am saying is, that after seeing the compound, the traps, and how these guys are armed, also without knowing how many people are situated there, killing these guys was just about self preservation as it was about vigilante justice. Had the one guy get away, it could have been one AK-47 in his hands, that would have ended the situation in a whole other direction.
Those are some pretty hardcore mental gymnastics. They were extremely flawed characters so I lay that decision more towards doing what anyone would have done (but what a cop absolutely should never do), and Harrelson’s character was extremely angry through the entire show anyway—until the last episode when he finally breaks down.I was really thinking about Cohle’s character through the rewatch last week (only my second time watching it). He’s a great and fascinating character to watch, but I doubt very few people would want to be around him more than a few minutes at a time. I don’t know many nihilists in real life, but likely because they’re the sort of people you leave after being around for a minute or two…
No hardcore gymnastics involved. You’re more or less saying what I was saying. They saw the lay out of the land, the environment that they were intruding on and doing what anyone in that situation would have done(other than breaking down and doing nothing). Which is what I was saying, self preservation. They both knew they were going off book already. They also did not know anything about the area, or how many people they were dealing with. Everything about the situation was impulsive and not well thought out. Hence I was saying a “bit of self defense” due to uncertainty of the situation rather than an all-out retaliation. Regardless, don’t take my use of the term “self defense” that concretely. Cohle is a great character. I enjoyed watching his character journey even though I didn’t love where his character winds up mentally at the end. Mind you, I love the sentiment, just thought it came across too abruptly, from how deep of an abyss his character had been throughout. His acting in the scene was great though, just wished there was one more scene or maybe something other than Cohle having the vision of a black hole, before that monologue at the end.
Weird how the reviewer totally omitted the pretty important fact that the “Murder-Suicide” was actually a Murder, and that the bad guy was alive and happily humming when the Dynamic Duo arrived. One of them obviously killed him and made it look like a suicide.But the “Right Question” is: WHY the tension between the Danvers & Navarro? Shouldn’t they be bonded by the secret, like Cohle & Hart were in THEIR murder coverup? I have to guess that the non-shooter in the pair didn’t approve. I’m guessing that Danvers was the killer, being that Navarro has such an upright morality.
Yeah, plus they mention something about Navarro having a thing about abusers in the first episode (which makes sense given what we learned about her childhood tonight) so it’s set up for a perfect bait-and-switch.
I agree. Also the beatles whistling didn’t help either. Probably why she shot him
The reviewer also says Navarro found the orange out on the ice. She actually picked it up from a bunch of oranges dropped by the hillbillies in the beginning, and stuffed it in her coat. She then pulled it out on the ice and threw it into the darkness. Then it seemingly was thrown or rolled right back at her.
If the captions are to be trusted, he’s humming “Twist & Shout”, which could explain why Danvers is so down on that tune.
Was he? I missed that!
In a very minor key. yes.
lol that is so stupid. We saw an earlier flashback with Danvers and her deceased son, lovingly playing together with Twist & Shout on the radio in the background, which gave more than enough context for her discomfort with hearing it again. Having a criminal also ominously whistle it at her is just ridiculous. A hat on a hat.
Between this, the Ferris Bueller scene, and the dead guys in the ice literally twisted up and shouting, I’m wondering what this malevolent spirit has against the Beatles.
Carcosa is renowned for their love of Elvis.The Yellow KING, for example.
They know what they did.
Interesting. Did not pick up on the tune. Which ties in to the Ferris Buehler reference in ep 1.
YES
I really thought they had a past romantic connection…still think maybe. They have that tense chemistry.
I feel like Navarro is more likely to be the killer. She’s more chaotic good, with trouble controlling her emotions, playing mindgames with her lover, and pouring beer into some douchebag’s gas tank. Danvers is highly judgmental of her, looking down on her and shooing her away like a mosquito when Navarro tries to get involved in a job she no longer has. Her inability to temper her impulse behavior makes it seem likely to me that Danvers pressured her to quit.
But the “Right Question” is: WHY the tension between the Danvers & Navarro? Shouldn’t they be bonded by the secret, like Cohle & Hart were in THEIR murder coverup? Unlike Cohle, Danvers has a helluva lot of history in the town, and it’s a tiny town – everyone knows everyone. As I said last week, she’s narcissistic, selfish, arrogant – a classic example of an only child! – and racist and a homewrecker to boot. She basically pisses everyone off. It’s heavily implied that the only reason she’s still on the force is because she’s fucking her boss. As Navarre said “Everyone hates you.”Navarre also said in the first or second ep that it’s only a matter of time before Danvers breaks that Prior kid’s heart too, so I’m guessing Danvers was kind of a mentor to Navarre until she fucked things up with Navarre, and moved on to someone else.
am i the only one getting a massive colin-from-mare-of-easttown hit off of sol star’s son? that poor kid is a doomed smacked ass.
Let’s talk about those oranges: There are a few in the opening credits, and now Navarro finds a whole one out on the ice while searching for Clark. She throws the fruit out into the glacial darkness, and it freakily comes rolling right back. Are we following Coppola rules here? If so, Evie, you in danger, girl.There’s very similar scenes with bouncing balls in both Kubrick’s The Shining and Peter Medak’s The Changeling. Speaking of The Changeling, a lot of people are comparing this season to Twin Peaks but it’s reminding me of another George C. Scott film Blatty’s The Exorcist III. That scene with scientist sitting up from his coma and speaking to Navarro (presumably while being possessed) could have easily fit into that film, the way it blends a traditional murder mystery/thriller with random hints of the supernatural/fantastic (it ends in a full on exorcism, but that’s because the studio forced Blatty’s hand, the scripted ending was much more ambiguous).
This one felt like the most overt horror homage with the orange rolling back, the scientist seemingly getting possessed, and the “quid pro quo” bit. I couldn’t help but cackle at the possession voice—The Exorcist/Exorcist III came to mind too—from a combination of the creepy surprise and how over the top demon-y it was.
Speaking of oranges, I didn’t think she found them on the ice – I think they rolled out of the truck of the search party dudes at the beginning, and Navarro picked one up. Later, she pulled it out of her pocket and discarded it on the ice, and it came rolling back weirdly.But I could be mistaken. I was thinking, “those oranges are probably super expensive – don’t throw them away!”
Yep, I definitely remember the hillbillies dropping oranges before the search party kicked off
The oranges also turn up in a really funny death scene in Breaking Bad (RIP Ted).
He doesn’t die, actually. Skyler visits him in the hospital and he’s all fucked up.
right, i forgot that punchline
The Changeling is like the most underrated/unknown horror movie of all time. It’s up there in my personal pantheon with The Shining, The Exorcist, The Omen, etc. Joooooooooooseephhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Weakest of the episodes so far.The most interesting development was the one missed entirely in this review, which is the coverup between Danvers and Navarro. One problem with this, though, is that it doesn’t entirely fit into what we’ve seen with the power dynamics demonstrated between the two so far; you’d figure that if one needs to lean on the other hard, this would always be in the background. I’m actually more curious what Hank has on Danvers that enables him to keep his job, since the two clearly despise each other. Probably support from the mining company, but like a few things, that’s just been told rather than shown.Otherwise, a lot of supernatural stuff and cliches that were honestly a bit boring. Navarro got some character development, Pete’s all set up to die heroically/horribly so Hank and Pete’s wife can team up to blame Danvers, the indigenous dynamic was reduced a bit to “Mine bad, caribou good since we can’t afford groceries,” the vet served as more infodump than comic relief, and we now have cranky awakened ice momma as more of a suspect than Clark. Also, if you didn’t have subtitles on, you might have missed the “Help us” whisper when the orange came bouncing back.I’d have preferred that it spent more time building on the character development that got revealed last episode than all this; the show isn’t where I’d expect it at the halfway point.
Woof, halfway through. The end can’t come any quicker.
No offense, but you are terrible at watching television, and therefore, probably shouldn’t be reviewing a complicated show like this one. Clark was never a part of the corpsicle. Why do you continue to think this?Danvers clearly says “they were both dead when we got there” about the Wheeler murder, which is contradicted by her flashback where the murderous shitbag is whistling, meaning either Danvers or Navarro shot the prick and covered it up, leading to their falling out. And finally in your epic misreadings, there is no reason to believe that the “she” Lund was speaking of is Navarro’s mother. It was just the emissary of whatever supernatural evil is responsible taunting her with the memory of her murdered mother. It is far more likely that the “she” in question is Annie Kowtawk herself, although even that conjecture is specious at best. Pay more attention ffs.
I am one hundred percent certain they watch these shows glued to their phone, scrolling through tiktok. car door slams on screen“Huh? Was that a gunshot? OK, note to self, someone got shot fifteen minutes in.”
Also, the recap acts like the orange came from nowhere, when you can clearly see the hillbillies drop a bunch of oranges, one of which is picked up by Navarro and stuffed into her coat. She later throws it into the dark and it rolls back.Weird that they would be so haphazard about oranges, if Oreos are $20, I can only imagine how expensive oranges are out there.
Just a random note about the price conversation—I know it’s a way to tell people not familiar with the region that prices are really high, but why set it up with Navarro acting like she just noticed?I am enjoying the show generally, but it is very straightforward in it’s style–meaning it’s pretty clear what the narrative purpose of each dollop of information is for.
Since it wasn’t brought up in the review—Danvers went to a gathering to mourn the stillborn child, yeah? Seems like she has a soft spot for young kids because of her son dying(??), similar to Navarro’s doggedness in cases with abused women. I wondered if she went to the gathering because of that striking a chord (she appeared particularly stunned when Leah brought it up) or guilt about how she’s handling things with Leah. Or maybe they showed up for her whenever it was she lost her son and husband. Also curious as to her motivation behind being so forceful about Leah taking off the fake tattoo. Is it because of Annie K—as that shot of her looking at the photo after their fight implied—and seeing similarly tattooed Indigenous women get fucked over, or is it something more personal?
That was what I gathered, re: the tattoo. Tribal identifiers may be a target, in her mind. It’s easy to assume she’s racist, and she still may be, but that scene makes me think it goes even deeper.
I was confused about Danvers being so anti indigenous signifier. I do think it’s maybe as simple as an association with murder victims.
Part of it might stem from the previous episode, where she called someone a “laundromat grandma” and associating hardcore cult-ured people with social failure in western society, wanting her stepdaughter to have a future outside of a wasteland like Ennis. No matter how woke people think they are, they’re less likely to hire people with a face tattoo.
I’d say she’s a racist, but she doesn’t think of herself as one, natch. She comes across as more paternalistic, condescending. She adopted Leah to raise her as white, and thinks that all Natives should act white, and that, as a white person, she has to baby them, save them from themselves.
Yeah, I interpret it as Danvers believing that Leah forming a connection to her heritage instead of “moving forward” (as she sees it) as being harmful, but not realizing or caring about how making Leah disconnected to her family/culture is messing her up too. Like she’s thinking “white is right” but on a somewhat unaware level like you’re saying, where she’s believes this is the right way without considering why. And it also spiraled off her fears for Leah going to a protest.
Yeah, it’s the old “What? Whites gave them running water and electricity and mobile phones and now they don’t have to live like savages any more- that’s a good thing!” line.
The Jacinta Price Special, basically.I don’t think she hates natives on some sort of visceral, fundamental irrational – I can’t see her joining the Klan or whatever it’s tundra equivalent is – but Danvers does mock and condescend them because, as we’ve seen, that’s pretty much her go-to tool for getting any to do things she wants. She sorta treats them with the same “Why don’t you people do better instead of choosing to fuck up your lives, you dumbasses?” – similar to how she dealt with that drunk driver who T-boned her and Leah. Pity and contempt.Which is, of course, still racist as fuck.She’s only ever known the Inupiat as impoverished, marginalised – and whites as not – so the conclusion she draws is Inupiat-ness is the cause of being impoverished. In a perverse way, she’s not wrong, but only because that attitude of hers, and other’s, is what causes impoverishment – that in order to be Inupiat you have to be impoverished, that it’s somehow a requirement of the lifestyle.It’s a common thing with colonisers and the colonised: you’re not fucked up because you’ve been colonised, you’re fucked up because you’re not like the colonisers. It’s another interesting layer to Danvers: she’s a good detective, but can’t figure that out, and that’s one of the reason I find her compelling.
My theory is that most of the supernatural happenings will prove to be caused by the microorganisms that were being studied by the Tsalal group breaking free of their frozen prisons and somehow infecting everyone’s brains.Also this recap gets some serious details wrong:- The murder-suicide wasn’t actually a murder-suicide.- Clark (I’m pretty sure) wasn’t ever in the Corpsicle. Hank says he was last seen wearing a pink coat, but everyone in the Corpsicle was naked. So it seems like he was only assumed to have been frozen.- The orange Navarro has wasn’t found on the ice, it was dropped by the hillbillies in the trucks. Navarro picks it up, then tosses it into the dark later, and it comes rolling back.
Microorganisms.Sounds like ‘Smila’s Sense of Snow’
Did the research microorganisms also cause Fiona Shaw to see her dead husband several times over the years? Or for the dude in the hospital to defy his health condition briefly and know things about Navarro?
It depends on how widespread and “magic” the show wants these microorganisms to be. Perhaps they are infecting not only the Tsalal researchers, but others including Fiona Shaw and Navarro to varying degrees. Causing Navarro to see the researcher talk to her about her mother, or causing Shaw’s character to see her dead lover.Perhaps these are not even hallucinations but rather “manifestations” of the microorganisms, giving characters information the only way they know how. The show hasn’t established what these mystery organisms are, only that they have unknown properties which make them remarkable.The fact that Ennis has a history of people “seeing ghosts” might indicate that the microorganisms have been “leaking” into the populace for a long time to a small degree, manifesting as ghostly apparitions or messages from beyond.
Did you… did you somehow not pick up on the blatantly obvious and explicitly illustrated point that it was not a murder-suicide, he was alive when they arrived, and one of them obviously killed him? How does that not get mentioned here? How do you fail to grasp that? Can we have someone who isn’t an apparent moron do these recaps? Ffs… somehow don’t grasp or mention the most important part of the episode, in spite of it being made as glaringly obvious as possible…
“How has it taken this long for an HBO series to figure out how to light night scenes without making us question our eyesight?”
GOT s8 called. I didn’t answer. If it’s important they will leave a message… or send a raven.
lol cool they lifted the “lying about killing someone in a flashback” thing from season 1, only this time it doesn’t matter at all? And it’s really stupid?I also hate the fake lens flares on the cars and head lamps. terrible! This show is garbage!
I’ve so seldom seen John Hawkes play an asshole. It’s kinda distressing.
Two big errors or weird takes in this article: the Wheeler case, a messy murder-suicide between a repeat criminal and his 18-year-old girlfriend. After a long history of abuse, “we knew how it was gonna end, but there was nothing we could do,” Liz rues. “And then we got the call.” Navarro took their failure particularly hard, and things turned so ugly between the police partners that Evangeline was transferred over to the troopers.Er, no… it is clearly shown that the “suicide” was no such thing and the killer was still alive when they arrived. So they clearly killed the guy and there’s something that went down in that scenario that has made the two detectives’ relationship frosty (pun intended). Also: “We woke her, and now she’s out there in the ice. She came for us in the dark.” Who is “she”? Danvers doesn’t find out, as she’s pulled out to break up a fight happening in the waiting room, but Navarro chillingly does. “Your mother says hello,” Lund croaks out right before he flat-lines. “She’s waiting for you.”No, Navarro didn’t find out shit; they’re not saying it was Navarro’s mom who killed all the scientists, just that whatever is possessing Lund is speaking from beyond the grave, where her mom is too.
I had high hopes for this show, and no, it’s not bad, but it’s not really… good, either. It’s serviceable. I started watching the episode last night thinking, how many more episodes before it’s over. As much as I wanted something that would tie into season 1, I kinda regret that now, seeing the direction they took it. The cast is pretty damn good though, wish the material they had to work with was a little better.
Only my opinion, but this entire episode seems like a step backwards for the show. The pacing was glacial and too much backstory.
Yeah, a little too much (and sudden) exposition for my taste, but I guess you have to get a bunch of stuff out there. The thing is, they’re probably both unreliable narrators, so what about Navarro’s story about her childhood is maybe not quite true?
I think the Navarro’s childhood story is meant to spread the idea that if she has supernatural encounters, it could just be her family’s history of “loco.”
Orange thrown back at you from the darkness, while you’re out there specifically to looking for someone may as well ignore it and go do something else. I like this show but I’m having some trouble suspending disbelief at some plot elements. How did they not notice Clark wasn’t one of the corpsicles before? Seems like they had a count of the bodies.