This episode opens with a flashback to seven years ago. In this flashback, we meet Annie who’s delivering a baby at the last birthing center in the region. Navarro is there to arrest her for trespassing, but she ends up watching the birth of this child. At first, once the baby is delivered, she struggles to breathe, and Annie along with another woman is performing CPR. After a minute the baby begins crying, and all the women in the room breathe a sigh of relief.
Back in the present day, the police begin their search for Raymond Clarke. Liz requests Pete to put in a request for Navarro to be transferred. Pete seized this opportunity to ask Liz about what happened between her and Navarro. Liz opens up and tells Pete about this case involving a man named William Wheeler. Wheeler was involved with an 18-year-old girl and would beat her but always had an excuse when the cops showed up. Finally, Liz and Navarro got the call and were going in to get him for good, but when they showed up it was too late. He had already killed the girl and then himself. Navarro blamed Liz, saying they could’ve done more.
With Navarro back with Liz, they examine the evidence from Clarke’s trailer. They find a photo with blue hair dye on it and go to investigate a hairdresser who was close to Annie. The hairdresser tells them that she was the one who introduced Annie to Ray and that they hit it off immediately. The hairdresser also mentions that the symbol that Annie had tattooed on her back was from high school. She was having bad dreams involving that symbol and as soon as she got the tattoo the dreams stopped. Navarro asks if there was any weird behavior from Clarke. The hairdresser said the only thing that was weird about them was from Annie, as she didn’t want anyone to know about their relationship. The last thing the hairdresser said was that she was seeing someone who worked at Tsalal station, an engineer named Oliver.
Navarro and Liz get to talking on the car ride back. They are talking about the case and all the evidence, and finally, Navarro implies that what they’re looking for might not be such a simple answer. Liz rejects any idea that it could involve voodoo or ghosts or spirits. This shows Navarro’s more spiritual side and how Liz is the complete opposite of that.
Navarro goes to Qavvik for answers about Oliver, and Leah attends a rally to protest the mine. After Navarro leaves Qavvik, she sees someone out on the ice. As she goes to run after the person she slips, falls, and hits her head on the ice. She sits up in a different setting and sees the hands of a child holding a polar bear toy, and the child whispers “Tell my mommy” and then Navarro wakes up. She gets a call that her sister had another episode, and she drives off.
Pete returns home and is still dealing with the fact that he doesn’t spend enough time at home with his wife and kid. His wife tells him that he’s always running off as soon as Liz calls him. Sure enough, Liz calls him after this fight, and Pete is needed. He calls in his cousin, who is a vet who’s worked with frozen animals. He tells Liz that these scientists all died before they froze and that it also looks like they died from fright. This is when Navarro returns with information on Oliver. She and Liz run off to go question him. They come face to face with Oliver who was unaware that his former co-workers had died, and he grieves for a moment.
Liz is called into the hospital where the scientist that survived is now awake. He’s screaming how they woke “her” and that “she” is in the ice. The nurse eventually sedates the scientist. Navarro gets a moment alone with him and he sits up in his bed and tells Navarro that her mother says hello and is waiting to speak with her. This hints at Navarro also being able to hear the dead just like her mom and sister. The episode ends with Pete cracking into Annie’s phone, watching the last video taken on it. Annie says she’s found it, and then we hear screaming and static.
All in all, this was another good episode of True Detective. Progressing the plot nicely, and adding to each character’s story. Even going as far as potentially intertwining these characters, mainly with Navarro and Liz. Navarro seeing a child holding a polar bear toy could mean many different things, but it could mean that Navarro has communicated with Liz’s son. True Detective: Night Country has set itself up for a fascinating second half. Some questions were answered, but they still left more for audiences to desire.
Rating: 8/10