The episode begins with Liz and Navarro chipping their way into the cave. Navarro leads Liz through a Narrow path, Navarro is certain that whatever they’re looking for is that way. They get to the other end of the path and it’s blocked off. Navarro claims “She is calling to us,” then falls through the ice, down to another level of the cave.
This is when they find Raymond Clarke, before he runs off. As they are searching through Raymond’s things in the cave, they find a ladder that leads into the Tsalal Station from the cave. As Liz is searching through the station for Raymond, he traps her in a freezer. He then hits Navarro with a fire extinguisher, knocking her unconscious. Liz breaks out of the freezer and finds Navarro beating Raymond to a pulp.
Liz mentions that due to the bad signal and the weather they are stuck there. Navarro and Liz interrogate Raymond. They tape headphones to Raymond’s ears to make him listen to the Annie video over and over again until he talks.
Leah shows up to Liz’s house and finds Pete just as he’s finished cleaning. Pete drives Leah back to Kayla’s and he admits to Kayla that he has done something bad, and needs to fix it but he needs her help. She kisses him and then he drives off.
Raymond decides he wants to talk, and tells Liz and Navarro that they were digging in the caves for DNA in the permafrost that could save the world, and that they cracked it. However, they needed the mine because the mine was producing pollutants, and these pollutants would soften the ice, making it easier for the scientists to do their experiments.
Raymond then tells the true story of what happened to Annie. One night she came into the station and destroyed all of their work. Lund, one of the scientists, lost it and snapped, stabbing her. Raymond got him off of her, but the other scientists came in and finished the job. Navarro mentions her tongue being cut out and Raymond said that wasn’t them. Then he reveals the cop they sent to help move the body, who was Hank, must’ve cut out her tongue.
Then Liz tells Navarro that she was about to do it herself. Navrro inquires “Kill Raymond?” and Liz responds, “No, Wheeler.” This is when we finally see the scene of what happened the night of the Wheeler incident. It was Navarro who shot him. Raymond then tells Navarro and Liz that Annie killed the scientists, and he knew she would come for them so he hid. He also mentions he never saw what happened to the scientists because he was too afraid to come out.
Liz takes a break from the interrogation and returns to find Navarro alone. She let Raymond walk outside in the cold where he froze to death. Liz can’t sleep, so she goes to look for Navarro, who is walking out onto the Ice. We see what Navarro is seeing now, and she seems to be in her war flashback setting. She hears faint screams and continues walking. A hand reaches out and connects with hers, and tells her her tribal name.
Then, Liz hears Holden call out to her, and she sees his hand bang against the underside of the ice. She goes to break it and falls through, seemingly drowning before Navarro saves her. Liz wakes back up and asks Navarro what Holden told her. Navarro tells Liz that Holden sees her.
Later, Pete and Rose successfully get rid of Hank’s body by dropping him into the ice. Rose warns Pete that the worst part of it all is still yet to come.
After discovering a last-minute clue, Liz and Navarro find the true killer of the scientists. The women of the native tribe, and the cleaners at Tsalal station, found out what the scientists were doing, and they also found out they killed Annie. The women were the ones who took vengeance for Annie into their own hands and killed the Tslal station men. Liz and Navarro close the case and protect the women. It seems like Navarro leaves in the end, walking out onto the ice. She leaves a video confession from Raymond about the mine. Liz continues to be chief of police and connects with Leah. Pete is back with his family as well. Then we see Navarro with Liz in the final shot, making it ambiguous as to whether exactly Navarro is there or not.
All in All, True Detective: Night Country was a solid, detective noir series, within the True Detective world. The performances throughout, the intrigue, the supernatural elements, the eerie elements, all were good. But that being said, this ending was a slight letdown. The last twenty minutes or so were very rushed. Wrapping up the whole case and giving all of our characters satisfying send-offs in twenty minutes made it feel very jumbled and rushed. The pacing of this episode could have been better and perhaps could’ve used one more episode to wrap things up. The show as a whole was worth the watch, but audiences beware, the ending may not satisfy all.
Rating: 6/10