Yahoo News ‘True Detective’ Review: Episode 1 Conjures a Chilly, Mysterious Welcome to ‘Night Country’ — Spoilers
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “True Detective” Season 4, Episode 1, “Part 1.” Welcome to Night Country.]
Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) is having a shit day. Her step-daughter, Leah (Isabella LaBlanc), got caught having sex with her 16-year-old girlfriend… on camera. On the drive home, a drunk driver nearly T-boned them, which also sparked traumatic memories of her husband and son’s deaths (presumably, at the hands of another driver under the influence). Hank (John Hawkes), the former captain she replaced, is throwing up roadblocks to their investigation. His son, Pete (Finn Bennet), is her only reliable deputy. Her fantasy football team is all banged up and, oh yeah, there’s a group of missing scientists who, it turns out, froze to death in the cold, dark, Alaskan night.
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Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) is also having a shit day. Her first call on the radio was to make sure a man who beats his wife wasn’t accidentally killed by her best friend. Later, she gets a call from a concerned colleague about her sister, who’s seeing things (again) and lives in fear of becoming their mother (who, we can safely presume, also suffered from mental illness). Sure, she gets to have a little fun with her sweet sex buddy Qavvik (Joel D. Montgrand), but is a souvenir Spongebob toothbrush enough to make up for the racist shit she gets from her old partner Danvers? And does it make her feel better about the six-year-old unsolved murder case she’s still obsessed with solving? And can it comfort her after seeing all those dead scientists frozen into the ground?
I dare to contend it will not. Episode 1 of “True Detective” Season 4, aka “Night Country,” does a bang-up job introducing its two leads, prioritizing our investment in their troubled lives over the teased disappearance and deaths of their primary investigation. Creator, showrunner, co-writer, and director Issa López — taking over for Nic Pizzolatto, who ran the previous three seasons — knows that the core story engine is rooted in character, even more than moody atmospherics and labyrinthine mysteries. The case can wait. What matters is the detectives. And even on their worst day (or maybe because of it?), these are two instantly charismatic detectives.
Danvers and Navarro (two excellent cop character names in a series known for much wilder choices) are the most tantalizing aspects of Episode 1. The captain proves she’s more than a good detective, but a true Subway sandwich artist, when she calmly, coolly corrects the timetable Hank came to based on the “fresh” cold cuts left out on the kitchen counter. “We’re late to the party already,” she says, arguing the scientists have been gone for at least 48 hours. “Ham on the sandwich may seem fresh, but the mayo’s like syrup, and mayo doesn’t go runny until a couple days out of the fridge. […] The things you learn when your kid leaves their lunch in the backseat of the car.” Sure, Danvers throws a little sass his way about not making sandwiches for his kids, but he’s stepping on her toes. A little pushback his warranted, especially when this wannabe man-splainer is flat-out wrong.
Later, we see that her observation skills extend beyond expired edibles, when she identifies a coat worn by one of the scientists as the same one worn by Annie K, a woman killed in the area six years ago whose killer was never found. Navarro, who was already thinking about Annie K. when she heard about the disembodied tongue on the floor of the vacant research lab (Annie also had a missing tongue), jumps all over Danvers’ astute connection, but their sweep of the station comes up empty. It’s actually Rose Aguineau (Fiona F’n Shaw) who finds the scientists, with a little help from a ghost. Introduced while disemboweling a wolf, outside, wearing nothing but a sweater, the bloodied Rose spots a man in the distance who she recognizes. “Hello Travis,” she says, before following him out into the ice. Later, when Navarro asks Rose how she discovered the dead scientists in the middle of nowhere, Rose simply says, “Travis showed me.” “Travis is dead,” Navarro replies. “I know,” Rose says, and calmly walks off.
OK, so now we’re in love with three women in “Night Country,” and don’t you dare make us choose a favorite. Danvers is the grizzled hard-ass who bends the system to her will, even when she and it are both nearly broken. (Calling a drunk weeping mother a “fucking bitch” may not be listed word-for-word in the police officer’s code of conduct, but it’s how Danvers gets the job done.) Navarro is the rogue agent who doesn’t play by the rules, whether that’s arresting the “victim” in a domestic violence situation or, later, pouring enough Bailey’s Irish Cream into his gas tank to fuck up his holiday. And Rose? Well, we don’t know enough about Rose to say who she is exactly, but aren’t you dying to find out? While that’s the case with just about any character embodied by the great Fiona Shaw, “Night Country’s” investment in its characters is what carries the premiere — and will pay dividends in the weeks to come.
(I even care about little Petey, the boyish officer torn between his figurative Captain Mommy and actual Deputy Daddy. While I think he’s already adopted the right role model — always side with the parent who feeds you — I fear his marriage is already doomed. If you’re a wife in a cop show, you can’t tell your hubby that “work ends at 6 p.m.” He has a case to solve, Kayla! He’s trying to prove himself, Kayla! Don’t pick this fight, Kayla!)
Still, there’s more than just grounded archetypes and strong performances to hook wary viewers. “Night Country” is a holiday show — a winter wonderland filled with falling snow and decorated with holiday lights, not to mention the repressed trauma any Catholic (lapsed or otherwise) will always associate with Christmas time. There’s Navarro’s gruesome flashback to her last tour of duty, where a fellow soldier is missing half her head; Danvers’ fleeting memory of her family’s car accident, triggered by the broken glass she steps on when walking over to the drunk driver. Add in whatever caused the two former colleagues to go their separate ways — Danvers says Navarro was too obsessed with finding Annie K, but there’s got to me more going on there than just a disagreement over priorities — and “True Detective: Night Country” has all the hallmarks of past seasons.
So grab a blanket, settle in, and let’s ride out this long stretch of night better than those caribou did in the opening scene. Now they had a bad day.
Grade: B+
Case Notes:
• Speaking of the opening: I went over this a bit in my spoiler-free review of Season 4, but the quote that kicks of “Night Country” comes straight from Robert Chambers’ 1895 horror collection, “The King in Yellow,” which was a major influence on Season 1’s Carcosa storyline. It’s safe to say there will be more overlap with “True Detective” Season 1 in the weeks to come.
• So… why did the caribou act like lemmings and leap to their death? Were they chasing the setting sun? Were they scared off by the hunter? And were they actually Santa’s reindeer, heading out to make their Christmas deliveries? Let’s go with the latter (for now).
• “She’s awake.” Those two words surfaced three times during Episode 1. First, when the terrified, trembling research scientist turns to his buddy and says, “She’s awake,” right before the lights go out. Later, Danvers hears them while sleeping, from the voice of a little boy (presumably her deceased son), just before Navarro hears them over the radio right before seeing a giant, one-eyed polar bear. Who is she? What does it mean that she’s awake? Why are all these different people hearing from her at different times? No idea. But I can’t wait to find out… or not. Supernatural elements are a recurring theme in “True Detective,” and this could be one of those eerie moments that’s never factually explicable.
• Why does Danvers hate the Beatles? As soon as she enters the research station and hears “Shake It Up, Baby” blaring over the TV speakers, she frantically scrambles to shut it off — with no explanation given, besides “I’m not a Beatles fan, OK?” Well, OK then. I’m not either! Solidarity!
• “What are they looking for, digging all that ice up?”
“I think… the origin of life?”
“Oh, that thing.”
– Hell yes. “True Detective” + enormous existential pursuits = butts in seats. Here we goooooo!
• “Do you believe in God, Agent Navarro?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mind if I ask why?”
“…doesn’t matter.”
“Must be nice. Knowing we’re not alone.”
“No, we’re alone. God, too.”
– Hell YES. “True Detective” + nihilistic interpretations of faith = butts in SEATS. Let’s f’n gooooo!!
“True Detective” Season 4, “Night Country,” releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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