In True Detective: Night Country, two police officers investigate a strange case of missing men in the haunting town of Ennis, Alaska. The fourth season is now streaming on Max.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
On December 17, the small town of Ennis in Alaska witnesses the last sunset of the year. At Tsalal Arctic Research Station, Raymond Clark says to one of his colleagues, “She’s awake,” before the lights go out.
All eight researchers at Tsalal disappear, and A.P.F. Officer Elizabeth Danvers, also known as Liz, and her team are called to the scene to investigate the case.
A tongue is discovered at the scene. It attracts the attention of former A.P.F. officer and now trooper, Evangeline Navarro.
Navarro firmly believes that it is an Inupiaq woman’s tongue. She likes to think it is Anne Masu Kowtok’s tongue. Anne Masu Kowtok, also known as Annie K, was killed six years ago, and her murderer was never found.
Navarro took that case personally and crossed lines, which resulted in her being demoted to trooper.
Liz and Navarro don’t really get along. Apart from the evidence, Navarro also believes in the supernatural, which is considered very common in a town like Ennis.
Liz is convinced that the Tsalal men’s case is possibly connected to Annie’s case when she sees a researcher wearing Annie’s coat in one of the pictures.
In the meantime, Rose Aguineau, a fellow resident of Ennis, finds the bodies of Tsalal men with the help of the ghost of her partner, Travis Cohle.
The Tsalal men are naked and frozen. One of them has a spiral sign on his head. Rose thinks the sign is older than Ennis, and probably older than ice. She instructs Navarro to investigate it.
Raymond Clark has the same sign tattooed on his chest. The tattoo artist also sends images that feature Annie along with Clark.
Annie and Clark were together. Navarro struggles to digest how she didn’t know about their relationship. She soon remembers that Clark had bought a trailer, where they must have hung out to keep their affair a secret.
Inside the trailer, Navarro discovers voodoo stuff, Annie’s phone, and a big spiral sign on the top. Also, Clark’s body is missing among the ones the cops have found. Clark is alive and out there.
Navarro and Liz eventually find out that Susan, a hairdresser and friend of Annie, did know about Annie and Clark’s relationship. Even Susan was dating a Tsalal scientist named Oliver Tagaq.
Tagaq left right before Annie’s death. Liz and Navarro locate Tagaq. He is shocked to learn about his colleagues’ deaths and is defensive. He kicks Navarro and Liz out of his cabin.
The data on Annie’s phone has been recovered. Her last video is of her getting caught inside what looks like a cave.
Liz compares the video to another video found on one of Tsalal’s men’s phones. The Tsalal men’s video is of Clark saying, “She’s awake.”
In both videos, the lights go out at the end, but Annie seems to be in a cave. Since Tagaq is an equipment engineer, he must have put a generator in that cave.
Peter, an officer working under Liz, and Navarro head to pick up Tagaq, but they find him gone. They discover the spiral sign at his location too.
Clark is eventually spotted. However, upon chasing this lead, Liz and Navarro find Otis Heiss instead. Peter had dug up information on Otis when finding people with similar injuries as Tsalal men.
Otis is the man who has mapped the cave systems of Ennis. When questioned about Clark, Otis claims that Clark is in Night Country.
Kate McKittrick, the owner of Silver Sky Mining, the mine Annie was protesting against, realizes that Liz is getting closer to the truth.
With the help of Liz’s senior, Connelly, she stops Liz from further investigating the Tsalal men’s case by presenting reports that suggest these men died because of a weather event.
By now, Peter and Liz have found out that Kate’s mine bankrolls Tsalal. In return, Tsalal pushes bogus pollution numbers for the mine.
Knowing that Liz won’t stop, Kate sends Hank, another officer and Peter’s father, to hunt down Otis Heiss. After all, Otis has mapped the cave systems. Only he can take Liz to the cave where Annie died.
Ending explained:
Night Country and the spiral signs
Navarro finds out from a resident of Ennis that the spiral signs are where the gateway to underground ice caves, which are called Night Country, exist. Navarro learns how to enter the Night Country.
Hank successfully kills Otis right in front of Liz, but he fails to proceed with his plan as his son, Peter, who is unlike him, chooses not to be by his side.
Peter kills Hank when he tries to point his gun at Liz. Peter decides to take care of Hank and Otis’ bodies, while Liz and Navarro enter Night Country.
The truth about Annie’s death
Upon entering Night Country, Liz and Navarro discover Tsalal’s secret base, where Annie died. A ladder in the cave takes them to the Tsalal Arctic Research Station.
Eventually, they find Raymond Clark and tie him up. Clark is tortured and interrogated. He blames himself for Annie’s death.
The Tsalal scientists were digging for the DNA of microorganisms that can help them cure diseases like cancer.
The Tsalal scientists had managed to find that cure. However, they were only able to do it because the pollution from the mine helped them extract the DNA much faster and with less damage.
Clark denies that they were pushing bogus numbers for Silver Sky Mining. They were pushing the mine to produce more pollutants.
Annie discovered what they were up to. She destroyed all the work Tsalal scientists had done, which made the scientists angry.
Annie didn’t stop attacking, prompting the scientists to come together to beat her. Clark tells Navarro that he would never hurt Annie.
He says the other scientists finished the job, but the truth is that he is the one who finished it with a heavy heart. Later, Hank moved Annie’s body.
Navarro mentions that the scientists also cut out her tongue, but Clark claims that they didn’t do that.
The truth about Tsalal mens’ deaths
Liz and Navarro are forced to stay at Tsalal for the night due to the snowstorm outside. They further ask Clark about the Tsalal mens’ deaths.
Clark claims that he kept seeing Annie after her death. It was Annie who killed all the scientists. While they were being killed, he hid under the hatch to their cave and held the handle tight.
Annie kept knocking on that door, but he held it tight. According to Clark, Annie is a supernatural spirit. She has been hiding in that cave forever.
Clark meets his end by escaping and throwing himself into the snowstorm. Later, Liz remembers that someone kept trying to open the hatch under which Clark was hiding.
Liz and Navarro retrieve the fingerprint on the hatch. It leads them to the cleaners, who used to work at Tsalal from time to time.
The cleaners found out about Annie’s death after six years when one of them discovered the presence of a hatch under the Tsalal Arctic Research Station.
In the cave, they found reports of Annie’s death. The cleaners knew reporting to the cops wouldn’t have made a difference.
Hence, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They raided the place with guns.
While Clark came to believe that Annie had returned and hid under the hatch, the cleaners took the Tsalal men hostage, forced them to strip naked, and made them run in the snowstorm.
Beatrice, who led the crew, says they didn’t leave the Tsalal men’s clothes too far away. The Tsalal men would have survived the storm, but a supernatural spirit took them, says Beatrice.
The aftermath
The cleaners say this is just the story they have. Liz and Navarro decide not to arrest the cleaners. Liz chooses to go with the report Kate and Connelly presented, which suggests the Tsalal men died due to a weather event.
The sun dawns upon Ennis again. Liz is interviewed and explains the deaths of Otis and Hank. Peter has taken care of all of this with the help of Rose.
Liz tells the authorities that her best guess is that Hank killed Otis, and Hank died while disposing of Otis’ body in the blizzard.
It is suggested that Trooper Navarro disappeared into the ice, as she had wished earlier.
Trooper Navarro leaves behind the toy of Liz’s son, Holden, who haunts Liz. Navarro has also left behind a video recording. It is the confession of Raymond Clark regarding the pollution created by Silver Sky Mining.
The video has now been leaked. Liz says she doesn’t know who leaked it. There are reports of sightings of Navarro. Liz claims this is Ennis; nobody ever leaves.
Also Read: Kate McKittrick: True Detective: Night Country character explained