Well shit. That was certainly an effective way to end the penultimate episode of True Detective: Night Country. Do I totally buy that Danvers was able to finally get out of her own way to decide to accept that this case is crucially important to solve – and that the mine is dangerous and deadly – solely after a trip out to the frozen cemetery to see proof that the poison the mine is dredging up has had tragic consequences?* Not really – the change in Danvers in the span of an episode took a bit of magical thinking to get around. But am I thrilled that we’re heading into the finale with our two leads on the same page, fighting the same fight, damn the torpedoes? Absolutely.
*We are supposed to deduce that the loss of her own son through tragic circumstances allows Danvers to feel a kinship with the unnamed women who have also lost children as a result of the pollution from the mine. And, sure, that’s a connection we can make. I just wish we’d gotten a clear conversation at some point about that loss and its impact on her – whether it was simply Leah mentioning that she’s never recovered and refuses to get help or Navarro talking about loss and Danvers openly refusing to talk about it with her. That loss has hung like a pall over the season and feels shockingly untouched – although I suspect some mystical stuff in the caves in the finale will bring us some mention of it.
If there’s one thing that has been true from the start of the series, it’s that the story is stronger when Danvers and Navarro (and, consequently, Jodie Foster and Kali Reis) are sharing the screen together. Far and away the most complex and compelling of the show’s characters (honorable mention to Peter Prior, who finally got a chance to shine on his own this week – excellent work from Finn Bennett), Danvers and Navarro’s twisted past was finally revealed (although it still feels like there’s more to their relationship than just covering up the murder of a particularly horrific man – was there a relationship similar to Danvers and Pete back then, or something else?) and it’s easy to see how one half of the pair ended up spiraling out of the police force and into the Troopers while the other continued to push the limits and ended up punished by being sent back to Ennis.
The revelation that there’s a giant conspiracy cloaking not only the actions of the mining company but also all high-ranking government and police figures all the way to Anchorage is not exactly a shock to discover. But it is a shock that Hank would be caught up in it while Danvers never had a clue that he, Connelly, and who knows how many other people were also in on it. Presumably there’s financial incentive to protect the mine – it’s what provides a host of jobs and makes it necessary to even have a police force at such a remote location. I do wonder if the specter of the mines and what they represent is a bit too unwieldy for a series like this one. Yes, the racial element has been made clear – most of the mine workers are white transplants while the Native population bears the brunt of the mines’ pollution. Then there’s the idea of corruption allowing the mines to continue to operate despite the clear environmental issues they bring – Tsalal being a front for their continued flouting of environmental regulations. One wonders just how far that corruption goes – is there a federal official or two on the payroll? But the mine is, at the end of the day, a means to an end for the story. We need it as our villain (representing capitalism, greed, white colonization, etc.), and it has served its purpose well.
Ultimately, one through line within True Detective is how corruption can result in so much pain and suffering for those who are far from the seat of power. And that’s absolutely the case here. Danvers may be a loose cannon and have been sent to Ennis to keep her away from “real” police work, but she’s a good detective. Yet, she fell into the same trap as those who actively worked to protect the mines and the company behind it. She was so frustrated with her lot in life that she was willing to turn a blind eye to what didn’t directly impact her. The Native population was suffering? Not her problem. Her step-daughter was drowning in grief and acting out? Not her problem – not her kid. And, after all, she lost more than Leah did. Navarro was involved in murdering a suspect? Keep her away from Danvers and they could pretend it never happened. Lots of deflection came to a head this week and now we’ve only got one more episode to see just who this real Danvers is.
And if I have one complaint with this episode, it’s that. I really wish the series had allowed Danvers to get to this point a bit sooner, allowing us a bit more time to see the real woman behind the layers of anger and pain. I’m sure we’ll get to look under the hood, as it were, in the finale, but I would have liked some true buddy cop moments between her and Navarro. After all, as I’ve said, the best parts of the series are when the writing allows Foster and Reis the chance to bounce off of each other. And getting to see them do it without the frosty sarcasm of Danvers to cloud the interaction would have been fun.
Either way, this was a heck of a penultimate episode, bringing the true conspiracy that has been driving the action behind the scenes to the forefront and getting Danvers out of her funk and into action – finally. The episode also took a step back from the supernatural and showed us just how heinous regular human beings can be – they’re just as scary as the ghosts of our past coming back to haunt us in the present. I was on the fence over the last couple of episodes, but I think my faith has been restored and I’m excited to see just how this story wraps up.
-
Writing
-
Acting
-
Direction
