True Detective: Night Country – Part Six Review

Time is a flat circle, indeed, folks. And the finale of True Detective: Night Country was the perfect combination of the elements that made the series work incredibly well, and those pieces that never gelled fully and caused it to wobble throughout its six-episode run. But, while there will certainly be a continued debate among fans as to whether or not this season of the anthology series landed the ship better than season one (which, if you’ve forgotten, dropped the ball in a big way at the end of things), Night Country is definitely at least the second-best True Detective installment, so that’s something, right?

As for what worked, well, the strength of this series has been in its three central characters – Danvers (Jodie Foster, finally allowed to fully let loose in the finale, to great impact), Navarro (Kali Reis is absolutely the find of this series and I cannot wait to see what is next in her acting career), and Peter Prior (Finn Bennett, another find who I’m eager to see in more things) – and the finale was able to finally allow them each the chance to shine on their own (and, for Danvers and Navarro, the chance to play off one another to great effect in their slightly better/bad cop routine) after an entire season of them being asked to hold back the emotional tidal wave contained within each broken character. We’ve had a lot of character development over the preceding five episodes, but as I’ve mentioned in my reviews, it’s felt like the characters have been stuck in emotional neutral throughout the entire series until now. And sure, that’s necessary in the initial few episodes, but man, aside from Navarro’s mini-breakdown following her sister’s suicide, it’s been incredibly hard to get inside any of these characters’ heads to see what’s driving them. But here, finally, we get that chance.

Seeing Navarro come to terms with the loss of her mother and receive her true name was lovely. And seeing her walk away from Ennis – although I’m choosing to believe that she’s really just been chilling at Danvers’ lake house since then and the pair hang out all the time (please don’t take this happy ending for Navarro away from me) was cathartic. I’m happy she’s free of so much of her past baggage. And Danvers and Leah making peace – and Danvers losing that ever-present chip on her shoulder – was also great to see. And then there’s Young Prior, who appears to be in one piece physically, but the jury is out on mentally. Yes, he knew his father was trash. Yes, he made the right move at the time – even though it certainly seemed like Hank was trying for suicide by cop. But boy, that’s going to scar something awful. Especially seeing as he needs to keep that secret for the rest of his life. And there are three other folks keeping that same secret? Yeah, that’s complicated. But the writing did right by its central characters, although the narrative itself was a bit more hit and miss.

We got an ending that made sense in the real world – the Tsalal scientists killed Annie K after she discovered what they were really doing with their research and Annie’s friends figured it out and sought their revenge. Makes sense and tracks, although I would have appreciated a few more crumbs – like more appearances from Beatrice and her friends throughout the season to keep them in the front of our minds. Yes, they were introduced to us, but it felt so inconsequential that the reveal felt a touch on the “gotcha” side of things. We shouldn’t need a flashback sequence to remind us of the characters the series is about to tell us were the killers. I did appreciate that Danvers was willing to look the other way – although the show of silent strength in that room absolutely would have convinced me to do the same. As for the mystical side of things, well, I’ve never been much of a fan of that and the use of the supernatural in this episode only served to further convince me that the season leaned way too heavily into this part of the story without fully grappling with how to integrate it into the “real world” side of things. Sure, Danvers believes – at least in the moment – that Navarro heard something from Hudson in the spirit realm. And Navarro has come to terms with her own belief in the spiritual side of her life, which is nice to see. But it never clicked for me and the finale only brought that reality home in stark relief. As for the mystery of Annie’s tongue, well, I guess that one remains a mystery.

So, in the end, was Night Country successful? Yes and no. It managed to provide us with three compelling lead characters – while it was much spottier when it came to its supporting cast. (I still do not understand why Christopher Eccleston was here – and why he was asked to use his atrocious American accent – and I normally really enjoy his work). The story itself was hit or miss, as well. Character-wise, we got a satisfying ending for our central characters. The mystery was solved and the resolution made sense. We didn’t get a resolution out of thin air and the show didn’t pin the deaths of any of the characters on a mystical entity, which was the correct, satisfying choice. But the series still leaned too heavily on the supernatural and never paid it off enough – and that’s the central issue when you tell a story grounded in the real world but tinged with mystical elements. But, aside from some lag in the middle, the series landed the ship. Did I love it? No. Was I entertained? Yes, largely thanks to the work of Foster, Bennett, and especially Reis. I’m not sure we ever need to dip our toes back into the world of True Detective, but I’m glad we got a series that was much closer to the first season than the disappointments that followed it. And that’s something.