Other Doctor Lives: True Detective: Season 4, Episode 4 – “Night Country: Part 4” (2024)

*Spoilers from episode 3.*

I’m really liking this story. It brings such a potent mix of creep factor (both worldly and otherworldly,) thoughtfully explored themes, and complex character work. As I said last week, I haven’t watched any other seasons of True Detective, but I’m all in on “Night Country”!

Danvers and Navarro don’t know precisely how yet, but the deaths of the research scientists are definitely connected to Annie Kowtok’s murder. One of the scientists had been dating her in secret, and when her phone is recovered from an old trailer of his, a disturbing video offers further insight into her death. While Danvers and Navarro try to track down the ice cave where she was killed, Prior investigates a man who mysteriously fell off the grid after suffering injuries eerily similar to those found on the bodies of the scientists.

This show excels at blending real-world horrors with hints of the supernatural. In both the investigation and the characters’ personal lives, the edges of reality feel blurry, and it’s hard to know what to believe. Does mental illness run in Navarro’s family and her sister Julia is experiencing hallucinations? Or is there a “curse” that’s claiming them one by one, tormenting them with visions of the dead? It seems Annie’s murder was caused by the ugly forces within humanity, but why does it feel tied with the scientists’ grisly deaths in a supernatural way? Only two episodes left—we’ll see how everything ties together.

I also like how the show uses the characters to examine its deeper themes. Ongoing protests about the local mine show the real human costs at stake. It’s caused fissures through the town, between the mostly white miners and the mostly indigenous folks who are dealing with contaminated water from the runoff. Part of the disconnect between Danvers and her stepdaughter stems from Danvers’s ignorance of Leah’s Indigenous culture. Her resistance to Leah getting traditional facial tattoos is probably related to concerns about her safety—when a local elder draws sample markings on Leah’s face, I’m sure Danvers can’t help thinking of the brutal crime scene photos from Annie’s murder—but she doesn’t express that. Instead, she just snaps variations of, “Get that shit off your face,” not respecting Leah’s culture and also not voicing her own fears. Julia’s mental health struggles are endangering her, and Navarro doesn’t know how to balance her desire to care for and protect her sister with the knowledge that Julia needs more help than she can provide.

And not for nothing, there’s a sequence in this episode where Danvers is drunk, and Jodie Foster’s acting is just a knockout. Completely obvious, but in a really subtle way—so good!

We get a little more of Christopher Eccleston in this episode, which gives us a chance to learn a bit more about Connolly. Danvers kind of frames him as a villain in the story of her life—he exiled her to Ennis because he felt professionally threatened by her! He’s trying to take her investigation away from her!—but that’s a narrower picture than what’s really going on. Instead, Connolly has the bodies moved to Anchorage where there’s a proper forensics unit to examine them, but he has no intention of taking the case off her hands. And while it’s true that he always knew she was a better cop than he was, he also recognized the places where she was struggling (spoiler alert—it’s all interpersonal stuff) and transferred her to Ennis because he thought it’d be good for her, especially after the events of some still-unnamed tragedy in her past. We’ve brushed up against the edges of Danvers backstory now, but there are still important details waiting to be filled in.

I appreciate that Connolly is more nuanced than Danvers at first suggests he is, or that archetypal tropes would suggest. No, the authority figure doesn’t appear to have it in for the shrewd maverick who doesn’t like to play politics. Even as Danvers rails against what she thinks he’s up to, he says, “I’m fucking helping you here, Liz.”

Thus far, it’s not a super demanding role for Christopher Eccleston, but he’s solid in it. I like that Danvers exasperates Connolly but he’s still not afraid to call her on her shit, and there’s an intriguing history between them. I feel like he might be the key to learning about what happened in Danvers’s past to get her to where she is now.

Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Keeley Jones (Ted Lasso)

*Keeley-related spoilers.*

Once I started looking for neurodivergence in Ted Lasso, I saw it everywhere. I’m not sure how many characters from the show I’ll end up covering on this particular jaunt—before my attention pulls me

 in a different direction—so I’m rightly starting with my favorites. I’ve already looked at Roy and Ted, and now I have to talk about Keeley!

When it comes to neurodivergent coding on Ted Lasso, Keeley might initially be put forth as a contender for Most Likely to Be Neurotypical, but a lot of that is trappings. A somewhat-celebrity from having dated multiple footballers, she models and later does PR for AFC Richmond, a job she does so well that she eventually gets the opportunity to start her own firm. She doesn’t really appear to struggle socially. When people think about neurodivergence, they probably don’t picture Keeley.

But honestly, if this woman is neurotypical, I’ll eat my hat. Personally, I see an autistic/ADHD combo with Keeley, though I could also be persuaded by arguments of just ADHD. The first thing I want to look at here is her bluntness and honesty. Keeley speaks what’s on her mind, enthusiastically and without filter. Her friendship with Rebecca begins when she drops in on Rebecca’s office and announces, “I’ve decided not to be scared of you anymore,” and that same conversation ends with her cheerfully declaring how gobsmacked she is by a glorious photo of Rebecca sunbathing topless. When Roy asks if she’s talking to her friends about their relationship, Rebecca and Higgins try to cover, but Keeley immediately, casually replies, “Yeah, we’re talking about you.” She values being direct, and being herself, and for the most part, she doesn’t stress over what people think of her based on that.

Keeley’s energy and excitability definitely give off ADHD vibes. When she’s happy, she’s liable to scream or squeal, and like Roy, she’s rarely shy about yelling curses in public. She doesn’t get embarrassed about showing strong emotions, including crying in front of her friends. She takes up space to make herself comfortable and doesn’t apologize for that. In her professional life, she stills surrounds herself with fun, pretty things that make her happy, even if they’re not “grown-up” things—stuff like pens with fuzzy balls on the end or sparkly unicorn notebooks.

Again, Keeley doesn’t seem to have a lot of issues with social skills and communication. She’s a friendly, loving person who generally gets along with people, and while her boisterous bluntness isn’t necessarily socially “appropriate,” her traits endear her to others more easily than, say, Roy’s withdrawn gruffness. And she knows how to mask when she needs to. It adds up to someone who might camouflage their neurodivergent traits better than some of the other characters.

But masking, of course, has a toll, and Keeley is always at her best when she’s leaning into everything that makes her Keeley. I’ve been thinking lately that her difficulties with really coming into her own at KJPR might be down to neurodivergence and masking. First, there’s the added pressure of running her own firm, with VC backing. It brings logistical/business challenges she’s never had to deal with before, she’s so busy she has to “make time in [her] schedule to sit at [her] desk and cry,” and she’s no longer surrounded by the people she knows/loves/is comfortable with. For the first time, she’s managing an office and a staff, but she didn’t hire these people. The VC group brought them in, like they were setting up a prefab firm and just plopped Keeley into it. All these things pile up, not to mention being in a new relationship that monopolizes her time and focus, and it leads to what I think is the crux of Keeley’s problems with KJPR: she’s not thinking and acting like Keeley, not really. She’s so intent on 1) keeping her backers happy/not squandering their investment and 2) doing what she thinks a kickass PR person is supposed to do that she doesn’t pay attention to her own instincts. Under that intense scrutiny (real or perceived,) she flails, freezing up in situations that she would’ve confidently handled back when she was working for Rebecca. Her mojo is thrown off-balance because she’s acting like a version of who she thinks she ought to be, not who she actually is. In order to reclaim her swagger and rediscover her savviness, she has to go back to doing things her way.

Relationship Spotlight: Janine Teagues & Gregory Eddie (Abbott Elementary)

*Janine/Gregory-related spoilers.*

I wouldn’t call myself a huge shipper overall. I can be picky in my ships, and many a good show, in my estimation, falters with lackluster pairings. And sometimes I find myself in a situation where I like a pairing, but it’s less about the actual relationship dynamic and more that I just really like both of the characters. When a ship really works for me, though, I can fall head over heels for it!

When I started watching Abbott Elementary, it didn’t take long for me to get on the Gregory/Janine love train. Their early interactions are super sweet, and I love that, although they have wildly different temperaments, each understands the other very well. Gregory’s steadiness can have a calming impact on Janine’s high intensity, and optimistic Janine can balance out the sometimes-curmudgeonly Gregory. Even with traits that they share, like struggling with unexpected change, it looks very different on Gregory than it does on Janine, and yet each is able to help the other in the way that they need.

When you have a pairing whose personalities are very different like that, one popular romance approach is a love/hate dynamic, where their opposing temperaments drive each other up the wall—right until the point where they start making out. With Janine and Gregory, though, both are quickly in each other’s corners. They’re good colleagues who soon become genuine friends, and each is starting to harbor a secret crush on the other (oh my god, Mr. Johnson noticing how Gregory looks at Janine when they’re on their “desking” stakeout, so cute!)

Just so many great moments between them. Janine helping Gregory interpret all the drawings his students make for him. Gregory helping Janine come to terms with failure when her class isn’t able to do the egg drop. The two of them going down the big wooden slide together on the park field trip. Every instance of them knocking on their classroom wall to signal the other.

In every episode, I see how and why they like each other, which is a favorite of mine. That shouldn’t be notable when you’re talking about TV romances, but unfortunately, it is. What’s more, while it takes them a long time to admit their romantic feelings to themselves, let alone to each other, neither is shy about letting the other know how highly they’re regarded. Yeah, they spend quite a while dancing around the feelings conversation, but that doesn’t stop Gregory from openly admiring Janine’s tenacity or Janine congratulating Gregory on the progress he’s making as a teacher. They appreciate one another and cheer for each other’s accomplishments, even things that others might think are silly.

So far, the main thing that keeps these two from hitting the absolute peak of my favorite ships—like Leslie and Ben, Stede and Ed, or Roy and Keeley—is that the stopgaps to prolong the will-they-won’t-they throughout the first three seasons of the show get pretty labored. Social skills are neither one’s forte, so in a way, it makes sense that they keep sort of stumbling into relationships that they’re not excited about, so they’re rarely single at the same time. But the merry-go-round gets old. By the time season 3 hit, I was beyond ready for them to stop dancing and just get together.

The moment, though? The actual moment when they get together, coming on the heels of endless detours, obstacles, and stumbling blocks? Looooove! And now in season 4, I’ve been liking them a lot as a couple. They continue to be really funny together, and I appreciate that, while both have issues and hangups that can get in the way of their relationship, they ultimately talk things through and work it out. And cuteness? My goodness! Most recently, I love Janine giving the camera an adorably smitten smile while she proudly murmurs, “He knows so many different smoothie shops.” Stop, they’re too cute!

Of course, I’ve already done Neurodivergent Alley posts on both Gregory and Janine, so I definitely view their relationship as Autistic4AuDHD. On that level, their pairing works so well for me. I love that, in the early seasons, they appreciate things in each other that their respective partners find weird or annoying—Janine absolutely melts when she finds out that Gregory got his girlfriend a Lego set of a flower arrangement for Valentine’s Day, since she’s allergic to the real thing. I enjoy watching them bond over their shared niche interests, like both of them getting psyched (in their own way!) for a board game night. And I adore it when they make space for each other’s needs—Gregory almost exclusively eats safe foods, so Janine assuring him, “I’d never take you [to a restaurant] without buttered noodles,” is just a top-tier romantic line!