Other Doctor Lives: True Detective: Season 4, Episode 5 – “Night Country: Part 5” (2023)

*Spoilers from episode 4.*

Penultimate episode! Worthy of that label, I’d say—we get major revelations in the case, significant complications, and a high-stakes ending. And while I am going to be watching the season finale, this will be my last episode review, since it’s the last one featuring Christopher Eccleston/Connolly.

Danvers and Navarro found Otto Heiss, the man who survived injuries similar to those of the dead scientists, and Danvers thinks he can lead them to where Annie was killed. But as they get closer to the truth, larger forces try to stop the investigation. Meanwhile, the police respond violently to a protest at the mine and Prior’s wife is fed up with his job always coming first.

I really like how things come together here. The whole protest sequence is done very well, a mix of drama, politics, and character moments, and it’s especially interesting when Navarro comes on the scene. As for the central mystery, I don’t have too many guesses going into the finale, but we get some good clues here—I can feel the knot tightening on the investigation. In this episode, new information is uncovered that could point toward motive, and we’re given insight into both the “Night Country” title and Annie’s tattoo, a symbol that’s been cropped up throughout the story.

But even as Danvers and Navarro fight to find answers, someone else is fighting to stop them. A bunch of cold water gets thrown on the investigation through bureaucratic obstruction and a suspiciously convenient forensics report. It’s clear that someone wants the case swept under the rug, and pushing through that will be easier said than done—there are incriminating secrets involved, and continuing to pursue the case is putting a target on their backs.

By the way, there’s a character named Kate who has a prestigious job at the mine. I thought in earlier episodes that I recognized the actress, but I couldn’t place her. Well, I looked her up, and it turns out it’s Dervla Kirwan, who played Miss Hartigan on the Doctor Who Christmas special “The Next Doctor.” She played opposite David Tennant, not Christopher Eccleston, but it still makes it fun to see them in a scene together here.

Eccleston ends his time on the series a bit unceremoniously. Connolly is only in a couple scenes here, as part of the “all right, let’s get this case sewn up all neat and tidy” faction of the episode. Even though he hasn’t been a huge presence on the show, this feels like a shift from how he’s been established. On some level, it makes sense for his character that Connolly would play politics and go along with one of the most influential people in the town, but we’ve previously seen him more in Danvers’s corner. And Danvers’s reaction backs up the notion that he's acting out of character. Whereas before she would complain and bust his balls, in this episode she outright says, “What happened to you?” Since Eccleston isn’t in the finale, it’ll be interesting to see if the last episode sheds any further light on Connolly’s actions here.

All right, this is where we get off! Final thoughts on “Night Country”:

Accent Watch

Generic American, pretty good.

Recommend?

In General – I would, provided you’re okay with violent imagery and horror elements, and you’ve made your peace with the inherent copaganda of a show like this. It’s a strong show with great acting and an engaging mystery. I’m excited to see how it ends!

Christopher Eccleston – I’d put it at a maybe. Eccleston isn’t really in enough of the season that it’d be satisfying to watch it purely for his appearances, but if you have any interest in the show otherwise, his contribution definitely adds to the proceedings.

Warnings

Graphic violence/gore, sexual content, drinking/smoking/drug use, language, and strong thematic elements (including Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and parental violence.)

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.

Other Doctor Live: True Detective: Season 4, Episode 2 – “Night Country: Part 2” (2024)

*Premise spoilers.*

True Detective is one of those buzzy shows that I’ve simply never gotten around to. It doesn’t help that I’ve heard about its extreme unevenness across the different seasons, but I just haven’t ever mustered the energy to check it out. I heard good things about the Night Country season, though, and since it’s kind of an anthology show, I had no qualms about jumping in on season 4 when I realized that Christopher Eccleston has a recurring role on it! He’s only in about half the season, but it’s short enough that I’m going to watch the whole thing, just reviewing his appearances.

The season takes place in Ennis, Alaska, where the scientists at a research station have just been found dead, in a horrific frozen tableau. It’s the “third day dark,” during the period of the winter where Alaska gets no sun, and the residents of Ennis generally accept that things get weird this time of year. But not this weird—police chief Liz Danvers, a transplant from Anchorage, is investigating the mysterious deaths. She’s not ready to accept the idea that anything supernatural is going here, and she’s not particularly entertaining Trooper Evangeline Navarro’s theory that this is somehow connected to Annie Kowtok, a Native woman who was brutally murdered six years earlier.

I don’t know if all seasons of True Detective have some supernatural flavor to them or if it’s just this one. I certainly wasn’t expecting it going into the show, but I like it. So far, there’s just enough plausible deniability that a lot of it could have a “logical” explanation, which makes Danvers’ skepticism easier to take. She’s kind of a “my way or the highway” hardass anyway, but she’s also smart and thoughtful, so we’ll see how her thoughts evolve as the mystery continues.

One of my favorite scenes in the episode comes when Danvers is examining the slowly thawing bodies with a rookie cop named Prior. Patiently but unsentimentally, she nudges him through how to think over the evidence they’ve looked at on the bodies and the crime scene photos, repeatedly helping to steer him toward “the right questions.” For example, she’s quick to point out that some of the more sensational elements, like the researchers being naked and some of them clawing their own eyes out, could be contributed to the rational explanation of confusion due to hypothermia. She looks past the flashy stuff to deeper questions, like, “How scared do you have to be to run out on the ice without any shoes?” And when Prior laments that the case doesn’t make any sense, she assures him, “Yeah, it does. We’re just not seeing it. Not asking the right questions.”

In between the spooky mystery, there’s also a lot of personal stuff for the different characters: Danvers’ difficult relationship with her stepdaughter, Navarro’s worries about her sister’s mental health, Prior’s struggles with his abusive dad (who’s a fellow cop on the force,) and so on. There’s a ton of moving pieces here, and it looks like a number of these plots are going to interconnect. I’m looking forward to seeing how the story rolls out from here.

 

Oh, and I love this blasé reaction from one townsperson to the notion that the researchers might have seen a spirit: “It’s a long fucking night. Even the dead get bored.”

Jodie Foster is turning in nice work as Danvers. She’s tough and no-nonsense, and she’s quick on the mark at her job, even as her interpersonal relationships are a bit of a mess. I’m enjoying Kali Reis as Navarro, who’s still haunted by Annie’s murder and thinks she’s finally found a chance to bring her some justice. And the show also features the always-great Fiona Shaw (Maarva!!!) as Rose—we don’t know a ton about her yet, but she’s the one who discovers the bodies of the researchers on the ice.

Christopher Eccleston plays Ted Connolly, the police captain. He’s only in a few scenes so far, but it’s clear that his professional relationship with Danvers is fairly combative. He tries to take the case from her, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m moving it out to Anchorage. You don’t have to do a thing.” As she finagles her way into holding onto it a little longer, you get the sense that this is a longstanding dynamic between them. We also don’t yet have the details on why she got moved to Ennis in the first place, but we know that Connolly was the one who sent her there.

Also, we get one of the most awkward sex scenes I’ve seen outside of Girls—it cracked me up!

First impressions:

Accent Watch

Generic American, sounds decent.

Recommend?

In General – I would. Two episodes in, I’m really liking the mystery, and the characters are well drawn.

Christopher Eccleston – Too early to say! I need to see more.

Warnings

Graphic violence/gore, sexual content, drinking/smoking, language, and strong thematic elements (including Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.)