Time is a frozen circle. Let’s return to the world of True Detective once more with the fourth season: Night Country.

The season begins with a quote from Hildred Castaigne before we enter snowy Alaska on December 17- the last sunset of the year. A man wrapped in a parka takes careful aim at some caribou a good distance away from him. The elks began to yell and stampede towards the sun and leap off of a cliff.

Then, at the Tsalal Arctic Research Center, some scientists unwind and watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Good movie choice. One of the scientists records himself making an incredible sandwich when he sees another researcher convulsing. Said researcher says that “she is awake.”

We jump to December 20th- the third day of night- as a driver approaches the research center. He’s here to drop off a delivery and calls out for Emerson to pick up his stuff, but gets no response from any of the researchers. As he wheels in the goodies, no one rushes to help him or sign the form.

The delivery man walks the halls and spots something quickly rush across the hallway. He then returns to the kitchen and spots a tongue on the ground. Well, that’s unexpected.

We then meet Detective Evangeline Navarro, played by Kali Reis, as she’s led around a processing plant to a gruesome sight: an employee who’s not dead, but apparently too wasted to wake up. He hit an employee, so another hit him with a metal bucket. Navarro asks to speak to the women alone. The woman with a bruised eye moved in with the other woman.

The man, who is not dead after all, rises to his feet and is swiftly arrested for assault and battery. Should’ve just played dead.

Let’s meet our other detective: Liz Danvers, played by the one and only Jodie Foster. Danvers arrives at the research center and meets two other detectives: Hank Prior, played by John Hawkes, and Hank’s son, Peter Prior, played by Finn Bennett. They check the place for any sign of life. Also, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is still playing. Danvers eventually finds and cuts off the DVD player. She’s not a Beatles fan.

I already have problems.

Anyway, a supply guy found the station empty this morning and called the police. Their last contact with town was a week ago when they called for supplies. It’s taking a minute for Lulu to contact the families since they’re from all over the world. The detectives learn that the station has been operating for 18 years and the scientists, all men, were researching Arctic geology, biology, and the impacts of climate change.

Danvers then finds, written on a whiteboard, ‘We Are All Dead.’ Peter gathers some of the phones, some of them dead and others charging, and prepare to go through the cell records and radio log.

Hank is worried about news spreading fast, and he cautions Danvers to hold off for a bit if this turns out to just be some expedition. Danvers postulates that the men disappeared 48 hours ago at least. But Danvers does not want to hold off. They’re already late to the party as is. Given the state of some food and clothes, she surmises that the men disappeared at least 48 hours ago.

Liz examines some marks in the tongue- marks made by a repetitive behavior. She brings up the Native aunt who was found frozen solid a few years ago outside Saint Joseph of the Arctic. She had the same marks that come from licking the thread when you’re fixing fishing nets. Liz believes this is a native woman’s tongue. Liz tells Hank to hit up command and see if they have a tongue-less woman in some fridge somewhere.

We then cut to a woman gutting a wolf when she hears someone speaking through what sounds like a radio. This is Rose Aguineau, played by Fiona Shaw, and she turns around to see a man named Travis, played by Erling Eliasson, and asks what he wants Travis, however, stands still and does not respond.

In the town of Ennis, Alaska, Danvers arrives at the police department and as Lulu, played by Grace Anderson, tells her that she has a visitor in her office: it’s Navarro, who believes that the tongue Danvers found belongs to a specific Inupiaq woman. Danvers shoots that down, saying it’s been six years since a particular case.

Navarro wants to see the tongue, but Danvers reminds her that she got bounced off of the case and is a trooper now. Navarro accuses Danvers of not wanting to look at files of a certain cases and is brushing it off even now. After telling Peter to get a cold case file on Anne Masu Kowtok, Danvers gets an angry phone call from a caller who absolutely has to talk right now.

Danvers then, after having a heated conversation with Kerri Gillard, played by Marita Susanna Dalsgaard, returns to her vehicle, where her stepdaughter, Leah, played by Isabella Star LaBlanc, claims to have not made a video of her screwing a 15-year-old. Danvers thought Leah was smart enough to not make a video like that, even though the video wasn’t posted. Leah claims the video was just for her and the other girl.

The conversation is interrupted when a car rushes through the intersection and slams into a pole. Danvers calls for help and has a brief flashback and sees an intoxicated woman by the name of Stacy Chalmers, played by Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir, who apparently doesn’t have her license anymore. Danvers angrily orders Chalmers out of the vehicle and to put her hands up.

As Danvers returns to her car, Leah informs her that the girl she screwed is 16, not 15. A distinction without a difference, really.

Navarro visits the home of a man named Ryan Kowtok, played by Phillip Blanchett, who asks if there’s been a break in the case. Navarro asks if Annie ever mentioned Tsalal, and she never did. Navarro’s trying to go over angles she might have missed back then. Ryan misses his sister, but doesn’t think it would do any good to go through all of this again.

Navarro knows it wasn’t easy for Ryan, as his sister protested the mine, and mine workers went at her. The two even got into some fights and barely spoke last year. He asks Navarro if she believes in God, and she does. Ryan asks why, and Navarro says that during her last tour, a soldier with half their face blown off whispered “Listen” to her.

Ryan says it must be nice knowing they’re not alone, but Navarro says that everyone is alone- even God. She then gets a phone call from Cooper, who says that “it” happened again.

Also, keep note of Ryan mentioning that the water is currently bad and turned to shit about three days ago. Remember that.

Time to see what “it” is. Navarro arrives at the apartment where Officer Cooper, played by David Katrinarson, tells her that the woman inside called in hysterics, saying there was someone in the apartment- except the door is bolted from the inside and all the windows are shut tight.

Navarro heads in as we’re introduced to her sister Julie, or Jules, played by Aka Niviâna, who apologizes for calling over a little freak-out. Jules regrets moving here, but this is where Evangeline wanted her. Evangeline offers some options if things get worse, but Jules remembers that Evangeline promised no hospitals. She’s fine.

Liz and Peter go over most of Tsalal’s funding from an NGO while Stacy Chalmers yells from the bathroom that she wants to go home. Hank offers to let her free so everyone else can go back to hearing again, but Danvers orders her back in the bathroom- not wanting a drunk woman on the road just because she sometimes blows Hank. Though Hank points out that he’s happily engaged.

Liz again asks Hank for the Anne Kowtok files, as he took home a bunch of case files after the flood.

At home, Peter finds his son, Darwin, drawing something a bit unsettling for a child. Peter asks his wife, Kayla, played by Anna Lambe, about some drawing of this ‘local legend. Kayla left Darwin at the laundromat with her grandmother because Peter was working late due to this case.

She’s got classes, and grandma’s there to take care of Darwin, and she happens to tell him stories from his culture. As the two make out, Peter initially ignores a call from Danvers, but breaks free when Anna bites his neck. Danvers asks Peter to get something from his father’s.

Peter arrives at his Hank’s, saying he promised Darwin he’d show him an old photo him when he was Darwin’s age. Peter finds his father in the middle of painting a room, with Hank thinking that it might be too damn blue. Well, Alina does like blue.

As Hank goes through his pantry, Peter looks through some boxes of files and tosses one box out the window just as Hank enters He demands to see what his son took, and he manages to find the photo, which Hank didn’t known he still had. He warns his son to watch out when he’s on the ice. It’s slick as shit out there, after all.

We then revisit Rose from earlier as she again sees Travis in the snow. Travis still doesn’t talk, but instead walks deeper into the snowstorm as Rose follows him.

Peter drops by Danvers’ place with the box and asks if this cold case is connected to the current one. Danvers says it isn’t, but recounts recounts the details of a case: the body was found on the edge of the villages, with Navarro the first on scene.

The victim’s name was Anne Masu Kowtok- or Annie K- stabbed 32 times with a sharp, unidentified object and was left with star-shaped wounds The murder weapon was never found and the missing tongue was never recovered. Peter knew about a dead girl out in the village, but not the tongue.

That part was kept from the public. She was a midwife, activist, and protester who drove folks crazy by protesting the mine. But Danvers believes no one deserves to die like Anne did. Peter accuses Liz of lying to Navarro, since she did study the case. Liz warns Peter to mind his own business, but it’s already his business now that Liz asked him to steal case files from his father.

Danvers comes clean. Navarro has a thing about women getting hurt and started demanding answers. She didn’t get anywhere, but kept bugging people- the wrong people, like Kate McKittrick. She showed up at her house demanding answers and got in fights with mine workers, so her father even took her off the case.

When Danvers came to town and the two worked together, Danvers declined Navarro’s ask to pick up the case again. As far as Danvers is concerned, Ennis killed Anne. Danvers then gets a notification about her fantasy football team.

Navarro then meets and has a some rough and strong sex with a Eddie Qavvik, played by Joel Montgrand. After, she makes fun of Eddie’s Spongebob toothbrush before using it herself. As Navarro gets dressed, she declines some of Eddie’s homebrew, saying she doesn’t want to go blind yet. Eddie briefly mentions that Jules has been missing some work, and Navarro leaves, taking Eddie’s toothbrush with him.

As Danvers brushes her teeth with her own electric toothbrush, Leah talks about people driving drunk and how the two of them never talk about ‘that’ day. Leah says that Liz doesn’t have to be her mother- as her father would’ve understood. Liz doesn’t respond, saying instead that she’s going to take a shower.

Navarro leaves a liquor store with some brews and passes the man before that she arrested. She stops to pour some beer into his tank.

Danvers, meanwhile, awakens after feeling what she believes is a hand on her shoulder and hears someone named Holden whisper “she’s awake.”

On the road, Navarro makes a call and discusses to a Miss Irniq and asks if Annie ever mentioned the Tsalal Station. Navarro then loses her connection and comes to a stop when she hears the words “She’s awake” and spots a one-eyed polar bear in the middle of the street.

Danvers prints out photos of the researches and goes through the details of this strange case. She starts putting clues together and goes through Annie’s file. She pulls out a photo of Annie and sees a mark on her coat- the same coat that one of the researchers, Raymond Clark, was wearing.

Rose continues following Travis until he finally stops and raises his hands to the sky. He waves his arms around and points in the direction that Rose must go.

Danvers returns to the research facility as the lights flicker on and off. She pulls out her gun and calls for the other visitor to come out: it’s Navarro. She says that Navarro is trespassing on a case in her jurisdiction, but Navarro knows that Danvers isn’t going to book her. She’s looking for anything that might’ve belonged to Annie.

Danvers then shows a photo of the researcher the parka similar to Annie. Danvers believes it’s just a coincidence- it’s just a parka, after all- and she’s at the facility just to follow-up.

They don’t find a parka, but it’s possible that Raymond wore it when he disappeared. Navarro doesn’t recognize Raymond from another photo, but she’ll show it to Ryan to see if he recognizes him. She asks if Danvers doesn’t believe the researches will be found, but hey, Navarro is the one who believes in miracles, right?

As Navarro looks at the whiteboard warning, Danvers warns her to watch out, saying the case sunk her once. But Navarro knows what really happened- the case didn’t sink her. Liz is the one who asked her to transfer to troopers. Annie’s case isn’t closed, but Danvers advises Navarro to let the case go already.

But then, Danvers isn’t the one who found her body. Navarro saw the disgust in the way she was cut. Someone even kicked Annie after her dead body was dumped- broken teeth, broken ribs, and her tongue was cut out. Navarro says it wouldn’t have happened if Annie was White.

Danvers says Navarro is to blame for not closing the case. Danvers then gets a phone call from Peter: they found something on the ice. Or rather, Rose found something.

Navarro and Danvers join other officers and Rose on the scene, with Rose saying that Travis told her where to look. Navarro reminds Rose that Travis is dead, which Rose knows.

The detectives survey the gruesome sight of three bodies buried in the ice as the episode comes to a close.

It’s been awhile since jumping back into the world of True Detective, with a few changes. First season with a subtitle and a new showrunner in the form of Issa Lopez.

You don’t need me to tell you how big of an impact that first season had. It set a high bar that no future season since has, or probably ever will, meet. Nor have any of the leads come close to matching the chemistry of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. It’s almost unfair because that first season is on a completely different level. You just can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

A new showrunner can bring a new perspective and ideas, and for the most part, I think Lopez manages to do that. Does it all work? No. But for the most part, the first installment of this six-episode season is pretty solid.

The snowy Alaska and scenes that appear to mostly take place at night add this sense of emptiness and isolation, like walking around without a flashlight. There’s always a sense of unease that adds to the tension. In a way, it feels like a throwback to the swamps and marshes of Season 1, even if not as well executed as that.

Look, I’m trying my hardest not to compare this season in particular to the first one, but between the other two seasons, it has the most in common. The supernatural has always been a part of True Detective, but we’re back to only two lead detectives- in one timeline, mind you. There’s friction between the two, with one refusing to move on from a past case.

But “Night Country” isn’t trying to be a redux of Season 1. Ennis feels very much like a closed society, with the mine being responsible for much of what keeps the town going. Annie’s activism threw a wrench in that for many townspeople, and for that, she was silenced. As Navarro points out, it’s a gruesome way to go, but she’s just one more body that the town took.

Besides the not-so-great line about how Annie’s death wouldn’t have happened if she was White, I do like Navarro’s motivation. This death has eaten away at her for years and she’s been stonewalled any time she tried to make progress. Now the disappearance of these scientists has conjured up those memories and put her back on a collision course with Danvers.

Foster and Reis are pretty good and you can tell right off the bat that there’s bad blood between them. It will be interesting to see how the two play off of one another, though I hope we do get more scenes to see their differing dynamics. If they’re both just angry, jaded cops who don’t like each other…well, that’s not too exciting to watch. There’s nothing wrong with pathos and chaos, but I need more than just them butting heads.

I do appreciate Lopez shows us their lives outside of work. We don’t see Navarro’s home, but we see her sister has a history of mental problems, she has one-off flings with a man who likes Spongebob, and she messes with one guy’s truck just because she can. She’s got some edge to her, but we see that she does care about family and seeing justice done.

She could’ve dropped the Annie case years ago, but the gruesome way in which Annie was killed has stuck with her and gives her more motivation to see the case closed. Good thing there was a tongue on the ground at the facility.

Danvers has her own set of problems, both at work and home. We’re not presented everything about how she came to be Leah’s guardian, why she had a brief flashback upon stopping Stacy, or the dream that she had, which is good because they’re all seeds planted to explain as the season progresses.

Despite having a stepdaughter and a pretty good friendship with Peter, Danvers comes off as the lone wolf type. She doesn’t want to talk about the past with Leah, she shuts Navarro out at every opportunity that she can, and she wants Peter to stay out of her business until she needs his help. She also feels like a weathered, experienced officer, both with her noting the marks on the tongue and seeing Annie’s coat on Raymond.

I’m most curious about her relationship with Leah. She’s rightly angry with her making a sex take with another young woman, and she flat out refuses to discuss people driving drunk. After all, she responds pretty angrily at Stacy Chambers. It could be because she’s dealt with her before, but that reaction showed a lot of anger for the only other driver on the road. That anger didn’t just come from nowhere, so I’m intrigued.

Here’s something I don’t think we’ve gotten a lot of in past seasons: the home lives of other officers. Hank and Peter have what looks like a strained relationship- not made better by the fact that they’re working together. Of the three, including Liz, Hank is the only one who doesn’t want the disappearance news out there so soon. Plus, even though Peter only showed the photo, he does seem suspicious of his intentions.

Now I’m not saying Hank is a suspect or even a bad person, but he is someone worth keeping an eye on. Peter seems like someone who could follow in either Liz or his father’s footsteps, with how devoted he is to the job, even to the point of turning down nookie from his wife. He doesn’t back down when Liz tells him to stay out of her business, so he’s got the makings of a good cop and family man.

With the reveal of the bodies in the snow, there’s a lot to unravel here. Is there indeed a connection to the Annie K case? Who is Rose and why can she see this Travis fellow who died awhile ago? What’s with the caribou leaping off a cliff? Is there something in the water that makes everyone act like this?

And most importantly, what will Liz do about her fantasy football team? Either way, “Night Country” is off to a pretty good start as we jump back into the world of True Detective. While some of the dialogue is a bit clunky, the performances are good and I’m intrigued to see our detectives tackle this case.