Keep your secrets, then.

The episode begins in the past as Ennis Police officer Evangeline Navarro arrives at a building. She hears screams from inside and enters. Navarro is here to arrest a woman for trespassing and destruction of private property at the Silver Sky Mining facilities. The woman in question turns out to be Annie Masu Kowtok, played by Nivi Pedersen.

However, Annie K. tells Navarro that this place is a birthing center- the last in the region- and she’s helping another woman named Grace Oopik, played by Ippiksaut Friesen, give a water birth. And now Navarro gets to help. Just her luck.

Grace pushes and pushes until her child finally enters the world. She wants to hold her baby, but needs a few minutes to rest. However, Grace asks why her baby isn’t crying. The women give the child CPR and pump enough air in the baby until she finally cries out. Annie K., meanwhile, tells Navarro that she’s ready to be arrested.

Fast forward to December 22^nd, the fifth day of night, as detectives and police gather. Navarro tells Hank that this is a task op and these men are a liability, but Hank will take all the help that he can get. Hank informs everyone that Raymond Clark is considered armed, dangerous, and has a 48 hour head start.

The officers split into pairs to find anywhere Clark may have been located. Navarro reminds Hank that they want Raymond alive, but he’s not convinced.

At the station, Liz tries to get in contact with Hank, but he’s not responding. Peter tells her that the forensic technician is booked on the evening charter and Dr. Anders Lund is still in a coma. Doctors had to amputate both his legs and he still might lose his left forearm.

Liz is surprised to see of Clark’s evidence in the evidence room despite it being, you know, evidence. She wants it moved.  Also, Liz tells Peter to call Navarro and hit up Trooper command, as Liz still wants her to be temporarily transferred. As if Peter’s day wasn’t busy enough, Liz also wants him to crack Annie K’s cell phone.

Peter asks about the last case that Danvers and Navarro worked. Story time. It was a murder suicide involving one William Wheeler, who was wanted for sexual assault, armed robbery, assault and battery- basically one bad guy.

Last time, he beat an 18-year-old girl so hard that she went to the hospital. Twice. Basically, he fucked her up good. But she would not report him, and his story was always the same: the girl was drunk or fell down the stairs. Nothing the officers could do. Until they got the call.

We flash back to Navarro and Danvers arriving at the home too late. Wheeler, played by Kasper Leisner, killed the girl and shot himself. Danvers says they were both dead when they got there. Navarro couldn’t get over it and blamed Danvers. Though Wheeler doesn’t look all that dead in the flashback, but Liz doesn’t say that. She says it got nasty, and Navarro was transferred over to the troopers.

Anyway, Liz tells Peter to get to work, and to let his father know to get rid of his hillbilly friends, or she’ll call immigration on his Russian mail-order bride.

In the cold darkness, Navarro throws an orange into the void. She’s surprised to find the orange eventually thrown back to her. Someone really wants to play catch, I think. Anyway, she looks around until she gets a transmission from Lulu.

So Navarro comes to the police station as she and Danvers start going through Clark’s evidence, even neatly organizing it. The two wonder what they’re missing, and Danvers picks up a photo from spring of 2016, which is when she believes Annie K and Raymond began their relationship. Why does Liz think that?

Because Annie K. is wearing a shirt with an Ariana Grande album cover on it. is wearing an Ariana Grande shirt. Apparently this came out in 2016, and Leah played music all the time. Wait, so Liz can identify when Ariana Grande music came out just based on a shirt, but she doesn’t like the Beatles?

Whatever. She and Navarro look at photos of Annie K and Clark and note how happy the two look. They note that Annie K has blue tint in some photos, but as time passed, it started to fade. But why keep the relationship a secret?

As Peter returns, Navarro warns him to learn how to run faster. Liz tells her in private that no one knows about Ted, but Navarro laughs and says that everyone knows. They look at one photo and note something: all the pictures are selfies or timed, except for one photo where someone must have been with Annie and Clark. One of the photos may have some of Annie K’s hair dye, but no print. Luckily, they don’t need a print.

Liz and Evangeline pay a visit to a hair stylist named Susan Ineak, played by Bridie Trainor. Navarro asks about the dye color used on Annie’s hair, and it matches the splotch color on the photo. Susan admits that Annie K. being stabbed as many times as she was sent a message. As Liz take away Susan’s daughter for some macaroni and cheese, Susan tells Navarro that she gave haircuts to the men at Tsalal.

Annie came with Susan during one visit. Annie and Ray hit it off, with her even showing Ray her tattoo. Navarro shows the symbol that matches the tattoo. Annie dreamt the tattoo in high school, but when she got it herself, the dreams stopped. Clark was a little weird, but crazily in love with Annie.

But Annie didn’t want anyone to know that they were together, which Susan found weird. Navarro would’ve protected Susan, but Susan was terrified and seeing someone from Tsalal- an equipment engineer named Oliver Tagaq. He left before Annie died, but now he’s probably out hunting on the ice, and doesn’t want to be found.

After police found Annie K., Susan called the police, but didn’t tell Navarro because she’d have known her. She didn’t leave her name, but did talk about Clark.

Liz and Evangeline continue to try and contact Hank, but still radio silence. The two wonder why Hank is hiding this from them. After all, Annie protests the mine, gets murdered, and the police sweep it away.

But it all comes back to the mine, as half the town works for it. A lot of people have reasons to silence Annie K. And what about Clark? Is the mine responsible for him? According to Navarro’s theory, Tsalal and Clark had nothing to do with it. Also, why does Annie’s tongue pop up six years after she was killed? Liz believes there’s a real explanation for this, but they’re not asking the right questions.

Liz gets another notification…not for fantasy football, but Tinder. She set her radius for Fairbanks, as she doesn’t fuck where she eats. Funny, but what does Evangeline do in her free time? Watch Netflix. And pray. Liz finds that laughable that Evangeline talks to God, but that’s not what happens. She listens. Navarro talks about getting a feeling of wanting to disappear.

Hank joins Peter on the ice rink to give him a pair of ice skates that could fit Darwin. Hank asks about Danvers, and Peter explains that Danvers and Navarro are going through the evidence. Peter asks if Hank knows what happened between Navarro and Danvers, but he denies knowing anything.

As if on cue, Liz and Evangeline arrive. Navarro demands to know why Hank received a direct call on Annie K and Raymond Clark’s relationship but didn’t report it. Hank saw no reason to report it when, as far as he knows, Annie K slept with half of Ennis.

Liz breaks it up and tells Hank to go back to the search and get rid of his friends or he’s getting a negligence report for mishandling the Kowtok case. Hank counters and threatens to file a report on Liz playing Mrs. Robinson with Peter. For that, Liz pushes Hank’s drink in his face and tells him to do his fucking job. Hank leaves without another word. Navarro also storms off.

Naïve Peter asks who Mrs. Robinson is, but Liz instead asks about the status of a forensic tech. Problem is the blizzard has grounded air travel for now. They could try tomorrow, but by then, the bodies will thaw and be shipped to Anchorage. However, Peter has an idea about the bodies: his cousin in White Lake is a veterinarian and works a lot with large animals. Peter goes to make a call.

Navarro pays a visit to Eddie’s hut out on the ice and asks if he knows Oliver Tagaq. He doesn’t, but Evangeline knows that he has connections. In exchange, though, Eddie wants Evangeline to tell something about herself.

Navarro refuses, leaving in a huff, so Eddie goes back to his ice fishing. She quickly returns and talks: her mother was a local gal from a gold mining camp that’s gone. She left when she was 15 and met her to-be husband in Boston. However, Evangeline isn’t in Boston now.

Navarro didn’t stay with the family, though. Dad got drunk and hit Mom and the kids, so Mom took Evangeline and Jules back North. Evangeline continues, saying her mother was just like Jules and had episodes. One day, she went out and never came back. As far as Evangeline knows, her mother was killed. The killer? Never found. And Mon never told Evangeline her Inupiaq name.

Leah and Sherri head to a center where a protest about the mines is underway. The protesters want the mine to close, saying the people were here before the mine. One of the protesters recognizes Leah as the police chief’s daughter- nay, stepdaughter- and says that everyone is welcome. The leader informs the crowd that Aviaq and Joe Carter’s child of Avia Carter passed away as a stillborn death.

Another stillborn, mind you.

Liz goes over her mountain of evidence before stuffing a turkey back into the refrigerator. When Leah arrives, Liz sees black ink on Leah’s coat- indicating that she was with the protesters. Liz demands that Leah wipe the temporary tattoo off of her face. Leah complies, but also tells Liz that Aviaq Carter’s baby was stillborn, and Liz certainly didn’t care about that.

On the ice, Navarro sees someone running on the ice and gives chase, but she slips and falls into a temporary flashback. She gets a call from Kenny Hogan about Jules. She’s fine, but started screaming that someone was coming. She then started praying. Things got bad, and she just ran out.

Evangeline finds Jules sitting by a frozen, capsized boat. It’s amazing that Jules hasn’t frozen to death, but I guess these people are built for the cold. Jules tells her sister that she’s been thinking stuff- bad stuff.

Peter arrives home and gets into bed as Kayla rests, but clumsy boy knocks over a few things and awakens her and Darwin. He apologizes to Kayla for being late, but she decides to stay up and study for an exam. Kayla knows that even after this case, if Liz comes calling for a case, Peter will run every time. Peter doesn’t want to be a sweet idiot, but Kayla is still a nursing student, with a kid, and married to a cop.

To punctuate this point, Peter’s phone rings. Liz called and even texted to ask if he found Oliver Tagaq.

On December 23^rd, the sixth day of night, Liz visits the home of Aviaq and Joe Carter as folks have gathered to mourn.

Peter’s cousin, Vince, played by, Vilhelm Neto, arrives in town and examines the bodies. Annie K’s phone still hasn’t been cracked yet. Vince says the men were likely killed before they froze to death. He’s seen lots of frozen animals, and the cold makes their heart rate drop. Their breath grows shallow and fall asleep. A peaceful death, if you will. This, however, isn’t how you die in the cold.

He can’t determine the cause of death without a proper postmortem, but his best guess is cardiac arrest. He’s seen caribous die of plain fright. These scientists look the same. Liz jokes and asks if Vince could do a bit of postmortem, which would be illegal. Navarro arrives and informs the two that she found Oliver Tagaq. Though Tsalal had no records of him, Tagaq apparently lives in a nomad camp on the North Shore.

Liz and Evangeline arrive at said camp in search of Oliver. They stress that Oliver isn’t a suspect- they just need to talk with him. The two go to his cabin and hear the sound of a generator.

The two enter and find Oliver Tagaq, played by Lance Karmer, who sits with a rifle. He informs the two detectives that they’re on Inupiaq territory property, he says, is his land, and he even offers to show the two his deed. He asks Evangeline about who she is, and asks again in Inupiaq, but she doesn’t know.

Liz threatens to arrest Oliver for the deaths of the Tsalal scientists, all of whom died a week ago save for Dr. Lund all died a week ago. Oliver raises his shotgun and orders the detectives to leave.

At a hospital, the two learn that the gangrene spread everywhere. The two arrive at the hospital and learn about Lund’s condition: the gangrene spread everywhere, he needed multiple amputations, and he lost his eyesight. He was heavily sedated, but woke up a few hours ago.

They find Dr. Anders Lund, played by Þorsteinn Bachmann, screaming in pain. Losing an arm while you’re frozen will do that. Lund says that “she” is awake and is out there in the ice. “She” is the who also came for them in the darkness.

As Liz is briefly called away to break up a fight among the hunters in in the waiting area, Lund arises and addresses Evangeline directly in a more demonic voice. He tells her that Evangeline that her mother says hello and she’s waiting for her. He points with one good arm before continuing to convulse.

Peter arrives, having cracked Annie’s phone. They play footage of Annie in terror as she tells the world that she found something and warns of is about to say what to do if something happens to her. Before she can, something offscreen grabs her. Liz and Evangeline continue watching the footage with Annie screaming in terror as the episode comes to a close.

Each season of True Detective works as a slow burn. Night Country is no exception, though in keeping with the weather of the season, it works like a glacier melting, and I don’t mean that as a criticism. Not entirely, anyway. For a season that takes place in such a small town, there are a lot of moving pieces that Issa Lopez continues to move around and we’re already at the halfway point of the season.

Showing us Annie K in person accomplished two things. For one, we finally get to see the woman who is at the center of so much this season. But while she’s known for causing problems at the mine, we see the other side of her as a midwife helping bring life into the world. It’s a sign of her selflessness that she’s more than willing to be arrested if she can deliver this child first.

Contrast that with the present-day when most of the community has no problem with Annie K’s death or is indifferent to it altogether. Liz said that everyone had reason to silence her, and that’s evidence in the still lack of outrage from some of the community. Everyone except Navarro has moved on, accepting that Annie K was just another victim of Ennis.

Though Annie K may be more involved than people care to or want to admit. Whatever it is that spooked her in that cell phone footage just adds another layer to an already expanding mystery. More than that, Hank withholding information shows how, in the eyes of people like Navarro, people were just ready to be rid of her. But at this point, it’s just an accusation.

Hank does feel like he’s hiding things, though. Not just the conversation he had with Susan, but he claims to know nothing about what happened between Navarro and Danvers. He also wasn’t a fan of his own son taking an evidence box from him, which is at least more acceptable since that’s stealing. But they’re all on the same side, so it shouldn’t be a problem unless Hank had something to hide.

Then again, most of the officers have their secrets, don’t they? Liz lies to Peter about the case of William Wheeler, who was very much alive when the detectives found him. Why lie about that, again, unless Liz had something to hide? If they killed him, it would be simple to come out and say that, but I do appreciate that we don’t know or are even shown the full details of what happened.

Both Liz and Evangeline don’t like letting people in. There’s no real reason for Evangeline to storm out when Eddie just wanted to know about her in exchange for him helping find a source, for example. You’d think getting these hardened detectives to open up was like pulling teeth.

I appreciate that we got a scene of the two just talking about themselves. Liz’s odd interests add some layers to her character, but they also make me laugh. Who would think that this no-nonsense detective would have a Tinder profile or be into fantasy football?

Liz is more down to earth, like concrete. Evangeline is a bit more spiritual and open to accepting the supernatural, despite not knowing her Inupiaq name. But despite her also hardened exterior, she has a softer side, as seen when she talks about listening to God, or especially when she’s with Jules.

We know as much about Navarro’s past as we do Danvers’, which is very little, but I wonder if her own family life is what spurred her to get into law enforcement. She witnessed and endured abuse at the hands of her father. Her mother’s killer was never found, and Jules has episodes just as their mother did. Evangeline might be a hard-ass on the outside, but under those layers is someone who wants to protect people.

I don’t mean that simply regarding her role as a detective, but she wants to be there for those who can’t defend or speak for themselves. It’s a nice contrast with Liz, who Leah calls out for not caring about Aviaq Carter’s stillborn baby. Sure, that probably wasn’t on Liz’s radar, but it’s clear that she took Leah’s words to heart when she showed up at the Carter’s home.

With the limited resources at their hands, at least Peter comes through when needed. He cracks Annie K’s phone, gets his veterinarian cousin to lend his opinion, and does the grunt work that Liz is too busy to bother with. It causes a strain in his relationship with his wife and father, and I just feel bad for the guy. His only crime is that he’s good at his job!

Kayla has every right to bring up that she’s got a lot on her plate as a medical student with a cop. And yes, if Liz calls, Peter will be right there to answer. It comes with the job. It’s unfortunate, but this is the profession that he signed up for. My hope is that this doesn’t cause a wedge in their relationship.

So now we’re left to ponder just what the hell Annie K found and how the hell her phone wound up in Clark’s possession to begin with? Who was Dr. Lund referring to when he said “she” came for them in the darkness, and how is he in communication with Evangeline’s mother? And why does Oliver ask specifically if Lund is dead?

We shall see.