True Detective: Night Country (on Max)

****Spoiler response****

I still want to listen to the podcasts and read more, and maybe someone has a fully-formed take.

I thought maybe the "she" was whatever creature or entity scared the people to death outside (the same thing that was scaring the animals in episode 1?). Another theory I read is that Clark was referring to Annie. She was obviously dead at that point, but maybe he was hallucinating because he was losing his mind, had the guilt of having killed her, etc. Or maybe Annie was haunting him and he was seeing her ghost. I still want to know who turned the Ferris Bueller clip back on and why!

 

• I thought the Russian bride story (where the lady wasn't on the plane?) was more just an insight into the pervasive feeling of loneliness. To me, that wasn't supposed to be a major plot line but was similar to us hearing Danvers and Navarro laugh about Navarro trolling Tinder to find dates.

• One theory about the tongue was that the women put it where they did to assist with the investigation (to help tie Annie's murder to what happened with the scientists). I think the lady at the end may have alluded to that, but I'd have to go back and watch.

• I thought the oranges were most likely an homage to The Godfather where the sight of an orange typically precedes violence/death. I feel like this may have been used in other shows or movies, and maybe it was just an "easter egg" for film nerds. It could have also been to show how much they cherished oranges there because I assume they're not as prevalent in Alaska, but that may be a reach on my part.
  
• Personally, I don't think Navarro put him outside to freeze. I think he was possibly seeing things he hadn't before or at the very least, he was ready to die. His work was all for not and he'd killed the woman he claimed to love. Not much less to live for I assume.
  
• Some theorized that the spiral symbol was consistent with a drill. I thought maybe it referenced some sort of portal which related to the theory about time being a human construct. I even wondered when I heard Ferris Bueller on the loop again that there may have been time travel involved, but I don't see any evidence of that. The spiral was obviously a thing in season 1 as well, and there was a labyrinth of caves in season 1, too. For whatever reason, people seemed okay with that ambiguity from season 1 in a way that some were not in season 4. I suppose this could go to one specific criticism of season 4 - that they shouldn't have tied it to season 1 in the first place if they weren't going to explain some of the loose ends that were already there from season 1.

 

I went back and watched season 1 around the time this season was starting or coming out. There was a lot of discussion about religion and philosophy in that season and some things in that season I think were arguably spiritual/supernatural - or could be seen that way.

You remember when Rust saw something with the spiral in the caves, for example? And what did the rituals have to do with the abuse of children? I still have tons of questions about that season. I think most things if not all things can be explained without reliance on the supernatural if one is so inclined, but it definitely leaves open the possibility or suggestion that there's a lot more going on than we may understand. That's probably more realistic and intriguing than a cut and dry resolution that's clearly supernatural or clearly not supernatural. Ultimately this is like debating the nature of reality and mysticism generally; there's no answer. I get that some people love that ambiguity while others think it's a cop-out.

As the lady said in the last episode, "it's just a story." It didn't occur to me until someone pointed it out that might have had a double meaning and it was a cute remark about the show itself. That became more and more clever the more I thought about it even if it wasn't intended.

I haven't even read the official "explanations" yet, and that will be interesting too.

Edit to add: another interesting element here is the extent to which we, the viewer, might be entirely okay with breaking norms, rules, and even laws, when we believe that it's done for the greater good. We are often okay with people getting away with things we wouldn't otherwise approve of if they're going after something worse. Perhaps a metaphor for our politics or morality generally for that matter.

 

I haven't read this yet, but hopefully people who aren't up to speed are not reading this thread this deep and wont' click this link. I pulled this link from Variety because it's one of the podcasts I previously listened to following a couple other episodes.

'True Detective' Season 4 Ending Explained: Who Killed Annie and the Scientists?

‘True Detective: Night Country’ Ending: Creator Issa López on Those Killers, Season 1 Ties and What’s the Deal With Annie’s Tongue?