The fourth season of Max’s anthology series True Detective has just concluded, leaving some viewers confused and seeking answers. Intending to create an open-ended season finale, showrunner Issa López explained why Season 4 ended ambiguously, challenging viewers to make their own “theories.”
How did True Detective: Night Country end?
The final episode of the mystery crime series, titled True Detective: Night Country, featured two connected cases of a woman’s disappearance and a group of scientists’ mass murder. It was then revealed that the scientists killed the woman and that those close to her took revenge. However, during the episode’s final moments, detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) closed the case without delving deeper into the evidence they found: the woman’s severed tongue.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, López revealed that she had to fight for the ending and that it was her intention not to reveal where the tongue came from.
“You should be making theories,” said López. “[Not revealing the tongue] was a fight, because so many people working with me were like, ‘No, really? You’re not going to give that to us?’ And you know, in life, you don’t always get all the answers. Some of them are for you to figure out. I’m not going to do all the homework on my own for you.”
The showrunner added, “I’m Team Navarro, so I absolutely believe the supernatural [is real]. There’s the dark, the atmosphere, Alaska itself, the cultural connections, the Indigenous people, and the idea that the land does not belong to us, we belong to the land. I think that’s a huge element of this series. You can call that energy ‘supernatural,’ or you don’t have to, but we walk among the dead. They’re here, whether you want to believe it or not. Energy is real and it’s universal. I absolutely believe that there are all kinds of supernatural aspects to this part.”
Besides serving as the showrunner, López also co-wrote and directed the series, with Foster, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Mari Jo Winkler, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Nic Pizzolatto serving as executive producers.
The show also stars Fiona Shaw, Finn Bennett, Isabella Star Lablanc, Aka Niviâna, Anna Lambe, Joel D. Montgrand, Christopher Eccleston, and John Hawkes.
The synopsis for True Detective: Night Country reads: “When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.”
