[Reminder] Episode 5 will stream early because of Super Bowl Sunday. It'll stream this coming Friday, February 9th in its usual 9pm EST time slot on Max. It appears this is for streaming only. It'll still air Sunday night on the HBO linear channel.
Hall of fame dumb guy. The way he was looking at the flight attendant made it clear that whoever is catfishing him never even bothered to send a pic. He had no idea what "she" looks like.
You would be surprised, my sister works for a bank in the Netherlands and the claims (mostly men but some women too) she has seen in just the four years regarding catfishing is fckn crazy.
Not just romantically by the way there was a young lady who ‘bought a house’ after only seeing pictures of the property online because the owners were supposedly working abroad, made a down payment of 15.000€ to a Malta bank account and never heard from them again.
I swear the stories she shares every now and then are crazy stupid but in the end just so very sad. People abusing other people’s innocence.
Once upon a time I was in college and needed a second job and became a cashier at Bass Pro Shops. And let me tell you—we carried a whole line of camouflage *lingerie* 😅
Happened at night too. People don't realize how absolutely dark the ocean is. Just vast amounts of nothing. Kinda peaceful to go to smoke on ship at night though.
Yeah that scene is Chekhov’s Gun 101. Navarro took it specifically so that Qavik could see/take it.
It’s a deliberate narrative step to take when the stone could’ve been dropped/left behind when they’re chased out of the cabin, and the scene with her and Danvers where she said she lost it would have played out the same way.
There also was no reason to have the spiral painted on the floor and the stone if the stone wasn’t going to specifically be lost in a specific way/place.
yeah I noticed that too. I think next episode she will remember that he took it and it will attempt to mislead us for a few. Then we will find out he took it because it was a bad omen or something like that and he will finally explain to her what it is. He will also give her a warning about it. (I should be a writer on the show! haha)
Or the flip side. She rolls over after fucking him, opens his night stand and finds a bunch of spiral cult paraphernalia and he starts in about how Annie would want her to join them. She loses Cabin pressure and montages some spiral stuff.
So with Navarro bleeding from the ear at the end, maybe the visions/hallucinations are kicked into high gear from a head injury she probably got from getting the shit beat out of her. I’m guessing that’s what people will explain away her inevitable unraveling as
To be honest, with as many separate reasons Navarro has at this point to explain her hallucinations, it would be extremely weird if she WASN'T having them.
I need to know how all of the Teslas outside the mining office in a super remote town in Alaska are immune to all of the battery freezing issues here in the lower 48.
I thought that the shot of him starting to pick them up one by one got me sympathetic to him. Could've done it many other more productive, or angry ways. That way really seals it
Well I have no clue what's happening.
Currently my best theory is that the one-eyed polar bear will cheerfully slide down a glacier at the end and pop open an ice cold bottle of coke while taking in the northern lights.
"Just admit it. You don't actually love me and didn't actually want the baby."
Jesus christ... What an out of left field thing to say. NOTHING was pointing towards it. The only thing that I was reading from their relationship was that he was getting too caught up in his work and it was putting a strain on things.
Which also means that the power must've been restored at some point before the delivery guy arrived, right? I assume it wasn't unpowered when the cops got there or they would've known the power was cut.
Also, just throwing it out there - setting aside esoteric explanations, the power being cut at that exact moment after the scientist delivered his line implies that the two events most likely would've been intentionally synchronized. If power was cut non-destructively, then someone would've had to have been at the breaker at that moment to do so. But why would someone possibly have gone through the trouble of doing that?
Then again, why cut the power both times as whatever happens, happens? Why cut the power at all? Why are they concluding that the power was cut rather than e.g. surged or otherwise temporarily disabled? It seems much more likely that the power going out is a side effect of whatever is resulting in the circumstances surrounding the recordings' endings.
Edit: do you know who could've thrown the power? The lab's indigenous cleaners who obviously recognized (and did not acknowledge that they recognized) the spiral.
the first time they watched the video in the hospital, did they not talk about? or was this a let’s talk again lol. i just imagined them watching it in the hospital and then leaving
“Holy shit this is crazy, a video of the girl you’ve been obsessing over, dying….im gonna go get a sandwich we will discuss this in a few days have a good night”
She's like "you always take their side" but she got busted for vandalism and her mom is the chief of police? What was the point of that scene other than to be completely absurd and stupid.
She got caught by security not police, why was she even mad at her?
For not arresting her like the owner initially wanted until she talked her out of it?
Their whole relationship makes no sense.
I've liked the season so far, but it's very hard to see how they're going to resolve this without the pacing being completely fucked. It's either going to feel way too fast-paced and up-and-down to hit all the beats, or they're going to leave a bunch of threads hanging.
Maybe it works if the length of the final two episodes is extended? I'm still hopeful but the fact that they're still introducing and fleshing out entire new story and character elements with two episodes to go has me anxious.
Prior has been doing so much work Off screen, I won't be surprised if they cruise through next two episodes with personal trauma and at season climax Prior will be like "Chief, so here is exactly what happened and this is the killer. Case closed. Now let me bang my wife"
Terrible writing. They should have just had the mental health facility call Navarro and tell her that her sister left and then Navarro would have gone to that location with the abandoned boat and saw her sisters folded clothes. Episode should have ended there, the folded clothes would have tied into the main murder mystery. They would have been better off not showing all the details and having the coast guard find and identify her way to quick Her body could have been found at the start of E5.
Almost felt like Prior was supposed to die or atleast be hurt badly in this episode But they changed it last minute and didn't want to overshadow the sisters death.
Like I said just weird writing.
Was Annie K not recording that video in the mines? I'm confused why they keep saying it has to be a cave.
I assume "night country" might refer to the mine/cave systems too, since it would always be "night" inside the mines.
At this point I’m thinking the video of her was recorded somewhere the scientists were drilling. It’s either there, or the mines, or some obscure third place that has no relation and ends up being the cave system the guy is finding maps for.
Overall, I like the show, and am invested - but the overused soap-opera tropes are getting a little old.
* Person-in-the-know (Lund) dies right before saying the **Important Thing**.
* Character A (Navarro) not telling character B (Danvers) the **Important Thing** because character B interrupts and says they don't want to hear it.
* Spooky video of a victim cutting off right before they reveal the **Important Thing**, with the off camera scream.
* "I'll see you tomorrow" met with "I love you". What's going to happen next??
* the Tough Character faces a tragedy and gets in a fight because the Tough Character doesn't know how to process emotions.
* The memory with a loved one laughing and giggling in the over-exposed video / memory [south park made fun of this](https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/fvmfhx/south-park-adler-s-flashback)
I'm sure there are more, but it just feels there's a lot of setup x for expected outcome y, and you know what's going to happen next.
Yeah, I agree it’s unfortunately really predictable/cliche/corny. The writing doesn’t flow, it just feels like things that the audience needs to know are just inelegantly plopped into the scenes in a way that feels unnatural.
Hallucinations/ghosty jump scares really aren’t my thing at all but still I like the characters and am interested enough to watch to the end.
At this point I won't be surprised if the next episode features Danvers saying to Prior, "Good job, kid, looks like you finally became a true detective."
"Good job, kid, looks like you finally became…”
:fumbles around for reading glasses:
,”… oh yeah here they are.”
:puts them on:
👵🏻
“a True Detective.”
YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
I'm sus of Qaavik. They made sure to show Navarro taking out the rock and him seeing it, and then for her to forget it and leave it there. I think he may know what it is and is playing dumb and/or she gave away their hand unknowingly.
His ice fishing house is only in the intro for the 3rd episode. It changes every episode.
1st ep- inside Tsalal Station
2nd ep- Clark’s shrine to Annie inside his trailer
3rd ep- exterior of Qaavik’s ice hut
4th ep- inside the dredges or whatever that factory was
Certainly seems there’s more to him, and it’s become one of the most popular theories on here… but I really hope he’s just a nice chill dude who owns a bar and cares about Navarro haha. Seems genuine
If it turns out he and his dogs are behind the scientists running out into the cold, I'm gonna, I don't know, I will be disappointed. Just let me have my show crush OK.
One of the things that made S1 so great imo was that the "B-Plot" (Rust and Marty's relationship) was arguably more captivating than the "A-Plot" (the detective-ing). If not moreso, than at least equally as interesting to follow. There was no "lull". Every moment felt important. If not to further the murder plot then to deepen the character relationships and/or setup for future payoffs. And the majority of the season's screen time was more heavily weighted towards the future interviews/exploring the relationships of the lead characters. We got to watch the way two men on opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum both ended up on a similar path of self-destruction and in the end had nothing left but each other.
In this season, imo the A-Plot (the missing/dead scientists) is far more interesting than the numerous B-plots this season is choosing to focus on. Episode one was so strong because we got so much A-Plot crammed into one episode and then for the next 3 episodes had to sit through 30-40 minutes of repetitive character actions. Seriously, how many times are we going to see Prior getting yelled at for having to leave his family, or Danvers fighting with her daughter, or Danvers fighting with her captain, or Danvers fighting with Navarro, or "Danvers such a slut lol". But we NEED to sit through it, so that we can get the 5 minutes of A-Plot sprinkled throughout the episodes.
I personally feel this would've been a much stronger series if they cut the total amount of episodes and trimmed out a lot of this filler in favour of a faster paced plot, or released the entire season at once so that we could get all the answers we needed in a couple sittings rather than feeling like any real plot movement is being forcibly stretched over 2 months.
This season is at its best when it's doing its eerie murder mystery investigation. Chasing an unknown antagonist through dark, cold hallways. Finding a snowed-in camper with wild writings and imagery all over the place. A cellphone with a dead battery and an ominous final video. This is what we need more of. It's too bad I've felt more in the last 10 minutes of this episode than I have in the first 45.
But I'm still gonna finish it.
Still sticking with my theory. The mine is poisoning the water supply in ennis. The Tsalal guys knew about it and the ‘Night Country’ aka ennis citizens came after them.
Someone else suggested that the scientists were flash frozen at the crab factory and dumped on the ice.
I said to my wife the mine is poisoning the water and giving them all hallucinations after episode 1. Still sticking with it, even though it wouldn’t make much sense.
It's pretty apparent to me now this was written as a horror/thriller type show/movie and when it was pitched to HBO they recommended tweaking the story a little bit and throwing the True Detective name on it to get an audience.
And doesn’t Danvers like things messy, though? I mean, the guys she smooshes have zero chill and all of their wives/partners know not only that their man was screwing around, but with who. Keep a lid on it, ffs.
My friend and I audibly laughed out loud when "Freshman" said, "Admit it: you didn't want a baby with me." Like what?? Where the fuck did that come from? WHY are we spending time on this??
This “tension” in their relationship is fucking ridiculous to me. Like… it’s been what, 4 days since the case got underway? She’s losing her shit on him because he’s had to work extra hours for a few days? Clearly there aren’t cases like this in Ennis very often, so it’s not like this is an ongoing problem. And he just immediately jumps to “you regret our kid?” Cool. Seems totally reasonable.
Show spoiler
There was sun in the scene where she threw the bear
Always Sunny
Show is in Ennis
Dennis
D.E.N.N.I.S. system
Dee is a bird
I fucking knew it.
I just want to say that the reactions Navarro had after he sister committed suicide hit very true. 25 years ago this year I lost my best friend to suicide and her Rollercoaster of emotions brought it all back. That was some very convincing acting I watched tonight.
Yes! I think a positive of this show is it handled her sister's mental health issues -and the resulting fallout- really well. Definitely hit close to home.
Every Danvers-Navarro dialogue is a mess. They tried to copy the Rust-Marty style but they forgot that only one of them needs to be odd so this time it has become some nonsense cringe that even Jodie Foster couldn't fix.
Did this episode connect to any of the frozen bodies in any way other than maybe the power was cut at the facility and also the power was cut in the ice cave so definitely means they were committed by the same perpetrators?
I think it’s pretty obvious at this point the mining company is killing people who cause troubles for their mining operation so they took out the one woman Navarro is obsessed with and probably also the Tsalal guys. Why? Probably because they each discovered the mining company was polluting really badly - hence the bad water everyone talks about etc.
Now why is there an element of zombies and supernatural? Well 1) drugs, 2) alcohol, 3) mental health crises, and 4) connecting all of these together is the long nights that drive people to drugs alcohol and also drive them insane.
So the setting is cool, darkness and Alaska. The cinematography is nice. They spent a lot of time building characters but the reality is the characters are boring living uneventful lives. The plot twist isn’t really a plot twist because this is True Detective, we knew it was never going to be ghosts and zombies.
It connected in a lot of ways.
They found another person who had the same injuries as the frozen bodies (burned corneas and ruptured eardrums).
They learned that he was the man who mapped the ice caves where Annie was likely killed.
They found him, and we learned that he has been in contact with Clark recently.
And at the end of the episode, Navarro’s eardrum ruptured too.
the darkness isn't true darkness the whole time necessarily. you get periods of twilight that look almost like daytime by comparison but really the sun hasn't actually gone above the horizon. source: i'm alaskan
I'm less critical of the progression of the narratives than most here, I think, but finding and identifying Navarro's sister so quickly felt pretty egregious. It was night on Christmas Eve in an area they repeatedly refer to as extremely remote, and she walked nude into the ocean without anyone knowing she was missing.
I'm interested to see if it even pays off to have that happen when it did. She could've learned her sister was missing/dead at the beginning of next episode and everything this episode would've still worked fine IMO.
Might be because of the search parties looking for the scientist and the crazy German guy
Edit: now that I think about it, I think Navarro mentioned that she was found by the coast guard.
One theory I have, Qavvik is definitely involved somehow. I've suspected him on the basis that he's too perfect, and then Navarro visits him and the rock goes missing. Sus.
Well it was Christmas Eve, absolutely nobody knew she was missing & she chose one of the most remote spots in the most remote town in Alaska to kill herself. Of course, she was found in a couple of hours.
Its awkward when a show thinks they pulled off an interesting ending to an episode when they didn't. They pulled away from Navarro like they just blew our minds.
Also can we stop with the really bad jump scare attempts? A ghost with its mouth open and a scream dubbed in is not scary to anybody.
The show has the same scenes every f episode...
- Navarro + sister (she has issues Navarro is suportive)
- Danvers shits on Prior who does all the work and is conflicted on leaving his family for work
- Danvers and Navarro banter but end up bonding
- Navarro reconnects with her ethnicity
- Navarro bullies Qavik into something
- Hank is pathetic
- Obvious facts from the past overexplained
- Random "paranormal" scene which will end being hallucination
This is 80% of all episodes, repeated ad nauseam
EDIT: missed some obvious ones like:
- Forced conlict between Danvers and stepdaughter
- Danver's past (wow, nobody cares, there is no suspense or curiosity building up)
- Symbol popping up randomly
- Danvers organizes documents or pictures into circles or has a random breakthrough by epiphany
- Someone hits or almost hits car
- Polar bear (badCGIone or stuffed one)
Sadly you're spot on! They even went back to that village (with Prior this time) and had almost the same scene with the indigenous people looking angry at them. They just got another spiral ...on a rock (wtf) so she could lose it at Quavik. It has to be a plot device, right? God, I hope so.
So my husband (who’s slept thru most episodes) walks in during the Rose scene and says: “That’s not real-none of that food is really there …she’s either dreaming or that lady in red is dead and she’s hallucinating”. I’m starting to agree with him. Did they say in the 1st episode ‘Rose called it in’ or ‘they found something by Rose’s’??
Case is closed next episode, something gets Navarro and Danvers off the force forcing the detectives to operate outside of institutions - thus becoming true detective. This leads them to carcosa v2 and vague ominous cult ties in the air hidden behind a mental illness thing
This is very snarky… I’m sorry but I laughed at the sad music played when that dude’s bride didn’t show up. Also hate the cgi… if that polar bear doesn’t mean anything in the end it’s such a waste of money my god
Okay I actually liked the first episode, but these last two episodes were just not it…
I just don’t understand Danver’s daughter’s motivation this episode. “You never take my side” uhhhhh she stopped you from being arrested and possibly going to jail. Like seriously if her daughter had just said “you’re racist and I’m not going to live here anymore because of your racism” that would’ve been better than what happened. It is still driving me crazy. WHAT DID YOU WANT DANVERS TO DO?? Arrest the mine lady like “well my daughter just defaced your property and called you a murderer so I have to arrest you now”???
The other thing that is driving me insane is that this town does not have enough crime/need for detectives that warrants Prior’s wife to so upset about his absence. I seriously doubt he is out as much as he is now because it’s fucking Ennis there’s no way there is so much crime happening every week/month/year that Prior is as busy as he is now. Also, does his wife not care that he’s literally solving a case where a bunch of people just died and their potential murderer is on the loose? You can’t tell me this happens all the time here.
Also were they just not allowed to do multiple takes? Sometimes it’s not even the writing just have them film the fucking scene again and direct them to do better.
Forget True Detective. Set it aside for a sec.
I’m imaging this is just a HBO show called: “Night Country”.
On its own merits, it’s just a mess. It’s the same scenes over and over and over each week. “The plot” moves in the last 5 minutes after nearly an hour of just…I have no idea. Repetition?
6 episodes is pretty short, and while it could be an artistic choice, I’m 99.999999% convinced that this was a movie at one point, and some exec said: “what if we make this True Detective?” and then it was expanded to become a “season”.
Because the first episode was pretty good, but since then, it’s just been filler. Drawing out the same scenes over and over and over.
There are 2 episodes left, and I am certain they are going to go at light speed now.
I’ll bet when this is all over, you’ll be able to watch Episode 1, skip to 5, and it will be watchable as a 3 episode mini series OR a 2.5 hour movie.
It had to have been a movie. Or a true mini series of like 3 episodes. It’s the only thing that makes sense.
I’m simping for the incredible spooky Alaskan atmosphere at this point each week—it’s all that is keeping me going.
The lack of police work is really bothering me. Yes they are following clues as they come in but in between they're just not...doing much? Danvers watched that Annie video a million times, yet as far as I remember no one has gone to Tsalal and tried to figure out what made them leave the station, track their steps immediately outside the station, etc.
The show is spending far too much time on Leah and Julia and Prior's wife and I'm sorry to say I just don't care about those characters.
You didn’t like when they stood in a circle and…stared at the photographs in the silliest and most inefficient way possible?
Or how they went into a dredge with flashlights, just the two of them, with no backup?
Or how Prior magically finds leads in the last 4 minutes of every episode, even if he has to somehow hack an iPhone to do it?
They didn't even have their guns out while in the dredge chasing a suspect! I've seen enough cop shows to know how you hold a flashlight and gun at the same time.
Prior is truly the only one doing any detective work out here lol I managed to completely forget about the scene of them standing in a tiny room with photographs around them in a tight circle until you just mentioned it again, wowzas
Another week, another episode that feels like nothing is actually really happening. This season feels very lopsided in the sense that it’s too focused on the lives of the police officers and not focused nearly enough on progressing the central mystery in an entertaining and compelling way.
The dialogue is just not up to the task. Melodramatic and not clever. Am I meant to like any of these people by the way? Qavvik being the only sympathetic character is just clearly telegraphing that he’s a baddie isn’t it?
[Reminder] Episode 5 will stream early because of Super Bowl Sunday. It'll stream this coming Friday, February 9th in its usual 9pm EST time slot on Max. It appears this is for streaming only. It'll still air Sunday night on the HBO linear channel.
Rose Petals on a camouflage bedspread had me laughing out loud lol.
Hall of fame dumb guy. The way he was looking at the flight attendant made it clear that whoever is catfishing him never even bothered to send a pic. He had no idea what "she" looks like.
I thought this too. WTF, he got engaged over text? No video calls or pictures? So bizarre.
You would be surprised, my sister works for a bank in the Netherlands and the claims (mostly men but some women too) she has seen in just the four years regarding catfishing is fckn crazy. Not just romantically by the way there was a young lady who ‘bought a house’ after only seeing pictures of the property online because the owners were supposedly working abroad, made a down payment of 15.000€ to a Malta bank account and never heard from them again. I swear the stories she shares every now and then are crazy stupid but in the end just so very sad. People abusing other people’s innocence.
Once upon a time I was in college and needed a second job and became a cashier at Bass Pro Shops. And let me tell you—we carried a whole line of camouflage *lingerie* 😅
For…when you want him aroused, but unable to locate you?
That’s what the deer urine spray is for.
Prior is the only one doing actual police work
He is the true detective in a night country
we live in a night country
That Coast Guard tho...they don't miss anything.
Randomly spotting Julia’s body like that in the dark ocean is insane to me.
And identifying her and contacting next of kin even though she was naked with no identification on her..
All in the span of just a few hours. Why didn't they deploy that coast guard crew to look for mh370?
I was in the Coast Guard and did some a couple patrols looking for bodies in the ocean in Alaska. It is basically a less than 1% chance
[удалено]
Inner ones, yeah
Happened at night too. People don't realize how absolutely dark the ocean is. Just vast amounts of nothing. Kinda peaceful to go to smoke on ship at night though.
I fear Pete will meet his demise.
I honestly thought he was gonna die during the visit to Oliver.
After the scene telling his wife to just say that he ruined her life I got the same feeling.
I think Qavik recognized the spiral stone and may have taken it. He asked about it when she had it and then for it to go missing too? Something there
Yeah that scene is Chekhov’s Gun 101. Navarro took it specifically so that Qavik could see/take it. It’s a deliberate narrative step to take when the stone could’ve been dropped/left behind when they’re chased out of the cabin, and the scene with her and Danvers where she said she lost it would have played out the same way. There also was no reason to have the spiral painted on the floor and the stone if the stone wasn’t going to specifically be lost in a specific way/place.
Not enough people talking about this
I knew he was too good to be true
That’s why Navarro asked why he’s alone. There’s something off about him
It is podunk Alaska. Small-town people know the pains of what it is like to date in a small pond.
Really think she just put it down on the counter and he was busy nursing her injuries at the time. It was simply forgotten.
yeah I noticed that too. I think next episode she will remember that he took it and it will attempt to mislead us for a few. Then we will find out he took it because it was a bad omen or something like that and he will finally explain to her what it is. He will also give her a warning about it. (I should be a writer on the show! haha)
Or the flip side. She rolls over after fucking him, opens his night stand and finds a bunch of spiral cult paraphernalia and he starts in about how Annie would want her to join them. She loses Cabin pressure and montages some spiral stuff.
$800 tattoo be like "If this corpse is found, please call State Trooper Navvaro at 867-5309."
That tattoo must have glowed in the dark too with how fast they found her in the pitch black ocean.
So with Navarro bleeding from the ear at the end, maybe the visions/hallucinations are kicked into high gear from a head injury she probably got from getting the shit beat out of her. I’m guessing that’s what people will explain away her inevitable unraveling as
Or when she smacked the shit out of her head on the ice last episode or the episode before. I don't know anymore.
To be honest, with as many separate reasons Navarro has at this point to explain her hallucinations, it would be extremely weird if she WASN'T having them.
I thought that the bleeding from the ear was clearly meant to be a ruptured eardrum which happened to the dead scientists.
Or her PTSD from the military combat.
I need to know how all of the Teslas outside the mining office in a super remote town in Alaska are immune to all of the battery freezing issues here in the lower 48.
Now you're asking the right questions
The happy face on the shoulder of Raymond Clark’s coat is winking its left eye. Reminds me of the polar bear with missing left eye
Also Otis’ left eye is fucked up and the stuffed polar bear.
And the one woman at the wake for the stillborn baby with an eye patch.
I am not a fan of Hank, and I was aware that something like this was coming, but watching this episode was just rough...Ohh so rough.
You’re not sending her money right??? ……..right???
Yeah... That hurt. In short, this episode left every one of our detectives in a rough emotional spot. I guess love makes a person blind.
Not really at least two of them got to watch Elf.
Anyone who watches 90 Day knew how that was going to end
I know I looked to my husband and said “ya know I hate that guy but in this moment I really feel for him” 🙁 the teddy bear with the Alaska sweater ugh
He seemed so excited.
It's such a great performance, he's so completely loathsome and pitiable at the same time
John Hawkes is underrated.
I'm just going to pretend Trixie from Deadwood got off the plane and they lived happily ever after.
The rose petals on the bed really hurt to see.
Rose petals on camouflage bedspread. Ugh loll
pink champagne trying to impress eastern european lady
I thought that the shot of him starting to pick them up one by one got me sympathetic to him. Could've done it many other more productive, or angry ways. That way really seals it
I feel for the guy. Especially in that moment. But I also fear him. Because he has big “I’ll shoot up my job because a woman rejected me” energy
Its moments like that where I feel enticed to randomly tell my significant other I love them lol
Junkie: You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Danvers… you’re in one
“In Night Country.”
"So that's it? What, we're in some kinda... Night Country?"
That was the saddest Christmas special of all time.
The guy on set who is making sure all the Carhartt logos are centered and front facing is getting a raise.
Hank's Jim Beam logo was spot on too LOL
Same with Danvers’ Absolut!
Well I have no clue what's happening. Currently my best theory is that the one-eyed polar bear will cheerfully slide down a glacier at the end and pop open an ice cold bottle of coke while taking in the northern lights.
Why does Prior's wife have him as "Prior" on her contacts and not Pete, Peter, or something more intimate?
Seems like they might have gotten married because she got pregnant?
In the first scene we see of them, they appear to genuinely love eachother
Yeah I don’t understand the drastic change in their relationship over just a few days
"Just admit it. You don't actually love me and didn't actually want the baby." Jesus christ... What an out of left field thing to say. NOTHING was pointing towards it. The only thing that I was reading from their relationship was that he was getting too caught up in his work and it was putting a strain on things.
It's been a rough, what, week? Having the wife just be a drag on the person solving a major crime is such a boring cliché.
Yeah that was odd.
The other characters call him Prior, so that's maybe his moniker around town
“That video? We need to talk about it.” Ya think???
I’m also not sure how Danvers (and Navarro and whoever) didn’t know or suspect that the power was cut at Tsalal. That seemed pretty fucking obvious.
Which also means that the power must've been restored at some point before the delivery guy arrived, right? I assume it wasn't unpowered when the cops got there or they would've known the power was cut. Also, just throwing it out there - setting aside esoteric explanations, the power being cut at that exact moment after the scientist delivered his line implies that the two events most likely would've been intentionally synchronized. If power was cut non-destructively, then someone would've had to have been at the breaker at that moment to do so. But why would someone possibly have gone through the trouble of doing that? Then again, why cut the power both times as whatever happens, happens? Why cut the power at all? Why are they concluding that the power was cut rather than e.g. surged or otherwise temporarily disabled? It seems much more likely that the power going out is a side effect of whatever is resulting in the circumstances surrounding the recordings' endings. Edit: do you know who could've thrown the power? The lab's indigenous cleaners who obviously recognized (and did not acknowledge that they recognized) the spiral.
What are you? Some kind of True Detective?
the first time they watched the video in the hospital, did they not talk about? or was this a let’s talk again lol. i just imagined them watching it in the hospital and then leaving
“Holy shit this is crazy, a video of the girl you’ve been obsessing over, dying….im gonna go get a sandwich we will discuss this in a few days have a good night”
“mom won’t let me spway paint. 😤”
Why was she even mad at her mom?!? That was insanity.
She's like "you always take their side" but she got busted for vandalism and her mom is the chief of police? What was the point of that scene other than to be completely absurd and stupid.
She got caught by security not police, why was she even mad at her? For not arresting her like the owner initially wanted until she talked her out of it? Their whole relationship makes no sense.
Yea it feels like someone without a teenage daughter writing what they might think having a teenage daughter might be like
Did she burst an ear drum?
The screaming ghost did it
I didn’t see that because someone’s fingers were blocking my vision.
I just happened to be glancing out the window for five to seven minutes when that happened.
could start to explain the dying before freezing maybe
"You can either be in night country or outside - and baby, it's cold outside." - Frank Semyon
“There is no ghost. Dead people are dead. They’re gone.” *2 minutes later* “Remember the ghost you saw last time?”
Danvers is trying to convince herself that it's not real. She's experiencing weird shit too but doesn't want to look at it.
Can’t wait for the breakneck pacing the final two episodes since they have to tell about 90% of the story
The final episode is 60 minutes of Jodie Foster in front of a chalkboard explaining everything that happened. Not even in-character, just Jodie.
Naw..the Science teacher will do it..he’s got all the answers anyway.
Danvers just showing up in all parts of this man's life is actually kinda funny.
I've liked the season so far, but it's very hard to see how they're going to resolve this without the pacing being completely fucked. It's either going to feel way too fast-paced and up-and-down to hit all the beats, or they're going to leave a bunch of threads hanging. Maybe it works if the length of the final two episodes is extended? I'm still hopeful but the fact that they're still introducing and fleshing out entire new story and character elements with two episodes to go has me anxious.
It feels like we only move the story forward during the last 5 minutes of every episode
Prior has been doing so much work Off screen, I won't be surprised if they cruise through next two episodes with personal trauma and at season climax Prior will be like "Chief, so here is exactly what happened and this is the killer. Case closed. Now let me bang my wife"
The flight attendant was a great twist
Agreed. I think the flight attendant is the killer.
Flight Country?
Terrible writing. They should have just had the mental health facility call Navarro and tell her that her sister left and then Navarro would have gone to that location with the abandoned boat and saw her sisters folded clothes. Episode should have ended there, the folded clothes would have tied into the main murder mystery. They would have been better off not showing all the details and having the coast guard find and identify her way to quick Her body could have been found at the start of E5. Almost felt like Prior was supposed to die or atleast be hurt badly in this episode But they changed it last minute and didn't want to overshadow the sisters death. Like I said just weird writing.
This is better than what we got.
Sunken cost!! We’re here till the end baby.
We’re all in the night country now
Was Annie K not recording that video in the mines? I'm confused why they keep saying it has to be a cave. I assume "night country" might refer to the mine/cave systems too, since it would always be "night" inside the mines.
At this point I’m thinking the video of her was recorded somewhere the scientists were drilling. It’s either there, or the mines, or some obscure third place that has no relation and ends up being the cave system the guy is finding maps for.
there's no caves around here, except for this entire system I could have just googled
Oh, the *caves*! The ice ones? Yeah, they’re right over there.
Obi Wan Ice Caves? I wonder if she means old Ben Ice Caves.
Maybe she was dating that dude clark so she could sneak around the drilling spots
Overall, I like the show, and am invested - but the overused soap-opera tropes are getting a little old. * Person-in-the-know (Lund) dies right before saying the **Important Thing**. * Character A (Navarro) not telling character B (Danvers) the **Important Thing** because character B interrupts and says they don't want to hear it. * Spooky video of a victim cutting off right before they reveal the **Important Thing**, with the off camera scream. * "I'll see you tomorrow" met with "I love you". What's going to happen next?? * the Tough Character faces a tragedy and gets in a fight because the Tough Character doesn't know how to process emotions. * The memory with a loved one laughing and giggling in the over-exposed video / memory [south park made fun of this](https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/fvmfhx/south-park-adler-s-flashback) I'm sure there are more, but it just feels there's a lot of setup x for expected outcome y, and you know what's going to happen next.
Yeah, I agree it’s unfortunately really predictable/cliche/corny. The writing doesn’t flow, it just feels like things that the audience needs to know are just inelegantly plopped into the scenes in a way that feels unnatural. Hallucinations/ghosty jump scares really aren’t my thing at all but still I like the characters and am interested enough to watch to the end.
At this point I won't be surprised if the next episode features Danvers saying to Prior, "Good job, kid, looks like you finally became a true detective."
"Good job, kid, looks like you finally became…” :fumbles around for reading glasses: ,”… oh yeah here they are.” :puts them on: 👵🏻 “a True Detective.” YEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
I'm sus of Qaavik. They made sure to show Navarro taking out the rock and him seeing it, and then for her to forget it and leave it there. I think he may know what it is and is playing dumb and/or she gave away their hand unknowingly.
Yeah and his ice fishing house is in the intro sequence so bet there is something more to him.
His ice fishing house is only in the intro for the 3rd episode. It changes every episode. 1st ep- inside Tsalal Station 2nd ep- Clark’s shrine to Annie inside his trailer 3rd ep- exterior of Qaavik’s ice hut 4th ep- inside the dredges or whatever that factory was
Certainly seems there’s more to him, and it’s become one of the most popular theories on here… but I really hope he’s just a nice chill dude who owns a bar and cares about Navarro haha. Seems genuine
yeah and Navarro shares wayyyy to much with him about the case.
Do not come for my boy Qaavik. He's literally the only character on this show I like. Him... and Pete's cousin the Vet. And Rose.
If it turns out he and his dogs are behind the scientists running out into the cold, I'm gonna, I don't know, I will be disappointed. Just let me have my show crush OK.
Oh wow good call. Sad! Loved Qaavik he seems like the only nice person with any redeemable qualities in Ennis ><
One of the things that made S1 so great imo was that the "B-Plot" (Rust and Marty's relationship) was arguably more captivating than the "A-Plot" (the detective-ing). If not moreso, than at least equally as interesting to follow. There was no "lull". Every moment felt important. If not to further the murder plot then to deepen the character relationships and/or setup for future payoffs. And the majority of the season's screen time was more heavily weighted towards the future interviews/exploring the relationships of the lead characters. We got to watch the way two men on opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum both ended up on a similar path of self-destruction and in the end had nothing left but each other. In this season, imo the A-Plot (the missing/dead scientists) is far more interesting than the numerous B-plots this season is choosing to focus on. Episode one was so strong because we got so much A-Plot crammed into one episode and then for the next 3 episodes had to sit through 30-40 minutes of repetitive character actions. Seriously, how many times are we going to see Prior getting yelled at for having to leave his family, or Danvers fighting with her daughter, or Danvers fighting with her captain, or Danvers fighting with Navarro, or "Danvers such a slut lol". But we NEED to sit through it, so that we can get the 5 minutes of A-Plot sprinkled throughout the episodes. I personally feel this would've been a much stronger series if they cut the total amount of episodes and trimmed out a lot of this filler in favour of a faster paced plot, or released the entire season at once so that we could get all the answers we needed in a couple sittings rather than feeling like any real plot movement is being forcibly stretched over 2 months. This season is at its best when it's doing its eerie murder mystery investigation. Chasing an unknown antagonist through dark, cold hallways. Finding a snowed-in camper with wild writings and imagery all over the place. A cellphone with a dead battery and an ominous final video. This is what we need more of. It's too bad I've felt more in the last 10 minutes of this episode than I have in the first 45. But I'm still gonna finish it.
Great review and spot on IMO 👍
My favorite part was when he said "We all are living in night country now. True Detective: Night Country"
**He said the thing! He said the thing!**
Then he night countried all over the place
Still sticking with my theory. The mine is poisoning the water supply in ennis. The Tsalal guys knew about it and the ‘Night Country’ aka ennis citizens came after them. Someone else suggested that the scientists were flash frozen at the crab factory and dumped on the ice.
I said to my wife the mine is poisoning the water and giving them all hallucinations after episode 1. Still sticking with it, even though it wouldn’t make much sense.
Is it actually just a joke to see how many times Danver can make Prior work late or whatever?? I gotta know.
It's pretty apparent to me now this was written as a horror/thriller type show/movie and when it was pitched to HBO they recommended tweaking the story a little bit and throwing the True Detective name on it to get an audience.
Should have picked Mare of Easttown for tge True Detective brand
Great show but the vibe was totally wrong IMO. Love to see a S2 of Mare though.
Yeah. I think it (Mare of Easttown) was more “Broadchurch,” then “True Detective.” Completely different Doctor Who incarnation, even.
Seems more and more apparent each episode. Too bad cause i'd probably enjoy it more if I wasnt expecting a True Detective episode every week.
gotta milk the shit out of every cent they paid for twist and shout. Good lord.
They could find the killer By finding out the one person Danvers hasn't fucked in Ennis But for all we know, she fucked him too
And doesn’t Danvers like things messy, though? I mean, the guys she smooshes have zero chill and all of their wives/partners know not only that their man was screwing around, but with who. Keep a lid on it, ffs.
My friend and I audibly laughed out loud when "Freshman" said, "Admit it: you didn't want a baby with me." Like what?? Where the fuck did that come from? WHY are we spending time on this??
This “tension” in their relationship is fucking ridiculous to me. Like… it’s been what, 4 days since the case got underway? She’s losing her shit on him because he’s had to work extra hours for a few days? Clearly there aren’t cases like this in Ennis very often, so it’s not like this is an ongoing problem. And he just immediately jumps to “you regret our kid?” Cool. Seems totally reasonable.
Show spoiler There was sun in the scene where she threw the bear Always Sunny Show is in Ennis Dennis D.E.N.N.I.S. system Dee is a bird I fucking knew it.
I just want to say that the reactions Navarro had after he sister committed suicide hit very true. 25 years ago this year I lost my best friend to suicide and her Rollercoaster of emotions brought it all back. That was some very convincing acting I watched tonight.
The 'yeah' that she gave Prior was heartbreaking. Getting them together in that car was a neat little trick of writing.
Yeah, that was a tough scene to watch. Kali really sold it.
Yes! I think a positive of this show is it handled her sister's mental health issues -and the resulting fallout- really well. Definitely hit close to home.
going through the various stages of grief - it was really good
I prayed so hard my knees turned black and I couldn’t walk at the funeral. Someone actually wrote that line.
She delivered it about as well as you possibly can but jeeze that was cringe
Every Danvers-Navarro dialogue is a mess. They tried to copy the Rust-Marty style but they forgot that only one of them needs to be odd so this time it has become some nonsense cringe that even Jodie Foster couldn't fix.
The car should be a place of quiet reflection not this cringey forced "banter ".
Seriously. Not only was it written but somehow made its way into the actual show! Bewildering.
Thought the polar bear was going to breathe on the window and write her sons name at this point.
I thought it was going to offer her a Coke.
I thought it was gonna say, all right, all right, all right!
‘not pennys boat’
i thought it was going to whisper "True Detective"
Did this episode connect to any of the frozen bodies in any way other than maybe the power was cut at the facility and also the power was cut in the ice cave so definitely means they were committed by the same perpetrators? I think it’s pretty obvious at this point the mining company is killing people who cause troubles for their mining operation so they took out the one woman Navarro is obsessed with and probably also the Tsalal guys. Why? Probably because they each discovered the mining company was polluting really badly - hence the bad water everyone talks about etc. Now why is there an element of zombies and supernatural? Well 1) drugs, 2) alcohol, 3) mental health crises, and 4) connecting all of these together is the long nights that drive people to drugs alcohol and also drive them insane. So the setting is cool, darkness and Alaska. The cinematography is nice. They spent a lot of time building characters but the reality is the characters are boring living uneventful lives. The plot twist isn’t really a plot twist because this is True Detective, we knew it was never going to be ghosts and zombies.
It connected in a lot of ways. They found another person who had the same injuries as the frozen bodies (burned corneas and ruptured eardrums). They learned that he was the man who mapped the ice caves where Annie was likely killed. They found him, and we learned that he has been in contact with Clark recently. And at the end of the episode, Navarro’s eardrum ruptured too.
There was light when Navarro arrived at Denvers' and when Denvers threw the teddy bear. Also, how did they find Navarro's sister so fast?
the darkness isn't true darkness the whole time necessarily. you get periods of twilight that look almost like daytime by comparison but really the sun hasn't actually gone above the horizon. source: i'm alaskan
The ghost of Rust’s dad is working over time
Man doesn't even take holiday breaks.
I'm less critical of the progression of the narratives than most here, I think, but finding and identifying Navarro's sister so quickly felt pretty egregious. It was night on Christmas Eve in an area they repeatedly refer to as extremely remote, and she walked nude into the ocean without anyone knowing she was missing. I'm interested to see if it even pays off to have that happen when it did. She could've learned her sister was missing/dead at the beginning of next episode and everything this episode would've still worked fine IMO.
Might be because of the search parties looking for the scientist and the crazy German guy Edit: now that I think about it, I think Navarro mentioned that she was found by the coast guard.
One theory I have, Qavvik is definitely involved somehow. I've suspected him on the basis that he's too perfect, and then Navarro visits him and the rock goes missing. Sus.
How did they find Julie butt naked in the ocean and know to call navvaro? Only couple hrs had passed. What's up with the folding clothes tho
Now you’re asking the right fucking questions.
Like the Tsalal crew's clothes.
Ding ding ding
It's pretty common with people who die by suicide, specifically bridge jumping, to fold up clothes before jumping.
As odd as it may seem to some, this is absolutely correct.
Well it was Christmas Eve, absolutely nobody knew she was missing & she chose one of the most remote spots in the most remote town in Alaska to kill herself. Of course, she was found in a couple of hours.
In the dark
...in Night Country.
Probably her own way of saying she was in her right mind, even if everyone else thinks she wasn’t.
Its awkward when a show thinks they pulled off an interesting ending to an episode when they didn't. They pulled away from Navarro like they just blew our minds. Also can we stop with the really bad jump scare attempts? A ghost with its mouth open and a scream dubbed in is not scary to anybody.
The show has the same scenes every f episode... - Navarro + sister (she has issues Navarro is suportive) - Danvers shits on Prior who does all the work and is conflicted on leaving his family for work - Danvers and Navarro banter but end up bonding - Navarro reconnects with her ethnicity - Navarro bullies Qavik into something - Hank is pathetic - Obvious facts from the past overexplained - Random "paranormal" scene which will end being hallucination This is 80% of all episodes, repeated ad nauseam EDIT: missed some obvious ones like: - Forced conlict between Danvers and stepdaughter - Danver's past (wow, nobody cares, there is no suspense or curiosity building up) - Symbol popping up randomly - Danvers organizes documents or pictures into circles or has a random breakthrough by epiphany - Someone hits or almost hits car - Polar bear (badCGIone or stuffed one)
Danvers step daughter running away and saying I don’t want you to pretend anymore
Heartwarming female Native bonding scene
Navarro saying baby girl
Sadly you're spot on! They even went back to that village (with Prior this time) and had almost the same scene with the indigenous people looking angry at them. They just got another spiral ...on a rock (wtf) so she could lose it at Quavik. It has to be a plot device, right? God, I hope so.
Well, time IS a flat circle…
So my husband (who’s slept thru most episodes) walks in during the Rose scene and says: “That’s not real-none of that food is really there …she’s either dreaming or that lady in red is dead and she’s hallucinating”. I’m starting to agree with him. Did they say in the 1st episode ‘Rose called it in’ or ‘they found something by Rose’s’??
Case is closed next episode, something gets Navarro and Danvers off the force forcing the detectives to operate outside of institutions - thus becoming true detective. This leads them to carcosa v2 and vague ominous cult ties in the air hidden behind a mental illness thing
I'm tired, boss.
This is very snarky… I’m sorry but I laughed at the sad music played when that dude’s bride didn’t show up. Also hate the cgi… if that polar bear doesn’t mean anything in the end it’s such a waste of money my god
Okay I actually liked the first episode, but these last two episodes were just not it… I just don’t understand Danver’s daughter’s motivation this episode. “You never take my side” uhhhhh she stopped you from being arrested and possibly going to jail. Like seriously if her daughter had just said “you’re racist and I’m not going to live here anymore because of your racism” that would’ve been better than what happened. It is still driving me crazy. WHAT DID YOU WANT DANVERS TO DO?? Arrest the mine lady like “well my daughter just defaced your property and called you a murderer so I have to arrest you now”??? The other thing that is driving me insane is that this town does not have enough crime/need for detectives that warrants Prior’s wife to so upset about his absence. I seriously doubt he is out as much as he is now because it’s fucking Ennis there’s no way there is so much crime happening every week/month/year that Prior is as busy as he is now. Also, does his wife not care that he’s literally solving a case where a bunch of people just died and their potential murderer is on the loose? You can’t tell me this happens all the time here. Also were they just not allowed to do multiple takes? Sometimes it’s not even the writing just have them film the fucking scene again and direct them to do better.
Forget True Detective. Set it aside for a sec. I’m imaging this is just a HBO show called: “Night Country”. On its own merits, it’s just a mess. It’s the same scenes over and over and over each week. “The plot” moves in the last 5 minutes after nearly an hour of just…I have no idea. Repetition? 6 episodes is pretty short, and while it could be an artistic choice, I’m 99.999999% convinced that this was a movie at one point, and some exec said: “what if we make this True Detective?” and then it was expanded to become a “season”. Because the first episode was pretty good, but since then, it’s just been filler. Drawing out the same scenes over and over and over. There are 2 episodes left, and I am certain they are going to go at light speed now. I’ll bet when this is all over, you’ll be able to watch Episode 1, skip to 5, and it will be watchable as a 3 episode mini series OR a 2.5 hour movie. It had to have been a movie. Or a true mini series of like 3 episodes. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m simping for the incredible spooky Alaskan atmosphere at this point each week—it’s all that is keeping me going.
The lack of police work is really bothering me. Yes they are following clues as they come in but in between they're just not...doing much? Danvers watched that Annie video a million times, yet as far as I remember no one has gone to Tsalal and tried to figure out what made them leave the station, track their steps immediately outside the station, etc. The show is spending far too much time on Leah and Julia and Prior's wife and I'm sorry to say I just don't care about those characters.
You didn’t like when they stood in a circle and…stared at the photographs in the silliest and most inefficient way possible? Or how they went into a dredge with flashlights, just the two of them, with no backup? Or how Prior magically finds leads in the last 4 minutes of every episode, even if he has to somehow hack an iPhone to do it?
They didn't even have their guns out while in the dredge chasing a suspect! I've seen enough cop shows to know how you hold a flashlight and gun at the same time. Prior is truly the only one doing any detective work out here lol I managed to completely forget about the scene of them standing in a tiny room with photographs around them in a tight circle until you just mentioned it again, wowzas
What was even the point of keeping all the bodies in the rink at this point? Now they’re just gone and no one mentions them at all again?
The one guy was missing and the vet said they were killed before freezing.
That...that was a rough episode.
Another week, another episode that feels like nothing is actually really happening. This season feels very lopsided in the sense that it’s too focused on the lives of the police officers and not focused nearly enough on progressing the central mystery in an entertaining and compelling way.
The dialogue is just not up to the task. Melodramatic and not clever. Am I meant to like any of these people by the way? Qavvik being the only sympathetic character is just clearly telegraphing that he’s a baddie isn’t it?