If there’s one word to describe the second episode of True Detective: Night Country, it’s spiraling. If you missed any of the hints at the spiral iconography from the first episode, it’s the central focus of the second episode. The discovery of the bodies of the Tsalal Research Station researchers in the ice was the cliffhanger of the prior episode, and in this one, we learn that some had the spiral on their head. They were also naked, with their clothes neatly arrayed on the ice. It’s one thing to paradoxically rip your clothes off when experiencing hypothermia, but it’s another to neatly fold said clothes. The man who seems most likely to have a connection to the death of Anne Kowtok, who was likely wearing her parka as we found out in the prior episode, had the spiral tattooed to his chest (or was it his back?) prior to the events that kicked off the season. More than that, he’s not one of the men thawed in the ice: six are in the ice, one is in a coma after somehow surviving long enough to be “rescued,” and Raymond Clark, the spiral tattoo chest/back man, is missing (or can it be said to be missing when he’s deliberately not there?). Eerie.
My favorite part of this episode was the back-and-forth detective work between Danvers and her right-hand man, Peter Prior (played by Finn Bennett), as they tried to understand what the heck must’ve happened at the Tsalal Research Station. At first, Prior’s theorizing that maybe a polar bear got into the station, resulting in the men hurriedly running out of the station, sans shoes (because it’s a freakin’ polar bear!), but because of the folded clothes, it seems more likely that someone else was out there on the ice with them, doing something to them. The men have rupture ears and gouged out eyes, so something awful occurred.
Additionally, the DNA does come back on the tongue found at the station, and it was Anne’s, thus bringing the two cases, and Danvers and Navarro, together. There’s some sort of history between them that’s still only alluded to, but it makes Danvers quite the bitter woman (another word for this is grief-stricken because she seems to have lost her child and maybe husband? in some sort of tragedy).
And one of the fun hanging questions is what the heck is going on with Hank Prior (played by John Hawkes), Peter’s dad? He clearly abuses Peter and is described as an animal raised by another animal. Hank also gives this “blood is blood” spiel to Peter. Whatever that means! But it sounded ominous.
I’m looking forward to seeing how more of these pieces come together, but back to the spiral point, I need to refresh on the first season of True Detective. I know it was something to do with a sex cult and ring, but it’s been years since I’ve seen it. Is this cult somehow connected to the research station that was ostensibly researching microbials in the ice to cure cancer and other diseases? Or something else entirely? Again, we’ll found out as the season progresses.
By the way, since the first episode, I’ve been obsessed with the theme song for this season, Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” song.
Milam's Musings 