‘True Detective’: Every Time ‘Night Country’ Got Supernatural

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for True Detective: Night Country Season 4, Episode 5, “Part 5.”]

True Detective: Night Country ventures further and further into the supernatural world with each passing episode, and it’s no coincidence that the ghosts from Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro’s (Kali Reis) pasts are surfacing.

While the show follows their efforts to unravel a cold case, the fourth season of HBO‘s anthology is similar to past seasons in its exploration of characters’ trauma, which seems to be manifesting in spooky ways. Below, we’re breaking down all of the supernatural and paranormal happenings from Night Country so far, and breaking down what they might mean as the season continues.

Travis Cohle

(Credit: HBO)

In Episode 2, it was confirmed that the ghost Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) referred to as Travis, was the spirit of Rust Cohle’s (Matthew McConaughey) father who killed himself amid a Leukemia battle. His specter was responsible for helping lead Rose to the whereabouts of Tsalal’s missing scientists who were found frozen in the snow and ice, proving there are greater powers at play beyond the human plane in this season’s story. When Navarro asks Rose about Travis’s appearance, the woman tells her that sometimes the dead come to check on you, come with messages, or they come to take you with them, but that you have to know the difference.

Darwin’s Drawing

(Credit: HBO)

Pete Prior (Finn Bennett) finds his son has drawn a figure with red eyes when home with his family and questions his wife Kayla (Anna Lambe) about it. She tells him that it’s inspired by the legends and tales of her Indigenous community, with the intention being to keep these stories alive. He worries it will cause Darwin to have nightmares, but could the spirit drawn in crayon exist somewhere out in the frigid Alaskan landscape? Anything seems possible. Especially when Pete’s cousin told Danvers that the Tsalal men likely died of fright or cardiac arrest and not hypothermia as presumed. And even the severely injured scientist Anders Lund (Þorsteinn Bachmann) who somehow initially survived the freezing told Danvers “She found us,” suggesting someone or something was responsible for the other scientists’ deaths.

Holden’s Message

(Credit: HBO)

By now it’s clear that Danvers had a son named Holden who died. Appearing to the detective as a stray hand while she drifts in and out of sleep, and through flashbacks, Holden even appears to Navarro when she’s out on the ice. Seeing a small child running with a stuffed polar bear in his hands, she chases after him but slips, and when she sits up, it’s on a battlefield she’s been transported to before where she’d interacted with a wounded soldier in a previous installment. But this time, Holden’s hand lands on Navarro’s shoulder as he whispers to her, asking that she tell his mom something.

We have a feeling his lingering presence will continue until Danvers hears whatever this message is, but we won’t hold our breaths.

The Orange

(Credit: HBO)

When searching for Tsalal scientist Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell), one of the police drops a bag of oranges and Navarro picks one up, carrying it with her into the snowy plains. When she pulls it from her pocket, she tosses it out into the dark void, but it spookily comes rolling back toward her as if a message is being sent. Considering oranges have a role in the opening credits sequence, we’re willing to bet this happenstance is no coincidence. In Episode 4, this suspicion is seemingly confirmed as an orange rolls out from under Jules’ (Aka Niviâna) bed at a care facility Navarro checks her into. When she leans over to pick up the fruit, she sees a spirit, seemingly of her mother who is wearing the cross from Navarro’s flashback. Could oranges be synonymous with Navarro’s mother? We’re beginning to think so.

Anders Lund’s Message for Navarro

(Credit: HBO)

Harkening back to Rose’s words about the dead visiting to take people with them, surviving Tsalal scientist Anders Lund delivers an ominous message to Navarro on behalf of her mother. When Danvers is pulled into the hospital hallway amid a breakout brawl, Navarro is left with a seemingly possessed Lund who sits upright in his bed and speaks clearly to the detective, saying, “Hello Evangeline, your mother says ‘hello.’ She’s waiting for you.” He then points out into the distance before collapsing back into his bed and coding.

Jules’ Demons

(Credit: HBO)

Navarro reveals that her mother dealt with mental health issues, and her sister Jules is similarly afflicted. But it seems there might be more to Jules’ episodes which involve her feeling as though people are after her. In Episode 3, Jules takes off from her work shift, praying and fleeing away from some unknown figure. When Navarro finds her sitting at the edge of a stranded barge Jules says, “I think stuff, bad stuff.” Regardless of whether these unknown demons chasing Jules are internalized or not, they have a negative impact on her well-being. As mentioned above, we see the visual manifestation of one of these apparitions as Jules finds the ghostly figure of her mother under her bed. The ghosts get to be too much that Jules ends up killing herself.

These demons seemingly transform once Jules dies as Navarro begins seeing figures, particularly of Jules while investigating an empty warehouse with Danvers where they think Raymond Clark is hiding.

The Cross

(Credit: HBO)

In Episode 2, Navarro is driving and finds a cross on a chain on the floor of her vehicle. The token seemingly appears out of nowhere and seems to be connected to her mother in the same way the stuffed polar bear is connected to Holden. In a flashback, viewers see Navarro’s mother having a mental breakdown while wearing the necklace, but how did the item even get there in the first place? Seems a little too coincidental to not have a bigger meaning. Similarly, black hair is found in the spiral of Navarro’s laundry in Episode 5 but seemingly disappears despite seeming like a tangible object. Are these physical items a symbol of her mother’s lingering presence?

The Wheeler Case

(Credit: HBO)

In Episode 3, viewers begin to learn about the reason why Navarro and Danvers hadn’t been working together in years as it stems from a domestic violence case they worked together. Referring to it as the Wheeler Case, Danvers tells Pete that she and Navarro reported to the scene various times until one final time when the abuser, had killed his young partner and himself, according to Danvers. But a flashback hints at a different series of events. In the flashback sequence, the detectives walk into a home where they find a deceased woman lying at the feet of a man who turns to Danvers while whistling The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.”

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'True Detective': Every Important Symbol From 'Night Country' (So Far)

While it certainly feels like there’s more to uncover regarding the Wheeler case, Danvers’ experience in the flashback is eerily supernatural as the tune popped up other times in the recent past through flashbacks with Holden and when walking into the Tsalal Research Station as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off plays in the background. And in Episode 4, Danvers questions Navarro, noting she thinks the woman saw a ghost at the scene. A new vantage of the flashback seems to confirm Danvers’ theory.

Could the spooky happenings have started long before Annie K’s death or the disappearance of the Tsalal scientists? It certainly looks that way. Let us know your thoughts on the haunting elements of the show in the comments section, below, and stay tuned for more as Season 4 continues on HBO.

True Detective: Night Country, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and Max