REVIEW: ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Episode 2 — “Part Two”

Issa López‘s True Detective: Night Country kicked off Season 4 of the anthology series with a chill. The season premiered with tension and a noir storytelling trajectory with just the right amount of horror, making it a standout of this television season and extending the horror genre more largely. Directed and written by Issa López, True Detective: Night Country Episode 2, “Part Two,” builds on everything we saw in the last episode, right from the reveal of the bodies buried in the snow.

In True Detective: Night Country Episode 2, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) set out to learn more about Tsalal and the men who wandered into the snow to their deaths. In doing so, the duo find an unlikely location for the physical evidence. While Danvers is attempting to thaw out the frozen bundle of Tsalal corpses, Captain Connelly (Christopher Eccleston) threatens to move the case to Anchorage and take it out of her hands.  But with answers only making the reality of the violence against Native women a larger reality, Danvers and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) begin working the angle only to discover independently that one of the Tsalal men was connected to Annie K, the woman who was murdered years ago. Only to find themselves pulled back together.

“Part Two” is a slow episode devoted to building up characters and relationships with a gruesome set piece anchoring the series’s storytelling genre. The revelation that Navarro and Danvers were former partners is used expertly in True Detective: Night Country Episode 2. As Jodie Foster’s first television role, and one that brings her so close to her Clarece roots, I want to root for her.

Instead, López unravels Danvers into a complicated mess of outright racism against Inuit in moments. She gets enraged at her daughter getting a temporary Kakiniit (the three vertical parallel lines below the lower lip that is a part of Inuit heritage). She understands Iñupiaq when she speaks to the elder who gave her daughter the kakiniit but her response isn’t dismissive but dripping with venom. Add in how dismissive she is of Navarro’s concern for the growing case that someone is murdering Native women and Danvers is hard to root for. Still, Foster’s Danvers is compelling to watch as she tries to solve the case and as all of her flaws are laid bare.

For Navarro, True Detective: Night Country Episode 2 expands on her relationship with her sister Julia (Aka Niviâna). This relationship also serves as a window into the supernatural side of Ennis. Last episode Rose (Fiona Shaw) saw a dead person who guided her to the frozen corpses of the Tsalal men. In this episode, Navarro seeks guidance on Rose’s vision, drawing a parallel with her sister who continues to recount seeing and hearing things that aren’t there.

Here, Rose shares a creeping context for Night Country as a series. “The world is getting old, and Ennis is where the fabric of all things is coming apart at the scenes,” Roae says. It’s an ominous warning but one that Navarro hopes is an answer to her sister’s cognitive decline. But mental health issues aren’t the spirit world as we see more of Navarro and Julia caked in a somber atmosphere.

True Detective: Night Country Episode 2 is all about how interpersonal relationships affect the larger narrative of the series. It’s a slow-burning story at this point, but the tension is still growing. Every interaction and choice tightens the mystery instead of solving it.

That said, “Part Two” is not without its horror or the clear worldbuilding that ramps up the methodical nature of the Tsalal deaths. But instead of sprinkling it throughout the episode, it’s consolidated in the beginning and the ending. These moments, from a screaming frozen corpse to a ritualistic scene covered in snow, work to shake the viewer. López lulls you into comfort. She outlines a character-driven drama that plays by noir rules, and just when you’re comfortable, she shakes you.

Visually, the series is gorgeous and terrifying. López’s vision captures the danger of the Arctic Circle and its cold. We see it in the rolling snow across landscapes, the endless night, and the statues of frozen and mangled bodies. By taking advantage of the environment and centering character relationships, True Detective: Night Country Episode 2 is stunning.

It still shocks and stuns. But most importantly, it’s all engrossing. The bitter cold of the series bites hard, and it seems that the developing reality around Danvers and Navarro is about to draw blood.

True Detective: Night Country is streaming now on MAX (formerly HBO MAX).