Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘True Detective: Night Country‘ begins with the strange disappearance of a group of scientists from Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska. Their disappearance coincides with the last sunset of the year as the long night takes over. The investigation reveals that the case of the scientists might be connected to the murder of a local woman named Annie K, who died six years ago. The murderer was never caught, and the truth behind what really happened to Annie never came to light. But once Detectives Danvers and Navarro start digging into the scientists, they discover startling things that lead them to the ones responsible for Annie’s death. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Ice Caves Hold the Answer to Annie’s Fate
When Navarro and Danvers find Annie’s phone in Raymond Clarke’s secret trailer, they discover a video taken moments before her murder. It proves that Annie was killed in the caves and then brought into town. All they needed to do was find the caves and locate the site of the murder, and it would give them all the answers they needed. With Otis Heiss gone, they have to do it themselves.
Navarro and Danvers find the spot where they can dig into the ice to get into the caves. They enter the caves without a map or any idea of where they are going, but Navarro has a hunch, and as Danvers follows her, both of them end up in a spot where they come across Raymond Clarke. Chasing after him, the detectives stumble upon a secret underground lab. They find a screwdriver-type thing with a star-shaped end and realize that this is the murder weapon. They also find the spiral symbol there, proving that this is where Annie was murdered.
The lab has a secret staircase that opens into Tsalal. Navarro and Danvers separate to find Clarke, but he takes both of them by surprise. He locks Danvers into an icy room and hits Navarro on the head, rendering her unconscious. Eventually, Danvers is able to break out of the room, and by the time she finds Clarke, Navarro has come to and has already beaten Clarke’s face into a pulp.
Even when caught, Clarke refuses to talk, so Navarro forces him to hear Annie’s last screams over and over until he breaks and is ready to tell the truth. He confesses that Annie really was killed in the underground lab, and it was the scientists who did it. When Navarro asks if he was one of them, if he too hurt Annie, he says he would never hurt her. He claims he loved her and how he tried to save her but failed. But both Navarro and Danvers know that he is lying. If he did love Annie, he wouldn’t have allowed her to be killed by his co-workers. Moreover, he wouldn’t have buried the truth all these years and hidden himself away when death came for the rest of the scientists.
Why did the Scientists Kill Annie K?
Annie was the face of the Ennis community, fighting to protect its people by protecting its land and water. It was common knowledge that Silver Sky’s mining operation was polluting the water, which had an adverse impact on the people. The polluted water was making people sick and leading to the increased mortality rate of newborns, with many women in town giving birth to stillborns. As a midwife, Annie saw the dead children and the pain of their mothers firsthand, which made her even more adamant about exposing the mine and stopping the pollution.
While she aggressively protested against the mine, she was also working secretly to get her hands on something incriminating that would help shut down the mine for good. In between this, she started dating Raymond Clarke, one of the scientists working at Tsalal. Soon, she discovered that Silver Sky was funding Tsalal, and she hoped to find some connection between them, which led to the ice caves. There, she found the secret bunker where the scientists kept their research and the samples they had dug out from the ice.
Annie found that the scientists were pushing the mine to create more pollution because it helped them with their research. What they were looking for was prehistoric and buried in the ice. If they tried to take it out by force, the samples would be contaminated, and all their efforts would be in vain. But then, the pollution naturally raised the temperature, and the ice started to thaw in a way that made it easier for the scientists to procure the samples. When they realized what was happening, they encouraged the mine to create more pollution and helped them keep the real pollution level a secret because they knew what they were doing was morally, ethically, and legally wrong.
Annie was shocked to discover this, and in anger, she decided to destroy everything in the lab, including the samples. She was found out by Anders Lund, who got enraged when he saw her destroying his life’s work. He stabbed her with the screwdriver and left star-shaped wounds on Annie. When Raymond Clarke heard her cries, he ran down to the lab and tried to stop Lund. When he tried to calm down Annie, she hit him because she thought he was also going to hurt her.
By then, the rest of the scientists also came down, and they all attacked Annie, stabbing her 32 times in total. When they were done, Clarke approached Annie, believing she was dead. But it turned out she was still alive, and when she continued to fight, Clarke choked her to death. They called the mine people to dispose of her body, and Hank was sent to finish the job. They also shut down the opening to the caves so no one could get in that way and connect Annie’s death to Tsalal. Meanwhile, the scientists continued with their research, still polluting Ennis and endangering the lives of its people. Clarke, however, was bogged down with guilt.
For six years, Clarke spent his days crying and moping over Annie’s death. The other scientists eventually grew weary of him and paid him no heed. He started to act strange, often walking around without his clothes and saying weird things, if not crying. This is why perhaps they gave him a separate room so he could do all of that in isolation and not bother the others. Because while he was being haunted by the ghost of Annie, the others had already moved on and were focusing on their work again.
Clarke was also told to continue the work because, at least then, Annie’s death wouldn’t be in vain. If they could complete their research and save the world with it, then it would give meaning to Annie’s “sacrifice.” But if he continued to keep crying and not doing his job, then Annie’s death would be for nothing. It was a weird logic, but it got Clarke through the days. He would still cry and act weird, but as long as it didn’t affect his work, no one bothered with him. They also needed him at Tsalal because had they let him go, he could have told someone about Annie’s murder. It was better to keep him in Tsalal and within their sights so they’d know that their secret would be safe.
Read More: Is The Spiral Symbol in True Detective Season 4 Connected to Season 1?
