Diksha Sundriyal
In HBO’s ‘True Detective: Night Country,’ a horrifying mystery unravels the lives of the people in the town of Ennis. Detectives Danvers and Navarro are completely taken with the two cases, separated by six years, that seem too confounding to solve at first. Apart from the cases, the show also focuses on their personal lives. Both detectives are dealing with past traumas and grieving the sudden loss of their loved ones.
For Navarro, a lot of things make her feel out of alignment with Ennis. Her sister’s deteriorating mental health, the fracturing of her own mental health as she starts to see and hear things that are not there, and her inability to accept and be accepted by the community fully are some of the things that add to her woes. In all of this, the revelation of her true name adds a whole new meaning to her arc. SPOILERS AHEAD
Navarro’s Native Name Lends a Greater Meaning to Her Arc
Evangeline Navarro never knew her Inupiaq name. Her mother died before telling it to her, and this is why Navarro feels a bit disconnected from the Native community in Ennis. Her Native name is part of her identity, and because she doesn’t know it, a part of her feels missing, no matter how much she tries to fill it with other things. The only person who could tell her her Native name was her mother, but she had been dead a long time. Navarro has no hopes of finding her name, but she feels the sting of not knowing every single day.
In the final episode of the season, she finally discovers her name. It is “Siqinnaatchiaq”. Later, Bee tells her that the name means “the return of the sun after the long darkness,” which is quite fitting, considering that around the same time, Navarro and Danvers solve the case of Annie and Tsalal scientists. By that time, a lot of things that had been in the dark for the past six years have come to light. Further, the name also denotes hope, and considering everything that has happened to her, Navarro desperately needs hope.
The revelation of Navarro’s name also immediately opens the doors that had previously been closed to her. Not knowing her name had made her feel like an outsider in the Native community. At one point, when she and Danvers try to interrogate a potential witness/suspect, the man refuses to talk after Navarro fails to tell him her name. While it is not her fault that she doesn’t know her own name, for others, it is a mark of her dissonance from the community. It makes the others feel like she is not one of them, and her being a cop who didn’t solve the case of a beloved local figure doesn’t give her any points either.
So, when she finally knows her name and owns it, it projects the sense that she is in touch with her roots, making it easier for others to trust her. It brings her under the umbrella of the community, and when that door opens to her, things get much easier. Above all, however, the name gives Navarro a complete sense of identity. She doesn’t feel untethered anymore. It gives her hope, and that’s what potentially saves her life.
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