TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT Country, through its first few episodes, has been one of the best shows of the year. The series has been hit or miss in the past (nothing tops the first season starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey), but it seems to have found its footing once again in Season 4.
Jodie Foster and Kali Reis star as two cops who used to work together until an unsolved homicide shook the core of their small town Alaska community and ended their partnership. But when a nearby The Thing-esque research station has its entire staff murdered in a terrifying and mysterious manner, the duo has to get back together when the scientists’ deaths seem to relate to their old cold case.
Adding an extra edge to the premise, the show is set in the fictional Ennis, Alaska, where much of the winter is shrouded in darkness. If things weren’t spooky enough, the constant night makes for hallucinations, strange noises, and heightened emotions (including the “appearance” of an old friend’s deceased father).
As the investigation gets underway, the cops discover one of the scientists, Anders Lund, is actually still alive. After multiple amputations and a coma, he finally wakes up, which means he could potentially provide answers to what happened to his colleagues, and who killed them.
But rather than give straight answers, Lund is in no state for an easy Q&A. He gives a few cryptic clues, then seems to be sedated by the nurse when he suddenly rises up to give one more message before he codes and presumably dies.
So how does Anders Lund connect to the overall case? Here’s what we know.
Anders Lund adds to the show’s ongoing mystery.
First off, it’s worth noting that in real life, Lund definitely would not have survived his frozen murder. As an article from The Guardian reports, once your body temperature drops even a few degrees, to 35 Celsius (or 95 Fahrenheit) you won’t last longer than a day. So for Lund to last as long as he did and then wake up as soon as he was defrosted would be virtually impossible.
A few Redditors wondered if Lund somehow found a way to utilize his research on extending life, although Episode 3 seems to spell the end to that theory. More than likely, it’s True Detective stretching the truth just bit for suspense.
Still, for True Detective, we suspend disbelief with the promise things will all make sense at the end.
Through bouts of screaming (if you lost three limbs and were covered in gangrene, you’d scream too), Lund repeats a refrain Evangeline Navarro (Reis) heard whispered during a long drive. “She’s awake.”
He also gives us a bit more context: “I woke her, and now she’s out there looking for us in the dark.”
While we still don’t know what it means (Could it be related to Navarro’s missing mother? Maybe “she” refers to Anne Kowtok, the murdered woman connected to the case?), Navarro now knows she has a direct line to the investigation. Whatever she keeps seeing or hearing in the dark may be the key to finding the killer to both cases.
When Danvers leaves the room, Navarro then sees Lund somehow sitting up and awake after being sedated, with a message just for her. “Hello, Evangeline. Your mother says hello. She’s waiting for you,” he says before flatlining. Talk about nightmare fuel.
It looks like this case is turning out not just to be an obsession for Navarro, but one of a personal nature, too. In Episode 3, we also learn before her mother disappeared, she also never revealed Navarro’s Inupiaq name, which makes her feel as if she’s missing part of her identity as a Native person. If her mother has something to do with the case, maybe she’ll be able to find her and finally get the closure she deserves.
There’s also another question: was this all a dream or some kind of image her mind conjured up? If Navarro was the only one to witness her interaction with Lund—and it seems like that was the case—what does that say about her own sanity (knowing her mother had struggles with hallucinations and mental illness)? Is it really helpful to the case, or was Lund’s message just Navarro hearing what she wanted to hear?
As for Anders’ connection to the murder and his tie to Anne Kowtok’s death, we now know his colleague Raymond Clark was romantically involved with Annie, so it’s possible the murderer suspected Raymond told his colleagues some damning information related to Annie’s case, and murdered them all to cover it up. Or was Raymond the target, and rest collateral damage? We still have no idea who did it, but it’ll be fascinating to eventually find the real answer.
Milan Polk is an Editorial Assistant for Men’s Health who specializes in entertainment and lifestyle reporting, and has worked for New York Magazine’s Vulture and Chicago Tribune.
