‘True Detective’ S4 E2

Things are starting to thaw.

In this season of TV & Us, we are reviewing the latest season of HBO’s True Detective.

Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) make progress and realize that the Tsalal case is connected to the Annie K murder. They reluctantly decide to team up to solve the case.

In this second episode, we learn more about who both of our leads are as they make progress on the case. We also see how they work. There’s a lengthy exchange between Danvers and Peter (Finn Bennett) where they are asking questions about the deaths of the researchers.

Possibly as a nod to season one (there are a few of those in this episode), Danvers keeps challenging Peter to ask the right questions. They posit some interesting hypotheses about this particular case but find themselves no closer to solving it. Still, they continue the slow, methodical process of investigating while dealing with all of the various pressures in their lives.

This episode also reveals more about the town and what it’s like to live in Ennis. Not only do they live in perpetual night for two months of the year, but they also have to deal with a lack of food and other supplies, in addition to high prices of imported goods. The rift between the miners and the activists on the land is clearly growing wider. People’s water isn’t clean because of the mine, and there’s little they can do about it.

We also learn more about the Indigenous customs there and the conflict that some white people have with it. We’ve already witnessed Danvers’ racist remarks toward Navarro in the first episode, but we see her comments extend to her stepdaughter in this one.

In episode two, Leah (Isabella LaBlanc) has an older Indigenous woman draw a (temporary) tattoo on her face, an important right of passage and symbol in that culture. When Danvers sees this, she becomes enraged, expressing absolute contempt for this culture. Danvers clearly has a deep-seated anger and hatred toward someone, and it seems like she’s taking it out on everyone around her, including her own stepdaughter.

We see Danvers’ control also exerted on Peter’s life. She is constantly manipulating him to do whatever she wants, regardless of what anyone else says. When Peter tries to push back and have good boundaries, Danvers runs right over them.

I’m curious to see how all of these tensions will end up playing out. Will Danvers experience some sort of emotional growth and change? Or will she end up alienating everyone in her life?

I’m still not sold on this season of True Detective. While I’m enjoying spending time with some of the characters, I’m not excited to continue watching. This season is clearly a slow burn, but I’m wondering if it’s too slow. We will find out.

One thing I’m not appreciating is all of the tie-ins to the first season of True Detective. It seems like a bit of a stretch to me that this small, remote town in Alaska would be so clearly linked to the events that happened in rural Louisiana in 1995.

Maybe the show will be able to pull it off, though. We’ll see what happens next week!

Listen to our review of True Detective Season Four wherever you get your podcasts!

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