‘True Detective’ S4 E5
The case is picking up steam…
In this season of TV & Us, we are reviewing the latest season of HBO’s True Detective.
Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) continue to make progress on the Tsalal and Annie K cases despite the obstacles in front of them. Families continue to fracture, leading to devastating consequences.
I think this is one of the better episodes of this show that covers a great many topics. We get to learn more about the people and the town of Ennis. There are some gut-punch emotional moments and a few harrowing scenes. While I don’t think everything in this episode works, it’s much better than the previous episode, which is a bit of a mess.
This season of True Detective really shines when it’s focused on the Indigenous population that lives in Ennis, and we get glimpses of that in this episode. It also takes us into the ways that people in the town are grieving the losses that they face.
We learn more about the sheer number of stillbirths that happen in this population. Then, we see the coffins that remain unburied during the dead of winter because they are simply unable to dig. In this episode, Navarro is also grieving the loss of her sister, Julia (Aka Niviâna), whose body has been cremated. It’s so fascinating to think about the customs and ways in which we grieve both communally and individually.
I really enjoy the moments of this show when we’re just in the town and with the people. We’ve spent enough time with Leah (Isabella LaBlanc) and the rest of the town to understand the rift between the mine and the Indigenous population. We understand their protest and the way the mine has poisoned their land and water. So when the police show up, the violence we see is pretty frightening.
This episode also takes us deeper into the mine. We learn more about Kate McKitterick (Dervla Kirwan) and the influence that she wields in this town. I loved this sneak peek into her political maneuverings, and I wish there had been more of that earlier on in the season. The previous episodes do make nods to Kate’s sway in the town, but I don’t think they prepared us for the scope of her influence.
It would’ve been nice to learn more about Kate at the beginning of the season. If she had been more of an antagonistic force earlier in the show, maybe that could’ve helped the story. If Kate was throwing up roadblocks throughout the season for Danvers and Navarrow to navigate around, that might have made for more compelling TV.
Though this episode was better, my overriding issue is that this season of True Detective feels very disjointed. Each episode seems to be entirely different from the next, and pieces of information don’t always carry over as you would expect them to.
For example, the previous episode showed Navarro seeing dead people, which is a very large escalation from mysterious rolling fruit and creepy whispers. When we leave her in episode four, she’s bleeding from her ears… and then there’s no mention of that in episode five.
It’s like they set up a cliffhanger and then abandoned us.
I’m hoping that some of the things that they’ve teased over the past few episodes will come together in the end, but I’m somewhat skeptical. There’s only one episode left with a ton of ground to cover. Will they be able to tie up all of these loose ends successfully?
But maybe that’s not the right question to be asking…
Listen to our review of True Detective Season Four wherever you get your podcasts!
Looking for movie reviews? Check out Movies & Us, a weekly gathering place filled with conversations about movies, stories, and connection!
If you want more stories like this, consider becoming a Medium member. You will get access to more awesome content from me, along with stories from thousands of other writers. Use my link and I’ll receive a small commission — you know you want to!
