True Detective: Night Country – Episode 1 explained

Warning: Major spoilers ahead

At the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, the men who work there go about their usual routine; putting on a load of washing, cooking a meal and watching TV. Suddenly, one of the men begins shaking, before turning to his colleague with a shocked look on his face and exclaiming: “She’s awake”.

Cut to the third day of night in the Arctic, a van arrives at the research station with some food supplies. Entering the building, the delivery driver discovers the men have vanished without a trace… but there’s a human tongue on the kitchen floor.

Detective Liz Danvers arrives at the Arctic Research Station where Hank and Peter – a father/son police officer duo – give her the rundown on the case. The scientists were last in contact with the town a week prior, when they called in for some supplies. As Liz looks around the station, she finds evidence suggesting the men vanished at least 48 hours ago.

Across town and out on the ice, a woman – later identified as Rose – guts a wolf before she spots a man, whom she calls Travis, in the distance.

Back at the police station, local trooper Evangeline Navarro is waiting in Liz’s office, having heard about the tongue and wanting to know if it links to an unsolved case from years ago. The pair have a clear history, but Liz is soon called away to collect her stepdaughter when she is caught in a compromising position. While arguing in the car with her, Liz narrowly avoids a car accident. Discovering the driver of the other car is drunk, she arrests her.

That evening, Liz calls Peter to get him to steal an old case file from his father’s home. Dropping the case file at Liz’s, she updates him on the cold case that Evangeline was asking about, and reveals the victim, Annie K, was found with a missing tongue – proving a possible connection between the two cases.

Later that night, as Liz looks through case images from the research station, she opens the files from the unsolved case of Annie K and notices one of the missing workers from the station was wearing a coat similar to Annie.

Heading to the research station to investigate further, Liz finds Evangeline there and tells her about the possible connection she’s found between Annie’s case and the current case. The pair begin looking around the station, trying to find the coat seen in the photo, before Liz gets a call telling her that Rose has found something out on the ice…frozen bodies.