True Detective: Night Country – Episode 2 explained

Warning: Major spoilers ahead

Out on the ice, Liz and the police team examine and photograph the crime scene, taking note of how the victims are all naked – some with their eyes scratched or burnt out. She then heads to the local school to find out from the geology teacher exactly what they were researching at Tsalal. He reveals they have spent decades trying to sequence the DNA of an extinct microorganism that has the potential to cure cancer and genetic disorders.

Rose, a psychic medium who communicates with the dead, tells Evangeline about what Travis has told her in the years since he passed away. Evangeline asks questions in an attempt to understand more about what her sister, who suffers from mental health problems, is going through. Before she leaves, Rose mentions a spiral mark, which was on the forehead of one of the bodies, revealing that it’s “older than Ennis”.

Liz returns to the station where she finds her superior officer, Captain Connelly, waiting for her. He’s travelled to Ennis to take over the case and move the investigation up to Anchorage. But Liz quotes regulation about the handling of frozen bodies, which buys her 48 hours so they can thaw to an appropriate temperature.

Needing somewhere to thaw the bodies, Liz heads to the ice hockey rink to speak with the owner, Kate. The pair clearly share a history, but Kate reluctantly agrees to them using the rink, making it clear that she’s not doing it as a favour for Liz but for the good of the town.

With the frozen corpses now at the ice rink, Liz and Peter examine them, noting a number of self-inflicted injuries. Evangeline shows Liz an image of a spiral tattoo Annie had on her body – the same design that is on the forehead of one of the bodies.

Liz and Peter run through theories to try and figure out why the men were out on the ice undressed, with their clothes folded neatly on the side. Peter unlocks the phone of one of the researchers and finds a video, which shows his co-worker trembling and saying “She’s awake” – filmed on the day they went missing.

Wanting to find out more about the researchers at the station, Liz goes to speak with the cleaning lady who worked there, while Peter speaks with the delivery driver, Wallis. They both attest to one of the men, Clark, acting strangely, and Wallis reveals he thought he saw someone at the station the day he discovered the men had vanished. When shown a picture of the spiral shape, Wallis notes Clark had it tattooed on his body.

Liz sends Peter to watch over the frozen bodies overnight, leaving his wife frustrated. Liz heads to Peter’s house to pick up her stepdaughter Leah, and is angry to find her exploring her heritage by applying a temporary facial tattoo.

That evening at the ice rink, Hank confronts Peter about stealing from him – telling him to remember that “blood is blood”.

Liz heads to Captain Connelly’s hotel room and the pair sleep together – which has been happening on-and-off for almost two decades. Back at home, Liz looks into Clark’s tattoo and discovers that he got the spiral design tattooed on his chest just four days after Annie died – proving a connection between the two cases. She heads to Evangeline’s house to share her discovery and reveals that DNA results have confirmed the tongue found in Tsalal was Annie’s. Begrudgingly, the pair agree to work together to solve the case.

Evangeline heads to the Nook after figuring out Clark had bought a trailer so he could keep his relationship with Annie a secret, and that’s where he would have kept it if he didn’t want anyone to know. Having located the trailer, Evangeline and Liz look around and find Annie’s mobile phone, images plastered on the wall above the bed and a spiral symbol on the ceiling.

Liz and Evangeline are urgently called to the ice rink where the frozen bodies have begun thawing, in turn revealing that there are only six bodies – and Clark’s not one of them. When a police officer accidentally snaps off one bodies arm, it screams – scientist Anders Lund is still alive!