True Detective: Night Country – Episode 3 explained

Warning: Major spoilers ahead

In a flashback to years prior, Evangeline heads to arrest a woman at what she discovers is a local birthing centre – and ends up helping a labouring woman.

In present day, the police are briefed on Raymond Clark, before being broken into search groups to try and find him. At the police station, Peter updates Liz on Anders Lund – one of the scientists from Tsalal who is still alive - revealing he’s currently in a coma and both his legs have been amputated.

After seeing all of the belongings from Clark’s trailer have been delivered to the evidence room, Liz gets Peter to make a formal request for Evangeline to join the case.

Peter finally discovers what happened on the murder-suicide case that drove a wedge between Evangeline and Liz, with Liz revealing it was a domestic violence dispute where the victim repeatedly landed in hospital with injuries but refused to report her partner. Despite telling Peter that the case ended when Liz and Evangeline were called to the house and found the victim and perpetrator both dead, Liz’s flashback tells a different story – they arrived to find the victim dead and the man alive.

Later, Evangeline arrives at the police station to begin sifting through Clark’s belongings to find a lead with Liz. After spotting a candid photo of Annie and Clark, suggesting that someone was with them that day and therefore aware of their relationship, they seek out Susan, a local hairdresser to see if she has any insight.

Susan confesses she was aware of Raymond Clark and Annie’s relationship. They had first met when Annie accompanied Susan on one of her trips to Tsalal to cut the scientists’ hair, immediately hitting it off. During that meeting, Annie showed Clark her spiral tattoo, which he then became fixated on. Susan reveals the inspiration for Annie’s tattoo came from a recurring dream she had during high school, but the dreams had stopped when she got the tattoo.

It also emerges Susan was dating someone from the research station, equipment engineer Oliver Tagaq, who left the job shortly before Annie died. Evangeline is confused why Susan never said anything at the time of Annie’s death, but she says she did tell the police about Clark and Annie’s relationship… and the person she told was Hank.

In the car, Evangeline vents to Liz about Hank burying the Clark lead at the time of Annie’s investigation, and that he took her off the case all those years back. Evangeline is convinced that Annie’s involvement in campaigning against the mine played a part in her death.

Hank arrives at the ice rink, where Peter is still watching over the frozen bodies. Evangeline and Liz arrive shortly after, confronting him about not investigating Susan’s lead at the time of Annie K’s death. The news that the forensic tech has been caught in a blizzard and can’t make it to Ennis until the following day is bad news for Liz, as her bodies will have thawed and be on their way to Anchorage by then. So, Peter offers a solution – his cousin is a vet and has carried out plenty of postmortems, albeit on animals rather than humans.

Evangeline asks Eddie Qavvik if he knows Oliver Tagaq or knows someone that does. He agrees but “for a price”, so Evangeline does as he asks and tells him about her mum. She shares that her mum used to hear voices and have episodes, before running away and later being found killed. Having made good on her side of the deal, she leaves, telling Qavvik to get her the intel she needs.

That evening, Leah attends an environmentalist rally against the mine in Ennis, with the speaker revealing that another child has been born stillborn. Liz returns home and is annoyed when Leah confronts her about what she heard at the protest. Evangeline gets a call that her sister has had a bad episode and run away, so she heads out to find her.

Peter arrives home late, waking up his wife Kayla. The pair begin arguing about the demands of Peter’s job and the late-night requests from Liz, but he’s soon called back to the rink as his cousin has arrived. Despite being a vet, he reveals it looks as though they died before being frozen on the ice – likely from cardiac arrest.

Evangeline’s lead comes through and she gets a location for Tagaq, much to Peter’s surprise, who couldn’t find any record of him ever existing. Liz and Evangeline head to the nomad camp on the North Shore and find Tagaq sitting inside his cabin with a shotgun on his lap. They question him about the research station and what happened to the scientists, but his reaction shows that he was unaware that there was any investigation going on.

On the drive back to Ennis, Liz is notified that Anders Lund – the only surviving scientist – has woken up, so the pair head straight to the hospital to speak with him. Blind, frostbitten, and with three limbs amputated, Lund doesn’t make much sense and doctors warn that he may only have moments left to live. Amongst the nonsensical raving, they make him out saying “she’s out there in the ice” and “she came for us”. Evangeline appears shocked, while Liz is confused about who “she” is. Left alone with Lund after Liz gets pulled away to separate a fight in the waiting room, Evangeline is startled when she turns around to find him sitting up in his bed and calling her by her name.

In an eerie voice he says “Your mother says hello. She’s waiting for you” before dropping back in the bed and flatlining, finally dying.

In the waiting room, Peter reveals he’s managed to unlock Annie’s phone and shows them a video she recorded, which shows her saying “I’ve found it” before the phone drops and her screams ring out.