True Detective Season 4: Who Is William Wheeler?

True Detective Season 4, Night Country, has a lot of names to keep track of – including William Wheeler. So who is William Wheeler, and how does he fit into True Detective Season 4’s wider narrative?

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True Detective Season 4: Who is William Wheeler?

William Wheeler is a violent criminal who’s already dead when True Detective Season 4 kicks off. He’s nevertheless an important character in the grand scheme of things, as his death is central to the final case protagonists Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro worked together as Alaska Police Force detectives.

We learn this in True Detective Season 4, Episode 3, “Part 3,” when Danvers discusses her and Navarro’s shared history with rookie cop Peter Prior. According to Danvers, the bad blood between the pair stems from the Wheeler case, which ended badly.

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Danvers goes on to recall how she and Navarro responded to a call regarding a disturbance at Wheeler’s house and discovered his 18-year-old girlfriend dead. This didn’t come as a shock to Danvers or Navarro, both of whom were well aware of Wheeler’s history of domestic abuse.

Danvers then tells Prior that she and Navarro also found Wheeler dead on the scene, having committed suicide with a gun. However, this doesn’t track with the on-screen flashback itself, which portrays Wheeler as very much alive when Danvers and Navarro arrive.

Who Killed William Wheeler in True Detective Season 4?

The implication is that Danvers or Navarro shot Wheeler and faked his suicide. This is seemingly confirmed in True Detective Season 4, Episode 5, “Part 5,” which sees Prior confront Danvers over irregularities with the case files.

Notably, Danvers and Navarro flipped some of the crime scene photos. This makes it look like Wheeler battered his girlfriend with his right fist, not his left. Why did they do this? Because Wheeler’s fatal gunshot wound was on his right temple, which only makes sense if he’s right-handed.

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Unfortunately for Danvers and Navarro, Prior isn’t the only person to find out the truth about the Wheeler case. Peter’s dad, crooked cop Hank, gains access to his son’s laptop and puts the pieces together, too. Hank then shares this information with Danvers’ boss, Captain Ted Connelly.

It’s exactly the leverage Connelly needs to shut down Danvers and Navarro’s current investigation, which risks uncovering the influential Silver Sky mining operation’s criminal actions. However, Danvers and Navarro ultimately resume their investigation, despite Connelly’s tacit blackmail threat.

True Detective: Night Country is currently streaming on HBO and Max, with new episodes dropping on Sundays.