Warning: This article contains spoilers for True Detective Season 4.
We’re three episodes into True Detective Season 4 – or, to use its official name, True Detective: Night Country – and the series is firmly entrenched in supernatural territory. But despite its seemingly paranormal trappings, showrunner Issa López can still have a scientific explanation for True Detective Season 4’s story.
True Detective Season 4’s Story Can Still Have a Scientific Explanation
Let’s quickly recap all the major “supernatural” shenanigans in True Detective Season 4 so far.
Episode 1, “Part 1,” kicks off with Tsalal Arctic Research Station senior researcher Raymond Clark declaring, “She’s awake” mid-seizure as the station plunges into darkness. We’re also treated to some decidedly bizarre wildlife activity when a bunch of caribou inexplicably charge over a cliffside.
Later in “Part 1,” we learn that Clark and his seven colleagues are all missing. Before they vanished, they scrawled a single, cheery message on a whiteboard: “We are all dead.” Clark’s co-workers eventually turn up frozen together as a single “corpsicle” – and whatever drove them onto the Alaskan ice terrified them.
Oh, and the person who found the corpsicle, Rose Aguineau, claims her former flame, Travis Cohle, guided her to the corpsicle. Why’s that such a big deal? Because Travis died years ago.
Toss in disembodied voices whispering “she’s awake” to protagonists Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro and a distinctively disfigured bear, and it’s all very spooky indeed.
Related: What Is True Detective: Night Country’s AI Poster Controversy?
By contrast, True Detective Season 4, Episode 2, “Part 2,” is a markedly more grounded affair. Sure, the overall vibe of “Part 2” is ominous, but fewer hard-to-explain happenings actually go down.
It does, however, focus heavily on a sinister spiral symbol – the same maybe-mystical motif introduced back in True Detective Season 1. The spiral shows up on murder victims and in case file photos; it also adorns the ceiling of suspected murderer Clark’s RV. Danvers and Navarro are baffled by the symbol’s prominence but clearly sense there’s something off about it.
Which brings us to True Detective Season 4, Episode 3, “Part 3.” It’s arguably this season’s most supernaturally tinged entry yet, complete with surreal visions and a demonic possession. The latter sees sedated Tsalal worker Anders Lund supposedly deliver a message from Navarro’s late mother.
Like the rest of Night Country‘s ostensibly otherworldly incidents, it’s undeniably creepy. But also, like all that stuff, López and her team could still explain it away with plain old science.
Scientific Explanations for True Detective Season 4’s Story
For one thing, True Detective Season 4 makes it clear that the water in Ennis, Alaska, is polluted. It’s possible – but not yet confirmed – that one of the side effects of the town’s tainted water supply is hallucinations. As such, the strange behavior of any townsperson (or animal) could be due to years spent guzzling down toxic H2O.
Similarly, the researchers at Tsalal were mining for an extinct micro-organism. What if they found it? And what if it got loose? In theory, the micro-organism could cure diseases, but there’s no reason to assume it couldn’t cause just as much harm, as well. After all, Tsalal’s backer is Tuttle United – the corporate face of Season 1’s evil Tuttles!
Toxic drinking water and bioengineered plagues aside, there’s also the mental health side of the things to consider. Two of the four people visited by ghosts or ethereal voices – Navarro and her sister Julia – suffer from mental health issues, documented or otherwise. This doesn’t mean we should dismiss their supernatural experiences outright, but it does hang a question mark on them.
Related: All Seasons of True Detective, Ranked From Worst to Best
Danvers and Rose’s respective brushes with the ethereal are even easier to wave away. When True Detective Season 4 begins, Ennis is midway through several days of consecutive darkness. Back-to-back days without sunlight will make anyone lose their grip on reality, staunch rationalists and free-spirited spiritualists alike. (Plus, Rose is a self-professed pot user…)
Admittedly, the spiral is harder to rationalize. Not much ties its various manifestations together – until you remember the Tuttles are caught up in all this. This freakish family’s cultish antics could be the secret order underlying the spiral’s haunting randomness.
But who knows – maybe it is supernatural? Maybe everything in True Detective Season 4 is. Ideally, we’ll never know for sure; that’s what made Season 1 so effective, after all. For this ambiguity to work, a scientific explanation for Night Country needs to exist to exist – and fortunately, more than one does.
True Detective Season 4 is currently streaming on HBO and Max, with new episodes premiering on Sundays.
