Who Is Otis Heiss in True Detective Season 4?

True Detective Season 4, Night Country, adds an enigmatic figure, Otis Heiss, into the mix – so who is he? And how does he fit into Danvers and Navarro’s wider investigation?

Related: True Detective Season 1-4 Timeline, Explained

Who Is Otis Heiss in True Detective Season 4?

Otis Heiss (Klaus Tange) is a German-born resident of Ennis, Alaska. He’s a drifter who exists largely off the grid. Prior to the events of True Detective Season 4, Heiss suffered similar injuries to the Tsalal Arctic Research Station workers whose deaths Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reis) are investigating. This lands ol’ Otis on the pair’s radar in Night Country‘s fourth episode, “Part 4.”

Finding Heiss proves easier said than done, though. Danvers and Navarro spend a sizeable chunk of Episode 4’s runtime on Heiss’ trail but don’t manage to track him down until late in proceedings. Heiss turns up at an oil dredger out on the ice, where they question him. Unfortunately for Danvers and Navarro, his cryptic answers bring them no closer to solving the case.

Related: Is True Detective Season 4 Based on a True Story?

How Is Otis Heiss Connected to True Detective Season 4’s Case?

Aside from his medical history, Otis Heiss is seemingly connected to True Detective Season 4’s case in several ways. For starters, Danvers and Navarro learn that Heiss mapped out the caves outside the town. This is significant because Anne Kowtok – whose severed tongue showed up at Tsalal the day the station’s workforce disappeared – was apparently killed.

What’s more, Danvers and Navarro only locate Heiss after he’s reported wearing Anne’s parka. The drifter also indicates he’s acquainted with the main suspect in Anne’s murder investigation, lone Tsalal survivor Raymond Clark. Grilled by Danvers on Clark’s whereabouts, Heiss declares that Clark is hiding “back down” in the “night country.”

Exactly what Heiss’ remarks mean is unclear for now – and it’s worth noting that the guy is clearly disturbed. Still, his ties to both Tsalal and Anne strongly suggest that Heiss holds the key to solving the intertwined mysteries at the heart of True Detective‘s fourth season.

Whether Danvers and Navarro will interrogate Heiss further in True Detective Season 4’s final two episodes remains to be seen, although it seems likely. It’s also reasonable to assume that Heiss’ cave maps will come in handy before Season 4’s sixth and final installment airs.

And that’s who Otis Heiss is in True Detective Season 4.

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