True Detective: Night time Nation has been one of many darkest seasons of the crime anthology up to now, in each attainable sense. However the ending of episode 5 took issues to a complete new stage.

With just one episode of showrunner Issa López’ season left to go, Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Navarro (Kali Reiss) at the moment are scorching on the path of the mysterious ice caves the place Annie Masu Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen) could have been murdered. However the individuals concerned are additionally scorching on their path, leading to a horribly tense showdown within the episode’s last minutes.

So what precisely occurred, and what was its bigger significance within the collection as a complete? Let’s dive in, however watch out for episode 5 spoilers forward.

What occurs in True Detective: Night time Nation, episode 5?

Determined to seek out the doorway to the ice tunnels which may be the positioning of Annie’s homicide, Danvers decides to make use of excessive measures. Ennis’ chief of police visits drug addict and former engineer Otis Heiss (Klaus Tange), bribes him with heroin, and sneaks him out of his facility so he can present her the cave’s location.

On the identical time officer Hank Prior (John Hawkes) meets with the city’s mine and ice rink proprietor Kate McKittrick (Dervla Kirwan), who warns him that Danvers is getting too near discovering the cave and have to be stopped.

“Otis Heiss is a drug addict,” she tells him. “Drug addicts get misplaced. I need not know the small print.”

Again at Danvers’ home, Heiss has simply proven her the cave’s entrance on a map when Hank arrives, insisting on bringing the engineer in. When Danvers refuses to let it occur, he takes her gun, shoots Heiss when he tries to run, and has the gun educated on Danvers. All of the sudden, Hank’s son, rookie officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), exhibits up and factors his personal gun at his father.

“It’s best to know one thing,” Hank says, realising Peter is not going to facet with him. “I did not kill Annie Ok, I simply moved her physique. Blood is blood, Peter. Keep in mind that.”

He raises the gun at Danvers, and Pete shoots his personal father within the head.

A troubled relationship.
Credit score: Max

Hank and Pete Prior’s fates are proof that point is a flat circle.

Fairly grim stuff, eh? It is positively one of many greatest gut-punches of not solely this season, however any True Detective season. It is also a painful finish to Hank and Peter’s troubled father/son story arc, which was marked by a cycle of bodily abuse, repressed emotion, and issues left unsaid.

However, what that last scene does say could have some ramifications for the present as a complete. As a result of once you break it down, it appears like key characters are already ending up trapped in round narrative arcs. Earlier than his dying, Hank confesses to shifting Annie Ok’s physique — primarily being a part of a cover-up, seemingly linked to the mine. That motion set off a series of occasions that led on to the scene in Danvers’ home, the place Hank’s personal son was then pressured to kill him — after which transfer his physique and participate in yet one more cowl up.

As we realized from Matthew McConaughey’s Rust Cohle in True Detective‘s very first season, and as we’re studying once more in Night time Nation, “time is a flat circle” in any case. What might that imply for Danvers and Navarro?

True Detective airs Sunday nights on HBO/Max at 9 p.m ET/PT.