The Night Country, Part Two

Episode 2

(1/22/24)

It is day four of the night season and we are hungry like the wolf for answers, and more of that delightfully creepy Billie Eilish intro tune, “Bury a Friend.”

As we would expect nothing less, a number of revelations and juicy backstory tidbits are revealed here in episode two. At the end of the premiere episode, the bodies of the missing scientists were discovered, frozen together in a grotesque and frightful mass of death and terror out on the tundra. Collectively, we, along with the mysterious Rose, were led there by the pale, pesky ghost of silver-haired Travis. We were introduced to these cryptic characters in episode one, with Rose, the stoic local recluse, another strong feminine archetype, gutting a dead wolf shortly before the ghostly mute Travis appeared out of the darkness.

At the fresh nocturnal crime scene, Rose darkly advises Detective Navarro off the case as the impatient Chief Danvers chastises the useless Prior and her bumbling crew of subordinates for fucking around at the crime scene: clumsily wielding chainsaws, pulling off dead arms and taking selfies with the frozen corpses. Young Prior seems to be the only sidekick worth his salt, diligently aiding Danvers in preserving and documenting this strange, challenging block of evidence. Even stranger, the bodies are naked with their clothes neatly folded nearby. Along with Chief Danvers and her crew, we are shocked to see that one of the presumed corpses comes screaming back to life. In a brief phone conversation between Danvers and a nurse at the hospital, we learn the poor “survivor” will likely have to have his badly frostbitten legs amputated, presuming he survives emergency surgery.

Later on, sharing a private confab at Rose’s warm, cozy home filled with books and eclectic records, Rose is dropping gems about the dead and other bombshells to Detective Navaro and the audience. Not only was the curious Travis Cohle in life her part-time lover, but he turns out to be none other than the father of the Rust Cohle from Season One. Boom! Good ol’ Travis perished out on the ice, letting the cold take him before the leukemia could, so sad. It was Detective Navarro who discovered his body. In turn Navarro shares with Rose the mental issues her sister is having, freaking out about seeing phantom people in her tiny apt, hearing the voice of their deceased mother. The sagacious Rose wisely advises, “Don’t confuse the spirit world with mental health issues.” She also succinctly educates Navarro and us about the dead. According to Rose, there are three kinds: those that visit because they miss us, those that have a message we need to hear, and those who want to take us with them. Apparently, a lot of people see the dead here in Ennis during the dark season. Why wouldn’t they? This is the End of the World after all. They also discuss the strange and ancient spiral symbol (subtly harking back to Season One) etched or tattooed into the forehead of one of the dead scientists. Rose, the dark philosopher, espouses her belief that this realm is becoming very old, and that this place in particular, the proverbial end of the world, is where the seams are starting to break.