In the fictional town of Ennis imagined by writer Issa Rae for True Detective: Polar Night from HBO, everything happens in the dark. Located in Alaska, the population must go through an annual phenomenon that prolongs darkness for 65 days or more. This is due to the tilt of the Earth and the way sunlight hits the planet. Something that causes what is called eternal night.
In production, the long darkness is more than just a natural phenomenon. Also, it is a scenario to understand the behavior of the characters. Much more so, the way they react to the inexplicable events they must face. For its third episode, the anthology series made something clear: whatever stalks — and kills — is part of the shadows that last for months.
This is a twist that turns what happens in the plot into a direct consequence of a phenomenon that the characters cannot control. In other words, the Alaskan night, which spans three months and which the premise of the series shows in its first episode, is more than just darkness. As often happens in the anthology series, It is also a way of understanding the behavior of its two protagonists on duty.
But this time, in addition to delving into the secrets of Danvers (Jodie Foster) or those of the agent Navarrese (Kali Reis) does something else. It is also the reason — or appears to be — for the brutal horrors they both face. In the first episode, it becomes clear that what threatens Ennis began on the last sunset that precedes months of darkness. The plot shows a herd of elk, immolating themselves by jumping down a gorge. At the same time, the first indication that the future victims of the scientific station are being attacked by an invisible force. Everything happens in the middle of the last hours of light. Which makes the winter night the reason – uncontrollable and dangerous – for a supernatural event.
The secrets revealed in chapter three of the series
For your new episode, The feeling that the night brought with it a threat that goes beyond the murder of the scientific station is obvious. The series begins by explaining that shortly before the arrival of the night that lasts for months, there were already signs of violence in Ennis. In a perspective that is related to the way in which the True Detective anthology tells its stories, the plot goes to the past. In the first scenes, The reason why mines and environmental damage are causing damage in Ennis is told.
But also, everything indicates that the violence between the town’s inhabitants and what is coming is not entirely a consequence of something human. In the opening chapter, two characters mentioned that in Alaska, the possibility of the paranormal is inevitable. Either because it produces months of total darkness in the inhabitants or because, in reality, something in the region invokes the unknown. The truth is that Ennis and the rest of the surrounding areas are condemned to suffer unexplained circumstances.
This element of the plot is linked to what happens in chapter three. Already on the fifth day of the night, the mood in the town is altered. The discovery of the missing victims terrified a good part of the inhabitants. But it also showed that the arrival of the night that lasts for months, attracted a type of forces that goes beyond the scientific method or any police investigation. Again, the animals behave violently and there are disturbing apparitions, associated with the darkness. But the argument points out something else. Everything is going to get worse as the night becomes deeper and more complete.
The supernatural in the fourth season of ‘True Detective’
In the series, the gloomy events are linked to the last sunset of the year, which points to months in the depths of winter. But upon awakening a power — or element — that cannot thrive in the light of day. So the last scene of the chapter, which announces a horrific event at the door, leaves the way clear to the hardest part of the series.
Whatever threatens the people, it feeds on their pain and shame. And he will use the forces of nature to escape. Is it a combination between human and invisible forces? This is what announces the middle of the production season.