True Detective Season 4: Does Navarro Die, Explained

True Detective Season 4, Night Country, leaves co-protagonist Evangeline Navarro’s final fate open-ended. So, does Navarro die in True Detective Season 4?

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True Detective Season 4: Does Navarro Die, Explained

The extended epilogue of True Detective Season 4’s finale, “Part 6,” sees Police Chief Liz Danvers grilled by investigators about the season’s events. During the interview, one of the investigators mentions that Navarro disappeared shortly after she and Danvers closed Night Country‘s central case involving the murder of several Tsalal Arctic Research Station scientists. This revelation is accompanied by a scene of Navarro walking into the icy wasteland on the outskirts of Ennis, Alaska.

Earlier True Detective Season 4 installments suggest that in doing so, Navarro has effectively taken her own life. After all, everyone else who ventures out onto the ice – on-camera or otherwise – dies. The Tsalal scientists, Travis Cohle, and Navarro’s sister, Julia, all meet their end this way (in Travis and Julia’s cases, as a form of suicide). What’s more, when Danvers plunges into Ennis’ frozen-over waters in “Part 6,” she very nearly perishes, as well.

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Yet True Detective: Night Country‘s last-ever episode also contains clues that Navarro’s sub-zero stroll wasn’t as fatal as it seemed. Not only do the investigators note several sightings of Navarro since she vanished, but the closing scene of “Part 6” depicts her standing alongside Danvers on Danvers’ porch. It’s left ambiguous whether Navarro is physically or spiritually present here, but showrunner Issa López gave credence to the latter scenario in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview.

“I have [my interpretation of Navarro’s fate], but that doesn’t say that any other reading is wrong, because at that point, the story is no longer mine,” López said. “It belongs to the audience. For me as an audience member, Navarro is alive. She went out and had her walkabout in a way in the ice, because now she can do that, and find a way back. But it is true that no one ever leaves Ennis… or anywhere.”

What Does Kali Reis Think Happens to Navarro in True Detective Season 4?

Actor Kali Reis agrees with López’s take on the conclusion of Navarro’s arc, telling Deadline that her character just wanted some time to herself. That said, Reis also followed López’s lead by refusing to shut down theories that Navarro died or otherwise crossed over to the spirit world while on the ice.

“I left it open,” Reis explained. “I think her sister was the one thread holding Navarro together. Navarro wouldn’t go all the way off the deep end because she had somebody to worry about. So once she’s gone, there’s nothing else holding her. She can go off the deep end. She can beat the shit out of these guys and not even care. She can just dive into things. So I like to think that regardless of her decision to walk into the ice like her sister does, I don’t think she does that.”

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“I think she just goes off into a place where she can be herself without any responsibilities,” Reiss continued. “And if she did either walk into the ice like her sister or stay around, the only person she would ever come back to see, whether it’s in the spirit world or physical world, would be Danvers.”

So, ultimately, you’ll just have to decide for yourself whether Navarro dies at the end of True: Detective Season 4.

All six episodes of True Detective: Night Country are currently streaming on HBO and Max.