We’ve often finished an episode of television and looked for a discussion thread online, only to be disappointed. Either no such thread exists, or all the oxygen is taken by puns and references that have been posted a thousand times. We wanted to be able to have some good jokes, some good analysis, and some good times.
That’s why we decided to take matters into our own hands (not unlike a hardened detective trying to crack a spooky case) and create the discussion threads we want to see in the world. So we asked writers, comedians, and filmmakers to hang out for a bit after an episode and make our own comment section. Welcome to the very first Dibs Texts Post-Episode Discussion Thread, for True Detective: Night Country.
All the news on this site is “real,” but this stuff is really real. SPOILERS AHEAD.
kevinflynn so spongebob IS the toothbrush? what a world
⤷ leon spongebob is cool he cleans your teeth
⤷ philjamesson he said that like the character spongebob is known for cleaning teeth
⤷ kevinflynn WOW. did we just TOOTHBRUSH TRANSITION? did anyone else notice that I am freaking out
⤷ philjamesson opening cut of 2001 a space odyssey but the bone turns into a spongebob toothbrush
⤷ anica lmao
⤷ anica use your patrick starr dental pick
⤷ jeremykaplowitz yo why did she take the toothbrush? that was so mean. cops are so mean
⤷ anica were we supposed to find her using his toothbrush endearing?
⤷ jeremykaplowitz if SpongeBob isn’t the answer to this whole mystery, I will be disappointed. i’m gonna be on episode 5 like “interesting, they cut off the victim’s nose. kind of the opposite of having a LONG nose. like Squidward”
⤷ philjamesson squidward plays the clarinet…. but doesn’t clean your teeth….
⤷ leon ennis = bikini bottom. its all coming together
leon i think some of these characters have trauma in the past
jeremykaplowitz maybe I just don’t know horror as well as I think I do, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horror movie/show set at a time in the Arctic/Alaska where it’s dark the entire day. really smart idea. like obviously The Thing is the obvious comparison, but there’s definitely day scenes in that, right? been a while
⤷ anica 30 Days of Night is another one! Josh Hartnett, bunch of vampires go to Alaska because of pretty much what the title says
⤷ leon wasnt there that robin williams movie
⤷ leon insomnia
⤷ christine I believe Insomnia is no night rather than all night
⤷ kevinflynn day of night still cracks me up. that shouldn’t be how we say that
⤷ philjamesson what time of day of night is it
⤷ kevinflynn [seeing someone at 10:00 am on a day of night] goodnight.
anica were we supposed to find her using his toothbrush endearing? lots of deep mysteries here
jeremykaplowitz did anyone else notice that one of the people who died was named Ralph Emerson? lol
⤷ christine makes me afraid other names were references that I wasn’t smart enough to catch
⤷ anica one of the names was Albert Einstein. i was smart enough to catch that one
⤷ christine I totally missed that; straight over my head
⤷ leon spongebob squarepants was a reference to spongebob squarepants
leon what was in that sandwich
⤷ jeremykaplowitz Jodie Foster: Sandwich Detective
philjamesson i was really impressed with the characterization efficiency. the two moments that stuck out were “speak up” and “i can hear him just fine” which shows that hank kind of bullies his kid into being more “masculine” / speaking loudly when it doesnt actually matter, and chief danvers supports him and says he’s doing fine. same kind of thing happens when the kid (what’s his name?) asks his dad for food, and his dad doesn’t feed him, but he shows up at chief danvers’ place and she feeds him without him even mentioning he’s hungry
leon a lot of horror tropes in this one. kids drawing creepy shit, mom has a dead kid, polar bear shows up in the middle of the road, etc
philjamesson kevin brought up the opening quote is from this short horror story, anica mentioned that the man in yellow is featured heavily in s1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Repairer_of_Reputations
⤷ anica I know The King in Yellow was referenced a lot in the first season, although to sort of an underwhelming conclusion, imo. The actual King in Yellow story is fantastic, but it didn’t end up really thematically relating to S01 as far as I recall. I don’t remember if the other seasons reference more Yellow Sign/King in Yellow stuff
⤷ christine I don’t remember Yellow King references really in 2 or 3 (although I think a symbol from season 1 and the case itself come up in season 3?) but in season one the Yellow King is connected to the cult they’re investigating and the whole thing has very cosmic-horror vibes, though ultimatly doesn’t turn out to be anything supernatural. I’ve been hoping they’d lean back into the cosmic horror ever since they tapped Issa Lopez to direct (her film Tigers Are Not Afraid does a fantastic job of straddling the question of whether or not something supernatural is actually happening)
⤷ anica I was disappointed when they didn’t go full cosmic horror in the first season, I really hope they go that direction in this one
⤷ christine I was too! I suspect they’ll go back in that direction this season, but again, I think one of Lopez’s strengths as a director (at least that I’ve seen) is walking that line where you’re constantly asking if it’s supernatural or not. Tiger’s Are Not Afraid very much feels like a love letter to Pan’s Labyrinth if it was set in modern day Mexico and was a little less fantastical and a little more ghoulish
⤷ leon i haven’t seen season 1 so when you say the man in the yellow hat i think of curious george
⤷ kevinflynn the king in yellow refers to spongebob
⤷ philjamesson hahaha. He shall clean your teeth.
⤷ leon they said the activist woman was stabbed with something “sharp and unidentified” toothbrush perhaps? yellow in color?
leon multiple references to “she has arrived” or “she is here” i forget what they said exactly
⤷ anica she is awake
⤷ leon oh right. scientists said it, and the trooper heard it on the phone (who was she talking to? do we know?) a friend of annies?
⤷ jeremykaplowitz yeah and both times they saw a polar bear right after (although it was just a toy for jodie)
⤷ philjamesson yeah, seems like that’s the message they deliver from whatever the Bad Thing is. clark in the beginning of the episode (“you ok, clark?” when he was obviously having a full-body seizure) turned very normally and said it
⤷ anica does anyone remember if the polar bear toy Foster was holding was missing an eye?
⤷ christine I’m pretty sure it was missing an eye
⤷ anica so we saw the polar bear twice, both times in proximity to the “she is awake” line, except in the first scene?
⤷ philjamesson i thiiiiink so
⤷ anica well, i have nothing. writing “polar bares” on a post it note and circling it but we’ll come back to that
⤷ christine I feel like the moose in the cold open are in the polar bears conversation too, but I don’t know how yet
⤷ philjamesson true! forgot about the opening scene, them all sprinting off the cliff. likely running away from something is the idea there, right?
⤷ anica can someone refresh my memory? the hunter shot one and then the rest ran off the cliff?
⤷ philjamesson did the hunter shoot? i think he was about to, rested his gun because he saw something was off, and they ran off the cliff
⤷ jeremykaplowitz yea they bailed
⤷ philjamesson pretty extreme definition of “bailed”
⤷ jeremykaplowitz they didnt wanna hang out there anymore
⤷ anica i don’t know yet how much of this series is going to revolve around indigenous v nonindigenous views on nature (seems like it could a lot, esp with the scene about the child drawing stories from the mom’s grandmother), but i wonder if that was a reference to the old buffalo run hunting practices by colonizers. when they’d just herd thousands of buffalo off the side of a cliff
⤷ jeremykaplowitz holy shit i never heard of that. evil
⤷ philjamesson ooooohhh, very good call
⤷ anica going to keep an eye on that going forward and see how that theme develops!
jeremykaplowitz every time they said “mine people” it sounded like they were talking about a species like “mole people”
leon im also guessing the scientists stayed in their station most of the time since no one seemed to know them. seems like a “know every one” size town. but that may change
philjamesson any theories on the dead man’s dance before he pointed?
⤷ jeremykaplowitz i couldn’t stop thinking about how silly that must have been to film
⤷ philjamesson it definitely felt for a second like he walked her out there because he needed a flat surface to do his moves
⤷ jeremykaplowitz there’s truly nothing scarier than people who are always barefoot
⤷ christine It’s a call back to the OA
⤷ leon oh god the OA dance
⤷ kevinflynn lmao the OA
⤷ philjamesson The OA Cinematic Universe grows
⤷ kevinflynn i wish a talking octupus would kill me
⤷ leon i watched all of season 1 with some friends on a trip to montreal and we were watching the finale in the airport on the way back. when they started dancing we closed the laptop and couldnt finish watching the rest of the episode
anica i’m really interested to see how this series is tackling a murdered native woman’s cold case. jodie foster talking about annie’s murder and then immediately switching over to reading an update about fantasy football was a great distillation of that.
⤷ leon jodie foster doesn’t seem like she’d care about fantasy football, even in this situation tbh
⤷ jeremykaplowitz it’s also the first season not written primarily by Nic Pizzolatto. it’s Issa López this time around, a Mexican woman. she also directed every episode
⤷ philjamesson i’m super curious to see, too. it seems like a lot of her characterization seems to be about throwing up walls, and that to me read a little bit like she was trying very actively to change the subject rather than it didn’t matter to her. another point when she’s talking to navarro, she says “let it go” and literally tries closing a door on the conversation (about the investigation) before having some ptsd flashbacks. same with her saying “no we don’t” about carrying everything with her, some of that cop machismo she uses as a self defense mechanism
⤷ christine I feel like they also played up that she was being unnecessarily rough when she was arresting that woman. They’re definitely setting her up with a Character Flaw
⤷ jeremykaplowitz they’re definitely correct in that line about how if it was a white woman who was murdered, it would be a way bigger story
⤷ kevinflynn story credit by patrice o’neal
⤷ jeremykaplowitz lol
⤷ anica interesting, i read that way differently! i feel like jodie foster’s comment about “spirit animal,” along with her admonishment of navarro for keeping the case open, really just spoke more to an apathetic white law enforcement person than anything that’s coming from a place of actual concern
⤷ christine I picked up on what Phil is talking about, but I think both can be true; I think we will find out that that case got to her more than she is letting on, but I think she will also be an insensitive white woman
⤷ anica i can agree with this!
⤷ philjamesson i think that i agree with the former, and disagree with the latter. in particular, i think an important encapsulation was when navarro brought up that the case would have been treated differently if she were white, danvers immediately gets personally and emotionally defensive even though she wasn’t being accused of being responsible for that. she points out herself she wasnt there and she has to “prove” that shes not racist even though the criticism was systemic, which shows she’s feeling some serious guilt
⤷ anica this still doesn’t indicate a personal sense of responsibility to me; i feel like it’s pretty common for white people to respond personally even when a criticism is systemic. HOWEVER, i think the “spirit animal” comment at the top really set me off to view her in an uncharitable light in that regard, so i concede that i may be reading into it too much!
⤷ philjamesson oh yeah, i think you’re right about that. i’m saying that more in support of your angle than mine i think
⤷ anica oh! sorry, i may have misunderstood
⤷ philjamesson i also think that her treatment of the kid cop was kinder and more parental than her treatment of both her daughter and navarro and i think that speaks to this, too
⤷ christine Yeah her relationship with her daughter is very clearly perfunctory
⤷ anica but she also made him yoink stuff from his dad’s house on her behalf, which feels….not great?
⤷ christine Character Flaws!
⤷ philjamesson true!
⤷ anica i don’t feel like i know enough about her dynamic with the dad to know how i am supposed to feel about that scene. so i will withhold judgment
⤷ christine I think the fact that his partner didn’t want him to go also tells us there’s a lack of boundaries with his boss (aka Jodie who’s character name I cannot remember)
⤷ philjamesson yes, definitely. chief danvers. “work ends at 6” super clear
⤷ christine Is it confusing if I use partner like that in a cop show?
⤷ philjamesson hahaha
⤷ christine Also their child’s name is Darwin
leon i really hope the scientists discovered some cool ass shit under the ice, and that it has something to do with the big mining company and this whole thing turns really weird
⤷ anica wait okay, when they revealed the scientists, did one of them have another guys fingers like melded into his face?
⤷ leon theres supposed to be 8 of them, the other 5-6 are all melded underneath human caterpillar style
⤷ leon human centipede i mean
⤷ jeremykaplowitz it can’t be a human caterpillar because that implies it could bloom into a beautiful human butterfly
⤷ leon if the story just ends up like “mining company was doing some bad things and the scientists like the activist also found out” i will be disappointed
⤷ jeremykaplowitz i think season 1 was very much like “is it supernatural? i dunno. maybe!” the entire time
⤷ anica incredible Philidelphia Experiment vibes there
kevinflynn so were they watching ferris bueller on DVD? do you think that was something they agreed on as a scientist team, like “we like this movie and we’re bringing it with us to alaska”
⤷ jeremykaplowitz it’s a good movie
⤷ kevinflynn it is. and they probably don’t get many days off. good bit of escapism
⤷ leon the station has been there for 18 years they probably got a decent collection there
⤷ kevinflynn that’s true
⤷ jeremykaplowitz i don’t know a lot about this movie rights or whatever, but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is apparently a Paramount movie. i wonder how much they paid for that to be in it and how much they were like “it HAS to be this movie”
⤷ kevinflynn oh yeah that’s a good point. and the fact that it’s a beatles song too!
⤷ jeremykaplowitz yeah famously super hard to get! i remember it being a big deal when it was in Mad Men. these days they’re making fuckin AI beatles songs tho so idk lol
⤷ leon for jodie foster, no expense is too much
⤷ jeremykaplowitz jodie INSISTED on it being Ferris
⤷ philjamesson i do think “twist and shout” was pretty thematic, what with the seizures and then speaking for the Bad Thing, i wonder if the parade scene is gonna have some parallels too. also the dance was a twist i guess
⤷ jeremykaplowitz the dead people were, undeniably, twisting and shouting
jeremykaplowitz i just wanna apologize in advance btw: if I ever get half my fucking face blown off in a war, I am not using my dying seconds to whisper something profound to anyone
⤷ kevinflynn it was the same line from lost in translation
⤷ leon “wazzaaa”
⤷ jeremykaplowitz lol hell yea
jeremykaplowitz what do we think is up with Travis and Rose? when Rose was carving into that wolf, it perked up a bit as if it was still alive even though it was missing like half its organs. do you think Rose has a connection to the dead in general? or she just sees Travis?
⤷ philjamesson yeah, they left this with very little to go on. it seems like she’s had interactions with him before, because she’s not too shocked to see him, and she just asks him what he wants. other than that, i’m not sure there’s too much?
⤷ philjamesson “what do you want” a pair of friggin boots for starters!!!
⤷ jeremykaplowitz folks the man is likely cold af
⤷ anica he was dancin to warm up. who can blame him
⤷ philjamesson hold on gotta get the juices flowin. alright. yea look over there
⤷ anica my dance troupe has a show tonight…yeah it’s just right over there
philjamesson i definitely think that the actor who’s playing hank studied tucker carlson’s facial expressions
⤷ jeremykaplowitz he is forever Kenny Powers’ brother to me and i feel a little bad about it
⤷ kevinflynn i’m so bad with character names. i don’t feel like i caught any of them except navarro
⤷ philjamesson i got hank and navarro. and imdb’d the rest
⤷ leon spongebob
jeremykaplowitz i have nothing against Billie Eilish but i did not think that song matched the tone of that intro at all
⤷ philjamesson i think billie eilish is seen as Spooky and thats that. i tend to agree, i think the spookiness is a different flavor
⤷ christine I would argue we don’t yet know what flavor of spookiness we are in for
⤷ philjamesson fair!
jeremykaplowitz the opening scene was in the day time, i wonder if that implies it’s like weeks or months before the rest of the show. cause after that it’s all Night Country
⤷ christine I think they tell us that that is the last daylit day before the many days of night
⤷ jeremykaplowitz oh ok well that’s on me then
⤷ philjamesson yeah one of the opening titles
⤷ jeremykaplowitz what does everything think happened to those 8 people in the base? are they still alive?
⤷ jeremykaplowitz i kid i kid
That’s it! Thank you for hanging out with us while we discussed episode one of True Detective: Night Country. Check in with us next week to read our discussion on episode two. Click here for the rest of our True Detective discussion threads. Feel free to drop a comment below to keep the convo going!
Participants:
- Kevin Flynn, he/him, Writer (Hard Drive, The Onion)
- Anica, they/she, Comedian and TTRPG performer
- Leon Chang, he/him, Musician (Bird World, Return to Bird World, Leon Mode)
- Christine Nyland, she/her, Filmmaker (Summoners, Distress Signals, An Unquiet Grave)
- Phil Jamesson, he/him, Writer (Dibs Next Co-Creator)
- Jeremy Kaplowitz, he/him, Writer (Dibs Next Co-Creator)
COMMENTS.
5 responses to “True Detective: Night Country S4E1 “Part 1” — Post-Episode Discussion Thread — Dibs Texts”
👏 sponge 👏 bob 👏 is 👏 cool 👏 he 👏 cleans 👏 your 👏 teeth
But who cleans Spongebob’s teeth?
I’ve never watched TD before but Jodie Foster might make me.
PS: congrats you boyos on this new beginning.
I enjoyed this
Couldn’t disagree with you guys more about Season 1 – it works best as real life sex criminals/cultists. This season seems to be pretty blatant that something paranormal(demons? witches? ghosts? probably ghosts.) is happening, maybe concurrently with actual murder.
Also surprised you all didn’t key into this: “Travis” is the name of Rust’s dad as mentioned by one of the detectives in S1.