True Detective: Night Country creator explains the mystery behind Annie's tongue

True Detective: Night Country came to an end on February 18, 2024. It marked the end of the six-episode saga chronicling the lives of eight missing scientists from Tsalal Research Station. It also marked the end of the partnership between Detective Liz Danvers and State Trooper Evangeline Navarro on the case.

The season finale of the show solved almost all the mysteries of the show however one particular element that was shown in the very first episode of the show was not divulged in much detail during the show's last episode.

The element in question here is a woman's severed tongue which was found at the Tsalal Research facility when Detective Danvers and Navarro had gone there to investigate the case of the missing scientists for the very first time on True Detective: Night Country.

Although Navarro had intuitively solved the case at the place of the scene on the first day, nothing was established concretely. It wasn't until the story slowly unraveled in the show that the audience got an idea of what was happening.

The episodes leading up to the finale of the show gave a fair idea of who the owner of the tongue was however, the season finale put a stamp of seal on those speculations.

Much to the surprise of the fans, it was revealed that Detective Navarro was right all along. The tongue belonged to an indigenous woman named Annie K. whose case remained unsolved until now.

Now, with the show coming to an end, Variety released an exclusive interview with writer and director Issa López where she spoke about the show in detail. She also spoke about her artistic influences and what went behind making the show.

Disclaimer: The following article comprises spoilers for True Detective: Night Country. Please read at your discretion.

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What is the mystery surrounding Annie's tongue in True Detective: Night Country?

As the last episode of True Detective: Night Country revealed, the rightful owner of the severed tongue shown in the first episode of the show was Annie K. She was an indigenous woman who was working towards exposing a group of scientists who were "poisoning Ennis" for their gains. These were the same group of scientists reported missing from the Tsalal Research facility.

The show's finale revealed that after Annie had found out the truth behind the scientists' malpractices, she had destroyed some of their property. In return, the scientists stabbed and beat her multiple times. However, she was still alive after all of this, until her boyfriend, also a scientist at the facility, smothered her to death.

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What did True Detective: Night Country's writer and director Issa López have to say about the case of Annie's tongue?

After the big reveal on February 18, 2024, Variety released a full-length interview with the writer and director of True Detective: Night Country, Issa López. Talking about the case of the severed tongue she spoke about where she drew the influence for the same from. She says:

"There is a Japanese movie by a very demented and incredible Japanese director [Takashi Miike] that did that movie “Audition.” And there’s a tongue actually flapping on the floor in that movie, and it’s an image that stays with you. I thought that that would be a nice reference. Nobody has caught it up until this moment."

She also talks at length about what drove her to curate the story of the show along those lines. Talking about the same, she says:

"You have eight missing men, and you have a human tongue on the floor. It had those elements, and it would be boring that it’s some other guy — so it had to be a woman. Because of the area I was working in, it was a perfect opportunity to talk about murdered and missing Indigenous women."

She further adds:

"Started piecing together: I understand that the men were implicated in the death of this woman. In what shape? I still didn’t know. The motivation, I still didn’t understand, but I knew it happened then. So it came to reason that what takes them at the end is a result of what happened with that woman."

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All episodes of True Detective: Night Country are currently streaming on HBO and HBO Max in the US. People living outside can use a VPN to access it.