All 6 episodes of True Detective: Night Country, ranked worst to best

4. Episode 5

Episode 5 is where the plot of Night Country really starts to take center stage. It comes on too quickly. The show shifts from character-driven to plot-driven too fast, and we lose things in the process.

It becomes clear in "Part 5" that Night Country is not going to do much to develop the characters of Liz's step-daughter Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc) and Peter's wife Kayla (Anna Lambe), who have been hanging around in the background this whole time waiting for their chance to do something interesting. Kayla kicks Peter out of the house because of marital problems which apparently run much deeper than anything we'd seen so far. The show must have run out of time to show us. And Leah goes to a protest against her step-mother's wishes, widening the growing divide between them. That works a bit better, but we still have too little idea what these two mean to each other.

Meanwhile, the Sky Silver mining company comes into focus as potentially a much bigger antagonist than we previously thought, which is good. But then we learn about their motives pretty quickly afterwards, which takes away some of their menace. The show ends with Silver Sky hiring Peter's father Hank (John Hawkes), also a police officer, to kill Otis Heiss, a man who could show Liz and Navarro where Annie was killed. Everyone meets in a bloody clash at Liz's house. Hank kills Heiss, but then Peter — who's staying with Liz after getting out of his house — kills his own dad rather than see him hurt Liz, his boss.

It all happens a bit too quickly for my taste — I think these events could have been spread over the course of two episodes — but I was on the edge of my seat for the whole confrontation. By this point, I'd grown fond of Liz, Navarro, Peter and the rest; I think this is the most likable cast of characters the show has ever assembled, and I wanted them to come out of the situation intact. Night Country made me care, which counts for a lot.