True Detective: Night Country Creator Breaks Down What Happened to Navarro

True Detective: Night Country came to an end on Sunday night, after spending the last five weeks spinning a complex Alaskan mystery and becoming the most-watched season of . Some mysteries were solved in the 75-minute season finale, but the episode’s ending created several more. Specifically, fans have a ton of questions about Evangeline Navarro and what happens to her in the final minutes of the season. WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for True Detective: Night Country! Continue reading at your own risk…

A switch flips for Navarro in the finale, and she’s able to embrace her connection to both the dead and the world beyond. Once the mystery of Annie K. and the TSALAL scientists is solved, she takes her own walk out into the cold, much like her sister and others did. Unlike them, however, she looks hopeful in her journey. 

That scene makes it seem like Navarro dies, especially after she leaves little gifts for those close to her. However, in the very last minute of the episode, she appears next to Danvers on a porch, overlooking a lake. As she walks up and looks out into the water, Danvers’ voiceover is telling a couple of investigators that Navarro likely won’t be seen again.

So is Navarro really alive? Is she a ghost appearing to folks in Ennis, similar to others we saw throughout the season? Is she existing in some kind of spiritual realm that transcends what we can comprehend? The answer, according to creator Issa López, is up to us.

“I’m not saying that she’s alive, and I’m certainly not saying that she’s dead,” López told Deadline in an interview about the finale. “I very carefully crafted this as an ink blot test for you to discover yourself as an audience member. I do love that Navarro states very early in the series that she has this impulse to just walk away and leave everything behind. On the other hand, the entire series is an exploration of the fact that she feels a calling to the beyond. 

“In the climax of the finale, and instead of fighting it and going in with pain and fear, she surrenders to it. And in doing it, she receives a piece of herself. So that call that she was afraid of is solved. The Aboriginal people in Australia go and walk about, find themselves and then come back, which I think is what Kali [Reis] embraced [for the character]. However, there is a chance that she is also going to be with the women before her visit to them. You can read it both ways and it’s up to you to interpret which one fulfills your heart.”

What did you think about the True Detective: Night Country finale? What’s your take on Navarro’s fate? Let us know in the comments!