Some mild spoilers for the full season of ‘True Detective: Night Country’ are in this post; proceed with caution
True Detective: Night Country aired its finale on Sunday night, and while this season of HBO’s anthology series has been a bit divisive, writer/director Issa López did deliver on the series’ signature blend of crime procedural, horror and the unknowable, this time with the added element of its Alaska setting during winter solstice, a welcome female point of view, and the indigenous Inuit community at the heart of the story.
Adding much to the atmosphere of Night Country is Inuk throat singer and Polaris Prize winner Tanya Tagaq; López told Vulture that her distinct guttural, impactful style and voice is “all over the music and sound design of the series,” woven into Vince Pope‘s orchestral score. “We had a lot of fun,” Tagaq told the CBC. “They’d play the scene that they wanted me on, they had a screen, and I would react to what was on the screen.”
In addition to pieces recorded specifically for the series, her unsettling song “Submerged” from 2019 album Toothless soundtracks one of the finale’s most powerful sequences. But there was even more Tagaq in the finale, as she appears on screen as well, playing one of the “Justice Ladies.” She told the CBC she was initially reluctant to take an on-camera role but watching star Jodie Foster in action made her change her mind. “That is what lit the fire under my ass to want to do it more. “The camera started rolling and I got shivers from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet because [Jodie] transformed. I’m sorry, I can almost hardly talk about it because it just blew my mind!”
You can listen to the True Detective: Night Country soundtrack with Tagaq’s contributions — and co-star John Hawkes‘ original “No Use” that he sings in the season’s penultimate episode — as well as “Submerged,” below, and all six episodes of the series are streaming now on Max.