True Detective Season 4 kicks off with a mystery involving missing men, that may or may not be connected to a murder. But who is Raymond Clark, the scientist who seems to connect the two cases?
True Detective Season 4 – aka True Detective Night Country – launched with a scene in which eight men go missing from the TSALA research facility in Ennis, Alaska.
The scientists are then found, frozen in a block of human flesh that the investigating officer calls a “corpsicle.” Their deaths are soon linked to the murder of a Native American woman.
A man called Raymond Clark is the connective tissue between these two mysteries. But who is he? We’ve got answers below, just beware of TRUE DETECTIVE SPOILERS ahead…
True Detective Season 4: Who is Raymond Clark?
Raymond Clark is one of the researchers working at the TSALA outpost, where scientists are searching for an organism that could stop cellular decay. Which means he’s working on wiping out cancer, genetic disorders, and autoimmune diseases.
Clark’s file pops up on a screen, where we learn that he is: “A Royal Society Wolford Fellow in Paleomicrobiology. His research career focussed on understanding the molecular basis of colonization and infection by Staphylococcus aureus. His Ph.D. training at Trinity College Dublin involved biochemical and biophysical characterization of staphylococcal fibrinogen-binding proteins.” And that’s where our access to Clark’s biography ends.
Episode 1 begins on December 17 – the third day of night until the sun returns to the area in January. Clark is acting strangely on the compound, shaking uncontrollably, and saying – somewhat mysteriously – “She’s awake.” That’s the last we see of the TSALA men until they are found frozen to death.
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Clark’s connection to Annie K
Detective Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) investigates the case and finds footage of Clark wearing a coat that looks like one worn by Annie K, a Native American woman whose mutilated body was previously discovered on the edge of town.
Annie had been stabbed 32 times and had her tongue removed. So when a severed tongue is found at the research facility, the two cases link up.
Danvers soon discovers that Clark had been dating Annie K, but keeping the tryst a secret from his co-workers, by meeting in a van. It’s one that has a spiral symbol on the roof – the same spiral symbol that Annie has tattooed on her body. Which, in turn, is the same tattoo that Clark gets four days after her death.
During her investigation, Danvers discovers papers on which Clark has written messages about feeling Annie’s presence after her murder. His puzzling behavior is corroborated by maids who visited the facility in the days before his disappearance and saw Clark talking to himself, and walking around the building naked.
Then – at much the same time Clark becomes the prime suspect in the Annie K murder – Episode 2 gives us the big twist: Clark might not be dead. As the corpsicle thaws, it becomes clear that there are seven – rather than eight – bodies in the block of flesh. With Raymond Clark nowhere to be seen…
