True Detective Season 4's Weird Visions Might Have One Logical Explanation

"True Detective: Night Country" is the first season of the acclaimed police procedural series to be made without the involvement of series creator Nic Pizzolato. While fans may have expected a bit of a departure with this fact in mind, the changes that the latest season of the HBO series adopts are genuinely shocking all the same.

One of the first things that longtime fans will likely note is that Season 4 of "True Detective" seems to feature genuine supernatural phenomena. The facts that Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) is led to the bodies of the missing scientists by the ghost of her dead husband and that Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) is pointed to by the surviving scientist who screams at her meaningfully are just two of the many examples throughout the season.

However, what some fans may be surprised to learn in the season finale of "True Detective: Night Country" is that there's genuinely no logical explanation for these kinds of events. Or is there? Throughout the latest season of the neo-noir series, there are allusions made to contaminated water, an easily forgotten factor that could provide a scientific basis for the visions that many characters experience.

Notably, the National Library of Medicine mentions hallucinations as one of the possible symptoms of consuming contaminated water and lists industrial waste as a top reason for pollution. Naturally, this could be compounded by the trauma experienced by the lead characters of "True Detective: Night Country."

Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) lost her family in a fatal car crash. Evangeline Navarro survived an IED explosion and the suicide of her sister. Finally, Rose Aguineau is still reeling from the death of her husband while also attempting to cope with the ghosts she sees regularly.

Like with dreams, the contaminated water may be making these troubled characters see manifestations of the things that haunt them the most. This would provide an added reason for the existence of the corrupt mine officials and scientists to be a part of the story in "True Detective: Night Country" while also showing more of the harm that the location is causing.

Also of note is that few characters are seen drinking bottled water in Season 4 of "True Detective." While many characters opt to drink alcohol instead, it naturally follows that they must also be drinking at least some of the contaminated water, as well as using it to cook, bathe, and provide for other aspects of their lives.

Of course, as with many aspects of the latest season of "True Detective," all of this is open to interpretation. Is Navarro really dead at the end, or did she just leave? Were restless spirits helping to guide the investigation, or was there just something in the water? Regardless of where one lands on these questions, "Night Country" is made all the stronger by this kind of open-ended storytelling.