What happened to Annie K’s tongue in True Detective: Night Country?

True Detective: Night Country aired its season finale on Sunday (18 February) after a critically acclaimed run of six episodes.

*Warning: Spoilers follow for “Part Six,” the True Detective: Night Country season finale.*

The final episode reveals who killed Annie K (Nivi Pedersen), but does not offer a concrete explanation as to how her severed tongue came to be found on the floor of the Tsalal Arctic Research Station several years after her death.

What happened to Annie K’s tongue?

We learned early on in True Detective: Night Country about the unsolved murder of Annie K, an indigenous woman whose body was found on the outskirts of Ennis (a fictional town set in Alaska) with 32 star-shaped stab wounds from an unidentified weapon.

Detective Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) also tells Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) that Annie’s body was found without her tongue.

The tongue only turns up when Danvers finds it on the floor of the Tsalal lab six years later, providing a clue to the connection between the missing scientists and the murder of Annie K.

Nivi Pedersen as Annie K in True Detective: Night Country (Michele K Short/HBO)

Who cut out the tongue?

While we’re never explicitly told who cut out Annie K’s tongue, we do find out in episode five that corrupt cop Hank Prior (John Hawkes) was responsible for moving Annie’s body, and it’s implied that he cut out her tongue in order to send a message to other mine protestors to remain quiet.

In an interview with GQ, Hawkes confirmed that he believes Hank was responsible for cutting out Annie’s tongue, and that he was motivated by greed. “Hank was a cop who was really doing things his own way, which would make sense in a small town,” he said.

“You treat this person this way, this person that way. Not everyone’s equal in his eyes, exactly. And so he was probably turning a blind eye towards certain behaviors. Certainly [mine owner] Kate McKittrick would know about that. So already she’s got a little something on him.”

“What motivates him to carry out the task of cutting out Annie’s tongue, it wasn’t something he took pride in but needed to be done to send the message,” Hawkes continued.

“I think the quid pro quo was, you’ll become chief of police if you do this for me. Then once he’s done it and he doesn’t become chief of police, she’s got that on him too now. Obviously, much worse than just turning a blind eye toward a DUI or something like that. I think it’s motivated by his career aspirations, ultimately, and hopefully that his son might view him in a more favorable light as someone who’s gotten to the top of his profession, but it never happens.”

John Hawkes as Hank Prior in ‘True Detective: Night Country’ (HBO)

How did the tongue end up in the lab?

In the final episode, Bee (L’xeis Diane Benson) tells Danvers and Navarro (Kali Reis) that a group of local women, known on set as the “Justice Ladies”, rounded up the Tsalal scientists and sent them out naked into the ice fields to die as an act of retribution for the murder of Annie K.

However, when Navarro asks Bee about the tongue, she claims to know nothing about it.

And while Hank may have been the last person to see Annie’s tongue, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to place it at the scene of another crime.

Night Country creator Issa López said the tongue’s reappearance was left purposefully ambiguous. “That’s one that I’m not going to be telling you because my goal was to give you the possibility of choosing your answers here,” López told Business Insider. “There are many ways that tongue could have ended up there. Some of them are natural and some of them are not.”

Many viewers believe that the only explanation for the tongue reappearing in the lab is a supernatural one. The spirit of Annie K perhaps placed the (remarkably well-preserved) tongue in the lab in order to help Danvers and Navarro find the link between the vanished scientists and her murder.

Given that Annie’s tongue was cut out to send a message, it’s also arguable that its reappearance sends a message too: That no matter how often the powers that be try to silence the oppressed, their voices will eventually be heard.

What happens to Navarro at the end of True Detective: Night Country?

True Detective: Night Country is available to watch now on Sky and NOW