'True Detective: Night Country': Did Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro kill William Wheeler?
Contains spoilers for 'True Detective: Night Country'
ENNIS, ALASKA: 'True Detective: Night Country' is nowhere falling short of curiosity and suspense. Several theories seem to pop up with each episode, providing food for thought to the audience.
From supernatural forces at play to connection with Season 1, there's a lot yet to be unraveled in the current season of the crime anthology series.
Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), the old colleagues, reunite once again to crack the mysterious deaths of researchers while tracing the old murder case of an activist.
Who was William Wheeler?
In the third episode of 'True Detective: Night Country', Liz Danvers opens up about a past case of William Wheeler. Before being transferred over to the Troopers, Evangeline Navarro was a part of Danvers' team.
William was a resident of Ennis who spent his life getting in and out of jail. The middle-aged man used to get booked under the charges of sexual assault and armed robberies.
During a conversation with Officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett), Liz said that the last time he came out of jail, he was involved with an 18-year-old girl.
He would beat her ruthlessly, break her arm, and smash her jaw. However, she refused to report him, leaving the police with no choice but to sit back.
Liz recalled that one day when they got a call and visited Wheeler's house, they found the couple dead.
Did William Wheeler die by suicide or murder?
According to Liz, William Wheeler shot himself after killing the girl. However, a tiny flashback during the episode hints that Liz is lying about the case.
When she and Navarro entered the house, they found the girl lying lifeless on the floor, while Wheeler was seated on a chair smiling and whistling. We could have assumed that Wheeler shot himself after Navarro arrived but it creates suspicion as Liz lied that he had already died when they got there.
It makes us wonder if, in anger and disgust, either Liz or Navarro ended up shooting him and staged his suicide. After the Wheeler case, Navarro was transferred to Troopers, probably on the instructions of Liz.
The William Wheeler case reminds us of 'True Detective' Season 1 where the original true detectives told investigators that they shot Ledoux in self-defense while in reality, Marty shot the drug dealer point-blank after discovering that he had imprisoned children.
Three episodes of 'True Detective: Night Country' are currently streaming on HBO. The fourth episode will drop on February 4, 2024.