The season takes place in Ennis, Alaska, and follows detectives Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro as they investigate the disappearance of eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station and vanish without a trace.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.565 million household viewers and gained a 0.08 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
The department is run by Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), the Ennis police chief whom Navarro formerly worked with as a detective before being transferred.
Finding that the tongue belongs to a Native woman, she instructs Peter's father Hank (John Hawkes), a veteran detective, to check on local corpses.
[1] Danvers is forced to leave the station when her teenage stepdaughter, Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc), gets in trouble for making a sex tape with her girlfriend.
Despite not seeing a connection to the case, Danvers gets Peter to retrieve Anne's file from his father's home, though he is unsuccessful in hiding this act from Hank.
After having sex with her lover Eddie Qavvik (Joel D. Montgrand), Navarro sabotages the truck belonging to the man she arrested earlier for assault.
She said, "the more I understood about the location where I wanted to set the story, the more I knew that 70% of the population is Iñupiaq, at least Indigenous, in these parts of Alaska, and it would be unfair to make my characters any other color.
The site's consensus states: "Creepy and patiently paced, Night Country's first installment introduces Jodie Foster and Kali Reis' dueling detectives with grim efficiency.
"[11] Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "There's Navarro’s gruesome flashback to her last tour of duty, where a fellow soldier is missing half her head; Danvers' fleeting memory of her family's car accident, triggered by the broken glass she steps on when walking over to the drunk driver.
Add in whatever caused the two former colleagues to go their separate ways and True Detective: Night Country has all the hallmarks of past seasons.
"[13] Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast wrote, "while we're working with an incredibly dense set of gnarled, intersecting plotlines, True Detective: Night Country is, so far, keeping them from becoming too tangled to follow.
With the introduction of an undeniable supernatural element afoot, López's intriguing new story — paired with her drolly offbeat writing — is primed to put this much-missed anthology back on track.
"[14] Amanda Whiting of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It's a fitting introduction, though I think I'd argue that the paradox López has swiftly established in Ennis is even more disturbing: God may be asleep, but what happens when night lasts so long man has no choice but to walk alongside the beasts.
"[15] Melody McCune of Telltale TV gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Overall, 'Part 1' of True Detective: Night Country is a solid start to the season, bolstered by nuanced character work, a plot that unravels methodically and carefully, and a genuinely engaging mystery at the center of it all.
"[16] Scott Tobias of The New York Times wrote, "The supernatural aura of the season so far may well be explicable, tied to the fears and anxieties of a community that spends the winter padding around in the dark.
"[17] Tyler Johnson of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Yes, Part 1 masterfully cultivated a sense of impending doom and gathering darkness (much more literally than in seasons past), but the show's second and third seasons skillfully set the tone as well - and to say that those installments didn't quite nail the dismount would be putting it very mildly.