True Detective Season 4 director Issa Lopez reassured fans about what happened to Navarro in the season's ending moments on HBO.
At the end of True Detective Season 4, fans saw Kali Reis' Evangeline Navarro walk out into a vast open plot of ice with her house emptied as Jodie Foster's Liz Danvers closed the case centered on the eight murdered research scientists.
She would later tell her superiors that she did not believe they would find Navarro on the ice before viewers saw the two reunite for one final moment. The real mystery now, however, is what fans believe is real about the ending.
[ Full Cast of True Detective Season 4 - Every Main Character & Actor (Photos) ]
True Detective Director on Season 4 Ending
During her most recent press tour, director/writer Issa Lopez addressed True Detective Season 4's shocking ending. Specifically, she touched on the fate of Kali Reis' Evangeline Navarro as fans saw a vision of her enjoying the sunlight on a porch with Jodie Foster's Liz Danvers.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Lopez explained how viewers all have free rein to interpret the ending however they choose. For the director, she feels "Navarro is alive" after walking out on the ice. Still, she also spoke on the idea that "no one ever leaves Ennis," referring to the Alaskan locale in which Season 4 was set:
"That's also a free interpretation for each person watching the show. I have mine, but that doesn't say that any other reading is wrong, because at that point, the story is no longer mine. It belongs to the audience. For me as an audience member, Navarro is alive. She went out and had her walkabout in a way in the ice, because now she can do that, and find a way back. But it is true that no one ever leaves Ennis... or anywhere."
In a separate interview with Variety, she explained how Navarro is "definitely...at peace," which is different from when viewers saw her at other points throughout Season 4 as she kept hearing voices in her head:
"Navarro — definitely she’s at peace. That decision is very different than the Navarro that we see in the station listening to voices and walking into the ice. Then, she’s terrified thinking that she’s going to her destruction. She’s been fighting that call for a long, long time."
Realizing that "the voices are trying to embrace her" and fill a void in her life, she finally finds peace for herself, although whether that takes her into the afterlife is "a little bit open for interpretation:"
"And what she finds once she surrenders to it is that the voices are trying to embrace her, and give her something that is a missing piece of her life. So now she can, with that knowledge, make a decision about this instinct that she always had, of, 'Just go, and keep on going.' And do it at peace with herself. If that takes her to the afterlife or not, it’s a little bit open for interpretation."
Although a portion of the audience is embracing the idea of Navarro "leaving to be with the spirits of the people she’s lost," Lopez fully supports that interpretation being drawn from the show's ending:
"There is going to be a part of our audience that wants to believe in the poetry of her just leaving to be with the spirits of the people she’s lost, and not be alone in the way that she is now. And that’s OK! That’s an interpretation."
The interviewer even noted that she and her colleague disagreed on the ending, with her colleague believing Navarro was not real when the character was seen on the porch.
Lopez loved that kind of discourse, saying how the way they discussed the show was what she wanted the audience to do as well:
"When the author speaks, it’s over. And I don’t want to cut out the reading that your colleague had. I love, love, love that, because what you two did is what I want our audience to do. If the Navarro that comes back is her spirit, there’s a beautiful poetry into that: It’s a spirit at peace, not like the apparitions that she saw before. And if she is Navarro after going on a walkabout and coming back to hang with her friend, that’s beautiful too."
Will True Detective Move Past Season 4?
As fans mull over what happened to Danvers and Navarro at the end of True Detective Season 4, the good news is that there is no mystery on whether the series will move forward into new stories.
Not only did Variety confirm True Detective will be back for more episodes, but Issa Lopez will take on a new challenge as she helps develop a new adventure in Season 5.
Lopez is also in an intriguing situation with her return to the True Detective landscape since the series is an anthology show that tells a completely new story every season, as is expected to be the case for Season 5.
However, after her work on Season 4 earned the highest Tomatometer score of any season yet on Rotten Tomatoes at 92%, the sky seems to be the limit for what's ahead of her.
True Detective Season 4 is streaming on Max.
Read more about True Detective below:
Who Is Finn Bennett? 4 Things to Know About True Detective Season 4 Actor
True Detective Season 4's 'Woke' Complaints Explained
Jodie Foster Admits Her True Detective Character Is an 'Awful' Person
