Detailed Explanation
The ending is haunting and ambiguous—exactly as True Detective should be. Danvers and Navarro discover the full truth: the cleaning women killed the scientists, Raymond Clark helped kill Annie K., and the pollution cover-up was corporate murder by another name. Raymond kills himself rather than face justice. In the final scenes, Navarro walks onto the frozen sea during a storm and never returns—but Danvers later tells investigators she's "still out there somewhere." The show suggests Navarro might have found peace, or death, or something beyond human understanding. I've watched the finale three times and I'm still processing it.