‘True Detective’: Who Is Otis Heiss & How Is He Connected to Tsalal?

Episode 4 of ‘True Detective’ just aired and instead of having answers we are more or less pushed even deeper into what appears to be the chilliest ghost story in the ‘True Detective’ Universe. In the previous episode, Danvers tasked Priors with finding people in the region with “injuries” similar to those of Tsalal men. Luckily, Peter delivered but it wasn’t what they expected. The man under the name Otis Heiss is in every legal sense a ghost which means that piecing together his story will be close to impossible. Let’s check out who Otis Heiss and what’s his connection to the Tsalal research station.

Ottis had the same types of injuries that the Tsalal men had

Danvers at one point in time asked Prior to locate people who might have the same set of injuries as the Tsalal researchers found in the ice fields. Peter delivered but it only confused them more. A German national under the name Otis Heiss was found in Alaska with burns on both corneas, ruptured eardrums, and self-inflicted bites. All of this can indicate that he was exposed to some kind of chemical that would damage his ears, and eyes and cause him to fall into deep psychosis, something that seems to be regularly occurring in Ennis.

Like Oliver Tagaq, Otis was a virtual ghost with most of his files scrubbed clean and no evidence of what and who he was before he became what you see in the image above. Otis has no records of employment, no bank accounts, no credit cards, social security number has been inactive since November 2006 and he has had no registered address for the past eight years. He has no wife and kids as well.

But unlike Oliver Tagaq, Otis had numerous run-ins with the law since he got into the accident. It seems that following this traumatic experience, he turned to drugs. Otis had numerous charges related to disorderly conduct, breaking and entering, and petty theft and he has been in and out of rehab several times. The last time Otis was seen alive was by a trooper, two months ago since then he has been pretty much a silent ghost.

It’s clear that Otis was somehow connected to the Tsalal research station since he fit the exact profile that Oliver Tagaq fit, and Oliver was previously working there as an equipment engineer.

It seems that Otis might be connected to Annie’s murder directly

While Danvers and Navarro were looking at Annie’s death video, they figured out that Annie was in some kind of an ice cave, the problem was there were no ice caves near Ennis, and the cave that Annie took the video in had to be pretty deep due to the presence of various fossils around her that could be clearly seen suspended in ice.

Danvers and Navarro visited Bryce who explained that they were wrong that there are no ice caves near Ennis and he properly identified the bones behind Annie as whale bones, prehistoric whale bones. Bryce pointed them out in the direction of the nearby Brooks Range but warned them against visiting the caves themselves due to them actually being a death trap.

The range is extremely dangerous with visitors being in danger of falling through the ice at any time. Bryce also mentioned that the range was the scene of several accidents years ago so they closed the caves down.

Bryce could provide them with some maps of the area but it will take some time. He explained that it would be possible to explore the cave if they were guided by the person who mapped the caves in the first place and a simple internet search revealed that the person who mapped those ice caves in which Annie most likely died was none other than Otis Heiss.

You know what this means right? Otis was most likely working for Tsalal research station and stumbled upon whatever Annie and the researchers stumbled upon only much sooner. It drove him completely insane and almost killed him. After he got addicted to drugs Tsalal cut all ties with him and scrubbed any record that points in the direction of him being connected to the research station.

Those accidents that took place at the cave system are also most likely connected to the same thing that killed Annie and Tsalal Men.

Clark seems to be the key connection between Tsalal and Otis

Near the end of the episode Danvers and Navarro looked at the video that shows Clark being located near the dredge. They promptly visited the place but the subsequent search revealed that the man on the video wasn’t Clark, it was Otis but he was wearing Clark’s orange parka with a smiley face patch on it.

This is a prime piece of evidence that Otis was connected to the Tsalal research station since there are no other reasons for Clark to share his “habitat” with Otis under normal circumstances. Danvers asked where Clark was and Otis answered in a cryptic way saying that Clark was now in Night Country. This most likely means that Clark is dead and gone as Night Country is probably some kind of metaphor for death OR possibly the ice caves. Danvers and Navarro will most likely utilize Otis to lead them through the caves, and he will refuse to do it due to being messed up in them.

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