‘True Detective’: What Happened to Danvers’ Son Holden?

We’re more than halfway through ‘True Detective’ Season 4 and yet we still know next to nothing about Danvers’ history and why she is generally so bitter and jaded. We do know that she has a complicated relationship with Leah, who is her step-daughter but according to Danvers’ flashbacks, she also had a son who tragically passed away sometime before the events of ‘True Detective’ Season 4. In Episode 4, we’ve had some pretty big hints that Navarro’s vision was of Holden, so what happened to him?

Some flashbacks from the show hint that Liz had a true family before the start of the events

Since the start of ‘True Detective’ Season 4 we’ve seen that Liz Danvers is a grumpy hardened jaded no-nonsense woman who often oversteps the boundaries of politeness to get the job done. Her small family currently consists only of Leah, who by her own words is her step-mother and not a biological mother. We don’t what happened to Leah’s mom or dad but we do know that at one point in the past her dad was romantically involved with Liz. Leah described Liz during that time as easy-going and how she often danced with her dad.

Then on a couple of occasions, we’ve seen Liz having flashbacks that involved a small, native-looking child, she was close to the boy and we can only assume that it was her son, Holden. Everything that we know about Holden points in the direction of him being Liz’s biological child and Leah’s half-brother, the link between them being Leah’s dad. But where are they?

Holden most likely died in an accident of some sorts

Now it’s entirely possible that Holden is still alive somewhere with Leah’s dad but it’s highly unlikely. Our first clue that Holden died is during the scene in Episode 1 when we can see a creepy child’s hand reaching for Liz saying “She’s Awake”

We know that for some reason people who live in Ennis see dead people, most often the dead that were close to them while they were alive like family members and spouses. The fact that Holden is “haunting” Liz, means that he was A) close to her and B) that he is currently deceased and buried somewhere in Ennis.

The second hint that Holden is dead comes from Captain Ted Connelly who mentions that Liz was a fine good cop before “the thing” with Holden happened. The day that Liz hates to talk about. Following Holden’s death Liz lost it and she became well, unmanageable for time, and borderline antisocial, and this was revealed as part of the reason why Danvers was assigned to Ennis in the first place. The third reason, well this one is connected to Evangeline Navarro.

How is Evangeline connected to Holden’s death?

Remember in Episode 3 when Navarro was in the ice fields and she had a vision of a child running in the night only in his pajamas holding a polar bear toy?

Well, Navarro started running after the child unaware that it was a vision at first. She slipped and hit her head on the ice and was seemingly transported to what appears to be a site of a truck accident with truck being overturned seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

At the end of the vision, a small hand can be seen grabbing Navarro’s shoulder and the child is carrying a polar bear toy.

In episode 4, following her sister’s death, Navarro shows up at Liz’s house, and the two get into an argument because Navarro sees the polar bear toy and recalls her vision. Liz noticed her look and accused her of thinking “weird ass” spiritual shit. Liz goes on a rant about how dead people are dead and there are no ghosts, no heaven or hell. There’s nothing, only them, alive people.

Navarro tries to calm her down and asks her why does she keeps the stuffed polar bear around to make a point, Danvers walks to the door and throws the toy outside, holding the door.

So, what happened to Holden? How did he die?

It’s heavily implied in the show that Holden died in some kind of an accident with his father. It may have been a truck accident that Navarro saw in her vision. This is the only scenario that explains why both Holden and Leah’s father are dead, and why there is a certain day that Liz doesn’t talk about. It also explains why Navarro had a vision of the crash site with Holding running around.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!