‘True Detective’: Who Is Oliver Tagaq & How Is He Connected to Lund?

Episode 3 of ‘True Detective’ just aired. The mystery behind the Tsalal researchers is only getting more weird with each passing episode. In Episode 3, we learned that Lund and his team “woke her up,” and at the same time, we have also seen that Annie has found something in a cave that had gotten her killed, which is possibly connected to both the research station and the mine, and somehow a new character Oliver Tagaq seems to be connected to it? How?

Tsalal research station has plenty of secrets that we’re only starting to uncover

Between their secretive experiments and the fact that they all died gruesome deaths, there was something strange going on at Tsalal research station, something that so far killed nearly 10 people in total. Back in the second episode, we learned that they were researching “microorganisms with properties to stop cellular decay,” which aligns with something that we’ve heard in episode 1, that they were researching the origin of life.

This type of job is complicated and highly secretive in nature, some would say even impossible to do or at least Liz’s friend Bryce seemed to thin so. We’ve also learned that most of the research men at the Tsalal never left the station. You see, in the polar regions, research is nothing new; however, due to psychological and medical reasons, the staff at the stations is regularly rotated. Tsalal seemed to be an exception to this rule, as the guys that were stationed there had been there for years since the station opened up.

After analyzing evidence acquired from Clark’s van, Liz and Navarro re-visited Annie’s friend, and she revealed that she was aware that Clark and Annie were dating, but she also revealed that she used to date a guy from Tsalal under the name Oliver Tagaq.

Oliver doesn’t want to be found, and there has to be a reason for it

Peter had done an extensive search into Oliver Tagaq and came up with nothing. He was convinced that the guy didn’t exist since there were no records found anywhere, not in Ennis, not at Tsalal, that the guy under his name ever existed. Luckily, Navarro has a friend with benefits from the local tribe, Eddie Qavvik, and he is more than happy to reveal that Tagaq was actually living with the nomads, far from civilization.

Tagaq wasn’t just a mere cleaner at Tsalal; he was an equipment engineer, which makes it even more weird that he decided to live this secluded life so far away from technology and conventional science. In any case, things also get weirder when we find out that he quit just before Annie was found killed.

When Liz and Navarro wanted to talk to Oliver, he was highly hostile, going as far as to shoot them on sight. Obviously, he went to great lengths to stay hidden and was not going to react well to being discovered by a detective and state trooper.

Oliver seemed to change his tone when he heard that Tsalal researchers were found dead on the ice. He asked about Lund for some reason and seemed to calm down when Liz mentioned that he was alive. After he collected himself, he chased Liz and Navarro from his house, threatening to shoot them once again.

Overall, questioning Tagaq seemed like a dead end, but there’s every reason to believe that whatever researchers and Annie have found, Tagaq found it first and quite due to it.

He also most likely ran away with the nomads and refused to be found so that he could keep the secret; he knew that sooner or later, someone would try to find him, but as it turns out, it’s not very easy to hide in Alaska.

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