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True Detective: Night Country introduces Kali Reis as Alaska State Trooper Evangline Navarro with a swift and killer scene that packs a literal punch. The HBO show wastes no time establishing that the fourth season of True Detective takes place in the harsh, isolated, and literally dark edge of Ennis, Alaska during Polar Night. After watching nature itself react in fear to the changes afoot, we see how Navarro, working solo, is called in to a domestic dispute at a crab-packing factory that soon erupts with a twist.
It’s a scene in which Navarro quickly “establishes she’s not to be f-ed around with,” in the words of True Detective Season 4 star Kali Reis herself.
Immediately after True Detective: Night Country‘s Billie Eilish-scored opening credits, Navarro is quickly led through the warehouse as a shift manager wonders where the ambulance is. He’s worried about someone (Aron Már Ólafsson) dying on his floor. Navarro simply demurs she was closer as they approach the crime scene. After she ascertains that the “victim” isn’t dead, but knocked out thanks to a brutal combo of being drunk and being clobbered with a metal bucket, she questions his assailant. It’s an older woman (L’Xeis Diane Benson) who works at the factory and she freely admits to hitting him because he hit Blair (Kathryn Wilder), a younger woman nursing a black eye.
After Navarro gets the scoop from Blair — “He hits me. I moved out. He didn’t like it.” — she finds herself interrupted by the guy, Ace, rousing from his stupor to lunge at the women. Navarro quickly downs the brawny man and cuffs him, all while cooly asking Blair if she’s pressing charges and answering her phone. It’s a short scene that quickly establishes Evangeline Navarro as a competent cop and a protector of women. Navarro’s introduction also undermines the detective genre convention of introducing the top-billed crime fighter first, in this case Oscar-winner Jodie Foster’s police chief Liz Danvers.
“I like the fact that besides Pitka (Angunnguaq Larsen), which is the first hunter that you see, after that, you see Navarro. She’s the first one [you meet],” Kali Reis told Decider. “Usually you would see Danvers in the office with the coffee. That’s like the typical detective story. But you get introduced to this woman who’s part of the community, but not. You see who she is as a law enforcement officer and see what kind of power and respect she commands and who she protects.”
“Another thing that I like is the aspect of you get to be immersed in Alaska. You realize the realism of them being on their own because there’s not that many officers there. They have to show up to these unpredictable situations as officers, male or female, by themselves with almost close to zero backup.” And Navarro can handle it.
That’s who Evangeline Navarro is, but who is Kali Reis? And how does Reis’s own background as both an Indigenous actress and professional boxer potentially influence her character? Here’s everything you need to know about True Detective Night Country star Kali Reis…
Who is Kali Reis? All About The Actress and Boxer Playing Evangeline Navarro on True Detective Night Country:
Kali Reis is a 37-year-old American boxer and actress from Providence, Rhode Island. She is a member of the Cherokee, Nipmuc, and Seaconc Wampanoag nations and also claims Cape Verdean ancestry. According to an interview shared by HBO, Reis used her Indigenous background to inform her portrayal of Evangeline Navarro, who is Iñupiaq.
“I always got taught that if I’m in somebody’s territory I don’t know, ask permission. I want to
know, ‘What are your traditions? What are your beliefs?’ to honor the people of that land,” she
said in HBO’s official True Detective: Night Country press notes.
Reis made her acting debut in 2021’s Catch the Fair One, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. However, before kicking off her acting career, she was a celebrated professional boxer. Reis started boxing at the age of 15.
Of course, HBO fans might already know all this about Reis. Kali “KO Mequinonoag” Reis has already appeared on HBO Boxing. On May 5, 2018, Reis fought Norweigian welterweight champion Cecilia “First Lady” Braekhus in an historic match as it was literally the first women’s match to ever feature on HBO Boxing. Reis hasn’t fought in a professional match since her last win in 2021, but according to a recent interview with Bleacher Report, she hasn’t ruled out a return to the ring.
“I like to say I’m the J. Cole of women’s boxing because I ain’t retired, and I’ll drop a hot 16 on you real quick,” Reis told the outlet. “Put me up in that title fight and I’ve been there, I’ve seen things. I ain’t completely a veteran yet, but I’m in that good ‘Middle Child’ situation.”
Sounds like folks should be even more wary of tussling with Reis than they should be with Navarro…
