The show never gives a definitive answer. Hank Prior moved Annie K.’s body and may have cut out her tongue, but the finale does not reveal who brought it to the Tsalal station six years after her murder. Creator Issa López leaves two possibilities open: local women may have preserved and returned it, or Annie’s ghost may have brought it back.
What the series establishes about Annie’s tongue
Annie K. is murdered, and her tongue is missing. Six years later, it appears on the floor of the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, connecting the station to her unsolved case. Hank Prior was tasked with moving Annie’s body, and the show implies he may have removed the tongue; it does not explicitly identify him as the person who cut it out. The Independent’s finale recap recounts what the story reveals and leaves unresolved.
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The finale reveals that Tsalal’s scientists killed Annie after she discovered their conduct. Local women later drove the scientists into the Arctic wilderness in retribution. That links Annie’s murder to the station and its researchers, but it does not explain how her tongue returned there. A woman in the finale says she knows nothing about it, and the person who placed it at Tsalal is never identified.
Who cut out Annie’s tongue?
Hank is the strongest possibility offered by the story: he moved Annie’s body, and the show suggests he may have cut out the tongue. But the series does not make this a confirmed fact. Issa López’s post-finale comments also treat Hank as the likely person who removed it, while distinguishing that act from the later, unexplained return. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, López describes alternate ways to interpret what happened.
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How might the tongue have ended up at Tsalal?
López offers two readings rather than one canon explanation. They differ over who—or what—caused the tongue to reappear.
A rational possibility: the women returned it
López suggests that local women may have found Annie’s tongue, kept it, and later returned it to the station as a gesture of care for their friend. In this reading, the tongue’s return is an act by members of the community; the show does not establish that this is what happened.
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- Format: DVD
- Language: English
- Subtitle: English, Portuguese, French, Korean, None (All removable)
- Region: Region 0/All (1/2/3/4/5/6)
- Running time: 108 min
A supernatural possibility: Annie brought it back
In a supernatural reading, Annie’s ghost returns the tongue as the story of her murder is finally being heard. López describes this as an alternative to the rational explanation, not a confirmed event.
Neither reading is ranked as the answer. López has described the season as open to both a reality-based approach and a supernatural one; the distinction reflects the show’s competing ways of seeing events, including Danvers’s and Navarro’s. Her interview with GQ discusses that deliberate openness.
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The clearest answer
Annie’s tongue is found at Tsalal six years after her murder, but the show never says who brought it there. Hank may have cut it out; the return is left ambiguous. López invites viewers to choose between a community-preservation explanation and a supernatural one, without confirming either.
Quick Recap
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