I’m just over one episode in and before I go any further: in this season, is the supernatural real?
I’m two episodes in, and thus far, no. At least, I don’t think so.
I’ve also watched the first two episodes and I agree that there’s almost certainly nothing supernatural going on. Though a couple of events in the second episode were really weird.
We’ve seen a ghost. It’s the POV of a single character who otherwise seems pretty rational. And how did she find the bodies without the ghost’s help?
This is what I wondered. Also different people saying or hearing “She’s awake”.
I’ll keep watching but will be sorely disappointed if it turns out magic is real.
I don’t think of this show as a supernatural show (though honestly I’ve only seen season 1), so I’m hoping it’s not, but if they’re doing a red herring misdirection thing with the supernatural stuff, they’re leaning awfully hard into it: the woman’s dead husband Travis leading her to the bodies; the general town belief that many people tend to see the dead in Innis; the “she’s awake”, then the bodies are found frozen into the snow- how does that happen? The one frozen guy who starts freakily groaning-- still alive? No way. The weird concentric circle eye symbol appearing everywhere that’s “older than Innis, maybe even older than the ice”.
I’m wondering if there’s maybe some kind of pseudo science-fiction thing going on, since the research station was looking into some sort of ancient organism that could cure cancer and aging and shit.
I heard about a likely connection to season 1-- not a spoiler, really, but I will spoiler-blur in case you want the connection to be revealed at the story’s pace:
The dead guy who led his wife to the bodies? His name was Travis Cohle-- same last name as Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey in S1. And there was apparently some backstory in S1 about Rust Cohle having spent time in Alaska. So they are very likely related somehow. The timeline doesn’t seem quite right for Travis to be his father, so maybe brothers?
Liking the show this season.
Not going to spoiler this since it’s just my guess and the OP says answer my contain spoilers, but I did think of one connection that it is subtly out there but hasn’t been connected, yet. It may explain the supernatural stuff somehow.
There have been remarks about the scientists trying to obtain an “ancient organism” by drilling down for samples. I’d have to re-listen to the school teachers explanation again, but basically it’s a tough and delicate process to get the organism intact. The organism could be a game-changer. Then, you have the mining operation doing it’s reckless thing one of which is specifically turning the town’s water black (i.e., something is in the water). I’m thinking those two will be related. So, maybe the town has been ingesting the “ancient organism” and that’s doing…anything the writers want because it’s pseudo-real.
Here’s a question: What was the record that Ruth took off her turntable and shelved?
Answer:
Now you may think this is trivial, but any good detective will look for clues wherever they exist. What is the meaning of “Keith Jarrett”? Think, people!
Season 1 suggested a supernatural element at times and it was an ongoing theme, but it never went any farther than that, and the culprit was ultimately very human.
The writer and director of Season 4 has said she intentionally leaned much harder into the supernatural.
I would say that barring some “unreliable narrator” type twist, the supernatural is definitively real this time, too many things (mentioned by solost in his post) cannot be explained otherwise.
Yeah, this is definitely where we’re going. Travis was probably a guinea pig or an accidental recipient of the organism and is now very much alive, but in a zombie state.
Well, one of the idiotic cops had just ripped his arm off, so I can understand why he was unhappily groaning. But what about at the end of the episode, when one of the corpsicle disappeared from the ice rink? Did he walk away, naked and having been frozen all that time? Or did someone remove the body?
No. They assumed he was hidden in the lump of ice and bodies. He was never in there. Now he’s the prime suspect.
I just watched episode 3 and for my money this is the best season since season 1.
It’s also my guess that there’s something alien or supernatural between the mysterious lab and the mine.
I’m guessing the supernatural stuff is just something in the water. The station’s research was getting screwed up by the mine contamination and they had the evidence to shut it down. That’s why they were all killed.
I mean, I think all doubt about whether or not the supernatural is involved was removed when the scientist-sicle sat up in his hospital bed and channeled…some thing…that started talking to Navarro in that creepy-ass, gutteral voice before dropping dead. “Your mother says hello”. At least he didn’t say “your mother s___s c___s in hell”. A slightly more polite demon than the Exorcist version?
It’s probably not something supernatural, but it’s damn close!
I hear ya. That’s the most compelling thing so far for supernatural - amongst a lot of things. I think the orange coming back is also compelling.
With that said, only Navarro experienced that - Danvers left. Navarro presumably drinks the water - figuratively and literally - she has a family history of crazy and she probably literally drinks the contaminated water. (As a control) You’d need someone who didn’t drink the water and see if they also saw the same thing. Something to keep in mind as I don’t think it’s definitive with only Navarro presenting us that info/scene.
It would be interesting to know all the frames of reference for the supernatural stuff. Has more than one person experienced the same thing - any shared experiences?
Also, great season. After this episode, I agree there is a “keep something quiet” aspect re: the mine and the lab finding something out about the mine.
That’s true, I hadn’t accounted for possible hallucinations on Navarro’s part. Still and all, the show does seem to be leaning in hard to a supernatural angle, with the ‘she’s awake’ stuff and the weird mystery of the naked guys frozen into the ice. It may end up being something science-fictiony rather than the pure supernatural, but I don’t see how the writers can maneuver the plot to everything having a perfectly natural explanation without some plot device hoops to jump. We’ll see…
I’m going to try and answer my own question. To be clear, I was thinking of two people experiencing the same event at the same time - I can’t think of any. However, two come are in the ballpark (and a third for good measure):
-
The caribou scene. All the caribou experience the same thing. They are not people, and we don’t know what they experienced, but they all were frightened to death as the sun was setting for the long night. There was a human hunter who watched it all go down, but again, nothing supernatural shown and his shocked reaction appears to be watching all these caribou inexplicably run off the cliff.
-
The one-eyed polar bear. Both Navarro and Danvers experience it. Danvers experiences it in dream/flashback. I believe it was her son’s toy bear in real life. So, not supernatural. But also, Navarro sees a “real” one cross the town’s street. Not sure if a real polar bear with one eye is supernatural thing or not in the Artic, though. But they did both experience it, just not at the same time.
(3) A dead person leading a real local woman to the real corpcicle bodies. This is not what I was thinking, but it’s at least supernatural interacting/knowing real stuff. Maybe that lady could have known on her own, but haven’t see anything to indicate that.
Any others? If this is it, then it’s actually not much there, outside of one person experiencing it situations. The last is actually the most compelling since it involves the supernatural with real life information she likely couldn’t have known about.