Team Delusional, Bethyl, TWD

Full disclosure, I haven’t watched Dead City 3x1, because AMC hates international fans and will provide no legal way for us to watch it. Not that that has stopped me in the past, piracy do exist after all. But sadly I’ve neglected my pirate relations over the last hiatus and until I manage to establish new friendships on the high seas I won’t be able to watch the episodes. Wish me luck on my new maritime endeavors.

That said, I’m not going to refrain from overanalyzing every little piece of new content I can get my hands on just because some evil capitalist has decided that international fans are less important. So this is me, going in blindly. Could be something. Could be nothing. No way to know until we know. And yes, I will be making some outlandishly vague connections here and call them “evidence”. Sue me, or put your tinfoil hats on and join me in my delusion. But keep that in mind as you’re reading this post, I literally don’t know what I’m talking about because I haven’t watched the episode yet.

Anyway. Upon the release of the new season of TWD Dead City we’ve been treated to a number of promo shots and behind the scenes footage, and what specifically caught my attention was the portrait on the wall in a future bar scene from episode 3x6 Genesis, which happens to be the episode where we will see Beth in some alternate universe scenario.

The portrait is a replica of Mademoiselle Suzanne Poirson by John Singer Sargent.

Hear me out. This is a very tin foil hat type of post, so I’m going all in and will absolutely read into the fact that the painters name is Singer, in an episode where a temporarily resurrected Beth will make an appearance. Beth, who famously was a singer and a songbird.

But there’s more.

John Singer Sargent’s most famous painting by far is the notoriously scandalous Portrait of Madame X, and it was scandalous because the lady, Madame X, was originally painted with one shoulder strap coming off of her shoulder.

Apparently, that was enough to cause significant controversy in its time, so he later revised it and made sure the lady’s shoulders were sufficiently covered by her shoulder straps:

THAT peeked my interest, for a couple of reasons. A painter with the middle name Singer, in an episode with a "resurrected" singer. A painter whose most famous work is called Madame X, in a show that’s rampant with symbolism surrounding X’es, particularly as it pertains to TD.

Because in all of our years of tracking TD symbolism, the X symbolism comes up regularly. I’ve written many posts on it in the past, and so have others, go read some of those (for example this one) for more background.

Long story short, an “X” is synonymous with a cross, which is universally known as a symbol of resurrection. We saw a Greek cross on the rear window of the Grady cars, we’ve seen X as scars, we've seen this type of symbolism time and again.

It’s a resurrection symbol.

As far as TD symbolism goes, Beth IS our Madame X. So I’m not gonna lie, the Portrait of Suzanne Poirson on the wall in (future) episode 3x6 Genesis, by the painter who is considerably more known for his Portrait of Madame X, earned a solid side eye from me👀

Add to that, there is the fact that in 3x1 Trillium (which again, I have not watched, my observations are exclusively from screenshots and promo material) we see Maggie and Negan in a bar, with an abundance of Beth symbolism covering every inch of the wall:

The shark (seen in TWD 5x9 WHAWGO, the last episode where we saw Beth, if you don’t count that time we saw her in Rick’s fever dream right before he got abducted by Jadis and the CRM).

The deer. Many have written on deer symbolism in the past.

The beer! I’ve written a lot of posts on beer/alcohol/ethanol symbolism, check out for example this one or this one for more on that).

And then there’s this peculiar sign saying “soft shoulders”… which I guess is originally a road sign? But why does it get such a prominent placement in the first episode of the season?

Everything in TWDU that gets showcased like that means something. If a yellow sign (read more on yellow symbolism here) with the words “soft shoulders” is placed smack dab in the middle of our line of vision in a scene, it is because someone (tptb) wants someone (us) to take notice, and then proceed to shamelessly overanalyze it while wearing TD colored glasses.

Well, mission accepted! I hereby present my hypothesis, cooked up under the warmth of a tight silvery tin foil hat, based on nothing but screenshots, determination and wild imagination:

The “soft shoulders” sign (in 3x1) is foreshadowing the future appearance of John Singer Sargent’s Portrait of Suzanne Poirson (in 3x6), which in turn is a convoluted reference to the far more famous work Portrait of Madame X, by the same artist, whose middle name is Singer, foreshadowing the “resurrection” of Beth the songbird, in an episode where she is literally resurrected, albeit in a type of alternate universe setting we don’t know the details of yet.

The convoluted Madame X reference ties beautifully into the established context of the numerous other instances of X related symbolism (which in reality is resurrection symbolism) we’ve seen over the years, which many of us has written extensively about.

And yes, here it comes! My piece de resistance! The fact that John Singer Sargent first painted Madame X with bare, exposed shoulders only to later have to revise his painting and paint her shoulder fully covered by the shoulder strap, could absolutely be a brilliant reference to our own Madame X, Beth, in 4x1…

That infamous hug! The birth of our ship! The magical intimate choreography of this cursed scene that has us all in such a chokehold…

...bare shoulders…

…no that’s positively scandalous, let’s cover up some of that skin…

Am I reaching?

This is Beth from the opening minutes of 4x12 Still, admiring a ladybug. She also famously had a ladybug very prominently displayed in her cell, here seen in 4x1 Days Without Accident:

One of the most rewarding things about this little corner of the fandom is that even years after a scene has aired, and subsequently been analyzed to death by literally everyone, someone suddenly sees it with a fresh set of fresh eyes, it sparks new ideas, and we get new interesting insight!

I came across this post by @atrumreginablue earlier today, where we learned that a common genus of ladybugs in the US is called Hippodamia, and it absolutely blew my mind! As someone who normally investigates the etymology of most things in TWDU, I had completely overlooked this aspect of the ladybug symbolism:

It added a much needed piece of the puzzle, because look what “Hippodamia” literally translates to:

“She who masters horses”…👀

I’ve talked about the horse symbolism and how it relates to Beth in many posts, and it came up again recently because of the water thermos with the image of a hippo that we saw in Daryl Dixon:

Long story short, the “hippo” symbolism is synonymous with “horse” symbolism, because “hippo” literally means “horse”:

In my post about the baptism symbolism of DD 3x6, I explained how the hippo was a callback to the scene from TWD 5x10 Them, where Maggie opened the trunk of a car specifically with a key attached to a yellow seahorse keychain:

(read more on the "yellow" symbolism here).

Remember, the “hippo” in hippopotamus means “horse”, and “hippopotamus” means “river horse” or “water horse”… a seahorse is literally a "water horse"… and in this case it was the KEY to opening the trunk where the Beth-walker was hidden:

The Beth-walker in the trunk was a representation of what Maggie and TF believed happened to Beth (she died) while the scene from 4x12 Stll was the actual representation (and foreshadowing) of what happened (she survived).

And it is the horse symbolism that made sure she could survive. The seahorse keychain is the KEY to understanding the symbolism; horse symbolism represent resurrection.

On a surface level, horses in TWDU are known to die gruesome deaths, pretty much immediately after having been introduced, often by the end of the episode if not sooner. That’s a distraction, because horse scenes are always laden with resurrection symbolism. Sometimes TPTB quite literally spell it out, like in TWD 6x16 Last Day on Earth when Morgan randomly finds a horse next to a sign that reads "you are alive":

Back in 2x1 What Lies Ahead we saw a yellow Ford Mustang:

This episode was all about Sophia going missing, and the yellow Ford Mustang became a symbol of the hope of finding her, illustrated by how they placed survival items on it in case she returned. And if it's it’s not clear, the Ford Mustang car is named after a type of horse, a mustang, which is what makes it synonymous with horse symbolism:

Pay special attention to the license plate of the yellow Ford Mustang; LC6-M187:

…because when we saw Carol in DD 1x6 (which I talked about here) it was in a blue Ford Mustang:

…and the license plate, 502AV2A, was a reference to TWD 5X2, in which Carol and Daryl followed a Grady car into Atlanta, something which eventually led them to Beth.

And the car they drove into Atlanta had a familiar license plate:

That’s right, LC6-M187 again. Same as the license plate on the yellow Ford Mustang from TWD 2x1.

So, if Mustangs, via the horse symbolism, represent resurrection, then why did Sophia die? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to have her “resurrect”?

No, because the resurrection symbolism wasn’t about Sophia, it was about someone else…

We actually had Daryl explain it to us in 2x4 Cherokee Rose, when he and Carol discussed the Cherokee rose, which is another potent symbol of resurrection (read more here):

Daryl didn't think any of the resurrection symbolism they encountered applied to anyone other than Sophia. He was wrong, because the resurrection symbolism of the Cherokee rose (and in the subtext; the yellow Ford Mustang) was about Merle:

Merle “resurrected” in season 3, and eventually died heroically, after having fulfilled his death and resurrection arc. In his last moments on this earth he was seen driving this Chevy Caprice with a familiar license plate:

Yup, there it is again, the LC6-M187. Same as the one on the yellow Ford Mustang from 2x1. This ties Merle to the resurrection symbolism of the “horse” symbol. Read more on the LC6-M187 licence plate here.

Much later, in FTWD, we saw the protective properties of the horse symbolism on display when Madison was shot point blank, IN A FORD MUSTANG, but survived due to the St. Christopher medallion in her pocket.

Read more about Madison and the Mustang of resurrection here.

What about Buttons the Horse you might say. He died tragically from multiple walker bites, how does that symbolize resurrection?

Because of all the weird stuff TPTB decided to include, purely to hint at resurrection symbolism. I’ve written about this in more detail elsewhere, but the gist of it is this:

Randomly, Aaron tripped over a walker stuck under a dead, decomposing ram.

The ram was a convoluted reference to Officer Lichari’s Dodge Magnum, which was the car Daryl and Carol followed into Atlanta in 5x2, and the car I tend to favor as the actual car they put Beth in after 5x8 Coda. The logo of Dodge cars is a Ram, an TPTB made sure we got a real close look at it:

So yes, Buttons the Horse died, but his death served as a vehicle for the resurrection symbolism of the Dodge Magnum that potentially is the car Beth survived/resurrected in.

This striking imagery from DD 3x7 Solaz Del Mar may or may not be a significant ethanol reference. Or rather, it is definitely an ethanol reference, but I don’t know whether it’s important to the story, or if TPTB just thought it looked cool on camera (which it certainly does) and decided to include it for cinematic reasons. My gut tells me it’s significant though, and here’s why:

Anyone who’s been a tourist in Spain may recognize it as the Toro de Osborne, or the Osborne Bull, originally an advertisement for Brandy de Jerez of the Osborne brand. Over time it has become something of a cultural icon of Spain. These silhouetted bulls are placed near major roads in much of the country and many have become beloved tourists attractions.

I’ve written many posts on the significance of ethanol/alcohol, and the ways in which Beth is right in the center of it, see for instance here, here, here, here, here and here. Because we all remember how Beth made it a priority to get drunk:

On a symbolical level, that's what saved her life. This in contrast to poor Denise, who in 6x14 Twice as Far turned down a drink...

...and got shot through the eye almost immediately after:

My theory on the ethanol/alcohol is that it acts a metaphor for a cure in TWDU, as established in FTWD 4x16 I Lose Myself:

On a societal level, it represents the revival of civilization, while on an individual level, for characters such as Beth, it represents rebirth/resurrection, which is the reason we constantly see alcohol/ethanol references around her.

We saw how TPTB likes to group symbols together to indicate a correlation earlier in the season when the men from El Alcazar delivered a crate full of medicine (probably antibiotics) and alcohol to Fede on Solaz del Mar:

This is something we've seen time and again across TWDU, such as in FTWD 6x3 Alaska:

(Spoilers below)

If this had been a TikTok, I would have used the "I was right, I was right" sound.

Guys, this is what I’ve been talking about in all those posts about Morgan and his pilgrimage that I’ve been putting out these past couple of years. Go read them here, here, here, here and here for the theoretical foundation. But to make a long story short, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, or the Way of St. James in English, was foreshadowed as far back as in season 3 when we saw the words "Green Route" written on Morgan's wall in "Clear":

And later, we saw a literal green route on the Terminus map:

I first picked up on these things after 5x8 Coda, when we saw Morgan introducing pilgrimage themes and aesthetics in the coda directly after Beth had been shot.

Back then, I thought the connection would be purely a symbolical one, mainly because I couldn’t fathom the absurdity of TWDU one day actually physically moving to Europe and LITERALLY the road to Santiago de Compostela. I was knee deep into research about the Sirius symbolism and the North Star symbolism, which is concerned with the stars of the night sky and the symbolism that surrounds them. I discovered that TPTB gave Beth and Daryl a one-eyed dog in 4x13 Alone, as a nod to Sirius the Dog Star, described as a "heavenly beast with a star in its eye" in the Robert Frost poem "one More Brevity", establishing dogs and one-eyed characters as Sirius symbolism within TWDU:

“Compostela” means “field of stars”, and refers to the Milky Way, under which the pilgrims would have traveled on their pilgrimage towards their final destination Santiago de Compostela…

…and now we have arrived:

Not only that, but we have a one-eyed Sirius character on a pilgrimage:

Codron is seen here as a parallel to Morgan. A pilgrim on a pilgrimage, his face first hidden, he then reveals his identity, much like Morgan in the coda after 5x1 No Sanctuary. Like Morgan, he “returns” after having been “gone” for some time. They’re also both carrying a pilgrim’s staff and a backpack.

Codron has an eye patch covering one eye, Morgan has some weird mask-goggle combo, either way it’s a reference to Sirius the Dog Star, the “heavenly beast with a star in its eye”, as well as Beth's comment from 4x12 Still:

"My dad always said bad moonshine can make you go blind"

Cordon happen upon the statue of St. James (Santiago) and finds something Daryl left behind, namely Laurent’s Rubik’s cube. Morgan, back in 5x1, came across the sign that Rick had blanked out, the one that used to say “Sanctuary For All”, before Rick corrected it to “No Sanctuary”. This foreshadowed the two of them meeting up later:

We currently don’t know much about Codron’s journey. We don’t know his intentions, his state of mind, where he has been, where he’s going, or why. But we do know that the area he's in is called “Green Spain”...

...and we do know that the Northern Way of the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela goes from San Sebastián through a series of cities along the coast, such as Bilbao:

We do know for a fact that Daryl and Codron at one point in season 4 will be in Bilbao because we have spoiler pics from the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao:

We also know that Daryl physically pointed out this area with his finger back in 1x1 L'ame Perdue:

Also, keep in mind that the symbol of the Way of St.James is a scallop shell, we saw Codron pass one as he approached the St. James statue. I've recently written about how the scallop shell ties into the Venus symbolism, read more here. In my recent posts I've focused primarily on the baptism aspect of the Venus symbolism, but don't forget that Venus, like Sirius, is known as a "morning star" (even if it is a planet), so when we see Codron the Sirius character pass the scallopshell, that is some intricate symbolical overlap.

But most interestingly, all of this brings us back to what happened directly after Beth had been shot in 5x8 Coda.

More baptism and water symbolism from 3x5 Limbo

Full disclosure: I honestly don’t know how to articulate this in any sort of meaningful, coherent way, but I’ll try nonetheless. There’s something in TWDU that I call the inverted symbolism, and it does involve Beth. I have written about it in the past (like here and here), though I will say I don’t feel like I have it completely nailed down just yet. This is a compilation of the most significant instances of inverted symbolism, I’ll have to do a more thorough analysis later.

Did anyone else notice that the painting of the three birds got flipped upside down right before Daryl killed the water-bandido?

We first see it earlier in the episode, its orientation seems normal. It seems to depict three birds against a backdrop that can be the sky reflecting over water, or maybe it’s just the sky. If you start looking at it you’ll find that it’s kind of up for interpretation what it is we’re looking at, and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that was the intention. It is like you think you're looking at birds flying over water from above, but it could also be you're looking up at them, from below.

Later in the episode, right after Daryl has broken into the train car, we see it again, only this time it’s flipped. Or inverted, rather. And now it gets perforated with bullet holes, no less. That earns a side eye from me.

I kept staring at it for a while trying to determine if it was one painting or two separate paintings, because there are other ones there in a similar style, like the ones seen below, but to me it really seems like it’s the same, and TPTB just flipped it over, maybe hoping a few selected superfan-nerds like us would notice.

And it’s not the first time we’ve had inverted symbolism show up in important scenes. Let’s investigate the origin of this particular type of symbolism, starting all the way back in TWD 1x1 Days Gone Bye:

This is the car that Rick and Shane were chasing, where the unknown third shooter suddenly emerged from the inverted car and shot Rick. This marked the starting point for Rick’s journey into what I always call the liminal space between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living (read more here), but after DD 3X5 Limbo, it seems fitting to call it just that. Limbo.

Take note of the license plate on Rick’s overturned car. In its inverted state, it points us directly to episode 5x8 Coda, where it was Beth’s turn to disappear into the liminal space between the realms, into limbo, and she’s still there to this day.

In 5x4 Slabtown, we saw Beth and Dr. Edward’s have a conversation about St. Peter:

One interesting thing about that is that he was said to have been crucified upside down, on an inverted cross, which has come to be known as Cross of St. Peter. And another really interesting thing about that, is that the upside down cross has been adopted by anti-Christian groups/satanists, and while I didn't directly elaborate on it, I did speak about the duality of Christ and the Devil, and how they both have been called Lucifer/Lightbringer, read more here.

In my post yesterday I talked about the water symbolism of 3x5 Limbo, and how water symbolism is seen so much around Beth because it ties into baptism symbolism. Baptism means “death of the old self, resurrection as a follower of Christ”. I talked about how the hippo on the thermos bottle is synonymous with the seahorse keychain from 5x10, because hippo literally means water horse. We first saw a hippo in 5x11.

We also saw a horse lead the walkers that were pulling the train that carried the stolen water forward. In other words, a water horse of sorts. The hippo/seahorse symbolism is about resurrection, because TPTB shoved us in 5x10 Them that the seahorse keychain held the KEY to opening the trunk (“tomb”), allowing for resurrection to happen.

Daryl himself had a baptism of sorts when he first washed up on European shores, after having arrived on top of an inverted boat:

The interesting part of this, which I may elaborate on in a future post, is that in the opening minutes of Daryl Dixon 1x1 L’aime Perdue, our initial point of view was actually from below the water's surface:

It’s like WE were actually watching the boat in its normal orientation, from our point of view, which would be inverted in relation to Daryl’s point of view. It was almost like TPTB were teasing an inversion, where Daryl was actually underneath the boat, suggesting that Daryl is in that liminal space between the realms/limbo as well. While of course from Daryl’s point of view, he was laying on top of the overturned/inverted boat:

I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m getting “as above, so below” vibes.

Anyway, he splashes on to the beach, getting properly baptized in Mediterranean sea foam, much like Venus in the painting “The Birth of Venus”, which we had seen, in an inverted state, back in season three:

According to google’s AI assistant, “The Birth of Venus by Botticelli uses symbolism to suggest a thematic connection to Christian baptism, with Venus emerging from the sea in a manner analogous to Christ's birth from the water, representing the soul's rebirth”

“Venus as Christ: The central figure of Venus, emerging naked from the water on a shell, is often interpreted as a parallel to Christ's birth and baptism”.

And I wouldn't be me if I didn't once again remind everyone of how the Venus symbolism ties into the Sirius symbolism in that they're both described as "morning stars":

So in an episode like 3x5, with the excessive amounts of water/baptism symbolism, how should we interpret the sudden inversion of the painting of the three birds flying over water?

I think it’s notable that what was seemingly the “correct” orientation to begin with, represented an unfortunate, unfair reality where water was stolen from the ill. We saw Mr. Water-Bandido, whose real name escapes me, indulge in a luxurious bath while the people he stole the water from were suffering. And it’s fitting and probably intentional that his death by drowning in the tub represented an inverted baptism. No rebirth. No resurrection.

I’m still sick with the flu and I don’t have it in me to articulate full sentences so this will be picture heavy. But what we got in 3x5 Limbo was the story of how things went down after Coda, because 3x5 Limbo was basically a retelling of 5x10 Them.

Very notably in the episode was Daryl connecting with a little girl named Rosa over a thermos bottle of water, with a illustration of a hippo on it:

It was a recurring theme throughout the episode. CLEARLY highly symbolical, and I immediately knew what it was in reference to, because we’ve researched hippos before on the show. I’ll get to that part, but first, remember this?

4x12 Still. It foreshadowed how Beth would be placed in a car after Coda. We’ve long theorized that TF meant to return for her, but took too long or for some reason was prevented from doing so.

Remember this?

This was the "Beth-walker" from 5x10 Them, a callback to something we didn’t see but are told (through parallels, retellings and symbolism) happened after Coda.

Remember this? This is the yellow seahorse keychain with the literal KEY that opened the trunk that was the "tomb" of the Beth-walker. It's a KEY to "resurrection" in that it opens a "tomb" (think Christ's rolling stone). Keep this in mind, I’ll return to it shortly.

Back in 5x12 Them, TF were absolutely parched and desperately searching for water. Water was crucial to their survival. We saw that again in Limbo:

They came across some cars, and Maggie wanted to search the trunk. She grabbed the keys, with the yellow seahorse keychain, and opened the trunk:

No water, just a walker, that we know was meant to represent Beth. But note that it’s in fact not actually Beth. The walker represents what Maggie believes happened to Beth, not what actually happened to Beth. The Beth-walker was left there to die, like Maggie believes they inadvertently did to Beth. A callback to what we believe happened after Coda, when Beth was left inside the trunk of a car. This was referenced in Limbo through this scene:

The reason I know that the hippo thermos containing water was meant to represent the seahorse keychain was that back in 5x11, the episode after 5x10 Them, we saw this:

I won’t go into all of the symbolism from 5x11, but we saw the music box, along with a bunch of other symbols that are all heavily Beth coded, such as jars of applesauce, jars of honey, one of the jars has Fido on it which is a common dog name and therefore potentially Sirius symbolism.

But most importantly in this context, we saw a hippopotamus and the music box.

The symbolism around the music box its pretty self explanatory I should believe; it was dead, and then it resurrected (after Daryl fixed it). And allow me to point out that it is a box, you could almost say a little trunk (wink wink 😉).

The symbolism around the hippo remained mysterious for a while, until I thought to check the etymology of the word hippopotamus, and of course it proved insightful, it always does:

Because what do you know, hippopotamus actually means river horse or even WATER horse. And what screams “water horse” more than… a seahorse? Could you even get a more “watery” horse? I'd like to know how!

The seahorse keychain from 5x10 was brought back as synonymous symbolism in 5x11, a seahorse had turned into a hippopotamus. And this is how I knew that the hippo on the water thermos in 3x5 Limbo was a callback to the yellow seahorse keychain from 5x10 Them. It even had the same yellow color on the strap:

A hippo ("water horse") thermos bottle with water (rebirth/resurrection symbolism, and a seahorse (seahorse = water horse) keychain with the literal KEY that opens the trunk ("open the trunk" = resurrection symbolism as foreshadowed in 4x12 Still).

Much like 5x10 Them, episode 3x5 Limbo is entirely about water. As @wdway always says; “Beth = water”. We’ve always seen a lot of water symbolism around Beth, and here’s why: water represents baptism.

As a cursed heathen myself, I didn’t immediately understand the significance of baptism symbolism, but @wdway explained it to me. It’s about death of the old self and the resurrection and new life as a follower of Christ. Or in the words of google’s AI assistant:

Also, TPTB were kind enough to spell it out it this scene from 2x1, when the group was stuck on the highway, and desperately needed water. Shane conveniently stumbled across a water truck:

“It’s like being baptized man!”

That’s rebirth/resurrection symbolism, and please note that the life-giving water that represents rebirth/resurrection was hidden in the back of a truck. If you’ve read anything I’ve written over the past few years, you’ll know why that’s significant. The back of trucks, trunks, the backseat of cars… or motorcycles...

… or trainCARS…

...because the watertank was attatched to the BACK of the trainCAR, which moved forward only because of a ....water horse...???

...because yes, of course, there's another "water horse" in the episode:

The train with the water tank is in fact being pulled by walkers motivated by the sound of a singing gentleman on horseback. It might not directly be a sea horse, but it sure as hell is a "water horse" of sorts...

And the water, which they so desperately needed back in 5x10, is now found in 3x5 Limbo, seen here flowing out of the water tank in a parallel to the rain from 5x10 Them:

Another clever parallel with 5x10 was the obligatory hot dog mention, which we know is a Sirius reference (they even including talk about "returning" in the dialogue):

Because of course we had a "hot dog moment" back in 5x10 as well:

(Teeny tiny spoiler for DD 3x5 Limbo)

I’ll have more to say about 3x5 Limbo tomorrow, but for now please enjoy this little visual parallel of men propped up against tires of vehicles while processing the loss of loved ones :

A possible explanation to the California references?

In DD 3x4 they drew attention to California, when Cooper expressed a wish to return home. He mentioned banana slugs, which I had no idea how to interpret, and later @galadrieljones and @bookqueenrules offered interesting angles which I’d love to hear more about at some point (a banana slug is the mascot of the university of UC Santa Cruz, and also bananas apparently are grown on the Canary Islands). But the talk about California reminded me of a half finished theory from season 10 I keep in my notes, and I decided to revisit it.

It is actually not the first time we’ve heard anecdotes about California on the show, back in 10x8 we saw Aaron tell Gracie a story about hiking to some Native American ruins near the city of Eureka, California:

...and I concocted a little theory on what these California references could mean. I never posted it, but it’s time to dig up my old notes.

So, back in 10x8, Aaron name-dropped Eureka, which comes from Greek and means “I have found it”. I have a few theories on this. The town of Eureka, California has “Eureka” on the city’s flag:

Additionally, the flag of the town of Eureka is the same as the seal of the state of California, so it seems like there’s symbolism here TPTB wants us to be aware of.

And lastly, the state flag of California has a star and a bear, both of which feature prominently in most of my theories.

“Bears” are in my opinion references to the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, meaning Lesser Bear and Greater Bear. These constellations in large parts overlap what’s also commonly known as the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and the North Star (Polaris) exists within this context. I have for many years theorized that this is tied to Beth through the DC spoon (because it is literally a "little dipper"), and I’ve written a bunch of posts on these subjects, for exemple here and here.

I do believe that’s at least one of the reasons TPTB keep serving up these California references. Plus, the “eureka” (“I have found it”) ties into themes of something or someone being “lost”, then finding their way "home":

You find both the bear imagery as well as the word “eureka” on the state flags and the city flag/city seal of Eureka.

Eureka is also the state motto of California. So it seems important.

I could also read into the fact that Eureka calls itself "The Heart of the Redwoods" (Read about "red" symbolism here and here, read about "wood" adjacent symbolism here and here).

It’s also significant that the conversation between Aaron and Gracie took place beneath a collection of license plates. I think I’ll leave the analysis of these particular license plates for another day, but I’ve written extensively on license plates in the past (like here, here, here and here and here).

And then of course there’s this, which proves that licence plates and state flags are important:

This is from 5x16, its an Alaska licence plate, and that's the Alaska state flag there, with the Big Dipper (which is a part of Ursa Major/Greater Bear) and Polaris/North Star.

Then there's the part of the seal that depicts Roman goddess Minerva:

Minerva comes up in TWD symbolism analysis ever so often, for example back in season 5, when Jessie had an owl tattoo and was building an owl sculpture. Owls are associated with Minerva, thought to be bearers of wisdom.

I’m sick with the flu so instead of finishing the heron post I’m working on, I thought I’d share a small observation.

We see here Daryl and gentleman whose name I believe was Cooper(?), practicing their knot-tying skills. First, let’s appreciate how “tying the knot” is a metaphor for getting married. I’m not saying that Daryl and Cooper were destined to get married before Cooper unfortunately died tragically, I’m just saying that TPTB sprinkled the scene with marriage-coded symbolism. Cooper tells a story about a rabbit and a tree trunk to illustrate how the knot is meant to be tied. We know from before that rabbit symbolism is directly tied to Beth through the dialogue from 4x15 Us, where Len Claimer referred to her as “a piece of tail” while they were arguing over a cottontail (a rabbit).

It is also worth noting that the word "Coda" (as in 5x8 Coda when Beth was shot) comes from Latin and means "tail".

Read more here and here.

Meanwhile, all of this is happening while they’re trying to fix a boat that’s called “Knot Alone”, a possible reference to 4x13 Alone, as well as to knots, which we now just have seen associated with rabbits through Cooper's educational story.

I find all of these things incredibly interesting for many reasons, but maybe most of all because of how a blue boat (named Heart of Blue) was instrumental in helping Michonne find out that Rick was alive back in 10x13 What We Become.

I discussed that in more detail in this post, and also here.

(A tiny, yet perfectly sized spoiler for Daryl Dixon 3x4 La Fronteria Justizia)

So, back in season 2 of Daryl Dixon we watched Daryl sing the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want “, and I wrote this post, because we had already seen Beth on the cover of a fictional Rolling Stone Magazine:

Long story short, the “rolling stone” was a reference to the bible verse Luke 24:2-7 which described the empty tomb of Christ, with the stone rolled away:

In other words, a literal rolling stone.

It’s resurrection symbolism and it is suspicious for TD because of the Rolling Stone Magazine cover featuring Beth which ties Beth directly to the resurrection symbolism, as well as to the symbolism around Daryl singing a Rolling Stones song.

Now, the Rolling Stone(s) references are back! In Daryl Dixon 3x4, Carol jokingly calls Daryl "Sticky Fingers Dixon", referring to him having stolen Antonio’s tools (he means to return them before they leave apparently). Sticky Fingers is slang for "thief”, but it's also an album by The Rolling Stones, with an absolutely glorious album cover which I've included above, you're welcome.

...or "the end is the beginning" at the end of the world

Again, we had an episode which on the surface was mostly concerned with driving the plot forward. Daryl and Roberto were eager to get the boat fixed, and went out in search for parts such as a new rudder. But like last episode, there was an entire underworld of intricate symbolism right below the surface, and personally I'm thrilled because this is symbolism I've written extensively about in the past.

We finally had a reference to St. James and the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, which I’ve anticipated since last year. We still don’t know how this will play out, but for TD it is important to remember that the first references to this storyline happened as far back as season 3, and that the coda after 5x8 Coda foreshadowed it.

Believe it or not, this is a reference to 5x8 Coda:

Roberto called it “the ass of the world”. What a weird thing to say, you might think to yourself, until you remember that it’s likely symbolism. I’ve talked about the “ass” symbolism in a few posts, but basically it’s a roundabout way of referring to 5x8 Coda. The word “coda” comes from Latin and translates to “tail”.

Beth was once referred to as “a piece of tail” (in 4x15 Us), and in the same episode it was established that “the ass end is still an end” when Joe Claimer cut a rabbit (cottonTAIL) in two and gave Daryl the “ass end”, meaning the end with the tail, a metaphor for "coda" which again means tail (read more here). "The ass end" is a metaphor for "the tail end". "Tail" is a reference to "coda".

This part of the Costa da Morte/Coast of the Dead is called Finesterre in real life, literally meaning "the end of the world". This is supposedly where St. James’ dead body was brought ashore before he was buried under the Field of Stars (the Milky Way) at the site that would later develop into world famous pilgrimage site Santiago de Compostela. Norman posted many pics from here back when they were filming, and I wrote this post

I am confident that we'll hear more about Santiago de Compostela in future episodes and seasons. I've written a bunch of posts on why, here are the two most significant ones X and X)

Roberto explains that pilgrims walk this trail in "search of something". They "leave things for loved ones".

Daryl asks "like what?".

Roberto suggests peace. "Or hope":

(read more on hope symbolism and how it relates to alcohol/ethanol/a cure here)

Daryl leaves Laurent's Rubik's cube, hoping that they will see each other again:

(Also note the scallop shells displayed here, they're important)

With that in mind, think back to the coda after 5x8 Coda. What did we see?

We saw Morgan in his pilgrim era:

...seen her channeling his inner St. Christopher.

He "leaves things" (a rabbit's foot, a packet of goo-goo clusters and a bullet), searching for peace and hope...

They also referenced 5x8 Coda in La sacrificia in another subtle way. See the bullet next to the rabbit's foot (disregard the red arrow)?

Think about the anatomy of a bullet for a second:

The shell casing holds the gunpowder, and gets left behind after the shot has been fired. Surely the symbolism of that is self explanatory. Morgan left a bullet on the altar, and it was quite literally one of the first things to happen after we had seen Beth get shot in 5x8 Coda. They managed to squeeze in a reference to gunpowder in El Sacrificio:

Remember this lady lived in a lighthouse at the place where St. James' dead body was brought ashore. Do you know what his symbol is?

A scallop shell:

(Also note the bag with PPP written on it👀)

Now think back to Morgan's display of "things" at the alter in 5x8 Coda, including the rabbit's foot and the bullet (with the shell casing, which typically gets left behind after the shot has been fired...

Pilgrims typically leave behind their worn out hiking boots along the pilgrimage towards Santiago de Compostela..

Finally, a few words on the significance of ethanol/alcohol. It has been used as a metaphor for a cure since at least 4x4 Indifference, and I've written about it in many posts (x and x for starters) so I'll just refer to those.

Valentina made sure to throw ethanol into the negotiations, which is important because she's pretty much the guardian of the place that brought St. James to Spanish shores, which turned the region into a site for pilgrimage. In TWDU, alcohol/ethanol is used as a metaphor for a cure, but on a symbolical level it represents resurrection. Resurrection of individual characters, such as Beth and Rick, but also of human kind in general, through a cure.

At first glance, episode 3x2 La Ofrenda focused mainly on the story. However, the symbolism was lurking right underneath the surface.

As I’ve explained in many posts, TPTB use Sirius symbolism as a metaphor for death and resurrection, inspired by Sirius the Dog Star, the brightest star on the night sky that disappears for a while, only to reappear on the night sky one morning right before dawn. TPTB likes to tell this story through a bunch of synonymous symbols. Dogs are Sirius symbolism because of the reference to Sirius the Dog Star. Fire is Sirius symbolism because Sirius means “glowing, scorching”. The one eyed characters and creatures are references to the Sirius symbolism through the events from 4x13 Alone, where Beth and Daryl were visited by a one-eyed dog at the funeral home.

This, in turn was a retelling of Robert Frost’s poem “One More Brevity”, in which Sirius is described as a “heavenly beast with a star in its eye”. The bottles of Frosty Cola in the episode are references to Robert Frost. Also note the jars of pig’s feet:

Right off the bat, we understand that the episode will be heavy on the Sirius symbolism:

A one-eyed paper mache head, with a star (an x) in its eye. Textbook Sirius symbolism. Later we see the head consumed by fire (scorching, glowing), making the Sirius symbolism come full circle:

As we’re watching the heads burn, we hear Fede explain that “it’s a ritual of renewal. Hoping to be reborn”. That’s TPTB confirming that the Sirius symbolism, the one-eyed characters and the fire symbolism really is about death and resurrection.

Then there there’s the fact that the girl who was chosen to go to Alcazar was named Alba. I always check the etymology of everything, and it never disappoints. Alba means “dawn” or “sunrise” in Spanish and Italian:

Obviously, they gave the character the name Alba so that there would be a reference to dawn/sunrise there, since everything really was just one big retelling of the Sirius symbolism.

So again, on a surface level we’re getting a pigs race, but the subtext is all about Sirius symbolism. Then there’s the fact that the ribbons were blue, like the blue dog collar we saw in 5x10 Them, the episode where they ate dogs and the music box came back to life at dawn/sunrise (yes, it resurrected).

What about the pigs as symbols, how do they tie into everything? In the episode insider, they went out of their way to relay that pigs aren’t typically very trainable animals. So why did they insist on using pigs for the scene, why not some animal that takes instructions better? Because symbolism.

Again, this is something I’ve talked about in many posts but the short of it is that “pig” is a derogatory term for police officer, and it has been used in that way in TWDU (for instance in TWD World Beyond). First and foremost, pig symbolism refers to Rick’s death and resurrection arc, because he is the original Sirius character. But Beth is the new sheriff in town, remember? I dare say that’s the only reason they gave her that moment in that little flashback in 5x16, where Rick placed the sheriff’s hat on her head and crowned her the new sheriff in town. She’s a “police officer” of sorts, at least from a symbolism standpoint, and is therefore affected by (and protected by) the “pig” symbolism. Also, remember the pig’s feet from Alone.

Then of course, there’s this:

The Sirius piggyback, in which TPTB were spoon feeding us the symbolism. “Sirius”, as in the star that disappears and then returns. Death and resurrection. “Piggy”, as in Rick, the police officer's death and resurrection arc, which is the premise of the entire series. And Beth, as the “new sheriff in town” is, like Rick, a Sirius character with her own death and resurrection arc. “Back” as in “return”, meaning returning to the realm of the living after having been “dead” for quite some time. But also literally, Beth is clinging to Daryl’s back here. We’ve seen this symbolism through the use of backpacks and also through the wings on Daryl’s vest, but that’s a post for a different day. But notice how she has wrapped her arms around his neck. Then think of the blue dog collar from 5x10, or the blue ribbons with girls names from La Ofrenda, tied around the pigs necks. Then consider that where “pig” is a derogatory term for police officer, “blue” is an affectionate term for police.

Not convinced? They literally had Daryl express a preference for "blues" in 3x1 Costa del Mar:

Beth was very exited to hear a record in 5x4 Slabtown:

...and TPTB made sure to let us know that the record was Junior Kimbrough, a famous blues musician (read more about blue clues for exemple here)

I always search for clues from the etymology, it’s my favorite method of doing symbolism research. Of course I’ve researched the etymology of the word pig:

How interesting! Pig is etymologically related to the word “acorn”, Anyone remember the double capper from s10? The "cap" of an acorn refers to its “top” or its “hat” if you will. “Cap" is literally another word for "hat”

…that the song that’s playing in the background of the trailer appears to be a Spanish version of “House of the Rising Sun. References to any types of rising suns in TWDU are heavily associated with the Sirius symbolism, meaning they are metaphors for resurrection. I’ve written many post on that in the past, but the TLDR of it all is that TPTB have been using Sirius symbolism as a metaphor for death and resurrection since the pilot episode. Characters we’ve seen that’s been enshrouded in Sirius symbolism have traditionally had a tendency to disappear for a while only to “resurrect” some time later, much like Sirius the Dog Star, which “resurrects” and reappears on the sky right before sunrise/dawn. Rick is a prime example of that, his death and resurrection literally constitutes the entire foundation of the franchise. And for TD this is interesting because we’ve seen so much of the same symbolism around Beth.

So there’s that. Already loving where the trailer is going, based on the song alone.

Let me also quickly point out that the name “Beth” is of Hebrew origin and means “house” or “home”. See how the song title “House of the Rising Sun” takes on a whole new meaning?

House of the rising sun, or should we say "Beth rising"?

(Side note: I've written more about the symbolism around "home" here, and I've also touched on the symbolism seen around greenhouses in TWDU in various posts (such as here), which is interesting because they're always about resurrection. Beth = house, so "greenhouse" = "green Beth", or basically "Beth Greene" if you will. But that's a post for a different day)

In this post from last year I talk about how the resurrection symbolism of the Sirius symbolism also encompasses themes of a cure. Basically, the Sirius symbolism is about resurrection of individual characters such as Rick (and Beth), but also the resurrection of humanity. We see that in how the military initially bombed urban centers with napalm in an attempt to contain the virus, and it was labeled "the Sunset Protocols". Obviously, bombing civilians indiscriminately only brings more death. "Sunset is therefore a metaphor for "death".

Meanwhile, through the Sirius symbolism (the star Sirius returns to the sky right before sunrise) we see how the opposite of sunset (sunrise) is a metaphor for resurrection (again, meaning resurrection of individual characters but also of humanity as a whole, through a cure or a vaccine). We saw this symbolism demonstrated on 6x6 Always Accountable, where Sasha and Abe sought refuge in a car insurance company (car = trunk symbolism, read more for exemple here and here) called Sunrise Auto Insurance:

And of course, Beth has been tied to symbolism around resurrections and sunrises since forever. Who can forget this moment from 5x10 Them, when the music box spontaneously "resurrected" right as the sun was rising:

Read more on how the Sirius symbolism is tied to Beth through the search for a cure here, and how the search for a cure has been foreshadowed here and here.

Now, a few words on the boat/alone references. This won’t be a full breakdown of the trailer, but I had to comment on this. I’ve already talked about the name of the boat “Knot Alone” in other posts (such as this one) and how is it’s a subtle reference to 4x13 Alone. Here we see again how insistent TPTB are on having us make the connection between the name of the boat and the episode “Alone”:

They wanted us to connect the two so badly that not only did they name the boat “Knot Alone”, they also included the word “alone in the dialogue where the boat is introduced, AND included it in the trailer.

And finally, a yellow car features prominently in the trailer. I'm intrigued by this, for reasons I've elaborated on here.