#st nicholas saved the pickle boys

[blog--witch]

My mom just started talking about the St Nicholas pickle boys bc it’s in a book she’s reading

[sylvanfreckles]

Because of @wearewatcher I instantly recognized this bizarre page in a book about depictions of Santa Claus around the world

Because St. Nicholas saved the pickle boys.

[anthologyoflucas]

Broke: All I want for xmas is you

Woke: St. Nicholas saved the pickle boys

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Predictions and Musings for 10b (Mostly Musings ;D)

Okay, let’s talk predictions. The big question everyone is asking is whether I think we’ll see Beth in 10x10, or, more broadly, when I think we’ll see her.

I’m not willing to rule out that we’ll see her in 10x10. If we do, I think it will be minimal. Like an after-the-credits scene where only the audience sees her, but none of the characters do. That said, as we head into 10b I’m feeling more and more like she won’t actually surface until the season finale. Again, not ruling out 10x10, and I’d be happy to be wrong. But that’s not my strong, gut feeling either.

I’ll explain why. And I’m going to frame this post in terms of clocks. We’ll talk about the clock in Edwards’ office in 5x08, the 10:16 clock in 7x08, and how I see the rest of the season playing out.

Let’s start 7x08. I’m not sure how me and my fellow theorists even got started on this, but we’ve been discussing it for the past week or two. It may just have been that someone (it really wasn’t me) remembered the clock.

So here’s the thing: when Daryl escapes the Sanctuary in 7x08, he runs into Dwight’s room after a vat of pickles spills in front of him. He hides there for a time before escaping. Behind him, when he runs down to the corridor is a clock that read 10:16. Now, during s8, most of us were still hoping Beth would appear sometime during or near the end of All Out War, so we weren’t seriously considering S10 for her reappearance at that time. So we weren’t sure what the clock represented.

Now, as we’re in S10, and we’ve had all these ridiculous clues that she’s about to reappear, the 10:16 clock becomes really interesting. Because 10x16 will be the season finale of this season.

Remember that in this scene, when Daryl goes into Dwight’s room, there’s a ridiculous amount of Beth symbolism. He eats peanut-butter, he looks at the chess pieces, several of which are reminiscent of Grady, there are fish on the wall (water), we see his scars, etc. And of course this is him escaping his imprisonment, which has heavy parallels to Beth being imprisoned at Grady. So everything about this scene screamed Beth.

But let’s talk specifically about what happens in front of the 10:16 clock. Daryl is trying to escape and some Saviors who are evidently handling food supplies drop a glass jar of pickles and it breaks, spilling across the corridor. That’s why Daryl runs into Dwight’s room. These Saviors talk about cleaning it up and he doesn’t want to be seen. He waits until they’re done cleaning up the mess and the corridor is empty again before making a break for it.

So, do you remember what’s up with pickles? Via the St. Nicholas/Pickle story (X, X, X) there should be three resurrections at some point. Daryl’s “I Never” line in Still about Santa Clause probably points to this. What Santa Clause/St. Nicholas will bring him is a resurrected Beth. 

(We also had a big emphasis on pickles during S7 via Eugene.)

But the myth says that St. Nick resurrected not one, but three boys/children/people depending on the version. I’ve theorized that the three resurrections will be the three remaining death fake out couples. (Glenn is dead for real, so not him.) I think the resurrections will be Beth, Rick, and Ezekiel. We haven’t seen Ezekiel’s death fake out yet, but I still think we will. And per Jerry’s shoe thing in 10x09, I think he’ll be involved.

Do all three resurrections have to happen simultaneously? I don’t think they HAVE to, but they COULD. And given that there’s a good chance that Beth and Rick are in the same place (helicopter people) I think there’s a good chance they will.

But the point here is that Daryl sees the pickles in front of the 10:16 clock. The way I’m interpreting that is that St. Nicholas will bring Daryl his gift at least in episode 10x16. So that’s why I think it’s less likely that we’ll see actually see her in 10x10.

Also, @wdway​ found something interesting in Slabtown that may support this:

“This is the scene where Beth has just come from Dawn's office and she is stopped in the hall by Dawn. It's always been strange about how this number was featured. I also want to point out the envelope type hang on the door if you enlarge it you can see that it's a pink (Pink Theory)…. Back to the number 5+5+6=16. So we have a 16 there's no true way of knowing if it's directed to this episode 16 or not.

Let's play around with what 16 and what these numbers in TWD world might look like as far as episodes. In s5e16 Conquer. In s5 series episode 56 was Self-Help. (Both very Beth-centric symbolism episodes.) Looking at 16, series number 16 was s2e10, 18 Miles Out (Beth’s suicide attempt). S1e6 was TS-19, the episode where TF was at the CDC eventually blew it up. (For this reference, see @angelthefirst1’s meta HERE.) By the way in the little library in the facility during a scene with Lori and Shane there is a 10-10 clock in the bookcase.”

But what does that mean for 10x10?

Well, let’s talk about the clock in Edwards’ office in 5x07. We’ve never done a very convincing job of figuring out what this clock points to. The hour hand points to the 10 while the minute hand points to the 8. Again, back in S5, we were definitely NOT thinking this pointed to S10. So there’s that. But even if we do so now, it seems to point to 10x08, the MSF. And MAYBE that’s a thing. I think there’s one way it could be, but overall it’s not terribly convincing. More on that in a minute.

But here’s the thing:

I actually think this clock may point to episode 10x10. Let me explain why. Warning: it involves math.

Due to Jesus’ death, we figured out that an hour represents a season as a whole, rather than the individual numbers pointing to episodes. That doesn’t work as there are only 12 numbers and 16 episodes. We saw the 9:30 clock behind Jesus and Carl in S7 and Jesus died in 9x08, which was exactly half-way through the hour/season. So I got out my trusty calculator and did some math. I tried this several different way and WAY over complicated it for myself. The easiest way to do it is this:

If you divide 1 hour 16 ways (by 16 episodes) each episode would be represented by 3.75 minutes. So if they want to point to something in episode 8, they would do 3.75 minutes multiplied by 8 episodes and you get 30. So they would point the minute hand of the clock toward 30 minutes (as they did with Jesus) to represent something happening in the MSF (episode 8). I hope that makes sense.

If you’re a visual person, check out this pie chart. If the minute hand is pointed at the 8 (40 minutes) then you divide that by 3.75 minutes for each episode, and you get roughly 10. Now, it’s not exact. It should be pointed at 37.5 minutes rather than 40. And honestly, it might be. This clock is very blurry because it’s in the background, and it may point to slightly before the 8. It’s just too hard to tell for sure.

Hence, I think this clock points to 10x10.

Now, anyone who reads @frangipanilove​’s posts knows her theory is that the 10x10 clock actually points to 10x11 for various reasons. (Read HERE). And I can totally get behind that. I don’t know how it will all play out but she’s got some amazing evidence and it won’t bother me at all if this is actually pointing to ep 11 rather than 10. What she and I have kind of settled on is that both episodes (10 and 11) are sure to be super-important.

Different clocks truly do need to be interpreted different ways. For example, the 10:16 I mentioned above. Applying the number system I laid out above to it doesn’t produce anything specific. So I really think that clock, which reads a time of 10:16, literally points to episode 10x16. For the 10:10 clock, this system KIND of works. It obviously wouldn’t point to 10x10, but it would be 10x02 or 10x03. Both those episodes had lots of TD symbolism in them, but nothing much beyond that. But of course 10x02 plays into your 2 and 11 theories, and the fact that 2x10 was 18 Miles Out.

And then there’s THIS POST about how the time 10:10 on a clock has historically represented when certain famous assassinations happened. So, it’s possible we shouldn’t be reading into the numbers on this clock at all.

I can totally see tptb using different systems for different clocks, specifically to throw us off and make the symbolism insanely hard to interpret.

But what will be in episode 10 and/or 11?

Obviously this is all speculation, but let’s return to this scene in 5x07 and some things I’ve mentioned earlier in the week. Beth goes into Edwards’ office to ask what medicine she needs to give Carol to save her. He tells her, and then she walks into the dark tunnel/hallway. They also talk about Beth having the “key” to the drug locker.

So I’m thinking what we’ll get in 10x10 or 10x11 is the “key” to where Beth is and it will have a lot to do with healing. Part of it is healing Carol. (I’ll talk more about Carol tomorrow because there’s a LOT going on with her right now and it ties directly into Beth’s return.) But I know a lot of people have theories that Beth will bring a cure for the zombie virus as well. I don’t harp on that overly much, but I think it’s a real possibility, especially with what we know of the helicopter people and them purifying water. So this scene in Edwards’ office was a direct foreshadow of when/how/in what manner Beth will return.

For me, I think it will be directly tied to Connie. I’ve been saying since the beginning of the season that 1) Connie would get a death fake out. We’ll have to wait and see what Daryl finds, but I think this episode was the beginning of Connie’s death fake out. I think he’ll either not find her and Magna at all (just gone) or else maybe he’ll find blood and her sling shot or something else that makes him think she’s dead. Eaten by walkers. So I think he’ll believe she’s dead and for him it will be a major replay of Beth’s death.

So if anything along those lines happens, I think that in episode 10/11 he’ll find out that she’s alive and where she is. You know how I keep saying he and Carol will jump on his bike and go look for someone, and I’ve said I think it will be Connie? Yeah, it’s really kinda happening that way, guys. I can’t say for sure they’ll go on his bike, but much like back in S5, they’ll leave together to go find someone who’s (most likely) been taken hostage by another group. In S5 it was Beth. Here, it will be Connie. And we’ve solved the problem of why Carol would go with Daryl: because the cave in was her fault and she has super-heavy guilt over it.

And I think Connie will end up where Beth is in some way and will help bring Beth back to Daryl, fulfilling the symbolism from 10x01 where she brought Dog to him on the beach. So I’m thinking we’ll learn Connie’s whereabouts in ep 10/11 and while it won’t be about Beth in an obvious way, it will lead to her. And maybe Daryl will finally come face to face with Beth in 10x16. That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway. But again, these are just predictions and could prove to be wrong.

More random-but-compelling evidence for 10x16? This also from @wdway​:

“While I was looking at all this from I remembered something that I played around with a while back and I even mentioned it I think to you guys but now that it's closer to us it might mean more. At the end of the episode Coda we have the fire truck and that number on the side the 82. Coda series number = 59. 82+59= 141. S10e10 will be series number 141.”

This may not entirely fit into what I said above, but maybe we’ll learn what happened to the fire truck, or just what happened during the missing 17 days, in episode 10x10? No idea. Just a thought.

This is more general, but in terms of episode structure, consider this: Beth disappeared in ep 8 and the music box woke up in ep 10. I know Connie won’t technically disappear until ep 9 but the catastrophe leading to it happened in ep 8 and Beth was technically in 5x09. So having Connie “show up” again in some capacity in ep 10 makes sense. Just saying.

One more note: given that we are already experiencing a death fake out for Connie, and that I think she’ll end up where Beth is, and by extension, where Rick is, it has occurred to me that she might be the third pickle resurrection, rather than Ezekiel.

Maybe.

Overall, I still lean toward Ezekiel. Why? Well, mostly because he’s one of the four death fake out couples. And while I love Connie, she’s not AS mainstream a character as Ezekiel. I don’t think she’s had enough time on the show, enough depth of character to qualify as the 3rd pickle resurrection. But I also mentioned Jerry because of the shoe thing in this episode. And of course Heath and Jadis/Anne are still missing as well. So there might be several minor character returns that go along with the three big ones. But I still think overall the big ones will be Beth, Rick and Ezekiel. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Okay, other predictions.

Episode 14:

As I said, I’ll talk more about how Carol fits into all of this tomorrow, and there are a lot of ties, but here are some basic speculations about 10x14.

We know people often die in episode 14 of a season. (4x14: Mika and Lizzie; 5x14: Noah; 6x14: Denise, etc.) Some of my fellow theorists have thought for some time that Father Gabriel will die before Beth returns.

Why? Because he’s the embodiment of the Sirius symbol.

Okay, this becomes a really interesting discussion about the Sirius symbolism and the characters who embody it. Remember the Sirius symbolism has to do with dogs, stars, and having only one eye. I can’t think of a character who embodied the Sirius symbolism in 5b, after Beth was shot. Noah, perhaps. Honestly, nothing about him screams Sirius to me. Other things to do with Beth symbolism? Yes. But Sirius, not so much. Although there is that shot of him looking at the blue dog collar in Them after they eat the wild dogs.

In S6, Denise showed up. She had both eyes, but there was a motif about her glasses and her being kinda blind. Not to mention, she died by being shot through the eye.Though she didn’t died BEFORE Carl lost his eye, she died soon after. She also saved his life. 

At that point, Carl, with his one eye and many ties to Beth, becomes something of a Sirius embodiment.

In S8, Carl dies. And right about that same time, Father Gabriel loses his sight in one eye, in an episode that ALL kinds of callbacks to Still, Alone, and Coda. Since then, he’s been the embodiment of the Sirius symbolism.

See why we suspect he might die before or right around the time Beth reappears? 

It’s also interesting to note that he was perhaps the last one to speak her name. He talked to Maggie about her in Them, and while we saw Beth in Sasha’s flashback in that, and since then in the portraits hanging at Hilltop over Maggie’s desk, no one has actually said Beth’s name since FG did in Them.

In other words, the last person to have spoken Beth’s name is now the embodiment of the Sirius symbolism.

Other stuff on episode 14:

It’s important to note that we don’t KNOW any of this stuff about episode 14. People in the fandom are simply speculating on it. We know there will be an episode entitled “Look at the Flowers” and given that that phrase was so heavily emphasized in 4x14 with the girls, it would make sense for it to be the title of 10x14.

This from @wdway​:

“People have been speculating for the last couple of months that episode 14 will be the episode at the hospital that was used in Slabtown. We also have had sightings of the King in the city which makes people think it might have to do with the story line that has been set up with his thyroid condition.

I want to show you a shot that's taken from earlier this season where the king is on the Hilltop radio waiting for Carol to come and he's going to tell her about his condition but before she gets to the radio he stops and leaves. This is a shot of the radio.

Look up the number at the top the very top one is 145. Now we know that the comic book issue of 45 is when Andrea wakes up from being shot in the head. And here's the radio set at channel 145 and the King is about to talk to Carol and it's concerning a medical issue. You probably know what I'm about to say serie number 145 will be S10e14.”

To me, this also backs up the idea of Ezekiel’s death fake out. The 145 ties directly to Andrea’s death fake out in the comic books.

I’ll end there. I think I’ve rambled enough for one day.

Disclaimer: I wrote this over a week ago, before Ep 9 even aired. So yes, I know that due to spoilers, some of the stuff I’ve written above is already invalid. For example, it doesn’t look like we’ll see Connie in 10x10 or find out anything about the missing 17 days.

I didn’t want to change anything in this post, partly because I’m lazy 😋 and partly because, as far as these being possibilities we’re considering, they’re still valid, even if they don’t happen in this coming episodes. Just think of them as food for thought.

So, thoughts?  😉

[help-help-i-need-an-adult]

I have a horrible memory of being forced to memorize and sing a song about St. Nicholas and one of the movements was about him saving the pickled boys.

The movement about the boat in a storm slapped.

But the pickled boys were so traumatizing I’ve forced myself to forget the song.

I can forget the song but not that it exists.

in a kinder universe i could post "mutuals I am pickling you in a jar with some dill" without my mention of a jar inadvertently invoking memory of a phenomenon most profane

[systlin]

Okay okay this story is too good, I've gotta tell it myself.

This? Is Grigori Rasputin.

He was born a peasant in Imperial Russia in 1869. We really don't know much about his early life or his parents, because no one gave a shit about peasants in Siberia in 1869.

We do know that in 1886 he met and married a fellow peasant, a girl named Praskovya Dubrovina. They settled in Pokrovskoye. They had seven children, three of whom survived to adulthood. She remained devoted to him throughout his later deeds, infamy, and death.

This is where shit starts getting wild.

Sometime in 1897, Rasputin started getting seriously into religion, and left Pokrovskoye to go on pilgrimage. Why? We don't really know. Some people claim he had a vision. Some claim he met a scholar and was impressed by their knowledge. Anyway, he traveled to the St. Nicholas Monastery at Verkhoturyem, where he remained for months, studying with an elder by the name of Makary. It is likely he learned to read and write here.

He eventually left the monastery, complaining that life there was too 'coercive' and that many of the monks engaged in 'homosexual acts', which TBH good on you, monks.

If you were wondering "So, what does one do after you leave a monastery after months of study, and have a young wife and some kids at home?"

If you answered "Denounce booze, become a vegetarian, grow some wild hair and become a wandering pilgrim, singing and praying fervently as you go" then congrats! You're thinking like Rasputin!

Somehow, doing this attracted him a group of disciples. They got up to some pretty wild shit, and there have been rumors that they joined a sect known as the khlysty, who engaged in self flagellation and also sexual orgies.  

It should be mentioned here that he was, apparently, hung like a fucking horse and his penis, severed post mortem, is now pickled in a jar.

Anyway, moving on.

Word of this weird holy man spread, and he gained a reputation as someone who could heal people of maladies and hysteria, possibly by having sex with every woman he could. He SOMEHOW managed to wrangle a letter of recommendation to a monastery in St. Petersburg, and upon arriving somehow impressed people so much that he was eventually introduced to Tsar Nicholas II.

It's noted that he had great charisma and was very compelling. He also wasn't stupid, and immediately buttered up to the royal family as much as possible.

Much of his influence over the royal family was due to the fact that he was the only one who could seem to successfully treat their son, Alexei. Alexei was hemophiliac, and suffered considerably. He was the only son, and the fate of the dynasty hung on him, and of course then he was fretted over.

Rasputin did seem to honestly be able to ease Alexei's suffering and several times managed to save him when the court doctors had given the boy up for dead. How? We've got no idea. Magic, probably.

The problems here came because Rasputin's dick was well known in St. Petersburg, and rumors began to fly that he was serving that sausage up to the Empress. She did keep him close and write uncommonly intimate and familiar letters to him, but we don't honestly know for sure if the rumors were true.

Anyway. The late days of the Romanov dynasty were a hot mess of political, religious, and social turmoil anyway, and Rasputin was basically a match to tinder. He had too much influence, he was too strange.

The first assassination attempt came when a peasant woman attempted to stab him to death. He was injured, but recovered, and was unnerved by the attack. He began to drink again.

The assassination attempt (and attempt, and attempt, and attempt) that would go down in legend came when a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov decided at last that Rasputin had too much influence for a peasant and must be removed.

Rasputin had a sweet tooth. So, his assassins laced a tray of cakes with enough cyanide to kill an elephant, and dumped another few doses into the wine to be sure. Then they lured him to Yusupov's home with the promise that he could have sex with Yusupov's wife and left the cakes and wine on the table. Rasputin tucked in, eating enough poison to kill ten men.

And it didn't do a goddamned thing.

Finally, in desperation, they shot him in the chest. Figuring that did it, they dressed one guy up in Rasputin's hat and coat and drove him back to Rasputin's place to make it look like Rasputin had left.

When they got back, though, Rasputin jumped up and attacked Yusupov, who fought him off. Chased by a man who should be twice dead, Yusupov fled into the courtyard. There Rasputin was shot a second time, and stopped. A third shot, and he collapsed. He was still trying to crawl, though, and they beat and kicked at him for a bit, wrapped him in a carpet and dumped him into the Nevka river.

The news of the murder got out almost immediately. When they finally fished the body out of the river and performed an autopsy, it was discovered that the cause of death had been drowning.

The poison hadn't done it. Three bullets hadn't done it. The beating hadn't done it. The river finally had.

And that is why jokes about anesthetizing Rasputin by smashing him in the face are hilarious.

[urbanhermit]

A childhood favorite. We received a pineapple, coconut, tangerines, Brazil & walnuts, hard candy. We put out wooden salad bowls for each of us six kids. Some examples of the Miracles of St Nicholas and the reasons for various Patronages: • Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that he was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the house and threw three bags of gold in through the window, saving the girls from an evil life. These three bags, gold is generously given in time of trouble, became the three golden balls that indicate a pawn broker’s shop. • He raised to life three young boys who had been murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine to hide the crime. These stories led to his patronage of children in general and of barrel-makers besides. • Induced some thieves to return their plunder. This explains his protection against theft and robbery and his patronage of them – he’s not helping them steal but to repent and change. In the past, thieves have been known as Saint Nicholas’ clerks or Knights of Saint Nicholas. • During a voyage to the Holy Lands, a fierce storm blew up, threatening the ship. He prayed about it and the storm calmed – hence the patronage of sailors and those like dockworkers who work on the sea. St Nicholas died in 346 at Myra, Lycia (in modern Turkey) of natural causes and his relics are believed to be at Bari, Italy. https://www.instagram.com/p/CXI6mVSr1R3/?utm_medium=tumblr

[pamphletstoinspire]

St. Nicholas of Myra Patron Saint of Brides Feast Day: December 6th (Both Calendars) __________

The great veneration with which St. Nicholas has been honored for many ages and the number of altars and churches all over the world that are dedicated in his memory are testimonials to his wonderful holiness and the glory he enjoys with God. As an episcopal see, and his childhood church falling vacant, the holy Nicholas was chosen bishop, and in that station became famous by his extraordinary piety and zeal and by his many astonishing miracles. The Greek histories of his life agree he suffered an imprisonment of the faith and made a glorious confession in the latter part of the persecution raised by Dioletian, and that he was present at the Council of Nicaea and there condemned Arianism. It is said that St. Nicholas died in Myra, and was buried in his cathedral.

St. Nicholas' episcopate at Myra during the fourth century is really all that appears indubitable authentic, according to Alban Butler, an English Roman Catholic priest from the 1700s. This is not for lack of material, beginning with the life attributed to the monk who died in 847 as St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Nevertheless, the universal popularity of the saint for so many centuries requires that some account of the legends surrounding his life should be given.

St. Nicholas, also known as "Nikolaos of Myra," was a fourth century saint and Greek bishop of Myra. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor in the Roman Empire as an only child to Christian parents. Nicholas would take nourishment only once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that in the evening according to the canons. "He was exceedingly well brought up by his parents and trod piously in their footsteps. The child, watched over by the church, enlightened his mind and encouraged his thirst for sincere and true religion." Both of his parents tragically died during an epidemic when he was a young man, leaving him well off, but to be raised by his uncle - the Bishop of Patara. Nicholas was determined to devote his inheritance to works of charity, and his uncle mentored him as a reader and later ordained him as a presbyter (priest).

An opportunity soon arose for St. Nicholas and his inheritance. A citizen of Patara had lost all his money, and needed to support his three daughters who could not find husbands because of their poverty; so the wretched man was going to give them over to prostitution. Nicholas became informed of this, and thus took a bag of gold and threw it into an open window of the man's house in the night. Here was a dowry for the eldest girl and she was soon duly married. At intervals Nicholas did the same for the second and the third; at the last time the father was on the watch, recognized his benefactor and overwhelmed Nicholas with his gratitude. It would appear that the three purses represented in pictures, came to be mistaken for the heads of three children and so they gave rise to the absurdstory of the children, resuscitated by the saint, who had been killed by an innkeeper and pickled in a brine-tub.

Coming to the city of Myra when the clergy and people of the province were in session to elect a new bishop, St. Nicholas was indicated by God as the man they should choose. This was during the time of persecutions in the beginning of the fourth century and "as he [Nicholas] was the chief priest of the Christians of this town and preached the truths of faith with a holy liberty, the divine Nicholas was seized by the magistrates, tortured, then chained and thrown into prison with many other Christians. But when the great and religious Constatine, chosen by God, assumed the imperial diadem of the Romans, the prisoners were released from their bonds and with them the illustrious Nicholas, who when he was set at liberty returned to Myra."

St. Methodius asserts that "thanks to the teaching of St. Nicholas the metropolis of Myra alone was untouched by the filth of the Arian heresy, which it firmly rejected as death-dealing poison," but says nothing of his presence at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

According to other traditions St. Nicholas was not only there during the Council of Nicaea in 325, but so far forgot himself as to give the heresiarch Arius a slap in the face. The conciliar fathers deprived him of his episcopal insignia and committed him to prison; but our Lord and His Mother appeared there and restored to him both his liberty and his office.

As against Arianism so against paganism, St. Nicholas was tireless and often took strong measures: among other temples he destroyed was that of Artemis, the principal in the district, and the evil spirits fled howling before him. He was the guardian of his people as well in temporal affairs. The governor Eustathius had taken a bribe to condemn to death three innocent men. At the time fixed for their execution Nicholas came to the place, stayed the hands of the executioner, and released the prisoners. Then he turned to Eustathiujs and did not cease to reproach him until he admitted his crime and expressed his penitence.

St. Nicholas' presence was found in a separate occasion involving three imperial officers simply on their way to duty in Phrygia. When the men were back again in Constantinople, the jealousy of the prefect Ablavius caused them to be imprisoned on false charges and an order for their death was procured from the Emperor Constantine. When the officers heard this they remembered the example they had witnessed of the powerful love of justice of the Bishop of Myra and they prayed to God that through his merits and by his instrumentality they might yet be saved. That night St. Nicholas appeared in a dream to Constatine, and told him with threats to release the three innocent men, and Ablavius experienced the same thing. In the morning the Emporor and the prefect compared notes, and the condemned men were sent for and questioned. When he heard they had called on the name of the Nicholas of Myra who appeared to him, Constatine set them free and sent them to the bishop with a letter asking him not to threaten him any more, but to pray for the peace of the world. For a long time, this has been the most famous miracle of St. Nicholas, and at the time of St. Methodius was the only thing generally known about him.

The accounts are unanimous that St. Nicholas died and was buried in his episcopal city of Myra, and by the time of Justinian, there was a basilica built in his honor at Constantinople.

An anonymous Greek wrote in the tenth century that, "the West as well as the East acclaims and glorifies him. Wherever there are people, in the country and the town, in the villages, in the isles, in the furthest parts of the earth, his name is revered and churches are built in his honor. Images of him are set up, panegyrics preached and festivals celebrated. All Christians, young and old, men and women, boys and girls, reverence his memory and call upon his protection. And his favors, which know no limit of time and continue from age to age, are poured out over all the earth; the Scythians know them, as do the Indians and the barbarians, the Africans as well as the Italians." When Myra and its great shrine finally passed into the hands of the Saracens, several Italian cities saw this as an opportunity to acquire the relics of St. Nicholas for themselves. There was great competition for them between Venice and Bari.

Bari won and the relics were carried off under the noses of the lawful Greek custodians and their Mohammedan masters. On May 9, 1087 St. Nicholas' relics safetly landed in Bari, a not inappropriate home seeing that Apulia in those days still had large Greek colonies. A new church was built to shelter the relics and the pope, Bd. Urban II, was present at their enshrining.

Devotion to St. Nicholas has been present in the West long before his relics were brought to Italy, but this happening greatly increased his veneration among the people, and miracles were as freely attributed to his intercession in Europe as they had been in Asia. At Myra "the venerable body of the bishop, embalmed as it was in the good ointments of virtue exuded a sweet smelling myrrh, which kept it from corruption and proved a health giving remedy against sickness to the glory o f him who had glorified Jesus Christ, our true God." The translation of the relics did not interrupt this phenomenon, and the "manna of St. Nicholas" is said to flow to this day. It was one of the great attractions that drew pilgrims to his tomb from all parts of Europe.

The image of St. Nicholas is, more often than any other, found on Byzantine seals. In the later middle ages nearly four hundred churches were dedicated in his honor in England alone, and he is said to have been represented by Christian artists more frequently than any saint, except our Lady.

St. Nicholas is celebrated as the patron saint of several classes of people, especially, in the East, of sailors and in the West of children. The first of these patronage is most likely due to the legend that during his lifetime, he appeared to storm tossed mariners who invoked his aid off the coast of Lycia and brought them safely to port. Sailors in the Aegean and Ionian seas, following a common Eastern custom, had their "star of St. Nicholas" and wished one another a good voyage in the phrase "May St. Nicholas hold the tiller."

The legend of the "three children" is credited to his patronage of children and various observances, ecclesiastical and secular, connected there with; such were the boy bishop and especially in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the giving of presents in his name at Christmas time.

This custom in England is not a survival from Catholic times. It was popularized in America by the Dutch Protestants of New Amsterdam who converted the popish saint into a Nordic magician (Santa Claus = Sint Klaes = Saint Nicholas) and was introduced into this country by Bret Harte. It is not the only "good old English custom" which, however good, is not "old English," at any rate in its present form. The deliverance of the three imperial officers naturally caused St. Nicholas to be invoked by and on behalf of prisoners and captives, and many miracles of his intervention are recorded in the middle ages.

Curiously enough, the greatest popularity of St. Nicholas is found neither in the eastern Mediterranean nor north-western Europe, great as that was, but in Russia. With St. Andred the Apostle, he is patron of the nation, and the Russian Orthodox Church even observes the feast of his translation; so many Russian pilgrims came to Bari before the revolution that their government supported a church, hospital and hospice there.

He is also the patron saint of Greece, Apulia, Sicily and Loraine, and of many citiesand dioceses (including Galway) and churches innumerable. At Rome the basilica of St. Nicholas in the Jail of Tully (in Carcere) was founded between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries. He is named in the preparation of the Byzantine Mass. St. Nicholas became recognized as a saint long before the Roman Catholic Church began the regular canonizing procedures in the late 10th century. Therefore, he does not have a specific date of canonization, rather records of him exist in a gradual spread until his stories became widley known and celebrated. St. Nicholas' feast day is December 6.

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 6 December – St Nicholas (270-343) Also known as – • Nicholas of Bari • Nicholas of Lpnenskij • Nicholas of Lipno • Nicholas of Sarajskij • Nicholas the Miracle Worker • Klaus, Mikulas, Nikolai, Nicolaas, Nicolas, Niklaas, Niklas. Nikolaus, Santa Claus.   Priest, Abbot, Bishop, Miracle-Worker, Apostle of Charity, Confessor.  

Some examples of the Miracles of St Nicholas:

• Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that he was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the house and threw three bags of gold in through the window, saving the girls from an evil life.   These three bags, gold generously given in time of trouble, became the three golden balls that indicate a pawn broker’s shop.

• He raised to life three young boys who had been murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine to hide the crime.   These stories led to his patronage of children in general and of barrel-makers besides.

• Induced some thieves to return their plunder.   This explains his protection against theft and robbery and his patronage of them – he’s not helping them steal but to repent and change.   In the past, thieves have been known as Saint Nicholas’ clerks or Knights of Saint Nicholas.

• During a voyage to the Holy Lands, a fierce storm blew up, threatening the ship.   He prayed about it and the storm calmed – hence the patronage of sailors and those like dockworkers who work on the sea.

Here is the story of St Nicholas by Prosper Dom Gueranger:

Nicholas was born in the celebrated city of Patara, in the province of Lycia.   His birth was the fruit of his parents’ prayers.  Evidences of his great future holiness were given from his very cradle.   For when he was an infant, he would only take his food once on Wednesdays and Fridays and then not till evening but on all other days he frequently took the breast:  he kept up this custom of fasting during the rest of his life.

Having lost his parents when he was a boy, he gave all his goods to the poor.   Of his Christian kindheartedness there is the following noble example.   One of his fellow-citizens had three daughters but being too poor to obtain them an honourable marriage, he was minded to abandon them to a life of prostitution.   Nicholas having learned of the case, went to the house during the night and threw in by the window a sum of money sufficient for the dower of one of the daughters;  he did the same a second and a third time and thus the three were married to respectable men.

Having given himself wholly to the service of God, he set out for Palestine, that he might visit and venerate the holy places.   During this pilgrimage, which he made by sea, he foretold to the mariners, on embarking, though the heavens were then serene and the sea tranquil, that they would be overtaken by a frightful storm.   In a very short time, the storm arose.   All were in the most imminent danger, when he quelled it by his prayers.

His pilgrimage ended, he returned home, giving to all men example of the greatest sanctity.   He went, by an inspiration from God, to Myra, the Metropolis of Lycia,which had just lost its Bishop by death and the Bishops of the province had come together for the purpose of electing a successor.   Whilst they were holding council for the election, they were told by a revelation from heaven, that they should choose him who, on the morrow, should be the first to enter the church, his name being Nicholas.   Accordingly, the requisite observations were made, when they found Nicholas to be waiting at the church door:  they took him and, to the incredible delight of all, made him the Bishop of Myra.

During his episcopate, he never flagged in the virtues looked for in a bishop;  chastity, which indeed he had always preserved, gravity, assiduity in prayer, watchings, abstinence, generosity and hospitality, meekness in exhortation, severity in reproving. He befriended widows and orphans by money, by advice and by every service in his power.   So zealous a defender was he of all who suffered oppression, that, on one occasion, three Tribunes having been condemned by the Emperor Constantine, who had been deceived by calumny and having heard of the miracles wrought by Nicholas, they recommended themselves to his prayers, though he was living at a very great distance from that place:   the saint appeared to Constantine and angrily looking upon him, obtained from the terrified Emperor their deliverance.

Having, contrary to the edict of Dioclesian and Maximian, preached in Myra the truth of the Christian faith, he was taken up by the servants of the two Emperors.  He was taken off to a great distance and thrown into prison, where he remained until Constantine, having become Emperor, ordered his rescue and the Saint returned to Myra.   Shortly afterwards, he repaired to the Council which was being held at Nicaea:  there he took part with the three hundred and eighteen Fathers in condemning the Arian heresy (Tradition has it that he became so angry with the heretic Arius during the Council that he struck him in the face).

Scarcely had he returned to his See than he was taken with the sickness of which he soon died.   Looking up to heaven and seeing Angels coming to meet him, he began the Psalm, In thee, O Lord, have I hoped and having come to those words, Into your hands I commend my spirit, his soul took its flight to the heavenly country.   His body, having been translated to Bari in Apulia, is the object of universal veneration.

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Fear 4x10: Analysis

Good morning! Who watched Fear last night? I have to say, I'm really enjoying this season, still. I thought last night’s episode was excellent! And, as a bonus, it had tons of relevant symbolism in it.

***Spoilers abound for Fear 4x10. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Let's first talk about the broad stuff. Alicia ends up at the cabin or house. It's very much like a lot of the places we've seen before. There are a lot of things that reminded me of the moonshine shack, and also the cabin Carol, Tyreese and the girls went to in 4x14.

Remember last week when I said it seemed like the group would be split up for the B part of the season and we’d have individual episodes about each group? Did I call that or what? This episode was about Alicia and Charlie, and the next episode will (based on the trailer for next week) be about Morgan.

If you want to see this as a repeat of Beth and Daryl at the moonshine shack (and you probably will as I go along) then Alicia would be Daryl and Charlie would be Beth. My reasoning on that is just that Alicia is the more angry, surly one, and Charlie is the more sad, weepy one. Between the two, Alicia is also the stronger and more capable. In a minute I'll show some dialogue but also supports this.

So, when she gets there, Alicia finds four walkers in the house. Two men and two women. This was meant to be the family that lived there. Father, mother, son, daughter. The son and daughter were at least teenagers, if not adult age. So, the family all died in the house together.

In terms of Alicia, that would've reminded her of her family a lot. Before the apocalypse happened, it was Madison, Travis, Alicia, and Nick. I think that's why she threw the pictures out. She couldn't stand the reminders of a family she once had and no longer does. But everything about this is symbolism we've seen before. There is a very obvious example of the Bethyl side-by-side walker theme.

In this case, there were two men and two women. I'm not sure what to make of that exactly, but it's interesting. I don't think we've ever seen an example of two men and two women side-by-side like this in regular TWD. But I'm wondering if the other couple (besides Bethyl) could be John Dorey and June. So maybe they're doing to show there are now two couples, one on each show, that are following the same symbolism? Just an idea.

The photos themselves reminded me of Sasha in 5B. Remember, she used the photographs as target practice? Even though what happened was a little different, in both cases these women (Sasha and Alicia) were in pain and couldn't stand to see pictures of happy families around them. Even what was in the pictures was mildly suspicious to me. A lot of them were taken at the beach, which plays into the beach theme of this episode. But I noticed one was the little boy playing baseball (Negan?) And there is also one at an amusement park, kinda like one Rick and Michonne went to in S7. And there were other ones that had water in them.

I will also say that there were several things in this that made me think Alicia was being somewhat paralleled with Rick as well. There was a part where she looked at herself in the mirror, which reminded me of Rick getting to Alexandria in 5B. We also saw her silhouette against the light several times, which they did with Rick S8.

Later in the episode, Alicia goes out to look at the four walkers she dragged out and Charlie has wrapped them in shrouds. I noticed that three of them were dark and one was white. I'm not sure exactly how to interpret that, but it's the black/white theme that we see around Beth and Daryl a lot (X). I wonder if it's something like three deaths and one resurrection? Or could be connected to the St. Nicholas/pickle story which is three resurrections. I'm not sure. But I thought it was super-interesting.

At one point, there's something dead in the fireplace. It had been stuck in the chimney and fell when Alicia was cleaning it out. I couldn’t tell what it was at first, but I’m fairly sure it was a dead bird. That’s kinda huge! 1) It’s literally a bird surrounded by ashes. So, Phoenix theme. 2) Even more than that, remember that in 4x11, Carl saw a dead bird in the pudding house. 

I’ve ALWAYS thought that was a foreshadow of Beth. Dead bird = Beth before she’s resurrected. If that dead bird had just been about Carl’s death, it wouldn’t still be a thing now. (This shot from S4 also includes a bird cage. Remember the bird cage in Beth’s cell in 4x01.)

Alicia apologizes to it and says, "I'm trying." The trying theme was especially big in TWD S5. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that she’s apologizing to it, but I’m sure it’s symbolic in some way.

On TTD, they said the family was supposed to have asphyxiated because the fireplace was clocked. So the dead bird actually killed the family. Also highly symbolic. Think of it this way: Beth’s death “killed” Daryl emotionally. In other instances of the side-by-side theme, Karen’s death “killed” Tyreese emotionally. So it’s very interesting that this bird literally killed the family in this case

In TTD, they also talked about  the bird Madison talked about in 4x08. That’s what it was about for Alicia. But it all goes back to the bird symbolism from S4. And remember, who is the song bird?

This is probably the thing that made my jaw dropped the most. When she's trying to start a fire, she burns something that says "Rottweiler" on it. 

Remember that Emily was rumored to be filming scenes at that white cabin with a Rottweiler. Wouldn’t it be crazy if those missing scenes from season five showed up in fear instead of in TWD? That would be insane! But this does seem to be foreshadowing something with a Rottweiler on Fear and having to do with Alicia.

While we’re on the subject, there were at least two other dog symbols that I saw in the house. (Sirius/Dog Star theme). When Alicia first enters the house, there's this plaque that has a dog and a paw on it. 

It was also featured on TTD. The fat that it says “Rotty” made me think of the fact that at Grady, they called walkers “Rotters.” Perhaps another rottweiller clue we totally missed?

Then here in the background, I think this might actually be a picture of two Rottweilers. It's unclear, so I can't be sure, but that's what it looks like to me. See why I’m excited?

This house also had a lot of canned food in it. That's similar to both the funeral home from Alone and also from Carol and Tyreese's cabin in the Grove. It also reminds me a lot of the cabin we saw on the Red Machete miniseries. 

Just cans of food out on the counter. 

Alicia picks a green one and a blue one. It doesn't show us the labels on either one of them, so obviously what’s in the cans isn’t terribly important for us to know. But the color scheme is there. I also noticed that in this part, there's a water bottle on the left that says Green Valley Springs.

When Alicia finds Charlie in the house, she tries to leave because she doesn't want to end up hurting Charlie. 

The sequence with the car was really strange. Alicia had the keys and tried to open the car door, but for some reason, the door stuck. I watched it several times and I'm still unclear on why the door wouldn't open. There is what looks like some sort of strap on the inside of the door, and I thought maybe it was some sort of bungee cord holding the door shut. Looking more closely, I honestly think that might just be decoration on the door. The door randomly wouldn't open and as a result, Alicia ended up with a mild head injury.

It just smacks of Beth to me. I'm not sure if we should be interpreting it literally—like something about Beth being left behind in the car had to do with the door not opening—or if it's more just the "please associate cars with head injuries" kind of thing. I don't know, but that seemed really suspicious to me.

Of course the cabin has the Grady lighting, where the inside is dark but light is coming in from the outside. We also see pictures of plants in the laws, which I think we seen before in a few different places in TWD. (Btw, on TTD, Chris Hardwick said we should be looking at the lighting, the pictures and things in the background, the shots, etc. So we’re totally justified in reading into this stuff. ;D)

Onto the dialogue. Charlie wants to save the pictures. Alicia is against it. I thought this was a really interesting way to do this theme. Alicia keeps telling her that the people are gone. (“Just gone” theme) and saving the pictures won’t bring them back. To which Charlie replies, "You don't know that!" 

Exactly what Beth said. So once again, Charlie equals Beth and Alicia equals Daryl. The Alicia later says, "No one's gone until they're gone. And "When they're gone, they're just gone." Another Daryl line.

Remember that the “just gone” line specifically means that someone is not dead, but just missing. Daryl said it about Beth in 4x16. Also, 4x08 of Fear where Madison “died” is called “No One’s Gone.” So we’re seeing this a lot and to me it always means that someone who is presumed dead is not truly dead and will return.

The candlelight dinner Alicia and Charlie share reminded me of both Beth and Daryl’s in Alone and Carol and Tyreese in 4x14. We’ve seen other similar candlelight dinners as well, but none quite as potent as those two.

The basement was flooded, which reminded me a lot of the food bank in 5x02. At one point, Alicia has flashbacks to Nick and Madison's deaths. 

That reminds me a lot of Sasha in 5x13, when she flashed back to Bob, Tyreese, and Beth's deaths. But it occurred to me that we actually have kind of an opposite thing going on here from Sasha. I found this episode to be very powerful. Charlie and Alicia, much like Beth and Daryl, came out of it in a much healthier emotional place. They found forgiveness and healing. 

That was not the case for Sasha. At least not when she had her flashbacks. She was a great deal of pain and having the flashbacks did not heal her. So, kind of an antiparallel there, but still similar to S5.

The walker in the tree. This is pretty huge too. There's a walker impaled on a tree outside the upper window of the house, which Charlie keeps looking at. We can only assume it got there because the wind picked it up and flew through the air and it ended up being impaled on the branches of the tree. I wondered while watching it, if perhaps we could relate that to Beth in some way. It occurred to me that this was a type of crucifixion. The walker was up on the tree, just hanging there. It's not uncommon for Christ's cross to be referred to simply as a tree because it was made of wood. But I also wondered if I was reaching. Looking at something that wasn't there.

Then, near the end of the episode, that walker fell out of the tree and onto the basement door. Apparently, that made it possible for Alicia to push the door open and for them to get out. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how that was supposed to work. The door was chained from the outside, and I'm not sure how the walker falling on it actually freed them. It could be that it's weight, and possibly the weight of a tree branch simply broke the chain. Still a little unlikely if you ask me, bordering on unrealistic. It doesn't actually bother me, though. I think the whole point is the symbolism. 

Because Christ is seen as the Christian savior, I think it's important that this walker was hanging on a tree, and then ended up being the thing that saved them. There are some major Christian themes in this episode. And does this point it Beth? I don't know. It might. We have the Rottweiler references and now a reference to someone who was crucified. (Remember that Beth wore the cross bracelet at Grady to show that it was her crucifixion and Father Gabriel talked about how one of their own was “sacrificed”) will save them. I hope it refers to Beth. It may be more of a Christian theme than anything else, but Beth has also been set up as the Christ figure in TWD. So either way, it makes me pretty excited.

It's also worth noting that when Alicia shot the crucifixion walker, she shot it exactly where Beth was shot.

A look! A bunch of burials. Alicia buried a bunch of walkers that nobody actually knew or cared about. And who that we did know and care about didn't get the burial?

This brings me to another theme that we saw both in 4x13 and 4x14. Charlie said she wanted to leave the photos for anyone who might come later. That theme really came together for me at the end. After burying the walkers, Alicia said she done it for the people who might come later. I mean, this cabin could BE the cabin that Carol and Tyreese went to. It's not, but in that case someone else came before them and buried the people they found there. So when Ty and Carol got there, there were already graves on the property. Alicia’s set up was like a prequel to that. She stayed in the house, and ended up bearing the people she found there

This theme was also in 4x13 because Beth wanted to leave the thank you note in case anyone came back. It's a theme about doing something, leaving a message for anyone who might come after them. 

I think it's a really interesting and powerful theme. Oh, and there's the “friends and family” sign behind the graves. Almost as if to show that friends and family always get burials.(Sorry this pic is a little blurry. My internet connection was being a chump at the time.)

Alicia passes the weapon her signature weapon to Charlie. Kind of reminded me of Daryl giving Beth his crossbow.

Alicia and Charlie are now looking for the others. Just as Beth and Daryl did in 4B.

I’m not going to say too much about the beach theme. It does suggest something about the coast, and possibly Oceanside, but I'll leave it at that.

Alicia drives back to Strand’s mansion but everybody is gone. I did notice one thing that I didn't notice last week. I don't know if we never got this angle or if I just missed it, but there is a black and white horse artwork over the mantle.

The school bus is now on its side. We know from last episode that nobody was actually there when that happened. John and Strand are out looking for someone and Luciana went chasing after Charlie. Meanwhile June and Al are in Al’s truck. But the overturned truck reminded me a lot of 5x05 when the short bus crashes. Even in 4x10, Inmates, the bus wasn't on its side, but Maggie, Sasha, and Bob did find the bus wrecked on the side of the road.

And back to the “just gone” theory. At the end, Alicia tells Charlie that the others are “gone.” Once again, this is an example where we (the audience) KNOW the other characters are still alive. Alicia and Charlie don’t know it, but we do. And they’re being described as “gone.”

I think that's all I have for now. This is structurally REALLY feeling like a mirror of TWD 4b, and that’s where Bethyl first happened, so it gives me tons of hope. I really loved this episode and Fear is really given me the TD tingles lately. How did everyone else like the episode?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Grave Numbers in Alone

Okay Everyone! The genius of @wdway has struck again. Her numbers prowess is totally making my summer. We're gonna talk about the dates on the grave in Alone. A LOT of us have written theories about what these might represent. I think most of the theories out there have some merit, but like most things TD, they haven't been confirmed in a big way yet.

One of the things we talked about, especially during S7, was that we might see Beth in an episode that aired in November or December. Honestly, at least for me, that was less because of these dates and more because of 1) The St. Nicholas/Pickle theme (we saw a ridiculous amount of pickles in S7) and 2) the November calendar behind the Beth walker in Them.

Obviously November and December didn't work out for us in S7. Once she didn't show up in the MSF, we kind of let it go because we were still convinced she'd show up in S7. If she shows up in S8, the November/December dates still COULD be a thing, but so far it hasn't panned out very well for us. ;D

All that said, check this out:

The dates we see on the grave stone are November 12, 1837 and December 10, 1874.

Guess what, Bethyl junkies? This year's MSF (8x08) will air on December 10th. 

And--wait for it!--8x04 will air on November 12th. 

These dates haven't fallen on Sundays since before S4 aired, y'all. And we know Gimple has up until S15 at least planned out. Even if he didn't have that far planned out in S4 (I think he did, but whatevs) I'm sure he had planned out far enough to know which episode Beth would return in and could figure out the air dates.

Also remember the St. Nicholas/Christmas theme. After writing my St. Nick/Pickles Theory, I really didn't think the Christmas theme meant a literal Christmas date. In the legend, St. Nicholas's gift was to resurrect three boys (yes THREE) who had been murdered. And Daryl never got anything from Santa Clause, right?

So Daryl's gift from St. Nick will be Beth's resurrection. That doesn't mean it has to happen at Christmas time. It's all about the symbolism people. The St. Nick/Resurrection story really isn't about the holiday at all. It's about the man who was the saint.

But now, looking at these dates…hmm. I doubt it will be Christmas thing for the characters in the show, but it may still be Christmas time for us, the audience.

And understand, I still think there's a good chance we'll see Beth earlier in the season than that. Maybe as early as 8x01. But of course there's simply no way to know for sure.

The other possibility is that we, the audience will see her early on. Other characters might as well. (Remember that Carl brings Maggie the music box in 5x10 and all the parallels in 8x01 with him, Rick, the gas station, etc.) but maybe Daryl just won't see her until later. Remember, this is HIM receiving something from St. Nick. That's what his "I Never" in Still was about. It wasn't about Rick or Carl or even Maggie.

I've also always said that I think he'll see her at a distance at first, but not be able to get to her right away for whatever reason (remember Red Poncho Guy). So maybe he'll see her in the Nov 12 episode, but the two of them won't actually reunite until the Dec 10 episode, which incidentally is the MSF.

Given that the calendar behind the Beth walker in Them was seen by Maggie and Carol, but not Daryl, I think they'll see her first, in the November episode. We've said Carol will probably play a role in her return, so I think it's significant that it's Maggie and Carol at this part (who were also the two taken by Paula's group of Saviors in 6x13; yeah, not a coincidence).

Daryl probably won't until one of the December episodes. Maybe he'll finally reunite with her in the MSF, just as he should have been able to in Coda, but really didn't.

Oh, one other thing? The Nov 12 th episode (8x04) will be exactly three seasons after Slabtown. Perhaps another Beth-heavy episode? And of course the MSF will be exactly three seasons after Coda. Just saying.

So this was my big ah-hah moment last week when @wdway sent me this. But I'll also give you a little more, just for your info. @wdway started messing around with the numbers (her God-given talent) and came up with the following.

I think you guys know this, but just so were all on the same page: this will use season and episode designations (like 1x01 = season 1, episode 1) but also series numbers. So, there are 6 episodes in the first season, 13 in the second season, which = 19. So the series number for 3x01 = 20. Hope that makes sense.

So Alone, where we see the "Beloved Father" grave with these dates is episode 48 for the series. As many people have pointed out in the past, 1874-1837 =37. If you go forward 37 episodes from Alone (to series episode 85) that's 7x02, The Well. If you go backwards 37 episodes from Alone, it's 2x05, Chupacabra. It may not be entirely clear why these episodes might be important, but consider some facts in the plots of these episodes.

The Well is where Carol is healing from her injuries at the Kingdom, after being shot. Remember she begged that Savior to kill her, and you know, MORGAN SAVED HER. Basically, she came REALLY close to dying, but didn't. This is also the episode where she met the man who will probably be her long-term love interest. (Carzekiel for the win!)

For 2x05, it's where Daryl is injured and alone, and has to fight his way back to TF. He sees his apparently dead brother, who later turns up alive, and is shot in the head by Andrea, yet survives. Basically, he came close to dying but survived. It was even a head shot in his case. Throw in an Andrea parallel and I don't think you could ask for much more.

So then @wdway decided to add the two years together. 1837+1874 = 3711. Well, there's another 37. Don't know if that's on purpose, but in case it is, she thought she'd play around with the 11 as well.

11 Episodes back from Alone is 4x02, Infected. (May be a coincidence, but this is series episode 37, so both the 37 and the 11 are present here.) The biggest thing that jumped out at her here was that this is where we see Daryl digging graves. We have to side-eye that because all of the Bethyl-in-a-graveyard stuff.

(Keep in mind that they used Daryl digging the graves both as a promo image beforehand, and to make a Daryl figurine from. This image of him in an empty grave is important. And the scene itself is very small and short.) I'd also submit that there were lots of other parallels in that episode (see my re-watches for details) but I'll admit by itself it's not a super-big Beth or TD episode. At least, not on the surface. But…give us a second to convince you.

Forward 11 episodes from Alone is…um…Coda. So we have Daryl digging a grave 11 episodes back from Alone. We didn't actually see them put anyone in that grave. So it really was an empty grave. Then, 11 episodes forward from Alone was Coda, after which Beth's body disappeared, and she got no burial. See what I mean?

So then, just for good measure, she went 37 episodes forward from Coda. We get 7x13, Bury Me Here. Not only is the episode number the same (Alone = 4x13 and Bury Me Here = 7x13) but there's a graveyard/burial theme going on here. 7x13 is where Benjamin dies, Morgan kills and buries Richard (the S7 promo pic of the empty grave came from this episode) and I also believe we see Carol digging graves for walkers in that episode.

So, I've said before that I think Beth could show up at the Kingdom first. I'll admit I've gone back and forth about it. We have more evidence of her there than at the other communities. And I don't mean that I necessarily think we'll see her there first, but rather that after she's revealed, she may go to that community before Alexandria or Hilltop. There IS evidence of her at all the communities, to be fair. So I could be wrong. But there's just MORE there to suggest Beth than at the others.

@wdway got excited about what she found with these numbers because she also believes Beth will show up at the Kingdom first. I think she's more firm in her belief of that that I have been. And I gotta say, she's convincing me more and more. Think of it this way:

37 episodes (the difference between the years on the gravestone in Alone) from Alone is The Well, 7x02. 37 episodes from Coda was Bury Me Here, 7x13. Both were Kingdom episodes and Carol-heavy. Daryl wasn't in either one.

Meanwhile, it's Carol and Maggie that see the November calendar in Them. Not Daryl. Kind thinking Carol and Maggie will reunite with Beth in the November 12th episode at the Kingdom, y'all.

(And how does Maggie fit in? I don't know. It would be total conjecture to try and guess. I mean, they could do anything. Maggie could randomly go to the Kingdom to see Carol or swap supplies or something, and be there with Carol when Beth shows up. Or could be nothing like that. Who knows?)

Some other numbers:

Again, 11 episodes back from Coda is Alone. 37 episodes back from Coda is 3x03. This is where Merle shows up, alive and well after being presumed dead for two seasons.

November = 11th month, December = 12th month. 11+12 = 23.  23 episodes back from Alone is 3x06, Hounded. That's where Glenn and Maggie are taken by Merle (kidnapped and separated from TF) and where Daryl finds Carol after assuming she was dead for several days. (Remember Carol's knife/Beth's knife). And Michonne leaves Woodbury (the lair of the villain). That's important only because she reunites with TF after that. I'll come back to this point, because while going through all this, something else big hit me.

If we go 23 episodes past Alone, we get Here's Not Here, 6x04. So many parallels in that episode I don't want to name them all. But Gimple wrote that episode entirely. There's a major grave theme going on there as well with Eastman's graveyard.

She also tried using the days in the dates. Dec 10, Nov 12. 10+12 = 22.

22 Episodes before Alone = 3x07. We actually see Carol reunite with TF in this episode (yeah!) and Michonne finds TF.

So here was my big epiphany about Michonne in S3. We could relate this to Beth just in that Michonne leaves the imprisonment of Woodbury and finds TF. It's not really a reunion as this is the first time she's met them, but still. She has to survive on her own in the woods (Merle is trying hard to kill her) and she eventually makes it to TF.

Well, Rick and Carl are the first ones to see Michonne when she shows up at the prison (*coughs Rick and Carl at a gas station in 8x01*). But even more than that, we see Rick and Michonne lock eyes across the chain link fence here. Even that early, there were hints at their romance. Granted it took them…wait for it…THREE FREAKING SEASONS to finally hook up. And how many seasons is this past Coda again?

We all totally picked up the Bethyl parallels in 6x10 when Michonne and Rick finally got together romantically. Especially the entwined fingers. So I don't think it's a stretch to parallels the two relationships in other ways, even stretching back to S3.

Anyway, back to 3x07. @wdway also makes a good point about Carol, after reuniting with TF, having to be told who is alive and who is dead. She didn't know Lori had died (though she had a pretty good idea about T-Dog). And she didn't know Judith had survived.

I can see Beth needing to have a very similar conversation. Not about Lori, of course. But about Glenn. And everyone else she once knew (Sasha, Ty, Noah). And she never learned that Judith got out of the prison, so she'll be surprised Judith is still there.

Another parallel? In this episode Maggie is assaulted (nearly) by the Gov. This has been said before, but we can parallel Maggie/Glenn's imprisonment to Beth/Daryl's in many ways. Maggie/Beth both had to deal with the threat of rape. Glenn/Daryl were both beaten badly at some point. Even the order of events is eerily similar.

If you go forward 22 episodes from Alone, we get 6x03, Thank You. Glenn death fakeout anyone?

Okay, I think I'm gonna stop there. @wdway had more intricate details, but the short of it is that no matter what path you use with these numbers, you can see Beth's arc in it. The consistent characters we're seeing in these episode numbers are Beth, Daryl, Carol and Morgan. 

And I know there will be people that don't buy into the intricate math stuff. That's cool. Totally you're prerogative. But keep in mind what I said first: these dates on the Alone headstone haven't fallen on a Sunday since before Gimple took the reins. And Gimple is a careful enough planner, that I don't think most of these patterns can be ignored.

Either way, I'm super excited for S8. Anyone else? ;D

(Special thanks to @wdway for sharing her genius with us!)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

2017 Re-Watch: 7x11 - Hostiles and Calamities

So this is the episode where Eugene is taken into the sanctuary and becomes a card-carrying member of Negan's team. I talked about most of the symbols around Eugene already HERE. The lobster and the author he mentions are both indicative of Oceanside.

We also see pickles around him a lot in this episode. (X, X) In fact, I believe it was this episode that led me to formulate the whole Eugene/Pickles/St. Nicholas theory. 

In his fridge are apples, mustard, pickles, water bottles (reminds me of Aaron leaving water bottles for TF in 5x10; remember Eugene tried to test them) and a lot of greens. 

We also see alcohol bottles. Most are brown, but one, in the back (kind of hidden) is obviously green.

We also see the dartboard in his room. It's different than the ones we seen in the past because it's all yellow with no green or red on it. I'll come back to that.

There's a foreshadow when Negan asks Dwight (who's in Daryl's cell as punishment for Daryl's escape) "You gonna change your stripes on me, Dwighty-Boy?" Dwight answers and spends the rest of the episode convincing Negan that he is loyal. But it's a foreshadow that Dwight would change his stripes and go over to help Rick and TF. At one point, Negan asks "who are you?" Dwight immediately replies, "I'm Negan." So once again we have evidence that he's the anti-Daryl.

The doctor says, "You get it," which mirrors Beth's line. "I get it now." And it works well because many people have theorized that Beth meant she understood the corruption of the system and what was expected from one to stay alive. He truly understood the Grady system in all its hypocrisies. The doctors uses it the same way here. He recognizes that Dwight knows what it takes to survive under Negan's rule.

Of course, Dwight's car is almost exactly the same as Beth's.

Here's something intriguing:

Not only does a fish point to Oceanside but there's things hidden in it. Which might show something hidden will come out of Oceanside. Dwight pulls both cigarettes and Sherry's note (a major parallel to Beth's journal and thank you note) from the fish. This feels like a symbolic way of saying Beth (and perhaps Sherry?) will come out of Oceanside.

When Dwight takes off to go to the cabin and look for Sherry, the camera pans down so we can see his reflection in the puddle on the ground. (I'm not sure if it's meant to be water or blood; it's in the parking lot where Joey was killed) but you can't really see Dwight very well. The reflection is dark and murky, and he almost looks like Daryl. Not sure what they're going for, but it's interesting.

When Eugene is with this blond chick, she says, "beer, bread, cut your head.” For the record, beer = moonshine, Beth's name means bread or house of bread, and the “cut your head” bit is pretty obvious, yeah? She also says it's his lucky day. (Luck Theory) And she gets him the pickles. Lots of interesting symbols there.

Eugene specifically says he doesn't have an eidetic memory. That means a photographic memory. I feel like there's some symbolism in that. We see a photograph of Sheri and Dwight, and we've seen some other pictures throughout the seasons, but I also wonder if we could somehow link it to Beth's memory loss. I'm not sure exactly how and maybe I'm reaching, but it jumped out at me as kind of a strange reference to throw in.

Eugene also mentions T. Brooks Ellis again when he starts reciting his same old story from before about the cure. I'm not sure if it's important that he says the name again, but remember that there were 3 names on the sign that Aaron and Rick found, as well as for the man Eastman killed. It's kinda suspicious that he says the name again but I'm not sure what it necessarily portends. Maybe a callback to S5/Self Help, which was happening concurrent with Grady?

 Eugene tells Negan to use metal to protect the walkers and weld them to the fence. It's the fulfillment of a foreshadow from S6.  

He particularly emphasizes that it will protect the head from trauma and then adds in, "from hostiles and calamities." Sounds like a Beth reference.

Okay, so check out these two references. “The bulk of my work for the HGP fell under the auspices of the Black Box Program…” As an idiom, that just means it was top secret ad he couldn't talk about it. But I wondered if it could mean anything more. Look at this:

So I'm side-eyeing the fact that it means the inner workings are hidden (that could be a Beth thing) and also notice that it mentions the human brain.

The “opaque” bit reminds me of the blurry blond we saw in the 6b promo pics:

I also noticed that a Savior comes out while Eugene is getting ready to set off his fire works. The girls call him Keno. I wondered if there was meaning in that. Some definitions I found for the word Keno:

1 – A game of luck or chance. (Luck Theory anyone?)

2 – Someone who doesn’t take shit from anyone.

3 – The base of the word “kenosis” which is a word from Christian culture meaning to “empty oneself” and be totally open to God’s will.

Not sure what they’re going for, but kind of interesting definitions.

We can add Dwight's cabin here to the cabin motif. It looks like the moonshine shack and the cabin in the picture when Tyreese died. Then the cabin that Carol is now living at outside the kingdom.

So something occurred to me while watching this: this is the fourth cabin we've seen like that and it's also the fourth instance of the dartboard I can think of. Not really sure what to make of that, other than the first cabin and dartboard appearing in Still, which was in season four. S8 will be 4 seasons later. And the dartboard is yellow which = escape. Just an observation.

HERE's my original analysis on Sherry's note and all of the symbols in the cabin, including beer and pretzels. Beer obviously links to Still. Pretzels have a very Christian connotation. One of the notes mentions goldfish which is a and Oceanside/fish reference.

 Check out: Comparing Voice Overs and How it Helps TD. 

At one point in her note, Sherry says, "You're lucky you don't remember things. D." Jumped out at me because of The Lucky Theory, as well as a memory sort of thing.

I had someone asked me to do a Master Post on parallels between Bethyl and Sherry/Dwight and also between Bethyl and Amber/Mark. I haven't gotten around to it yet and I can't promise I will before the season starts (though I'll try).

Sherry specifically tells Dwight that she felt like she was dead, and that's why she had to leave. She said the sanctuary was not worse than death. Being there was worse. So she had to let leave in order to live emotionally. I'm just thinking that with all the other Sherry/Beth parallels, we have her separating from Dwight in order to gain emotional strength.

For Amber, we found out that her mom needed meds, and that's why she became one of Negan's wives. That MIGHT correlate to Beth. We can't say for sure until we see her again and know what her medical condition is, but it also strikes me that Tina needed meds, which is why she, Sherry and Dwight left to begin with. We've known for a long time that Tina is a proxy to Beth. So, if both Tina and Amber, who seem like parallels a Beth, needed meds, chances are Beth will need them in some capacity too.

Another possible parallel with Amber is that the other two wives told Eugene that Amber wanted to commit suicide. It wasn't actually true (that we know of; she definitely seems depressed). They just wanted Eugene to make the pill so they could kill Negan. But we have a case where somebody says she wants to commit suicide but it's not really true. It seems like a season 3 to Beth reference because Andrea said Beth thought she wanted to commit suicide, but really she wanted to live.

The lady Eugene took stuff from (including the grumbling gunk), her number was 16. We've seen that number a lot since Coda and it's probably important that it's around Eugene. It generally means life and reunion with TF. More evidence that Eugene's arc will be entangled with Beth in some way.

It's also significant that Dwight says Sherry died. That gives yet another parallel between Daryl and Beth because Daryl thinks Beth died, but really she's alive somewhere and just missing.

Also, Dwight was responsible for getting Dr. Carson killed, right? So, to save Sherry, Dwight frames the doctor. That's an anti-parallel to Grady. In that case, the doctor (Edwards) framed Beth to survive. Given the Dwight and Sherry are the anti-Bethyl this anti-parallel works well.

I also think that we have a foreshadow of Dwight's death here. Don't know if he'll die soon or not for several seasons, but I think I might know how. Before killing Dr. Carson, Negan says that if Dwight is lying and Sherry is alive out there somewhere, he'll find her and then burn Dwight's face until he dies. I don't think Dwight is particularly worried about that right now but it feels like a dialogue foreshadow. Negan will probably find out sooner or later that Dwight lied about Sherry and kill him for it.

HERE'S is my post about all the different songs that were in this episode. Most are very suspicious and have lots of potential TD symbols.

That's it for this episode. Thoughts?