OK so I wrote about Below like a minute ago, the Netflix series with the sea monster and the secrets and all that glorious ominous wet atmosphere. Great show. Loved it. And now people are digging into the actual truth about the monster and I need everyone to pay attention, because it's apparently way stranger than any of us assumed.

So here's what I assumed going in, and maybe you did too: some giant impossible fish. That was my brain's whole theory, just, fish. Big one. Mystery scales. I will fully admit that was my assumption and not anything the show told me, and I was happy to run with it! I'm not going to tell you what the truth actually is, because I genuinely can't without spoiling one of the best parts of the season, and I already ruined enough of my own viewing experience by yelling at my roommate mid-episode.

What I can tell you is that the folks at Comic Basics put together a full breakdown of what the creature really is, and the short version of their pitch is right there in the headline: the truth is far stranger than you think. The show itself is delightfully cagey about the thing, with the townsfolk referring to it only as 'Mudder' without anyone spelling out exactly what it is, which I kind of love? A monster with a name and no species file is a monster doing its job correctly.

What I love about this whole situation is that it makes the show better on a rewatch, which is basically the highest compliment I can give any TV. Once you know what the thing actually is, everything reads differently. The monster works as a genuine mystery with an answer, not just a jump-scare machine, and the answer apparently recontextualizes the whole thing. That's rare! Usually TV monsters are just vibes and fog machines.

Anyway. Watch Below if you haven't, then read the Comic Basics explainer, then watch Below again, in that order, and thank me later. Preferably from somewhere very far from any icebergs.