As a Fridge page, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance:
- The one-eyed pickled infant in Clem's office is pointedly named Enoch. In Jewish and Christian literature, there are two significant Enochs:
- The pre-flood Patriarch who it is said "did not see death" (which may be referenced by the baby's blind-yet-all-seeing eye);
- The son of Cain, the first murderer. Perhaps more signifcant, in that like Cain, Stan is fleeing his own guilty conscience, and bringing misfortune to those he meets. According to the scriptures Enoch's birth precipitated the building of a city (founded by himself or his father), which chimes with Enoch the pickled baby passing between the hands of people trying to run a carnival business.
- It's also a recurring motif in Del Toro's films, such as the preserved babies in The Devil's Backbone, the tumour child in Hellboy II: The Golden Army or even Deadman being associated with the Breach Babies in Death Stranding.
- The carnival manager that Stan approaches in the final scene is wearing a St. Christopher medallion, the same as Sheriff Jedediah Judd wore in the scene where Stan placated him. It provides a thematic underline to the point that Stan has gone from the trickster to the tricked, but the symbolism of the object itself also connects. St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, famously attempted to carry a child across the river, only for said child to become heavier and heavier, until he recognised him as Christ in disguise. Likewise, Stan's travels have come to a permanent end, a moment after he recognises another "holy" child (the preserved Enoch).
- Apart from the name, Stan also remembers the legend of Enoch (the one in the jar) was that he killed his mother in childbirth. This is another dark reflection, in that when Stan fooled Sheriff Judd he did so with a phony "message" from Judd's deceased mother; and, of course, we know by this point that Stan killed one of his own parents.
- When Stan and Clem leave "The Geek" to die in an alleyway outside the clinic, a neon sign sits in the background - a crucifix bearing the words "JESUS SAVES". As they pull up in the car, the letters "JES" flicker out, leaving "US" and "AVES" heading in opposite directions. "Aves" refers to birds in Latin and particularly to poultry in Spanish (Guillermo Del Toro's native language).
- In one direction go expendable creatures, like the Geek or the chickens he killed, and in the other goes "Us" - cruel exploiters like Stan and Clem. A reflection of the events of that scene (their parting ways with the Geek) and a dark foreshadowing of Stan's own grim fate: no matter what direction they go, chickens and men end up in the same place.
- Not to mention the image itself reflects the work a geek does - "JES" flickering out is not unlike a chicken's head being bitten off.
