As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Horror
- The Tuunbaq stays put and doesn’t go around killing everything that moves because of the Sixam Ieua that commune with it. But the Inuit that live in that region are eventually forced to leave, and their practices won’t last forever. What happens when the last of those Inuit leave, and the Tuunbaq has no one to worship it? Does it just stay and not do anything or is it going to go south and start mass murdering populations closer to civilization?
- The book states that Tuunbaq will die of poisoning from eating the souls of foreigners, and with its death the native culture and polar icecaps will disappear with it.
- Furthermore, eventually the wrecks will be found in universe, meaning eventually someone else will happen upon the dead Tuunbaq one way or another.
- In the show, Goodsir takes a picture of Franklin and his men outside of the hunting blind, right before they enter it and the monster attacks. During this scene, snow can be seen falling from the ice onto the blind. Moments later, Tuunbaq attacks from the exact place the snow fell from. The monster was right there, watching them the entire time, waiting for a good opportunity to strike.
- When Silna's father is being prepped for burial, Goodsir makes sure the crew leave behind the ivory talismans they find on his body out of respect, so that they can be buried with him. Silna later panics when she can't find those same talismans with his effects, and it's implied she needs them for managing the Tuunbaq. The idea that you can do something out of what you think is kindness and decency, and it only causes suffering because you don't understand the customs of others.
- A grim case of Foreshadowing: at the beginning of "A Mercy" while discussing the shoddy canning process which has led to much of the tinned food going putrid, Doctor MacDonald wearily says of the owner of the company that he'd 'like to run that man through'. By the end of the episode...
Fridge Brilliance
- During a meeting of the officers in the first episode, Crozier is trying to drive home the point that the Arctic is an unforgiving and hostile environment, stating that "As a trusted friend once put it, this place wants us dead." Fitzjames makes a snarky comment about Crozier's friend. Crozier reacts harshly, slamming a fist onto the table hard enough to knock the lid off a serving bowl and giving Fitzjames a Death Glare before lecturing him about his lack of Arctic experience. It seems like an unusually strong reaction, until we learn who the "trusted friend" is a few episodes later: Sophia Cracroft. Fitzjames wasn't just insulting a friend of Crozier's, he was insulting the woman Crozier loves. No wonder Crozier was pissed.
