GET $150 CREDIT: As of Feb. 20,buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (256GB) at Amazon and get a $150 promotional credit at checkout.
Opens in a new window
Credit: Amazon
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (256GB)
$1,003.30, plus $150 Amazon promotional credit
If you’re looking to buy a new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a solid choice and a conversation starter. Folding phones are so rare now that if someone sees you using it they’ll undoubtedly ask questions, and boom! You’ve made a new friend. Even if you aren’t looking to meet new faces, there are still plenty of reasons to grab one of these bad boys – the number one reason being you get $150 credit with your purchase at Amazon today.
As of Feb. 20, when you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 (256GB) at Amazon for $1,003.30, you can get $150 back in promotional credit. That essentially makes the phone just $853.30, considering you can spend that cash back on other goodies at Amazon. Just be sure to hit the “Redeem” button on the store page before you check out.
SEE ALSO:
Is your iPhone secure? How to check your privacy settings
This phone, an incremental upgrade from the Z Flip 4, features a 6.7-inch AMOLED inner display, a 3.4-inch cover display, 8GB of RAM, 256GB or 512 GB of storage space (you can get this size for $984.97 without the promotional credit), a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, and a 3,700 mAh battery. But its most exciting feature is the fact that it’s an honest-to-goodness modern flip phone with an external screen that you can customize with a wide variety of widgets.
Mashable’s Alex Perry called the Z Flip 5 a “worthwhile investment” for folks looking for a foldable phone. In his review, Perry praised the phone’s Flex Window as a novel addition to the smartphone, but noted that it isn’t necessary to “look at the weather or count steps.” It’s a bit gimmicky, as Perry notes, but it’s a great folding phone if that’s what you’re looking for.
And now that you can get $150 back, it’s a good time to go ahead and buy it now.
SAVE $50: The Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) is just $79 at Amazon, marked down from the normal price of $129. That’s a 39% discount.
Opens in a new window
Credit: Apple
Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)
$79 at Amazon (save $50)
Our digital age comes with some serious advantages, like having almost anything delivered to our doorsteps in a matter of hours. But occasionally, it’s worth going back to the basics. If you ever miss the days of handwriting a letter or scribbling in the margins during a lecture, today’s deal is just for you.
As of Feb. 20, the Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) is just $79 at Amazon, down from the normal price of $129. That’s a savings of $50 or a discount of 39%. This deal brings the Apple Pencil back down to the lowest price we’ve ever seen at Amazon.
The Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) is designed to be the perfect accompaniment to an Apple iPad for those who wish to write, sketch, or draw. Apple’s aim of the pencil is to feel as natural as it would to write on paper with pencil like we did in the old days. The 2nd Gen Apple Pencil is compatible with iPad Air, iPad mini, and iPad Pro models.
The Pencil comes with low latency so you won’t feel any lag as you jot down notes. It’s designed with tilt sensitivity, which can be handy for shading sketches or making the most brilliant doodle you’ve ever taken while sitting in class. It also supports Apple Pencil hover on the iPad Pro which allows you to preview your mark so you can ensure it’s the right move before it ends up on the tablet.
If you have concerns about misplacing the most expensive pencil you’ve ever owned, Apple sorted that out for us. The Pencil attaches magnetically onto the side of your iPad, so the two will always stay safely together.
Whether you’re a student looking to add notes to class materials or an artist looking to design a new medium, the Apple Pencil (2nd Gen) aims to please with accuracy down to the pixel. Score the Apple Pencil for just $79 at Amazon and let creativity take hold.
Apple should just start its own jewelry line at this point.
After several years of dominating the smartwatch market, Apple is reportedly considering the development of a smart ring similar to the already-launched Oura ring. This information was disclosed by an “industry insider” to Korean outlet ETNews.
Keep in mind, however, that Apple Insider has noted that ETNews doesn’t have a particularly strong track record in predicting Apple’s future ventures.
SEE ALSO:
Apple faces €500m fine from EU over Spotify complaint
The sourcing is admittedly thin, but Apple does have several patents related to smart rings. One could theoretically use the Apple Ring to control other Apple devices. Plus, as one might expect, it’ll likely help you keep an eye on your health metrics, aid with location tracking, and more.
It almost certainly won’t do as much as an Apple Watch due to the lack of a real screen, but hey, it might be more stylish.
Oura has already been in the smart ring business for a few years now, while Samsung teased its own “Galaxy Ring” at Unpacked earlier this year. Whether you like it or not, it seems like this is the way the wearable business is going.
The long holiday weekend commemorating Presidents’ Day has come and gone, but some of the best deals still remain. If you’re shopping for new sheets, a mattress that doesn’t cause back pain, or a new refrigerator, you’re still in luck. Here are some of the best lingering Presidents’ Day sales to shop today.
While it’s probably less than thrilling to be back at work after a long weekend, there’s a bright spot — some great Presidents’ Day sales are still live. If you’re looking to upgrade your home’s appliances, your home office, or gift yourself something nice as a congratulations for crawling out of winter, some excellent deals await. Here are some of today’s best Presidents’ Day Sales to shop if you’re looking for big savings.
If you’re in need of a new laptop, look no further than the HP Pavilion Laptop 15t-eg300, 15.6-inch (Intel Core i7-1355U, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD) which is currently marked down to just $549.99 from the normal price of $1,009.99. The 15.6-inch screen means you’ll be ready to tackle any spreadsheet or presentation. The 16 GB RAM means you’re good to go for multi-tasking and charging for just 45 minutes can replenish up to 50% of the battery.
More Presidents’ day tech deals that are still live:
Up to 70% off select ThinkPad laptops at Lenovo
Up to 43% off Google Pixel Watches at Amazon
Best home deal
Opens in a new window
Credit: LG
Our pick: LG 22.7 Cu. Ft. 4-Door French Door Counter-Depth refrigerator (stainless steel)
$1,699.99 at Best Buy (save $800)
Why we like it
If your refrigerator was on its last legs this past holiday season, the LG 4-Door French Door Counter-Depth refrigerator is sure to be the upgrade your kitchen is asking for. The modern look of a counter-depth fridge means you’ll get some floor space back in the kitchen and this model features a double freezer drawers, so you’ll no longer have to wonder if there’s enough space to stock up on frozen pizzas. The interior filtered water dispenser is convenient for keeping the family hydrated.
More home deals:
Up to 50% off home office furniture at Wayfair
Up to 55% off bedroom furniture at Wayfair
Get up to $200 in Best Buy gift Cards with select Samsung refrigerators
Best mattress deal
Opens in a new window
Credit: Nectar
Our pick: Nectar Premier mattress (queen)
$949 at Nectar (save $550)
Why we like it
The memory foam Nectar Premier mattress could spell a great night’s sleep. The 13-inch tall mattress has three layers of foam for pressure relief and motion isolation. The materials are meant to excel in both cooling and comfort. In a queen size, the Nectar Premier is just $949, marked down from the normal price of $1,499. The quilted cover could also be great for anyone who often overheats at night.
More mattress deals to shop today:
Up to $800 off mattress + base sets at Purple
Save $300 on WinkBed mattresses
Up to 35% off at Nolah Sleep
Save up to $350 on select Sealy mattresses at Wayfair
There’s nothing that lulls you to sleep quite like fresh sheets, and the Brooklinen Classic Percale Hardcore Sheet Bundle is everything you need for the perfect bed. The bundle includes a fitted sheet, flat sheet, four pillowcases, and a duvet cover. It’s made with Brooklinen’s percale weave that’s lightweight and durable. One of the best features is the fitted sheet’s labeling of the “long” and “short” side, so you’ll no longer have to get frustrated while making the bed.
More sheet deals:
Up to 65% off at Coyuchi with code PRESDAY
Up to 25% off at Cozy Earth
Best speaker deal
Opens in a new window
Credit: Ultimate Ears
Our pick: Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 (2-pack)
$149.98 at Ultimate Ears (save $50)
Why we like it
What could be better than one portable Bluetooth speaker? Two, of course. The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 (2-pack) pairs together for the ultimate listening experience. Each speaker gets up to 14 hours of playtime, so the party never has to end. Plus, the speakers are dust and water resistant which means they’re ready for any adventure, whether it’s a backyard barbecue or a weekend camping trip.
Connections is the latest New York Times word game that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for February 20’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
Tweet may have been deleted
Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
Tweet may have been deleted
Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Spoilsport
Green: Music composition
Blue: Some liquid
Purple: Veggies that aren’t veggies
Featured Video For You
Connections: How to play and how to win
Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Party Pooper
Green: Musical Sections
Blue: Bit of Liquid
Purple: Vegetable Homophones
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to Connections #254 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
Party Pooper: BORE, DRAG, DRIP, DUD
Musical Section: BRASS, RHYTHM, STRING, WIND
Bit of Liquid: BEAD, DROP, GLOB, TEAR
Vegetable Homophones: BEAT, CHARRED, LEAK, PEE
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday’s Connections.
Where my bitches at? No, but seriously – where the heck are they at? Long an essential ingredient in the frothy mocktail of the teen high school movie, the mean girls of movies like Heathers and the original Mean Girlswere an over-the-top celebration of bitchery. (“Boo, you whore,” is one of Mean Girls’ most lasting gifts to pop culture for a reason.) That unrepentant vibe was as vital to the formula’s successful recipe as its iconic costumes, cute dumb boys, and killer needle drops.
But those remorseless characters seem to have gone extinct as of late. No longer are we allowed to simply fuck a chainsaw gently. Now we have to have feelings about it. And the girls have to become friends after it all. Where’s the fun in that?
So, in 2024’s musical version of Mean Girls, our queen bee Regina George (the radiant Reneé Rapp) gets an entire song dedicated to her complicated feelings for her ex Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney). Suddenly, complex Regina is far more compelling than sweet-then-salty Cady Heron (an underwhelming Angourie Rice) as Tina Fey sands down the sharp edges of Tina Fey’s original film. Tina might be dropping the c-bomb on podcasts, but her characters sure ain’t, perhaps fearing putting off modern audiences.
Yet 25 years ago today we reached what some may consider apex teen bitchiness with writer/director Darren Stein’s 1999 pitch-black teen murder comedy Jawbreaker. Dropping jaws before Regina George was even a twinkle in Fey’s eye, Jawbreaker serves up a technicolor celebration of meanness without a hint of remorse.
Stein himself called the film“candy color goth,” and it’s easy to see why. ’90s uber-bitch Rose McGowan – fresh off honing her catty chops as Amy in The Doom Generation and Tatum in Scream – stars as Courtney Shayne, the head harridan of Reagan High. And this role strutted McGowan right into the she-devil hall of fame.
SEE ALSO:
Queer horror finds its queen in ‘All About Evil’
Jawbreaker broke the bitch mold.
Courtney begins the movie as the meanest of the mean girls in her clique, alongside pals Julie (Rebecca Gayheart), Marcie (Julie Benz), and “the Princess Di of Reagan High,” Liz Purr (Charlotte Ayanna). But Courtney goes from H.B.I.C. to homicidal when she shoves a giant jawbreaker down Liz’s throat during a prank birthday kidnapping gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Liz is dead before this trio of teenage pussycats can even pull her cooling body out of the car trunk for celebratory pancakes. A most sour development indeed, but one that Courtney meets with casual, hilariously eye-rolling indifference. (McGowan has said she drew her inspiration from cinema’s foundational female sociopath, Gene Tierney’s femme fatale Ellen Berent in the 1945 Technicolor noir Leave Her To Heaven.)
With blood on her hands to match her perfectly chosen lip color, Courtney takes the crown as the clique’s queen bee and, unchained by Liz’s do-gooder reputation, is finally loosed to be all the bitch she can be. And her schemes — like her mood swings — are legion. To divert suspicion from herself, she convinces everyone sweet Liz was actually their school’s very own Laura Palmer, with a secret lust for dangerous older men that led to her death.
And just to make it sing, Courtney frames a local creep (played by international real-life creep and McGowan’s then-boyfriend Marilyn Manson) for the crime. Not only does she have sex with the rando in Liz’s bed to plant the clueless dude’s DNA all across the murder scene, but she also tucks Liz’s corpse underneath the bed as she does the vile deed. (The movie originally got an NC-17 because of this scene, though once Stein trimmed a few of the slow-motion thrusts, the MPAA was placated. But don’t worry — its stomach-churning seediness nevertheless remains.)
Things get even more complicated when wallflower Fern Mayo (Judy Greer) stumbles upon Courtney’s machinations and is drawn into the popular girl’s diabolical web. That’s when Courtney finally commits her most unforgivable crime of all; she weaponizes that most holy relic of the teen movie, the makeover, for evil. Courtney agrees to give Fern the full femme makeover in return for keeping her yap shut. Picture if in Clueless Cher and Dionne had pushed Tai down the stairs after dying her hair, and you’ll feel something close to the correct amount of betrayal. There’s no coming back from such blasphemy!
Not even the Heathers of Heathers ever got that nasty. Sure, Heather Chandler fucked with the eagles and flew herself right into her glass coffee table. But that was ultimately a dude’s doing. In the end, Veronica finds some form of redemption by blowing up bad boy J.D. instead of their high school, saving the day for all the remaining Heathers and all of the Martha Dumptrucks.
For her part, Courtney is ultimately taken down by the tag team of reformed mean girls Fern and Julie, all thanks to that cutting-edge ’90s technology known as the birthday card with a voice recorder in it. When Courtney’s murder confession gets blasted for the entire school to hear as she’s triumphantly crowned prom queen, her chickens come home to roost in the form of a rain of corsages coming down on her screeching, mascara-smeared head.
Rose McGowan and Ethan Erickson get kinky with a popsicle in “Jawbreaker.” Credit: Columbia Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock
Jawbreaker‘s Courtney is a queen among cinema bitches.
Before she’s forced to do the walk of shame and recreate the album cover of Live Through This (Stein has confessed he did indeed name his protagonist after the lead singer of Hole), there’s something so deliciously liberating in Courtney’s defiant embrace of total and absolute bitchery. She’s our mean girl Prometheus, flying too high and too bright, her make-up and tiara melting from the intense heat of her own destructive power. Her comeuppance gives the movie a happy ending of sorts, yet Courtney gave us a viciousness we could live through vicariously.
Give us the fire of Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs in The Craft, smashing that sop Robin Tunney into a wall as she cackles with all the delicious power that the devil’s put in her. Give us Sarah Michelle Gellar grinding on the crotch of her stepbrother Ryan Phillippe and sniffing cocaine out of her crucifix in Cruel Intentions.
Or to take it back to the ur-bitch, the sacred text from which all modern teen movie bitches are based, give us Nancy Allen as Chris in Brian De Palma’s Carrie. Blowing Billy Nolan (John Travolta, no less!) to manipulate him into doing her dirty business; licking her lips as she tugs on the rope tied to the bucket of pig’s blood suspended over poor pink-dressed Sissy Spacek’s head. Her meanness is an aphrodisiac! Now that’s a bitch who got it done.
There is no Carrie without Chris. There is no goody-two-shoes yin without their equal and opposite bad girl yang. What we make up for with all of these “well-rounded human beings” now we lose in sneering, stomping, diabolically plotting entertainment value. Giving the Maleficents a heart-tugging backstory can only take us so far. At some point you’ve just got to transform yourself into a dragon and burn the whole damn castle to the ground.
In much the same way that the queer community has come around to embrace the stereotypical “sissies” and villains that were the only representation we had for so long, there can be profound power in accepting and enjoying the retrograde pleasures of watching nasty women take what they want — and doing so unapologetically. (The vector overlap should be noted here; we queers carry a century of cinema’s bitches on our shoulders like they’re our football heroes.)
So what if celebrating the bitches might not be “good” for us? There’s great good to be had in giving our badness room to breathe. The movies are there for it! They’re meant (at least in part) to be our buried ids safely and healthily unleashed. Our biggest and nastiest fantasies sprung out of our brains, given vivid million-dollar technicolor life.
And for this it’s in the Courtneys, gum-snapping and gun-snatching, that I will always trust. Because as that queen said herself: Life might be full of sad, fucked-up things, but you are going to walk into that school and strut your shit down the hallway like everything is peachy fucking keen.
The U.S. isn’t the only place that has problems with TikTok.
In a Monday press release, the European Commission (the EU’s executive branch) announced a formal probe into TikTok’s compliance (or lack thereof) with the Digital Services Act. The act, which was approved late last year and went into effect on Jan. 1, exists to legislate against things like illegal content, disinformation, and targeted advertising.
SEE ALSO:
Is the meet cute dead? TikTok has thoughts.
The press release includes a handy bullet-point list of things the EU is looking into, such as TikTok’s potential use of algorithmic systems to encourage addictive behavior, or what it calls a “rabbit hole effect.” In other words, they’re worried about if TikTok does too much to force you to keep looking at it. Other points of concern include privacy and safety for minors, advertising transparency, and proper age verification for users.
The investigation will dive into whether TikTok is effectively protecting children, highlighting age verification as a potentially insufficient safeguard.
If TikTok is found to be in violation of any DSA policies, it may have to fork over as much as 6 percent of its annual turnover, per TechCrunch. In a statement given to TechCrunch, TikTok said it will cooperate with the investigation, claiming it has already responded to previous European Commission requests and even put forward plans for its child safety people to meet with EU officials. According to TikTok, these moves have not been met with response from the Commission.
That’s heavy stuff for an app that’s mostly people doing viral dances.
If you’re watching True Detective: Night Country, chances are you’ve been glued to the screen scanning for clues like we are. And that means you’re onto the spirals.
In the fourth season of the HBO series, this time helmed by showrunner Issa López, police chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and state trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) can’t stop finding these symbols in their investigation.
SEE ALSO:
‘True Detective: Night County’s Isabella Star LaBlanc and Anna Lambe on Indigenous representation
It’s not the first time we’ve seen sinister spirals in this show. As Mashable’s Kristy Puchko points out, “In Season 1 of True Detective, spirals were a creepy recurring symbol tied to the Yellow King and his mystical murder spree.”
But what do the spirals mean? It’s one of the burning questions we have for the season (along with those polar bears and what the hell that ungodly corpsicle is). Let’s track them down in an act that will make a true armchair detective of us all.
Episode 1
Evidence processing in spiral form. Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
Danvers makes the first spiral in the season herself as she’s processing evidence related to the disappearance of the scientists from the remote Tsalal Arctic Research Station and the murder of Iñupiaq activist Annie Masu Kowtok (Nivi Pedersen). She inadvertently makes a spiral pattern of her printouts, finding her way to the pink parka jacket that will connect the cases before the actual spiral symbol starts showing up. Danvers and Navarro make a similar spiral processing evidence in episode 3.
Episode 2
Clark’s creepy caravan has a giant spiral on the ceiling. Credit: Michele K. Short / HBO
After the discovery of the corpiscle, Danvers sweeps snow off the forehead of one of the frozen scientists and uncovers a spiral on the corpse’s skin. Later, when Rose Aguineau (Fiona Shaw) is talking with Navarro, she asks whether the trooper saw the shape. When Navarro says she vaguely remembers seeing it before, Rose draws the shape in the snow and explains, “It’s old, missy. Older than Ennis. It’s older than the ice, probably.”
Navarro remembers Annie had a tattoo of a spiral. She shows Danvers a picture of the design, proving the connection between their cases. Danvers begrudgingly follows the lead and asks a former worker from the Tsalal facility, Beatrice (L’xeis Diane Benson), about the symbol, who supposes it to be linked to witchcraft or a “devil sign.” Her colleague Blair (Kathryn Wilder) says she doesn’t recognise it either.
Noooope. Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
Later in the episode, Danvers figures out that one of the Tsalal scientists, Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell), had gotten a spiral tattoo on his chest four days after Annie’s body was found. The tattoo artist tells Danvers that Clark cried for “sentimental” reasons when he had it done, and shares the photo Clark gave as a design reference; it’s a photo of the tattoo on Annie’s back, and one that indicates Clark and Annie were lovers.
Now officially teamed up on the cases, Danvers and Navarro find their way to Clark’s creepy trailer, where a giant spiral (among other things) has been scrawled on the ceiling — above a woven, life-sized doll lying on the bed. By the end of the episode, they’ve figured out Clark’s actually alive.
Episode 3
Spiraling. Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
When Navarro is asking hairdresser Susan (Bridie Trainor) about Annie, she mentions Annie had showed Clark her tattoo when they first met, and that he was “fixated on it.” Susan explains Annie came up with the design after seeing the spiral in recurring dreams in high school. “She got the tattoo, the dreams stopped,” she says.
In the very last moments of the episode, when officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) hacks into Annie’s phone, he shows Navarro and Danvers a video from it, a recording of her last moments alive in the ice caves we’ve only seen in the opening credits. After a terrible scream, Annie seems to drop her phone, which continues to film the cave ceiling — where a spiral skeleton of some form of prehistoric sea creature can be seen embedded in the ice. Coincidence?
Episode 4
Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
When consulted by Danvers and Navarro, teacher Adam Bryce (Donnie Keshawarz) identifies the spiral skeleton as that of a prehistoric whale, preserved in ice caves near Ennis.
When Navarro and Prior investigate Oliver Tagaq’s (Lance Karmer) place in the nomad camp on Christmas Eve, they find a drawing of the spiral on cardboard on the floor and a stone carved with the symbol, a petroglyph, sitting in the drawing’s centre. Navarro takes the stone and asks the residents if they know what it means — they refuse to answer and stand in unison, defensively. Later, she leaves the stone accidentally at Eddie Qavvik’s (Joel D. Montgrand).
SEE ALSO:
Every ‘True Detective: Night Country’ opening credits clue you may have missed
In the dilapidated dredge, Navarro and Danvers find a giant spiral drawn on the walls before they find missing Tsalal engineer Otis Heiss (who survived the same type of injuries as the scientists but earlier).
Episode 5
When Navarro’s doing laundry, Qavvik brings her the spiral stone she left behind, along with his friend who tells her, “My grandpa, he told me to walk away when I saw those. People would leave them as a warning for hunters,” he says. “Places where the ice would swallow them whole.” He’s referring to the underground ice caves they’ve been searching for, referred to as the Night Country.
Episode 6
After finding the caves and chasing their prime suspect, Clark, through them, Navarro and Danvers discover the underground lab where the Tsalal scientists murdered Annie. On the ceiling, they find the whale skeleton, marking the site. Later, when Navarro and Danvers are taking a break in the Tsalal Arctic Research Facility, Navarro reflects on her mother and sister’s tendency to peel oranges in a spiral. Danvers later does exactly this and arranges the peel on her plate in the symbol we’ve seen.
Even later, when the pair finally figure out what happened to the scientists from questioning former Tsalal worker Beatrice (L’xeis Diane Benson), there’s a spiral in her story. When the Iñupiaq women of Ennis herded the scientists into a truck, drove them out to the ice, and forced them to take off their clothes, Beatrice drew a spiral on Annie’s initial attacker Anders Lund’s (Þorsteinn Bachmann) head, instantly connecting the soon-to-be-frozen scientists with the murder — linking Danvers and Navarro’s investigations and pointing them in the right direction.
What do the spirals in True Detective mean?
At its most surface-level, the spiral symbol physically connects the murder of Annie Masu Kowtok with the frozen scientists, including Clark. Beatrice’s decision to mark one of Annie’s murderers with the sign meant Danvers and Navarro linked their cases, but it also led them to discover Annie and Clark’s connection and helped them find the actual crime scene.
But there’s a deeper spiritual thread to the spirals. The importance of the spirals as a warning sign seems to be deeply connected to Iñupiaq tradition in the series — Tagaq’s petroglyph, Annie’s tattoo, Kenny’s memory of his grandmother. As Rose says, it’s an ancient symbol, which means historically there are loads of interpretations. Annie saw the symbol in recurring dreams then had it tattooed on her body, which feels like a bleak premonition of her death, and Clark became obsessed with the symbol after her death, so perhaps he felt warned of his own doom amid his guilt.
But this is also True Detective, with its insistence on a “time is a flat circle” philosophy and the inevitability of events. The spiral (which is almost literally a flat circle) could be a marker for the never-ending cycle of violence, only this time, it’s one that has an actual end.
How to watch:True Detective airs Sunday nights on HBO/Max at 9 p.m ET/PT.
One of the many mysteries of True Detective: Night Countryis embodied by one of the cutest and deadliest animals on the planet: the majestic and terrifying polar bear.
In the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle, during “the long night”, this enormous pagophilic carnivore turns up again and again. It wanders through town in very real form; it appears in characters’ homes in plush toy form; images of it flash at us during the opening credits. While these bears don’t have anything to do with their island-dwelling kin in Lost, they strike the same chord of mystery in True Detective.
SEE ALSO:
How ‘True Detective: Night Country’ pulled off its most WTF moment
What’s the deal with the polar bears and why are they important to the story? Each week, we tracked the polar bears of Night Country, tracing their appearances to pull this whole thing together with red yarn.
Opening credits bears
In the True Detective: Night Country opening credits, we see a rocking chair perched on the side of the icy road. A plush polar bear sits on the chair, with a close-up revealing it’s missing an eye. Seconds later, a polar bear wanders onto the road, and another close-up shows it, too, is missing an eye. The plush polar bear is clearly important, as it appears later in the credits, floating in icy dark water. And of course, it turns up in the show from the very first episode.
The plush polar bear
In episode 1, Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) is woken up in the middle of the night to a fervent whisper declaring, “She’s awake,” (the same thing scientist Raymond Clark (Owen McDonnell) says in the Tsalal Arctic Research Facility on the night when it all goes down). The scene comes after what seems to be a memory or a dream for Danvers, involving a child who is later revealed to be her son Holden, who died in a car accident years earlier — we get more fragments of this tragic event through Navarro’s visions in the series and Danvers’ flashback in the finale. In her dream, his hand touches her shoulder. Bleary-eyed, Danvers finds a plush polar bear toy on the floor in her room. It’s missing an eye, and Danvers holds it looking pretty unsettled.
In episode 2, Danvers finds Holden’s bear in a box of Christmas decorations, and has a flashback to time spent with him, playing with the bear and listening to The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” (the song that triggers Danvers in episode 1, the one that features in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the film the Tsalal scientists were watching when they disappeared).
Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
In episode 3, when state trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) is out on the ice, she hears an eerie voice singing “Twist and Shout” in the wind. Navarro then sees a child running into the darkness and goes to catch up to them but slips and hits her head. She’s transported to a vision of her time served in the military, sitting beside a burned home. A child wearing pyjamas and holding a plush polar bear puts their hand on Navarro’s shoulder and whispers, “Tell my mommy.” It’s clearly Holden.
In episode 4, when Navarro visits Danvers and she drops a box of Christmas decorations on the floor, she sees the plush polar bear toy fall out and remembers her vision. “Is this his? Holden’s?” she asks, naming Danvers’ child. To demonstrate her cynicism about spirituality and the beyond, Danvers throws the plush bear out in the snow.
In the final episode, Navarro tells Danvers she’s seen Holden in her visions. At the end of the episode, when Danvers enters Navarro’s empty cabin, she finds Holden’s polar bear sitting on the stripped bed — Navarro obviously went and picked it up from Danvers’ front yard after she threw it.
Credit: Michele K. Short/HBO
The polar bear in the middle of the road
As Navarro investigates leads in town in Ennis in episode 1, she’s driving around, calling potential witnesses and contacts, when her phone stops working. A voice whispers the same hissing “she’s awake” message Danvers heard in her dream and Navarro hits the brakes. A large polar bear stands in the road, blocking her path and notably missing an eye. Standing its ground with a growl, the bear then retreats. As there are no other witnesses to this bear, it’s ambiguous whether Navarro is looking at a real polar pal or not — but then episodes later, Danvers sees the same one-eyed bear.
In episode 4, driving on Christmas Eve, Danvers sees the polar bear standing in the middle of the highway, hitting the brakes to avoid it and plunging her car into a snow drift. The bear prowls over to Danvers’ window and stares directly at her, breathing heavily, then moving along. In this scene, the polar bear seems very real.
What do the polar bears mean in True Detective?
The polar bears in True Detective: Night Country serve primarily to connect Danvers and Navarro on a spiritual level. They’re the only two people who encounter the one-eyed polar bear in Ennis, and it’s undoubtedly a vision connected to Holden’s favourite toy.
Danvers has carried her loss for so long without processing it, and though she’s not a spiritual person, she eventually finds relief in Navarro’s own experience with death and her connection with the beyond. These beautiful beasts of the Alaskan ice serve to connect these two very different investigators and to help Danvers actually grieve for her son.
True Detective: Night Country is now streaming on Max.
After arriving with a dog in tow, BAFTAs 2024 host David Tennant gave a six-minute monologue cracking jokes about Saltburn, the acting industry, and the upcoming presidential race.
“It’s obviously been a tumultuous year for so many in the film industry with the writers’ strike and the actors’ strike, but I’ve been chatting to BAFTA and asking, ‘Is the future for screenwriters and actors looking rosy?'” Tennant says in the clip above. “And I can tell you, they said ‘Aye!’ Although they do spell that “AI”, so I don’t…”
A short while later Tennant also gets a solid dig in about the upcoming U.S. elections.
“Poor Things, ladies and gentlemen,” he says, introducing the movie, “where a child’s brain is put into an adult’s body. And later this year, one of those may even be re-elected president.”
You can see the full list of BAFTAs 2024 winners here.
