Below Ending Explained: Why Are There More Icebergs Near the Town?

The horror-thriller series ‘Below’ unravels the mystery of what resides in the tempestuous waters surrounding a small coastal town. Calvin Penney lost his father to a freak accident when his family left their old home behind during a resettlement project. Now that he’s older with children of his own, his town of Snook’s Arm is looking down the barrel of a similar relocation fate. However, the community faces a bigger problem when, seemingly overnight, a giant iceberg washes up on its shore. Worse yet, from the looks of it, the structure has also brought some sort of ancient threat along with it. As a result, as this mysterious sea creature terrorizes the waters around the town, Calvin, with the help of marine biologist Dr. Fonda Howander, must dig into his own painful past in an attempt to save his family and preserve their legacy. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Below Recap

In Newfoundland, in 1986, the community of Little Pot Rock relocated to Snook’s Arm as a part of a bigger resettlement program. During the move, the Penney family tied up their house to take it with them to the new town via the waterway. However, tragedy struck when the house collapsed and sank into the ocean along with the patriarch, Leo. Although official reports blamed the lack of proper reinforcements for the house’s demise, Calvin, the youngest son, catches a glimpse of something under the water before losing his house and his father. Forty years later, the incident becomes history, and the young Penney heir has built a life for himself in his new hometown, which he shares with his sister, Ruth, and his son, Wade. Although he can’t follow in his family’s footsteps and continue the fisherman mantle, his life still remains tied to the sea, namely through ice harvesting.

However, the Crocker Brewery and Distillery, Calvin’s only viable customer, refuses to take his newest yield, declaring it unfit for human consumption. As a result, he ends up taking the chunk of ice to the local Ocean Science Center, where Dr. Fonda Howander promises to run some tests on it. Meanwhile, the fisherman looks forward to the homecoming of his two kids, Mary and Jay, since it’s a “come home year” in the town. The occasion and its festivities arrive at an opportune time, considering Snook’s Arm is already on a tense precipice. There’s a proposed resettlement program, launched to resolve the employment and developmental issues in the community. While some residents are swayed by the formidable financial compensation, many, like Calvin, are refusing to budge, holding up the votes. The first night after Mary and Jay’s arrival, the father notices something weird in the town’s harbor.

A giant iceberg seems to have appeared in the ocean, right on the doorstep of Snook’s Arm. Naturally, this attracts local attention the next morning, with the residents remaining curious while the town hall officials, like Ruth, are worried. On the other hand, Fonda discovers that the ice the fisherman brought her is actually some sort of mucus membrane likely belonging to something big and ancient. That same night, Wade, fed up with his father’s insistence on keeping him off the water, goes out fishing with the Penneys’ competitor, Jerry Biles. Together, the two shoot rounds at the iceberg, which attracts the attention of a dangerous creature lurking beneath the surface. Biles dies in the attack, and his ship is destroyed while Wade emerges from the incident alive but severely shaken. Calvin also discovers that he has a strange scar on his back. After he shares this with Fonda, it strengthens her running theory about the iceberg. She believes that it is a giant squid.

Not only that, but Fonda believes it could be the same creature that led to Leo Penney’s death all those years ago. Eventually, she and Calvin are able to confirm this theory after discovering security footage at a fish farm that showcases tourists getting killed by a tentacled creature. The next day, the town is alerted to the same threat and told to stay away from the water. At the same time, a new ship rolls onto the horizon. Wade, who has been overrun with hallucinations, unnatural thirst, and other symptoms, is the first one to greet the captain, Steve, who expresses a conservationist interest in the giant squid circling Snook’s Arm. Once Calvin learns of his son’s whereabouts, he rushes to the ship to trade places with him, insisting that it isn’t a safe endeavor for the young man. The next day, when he joins them on the mission after some friction, he realizes it isn’t a safe mission for him either.

Steve wants to mine footage of the giant squid, which means diving into the water in a submarine. Unfortunately for him, the beast ends up attacking the vessel before attacking the big ship. Yet, while the rest of the crew dies, Calvin manages to survive and wash up on a near shore. Back in town, the residents’ consumption of the ice from the ocean leads to the spread of a mass disease that compels them to walk into the ocean. Fortunately, Fonda is able to contain this outbreak, which only lasts for around 2 days. Meanwhile, Calvin wakes back in Little Pot Rock, where he’s greeted by an old friend, Walton, who was part of the handful of residents who never left the town. Nonetheless, the latter soon reveals himself to be a threat. Eventually, Calvin is able to escape, rescuing Wade along the way. Help finally arrives in Snook’s Arm in the form of the army, and Fonda makes an unexpected discovery about the iceberg.

Below Ending: Why Are There More Icebergs Near the Town?

Early on, it becomes evident that there’s a connection between the arrival of the unusual iceberg and the giant squid. In fact, the structure isn’t a natural iceberg at all. Instead, it’s a mucus membrane created by the aquatic creature for some reason or another. Initially, Fonda speculates that the iceberg-like construct could be a way for the cephalopod to mark her territory. It is only later, once the mass fever has overtaken the town and the marine biologist is forced to evacuate her samples from her laboratory, that she uncovers the real truth. While moving the samples at the fishery hall, Fonda realizes that the mucus membrane infesting so much of the iceberg is actually eggs. This means that the structure itself is a nest for the beast.

The North American giant squid’s natural habitat is the Deep Arctic. However, with the ocean warming, the permafrost thawing, and the glaciers melting, the creature’s home has become unfit for her. As a result, she has fled from her home and has been drifting with the Labrador Currents ever since. Yet, when she arrives at Snook’s Arm, she decides to stick around for longer. This is because she has laid her eggs and is awaiting them to hatch. Additionally, it also explains the reason behind her aggression and pointed attacks at anyone she deems to be a threat to the iceberg nest itself. At the end of the series, the squid is no longer a cause for concern for the town. In fact, they have managed to recover from their unintentional reign of terror quite well.

For the same reason, it’s all the more chilling when Calvin and his family go out fishing for ice and instead stumble across even more icebergs on the horizon, almost forming a wall around the Snook’s Arm sealine. The story ends before the repercussions of this discovery can be explored. From the looks of it, it’s likely that these icebergs, much like the earlier one, are nests that belong to other cephalopod creatures. This means that although the town has managed to escape the frying pan, it may just have found itself going into the fire. The fact that so many more such nests have washed up ashore at Snook’s Arm is an indication of the overwhelming destruction of the oceans, which has robbed creatures like the giant squid of their home. In turn, this leads them to seek out new habitats, bringing them closer to human settlements. The story ultimately ends on an ambiguous note, leaving Calvin and the others’ fate uncertain.

Does the Giant Squid Die? Do Her Eggs Hatch?

In the few days that the giant squid circles Snook’s Arm, she proves herself to be a major threat. She destroys various fish farms nearby, kills Jerry, and continues to wreak general havoc. Additionally, her natural defense mechanism of gelatinous secretion caused a widespread disease that triggered a reaction similar to chronic wasting in the residents. As a result, the army deems the creature an official threat to the safety of the civilians. Thus, they initiate a mass evacuation with the intention of undertaking an offensive against the creature. The Lieutenant in charge wants to conduct an airstrike against the giant squid to eliminate it as a threat.

Naturally, if they go through with this plan, a good portion of the town, and especially its harbor, will be destroyed. This will be devastating for the scope of development in the town, making it nearly impossible for the community to hold onto their homes. As such, Calvin, who has been against the proposition of the resettlement from the very start, opposes this plan of attack. When he and the rest of the Penneys are asked to board the evacuation helicopter, the patriarch makes the decision to run away, choosing to stay back and fight for his hometown. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the Penneys, as well as Mary’s fiancé, Noah, and Jay’s frenemy, Mo, decide to follow in his footsteps.

Together, the group comes up with a plan. The squid’s presence in the harbor is tied to the fact that the iceberg’s location. Consequently, if they can manage to send the nest away, the mother would be helpless to follow. Therefore, a plan emerges. Wade and Mary fire at the nest from the shore to break it apart structurally and make it easier to be relocated. Afterward, Calvin takes off into the water on his boat with a giant net that he uses to wrangle the nest in. Once the nest is snagged, he drives it away far enough from the harbor that the squid would no longer pose a threat to the residents of Snook’s Arm.

Even so, Crocker attempts to push the military into carrying out the airstrike in the aftermath of this successful maneuver. This is because a wrecked harbor would be more fiscally beneficial for him than an intact one. Nonetheless, the Lieutenant refuses to comply and calls off the airstrike. In the end, the town is safe, and the squid survives. Yet, her survival is only momentary. Most cephalopods only mate once in their lives. Therefore, the mother’s life comes to an end after the eggs hatch. She stops eating and surrenders her body and its nutrients to her eggs. With her last breath, she blows the hatchlings out of the den, bringing the end of her life and a hopeful start for her offspring. Nonetheless, in the case of the town’s squid, her eggs never stood a chance. So far out of the Deep Arctic, the water is simply not cold enough to create the environment required for proper hatching. Thus, in the end, the squid dies, while her eggs remain unhatched.

What Happens to Snook’s Arm? Are the Residents Resettled?

The Snook’s Arm is on the path toward destruction from the very beginning. The town had already been resettled from Little Pot Rock, where similar issues of unemployment and a lack of opportunities for development had been raised. However, on his unintentional detour back to his original hometown, Calvin makes a startling discovery. Apparently, this resettlement wasn’t accidental. Instead, it was a result of the pointed efforts of the Crocker Brewery and Distillery. The group was an industry giant that had established monopolies in its sectors. Despite their public image as a brewery, they were actually involved in various other realms, including mining.

As it turns out, the crockers had discovered giant reserves of copper and cobalt under the town. Once they made this discovery, they tried to bury it and lobbied for the province to launch a resettlement program. This way, the authorities got to push people out of their homes while keeping them in the dark about the true value of the land. Now, the Crockers are attempting to repeat history in Snook’s Arm. The company wants ownership of the town’s land and is willing to ensure the residents receive large upfront payouts so they can reap the overwhelming benefits of the mining. Yet, their inability to reach the required consensus on the votes stands in their way. That is, until the giant squid appears and offers them a convenient solution.

The military airstrike would ensure that the town is wrecked beyond repair to the point where many of the residents, who make their living from the harbor, would have no choice but to accept the resettlement deal. Nonetheless, in the end, Calvin is able to save the town from this predicament by solving the squid problem without the airstrike. In the end, the Crockers continue to pursue legal channels to attempt to acquire the town. Still, at least this time around, thanks to the Penneys, the residents are aware of the real value of their land. As such, the company won’t be able to rob them of their money and mining rights. Ultimately, the town remains safe for the time being.

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