What Happened to the Deer in the True Detective Season 4 Premiere?

True Detective Season 4 Deer
Credit: Parliament of Owls Passenger | Anonymous Content | Neon Black | Peligrosa | HBO Entertainment


True Detective Season 4 Deer
Credit: Parliament of Owls Passenger | Anonymous Content | Neon Black | Peligrosa | HBO Entertainment

True Detective Season 4 is here! And if you've been waiting for the fourth season to drop, you will start wondering about the mysteries of life. This is because the show's opening scene features some weird behavior from animals. If you're wondering what happened to the True Detective Season 4 deer, we've got some answers for you.

What is Up With the True Detective Season 4 Deer Scene in the Premiere?

True Detective Season 4 Deer
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Credit: Parliament of Owls Passenger | Anonymous Content | Neon Black | Peligrosa | HBO Entertainment

The opening scene shows True Detective Season 4 deer behaving weirdly. As it starts to get dark, a hunter hunts down a deer. But before he can do so, the clip shows us a herd of deer seemingly sensing something in the air. In a panic, they hurry toward a cliff and jump over.

While this scene does not explicitly reveal what happens to the deer, we are left to wonder why they behaved in such a way.

Hildred Castaigne's quote, "For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake," can be seen at the clip's start.

This seems to foreshadow what is to come in the season and explain why these seemingly peaceful animals would prefer to jump to their death.

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What is the Significance of Deer in True Detective?

True Detective Season 4 Deer: Matthew McConaughey as Detective Rustin "Rust" Cohle in True Detective Season 1
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Credit: Parliament of Owls Passenger | Anonymous Content | Neon Black | Lee Caplin / Picture Entertainment | HBO Entertainment

This isn't the first time True Detective used a deer as a symbol in the show. When the first season came out in 2014, the characters of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in True Detective found the corpse of a murdered prostitute in a sugarcane field.

What was weird about this was the fact that her body was propped up to look like it was praying. She also had a crown of deer antlers on her head.

As explained in this article, "placing a crown of antlers on female murder victims is an act of cult sacrifice." This pagan practice was also referenced in Hannibal.

What Do Deer Symbolize in Mythology?

True Detective Season 4 Deer: Leave the World Behind deer
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Credit: Esmail Corp | Red Om Films | Higher Ground Productions

Since deer play a significant role in the mythology of different cultures, they can hold different meanings. Mainly, they are used as an object of worship, a magical disguise, or an object of heroic deeds.

The appearance of deer in Leave the World Behind also has a meaning in the film. According to Clay (played by Ethan Hawke), the sighting of deer is "a good omen." He says this is according to the Meso-American mythology.

In the spiritual sense, deer antlers hold a sacred symbol since it is brought to the sky. This is why it is often used in films that touch on human sacrifice and murder.

You can watch more episodes of True Detective Season 4 on Max.

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