The first two episodes of Nocturne closed on an image that would not stay in one place. The same symbol showed up carved into trees in a Pennsylvania forest and scratched into the wall of Saga Bauer’s cell at Riverside Psychiatric Hospital. No one on screen could say what it meant.
That overlap matters because Jonah Lynn and Saga were working the Frost case from opposite sides. Jonah was chasing leads in the woods, while Saga had gone inside as a patient to watch Jurek Walter up close. A single mark appearing in both places hinted that the wall between Riverside and the outside world was thinner than the task force believed.
Where Did Nocturne First Show the Symbol?
Jonah found it in For Such a Time as This while hunting for Sally Gifford, a former Riverside nurse. Her home showed signs of a disturbance, her family was missing, and a bootprint outside resembled one from the earlier search for the Frost siblings. As he looked around, he sensed someone watching, spotted a figure among the trees, and chased them without catching up.
The figure may or may not have been real, since the premiere had already shown Jonah seeing things that were not there. What he did find was a shape cut into the bark. The carving was subtle enough that a passerby could easily have missed it.
Showrunner John Hlavin explained the design in an interview with GOLDDERBY, arguing the carvings came from someone who needed to communicate without anyone noticing.
“Those symbols in the cell and in the woods are tied together, and pointing at something,” he teased. “It’s also about how you see them if you’re standing in a certain spot, because otherwise you would walk right by it and just think it’s a scratch in the tree.
“That’s the thing with noir in general — it’s a story of secrets,” the showrunner observes. “So with the tree carvings, it’s about how that person would want to communicate in a way that would keep a secret. And that’s what you end up with.”
Liev Schreiber, who plays Jonah, admitted he did not fully understand the carvings while filming the scene. But he did enjoy piecing the clues together in his own head like a puzzle, and so should we.
Read More: Apple TV’s Nocturne: Release Date, Episode Guide, Cast & Plot Explained
What Does the Matching Mark in Saga’s Cell Change?
Saga’s version appeared after she was processed into Riverside and placed in a padded cell. The scrawls on the walls first looked like leftover damage from earlier patients, but she realized they joined together into one shape. That shape matched the carving Jonah found outside exactly.
Staff had taken her crucifix necklace, which hid the microtransmitter, and had not returned it. That left her holding the biggest clue of the episode with no way to pass it to Jonah, Quinn, or Nathan. To be honest, that gap is what gives the symbol its weight.
The first two episodes confirmed very little beyond the match itself. It did not say who made either mark, what the shape stands for, or whether Jurek had any hand in it. However, Nocturne has touches of local folklore rather than a supernatural story, which suggests a human explanation.
Here is what I think the evidence supports. Riverside staff had already acted as Jurek’s messengers, with Karl sending a note meant for a lawyer and former employee Benny Zalesky describing the same pattern of befriending and favors.
A shared mark would fit a system for moving information between a locked ward and the woods, which was the gap Saga went in to close. The show has not said so yet, so treat that as my theory.
Sally Gifford sits closest to that overlap, since she worked at Riverside and her house was left in disarray. The episode never said whether she was taken or fled. Her family’s disappearance only added pressure to the search for Felicia as winter closed in.
Apple TV releases Nocturne weekly on Fridays through December 25, which puts Episode 3 on November 6.
You May Also Like:
Add us as a preferred source on Google.