'On Becoming God in Central Florida' uses animal motifs like the moose and the pelican to highlight a greater truth
Not all the surreal elements in 'On Becoming a God in Central Florida' really work, like Krystal's woozy sojourn through abandoned suburbia or even Obie Garbeau's fantastical trip into the contents of his own stomach (mostly filled with fruits). But the recurring animal motifs that the show is peppered with are quite effective, providing an insight into the external and internal realities of the show's characters.
The very first animal to appear is a gigantic white moose that Travis Stubbs (Alexander Skarsgard) hallucinates about while driving, twice. In the first instance, as he almost falls asleep at the wheel out of exhaustion, the moose appears and he swerves off the road and into a field. The second time it appears is after he has quit his job, and is driving home in his own shabby car after his limo joyride with Cody. This time he swerves and drives into an alligator-infested swamp. A few minutes later, he is dead.
The moose serves as both a warning and a consequence. The moose is not native to Florida and its incongruous appearance signals that Travis too is not in the 'right place'. Instead of being home with his wife and baby, he is on the road, sleep-deprived, as he tries to recruit for FAM. In the first instance, it appears as a warning to Travis about the road he is headed down, thanks to FAM. It also reveals that Travis is a man who can no longer tell reality from fantasy, after becoming a FAM fanatic. When he doesn't heed the 'moose-shaped' warning and quits his job to become a full-time FAM man, he deals with the consequence. His swerve into the alligator pond is the very real consequence of his brain misfiring by making him hallucinate because he is so sleep-deprived.
The alligator that kills Travis, however, is native to Florida. Just like FAM that has found a strong base in this no-name, "Orlando-adjacent" town, hunting the weak and the susceptible. The predatory nature of the FAM scam is hidden under the still waters of its deceptive marketing and its sense of community. When Krystal shoots the alligator, she is not only killing the animal that killed her husband but also foreshadowing how she will take on FAM on its own turf, use its skin and meat for her own use and also avenge her husband's death.
In the third episode, Judd Waltrip, crushes his pet parrot to death as he tries to escape his burning boat which is also his home. The dead parrot shows the consequences that Roger Penland — the FAM henchman — will exact when ex-FAM members, like Waltrip, no longer parrot Obie Garbeau's words but start to speak their own truth.
The fourth episode starts with Ernie fishing out the dead flamingos out of the water park's pool just before Krystal's 'Spash-ercise' cum FAM recruitment class. Her class is interrupted by Penland who tells her not to disturb the natural order of things. To him, the Garbeau system is the natural order of things and he is its enforcer. Later, both Krystal and her baby fall sick, infected by the bird virus that killed the flamingos. It is a not too subtle reference to how the Garbeau system is slowly poisoning Krystal's life, her neighborhood and her place of work. It also draws a parallel to how the unchecked capitalism of the Garbeau system is like the toxic garbage of 'man-made' systems that are choking Nature and upsetting the actual 'natural order'.
In the fifth episode, in the first few moments, we encounter the first animal. It is a slimy snail leaving a sticky, oozy mess on a beautiful statue outside the compound where the FAM convention is being hosted. It is just a brief shot but enough to reinforce the idea that FAM, despite its outward beauty, is actually something rotten and slimy. But it is in this episode that we also meet the pelican that has also starred in the show's trailer.
It is a bird that is obviously dear to Mr Garbeau's heart as he exhorts his disciples to "Learn from the pelican!" — a bird that plans and observes to get its prey. In his hallucinations during a minor heart attack, he sees a mother pelican being attacked by its young ones for food - an obvious reference to his paranoia about FAM followers turning on him. This is why when Cody kills the pelican and brings it to him, he sees it as a revelatory gesture - he needs disciples as fanatical as Cody in his inner circle.
But, as the trailer suggests, the real pelican is Krystal, "both wily and fierce", and Obie Garbeau is no match for her.
'On Becoming a God in Central Florida' airs Sundays on Showtime at 10 pm ET.