In the Netflix horror mystery series Below, the Hag visiting Wade Penney is not a supernatural demon or a ghost. She is Maggie, a living young woman from the isolated neighboring island town of Little Pot Rock. Maggie slips across the freezing water at night, sneaking into the Penney home while Wade is paralyzed with trauma and hallucinations. Her nighttime visits mask a horrifying survival pact between her starving island community and the giant sea beast they call Mudder.
| Entity / Character | Real Identity & Role | Location / Setting | Core Narrative Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| The “Old Hag” | Maggie (living human) | Little Pot Rock / Snooks Arm | Disguised as a folkloric sleep-paralysis night visitor while stealing domestic items. |
| Wade Penney | Son of Calvin Penney | Snooks Arm, Newfoundland | Traumatized fisherman selected by Maggie to be her captive mate. |
| Calvin Penney | Lead protagonist & father | Snooks Arm Harbor | Uncovers the connection between the disappearances, the mine, and the sea monster. |
| “Mudder” | Prehistoric giant squid | The Atlantic deep / Iceberg Shelf | Ancient sea creature worshipped and fed human sacrifices by Little Pot Rock. |
| Town of Little Pot Rock | Starving off-grid outport | Offshore Newfoundland Island | Maintained a dark covenant with Mudder in exchange for bountiful cod. |
That Night Terrors Legend: What is the Old Hag in Newfoundland?
If you grew up anywhere near eastern Canada or coastal Atlantic communities, the phrase “getting hag-ridden” probably rings a bell. For centuries, Newfoundland folklore used the Old Hag to explain what doctors nowadays call sleep paralysis. When a fisherman woke up pinned to his mattress, unable to draw breath with a heavy presence looming over his chest, the old folks said a witch was sitting on him.
Creator Jesse McKeown uses that regional superstition so smartly here. When Wade barely survives getting dragged underwater by an impossible sea creature, he comes back to Snooks Arm thoroughly broken. His head is spinning with shock. So when he wakes up frozen stiff in the middle of the night, staring at a dripping woman in white standing by his bedposts, everyone in town assumes its just grief and vivid nightmares playing cruel tricks on him.
Except ghosts do not leave puddles of freezing North Atlantic brine on dry wooden floorboards. Wade was laying there terrified out of his wits, but those wet footprints proved somebody real had been walking through his bedroom door.
The Wet Footprints: How Hallucination Turned into Flesh and Bone
For the first few episodes, the show deliberately makes you question Wade’s sanity. Alot of viewers thought Below was taking a sudden leap into haunted house territory. But the twist hits like a cold wave: the visitor was flesh and bone all along.
The woman is Maggie, a quiet young woman living out on the forgotten settlement of Little Pot Rock. While Snooks Arm was busy fighting off eviction from Jim Crocker’s mining company, Maggie was quietly crossing the water under dense fog. She knew the layout of the Penney house, slipping inside through unlatched doors while the wind rattled the storm shutters.
And she wasn’t there to murder Wade in his sleep. She was collecting domestic trinkets. Noah’s silver ring, vintage tea tins, blankets, a couple things that felt like home. Maggie had taken a silent liking to Wade, viewing him almost like a lost soul she could salvage. Because Wade felt completely alienated from his father Calvin, he found an odd comfort in Maggie’s visits, right up until the horrifying reason for her island’s lifestyle came to light.
The Horrific Covenant of Little Pot Rock and “Mudder”
Little Pot Rock isn’t just an eccentric, off-grid outport. The place is a desperate cult running on a cannibalistic survival pact. Decades ago, when the fish abandoned their nets and starvation crept into every kitchen, the islanders struck an unholy arrangement with the giant cephalopod living in the offshore sea trench. They dubbed the monster “Mudder.”
The rules of the bargain were brutally simple. Mudder herd massive schools of cod into the shallows and left the islanders skiffs alone. In return, the townsfolk tossed her human meat.
At first, they offered up the frail and dying elders. When they ran short on willing sacrifices, they quietly preyed on outsiders, including stranded Portuguese sailors whose disappearance had coastal authorities baffled for weeks. Island elder Walton planned to use Wade for two distinct purposes: first, let Maggie keep him around until she bore children, and second, throw him straight into the water as Mudder’s next evening meal. If Calvin hadn’t pieced the clues together, Wade would of ended up as squid fodder.
Maggie’s Uncertain Fate After the Finale
When Calvin, Wade, and Dr. Fonda Lee tow the dynamite-rigged iceberg out into open water, the delicate ecosystem of Little Pot Rock falls apart. Mudder descends into the deep freezing trench, sacrificing her life to nourish her newly hatched young. The dark pact that kept Little Pot Rock fed for decades is officially dead.
Where does that leave Maggie? The series leaves her stranded on that isolated rock without her sea god and without Wade. While she is likely resourceful enough to find another boat or wait for relief, her entire reality has collapsed. She has to step into an outside world she barely understands.
Plus, that final cliffhanger makes her survival even more precarious. As Calvin and Wade gaze across the harbor in the closing scene, a whole fleet of massive icebergs drifts into view. Mudder wasn’t an isolated mutant. The ancient giants are waking up all across the warming Atlantic, and the fragile peace along the Newfoundland coast is completely finished.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Hag in Below
Is the Hag in Below an actual ghost or demon?
No, the Hag in Below is not a ghost. She is Maggie, a living human resident of Little Pot Rock who sneaks into Wade’s bedroom at night while he suffers from trauma-induced sleep paralysis.
Why was Maggie stealing things from the Penney house?
Maggie took tea tins, blankets, and Noah’s ring to prepare a home for Wade on Little Pot Rock, hoping to keep him as a companion before her community elders planned to sacrifice him.
Will Maggie return if Below gets renewed for Season 2?
Netflix originally produced Below as a six-episode limited series, and star Josh Hartnett mentioned there are no immediate plans for a sequel. However, because Maggie survived the finale, the character could easily return if creator Jesse McKeown continues the story.
