🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐 

At its core, BEEF is a dark comedy (or a rom-com if you ask Ali Wong). But given all the glimpses of crows we get, could this series also be like a Hitchcock thriller?

If you’ve been on the wild ride that is BEEF, you’ve probably noticed that it’s full of symbolism. From his use of episode titles to obscure art, creator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin found creative ways to foreshadow the characters’ fates. One reoccurring motif that Lee weaves in throughout the series is none other than the crow. In the first episode, Danny (Steven Yeun) is climbing a tree and he hears birds screeching in the branches. “Crows love me,” he says. (Everyone stans Steven Yeun — even the birds.) But what do these birds really mean in BEEF? Read on in case these references flew over your head.

Crows are considered a bad omen in Korean culture. Lee, who’s Korean, used them to symbolize the bad luck of Danny and Amy (Ali Wong). After all, they didn’t know that their chance encounter in the Forsters parking lot would snowball into a year-long feud. “The crows [were] just something that crept up on me as I was writing,” Lee told Netflix. “Crows are just a huge part of our lives. You see them everywhere. They’re anywhere in LA. They’re squawking all the time and they're very, very smart.” 

We continue to see more of the birds throughout the series, and we also see how differently Danny and Amy treat them. Danny takes the time to feed them, while Amy points her gun at one to scare it away from her home. In Episode 5, the crows are brought up in a conversation between Bobby (Rekstizzy) and Michael (Andrew Santino). “Did you ever hear of the Harvard crow study?” Michael asks. “They put this dude in a Dick Cheney mask and he was mean to these crows, and the crows talked to other crows. All over the country, no matter where Cheney was, crows would attack his ass.” Lee pointed out that Michael got his facts slightly wrong; it wasn’t a Harvard study — it was an experiment conducted by the University of Washington.

This seemingly insignificant conversation comes back around in the finale (we should’ve know better!) when the episode opens with a conversation between two crows. “The female and the male are unwell,” chirps a bird, after witnessing Danny and Amy’s car crash. “The male fed me once,” replies the other. “The female scared my uncle at her home,” the first bird says. It’s apparent that these two crows have been following Danny and Amy’s feud just like us, and the crows have clearly been spilling (or cawing?) the tea with one another. When Amy emerges from the wreck, she points her gun at Danny and threatens to shoot. Before she can pull the trigger and call the cops, the same crows swoop in to attack her so that Danny can escape. 

While many people associate crows with misfortune, other cultures hold them in high regard. The ancient Greeks used crows as oracles, while Native Americans honor them for their wisdom and foresight. They also represent transformation, and Danny and Amy are undeniably changed by their beef with one another. 

Take away the crows from BEEF and the show would end very differently. Because of the small yet significant role that they played in the plot, Danny and Amy are able to reconcile in the end. “I think just having that element adds a slight surrealism to everything,” Lee said. “[It] makes you wonder if everything’s connected somehow — and I just also wanted to put subtitles on birds, I guess.”

Stream BEEF on Netflix again to see what else you might’ve missed.

101 Seconds of Escalating Rage in BEEFFrom 0 to 101 real quick.