The Bodkin wolf meaning is a mystery in the seven-episode Netflix crime drama, but the series slowly reveals why Dove (Siobhán Cullen) sees the animal throughout her investigation. In the first episode, we see Dove enter an indoor patio in the bed and breakfast of Mrs. O’Shea and spot a gray wolf. She stares at it for a few seconds before the beast jumps through the open window, prompting her to ask Mrs. O’Shea if she owns a dog. Upon receiving a “no” from the owner, it becomes clear that the wolf is some sort of hallucination that only Dove can see. Here’s an explanation of what the wolf represents and what it means in context to Dove throughout Bodkin.
Why does Dove see a wolf in Bodkin?
Dove sees a wolf throughout Bodkin because it represents her fears and insecurities about her past, particularly when it comes to being abandoned by her mother and growing up in a convent of nuns. Symbolically, the wolf is Dove’s shadow, which she must confront throughout the series.
In the last few episodes of the show, it is revealed that the wolf is a manifestation of a stuffed animal that Dove kept as a child. During the sixth episode, the investigator has hallucinations brought about by a drug that was put in her tea, and she has visions of her past as she stumbles throughout the convent at Inis Mac Tíre.
When she sees the stuffed animal, it reminds her of a traumatic memory where the sisters had her forcibly baptized after her mother, a cocaine addict, gave her up to the church. The show doesn’t tell viewers this, but we should also note that Inis Mac Tíre translates into “Wolf Island” in English.
Fortunately, in the Bodkin ending, Dove is able to reinterpret what the wolf means to her. She reveals that she had named the stuffed animal Faoladh and that her mother gave it to her mother as a token of protection. Where the wolf used to represent her anxiety about her unresolved past, it is now a reminder that her mother cared about her, despite what happened.
This change in perspective fits with the theme of the show. The finale is about how people can reinterpret how a story is told, to others and to themselves, and we see that Dove now views the wolf as a source of comfort. She has also decided to do a podcast about nuns, in spite of her negative view of both nuns and podcasters at the beginning of the show.
