Why is Florence + The Machine’s music so important for HBO’s three-part island horror, a 12-hour live stream that allows audiences a deep dive into the ritualistic overtones that saturate the world of Osea, and the final three-episode section, “Winter”, presented on HBO Max, focuses on Sam’s probable rescue arc, as his wife (Naomi Harris) comes to the island to free him.
It is during “Autumn” that Florence Welch makes her TV acting debut, portraying the character of Veronica, who sings along with the islanders as Sam makes several stops throughout the island during a long series of trials he must undergo. Florence + The Machine’s indie rock oeuvre stems from a sound that is “classic soul and midnight-on-the-moors English art rock”, which, coupled with Welch’s deeply-moving, emotionally-charged voice, makes an apt choice for Osea, which seems to exist in a limbo between the real and the surreal.
Welch’s music is central to Sam’s narrative, who harbors an unexplained connection to the island and is haunted by the trauma of losing his son, which is heightened by violent visions that could as well be repressed memories. When Sam heads into the woods to grieve his son’s death, he listens to Florence + the Machine's 2009 breakout track “Dog Days Are Over”, which overwhelms him with emotions. While Welch’s “Dog Days Are Over” welcomes varied interpretations, when applied to the context of The Third Day, it evokes a feeling of never-ending doom, which plagues Sam in a heightened state on Osea, as exemplified in the lines:
“The dog days are over / The dog days are done / The horses are coming, so you better run.”
Osea is an isolated strip of land off the coast of Essex, which director Marc Munden sets up as a hallucinogenic triptych, with vibrant greens juxtaposed with sickly pale whites. Osea’s haunting imagery reaches a fever pitch during Welch’s appearance in “Autumn”, wherein the hymn she sings is evocative of traditional Essex folk song rife with Christian imagery. As Welch stands amid grasslands, dressed in white, with fiery-red locks caressed by the wind, the lines “'Cause God lays love on those that reach beyond him / The flowers grow to fall and be forgotten” add fresh interpretative layers to Sam’s fate and the trauma that he has to come to with.
Apart from lending a unique folk horror tinge to these scenes in The Third Day, Welch, as Victoria, can be seen wiping the face of Sam, who has been cast into the mold of a Christ-like, messiah figure, while also fulfilling the role of the Celtic God, Esus. Another interesting scene is one in which Victoria moves towards the sea to reach the two wooden platforms meant for Sam and Johnny, only to be pulled back to shore.
