I recently started watching Carnival Row, the Amazon Prime series. This weekend involved some binge watching, and an element in episode 5 in Season 1 caught my attention. This episode includes several instances where a religious icon is shown in an orphanage. It is the image of The Martyr, a Jesus-like figure at the center of the dominant religious tradition. The icon caught my eye as it hung high on the orphanage wall. At first I didn’t know what it was and why it was hanging there. “Why does this orphanage include the figure of a hanging dead man on its wall?” I wondered. Then it hit me: It was a take off of Christianity’s central symbol, Jesus dead after being tortured through crucifixion. Connected to this symbol in the series is a noose that is worn around the neck of those connected to The Martyr’s religious order, as in the clergyman heading the orphanage, similar to the cross or crucifix worn by Christians. For me, the interesting thing about seeing The Martyr was that it stood out for me as strange and unusual, and in so doing, after a moment’s realization, it reminded me of my own blind spot in regard to Christianity and its symbols in culture. We are so used to seeing a cross or crucifix that we don’t think twice about its “normalcy.” In reality, it is the image of first century political torture and murder adopted as a symbol of strength through weakness by a small Jewish sect that would later turn the world upside down. All of this was a reminder to me of fantasy’s power in helping us really see things that we take for granted, even if they are constantly around us.