AMC Partings and fracturing alliances are the themes in 'The Ladder'. Quick recap: Lieutenant Gore got done in by what we're assuming is a bear, and the Inuit man who seems to have had some measure of influence over an unknown force which lives on the tundra. That was definitely a bad vibe, but any horror and ghost story aficionado knows the real damage comes at the top of this episode. Rule one of any horror-adjacent scenario is you don't mess with talismans, icons, runes, or creepy little handmade dolls. Invariably, you're either calling down some kind of wrath from The Great Beyond or destroying whatever protection they've been providing against said wrath from The Great Beyond. Multiply that by treating a body with disdain for local customs and you're sealing your own fate.