#TMA recorder theory

[your-kneecaps-are-mine-now]

!!SPOILERS FOR MAG S1-S5!!

Okay, I tried this before but it didn’t save right so here we go again. This is gonna be shorter. please don’t spoil the finally for me I just finished MAG183, and if you don’t want spoilers please leave, NOW. This will be going into a bit of detail on specific VERY SPOILER episodes.

OkiDoki, lets do this. You have been warned. 

The tape recorders, lets talk about them. When we first start the series the listener assumes that the recorders are just a way of conveying the story to them, but as the plot progresses the characters begin to notice and comment on out of place recorders. To the point it begins to become a source of frustration and conflict between our main cast in seasons 2-3. But the listener continues to think that they are listening through The Eyes recorders, especially after Smirke’s classification is explained in MAG 111: Family Busines(Transcript) *side note* if ur on a computer ctrl-F is the find command, enter whatever word you want to find in the drop down. But, as one gets into season 4 & especially season 5 its made more clear the the recorders are a common occurrence for The Archivist,( MAG 161: Dwelling, Transcript)   LEITNER: “Right. (brief pause) Did you mean to leave the tape running?” GERTRUDE: “Oh, good grief. Forty years I’ve been using them, and I swear, I’ll nev–” [TAPE CLICKS OFF.] I’m not going to go through every episode but from my memory its implied a few times that Gertrude had a similar problem of forgetting to turn the recorder off or not turning it on in the first place. Not sure if Elias recorded this one on purpose, why would he though, but MAG 158: Panopticon(Transcript) where we get to literally hear him murder Gertrude. some more obvious evidence from season 5 would be MAG 181: Ignorance(Transcript)  SALESA : “Things shouldn’t be able to manifest in here like that.[referring to the recorder]” “In that case, we shall leave it to be.[referring to the recorder] It’s hardly valuable, and it’s probably best not to upset whatever it might be involved with.” Its stated in this episode and the one before it( MAG 180: Moving On, Transcript) that its a blind spot for the powers, and that they can’t know it’s there w/o seeing it themselves. MAG 170: Recollection(Transcript) MARTIN: “Wow, retro! What are you up to, little buddy; just – listening?” “(pleasant surprise) Oh, he-hello! What are you? Huh. Didn’t even know I had a tape recorder. Do you still work, or…”. these clips, mainly Salesa’s, imply that the recorder might be Eye aliened but not affiliated. Along with the way the Martin treats the recorder in this season and the last season(4, not gonna go through the effort of finding those clips) means that he thinks someone or something is listing. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my spiral into slight madness. I had a bit about Jude knowing where Mike Crew lived but I wasn't in the mood to re-do that deep dive, maybe another time. Feel free to engage w/ this how ever you want, re-post and add commentary, or comment, or whatever.  LMK your thoughts. <3

[joe-spoooky]

thort: everyone is saying that jon doesnt want sam to go to the magnus institute, but maybe he does. in tma he literally said he didnt want to become another mystery, maybe he hopes that if sam knows what happened he could understand and help avoid making the same mistakes ? or like for sam to release him ? or just so someone else out there knows what happened, so he doesn't become a mystery. i mean we have no idea the shape of things yet they could throw anything at us so idk

[vastpotato]

Thinking about the fact that in s5, Jon Knew everything and could Know what martins father looked like and who he was.

[hedonistbyheart]

Some ppl are reacting like Gerry being an artist is part of the happy!au scenario, but he was an artist in tma too. He painted the rad eye painting that Mary praised him for out loud (probably because he was using it to spy on her ghostly ass and she knew that), him being a painter is a consistent trait.

Which makes me wonder if the painting is still a tool. Is the painting a message Gerry??

[gammija]

MAG127, Remains To Be Seen: "[...] as we got closer I could see that it was a single tree that was burning. A gnarled and ancient elm, that sat removed from the rest of the forest. A small crowd surrounded the spectacle. One man, who I took to be a groundskeeper, stood closer than the others, with a lit torch in his hand. [...]

... All that I could get from him was a sense of… resignation, and the insistence that his master, who I took to be Albrecht, wanted the tree dead. I’m sure that he used that word, though. Not burned, not removed, or destroyed. Dead. I resolved to ask Albrecht about it when I saw him."

...and then we never heard from it again. This tree still confuses me!! I can't connect it conclusively to anything else, but there's such an emphasis placed on it that it feels like it has to be important!

The motif of a big gnarly tree being burned echoes the tree at Hilltop Road, so even though there are no spiders, something about it feels Webby - as does the way Fanshawe mentions it, says he wants to ask Albrecht about it, and then seems to completely forget about it...

...that's a very weak connection at best, when there aren't any other indications that the Web is involved with the Von Closens at that time and place. So what else could it be? Fire could indicate the Desolation, but that has the same problem of not being mentioned otherwise, plus just burning down one (1) tree doesn't really seem like its style to do, unless this specific tree means something;

Trees and fire are also reminiscent of Gertrude's protection circle from s1, though, again, that's Web & Desolation duking it out. The tree at HTR also seemed to be connected to Agnes' death in some way, she died when it was cut down. Maybe this tree is also protecting someone, but who? why? how? Albrecht? That makes no sense, at the very least unless "the Master" is referring to someone else, but that really just opens more questions than it answers!

Maybe the tree is meant to signify another 'rift' between worlds, and it links up to the vague implication that maybe the Von Closens seemed to be unable to get children in s1, but evidently had them later on. And maybe the bastard prince actually came through from another dimension as well.... However, that's still a very big leap to take just from one odd tree and two 'mysteries' that aren't really mysteries and didn't really need solving in the first place

I'd be curious to know if this was a plot hook for future episodes which never materialized into something more, or if I'm just missing something here. anyone else have a solid theory? @a-mag-a-day

[the-ghost-cat]

I like to think that in The Magnus Archives universe Paul McCartney got replaced by a NotThem in 1966.

[elias-magnusnt]

Aren't you the one meant to do the Observing and Judging? And not the other way around?

Ah, what a question.

See, those powers that rule us, they're not... They're not benevolent. They don't give without getting anything back. They trap their servants and their victims alike in a web of their own, inflicting terrors and agonized bliss in turn. Yes, when you're Serving them, you often get the nicer edge of the blade, but it's not... It remains a power beyond human comprehension, doing with you what it wishes. Taking over you, infecting you with its own selfish desires and intents.

I've seen varied reactions to those facts amongst other Avatars. All have a deep seated respect for their respective patrons, yes, but then some are still terrorised by it, others used to be scared and the fear morphed into love, and others still were always in adoration with the concept of disease, of falling, of graves, of knowing too much, of manipulation, of death, of utter destruction, of being alone, of not knowing who you are, of not knowing where you are, of not being able to be sure of anything, of hurting, of hunting, or of taking apart others piece by piece.

For me? Being Exposed was a deep, deep fear of mine, for reasons that might be obvious. And then... It wasn't. I can't explain how, as the process took many years and a few bits and pieces of my sanity, but safe to say by the end of it I was the one thriving on Ceaseless Watching. And, with that came a few blessings. Some Avatars fear their patrons in kind, I don't. I love the spotlight, I crave eyes on me, I love to be Known and Understood. This can be through the eyes of my God, of other acolytes of Beholding, or simply through the judging eyes of the masses.

It probably doesn't help that I have far outgrown any feelings of self-consciousness I might ever have had in my youth.

[fox-guardian]

hey guys did you know that um. did you know. first of all did you know i'm losing my mind, secondly, do y'all remember in tma how when someone reads a written statement, they don't really Stop unless they're interrupted? and they read the whole thing easy cheesy, no issues with reading whatever words are there? like. jon literally could read french for a whole statement and was Fine. granted, that's Jon, but like nobody else struggled with pronunciations and whatnot (that i can recall)

presumably, this is an eye thing. either as employees of the institute, or because everyone there is just also eye-aligned in some degree (melanie had the ghost hunting show, the eye is fond of martin, etc)

and then there's tim in season 3 ep 86

[Sigh] Statement of… uh, Benjamin Hatendi… Hateendi? Regarding a… [papers rustling] a blanket. Dead friend. Monster. Regarding his unavoidable and gruesome end. How he tried to hide. He couldn’t. Statement is from… 1983, March 2nd. And I guess… [long sigh] I guess I’m doing this one. Tim Stoker. Archival assistant… Archival prisoner at the Magnus Institute.

correct me if im wrong but i don't recall anyone struggling with pronunciations before this bit. but that's not even the biggest thing here, that's just a lil Taste, a lil Flavor.

note the phrasing there. "Regarding his unavoidable and gruesome end." why would he say this when the written text on the statement says this:

Uh, right. Benjamin Hatendi’s account of… [rustling pages] oh for… a, a strange encounter. Er, statement date, March 2nd, 1983. Melanie King recording. Apparently.

"a strange encounter". that's it. nothing about an unavoidable death, just a "strange encounter". Tim Why Did You Say That.

why would our dear timothy bimothy, who is being pushed to the brink, who is becoming rapidly more depressed and losing hope, say this?

this isn't the only time he's said some weirdly grim shit tho (ep 104)

There was never really any hope for me, though, was there? This was how it was always going to go.

and then there's this bit from elias apparently having Looked into tim (also 104)

TIM All right, hit me with your X-ray eyes then, boss. What do you see? ELIAS Disruption. An unpredictable, angry man with nothing left but the desire to feel in some way revenged. TIM [Sarcastic] Ooh, terrifying! Surely only magic could have let you see so deep inside my very soul.

"nothing left" but the desire to feel revenged. and tim doesn't dispute this, because it's true.

when he first joined the institute he did so in order to look for answers about danny, but then he stopped seriously looking. and now that the circus is back, this is all the drive he has left. not looking for answers, just wanting revenge. closure. an end, if you will.

this is Literally It For Him. a couple lines later he suggests elias kill him, he's At The Breaking Point.

he is so tired, he's lost all hope, and he's saying all this grim shit about "unavoidable death" and "this is how it was always going to go" like hmmmm sounds familiar doesn't it. DOESN'T IT (<- is going insane)

(ep 11) [....] despite the rapid response of the paramedics and how much of his medical history I had immediately to hand, there was nothing I could do to save him. (ep 11) I have no responsibility to try and prevent whatever fate is coming for you. Based on my previous experience, such a thing is likely impossible anyway,[....] (ep 121) There. That was it. That was our fate; where we would always be.

hmmmm sounds a bit like oliver huh? everyone's favorite ex-accountant avatar of the end?? right??

but then there's this last bit i have from ep 86.

why did he stop reading the statement

Statement. “My parents never let me have a nightlight. I was always afraid, but they were ju–” Ugh, this is stupid.

why did he do that. again, correct me if im wrong but when else has someone just Stopped Reading like that without someone or something else interrupting them? why could tim just stop himself?

my theory is this: at this point, tim is completely gone from being aligned with the eye. he no longer seeks to know what happened to danny, he just wants closure. he doesn't wanna do any statement work, and he keeps mentioning these tidbits about hopelessness and the inevitability of terrible events, specifically death.

the eye isn't compelling him to read the statements like it does the others, because it doesn't have as strong a hold anymore. the grip is slipping from him. and by the time the unknowing rolls around, maybe it's lost him for good. maybe he finally fell into a different power he never meant to serve, and yet, he does.

and maybe. just maybe. because i'm so not in denial. but MAYBE. he did die in the unknowing. but maybe he got better.

basically end!tim truthers rise up, this is how end!tim kayaking with his bf oliver banks can still win, etc etc I'm Going Feral <3

[motziedapul]

@hinaypod has been shadowbanned for unknown reasons - either bad actors, or an auto flag, or because we post links as part of our podcast promotion. Or perhaps the Palestine posts, who knows.

Either way, while we wait for Tumblr to respond to our ticket, it's the perfect time to tell everyone to follow the @ above if you want to follow a Magnus Archives inspired, Rusty Quill Network official podcast about a Filipina immigrant dealing with supernatural threats in Toronto caused by cursed objects and immortal rich occultists from the 1920s who fuel their magic off violent death.

It's about how supernatural horror will never trump the horrors of real life fascism, and about how love, especially queer love, can change the very fabric of reality.

The protagonist is a 5 foot tall cheerful, warm and sunny Filipina woman with magic powers and personal trauma that's ten times worse than your average grumpy podcast man. The main villain is a faceless, nameless, powerful immortal threat in a fine suit, only known as The Benefactor.

It's got that delicious, TMA inspired analog sound (from phone calls and tape recordings) and spooky standalone stories mixed with an overarching plot that a lot of our listeners have made murder boards and spreadsheets for 👀 Theory crafting is popular in this fandom. Some episodes are so scary that people can't listen to them in the dark, but others have described it as their comfort podcast. We have more sound effects and music than base TMA; it adds to the horror, but we also like to include old jazz and classical music depending on the moment and character.

It's female led with a BIPOC majority main cast, and it's so overwhelmingly queer that we have a token cishet couple (an immortal Instagram influencer and her drippy bloody monster husband who crawls on the walls).

The protagonists are queer, the villains are queer, and we've got love stories both wholesome and toxic, happy and tragic. Old men in love, young men in love, young and old men and women in love, women in love in the 1920s, women in love in the 1940s, men who love women then men, women who love women than men, gay betrayals, lesbian tragedies, trans seductions of 150 year old former villains, NB romances in-between taking over the world.... Romantic surgeries and beheadings...

And milk tea 🧋

We're not the kind of podcast that'll ever get as huge as The Magnus Archives, but that's not really what we're aiming for. We're just aiming to reach people who would resonate with our message and love Hi Nay as much as we do!

So give us a follow and a listen! You can find us on Rusty Quill (they approached us, not the other way around 😉✨) and on almost all the major socials, and of course, wherever you listen to podcasts.

[your-kneecaps-are-mine-now]

!!The Magnus Archives S3 SPOILERS!!

To start, the spoiler warning, ^ obvy. But if you don't want any spoilers please don’t read. This is a mid to late s5 listeners thoughts, no grantee that this is just s3 spoilers. IM BEING SEREOUS! 

You have been warned.

Okay, I’ve had time to think about my recorder theory,(See This post) so you’re gonna get a little deeper dive on that now that I’ve established the base for the idea. Fyi, skip to the 2nd to last paragraph for a shorter version of the long bit.

As I mentioned previously, I believe the recorders are Eye aliened but not affiliated. By this I mean in the way Breekon and Hope are Stranger aliened. If you don’t recall or missed it in MAG 128: Heavy Goods(Transcript) Breekon tells his story. BREEKON: “We started in a plague.” “But with the circus, we were among our own kind at last.” The two have been pretty heavily implied to have never been human. They “stared", probably, during one of the black plague out breaks in Europe. If we assume that they didn’t “come to be” specifically in London and assume they wandered over to London(they might have I cant remember, its been a while since I’ve listened to that episode) then the earliest they could have “started” is somewhere around 1347(the start of the first BIG bubonic plague outbreak in Europe) or later, as the last outbreak ended in 1665. “The last bubonic plague outbreak was the Great Plague of 1665, which resulted in the deaths of 100,000 Londoners in just seven months.” (Source1)(Source2) If we go of of this info even if they “started” at the later date that still makes them OLD, OLD. This isn't a deep dive on those two though so we’re moving on. The point of that, though, was to display how old/long lived these things can be. If we refer back to MAG 111: Family Business(Transcript) GERRY: “I always think it helps to imagine them like colours. The edges bleed together, and you can talk about little differences: “oh, that’s indigo, that’s more lilac”, but they’re both purple.”(tbh I love this explanation of the powers the best) With these things on the table we can get to our point.

I believe the tapes are Eye aligned like Breekon and Hope are Stranger aliened, they feel most comfortable around their respective, chosen, powers but still do things for, and interact with the other powers frequently. Due to the bleeding colors theory we know that no power can truly be separate. I think that the recorders are the ears of all the powers but most fond of, and accessible/accessed, by The Eye. I believe that most of the other powers don’t want to/or care to reach out to the recorders because they see the collection/listening of knowledge an Eye exclusive.

Anyway, that’s what I think. If I do any more “deep dives” like this it will probably be on something else (TMA ofc). Feel free to interact w/ this post however you like. But do share your thoughts and feelings on this idea. Also, if you have any theories I’d love to hear them (they don’t have to be about the recorders). I do know that most of my theory's are wild shots in the dark and based off of throw away lines or evidence but I like to make them any who. <3

[circusfable]

My working theory right now is that the true statements are the ones read aloud by the computer. Similar to how in tma the true statements couldn’t be recorded on anything newer than a tape recorder AND the eye enjoyed having these statements read. Since this new organization (the OIAR) doesn’t read these statements aloud, the computer takes over doing that. And since what they are doing is similar to what the institute was doing by cataloging these encounters with the fears it makes me think this is the eyes new strong hold in this world, but it definitely seems weaker than that of the institute.

[lailas-in-space]

so i have a ton of theories about tmagp but i have one that I'm 99.9999999999% sure is right.

We all know that in TMA, the only statements that didn't record digitally were the real statements that truly touched the supernatural. LIKEWISE, Alice said only some of the cases are read out by Norris/Chester. THAT'S MOST DEFINITELY THE INDICATOR BETWEEN WHAT'S A TRUE CASE AND WHAT'S NOT

[charlottery-winner]

I have a Magnus Protocol theory. Major Spoilers for TMA and TMAGP.

It's speculated that following Mag 200, Jon, Martin, and Jonah were pulled into the Protocol universe with the Fear Entities, putting them inside of a computer somehow.

I propose that in passing to a new universe, those three (or at least Jon) were also passed through a filter of sorts, seperating their human parts from their inhuman parts.

What about Jon was human by Mag 200?

I'd argue his body was inhuman in the same sense Michael, Hellen, or Jared's bodies weren't human. They operate differently fundementally and can do things humans can't do, you get the picture. And clearly his instincts weren't human either.

But Jon's mind was consistently his own throughout. All of his personality changes that happen were natural. His personality does not suddenly change without cause, rather his experiences shape him.

So my theory is that his mind was seperated from his body, getting put into Freddy somehow. What happened to his body, though?

What if Jon's body, inhuman as it was, is [ERROR]? It explains its ability to compell statements, its affinity for tape recorders recording statements, it having a physical presence but behaving in a way starkly unlike any avatar has before, all of it. In Episode 21, the transcript describes [ERROR] as "a nightmarish specter of an older world" which implies it is originated in the TMA universe.

Plus, we can say with certainty that Celia is from the TMA universe. Somehow she ended up in Protocol. But she's not a disembodied mind in a machine or a horrifying monster. Maybe that's because she's entirely human, so Celia could make the jump to Protocol without being changed. By this same logic, the Fear Entities wouldn't be changed either, because they're 100% inhuman, so for the same reason Celia is the same, so are they.

That's it really. Perhaps in future episodes, we'll encounter the inhuman parts of Jonah and Martin, but otherwise Filter Theory has a massive loose end.

[ghelgheli]

sorry if you've already answered this but i just read your post about whipping girl and found it so so so insightful!! i was wondering if you have any other recommendations for books/articles/etc. about transmisogyny and the lives of tma people. thank you in advance!!

I'm glad it was helpful! this is the second ask on the subject I've let pile up, because I want to do my best with it but I'm also far from an expert. I think half the work of answering "transmisogyny syllabus" questions is explaining why it's so hard to do so in the first place.

one of the tools of hegemony is the epistemic violence it works against its subjects; this is essential to transmisogyny, thru which we have historically been rendered unable to so much as record our existence, let alone theorize from it. it is incredibly difficult for a tma person to access the institutional devices of knowledge-making, most of all the university. even when we do it is typically for the institutions we work under to shoehorn our work into the hegemonic model, stymieing actual progress. so theories and histories of transmisogyny have had to progress in a patchwork, often informal fashion, upstream and at personal risk. I am not going to be able to give you books that I would recommend without criticism, because the epistemic violence of transmisogyny has made it virtually impossible to write such a book. but with that said, here are some recommendations:

- this post multiplied my understanding of transmisogyny manifold, and was one of the most clarifying things I've read on the subject

- hands off our lives, our stories, and our bodies, is imo essential to anyone interested in a theory of transmisogyny that actually engages with its manifestations in the global south

- I enjoyed My Words to Victor Frankenstein above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage by Susan Stryker for the vibes

- two historical excavations of transmisogyny: Trans Misogyny in the Colonial Archive: Re-Membering Trans Feminine Life and Death in New Spain, 1604–1821 by Jamey Jesperson and ‘Selective Historians’: The Construction of Cisness in Byzantine and Byzantinist Texts by Ilya Maude

- Romancing the Transgender Native is good for learning the trappings of ahistorical and idealist "third gender" attributions

- especially (but not exclusively) if you are yourself a trans woman/transfem/tma, consider reading fiction by trans women/tma people, like Serious Weakness by Porpentine Charity Heartscape (check tws) or LOTE by Shola von Reinhold

- Jules Gill-Peterson's A Short History of Trans Misogyny is great for some case studies in global transmisogyny, and a decent materialist approach. but I think she makes the same mistake serano made re: equivocation of transmisogyny with the oppression of femininity, and she would have done well to read the second article on this list. her histories of the transgender child is also good, though not especially focussed on transmisogyny

- follow @ bloomfilters on twitter

if this looks like a hodgepodge that's because it is on account of what I said in the first two paragraphs. I am really not an expert and I am sure there are others who could give you much more. but to echo a friend, you may be just as likely to get something out of a game or a song written by a tma person as you are an essay. every medium can be an opportunity to plunge the roots of our theorizing deeper.

[annabelle--cane]

it's fascinating to me the way that different social media platforms result in different types of fandom behavior. while s5 of tma was airing, I spent a good amount of time on tma tiktok (I log back in about once every two months now, going back to in-person school after a year a half of lockdown seem to re-blanace my brain and made me once again not really enjoy the format) while still using tumblr as my main socmed, and while there was a lot of overlap in the fan culture, some things were notably different.

tumblr tma fans had near-encyclopedic knowledge of the source material, but it was kind of an ongoing joke for tiktok tma fans that everyone binged the whole show in a week-long fugue state and lost memory of about 35% of it. tumblr has virtually no character limit and allows posts to be passed around by users indefinitely, which lends itself to fairly in-depth meta analysis being made and shared until most any fan could say "the time and space discrepancies at hill top road? psh yeah, I know all about them, I've read seven scrupulously cited posts that lay out all the details." for the entire time that s5 was airing, tiktok videos could still only be a minute long, and I know from a lot of personal effort that there's only so much you can fit into a one minute script that you also have to memorize and record (and cc manually with tiktok text stickers, as they didn't add the caption feature until april 2021) if you want the process to take less than four hours of your one mortal human life. and then you only see the video if your following or fyp algorithm shows it to you. there were a few tma meta-ish videos that got popular because other people would make their own videos referencing them and tag the account so their followers could see what they were talking about, but it's much harder to circulate content you like there. several times I saw people post videos saying "I got into cosplay to film some [agnes or annabelle or gerry or another secondary character] and I just realized I have no idea what their deal actually is 💀".

a thing that tiktok tma fandom was definitely better at than tumblr tma fandom was accurately remembering certain pieces of characterization and the flow of certain scenes. I've seen a bunch of posts on here where someone is trying to argue a point with excerpts from the text ("x character is nicer than you all give them credit for" "x character is so mean to y character in this scene" "z theory can't be true because y character said a line that disproves it") where the argument only holds up because the poster has gotten these excerpts from a transcript dive and hasn't listened to the episodes they're from recently, because while the text alone can be construed to mean one thing, the way it's delivered on-podcast clearly intends another. tiktok, being an audio and video based medium, allows audio clips to be shared around a lot, and cosplayers would often all make videos acting along to the same show clips of juicy interpersonal drama, and so tiktok fans, though they may have had less overall memory of what characters said, always had a better grasp on how they said it. an average tiktok tma fan might not have remembered melanie's subplot about war ghosts, but they would know the nuances of how the way she talks to jon changes between mag 28 and mag 155.

[autismprotocol]

TMAGP Theory Board ( EP 10)

Hi guys sorry for the late post I ended up drawing a lot for this update especially because it's the last one before the hiatus so wanted to give it a little more pizazz :D

What Happened in Episode 10: Saturday Night

Interview with Nigel Dickerson. The inccident report this week was all about Mr Bonzo. If you remember from last episode Nigel is the famous tv personality who created the character of Mr Bonzo. During this interview he recounts the rise and fall of Bonzo while being ominous and on edge the whole time. what I gathered from the interveiw is that Bonzo is either trapping Nigel or Bonzo and Nigel are linked somehow. (when he say "he won't let me leave" and refers to himself as "us") we also learn about the murders that are connected to the Bonzo suit, first by the serial killer Terrance Menki and very recently 3 unsolved murders. Nigel also mentioned that the actors who wore the Bonzo suit would be prone to injuries on set which is also really stange. Could be they were used as Bonzo's victims near his begining

Gwen meets Mr Bonzo. The other section of the episode dealing with Bonzo is when Gwen goes to Nigel's house on her first assignment as the Externals Liason. So turns out Bonzo is maybe a hitman for the OIAR! Also, big thing Mr Bonzo is atually alive and is introduced with some kind of practice almost resembling a ritual. I heard somone mention they think Bonzo is an avatar of the Stranger and I can definitely see this. I'd love to hear if anyone else has a theory for what entity Bonzo may be connected to.

The Return of Colin. Colin isn't dead!! Shocking absolutley everyone Colin is still kicking. a few episodes ago he was sent on mental health leave by Lena after his parnoia caused him to mentally snap. Celia sees him while on break and they have a short convorsation. Colin tells Celia that he need to figure out the computers. also big thing Colin is back without the permission of Lena. It will be interesting to see what hes looking for and if he'll continue to sneak behind Lena's back.

Sam and Alice's Adventures into the Institute. Probaly the biggest development lore-wise was Sams and Alice investigating the ruins of the Magnus Institute. They don't find much (but I'm still am gonna talk about it for awhile) Alice mentions that there were weird carvings in the floor which she later equates to the worms on the ground. If you are a Archives listener hearing about worms in the archives starts seting off all kinds of alarms. This means in this universe the Jane Prentiss attack still happens, which is especcially iteresting because If I'm not mistaken in TMA the worm attack happened spesiffically to mark Jon with the corruption. Was Jon ever part of the institute? or if not Jon there must have been an archivist role in this Magnus Institute that would require Jane to attack it.

ERROR and the Tape Recorders so far in protocol we have been listening to the characters through either the computers or though their phones. But during the last few minutes we here the click of a tape recorder. and TMA fans around the world rejoiced. The magnus archives is entirley told through tape recordings and are a tool used by the web (spesifically the avatar Annabelle Cane) does this mean Annabelle made it to this universe? or it could also signal the presense of Jon (since the tape recorders are linked to him) Alice and Sam investigate the archivist office looking for a place for the key when the floor collapes and Sam drops the key. After some Sam and Alice banter, they leave but the recorder stays running we then hear the scraping sound and some shutterd breathing. This is when I highly suggest going through the transcript after listening to an episode becuase they specifically what were hearing and who is breathing.

I included the snippet from the transcript that pinpoints every not verbal sound we hear

water from the pit under the archives is disturbed

thud on wood then a rattle of a padlock

Key being dragged across the wood then fumbled into a lock that clicks open

trapdoor opens and ERROR imerges

ERROR takes 3 breaths

ERROR has been used before for redacting the roles played by Johnny, Alex and Tim (aka the voices of FR3-d1) during the cast anouncements for protocol. This makes me think that ERROR must be someone from the Archives universe my running theory is that it is a entity that houses Jon, Martin and Jonah's souls or consiounous. but It could literally be anyone. I'm also thinking ERROR has been locked in the tunnels under the archives (Mentioned in TMA)

And thats about Everything! plese let me know your thoughts or if you wanna correct me on any mistakes :)

Also I would love to know if you guys would prefer this style of post where I illustrate moments and scenes from each episode? it would probably delay when I'm able to post the breakdowns but I'd love to know if you guys perfer that format over the less illustrated one.