#i was relistening to that episode because its a dekker statement and i fucking love dekker

[thermodynamic-comedian]

hey guys so anybody remember that line from mag 134? "the door is the door"? and how that episode was all about the extinction?

and how the watcher's crown is completed by the archivist saying "i open the door"? and how the magnus protocol is about "emerging fears"? fears like, dare i say, the extinction?

now. would i be correct in assuming that the door was the door

and the door was opened

and that's how the extinction fully came into being?

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 134 - Time of Revelation

But I thought it would be best to let you know as soon as possible. I am now certain my theory is correct. There is something new emerging. A fifteenth Power. - Statement of Adelard Dekker

This was such an "Oooooh, so THAT'S what they've all been working on!" moment.

Bernadette had, apparently, received a call from a colleague in Paris about a discovery regarding Garland Hillier.

So I absolutely assumed that TMA had yoinked another historical figure I had just never heard of for its own purposes, but no, a quick Google just showed me that apparently Garland Hillier has only ever been a denizen of TMA's universe.

The door is the door.

I briefly assumed the Distortion was somehow involved with this, because hey, creepy doors, we know what that means. But no, apparently more than one type of creepy door can exist simultaneously! Who would've thought!

Bernadette arrived, and got into the building without any trouble, save for the five flights of stairs that needed to be climbed

I'D FUCKING CALL THAT TROUBLE!

I may try to interview her again, later, though I have my suspicions she may find herself disappearing. She has that quality about her; I’m sure you know what I mean. Of an unfinished meal.

Oh, that is a very apt and very creepy way of describing that.

A change in our world that will wipe out what it means to be us, and leave something else in its place.

I sort of get it and I sort of don't. I'm not particularly afraid of death (not my own anyway) but I am afraid of - hm - how do I best put this - "initially survivable apocalypses"? The breakdown of all I know in a cataclysmic event, leading, yes, eventually to death perhaps but slowly and torturously while I lose everything I've come to know and love and rely on. So yeah, the fear of the End and the Extinction are definitely two different things, one of which I viscerally understand. But then the way Dekker describes it, I keep running into "And why should I fear what may become of humanity after I and anyone I have ever had a connection to is long gone", unfortunately. I think some of the "This might be the Extinction" statements later on do a much better job of actually making the fear real to me than his description here.

Peter Lukas: The End, on the other hand… The End doesn’t really need one. It knows that it gets everything eventually, so why bother?

Death is patient and certain.

Martin (somewhat sarcastically): And you thought that since I’m so lonely already, I’d be ideal. Peter Lukas (very cheerfully and earnestly): Yes!

... I mean, Peter Lukas is terrifying and also a manipulative jackass but with exchanges like this, I ... just can't stay mad at him. Why is the prime avatar of the Lonely so fucking CHARMING???

Peter Lukas: Look. I’m not going to pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to.

Okay, no, but that is LITERALLY what you're doing as you speak! Arse!

Martin: He’s not a moron. Peter: …If you say so.

I mean. He has. A point. Jon CAN be a bit of a moron.

Peter: Interesting. Were you compelled? Martin: I don’t know. Maybe? I-I, I definitely wanted to do it. Peter: But? Martin: I’m – I’m not sure where the idea came from. Peter: You should watch out for that. Could be something dangerous. Martin: Sure

And he has a point about that too! I was as dismissive as Martin when it came up but ... yeah...

My impression of this episode

This episode was mostly interesting for what it meant for the greater plot, i.e. the emergence of the Extinction and the fact that Peter Lukas's and Martin's plans are related to it. The statement itself wasn't all that memorable, but the Martin-and-Peter conversation sure was. Answered a lot of questions but created just as many new ones.

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 78 - Distant Cousin

Jon: I… er…We… we didn’t…

What is Jon starting to say here before he stops and goes on to read the statement instead? 'We didn't know'?

It’s weird to think about people who knew you as a child. You change so much, and when you talk to them again, they’re not talking to you. They’re talking to someone else, someone you used to be. The person they think they’re seeing has been dead for years, but they didn’t see the change. They’re looking at a complete stranger, and they have no idea. - Statement of Lawrence Moore

a) Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right. Though I've only really had that experience from the other end, actually. Meeting up with old friends and just ... finding a stranger in their place with whom every conversation is awkward. I suspect they felt the same about me, though, I just wouldn't have necessarily noticed. Also I've had that experience with myself, re-reading old diaries. Most of it is all 'Okay, yeah, that's clearly me' but every once in a while I stumble across a moment of 'WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?' and I'm ... not a fan. At all. Not that the changes between teenage!me and now!me haven't mostly been an improvement, but I don't like the concept of changing in ways I can't perceive except in hindsight, can't even remember going through until I see them in writing and sure as fuck can't steer. b) I like the connection they make here between the Stranger and just ... the experience of growing and changing as a person. It's actually really quite unsettling!

He looked at me for a long, off-putting second as a wide smile crept across his face. “I know it’s been a long time, Lawrence,” he said, “but surely you haven’t forgotten your cousin Carl?”

The reaction here implies (at least to me) that the Not!Them doesn't necessarily KNOW in advance who the person that knows them for what they are (that is, their ACTUAL victim, the person whose fear they feed off) is? Hence the smile growing wider.

I could feel panic beginning to rise in my chest, and I started asking everyone who might know Carl, and all of them told me the same thing. When my aunt gave me a withering glare for asking who her son was, I had to leave.

I'm really glad that they didn't draw this scene out any more than that because at this point it was actually becoming genuinely hard to listen. I can deal with and sometimes actively enjoy being unsettled in a fear sense (otherwise I wouldn't be into TMA in the first place). But being unsettled in a second-hand embarrassment sense (as was clearly triggered in me by the scene of everyone at the wedding silently judging this poor guy because in their minds he was either having a break-down or playing a stupid prank) ... yeah, I can't handle that very well.

Neither of us said a word. He just stared at me, smile still wide and something twinkling in his eyes that might have been amusement. Or triumph. He showed no desire to make any sort of conversation, and I was too terrified to say anything at all.

Oh god, this isn't pretty. Not at all. Nope.

Standing there was another man I’d never seen before. He was black, dressed in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a thin necktie.

... and I completely missed that Adelard Dekker is black. I don't like how my mind glosses over that and settles on default-white, I'll have to work on that.

We placed it [the big box] down in the middle of the living room, and I instinctively went to lift the lid. I caught a brief glimpse of dark, varnished wood before he slammed it down, almost trapping my hand, and shook his head once. “It’s not for you,” he said.

This isn't Dekker being rude, is it? This is Dekker protecting Lawrence from being Webbed as well as Strangered.

I didn’t return to my house until the next morning. Dekker’s blue van was gone, and in its place was another one, dirty white. There was something printed on the side, but I couldn’t make it out under the grime. I watched two men in overalls carry that same box out of my house, load it up, and drive away.

Breekon and Hope, obviously, but I really wonder how exactly they got this "job" and also I'd love to know the exact trajectory of this table before it ends up in the Archive.

Sasha (recording): Hello! I see you! Show yourself! Not!Sasha (recording): Hello? I see you! I see you! Jon: And now I see you!

Oh god, this is so good! Just. The juxtaposition. The 'seeing' thing re: the Eye and Jon. Also it's a pretty important character moment - I think this is the moment that Jon first decides to stop being passive and take the fight to them. Well, Not!Them, I suppose.

Jon: Yes…. Yes. And I’m… I’m sorry. About everything. Martin: J-Jon… look, are you –

Okay, yeah, I mean, if a person I knew was obviously tying up loose ends by way of apology and then making sure they are completely alone, I would be genuinely wondering whether I'll ever see them again alive. Martin's got good reasons to be reluctant to leave.

Jon: I don’t know if destroying this is going to kill that thing… but I am damn sure it’s going to hurt.

Oh god, this is such a stupid decision. Jon literally JUST READ the statement obviously describing the binding of the Not!Them to the table by Dekker. And even without knowing about the Fourteen, he's got enough information to know the table is related to spiders and webs and shit and the Not!Them isn't. Jesus, Jon, what are you doing? I mean, yeah, you're all 'VENGEANCE GRAH!' for understandable reasons, but there's no need to be so STUPID about it!

Michael: That was very stupid.

YES! YES IT WAS!

My impression of this episode

Oh god, there's a lot going on here. First of all, the story of the cousin was disturbing in multiple ways, both the fun horror one that I came here for and the less-fun one (as previously mentioned, there are various scenes in it that set off my "Hiding under blankets and sticking my fingers in my ears until the awkward bit is done" reflex and fighting that was actually quite difficult). And then - well - seeing Jon genuinely fucking FURIOUS and ready to kill, not in self-defense but in revenge, is interesting! Of course, he ends up going about it in the dumbest fucking way and I honestly don't think there's a good explanation for Jon's complete brainfart here. But for me, that bit of rather weak writing is outweighed by the reappearance of Michael, who I love. so. much. So yeah, this is a pretty good episode, all things considered.