#overall: CRIES CRIES CRIES i'm gonna miss these nerds.............
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Sam my love Iāve missed you this weekššš I have MANY things to catch you up on and I fear itās gonna be a two parter š (Iāll try not to yap too much lol)
WDYM SAM IVE MENTIONED THE HARRY WITH A BREEDING KINK?!? BESTIEšššš I wish my memory wasnāt shit so I could remember š BUT I LOVE BEING SURPRISED SO I CANT WAIT TO BE SENT INTO A FERAL SPIRAL HAHA
I thought I would HATE audio porn lol I hate asmr stuff so in my head I thought it would be like that but Iām glad it was not that lol and honestly I totally get being more into the plot! Bc thatās literally me!! And itās always such a surprise when you do write smut and I love it lol
Omg AP stats and calc?!? Iām also not surprised you love calc and bestie thatās so cool of you! I love that your brain just get it ya know! Anyways Iām sure youāre doing a GREAT job at teaching bothšš
Youāre so kind š and youāre so right about getting it for a deal I think maybe thatās why Iām obsessed lol being ābasicā is fine like thereās a reason why itās so loved because you canāt really fuck up lol I LOVEEEEE flowers in any form so I totally get it! Wait I love that you have a good dynamic with your students š thatās so sweet!!!
The made to be couple is so amazing! Such a heartbreaking story when I read for the first time Iām pretty sure I cried at one point lol and another teacherry idea?! A WIN!!!
It actually hurt me so much too see how she was being used like thatās not normalšš(Iām the same but at least I can accept it now lol) and you know I love the classic ākittenā nickname itās truly your trademark! So I donāt see anything wrong with having it for your stories plus poppy was cute and it made sense for the story! BESTIEEEEEE you have no idea how much I love that youāre even considering using a Spanish nickname! And yeah I do speak it and mi vida is very acceptable and common! Another common one would be āamorā or ācariƱoā! Also it was similar to Tulips BUT they are still so different if that makes sense!
I LOVE A NERD!!!! Heās sounds so amazing I canāt š him being so into her and just caring enough about her to learn her interestš heās definitely book bf material!
Aww thank you! It was my uncle who passed and oddly he was someone I enjoyed being around with lol but the whole process of being around family memebers is just a no for me! And like I simply canāt with them!! Anyways Iām glad that Iām not really alone in feeling like that!
Okay so this quarter is all psyc courses! All upper division and they are something lol bestie one of them is 3 HOURSššš I wonāt make itš but the topics seem interesting enough lol I have two that revolve around clinical treatment, assessment, and a bit of history behind psychology methods. Then one about development which seems cool since I already took a class about parenting! And one about eating disorders which Iām kinda the most excited about even if the grading scheme in that course sucks lol BUT SAM I HAVE A WIN!! I HAVE A HOT TA THIS QUARTER ššš idk if Iāve mentioned him before but I had him as a TA for my first year and when I tell you I was shocked when walking into that lecture hallā¦ I was too stunned to speak!! Heās so hot to me I canāt šAnyways overall the professors seems nice but who tf knows at this point bestie Iāll probably be dying in two ish weeks when midterms start lol
I kinda had to dye it again bc my roots girl were so bad lol I now see how oddly fast my hair grows bc those roots were showing lol but honestly I find it every fun and freeing almost lol but i totally understand not wanting to commit because it is something you canāt easily fix! but if itās not something you really want to do thereās nothing wrong with that!-š
I've missed you so much! I'm sorry it was a busy week š
I can't wait to write it now hehehe š¤
Obviously I'm obsessed with friends to lovers audio porn so I've been enjoying all the little lead up parts to the actual sex. I've mainly been skipping around the audios listening for the sweet parts of him telling her how beautiful she is and how much he likes her šš I think I just need a good audio book, right? Like that's what that means? Idk, I don't care either hahahaha. I think it'll help inspire a bit more smut (I may or may not be writing something now for Thursday š¤·āāļø)
I think I cried during Made To Be multiple times. I'm def an angsty girl at heart š This teacherry idea is going to be probs dumb but I don't care. I'm trying not to read too much into my own ideas because it's fiction and fun.
AMOR (OBVIOUSLY) and cariƱo I love that! Idk if I have a storyline for them yet. I also don't know if it would make sense for me to use it because I'm not sure I could tie in a reason (okay, hold on I'm envisioning a meet cute after a long day at work and Harry is just blown away by the girl at the bar of a Mexican restaurant because she's just obsessed with tacos, chips, and guac and probably margaritas--I know Harry loves tequila). I just don't want to offend anyone more than I probably do by being whiter than a piece of paper ā But I really love the sound of cariƱo š like now it's all I'm going to think about for weeks. One of the book series I was reading called her gatita so I could see myself using both--okay, you've convinced me. I'll use some spanish hehehehehehe. I def got mi vida from Encanto š I thought it was adorable and I could so see a lovesick Harry using it.
I love my family. I would do anything for them. But they're the worst. Whenever someone gets married and they play the shoe game I'm always the side of designated side of the family that's "who's side of the family is crazier" -_- It ain't much, but it's honest.
I'm OBSESSED!!!! Please share anything you feel like sharing about your studies. One of the many degrees I would love to get is psychology. I LOVE the brain. I think it's fascinating. 3 HOURS THOUGH. I love the sound of all your courses. Everything sounds fascinating. I'm so excited for you! I know it will be a lot but hopefully the interest will make it worthwhile.
Does that mean your TA has a cute nose?! šš Tell me about his forearms too š I'm literally so excited about this. Send me tidbits for inspo. I'll be praying for you around midterms time š
I've always thought a burgundy reddish/purple would be fun for me but again, can't commit, lol. I've had the same hairdresser since I was a kid, she would probs have a stroke. I should just ask her what to do. See part of me doesn't want to deal with the upkeep either. You're a stronger woman than me. If I saw roots I would be like "That sucks, oh well." I swear sometimes I should have been a guy. I think the higher powers forgot to turn a few knobs and switches before sending me out into the universe š
āØSee you in part 2!!! āØ
xoxo
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Reviewing time for MAG199! ;_;
- That discussion was a lot, and raised a lot of interesting points, but wooftie did the beginning show characters going back to their bad reflexes out of habit and stress. Melanie and Jon were quick to get snappish at each other, and we know from MAG186 that Martin making tea is also his way of avoiding conflict:
(MAG186) ALSO MARTIN: We could. [SIGH] But we both know that loved ones make the worst therapists. Theyāre too wrapped up in trying to stop you hurting, to actually help. But hey: we know all about that, am I right? MARTIN: Thereās nothing wrong with comforting people. ALSO MARTIN: A cup of tea isnāt a resolution. At best itās aā¦ a plaster; at worstā¦ a muzzle.
So the fact that the sequence began with Martin asking about tea?
(MAG199) MELANIE: ā¦ Soā¦ ARCHIVIST: ā¦ Yeah. [UNCOMFORTABLE PAUSE] MARTIN: Anyone want another cup of tea? [SOMETHING WOODEN SCRAPES ACROSS TUNNEL FLOOR] Well, heh, I say āteaā, itās harā GEORGIE: We canāt keep putting it off. We need to talk about this. About what weāre going to do.
Aouch. (I wonder where the tea came from: from the London supermarket? Or were those the bags he had packed before leaving the Scotland cabin?)
- Meanwhile, Basira was providing out-of-the-box ideas or possibilities and Georgie acted a bit like a debate mediator, laying options down and trying to keep things on track. Iām especially glad that she was the one to point out that there were actually three options, counting inaction (letting the world slowly die out) as one, since, as she pointed out, she had felt guilty for not having helped Jon back in season 4 ā she had told him so, she had to reexplain to Melanie again this episode.
- Although he had begun the season correcting Martin about Elias actually being āJonahā, Jon mainly used āEliasā to refer to him this season, until they reached London and he was oscillating between the two. But since Jon told Elias Bouchard (the real one)ās statement, itās been āJonahā without hesitation, to the point that he corrected Georgie about it:
(MAG193) ARCHIVIST: I could kill his body, sever the link, break The Eyeās power, andā¦ Jonah Magnus would die.
(MAG194) ARCHIVIST: Look. Right, when I said that I would āreplaceā Jonah in there, thatās notā¦ I mā ā¦ That place, the centre of The Eye, iāitāsā¦ it wasnāt made for him.
(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: I see. Destroy the Panopticon, and you release its power. Kill Jonah, and you cut the connection between the Fears and the world.
(MAG198) ARCHIVIST: Had a blazing row? MARTIN: I, uhā¦ ehā¦ Yeah, that. BASIRA: What? ARCHIVIST: About what we should do with Jonah. Withā¦ the Panopticon. BASIRA: Oh, about whether you should, uhā¦?
(MAG199) GEORGIE: One. We follow Annabelleās plan. We destroy the Panopticon, kill Eliasā ARCHIVIST: Jonahā GEORGIE: Whateverā ARCHIVIST: āMagnus.
It feels like knowing about the real Elias helped Jon distinguish the two, since he could now put a story and a personality on āEliasā?
(Iām still laughing a bit that Jon had to be That Person and interrupt Georgie. Not the point, not the moment, Jon.)
- Overall, I like how we could clearly see what was prioritised by everyone amongst the options they explored and how they approached the problem. Basically, the unknown factors came to whether other worlds were already impacted by the Fears or not, and whether the Fears would contaminate all of them or just a portion, which led to a few scenarios showing what they feared and hoped for the most:
-> Keeping the Fears in their world and sacrificing it in the process: hoping that the Fears were intrinsically tied to this world in particular, that this option would mean their absolute annihilation, and fearing that other worlds getting contaminated by them would lead to these other worlds experiencing their own apocalypse, thus perpetuating a cycle they could have stopped.
-> Throwing the Fears into other worlds to save their own: hoping that the Fears already existed in other worlds, that it would only impact some amongst an infinity of worlds, and fearing that sacrificing their world would be a pointless sacrifice if the Fears happen to exist elsewhere anyway.
Jon was behind the first plan, with a few variations (offering to accelerate the death process if necessaryā¦ which, indeed, was chilling, and Basiraās firm opposition against actively contributing to peopleās murder was very necessary, but made sense as an option if the scenario was to doom this world). The others federated for the second with various priorities: Basira sounded like she could have accepted the sacrifice of this world if it came with the certainty that it would eradicate the Fears everywhere (but they do not have that certainty), while Melanie insisted on peopleās own responsibility when it came to bringing around an apocalypse and the fact that hypotheticals could go both ways, while Georgie seemed more receptive to what would happen to this world for sure vs. the unknown in other universes, while Martin was refusing Jonās option to take Jonahās place and was receptive to other ideas. From Georgie&Melanie, there was the additional fact that they had recently witnessed the survivors, who trusted them and were under their protection, getting snatched away without them being able to do anything; from an emotional point of view, it might have pushed them toā¦ do something, anything, that could indeed save people, while they hadnāt been able to be active until now.
* I really like that Basira was the one to point out and reiterate how unfair it was of them to take this decision, that they ultimately were very privileged compared to the main victims, trying to find ways to get people involved in the process. It does feel like sheās learned during the journeyā¦
* Jonās voice (weary, miserable) when he explained that he already knew what people wanted, and that it was for their suffering āto stopā, broke my heart into pieces ;_;
* Martinās main argument (āIād rather live the rest of my life lying awake wondering if I made the right choice, overā¦ lying awake listening to the screams of everyone on Earth being tortured!ā really echoed what had happened with Annabelle on their journey to Hill Top Road: that he couldnāt help making additional stops to relieve peopleās suffering for a bit, and that he briefly lamented Salesaās death despite Annabelle pointing out that he had made victims, since Martin ādidnāt know themā. Martin reacts more strongly to whatās in front of him, uhā¦
* Georgie felt very End-touched this episode? āuntil the endā, ātowards the endā, just like Beholding avatars had occasionally been punning about their patronā¦
* Melanie, sayer of āfuckā /o/
(MAG131) MELANIE: Oooh, fuck off?!
(MAG199) MELANIE: But if you think thatās all I care about here, then frankly you can fuck off out my tunnels on your high horse.
Jon still in the lead with four over the course of the series, weāll see if anyone else takes the lead with MAG200ā¦
- Overall: what was the most striking was how, at this point, Jon was indeed too disillusioned to hope for any possible positive outcome. They all made good points, about what they knew and didnāt know, about the worst and best cases scenarios ā but from Jonās point of view, it feels like the guilt has been heavy enough already, and that he couldnāt stand to add to it anymore.
(And ;; Itās especially cruel that he stuck to his line of trusting the others, that he shared the information with the others and counted on them to make a collective decisionā¦ but that he was the only discordant voice in the end. That was the risk! And it just cruelly (for him) turned out this way.)
- Amongst the points that werenāt mentioned, Iām curious that the followings didnāt come up:
* They barely talked about The Web or Jonah as, well, being the main factors resulting in the current apocalypse ā as the people who wanted it to happen and worked for it. They all were ready to take the blame butā¦ the apocalypse wouldnāt have happened if The Web hadnāt wanted to control its escape by backing up Jonah to make it happen, and if Jonah hadnāt worked for it. Yeeting the Fears into other worlds also means yeeting The Web, who now knows for sure how an apocalypse can happen, which means it will search for a crack to widen as its next escape pod as soon as it arrives somewhere else, thus repeating the cycle probably much more fasterā¦?
* They all seem confident that once the Fears leave, theyāll be gone forever. But Gerry had raised the point in front of Jon that nobody can tell really which came first, if the Fears originated from people or caused their fears. What if the problem in the TMA world is that the Fears are produced by people ā what if they would be recreated as soon as they leave (especially now that people are left traumatised and hurt)?
* They werenāt sure whether the other worlds would be very similar to theirs (āAssuming time even works the same in different dimensions.ļæ½ļæ½ļæ½) butā¦ the two examples of people crossing the Hill Top Road line had come from very familiar worlds: Anyaās was almost identical (except that there was no Magnus Institute in hers ā maybe no Jonah Magnus at all?) and Eowa was killed by the same army he had tried to flee. The examples both Jon and Martin read about felt really similar to their world; those could be drops in the bucket, but stillā¦
* There was absolutely no mention of the people they lost in the course of the series. Itās a strange feeling, because when it came to it, their conclusions seem pretty disconnected from everything that had happened to them, to the point that Melanie could blurt out āWe all lived with monsters in the shadows, and we just got on with it.ā without being countered by anyone ā although it was the most obvious lie ever (and Melanie had to be aware of it, given how she blinded herself to escape The Eye). Melanie knows in detail how her father suffered because of The Corruption at Ivy Meadows before dying. Georgie lost Alex and her ability to feel fear. Basira had to hunt and kill Daisy after she got lost to The Hunt. Jon was traumatised as kid, witnessed Helen Richardson getting taken by Michael in front of him; Martin was preyed on and groomed for The Lonely for months by Peter; Jon&Martin both lost Tim and Sasha. They know how damaging the Fears can be even at the lurking stage. I wouldnāt have been surprised if, even taking this into account, theyād still have gone with the plan to yeet the Fears (since in the best case scenario, Fears would already be present in other worlds anyway, or whatever inhabits them would be insulated to them), Iām just surprised that the topic of the people they have lost didnāt come up as a potential counter-argument, especially since weāre at the end of this journey.
- Oh gods, Jon leaving for a smokeā¦
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: Fine. Iām going for a cigarette. [DEPARTING FOOTSTEPS] [CLICK.]
ā¦ sounded like a very bad omen, given how las time he had left people alone to smoke, it had gone, uh, pipe-murderly:
(MAG080) ARCHIVIST: Iām going to have a cigarette. Donātā¦ [DOOR OPENS] Donāt. [DOOR CLOSES]
Surprised that nothing bad happened when he left; if it had been at the end of an episode, I would have panicked for a week about the Watchers coming back for the others while Jon was away.
- It was the first time weāve heard Jon smoke on tape! We knew he did thanks to a few mentions (him announcing his cigarette break to Leitner in MAG080, the fact that Daisy had found Silk Cuts in his bag in MAG091, when he had tried to give a cigarette to Gerry in MAG111) but we hadnāt heard him taking a smoke.
* ā¦ How long has Jon carried these cigarettes? Did they come from before the Change, did Jon restock at Salesaās, did he get some from Leitnerās stashes of stuff? Or does his own stock never truly deplete, The Web providing an infinite supply of cigarettes just like the recorders keep spawning?
* We could hear the whirring sounds and the drones, Georgie joked about an āindoor smoking banā, Jon commented he could think better here, we heard Georgie climbing stairs to reach him, so Iām guessing he was at the bottom of the tower? I like how this scene managed to feel nostalgic despite of it, with Jon being somewhere between inside and outside and hiding for a smoke ā we donāt know for sure where he used to go to smoke, but Gertrude had mentioned the Institute has a courtyard.
* And just the location highlighted Jonās situation: not āhumanā enough anymore to be in the tunnels, but refusing to embrace what is at the top of the tower. So, alone in that in-between.
- Gods, the Georgie and Jon scene began so adorably?
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [LONG EXHALATION] GEORGIE: You do know thereās an indoor smoking ban, right? ARCHIVIST: Theyāll make an exception for meā¦! GEORGIE: [FAINT CHUCKLE] ARCHIVIST: Besides, I canāt really think down there. [DRAG ON CIGARETTE] Thatās not true, I can, itās justā¦ exhausting. Puts me in a foul mood. [INHALE] Itās better up here, close to The Eye. Thoughts come quicker. GEORGIE: ā¦ If itās any consolation, you seemed pretty on the ball earlier. ARCHIVIST: It isnāt really butā¦ thank you.
Friendly exes! It really took me back to the familiar bantering they shared in season 3 ā except that, back then, Jon was trying to hide what was truly happening to him, and this time around, Jon was shown more open and direct about what was on his mind.
- Again, I love and hate what the scene said and showed, reminding us thatā¦ even if the plan they have chosen goes accordingly, Jon wonāt be okay, as Jon had explained to Martin:
(MAG181) ARCHIVIST: Uh, these last few days IāIāve beenā¦ getting weaker. Dizzy spells, vagueness, youāve seen it. Being cut off from the Eye, iāitās not good for me. MARTIN: Yeah, but ifā¦ [INHALE] If youāre that connected, thatā¦ dependent, what happens if we actually, yāknow, do manage toā ARCHIVIST: Weāll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I just need us to be moving on.
(MAG191) MARTIN: ā¦ Jon. Ifā¦ When we defeat The Eye, the Fearsā¦ What happens to you? [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: Nothing good. I think it depends on what actually happens. [ā¦] If, however, weā¦ find a way to destroy or, uhā¦ eliminate the Powersā¦ Iām not going to be okay. Thereāsā¦ too much of me thatās part of The Eye now. I donātā¦ know what would be left of me without it. Maybe I justā¦ die. Maybe I survive, but IāI loseā¦ something. My identity? My mind? Myā¦ memories? I donāt know.
(MAG197) ANNABELLE: Most would simply lose whatever power they have been gifted. Jon would lose much of himself, the parts of him that are The Eye. But he would survive. And perhaps, more importantly, he would remain who he believes himself to be. [TAPE SQUEALS]
His moment of rest consists of coming up under Beholdingās radar again; but if they succeed, there wonāt be that anymore. At best, Jon would be like he was in the tunnels, at worse, he would wither away like he did at Salesaās, losing grasp on his memory and unable to focus. It wasnāt mentioned as a factor in their discussion (Martin and Jon had already covered this privately earlier in the season, after all), but itās likely not something Jon has forgotten.
- Oh GODS, Georgie, no!!
(MAG199) GEORGIE: ā¦ Can I have a cigarette? ARCHIVIST: [AMUSED SNORT] ā¦ Sure. [PASSING ONE OVER]
(MAG001) ARCHIVIST: āI picked myself up as best I could, checked I hadnāt seriously injured myself, no broken bones or anything, and decided to roll a cigarette to calm myself. Ā That was when I heard it. [STATIC RISES] āCan I have a cigarette?ā [STATIC FADES]ā
Given Jonās reaction, he had picked up on it. You either die an Archivist, or you live long enough to see yourself become the Anglerfishās victim.
- Georgie used to smoke, and Jon knew that about her! They might have been smoking together as students, given Jonās official chronology regarding smoking?
(MAG080) ARCHIVIST: Iām going to have a cigarette. Donātā¦ [DOOR OPENS] Donāt. [ā¦] Sorry, Iāve been quit for five years now, but thā [STUNNED SILENCE] ā¦ Oh. Oh godā¦ I need toā¦ Uhā¦ I need to, umā¦ [TRAILS OF ALMOST INCOHERENTLY]
MAG080 had taken place in February 2017, so five years ago was 2012, which is roughly when Jon joined the Institute (in MAG051, he had mentioned āOne of [his] first cases as a researcher for the Institute in 2012ā). Although, well. Jon saying that he had ābeen quit for five yearsā wasnāt super convincing when he apparently had cigarettes on him at that moment, but itās a bit difficult to guess when Jon went back to smoking in the series (Eliasās āHeās not smoking again, is he?ā in MAG039 could have been referring to him knowing that Jon used to smoke, or to Jon having started again as soon as he got the lighter; and Timās āI donāt mean like āsneaking a cigaretteā badā in MAG079 could have been a random example, or referring to the fact that Jon was indeed having cigarette breaks in season 2 and not being super subtle about it).
- Aouch about the theme of shattering illusions and your heroes being people above all:
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: I thought you quit? GEORGIE: I did! For my health. Butā¦ itās already the apocalypse soā¦ Iāll need a light too. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. [LIGHTER SNICKS OPEN] [GEORGIE LIGHTS UP] GEORGIE: I tried to avoid it in the tunnels, when we had our, uhā¦ When the others were here. [ā¦] ARCHIVIST: You didnāt want to tarnish the image of the prophets? GEORGIE: Just didnāt think they wanted one of their ārevered leadersā puffing away in the corner. ARCHIVIST: [MURMURS AN ASSENT] GEORGIE: Saw a bishop smoking once when I was a kid, full Easter regalia and all. Really weirded me out.
The comparison hurt a bit by likening the survivors in the tunnels toā¦ children who canāt really tell decorum apart from reality, but there sure was an interesting theme of Georgie being aware of how she was seen, and trying to not hurt the survivors while at the same time indirectly feeding their perception of her as āholyā.
- Okay, so. Probably what felt the biggest, most important thing in this episode wasā¦ Georgie taking the lighter, how it happened, and whether or not it will be narratively relevant.
(MAG199) GEORGIE: ā¦ Can I have a cigarette? ARCHIVIST: [AMUSED SNORT] ā¦ Sure. [PASSING ONE OVER] I thought you quit? GEORGIE: I did! For my health. Butā¦ itās already the apocalypse soā¦ Iāll need a light too. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. [LIGHTER SNICKS OPEN] [GEORGIE LIGHTS UP] GEORGIE: I tried to avoid it in the tunnels, when we had our, uhā¦ When the others were here. [LIGHT METALLIC SOUND] Nice lighter. [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: Hmm? [STATIC FADES] [ā¦] I should probably quit myself, then. [LIGHT METALLIC SOUND] GEORGIE: Then, you wonāt mind if I hang onto this? [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: [DISTRACTED] Hmm. [STATIC FADES] GEORGIE: ā¦ Iām sorry. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: I know you hate what weāre doing.
* Static when people mention the lighter and Jon not being able to focus on it is far from new:
(MAG111) GERARD: Nice lighter. You a spider freak, then? ARCHIVIST: What? Oh! Er, nāno. IāI, I never really, uhā¦ I never really thought of it. IāIām Jon. Iām with the Magnus Institute. ā¦ IāIām the Archivist.
(MAG136) DAISY: [SCOFF] Sheāsā¦ Web. Spiderās sneaky like that. [PAUSE] Like that lighter youāre always using. Whereād you get that? ARCHIVIST: Mm. [STATIC RISES] Good point. We should keep our eyes open. [STATIC FADES] Anyway, howās Basira doing?
(MAG162) MARTIN: You said this place, theāthe cabin wasā¦ [WOODEN CREAKING SOUND] It, itās feeding on us, right? ARCHIVIST: Yesā¦ MARTIN: ā¦ So should weā¦ destroy it, before we go? [ā¦] Weāre not even gonna try? We, weāve got your lighter, maybe we could justā ARCHIVIST: We canāt fight the world, Martin.
(MAG197) ANNABELLE: And it just so happens that the perfect tool was once delivered to you as a token of appreciation. Though you really do need to learn to keep better care of it. Somehow, it always seems to slip your mind, doesnāt it? ARCHIVIST: Whatā¦? BASIRA: Jon, itās that stupid lighter of yours. ARCHIVIST: [INDIGNANT] My what? Iā¦ [STATIC RISES] [PULLS THE GOLD LIGHTER WITH EMBOSSED SPIDERWEB FROM POCKET AND FLICKS IT OPEN] Oh? ā¦ Oh. [STATIC FADES]
What is surprising is that it still happened even after Annabelle pointed out the purpose of the lighter. If Jon is supernaturally compelled to not pay attention to it (by The Web, to ensure it stays with Jon? By Beholding, out of self-preservation, like it tried to push Jon away from Ericās tape that explained how to quit the Archives?), how the heck was Annabelle expecting him to use it in the tunnels to explode the Archives with the gas main?
* At the end of the episode, the others explained how they would proceed, and itās presented as a given that Jon wouldnāt be in the tunnel team ā but rather, that he would go with Martin, despite being unnecessary since Martin would take care of the Jonah murder. Itās rather strange that the others didnāt ask for the lighter directly, but that Georgie took it in the flow of the conversation and in a way Jon barely noticedā¦ as if she wanted to take hold of it sneakily because it was necessary that Jon didnāt really notice. Plus, as was explained, Melanie is supposed to be the last person standing to ignite the gas main: Basira is supposed to be a planned distraction, and Georgie is a back-up distraction in case things go sour. If the point was to get the lighter for the gas main, then Melanie should have been the one to get hold of it.
(* Itās additionally rather strange that Georgie said she had ātried to avoid it in the tunnelsā when the survivors were around, implying it was a conscious choice but she might have been smoking outside when patrolling with Melanieā¦ yet had to ask Jon for a cigarette and for a light, as if she didnāt have these things on her.)
Overall, I see three options:
* Total coincidence, red herring, Georgie just didnāt take her own lighter along because she wasnāt planning on smoking.
* Since the beginning of the episode implied that Jon&Martin&Basira had given a complete recap of what had happened to Hill Top Road before the tape recorder clicked on, Georgie took the lighter on purpose to free Jon from The Webās potential influence. She hasnāt gone back to smoking during the apocalypse; she lied about it to lower Jonās guard by telling a convincing story, given that Jon knew she used to smoke. Likely meaning that Georgie&Melanie&Martin&Basira have another plan in Jonās back, but couldnāt share with him due to both the tape recorders and Jonās connection to Beholding ā if Jon knows something, then Beholding might be knowing about it too.
* Itāsā¦ actually an End thing. There was a feeling of finality when Georgie took the lighter, as if she might be taking a step that would irrevocably lead to her own death? (āThe moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.ā) She said the exact same thing (āNice lighter.ā) as Gerry, who was dead when he said it; she took the lighter for a dangerous mission; she pointed out her own regrets due to her inaction, and was the one to mention that they had to pay the cost, whatever it was, for this plan to succeed. I donāt know, I got the impression that things might be slotting into place, that her own mechanism had set into motion ā that things in the tunnels will go awry, and that she wonāt make it out.
- Overall, I like the different approaches characters had about their own guilt and Jonās in this episode:
(MAG199) GEORGIE: ā¦ Iām sorry. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: I know you hate what weāre doing. ARCHIVIST: I hate all the options, I justā¦ Itās all my fault, you know? GEORGIE: What, because you werenāt able to outsmart the literal embodiment of manipulation and scheming? ARCHIVIST: Mmm. GEORGIE: We all make bad choices, Jon. Itās not your fault some eldritch horror decided yours were goingā ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: āto affect the whole worldā¦! ARCHIVIST: They were still my choices. GEORGIE: ā¦ Yeah. And you live with them. Or you donāt. Thatās all there is, really. ARCHIVIST: Hmm.
For Jon: what was the most apparent is that he was adamant about presenting what happened as his choices. It could be a remnant of Eliaās gaslighting about it (MAG092: āYou never wanted this, no. But Iām afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, Jon, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean. But we make them nonetheless.ā), but also a sign that Jon had been struggling about (what he perceives to be) The Webās hold on his life: if The Web had indeed manipulated him all his life, since he was eight, puppetting him like Francis or the kids at Rayās house, then what is left of Jon? What is his, who is he? Jon clinging to his own guilt, his own responsibility, the idea that he made his own choices at every turn, might be his way to not fall into the other extreme, the idea that he has been nothing but the Webās marionette all along and that heās nothing without it.
Itās also striking that the others have told Jon that the apocalypse wasnāt truly his fault, that they knew Jon hadnāt wanted it, but that Jon redirected the blame on him every time anyway. Georgie tried two other approaches in quick succession: taking The Web into account, with the idea that Jonās particularity was that he was preyed upon by it, that the consequences were only more dramatic than regular ābad choicesā because something was planning to use them anyway; and then, something that resonated more strongly with Georgieās own experience. As she told Jon, she had regrets about not helping him, felt like she had failed him and had contributed to the steps leading to this apocalypse: she knows what it is to carry that sort of guilt, although on a smaller scale. (And her last sentence feltā¦ extremely End-touched, too.)
- The moment of Georgie introducing that Martin (āyour next appointmentā) was there and that it was her cue to leave was so sweet ;_; Jonās ex to Jonās current partner, and both Jon & Georgie being cool about each otherās new partner in their livesā¦
- And gooods, Jon&Martinās conversation ;_;
(MAG199) GEORGIE: Heās all yours. MARTIN: Thanks. [GEORGIEāS FOOTSTEPS DESCEND AND FADE] ā¦ You all right? ARCHIVIST: Yeah. Sorry it got so heated in there. MARTIN: Donāt be. Iād have been more worried if you were super calm about it. ARCHIVIST: Yeah. MARTIN: ā¦ Iād understand if you hate me right now. ARCHIVIST: What? No! No, Martin, I love you. I always will, and I know you love me too, I meanā¦ [SIGH] Thatās it, isnāt it? Thatāsā¦ the real core of it. You want to save me. MARTIN: I want you to save yourself.
* The fact that Martin was ready and understanding that Jon might hate him for the option Martin defended, that he was expecting Jon to hate him for it, and that he still stuck to itā¦ Oh, Martinā¦ (Itās not the first time a Magnus moment made me think of the When They Cry series butā¦ this one was peak Federikaās poem: āDonāt be sad. The world may not forgive you, but I do. / Donāt be sad. You may not forgive the world, but I forgive you. / Tell me. What must I do to earn your forgiveness?ā)
* So many āI love youā coming from Jon this seasonā¦
(MAG161) MARTIN: Iām sorry. ARCHIVIST: No, itāsā [SIGH] I love you, I justā¦ I need more time.
(MAG162) ARCHIVIST: āThe screams may linger on the distant breeze, and your eye may wander beyond the curtains from time to time, but you and the one you love are, it seemsā¦ safe. [ā¦] There within the thing that pretends to be a cabin is the one you love. [ā¦] The one you love is always near, so close that refuge sometimes feels a prison.ā
(MAG183) MARTIN: ā¦ Iām sure I love you. [FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST: I love you too. [FABRIC RUSTLES] Letās go.
(MAG191) MARTIN: ā¦ I promise. I love you, Jon. ARCHIVIST: [FOND HUFF] I love you too.
(MAG199) MARTIN: ā¦ Iād understand if you hate me right now. ARCHIVIST: What? No! No, Martin, I love you. I always will, and I know you love me too, I meanā¦
I really wasnāt expecting it when season 4 ended, and yet!! Jon has been so soft and open about it with Martin this seasonā¦
* I really like the nuance Martin insisted on, that he mostly wished that Jon would want to save āhimselfā ā itās not necessarily that Martin is right about it butā¦ from his point of view, he might still be suspecting that Jon is still pretty much self-destructive (although in indirect ways), as Daisy had pointed out in season 4, and that his way of engaging in dangerous missions is still tainted with guilt, with the idea that he has to compensate for something:
(MAG142) DAISY: Not like thereāsā¦ ānormalā trauma, you know? But itās pretty common. The most important thing becomes control, engaging on your own terms. Even when itās stupid or dangerous. Anything to not feel helpless. MARTIN: Oh, godā¦ DAISY: And of course, for Jon, thereās survivorās guilt in there, too. He thinks heās not human. Makes him veryā¦ self-destructive. MARTIN: Yeah, well. Weāve all had trauma. DAISY: And everyoneās changed.
(And gods. Maybe the problem this season for Jon is that Daisy wasnāt there anymore to at least point out these things. She hadnāt really managed to take Jonās mind off of it (and he hadnāt opened up enough with her to confess that he had been attacking people) but she might have been able to lay it out, at least, if she had been thereā¦)
- Iām really glad about the contrast between Jon and Martin when thinking about hypothetical scenarios!
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: ā¦ Sometimesā¦ I imagine if none of this had happened. If we had justā¦ met. Been together, wāwithoutā¦ all of this. MARTIN: [SOFTLY] Me too. ā¦ But we wouldnāt have, would we? Been together, I mean. ARCHIVIST: Huh? Wāwhat do you mean? MARTIN: Wellā¦! We had that, didnāt we? Almost a year of just working a normal job together andā¦ you hated me. ARCHIVIST: I didnāt āhateā you. MARTIN: Noāno, no, no, I listened to those tapes. At one point, you explicitly said youād be fine with me being chopped up by that old jigsaw lady. ARCHIVIST: Oh, god, Angela! Ha! Sheās still about, you know? Lording it over a nasty little Flesh domain. Anyway, I didnāt explicitly say it, Iā¦ implied it. MARTIN: Face it, Jon, it took almost two years of crisis and trauma to even make us compatible.
* Jon truly is the romantic in that relationship.
* Iām very glad for Martin pointing out that he remembers how Jon used to treat him, and that he doesnāt really believe that they could have gotten together without the circumstances they experienced. I donāt think weāre meant to take Martinās words exactly at face value (the circumstances allowed them to open up to each other and get closer, they didnāt necessarily turn them into whole other human beings), but it makes sense that, from his perspectiveā¦ itās hard to romanticise the past:
(MAG014) ARCHIVIST: I sent Martin to look into this āAngelaā character, not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.
Jon was absolutely awful to him back then, and ranting about him on tapes was textbook workplace bullying since he knew the tapes were semi-public (as in MAG032, Tim reported to him that researchers and students had been pointing out mistakes in his recordings). Off-tape, just from Martinās point of view, we know that it was so pervasive that he remembered about it when left alone, tormented by his worst memories and feelings:
(MAG170) MARTIN: ā¦ Oh, I, I met someone! Did I tell you? Heāsā¦ [SHUFFLING] I, I donāt know. I like him. He doesnāt like me, though. Not really. I donāt blame him. I donāt like me sometimes, and I am me! Plus, heāsā¦ heās my, my boss? Is that right? [CREAKING] Eiāeither way. Itās probably for the best? Wouldnāt really be appropriate, ehā¦!
(MAG186) ALSO MARTIN: Orā¦ does it just keep paralysing us, make us shrink back and wait, hoping things work out? Like with Jon when we thought the worms had got him. MARTIN: Hey, to be fair, he still kind of hated me back then. Iām really not sure it would have been the best time to take my shot. ALSO MARTIN: ā¦ Fair. He was projecting hard.
Season 1 is not a time Martin would be eager to go back to, because itās when Jon was at his worst against him (and Martin lived in fear of his fake CV being discovered), while for Jonā¦ it was before Prentiss attacking the Institute, before his scars and before losing Sasha. It makes sense that Martin would want to defend what they got, to defend this world over others, given that from his point of view, it might be the only configuration possible that made his relationship with Jon possible ā which, once again: might not be necessarily the truth, but makes sense from Martinās point of view.
* Though, Martin, sweetie, the ānormal jobā included you getting besieged by Prentiss for two weeks and having to eat canned peaches. Itās never really been a ānormalā job.
- Jon lightening up at the mention of Angela and immediately infodumping about how she was doing was so bittersweet to me, since it emphasised (once again) how deep Jon is in the Fearsā society by now. Those are familiar names, familiar figures, doing terrible things, but it still feels like his own universe when he mentions them, when he explains what he knows about them. Once again, it makes me wonder what will be left of him once all those things are justā¦ gone.
- Martin listened to so many tapes, uh?
(MAG142) MARTIN: I listened to your old statement. Wasnāt your partner down there? DAISY: Yeah. Didnāt find him.
(MAG188) MARTIN: Plus, Iā¦ I was a little bit jealous as, well. ARCHIVIST: Of what? MARTIN: Of Helen. Well, the, the real Helen. I found the tape when you were on the run andā¦ I donāt know. Something about the way you two seemed to connect when she came in. ARCHIVIST: [HUFF] Before she was eaten by a door. MARTIN: Well, yeah. It certainly seemed to have a pretty deep impact on you.
(MAG199) MARTIN: Noāno, no, no, I listened to those tapes. At one point, you explicitly said youād be fine with me being chopped up by that old jigsaw lady.
He listened to the one involving Angela (MAG014), to Helenās statement (MAG047), to the events that got Daisy sectionād (MAG061) ā that last one being even more interesting since it explicitly mentioned that Basira&Daisy were giving Jon the tapes, which means it was from the stash Jon was recording secretly. Iām back to fearing a bit about Martin as a back-up Archivist: he used to read statements and to take a few live ones, Annabelle made him read her statement in MAG197, heās been listening to tapesā¦ just like Jon.
- Martin has been good at finding loopholes in mutual promises:
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] Thatās very sweet of you, Martin. Sort of. ā¦ Thank you. MARTIN: Wherever you go, I go. Thatās it. ARCHIVIST: You promised to let me go, if I had to. MARTIN: And you promised not to go if there was any other choice. And there is. So thatās the deal. ARCHIVIST: ā¦ Thatās the deal.
Martin said that he wouldnāt ādoom the worldā over Jon: heās still respecting that in a way by prioritising Jon and this peculiar world (and as the others had pointed out earlier, they werenāt sure whether their actions would doom others or not).
Iām super afraid about that āWherever you go, I goā which sounds like something that could suddenly come to a stop. Martin had pointed out multiple times that he was āfollowingā Jon (MAG170: āI was following, alāalways following, never leading; never leading.ā), but recent episodes have operated a bit differently ā Jon didnāt follow Martin to his domain, respecting Martinās wish to confront it alone, and Jon followed him to Hill Top Road. At this point, Jon has been following Martin, tooā¦
- I got a first impression of Martinās words before understanding that it could actually be referring to multiple things:
(MAG199) MARTIN: I guess thatās why it really bothers me, you know? [SAD CHUCKLING] I try, but I canāt actually imagineā¦ ever making a decision that I knew meant losing you. And itā¦ It hurts to know you can.
At first, I thought Martin was saying that he felt like Jon would be ready to sacrifice Martin or his relationship with him for a greater good, while Martin definitely couldnāt (as he pointed out to Also Martin, his limit would probably be to sacrifice Jon), butā¦ it could also be a reference to Jonās self-hatred, the fact that Jon would sacrifice himself so easily. In that case, itās a bit hypocritical of Martin indeed (since he had told Also Martin that he was ready to sacrifice himself too), but I still feel like there might be a difference between the two ā Martin would do it to save the world or Jon (or to not live on the pain of his domainās victims), while Jonā¦ would likely do it out of self-hatred and because he feels like itās his responsibility to make up for the apocalypse.
- The contrast between Georgieās scene and this, when Jon finally broke ;_;
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: I hate all the options, I justā¦ Itās all my fault, you know? GEORGIE: What, because you werenāt able to outsmart the literal embodiment of manipulation and scheming? ARCHIVIST: Mmm. GEORGIE: We all make bad choices, Jon. Itās not your fault some eldritch horror decided yours were goingā ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] GEORGIE: āto affect the whole worldā¦! ARCHIVIST: They were still my choices. GEORGIE: ā¦ Yeah. And you live with them. Or you donāt. Thatās all there is, really. ARCHIVIST: Hmm. [ā¦] You didnāt damn the world, Martin. MARTIN: [SIGH] We allā ARCHIVIST: [HARSH] No! āWe allā nothing! Iā¦ Iām the one who caused all of this, thatās just the truth of it! Iām the one whose whole life has been nothing but one ā long ā setup ā to this. MARTIN: Jonā¦ ARCHIVIST: [WITH SADNESS] You didnāt speak the words! You didnāt feel them move through you, vomiting out of you likeā¦! [SHAKY BREATHING] ā¦ I did this. Itās my fault. And I donāt wantā¦ I canāt let anyone else feel that, thatā¦ helpless, enormous guilt. Ever.
Both Georgie and Martin beginning by āWe allā, but Jonās reaction being so hugely different when he heard it for the second time.
* I wanted Jon to have a breakdown, I got the breakdown, Iām still sad about it ;_;
* Jon had been very susceptible to the rhetoric of being āchosenā: he had wondered about it in season 3 and 4, until Jonah had concluded that if Jon had been āchosenā in any way, it was by him when he decided that Jonās Web mark made him prime for his plan and that it was mostly just due to Jonās āown rotten luckā. It might have been easier to swallow for a while, technically, until Annabelle reactivated all those fears about being āchosenā but from even longer ā since childhood, since he was eight, since he was just a kid who just survived a Fear encounter. I do feel like there was a lot of bullshit in what Annabelle told him, in the way she framed it; she had also told Martin that a web couldnāt be āprecious about a single strandā and I feel like it was more likely that there were multiple potential Jons, or that The Web had already tried to get someone (Gertrude? Her assistants, with Emma pushing them into danger?) marked and prime for the final ritual. But Jon has been very vulnerable to the idea that there could be something wrong inherent to him, that things he had no power over had to be his fault somehow, such as not being able to rescue his bully, or Sasha getting killed by the Not!Them, or the apocalypse (while he had more trouble accepting his own blame for things he was directly responsible for).
* I was wondering recently if Jon might have finally accepted that he wasnāt responsible for the apocalypse, that it was Jonahās fault (since he hadnāt mentioned it for a long while at this point) butā¦ nop. He didnāt really change his mind about it since the start of the season, just got better at hiding it:
(MAG161) MARTIN: Jon, itās not your faultā¦ ARCHIVIST: Martin, can we not do this again. MARTIN: Sorry. ARCHIVIST: Iām justā¦ Iām mourning a world I killedā¦! MARTIN: I knowā¦ ARCHIVIST: And weāre all trapped in its rotting corpseā¦!
* ;_; My heart broke when Jon recalled the experience of reading Jonahās letter, and how traumatising the mere action was. We could hear him struggle and try to stop speaking in MAG160, and yet the letter was following its courseā¦
* Just like with The Webās clutch on him yet Jon still defending that he made those ābad choicesā, itās heartbreaking how Jon seems to be stuck on the paradox of being conscious that he couldnāt stop reading the letter, that something awful was done to him, yet still defends that itās his fault and his responsibility. Jonah was barely mentioned this episode (and not as the man who chose to unleash that apocalypse), but he was stillā¦ very present in the multiple ways he fucked Jon over.
* Itās extremely sad that their current plan requires to trample on precisely the thing Jon didnāt and doesnāt want (to inflict what he experienced over someone else)ā¦ and yet, as sad it is, it also needs to be seen in the whole situation. Is guilt the worst thing that someone can experience? What about the people currently being tortured in their domains? (Or is there something coming up, such as Jonās guilt being one aspect of his ādomainā all along?)
* But still. Sobbing over the fact that Jon didnāt even blurt out out that he couldnāt allow anyone else to be hurt and fucked over by another Jonah like he was, but that the worst thing, for him, still was this āhelpless, enormous guiltā. Not the pain, not the constant anguish, not the people he lost, but the guilt of having been used to end the world.
- There have been a few mentions revolving around Jonās voice lately:
(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: As far as I can tell. Iāitās hard to sāā¦ If I look too closely at them, my own voice, things getā¦ recursive. Hard to follow. [ā¦] ANNABELLE: [CHUCKLING] I am sorry you find them irritating! Theyāre a side effect of the very specific way this web has been spun. I thought you liked his voice? MARTIN: I do when itās his voice. Iāve never liked the statements. It always feltā¦ Yeah. ANNABELLE: Wellā¦ you can trust me when I say youāll be hearing his real voice very soon. [ā¦] We found the one we believed most likely to bring about their manifestation. We marked him young, guided his path as best we could. And then, we took his voice. ARCHIVIST: Noā¦ ANNABELLE: His, and those he walked with. We inscribed them on shining strands of word and meaning, and used them to weave a web which cast itself out through the gate and beyond our universe. So that when the Fears heard that voice, and came in their terrible glory, they might then travel out along it. [TAPE SQUEALS] Or be dragged.
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: [WITH SADNESS] You didnāt speak the words! You didnāt feel them move through you, vomiting out of you likeā¦! [SHAKY BREATHING] ā¦ I did this.
And once again, there was the āFor the silenceā coin Albrecht discovered in the tomb of what was likely to be an old Archivist. Whatever happens in MAG200, I wonder if Jon wonāt lose his voice in the process? Wouldnāt be the worst thing and, anyway, he will lose his voice symbolically with the end of the podcast (even in the case where he wouldnāt be straight up dying) butā¦ I donāt know. The end of the episode had Jon exceptionally withdrawn and silent while the others discussed, so it already felt like he was falling āsilentā in a way, and I wonder if heāll lose his voice in a more literal way during the crisis, especially if the Fears are following āhis voiceāā¦
- Martin was so softā¦ and the Fabric Rustled again.
(MAG158) MARTIN: I seeā¦ [INHALE] I see you, Jon. [BREATHLESS CHUCKLE] [PRESENT, ECHO FADES] I see youā¦! ARCHIVIST: Oh, Martinā¦ [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: I wāI was on my ownā¦! I was all on my ownā¦
(Season 5 trailer) MARTIN: You know Iām here for you. ARCHIVIST: [LONG SIGH] ā¦ Yes. Yes I do. [RUSTLING OF CLOTHES] MARTIN: All right. All right. ARCHIVIST: Thank you.
(MAG170) ARCHIVIST: [CLOSER] Oh! Martin, hold on, IāIāIām coming, I justā¦ [STATIC REACHING A PEAK] [FOOTSTEPS] Oh, Martin! Thank god, I, I wasā¦ IāI thought you were behind me. [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: I thought youād left me behindā¦! Gone on without me.
(MAG177) ARCHIVIST: ā¦ Iām sorry. [SILENCE] MARTIN: [SIGH] Itās okay. I understand. [BAG JOSTLING] [FABRIC RUSTLES]
(MAG183) MARTIN: ā¦ Iām sure I love you. [FOOTSTEPS] ARCHIVIST: I love you too. [FABRIC RUSTLES] Letās go.
(MAG187) ARCHIVIST: [GROGGY] Oh. Martin, good! [BAG JOSTLING] [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: Whā, whāwhāwhat happened? Thāthāthere was the hotel and thenā¦
(MAG191) MARTIN: No, I, I know, I know. Iām sorry, itās okay. [SIGH] [FABRIC RUSTLES] ARCHIVIST: ā¦ Bad dream? [ā¦] Maybe I justā¦ die. Maybe I survive, but IāI loseā¦ something. My identity? My mind? Myā¦ memories? I donāt know. [FABRIC RUSTLES AS THEY EMBRACE] MARTIN: [LONG EXHALE]
(MAG197) ARCHIVIST: Martin! [FABRIC RUSTLES] MARTIN: ā¦ Oh god, Iām sorry, Iā ARCHIVIST: Itās fine.
(MAG199) MARTIN: Hey. ARCHIVIST: [SNIFFS AS IF TEARING UP] MARTIN: Hey, hey, hey, hey, come here, come here. [FABRIC RUSTLES] ARCHIVIST: [SNIFFS] MARTIN: Weāre going to fix it. ARCHIVIST: Noā¦! [HUFF] ā¦ Weāre just going to pass it onā¦! MARTIN: You donāt know that.
It might have for the last time everā¦
- What was that sigh, Martin.
(MAG199) [SILENCE, AS THEY BOTH COMPOSE THEMSELVES] ARCHIVIST: [INHALE] Come on. The others will be waiting. [SHUFFLING] [FOOTSTEPS DESCEND] MARTIN: [HEAVY SIGH] [CLICK.]
Was it ājustā the sigh of knowing the current plan is making Jon miserable, or is it the sigh of someone who knows that something could comfort Jon, yet canāt share it with him yetā¦?
- Logistic of things in the next scene was that Jon&Martin came back to Georgie, who explained to them that Basira&Melanie had gone scouting, and the tape recorder clicked on when Basira&Melanie arrived:
(MAG199) [CLICKā] GEORGIE: Iām not sure, they said they were outā Oh, hey. [DOOR CREAKS, FOOTSTEPS ENTER] ARCHIVIST: There you are. I was getting worried. MELANIE: We were scouting. I was showing Basira where we think the gas mainline is. MARTIN: And? BASIRA: Not good. You know those Eye things? ARCHIVIST: The old Archivists? BASIRA: Yeah. I think they know somethingās up. The place is crawling with them, itās like theyāre looking for something. MELANIE: Or patrolling. MARTIN: Hmm. GEORGIE: Thatās why the stairs were unguarded? BASIRA: It looks that way.
* Iām still not sure what the point of the lighter is in relation to the tape recorders and The Web. Annabelle implied that the lighter had acted as a tracker or would act as a tracker (MAG197: āA little anchor of our power, so that we, and our tapes, may follow wherever you go.ā) but weāve had various examples showing that it wasnāt exclusively the case: the tape recorders had turned on and off in the Archives and in Eliasās office while Jon was away in season 3, they turned up around Martin and in Eliasās cell in season 4, one popped up to record Melanie&Georgie at the end of MAG191 while they were walking in London. What it might be able to do, however, is allow the tape recorders to reach places that should be insulated from other powers (such as within the Coffin, or when Jon was Nikolaās prisoner, or at Upton House)? Iām not sure. Anyway, Georgie took the lighter, has the lighter, and the next scene included Georgie, so I wonder if something will change in the POV of the action next episode, or if the team wasnāt suspecting that The Web still had another use for Jon.
* Why are the Archivists acting up? Is it because Beholding is getting impatient and wants Jon as its pupil? Is it because Beholding is sensing that something is threatening its position? Is it because Jon knows about the plan and the potentiality of Beholding losing its hold over this world, therefore allowing Beholding to know about it and making it react in self-defence? Are Jonās own feelings about the plan influencing Beholding? Jon said that he didnāt feel like it could think but, if The Eye was indeed behind Jonās difficulty to listen to Ericās tape, that showed that it still has instincts and a capacity to try and protect itself.
- As mentioned above, Iām surprised that the last person standing to ignite the tunnels is supposed to be Melanie:
(MAG199) ARCHIVIST: So whatās the plan? MELANIE: I reckon me and Georgie go for the mainline, and hopefully they wonāt notice us. GEORGIE: Iāll need a torch. They might notice that. BASIRA: Iāll give a diversion. Iāll try and draw them off. MELANIE: And if they see Georgieās torch, we just go to Plan B. She becomes another distraction, and I go solo. GEORGIE: I donāt like the thought of you going on your own. MELANIE: And I donāt like the thought of you being chased by manky old archivists, but there it is. MARTIN: Okay. [EXHALE] So what are you going to do when you find it? GEORGIE: Weāve got some old tools. I guess we justā¦ mess with it until we smell gas, and thenā¦ back off, set something burning and leg it. It canāt be that hard to break a valve.
ā¦ since Georgie had been the one to take the lighter, and didnāt present it as an element she would require in their plan. Itās possible that sheās going to give it over to Melanie and just retrieved the lighter for that goal but mmm, Iām still having doubts about it.
* I love Melanieās āmanky old Archivistsā, Iām going to miss her so much ;_;
* ā¦ screaming a bit because GEORGIE, if you smell gas, itās TOO LATE to ignite something without getting caught in the middle of an explosionā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦. Itās gonna go very wrong, isnāt it.
* Sob, Melanie&Georgie had been resolute about doing something in MAG191, and Georgie still wanted to be careful about the old Archivists at the beginning of MAG192ā¦ but now, theyāre really ready to risk everything, uhā¦
- Melanie was way more careful (and less confrontational) with Jon now that they had to establish the plan, and I wonder if Georgie asked her to tone it down or if Melanie made a conscious effort since they needed to pool their resources and collaborate? Iām really curious about Jonās wording here:
(MAG199) MELANIE: ā¦ Jon, youāre sure about this whole gas main thing? It just seemsā¦ I donāt know, really mundane. ARCHIVIST: Itās what Annabelle said. And she wasnāt lying ā at least, she didnāt think she was. BASIRA: Well, itās a bit late for second-guessing.
Because what Annabelle thinks and the reality of things could be very different things. Iām still having some doubts about Oliver and her explaining how their patrons work and presenting them as Fears-that-can-think ā itās fitting in a way butā¦ we also had examples of older avatars (Simon, Arthur) pointing out that they couldnāt guess what their patrons wanted except for some cravings. Something I could see is about the relation between avatars and their Fears (between humans and fears): the idea that the Fears might beā¦ whatever people project on them, and them modelling themselves in turn. Could The End kill people in this world if Oliver wasnāt convinced that it could do it? Could The Web feel so omnipresent and powerful if Annabelle and Jon werenāt projecting their own fears on it?
- Georgie gave me so many red flags this episodeā¦
(MAG199) GEORGIE: Well, weāll do what we can butā¦ this is it. Whatever it takes, right? If thereās a price, we pay it. No hesitations.
And that one was especially bad by itself, but it also echoed Gertrudeās last instructions to her potential successor:
(MAG161) GERTRUDE: You are entering a new world, a place Iāve lived for most of my life. A placeā¦ [SIGH] A place that will often demand a high price from you. Pay it without hesitation, because one way or another, the world is now on your shoulders.
Basically paraphrasing what Gertrude said? Bad sign. Baaad sign.
- There might have been a small misunderstanding between Melanie and Jon there ;;
(MAG199) MELANIE: Sure he can! Just magic-laser-eye zap him or whatever, same as with all the others. MARTIN: [SIGH] MELANIE: Like he did to Helen. ARCHIVIST: Listen, Melanie, Iā MELANIE: Itās fine. If we all get out of this, we can talk it through, and, if not, well, it doesnāt really matter, does it? ARCHIVIST: I suppose not.
Since Jon had been unaware that Martin had broken the news to her already, and that Melanie already knew that Helen was bad newsā¦ but had learned from Basira that Melanie used to be close to her:
(MAG190) MELANIE: Ā Oh! Oh, I nearly forgot! Careful of Helen, if you see her. MARTIN: Mm? MELANIE: Uh, she turned up a while back and tried to eat Celia. MARTIN: She was here? MELANIE: Yesā¦ A few times. [INHALE] Looking back, I was so stupid! MARTIN: Because you kind of liked her? MELANIE: Yes. Yesā¦ Honestly, I had started to think she was on our side. MARTIN: Yeah. MELANIE: [SIGH] MARTIN: Jon killed her. MELANIE: [SPLUTTERING] Uh, sorry, what?! MARTIN: Yeah, she tried toā I wasnāt there, but they got into a standoff and heā¦ he destroyed her. MELANIE: He can do that? MARTIN: Mm! MELANIE: Well! I mean thatāsā¦ thatās interesting to know.
(MAG195) ARCHIVIST: ā¦ I also killed Helen? BASIRA: Oh! Right. ARCHIVIST: Yeahā¦ [CONSIDERED ROWING] BASIRA: Didnāt expect that. ARCHIVIST: She was dangerous. And not like the others out there. It was only going to be a matter of time beforeā BASIRA: No, no, I get it. Honestly, itās kind of a relief. How did Melanie take it? ARCHIVIST: Melanie? BASIRA: Yeah, she andā¦ she and Helen were pretty tight back when, uhā¦ Ohā¦ ARCHIVIST: What? BASIRA: Back when you were in your coma. ARCHIVIST: I seeā¦! Well, I havenāt told her yet, soā¦ I suppose I have that to look forward to when we get back.
So: from Melanieās point of view, she used to be close to Helen but learned independently that Helen wasnāt her friend and was actually dangerous for them. From Jonās point of view, Melanie used to be close with Helen and might have just learned that he had killed her (and might be sad about it). But Melanie was dry about it and it came as an accusation, which immediately made Jon defensive about it. They canāt really manage to interact without making a conscious effort to not rub the other the wrong way, uhā¦?
Cries, still, because theyāll never talk it through, uh. ;;
- I am REALLY concerned about Martin being adamant that Jon couldnāt be the one to kill Jonah because of the potential consequencesā¦
(MAG199) MELANIE: And itās hardly going to be a picnic for you either. Youāre going up that tower to kill Elias, and if we muck up the timing, youāll be up there when it blows. MARTIN: ā¦ Jon canāt do it. ARCHIVIST: What? [ā¦] MARTIN: Youāre not listening. I mean, if he kills Jonah, then knowing our luck heās just gonna end up taking his place in the Panopticon, isnāt he? GEORGIE: [SIGH] Good point. MARTIN: He can come up with me, but when it actually comes to Jonahā¦ BASIRA: Youāll have to be the one to do it. MARTIN: Yeah. ARCHIVIST: Martinā¦ I donātā BASIRA: Have you got this? We can trade if you donāt think you can do it. MARTIN: No. No, I can do it.
ā¦ because itās not what Jon had said:
(MAG193) MARTIN: So not that then, butā¦ whāwhat about something, likeā¦ physical? ARCHIVIST: Iā¦ What? MARTIN: Look, I know itās all aboutā¦ dream logic and metaphor and all thatā¦ stuff, but, you know, what if we justā¦ what if we just grabbed him and, you know, pulled him down? Or, or just threw something heavy at him? ARCHIVIST: Uhā¦ [ā¦] You were right. MARTIN: About what? ARCHIVIST: His body is vulnerable. Aāat least to me. MARTIN: ā¦ Whatās the catch? ARCHIVIST: I could kill his body, sever the link, break The Eyeās power, andā¦ Jonah Magnus would die. MARTIN: Okay, that sounds good butā¦? ARCHIVIST: Butā¦ that wouldnāt actually harm The Eye itself. And with him gone it wouldā¦ it would choose a suitable replacement. MARTIN: Oh. ARCHIVIST: If we kill Jonah Magnusā¦ I take his place. MARTIN: Oh, godā¦ ARCHIVIST: And I thinkā¦ thatās exactly what it wantsā¦!
Jon said that killing Jonah would lead to Beholding taking a replacement, not necessarily the person whoād kill Jonahā¦ and regarding āsuitable replacementā, Martin was emphasised as Eye-aligned this season (and Lonely):
(MAG183) ARCHIVIST: Well, youāre a watcher, Martin. You worked for the Institute, you read statements, The Eye isā¦ fond of you. Youāre not getting thrown into your own personal hell, which meansā¦ MARTIN: [QUIETLY] That one of them belongs to me. But thatāsā¦ Hoāhow can I be a āWatcherā? I, I didnāt even know it existed! ARCHIVIST: But youāve suspected for a while now, havenāt you? MARTIN: Maybe? But thatās not āwatchingā! ARCHIVIST: Do you want me to tell you about it? MARTIN: No. ā¦ Yes. Nāno, no, I donāt know, I donāt know. [SIGH] [STATIC RISES] ARCHIVIST: Itās a small domain. A swirling mix of The Eye and The Lonely.
And was supposed to take Jonahās place at the end of season 4 precisely thanks to his connection to Beholding:
(MAG158) PETER: I want to use the powers of this place to learn about The Extinction: what itās doing, where itās manifesting. Then we can stop it. MARTIN: And you need me for this? PETER: Correct! Without a connection to The Eye, any attempt to use it would likely endā¦ very messily indeed! But thankfully, it just so happens that you hold such a connection. MARTIN: So thatās itā¦ Both ālonelyā and āwatchingā. PETER: You must admit youāre the perfect candidate. [ā¦] Youāll have to dispose of the current occupant. MARTIN: Currenāā¦ [QUICK FOOTSTEPS] [SHARP BREATHING] ā¦ Who is that? PETER: Jonah Magnus! Hisā¦ body, at least. Sitting here; watching; binding it all together; growing ever older. If you want to take his place, wellā¦ MARTIN: ā¦ Iāll need to kill him. PETER: Yes. Donāt worry, though. I brought a knife. [ā¦] Martin. What are you doing? MARTIN: Iāmā¦ saying no. I refuse! Game over. [KNIFE CLATTERING ON THE GROUND]
Jon hadnāt mentioned whether Martin would be able to hurt Elias (just that he could), but weāve seen that dream-logic could be a factor to hurt each other: Basira could kill Daisy, Daisy could hurt Jon through their connection. Given that Martin was once expected to kill Jonah (did Jonah fear that Martin would choose this?), and that Martin has felt guilty all season about the fact that he feels like he could have stopped things if he had just knifed Jonah:
(MAG174) MARTIN: All those lies you told meā¦ You helped to do this, you turned the world into yourā¦ your playground! SIMON: Humā¦ Not to be a pedant, but if you recall, I was actually doing a favour for Peter. And if Peter had won, none of this would have happened.
(MAG186) MARTIN: [HEAVY SIGH] If weāre glad, why do I feel soā¦ ALSO MARTIN: Guilty? Because you feel guilty about everything. MARTIN: Thatāsā¦ Thatās notā ALSO MARTIN: [ā¦] The end of the entire world? MARTIN: If Iād done what Peter had askedā¦ If, if Iād not chickened out, and just killed Elias when I had the chanceā¦! ALSO MARTIN: Really? Really, thatās how youāre choosing to remember it? āChickening outā? MARTIN: I remember it was the wrong choiceā¦! ALSO MARTIN: You choose to remember it that way, and so the guiltā MARTIN: [SIGH] IāI get it, all right? But I need it, I, I choose the guilt, becauseā¦ ALSO MARTIN: [LEADING] āBecauseā? MARTIN: Because it motivates me to do better!
I could see Martin managing to hurt him thanks to this. But regarding what could come afterwards:
Iām concerned about the fact Jon tried to object during the discussion and that nobody listened to himā¦ as if Jon was already anticipating something to go very badly because he knows something the others donāt. Overall: what if Martin canāt kill Jonah? What if Martin kills Jonah and Beholding takes Jon anyway? What if Martin kills Jonah and Beholding picks Martin as a replacement?
(Mental picture of Jon screaming āTake me, not him!ā, since weāve been in the season 1 nostalgia this episodeā¦ ;_;)
- Aouch for Melanie falling back into old habitsā¦
(MAG199) MELANIE: Make sure it hurts. MARTIN: Oh, I will. MELANIE: ā¦ Good enough for me.
(MAG117) MELANIE: I have my own stuff to take care of, they think theyāre giving me a chance to āface my demonsā, by helping to take down Elias. They donāt get that the only way to deal with something like him is to watch his eyes go dead with your hands around his throat. [SHAKY INHALE] Iāllā¦ play it their way, for now. But when it comes down to itā¦ I want ā to see him ā dead. [ā¦] [INHALE] Soā¦ yes. Thatās it. Thatās all youāre getting, because it hurt like hell to live through, and I didnāt do it so you could stroke your chin and call it fascinating. ā¦ Good luck, Jon. I do hope you win. [INHALE] But I also hope it hurtsā¦!
- So, resting time:
(MAG199) GEORGIE: Okay. Sounds like weāve gotā¦ something like a plan. MARTIN: [SOUND OF ASSENT] BASIRA: Makes a nice change. [VARIOUS SOUNDS OF ASSENT] MELANIE: [BRIGHTLY] It does, doesnāt it? Eh! Uhā¦ so. When do we actually do it? GEORGIE: First thing tomorrow. Thatāll give us time to prep and rest.
Georgie had already explained how they evaluated ātomorrowā in the tunnels and without any clock:
(MAG190) GEORGIE: Look. Weāre all tired, and you still seem a littleā¦ disoriented by the tunnels. Letās get some rest. We can talk about next moves tomorrow. ARCHIVIST: And how do you know when tomorrow is? GEORGIE: We generally err on the side of caution and sleep inā¦! ARCHIVIST: Sounds good.
So theyāll probably do the same ;;
- Basira thanking Jon for helping her with Daisy (and for helping her personally) made my heart break a bit and really made it sink in that it was likely the last time some (most? all?) of them would talk to each other, or that they wonāt be in any state to discuss things like this afterwards. It was also fitting that Jon got his private moments with Georgie, with Martin, with Basiraā¦ but not with Melanie. That bridge burned, uh.
- Overall, although with interesting points and heart-wrenching and bittersweet and tender and intimate moments, it wasā¦ quite a depressing episode in the whole scale of things?
* The episode gave the impression that it was validating everything about The Web: that Jon had indeed been āChosenā as the bringer of the apocalypse and had been a right pick for it; that Annabelle had been right when she told Martin that she just needed to tell them the truth for them to do what she wanted; that The Web scheming for centuries to open the crack and prepare its escape, and bringing the apocalypse about just to escape and infest other dimensionsā¦ worked. That everyone, regardless of their motivations and feelings, has indeed come to the conclusion that arranged The Web and served its plans, that The Webā¦ is very casually winning just as planned.
* The episode didnāt talk about what would come after, for the characters. Jon briefly explained to Martin what was likely to happen to him, Annabelle confirmed it, butā¦ the episode gave the impression that characters werenāt truly expecting to come out of this alive in the first place.
* Jonās silences in the last sequences were so sad? He barely managed to sneak in a few words. He couldnāt contribute to the plan. Martin presented him as optional while others are taking care of the action. Yes, it used to be all on Jon but the fact that he couldnāt even contribute and that others ignored him when he tried to object about Martin being the one to kill Jonah was just so heartbreaking, as if he was already silenced and once again not in control of things that would happenā¦?
- I want to err on the side of caution but, despite it, I canāt help but wonder if some of the Team Archive interactions werenātā¦ staged a bit for the tape recorders. Itās very suspicious that they apparently got updated on the Hill Top Road situation, but that nobody commented about the tape recorders turning on (although they now know that it means The Web is spying on them and/or that their tapes will be heard by other people in other worlds and associated with the Fears). Melanie and Georgie had taken notice of them when Jon&Martin had arrived in the tunnels for the first time, Melanie was good at hearing the tape recorder turning onā¦ but nothing this time around. Is it possible that theyāre planning something else, too, and that it required The Web and The Eye (the tapes and Jon) to not know about it, a bit like how the assistants had put on a show in front of Elias in season 3?
(MAG116) ELIAS: Now! If youāll excuse me. [DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES] BASIRA: Do you think he bought it? MARTIN: Weāll talk about it later. ARCHIVIST: I doubt weāll get time, we need to go. MARTIN: Itās fine. Weāve got this, okay. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] ā¦ Okay.
Is it why Georgie took the lighter?
I donāt want to bank on it but the fact that nobody has commented about the tape recorders since Annabelle revealed what they were and their purpose has been any nagging at me, so, mmmmā¦
If MAG200 actually shows the action as it happens, Iām wondering about a few things:
* How are they planning to time up the explosion and the Jonah murder? Jon couldnāt know about the tunnels when he was outside of them, and according to what weāve heard in MAG192, climbing the tower was a very long process. Itās possible that Jon actually has some awareness of the tunnels as long as heās in the tower (since both are connected), or that theyāll go for the murder once they hear the explosion coming to them, but how would Georgie&Melanie coordinate to not do anything before Jon&Martin are the top? (When Iām wondering about it, I can think of a few options: Jon&Martin dropping something once theyāre at the top, to convey theyāve arrived, or maybe relying on whether a tape recorder clicks on, as a signal that Nothing Interesting Is Happening Up There And Itās Your Turn To Do Something, etc.)
* Will we hear Rosie again? Jon&Martin might have to pass in front of her again to reach Elias. Will they evacuate her, will she stay with them?
* ā¦ Surprisingly and yet fittingly: we might hear Jonah/Elias in the last episode. (And funnily enough: it would be the 4th episode where he would talk this season, which means this wouldnāt even be the season with the least amount of Elias appearances! He was in 3 episodes in season 1 (MAG017, MAG039, MAG040) and in 4 episodes in season 2 (MAG048, MAG060, MAG067, MAG080). Season 3 was an outlier that really got us used to hearing him a lot.)
* Iām still squinting about the fact that Annabelle told them to ādestroy the Archivesā and that they translated it into ādestroy the Panopticonā while both Jonah and Oliver designated Jon as the āArchive(s)āā¦
* If they succeed, and if it all goes accordingly, I am really wondering about the state of the world post-Fears ā and it might not be something weāll get to witness. But mostly, Iām curious/concerned about the complicated cases: if people do remember what happened to them and who were the rulers, wouldnāt it be likely that things turn into chaos as people get back at the people who hurt them? What about the cases Basira mentioned of rulers who hated being in that position? What about, for example, Callum? (Who is currently doing horrible things andā¦ is also a traumatised kid.)
* I wonder if the episode will have an actual date as the case number, and if it would correspond to another worldās timeline or this one. ā0181810āBā, as things pick up from the point Jon had read Jonahās letter (MAG160ās was ā0181810ā)? ā0212503ā to play with the release date, since itās the same release date for everyone for once (no early access for Patreon)? ā0111507ā to play with the date of Jacobās statement, heard in the very first trailer? Something beginning with ā015ā as, in another world, someone (Jon or Sasha or someone else) becomes a new Head Archivist after Gertrudeās death?
* If The Web succeeds and leaves with the tapes, will they be like the Fear Books used to be perceived in this world? Will Jonās voice be perceived as a bringer of disaster and tragedies? What will happen to Jonās voice is an interesting question given that this episode ended withā¦ Jon being withdrawn, barely being part of the conversation, trying to object and not being heard, as if his voice was already partially silenced by the others.
* Technically, since the tapes are supposed to leave with The Web, the series might cut off with the tapes leaving, butā¦ other configurations are possible. We could finally hear something without the mediation of the tapes. We could get a new point of view from another world, inheriting the fears. We could be deprived of the action, since the plan was laid out, and have someone (Martin?) recalling what happened, much later, etc.
In previous seasons, the 40th episode was more about the aftermath of the action and posing elements that would be fundamental during the next one: MAG040 explained how Prentiss had died, what had happened to Jon&Tim, but also confirmed (to the audience) that something had replaced Sasha without the others noticing, and revealed that Gertrudeās obviously-murdered-body had been found in the tunnels, leading to Jonās secret investigations in season 2; MAG080 showed Leitner explaining to Jon who was likely to be Gertrudeās murderer, what the Institute was about, that Jon was now a servant of Beholding and that a Fear ritual was incoming, leading to Jonās quest to stop the Unknowing; MAG120 confirmed who had come out of the Unknowing alive, revealed what Jonās dreams were about, had Peter replacing Elias as Head of the Institute and confirmed Peterās interest in Martin; MAG160 had Jon&Martin running away, Jon receiving Jonahās letter hidden amongst the statements (and a few tapes likely sent by The Web) and being forced to read his incantation, provoking the current apocalypse.
MAG200ās title has been made public on twitter, so ā āLast Wordsā it is. It sure feels like the series is ending ;; Itās fitting for both the characters and the podcast itself, and Iām screaming that it had appeared in the first episode of this season:
(MAG161) ARCHIVIST: Hang on, have you been recording this? [RUSTLING OF CLOTHES] TIM: Oh, yeah! Iā¦ just thought it might be nice, you know, something to look back on when weāre all old and sick of each otherā¦! [ā¦] Now, all right, all right; fine! Look: Iām turning it off. Any last words for your future selves?
ā¦ in the specific context of leaving a message for the future.
#yaayyyy i posted it more than 17h before the ep release! (shhhh that it would be Late if we had gotten an EA release)#i have absolutely no idea how i'll manage to get 200's done given how i had finished the last episodes pre-hiatus#at the end of every hiatus every time. i'll try but. deadlines are my worst enemies and my best friends.#mag199#tma liveblog#tma season 5#long post/#the magnus archives#overall: CRIES CRIES CRIES i'm gonna miss these nerds.............#and WorriedTM.........
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