#to magnus archives episode 182: wellbeing

[kitcat22]

We really don’t focus enough on Echo’s time as a prisoner of war and how earth shatteringly horrific it must have been.

Like i don’t think he would be immediately handed off to the Techno Union so they can cut the secrets out of his head. There was likely a time period spent being tortured/interrogated by the separatists for information before they decided they weren’t getting anything out of him the regular ways and handed him off to the Techno union’s experiments may yield more results. ‘Regular torture’ doesn’t imply it was in anyway easy to resist, by the way. Throughout history prisoners of war have been subjected to immensely disturbing interrogation methods. Physical, psychological,sexual you name it, it’s been done. He would have undergone this treatment by those who consider him less than a droid, so there’s the casual dehumanisation throughout all this.

Seeing as Echo had just been blown up before his capture, he liked would have endured this while already very injured. I headcanon that while he lost one of his limbs in the blast, the other two had to be amputated by the Techno Union because they were so badly infected they were practically rotting off.

His time with the Techo Union is undoubtedly the most awful, traumatising part of this whole ordeal, with forced amputations and unnecessary experimental surgeries. I see a lot of takes where all of this is done in one go but it makes more sense to me that there would be brief recovery periods between operations. Recovery is a strong word when this period would consist of being strapped to a medical bed attached to a whole bunch of machines, knowing what has been done to you and what will be done to you but being utterly helpless in stopping it.

The fact Echo was given prosthetics at all always seemed strange to me but one way I’ve reasoned it is that sometimes scientists do things without reason just to experiment. For reference, Unit 731 (Really suggest not looking this up if this type of thing really triggers you. I’ve only read the wikipedia page and still found it difficult to stomach)

Oh, and either Echo assumes his brothers are coming to rescue him and slowly loses his faith or he assumes at the start that they would believe him dead and is stuck knowing that no one’s coming to save him. Saving himself becomes a harder plan to achieve when he’s suddenly down multiple limbs and is constantly monitored, drugged starved etc.

Honestly the fact he seems at all together when he’s rescued is kind of a miracle because i think i’d have lost my mind multiple times over. I think he probably did straight after he joined the Bad Batch and everything set in.

[sketchindoodles]

"Eventually, one of them - and it was always a different one - would push to the front. 'I am the doctor,' it would say, 'are you well?'"

Wellbeing

The Magnus Archives Episode 182

[infinatenoise]

DAY 5

This had me cringing the whole way through. This might be one of the more horrifying episodes in the series. Everything that happens in this episode is icky and horrifying and all round blech. I love it.

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 182 - Wellbeing

Martin: I dunno. Y’know like, like a creepy… bus stop or something?

I now want an absolutely terrifying episode centering on a creepy bus stop, tbh.

Jane Doe: Keep your screams inside if you want to be polite.

I suddenly find myself reminded of that early-pandemic poster from a theme park asking people to "Scream inside their heart" on the rides.

Jon: Don’t ask about the canteen!

What if I want to know about the canteen, though?

Date and place of last contentment: 27th November 2015, birthday party prior to father’s stroke

Oh damn, that line tells a story in very few words, doesn't it?

Date and place of last contentment: Not recalled

Oh fuck, but so does this one!

What if she is treated, and this is all that there is now? What if she is well?

Oh, wow, no, that's a chronic illness mood if I've ever seen one!

Breekon: ‘scuse me, Doctor. Just cleanin’ up.

I so did not expect to see Breekon again!

Breekon: Breekon. Hope’s dead. Do I know you? Martin: Hmm. Hope’s dead. Bit on the nose, isn’t it?

I mean, yes, it is a bit, but I'm not sure the lampshading here makes it any better. I would've been mildly amused if not for the show going "Look what we did there!"

Breekon: Kill me.

This makes so much sense but it still caught me by surprise the first time around.

Jon: Very well. I warn you, though, it will hurt. Breekon: Only until it doesn’t though, right?

Fuck, that ... hits a bit closer to home than I expected anything coming from Breekon to do, tbh.

My impression of this episode

This one was just a little too "creepy hospital" trope and the conversation with Jane Doe just a little too silly for the episode to make much of an impression on me. To be fair, they did some interesting things with the soundscape and it has its moments (all of them listed above), but most of it is just a little too on the nose and mostly just ... kinda gross rather than truly unsettling. The only part of this episode that I found thoroughly compelling was the end of Breekon.

[roguecanoe]

Mag 182: Wellbeing

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Since it’s less than one week until the finale of The Magnus Archives, and this show has been one of the things that have kept me from losing my shit during the last year, I thought it would be fun for me to write out my top 10 lists of my favorite episodes and the ones I personally find the scariest. They won’t really be in a ranked order, just as I think of them. Also there will be SPOILERS up until episode 196.

FAVES

81 “A Guest for Mr. Spider” - I know Jonny called this “easy mode horror” or whatever but I don’t care, I LOVE it  and I’d buy the actual book. I also think the child!Jon we get in this episode is fun.

165 “Revolutions” - I think this was the first episode I listened to after catching up (I came in late!) and I have such a soft spot for it. I love carousels but there is something inherently creepy about them, and I think the poem is really fun.

42 “Grifter’s Bone” - The idea of a cryptid band that you can’t listen to without going into a murderous rage is just so weird and cool.

188 “Centre of Attention” - This one felt very old-school TMA to me somehow; it gave me the shivers the way an episode hadn’t in awhile and that was neat.

196 “This Old House” - Learning the history of Hill Top Road was just so satisfying and cool after all this time, and I was really into the idea of the place in the universe being haunted as opposed to the house itself.

28 “Skintight” - This was still pretty early on and everything was vague and spooky and I just remember basically jumping out of my skin (pun intended) at the description of Sarah Baldwin’s body horror. Also I love Melanie King.

78 “Distant Cousin” - This one and 77 “The Kind Mother” are kind of the same episode, but I like this one slightly more because of the way the NotThem is described as sitting in Carl’s armchair, and because of the Polaroids, which is a deeply eerie detail.

3 “Across the Street” - This was the episode that really made me go okay, okay, this rules and I absolutely need to know what’s going on here. You may be able to guess that I am a bit of a Stranger stan.

67 “Burning Desire” - look. look. would we not all have our faces burned off just to kiss Agnes Montague????? who could blame this man?????

192 “An Appointment” - This is a weird one but truly, I relate to being fully aware you work for truly evil people but having no other options.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: 97 “We All Ignore the Pit” because it’s set in a Washington town about 2 hours’ drive from me, so it feels kind of local, and also Jonny’s truly abysmal pronunciation of Chehalis makes me want to tear out my hair; 126 “Sculptor’s Tool” because again, I just love Stranger shit; 34 “Anatomy Class” because same reason.

SCARIEST

86 “Tucked In” - a hearty “fuck you” to Jonny Sims for coming up with the phrase “the blanket never did anything”! Thanks for those nightmares, sir!

63 “The End of the Tunnel” - I can picture all of this one perfectly in my head and it is absolutely horrifying to me. The image of the shadows tearing off his shadow’s head...gaaaaahhhhh

70 “Book of the Dead” - I don’t like the End ones! I especially don’t like gruesome deaths and this one has a lot of them!

155 “Cost of Living” - Again, a lot of descriptions of horrifying deaths, and also the bonus horror of like, any of us could be this lady, rationalizing that our lives are worth more than somebody else’s! Like I don’t think I would, but I don’t know for sure and that is chilling!

168 “Roots” - this post is just me exposing my bone-deep terror of experiencing a painful death lol

27 “A Sturdy Lock” - I didn’t think I had a fear of somebody trying to get into my room at night but it turns out I extremely do, and I have to listen to this one in broad daylight when I’m nowhere near home because it fucks with my head otherwise.

146 “Threshold” - I dunno, this one just gives me the willies! I love it through, this is another one I can imagine with perfect clarity. The fact that the Spiral tormented this poor family for decades is just so dark and brilliant.

150 “Cul-De-Sac” - I actually love this one because suburban horror is very scary to me, but also I have been lost in multiple cul-de-sacs driving in endless circles before so the horror of this is too relatable.

182 “Wellbeing” - I have a weak stomach for body horror stuff and this is just Too Much.

38 “Lost and Found” - as a married gay person, the marriage certificate with only one name on it fucking haunts me.

anyway yeah. gonna miss this fucked up show. <3

[themagnusaaaaaa]

Sourced from official transcripts.