tired_flamingo

If the light actually goes out at my house, especially after last episode, I'm gonna scream.

That deep sigh was very relatable, Tim...

Martin's here, hi!

Oh, he really doesn't wanna record another statement...

HE ASKED ELIAS IF HE COULD STOP RECORDING STATEMENTS AND HE SAID NO????

Stop anyway. What is he gonna do, fire you? I don't think so.

AND ELIAS, STOP BULLYING YOUR EMPLOYEES OR I'M GONNA DEEP FRY YOUR SPINAL CORD.

"And he said no for a mysterious reason?"

"I don’t know. I mean, he kind of explained. I think? Jon’s 'too inconsistent' at the moment. He needs to make up for the shortfall. Which, I guess means me."

"He did suggest I try to get you involved and—"

And I suggest he not be a scary, magic psychopath. Whoops! Too late." Tim, I love you so much

"This place is evil, Martin. And I think doing what It wants, probably makes us evil. And It wants those things to be read. I mean, I’m not going to stop you, but at the same time…" Yeah, I wonder what would happen if everybody just... stopped recording statements?

"Look, have you talked to Jon about them?"

"Erm… not…. I don’t know, he always gets so weird about the statements, and I… I guess I… I didn’t want to make him jealous?

"Jealous."

LOL

"Have you seen him since…?"

Kind of. We tried to talk, but he, he reached for that— Ah, he, he wanted to turn on his recorder." Force of habit...

"I freaked out a bit, and I said some stuff: if he wanted to talk, no tapes, I just, I just hate that thing. You?"

"Yeah, we talked. Not long, he— Y’know, I think he thinks that the distance keeps us safe, you know? Like, like, if he just makes sure that we’re not involved, we’re somehow fine."

THEY ALWAYS DO THAT, WHY DO EVERY CHARACTER THINKS THEY'RE PROTECTING EVERYONE ELSE BY STAYING AWAY WHILE ONE, IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING TO PROTECT THEM, AND TWO, THEY CLEARLY NEED HELP THEMSELVES!

Everyone here is already traumatised. It's way too late for distance.

"He’s an idiot. Look, we didn’t know what that door was, and it still trapped us. Ignorance isn’t going to save anyone." EXACTLY

"No, I mean, you’re right, I guess. He was... Y’know, we know about Sasha now, and… he said he doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Like, y’know, it’s his fault." Of course. The good old guilt...

"Isn’t it?" OUCH

"No! No, it isn’t! I mean, you heard Elias… We never really stood a chance."

"Yeah. Maybe. But Elias wasn’t actually the one who offered me the job down here." His anger is kinda blinding him. I'm not blaming him for being angry of course, this is a very valid feeling, but there's so much for him to be angry about that he just directs that anger at everything, everyone that's reponsible, even in an indirect way. I think he knows, deep inside, that it's not really Jon's fault that he's trapped working in the Archives, because he didn't know at the time what it meant. None of them knew. It was supposed to be just a job...

Martin getting mad at the tape recorder when he notices that it is on, lol

Yeah, that thing is sentient.

Oh, a statement from 1864, that's an old one!

MAXWELL RAYNER MENTION??? IN 1864??? HOW????

"I believe that Maxwell Rayner has at his disposal some unholy power that he has used to curse me and cause my blindness." Well, making someone blind with the darkness power stuff. Makes sense.

"Or, more precisely, to cause me to blind myself, for I shall not deny I did so willingly." Oh? Okay, I'm curious now.

"His passion appears to be polar expeditions, and it’s rare to attend any social gathering with him where the subject does not eventually come up." Yeah, he probably often went to that one place, Ny-Ålesund.

So that guy outbid Rayner at an auction, alright...

Just some documents from some lost ship? Why are they so important?

Ooooh, I see, he outbid Rayner out of spite, just to annoy him! What level of petiness is that???

"He was almost shaking with rage at this point, and I was momentarily concerned that the situation might descend into violence when, instead, he leaned forward and whispered with an intensity I had never before heard in a human voice: 'Pray the Sandman only brings you sleep.' " Okay, that was ominous...

"Now, the fact that these words filled me with a stark terror that all but overcame my senses probably needs some explanation. My father was not a kindly man, you see. He came from a stern Christian tradition that would curdle the smiles of the simpering vicars you encounter these days. As a boy, I soon learned that the key to avoiding his ire was to avoid his attention altogether, and never more so than after I had been put to bed. The nursery, you see, had its door in the middle of the passage between the drawing room and my father’s study and, as such, he would pass by it several times a night. When I heard that heavy tread outside the door and the shadow passing over the threshold, I would lie there and pray that I was quiet enough not to disturb his passage. If I was ever foolish enough to leave my candle burning that I might read a few minutes more, I would hear the door open and my father’s voice intone, “Lights out.” He had been a military man in his youth, had my father, and he prided himself on handing down that discipline to me."

This is terrible. No one should be that afraid of their parent...

Oh, so he had been sent to boarding school afterward, that was probably better...

Nevermind, it sounds terrible.

At least he had a friend, a certain George Denman.

"One day, Denman pulled me to one side, eyes alive with mischief, and told me that he had returned from his holidays in possession of a “positively ghoulish” book. It was a German tome titled Die Nachtstüke, and contained several morbid tales by a man named Hoffman." That book is a Leitner, isn't it?

Oh, so there was a story about the Sandman in that book.

Well, that Sandman doesn't look as nice as the one in Rise of the Guardians...

"He comes to children who don't go to bed, and throws his sand all into their eyes, and they start to bleed. He takes those fallen eyes up in his bag, and carries them up into the crescent moon, to his nest, where his own children feast upon them. They have crooked beaks like owls, all the better to pick the eyes of naughty human children." This paragraph would have haunted my mind for months if I had heard it as a child.

No wonder why it was traumatising to hear Rayner mention the Sandman...

'Certainly nobody else believes me when I speak of it. But… the Sandman came for me that very night." Okay, that explains the blindness...

"He was tall, yes, and thin, but the edges of him were impossible to see against the darkness he was a part of. He had no beak, but coarse black sand trickled from his open mouth and hit the floor with a steady hiss. His legs were long, but he crossed the room slowly, every one of his joints moving and twisting as he took step after torturous step." This is so scary...

It is clearly linked to some sort of entity of darkness, like what happened in episode 086, Tucked In.

"Wherever the Sandman touched, the world dissolved into a choking darkness. First my door. Then creeping along the distance of our bedroom. Then the bed itself. Then my Agatha. Until all that was left was me, the darkness, and the dreadful thing that brought it." This is really horryfying to hear...

"I do not know how I had come to the conviction that I was in the Sandman’s sack. The idea simply arrived in my head fully formed." Alright... I wasn't expecting that.

"The darkness pressed in, and seemed to fill my mouth, my nose. But it did not touch my eyes. And then I made a choice. I still knew where the Sandman was, though I couldn’t tell you how, and I decided that sightlessness was preferable to darkness." Explaining why he gouged out his own eyes...

"If you had asked me before, I would have told you that there was no difference, but I know better now. There is far more to the darkness than simply being unable to see." That was chilling.

Oh, he actually grabbed some of the sand to blind himself... Yeah, I guess it hurt a lot...

But yeah, it worked.

That was a scary statement...

It must have been so unsettling to read aloud. You okay, Martin?

Yeah, he's not doing well at all... It's okay, take some time to sit down, get some rest!

"Y-You know what, that’s not important." YES IT IS! Your well being IS important, Martin!

Oh, Melanie's there, hi!

(And she stopped knocking on doors)

She's looking for Elias?

THANK YOU FOR NOTICING THAT MARTIN'S NOT OKAY. Please tell him to stop the recordings, it's okay if none of you do it...

"I mean they… they really take it out of you. I must have slept, er, twenty hours after I did one." Oh, wow.

"I… I don’t suppose you’d mind doing some more? Elias wants to make up the shortfall while John’s away and what with Tim…" Didn't you hear what she told you? If she needs twenty hours of sleep every time she records a statement, this is gonna take a while...

I'm telling you, you should just all stop recording statement. And if Elias want the statements to be recorded so bad, he can just do it by himself, he already did in episode 092!

"Sure, no problem. Al-Although I was just going to have a talk with Elias, so, uh, maybe I can convince him to cut you some slack." YEAH, TELL HIM THAT, MELANIE

But also, please don't record statements...

"Listen, you really look like you could use a drink. Um, me and Basira were just about to pop out. So… do you want to join us?" They're all starting to get closer to each other, to become friends. That is a great thing to hear!

"It’s like one in the afternoon."

"Are you afraid of getting fired?" She's got a point.

Yeah, gathering around a drink, building friendship. Nice idea.

"Just, um, gimme, gimme an hour or so. I, I just have a few things to take care of… first." Oh? What are you hiding, Melanie?

OH, WE GET TO HEAR THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN HER AND ELIAS

"I just went out for some coffees, and, and thought I’d get you one."

"How very thoughtful." Those words feel very dry in his mouth...

"I don’t know how you take it, but Jon likes his black, so… I, I thought that was a fair assumption."

Wait, I thought that Jon didn't drink coffee? He had mentioned it in episode 074, Fatigue!

"It was. However, I think I’d rather you drink it." Oh no. Melanie, whatever you put in that coffee, he knows.

Oh I don't like this...

"I assume you don’t believe me, then? That murdering me would also kill you?" Wait-

First, that was chilling.

Then... She wanted to poison him??? Like, actually killing him??? I though she had just put some sleep medicine in the coffee so that she could search for more information in his office or something.

But to actually kill him? Yeah, no, that's not the good plan for now, this is way too dangerous for everyone...

"I assume this is your first time attempting to poison someone? Do you actually know how many painkillers it takes to kill someone, or were you just hoping I’d take enough to get sick, and you could finish the job… manually?" Wow.

"Why…? Why bother asking then? Why bother if you know everything?"

"I don’t know everything, Melanie. Do know how exhausting that would be?" Huh. Maybe that's the solution to incapacitate him. Getting him to know so much that he actually needs to get some rest and step aside, out of order. Like a website just crashing from getting too many requests.

"I’ll tell you one thing I don’t know, and that’s how to convince you that I’m trying to help. Honestly, you’re one of the lucky ones. But not if we’re all dead thanks to an... overzealous attempt at independence." That's certainly a way to describe a murder attempt...

Wow. Alright.

Okay. This is... conflicting.

I get it. Why Melanie wanted to kill Elias. I really get it.

Yeah, it was a really big risk. Well, now that I think about it, it wasn't that much, since he immediately knew, which isn't surprising at all. The assassination attemps was... Melanie, I know you tried, but it was obvious that it was gonna fail, it was kinda lame. But the fact that she actually attempted to murder Elias, if it had actually worked... it would have been a disaster.

I don't know if she believed Elias about the fact that everyone in the Institute would die if he did. After all, she's still pretty new to all of this, though she already had several paranormal encounters, however outside the Institute.

Still, taking action meant putting everyone in danger.

But I really do understand her motivation.

Everything that Elias revealed in episode 092 was... a lot to handle. And she saw what working here does to everyone. Basira's forced to be there. Tim is getting more and more bitter everyday. Martin is doing less and less well recording statements and was refused to stop. Everyone is doing terribly, everyone is tired, including her, especially when she recorded that statement.

I guess that it was her way to react, to try and do something about it. So that, and the fact that she knows that Elias is a murderer... She probably saw that as an opportunity to set everyone free. Cause I can see that she cares about the others.

But it's a good thing that she failed. As long as they work for the Institute, they can't kill Elias, as satisfying as it would be.

If the others learn about that, though... They might get upset that she risked their lives like that.

Which would be a pity, cause friendships are starting to grow, somehow.

But she was really like "Let's have a drink, but right before we go I have to murder our evil boss, brb." Kinda iconic tbh.

They should all stop recording statements, it's affecting them way too much.

The recorders keep turning on by themselves, though, so I guess that this doesn't help.

They all deserve a hug, except Elias.

He wasn't even upset, he was just midly annoyed, mostly because the attempt was so lame.

Bro really said "urgh, no poison, it makes the coffee taste bad :/")

He's so unbothered, it's almost funny.

He really, really annoys me. But yeah, unfortunately, he's gotta stay alive for now. But they gotta find a way to make him know too much, somehow, I really think that would put him out of order, but not kill him. Like a stomach ache after eating too much.

I'm still mad at him for saying no when Martin asked to stop to do the recording.

Poor Martin, he's really not going well, like most of the characters...

The statement was really scary! I'm so glad I didn't hear of that fairy tale when I was a kid, I just know I would have been terrified.

But Maxwell Rayner, who died in episode 073, Police lights? So, in 2017, but he was alive, or at least a vessel to that black ooze stuff or something, in 1864? That's so weird.

Really, the statement itself was very unsettling, gave me chills.

Why is the title so ominous...

Oh, this is about a town in the USA!

"Last year I moved to the small town of Bucoda, about 15 miles outside of Olympia in the State of Washington. I’d never heard of the town before, and I certainly had no idea about what I would soon start to think of as… ‘The Pit’. " Well, what a good start...

That guy is a correspondent for a local newspaper, alright...

They went bankrupt. Great.

"I was just… stranded in Olympia with no money and no obvious place to go. It didn’t help matters that my new landlord proved entirely unsympathetic to my situation. Since, even if I got a new job immediately, I’d be unable to make the next rent payment on the rather overpriced apartment in the city centre. He told me I was in breach of contract, and was to be evicted. He gave me three days."

He didn't even made it through the first day of work, and now he's gonna get evicted, that poor guy...

And this is only gonna get worse...

Well, he found a room to rent in Bucoda.

"Thomas Krycek was young, blandly handsome, and not desperately bright. He seemed like a good sort, though. He’d bought a small one-storey home in the town of Bucoda with his partner a few years ago, but she’d split a month or two before, and now he was struggling to keep up the payments on the house. It wasn’t much, but it fit what might be generously be called my ‘budget’, and Bucoda was less than an hour’s drive from Olympia, so commuting in to any job I might actually get wouldn’t be too bad. I shook his hand, and I moved there." I have a feeling that this Thomas guy is going to die or disappear.

"As I pulled up to Tommy’s house for the first time, it was… strange. I felt like even before I turned off the engine I didn’t belong there. Like I’d walked backstage at a theatre: nobody stopped me, but I couldn’t shake the impression that I’d gone somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be." Yeah, there's something weird with this town...

"As it turned out my situation wasn’t quite as dreadful as I thought. I discovered the next day that my work had actually paid me a small amount." That's good! Is it just a coincidence that it happened right after he moved into this new weird town, or...

"I regularly saw other people walking the streets, though there was no sidewalk to speak of. It may have just been my imagination, but whenever they saw me, it seemed like they paused for just a moment, staring at me, before they continued on their way. They seemed friendly enough apart from that, and there never seemed to be any subtext or hidden meaning behind their greetings." I would get paranoid about that so quick...

"I found the… pit almost immediately." Oh?

"It looked like a sinkhole, but almost completely circular, and instead of the sheer drop of most such holes, this one sloped gently down towards a small opening at the centre, maybe ten or fifteen feet below street level. In some ways it seemed more like a crater than a sinkhole, but it was so neat and regular, I didn’t think it could be the result of any impact or explosion." Okay...

"It was huge, bigger than the street that should have been there, and the thing that struck me as odd, was that the road continued around it. It seemed to split apart just before the pit, and come together on the other side of it. I mean, I don’t know if you can judge the age of a hole just by looking at it, but it didn’t seem that old. The road did, though, or at least it definitely hadn’t been put down recently." What is that thing...

Maybe it is so new on the old road because it keeps opening and closing, like some sort of still bleeding wound. Or a mouth.

Yeah, cars just drive around it, it clearly is part of the town, some oddity that people got used to.

So he's asking Tommy about it...

"It was only after I’d casually tossed out a whole series of questions that I noticed Tommy had frozen in place, one hand in the fridge and the other on the door. He didn’t seem alarmed or scared, just completely still. I was quiet for a few seconds, and then he took the beer out and handed it to me, shutting the little fridge behind him. He gave no indication that he’d heard me." Huh?

Yeah, try and ask again...

"He looked at me for a while, like he was trying to puzzle out what I had said from a different language, then shrugged, and mumbled something about old roads not being properly maintained. 'No,' I said, 'the pit. The big hole in the ground.' He just shook his head like I was talking nonsense, and headed off to his room."

This is weird. Is the topic of the pit just... like a blocked tag in their brain or something? Or that fades into their memory as something that should be there, but not questioned?

"I tried to talk about it, see if anyone else had any idea about what the pit was or why it was there, but when I asked around Joe’s - the only diner in town -everyone reacted just like Tommy. Mishearing, misunderstanding or just straight-up ignoring me. It wasn’t even like they seemed deliberately evasive; all their reactions seemed genuine, but no-one was able to talk about the pit." It's messing with their mind, making them forget that it is here and shouldn't be...

"I’d just about given up on getting anything sensible out of the people at Joe’s that afternoon, when an older man walked over to me." He's gonna have some information about that, isn't he?

" 'Nothing for you down there,' he said. 'You just go and enjoy your sky.' There was no mistaking the threat in his voice, as if I wasn’t going to have a lot of time left to do so, and I was about to say something when his head suddenly snapped forward, and he spat at my feet." Wow, rude.

"I had other things to be worried about, and fundamentally there was no reason for me to be so obsessed with a hole in the ground." But it is a mystery to unravel, so obviously you're gonna think about it a lot!

It even starts to influence his dreams...

"There was one, I can’t honestly say if it was a dream, but I also can’t bring myself to call it a memory." Oh, what happened?

"I walked as far as the pit, and for the first time, I crossed the edge and began to climb down into it." Well I sure hope for you that it was indeed a dream...

"It was less than a foot across, and I felt a gentle rush of cool, wet air. I sat there in silence, listening, convinced I could hear something, but there was only silence. I leaned closer, my head directly over the hole, and I heard it. And then I did what it told me to." What do you mean, what it told you??? What did it tell you?

"I took my hand, and I reached down into the darkness. Down and down, until my whole arm was inside, up to the shoulder." Alright...

"Then the hole began to close, and all at once the spell was broken. I tried to pull my arm out, to get free, but it held me tight. Not quite crushing me, but holding me in place." It's like a carnivorous plant luring a fly to get close enough, and starting to close once the fly is trapped...

"Then I felt it, something brushing against my hand from below it in the hole. Teeth." WHAT

"Wet, blunt teeth, which quickly gave way to a rough, slender tongue that wrapped itself around my hand and snaked up my arm, as though tasting me." EW EW EW

I CALLED IT, IT'S A MOUTH

"Then, without warning I felt it snap back into the darkness, taking some of the skin with it, and my arm was abruptly released." Bro wasn't tasty enough.

"The next thing I remember I was lying in bed. I want to say I had just woken up and it was all a dream, but I was fully dressed, dusty, and with long, thin scratches that snaked around my arm." Yeah, so it happened.

"That was when I started desperately looking for a way to leave Bucoda." Yup, time to leave, don't stay there.

"Tommy was upset, of course, but didn’t seem surprised – that month had been a bit tense, and we weren’t particularly well-suited to living together anyway. I suppose that’s what you get for moving in with strangers you meet in a bar." Lesson learned, don't move in with random people you meet in a bar.

"It was the night before I left that it happened. 17th June 2008. I’d got all my things boxed up and ready to go. I had the keys to my new place. All I had to do was get one more good night’s sleep." Oh, he's so not gonna get that good night's sleep.

"Instead I was woken up about two in the morning by the sound of the front door closing. I called out, but Tommy didn’t respond. I searched the house to make sure no-one had broken in, but the place was empty. I was alone." And that's already not great.

There are shadows at the window...

"There aren’t a lot of street lights in Bucoda, and at night, when all the houses are dark it can get very eerie indeed. I was close enough to see the figures moving down the road, though. They walked casually, like they were just going for a stroll, but there were a lot of them. Maybe the whole town." They're all gonna gather around the pit, aren't they?

"I don’t know how the whole town was able to get inside the pit." I'm sorry, what-

"There must have been hundreds of them, piled high, and encrusted with mud. They did not move, though their eyes shone so brightly in my torch that they must have been alive." This is creepy...

"Without warning one of their heads snapped towards me. It was a young woman who had lived the next road over, and whose name I had never learned. She stared at me, eyes suddenly alive with terror, and began to scream. The instant she did, she disappeared, pulled into the ground, cutting the sound off before it had even begun." Oh no...

RUN

"I wanted to drive away, but I couldn’t bear to be outside. So I hid, under my bed the rest of the night, and felt the ground rock gently beneath me." So you're trying to tell me that in tma, hiding under the blanket is useless, but under the bed works?

Yeah, drive away...

"I didn’t want to see the pit again, I really didn’t. But I did. It was empty, as before, like the previous night had never happened. But it was bigger. And the road had swelled to encompass it." Oh... it grows bigger with every person it eats...

"There was someone else looking at it, though. An elderly woman, face pinched and thoughtful, stood at the edge looking down. I didn’t recognise her, or the car she stood next to. She definitely wasn’t from Bucoda. Sat in the car next to her, I could see a young man who had clearly been crying. I couldn’t get over how blue his eyes were." Who are they???

"I decided that I was no part of whatever was happening, so I drove away, and didn’t look back." Best decision.

AND THE TOWN WAS DESTROYED BY AN EARTHQUAKE THAT VERY NIGHT???

"Why has Elias sent me this statement? It took place the other side of the world, to people who don’t seem to have any connection with what’s going on." Who knows what's going on inside his head...

"Is he trying to warn me not to ignore my own metaphorical pit, because if so, what is my metaphorical pit?" I think you may be reading a bit too much into it, Jon. My litterature teacher would love you.

"You know, it’s somehow worse, now that I know I can ask why he’s sending me these statements, but that he still won’t… tell me." It must be so frustrating...

The town is gone, but obvi when I looked it up on google maps, it was still there irl. I even checked the road, no sinkhole or anything. Would have been fun.

HEY, WHAT WAS THAT NOISE???

I don't like this, something's gonna happen...

Oh, it was just the lights going out. Still don't like it.

WHAT'S THAT VOICE

WHO'S THAT

I DON'T LIKE IT, IT IS A CREEPY VOICE

"Sometimes not being able to see something is actually quite a good thing." WHOEVER YOU ARE, I DON'T LIKE YOU, WHY ARE YOU BEING SO CREEPY????

IT'S NIKOLA ORSINOV OH NO NO NO NO NO

(I'm so nervous that I'm laughing :') )

RUN, JON

"You killed Gregor Orsinov?"

"Yep! He got really boring, and I’m a monster. I mean, what do you want me to do – not pull him apart? I did use all the bits." I DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY THAT

OOOOH SO THAT'S WHERE THAT ONE CREEPY AUDIO COMES FROM!!!

"Are you going to kill me?"

"No! I mean, yes. But not for a good long while yet. I don’t want you to go to waste." Well, that's great...

Her voice is so creepy, I'm NOT having a great time here.

JON YOU ARE SO MUCH BRAVER THAN ME. HE'S STUTTERING IN FEAR BUT HE'S STILL ASKING QUESTIONS, WHILE I WOULD HAVE JUST CURLED INTO A BALL AND CRIED.

"After you attacked poor Sarah, I thought it was about time we had a good old chat. Face to no face! Eye to… well." Oh, so that's because of what happened in the previous episode.

"You remember that old piece of skin you were talking about? We’d like it back. We thought that mean old Gertrude had destroyed it. But then you went looking, and now we think maybe she was just very good at hiding." The skin hasn't been destroyed? Oh no...

"I’m sorry, are you asking me to find it for you?"

"That would be lovely. And a lot nicer for you than our other ideas." Oh well.

"I want to wear it when I dance the world new." Whatever that means, it's not good.

CAN YOU ALL STOP HURTING MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER, PLEASE, I DON'T LIKE TO HEAR HIM GETTING HIT OR STRUGGLING.

He really wasn't kidding when he said he started to feel like a punching bag...

Wow, okay, let me take a deep breath...

That was really creepy, I'm gonna start to regret listening to these at night. Oh dear...

Alright, first things first: the statement.

The pit was eating people of the town, and definitely had some psychic effect on them.

I really wonder why it didn't eat that guy though. Maybe he hadn't been there long enough?

He just wanted a job and housing, and he almost got eaten by a pit. Poor guy. But hey, at least he made it out alive.

Now...

You know, about six months ago, I was home at night, watching tv. And there was an add for the new season of Stranger Things, where the lights were flickering.

And at that very moment, all the lights in my house went out, the TV too, and it was complete darkness.

It was just a problem with the electricity in the neighbourhood and everything was normal within five minutes, but the timing was so funny, and it was just my funny spooky story about that one time when the lights went out haha :)

Well now I might slightly panic if that ever happens again.

IT WAS SO CREEPY

I kid you not, I got so nervous when I heard the voice, and then the name, that my hands were shaking ever so slightly. And I laughed nervously for the almost entierty of the scene.

I really wasn't expecting to meet Nikola Orsinov so early. I thought that maybe she would appear towards the end of the season, but there we are. She is already a great antagonist, she is SO scary...

Seriously, the last time I was so creeped out by an antagonist, it was probably the weeping angels in Doctor Who.

Poor Jon, being sent on a side quest...

Does he really have to suffer almost every episode? Okay, he got a bit of "rest" after Nothing Beside Remains, but it was short lived.

What is he going to do now? Elias tasked him to find out how to stop the Unknowing, which would be pretty great as it would save the world, but Nikola Orsinov is clearly going to kill him if he doesn't find that skin, which she apparently needs for the Unknowing!

That encounter must have been very traumatising for him, also. I just know he's not gonna get any sleep for a while after that.

We're gonna learn a lot in this one, I can already tell.

Okay, first, I can hear that there's some sort of echo? Where are you recording that statement, Jon?

Also, statement of Alfred Breekon??? As in Breekon and Hope? We are really gonna learn a lot...

"When they turned up at my office, I remember it was their shadows that I saw first. It was early evening, and the sun wasn’t shining in through the window, but still their shadows fell across my desk, thick and dark as they loomed over me in the half-light. They wore featureless grey overalls, and even now I’m not sure I could easily describe what they look like, other than to say they seemed solid. Somehow heavier than the world around them" So, they're always described as what you except delivery men to look like, but nobody can actually remember much details. It all makes sense that they're linked to the Stranger...

"But the silence just stretched on and on and on, and eventually I cracked; held out my hand: 'Arthur Breekon at your service. Who might you be?' There was another pause, shorter this time, before the slightly taller of the two – at least, I think one was taller – turned to his companion and opened his mouth. 'Breekon at your service. Who might you be?' " NOT THE REPEATING WORDS THING

OOOOH COPYING THE ACCENT TOO, SO THAT'S WHERE THE COCKNEY ACCENT THING COMES FROM

Well, that Alfred Breekon guy is SO going to die and get replaced.

"I began to stand up, to tell these jokers to get out of my office, but as I did, the shorter one turned to his companion, and in a similar voice replied, 'The name’s Hope. What can I do for ya?' This is so creepy...

"I didn’t notice the butterfly until it had landed on the one who kept calling himself ‘Hope’. With a slow, languid motion he picked it up. He looked at it for a couple of seconds, then looked at me." What's going to happen...

HE ATE THE BUTTERFLY??????

"As his partner did this, the one who seemed to have taken my name held out his hand to me. 'Keys,' he said, this time the word still lightly accented with Russian. I gave them to him. I took the keys to the oldest of the vans, and just handed them over. Anything to get them out of my office." That was a good reaction here.

"But when this other Breekon took the key from me, what I felt beneath the skin of his hand convinced me I had made the right choice." You did, otherwise you wouldn't be here to tell the tale.

"I wish I could say that was the last I saw of them, that they stole one of my vans and drove away, never to return. But they did return. And even worse, they started to make deliveries." So this is actually how they started? They basically just arrived, didn't even need to say "we work here now", and just... started to work?

This is... HILARIOUS?

Creepy, but I can't help to find that funny.

"They were innocuous at first; the right things delivered to the right people on time. Then it became the right things delivered to the wrong people. Then the wrong things being delivered." Oh. Yeah, that's a problem.

"They often brought crates or boxes with them and, once, a sack full of hair. I never opened any of these, or looked to closely when they came around. There was something in me that wanted to believe if I was smart, and kept my head down, maybe I could somehow get through it." And this is how you survive a horror movie.

"If there was a reason they’ve picked me, I have never found out. I have asked them, but unsurprisingly got no answers." Buddy, I think you just happened to be here, or the door was open, something like that.

"When not on delivery, they stand in the break room, facing the wall. Sometimes they laugh, suddenly and abruptly, as though they’ve both simultaneously thought of a hilarious joke. It sounds like the laugh track in an old sitcom, and cuts off almost immediately."

This is like... playing The Sims, or Tomodachi Life, or any game intended to be a life simulator, but where the characters always end up doing random weird stuff instead.

"I don’t go home anymore. I’m afraid of what might happen if they followed me outside of a professional environment. My other drivers have been disappearing." Oh, yeah, that's REALLY a problem.

Not to be pessimistic, but it's probably gonna be your turn soon, mate.

"For all that, they do seem to have friends, or at the very least, people who come to see them regularly. Most I don’t remember, the features difficult to put together from memory" I really wonder why is that...

"They always make sure these meetings are in shadow, and I can never get close enough to see exactly who they’re talking to, but I think they’re dressed like a circus ringmaster."

*nervous laughter*

"And so it’s been going for the last couple of years. I think I might even be paying them, though it’s hard to tell. The account book, as well as the shipping logs and manifests, keeps filling up with entries I don’t remember, although it is definitely my handwriting." I mean, it makes sense for them to be paid, they technically work here.

"Whatever fight was in me at the beginning is gone. Occasionally, when they first began to take over, I would start to march up to them, my mind whirring, filled with demands and threats and ultimatums. Then they’d look at me with those blank, impassive eyes, and I’d feel all my resolve simply melt away." At least you tried.

"It won’t last forever, though, because I think they’ve decided they’re done with me." Yup, unfortunately for you, you're probably very right.

"I came into work yesterday to find a box sat on my desk. The address and labelhad been completely scribbled over in black marker pen, and it was impossible to tell from what was left where it had originally been sent to. It didn’t matter, though, because on top of it, written in my handwriting with a vicious precision I’ve always lacked, were the words: “Return to Sender”. " Oh no... This is gonna be a horrible end for him, isn't it?

"The day was warm but the box was ice cold, and the cardboard was spongy and strangely yielding. It didn’t move when I pressed it with my hand, but there was a sound like shifting sand." That's weird, what's in that box?

"I tried to look it up in the logs. I found it easily enough. Everything seemed to be in order, except the item description. That line simple read, “Goodbye”. " This is so scary...

"There’s a gravity there, though, and I don’t know how much longer I can resist its pull." You're cooked.

Oh, his brother had given a statement ten years before?

"But I need to be back soon. It has been freeing, talking to you, but not enough to free me from my fate. I am not the sender, but I am going to open that package. I know I leave Breekon and Hope Deliveries in safe hands. Safe hands where the skin feels wrong."

This is horrible, that guy is going to suffer a painful death...

"I found Mr. Breekon. The real one. It’s strange, for all he talks of worrying that what’s in the box will get him, all the bite marks appeared to be coming from the inside going out." HUH????

"What does it mean when death no longer phases you, even the most grotesque? Perhaps it’s a sign I’m adapting to my new situation." Oh, Jon... It's because you're ✨traumatised✨

"I was right about the Newcastle depot. It’s still here, and it seems like it’s been deserted for a long time. There’s a pile of mail at the door almost two feet high, and today it was topped with a crisp brown envelope addressed to me, containing this statement." Oh, so that's where he is!

"A gift from Elias, no doubt. He could have sent this to me any time, filled me in on Breekon and Hope, but no. I had to find it myself, just in time for him to show me he knew all about it. Cocky prick." LOL

"It shows that Breekon and Hope didn’t own the company, I guess. That those aren’t their real names. It does seem to confirm that they have some connection to the Circus, judging by clandestine meetings with someone apparently dressed as a ringmaster" Yeah...

"If the Circus is connected as closely to the Stranger and the Unknowing as I believe, I should probably keep an eye out for delivery vans." YES YOU SHOULD. CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL.

"The other useful thing I found here was one of the old log books. It lists deliveries quite a ways past the point where the company technically ceased to exist, right up to 2013. I need to go through it in more detail, but probably not here. This place… this place is done with its story." Yeah, best not to stay here longer than necessary.

Wow, okay, we cut to Daisy arresting someone?

Wait, is that an interrogation? And Jon is there to record?

AND OF COURSE, IT'S BECAUSE ELIAS SENT THEM ON THAT CASE, WITH BARELY ANY EXPLANATION.

I can visualise the scene in my mind...

( "Here's the target."

"Okay, and what are we supposed to do?"

" :)" )

Are they in the taxidermy shop from that one episode?

OOOH THEY'RE INTERROGATING SARAH BALDWIN, FROM EPISODE 28, SKINTIGHT!

"Did you go as part of a filming expedition to the Cambridge Military Hospital?"

"A mistake. Thought I’d have fun with some over-curious idiots, but it turned out I had trespassed. I paid for it."

Yeah, as I was thinking back then, that place was clearly some other entity's property...

"So, what, now you sell dead animals? What is this place?"

"The Trophy Room. A taxidermist shop in Barnet. It says above the door. Surprised to meet an Archivist who can’t read."

First, ouch, rude. And that's the taxidermy shop from episode 054, Still Life! It was owned by the replacement of another victim that had disappeared in the very first episode, Anglerfish.

"Why are you here? You and Daniel Rawlings and, I assume the others taken by that… mimic thing. The anglerfish." Yeah, that's the name.

"It's where we were told to be."

"What is it? The thing that stole you?"

"It doesn’t have a name." Well, that's great.

"What did it do to you?"

"Exactly what you think. They always suffer." That was so creepy...

"there, there are dozens of deliveries recorded here by Breekon and Hope. What were they delivering? What is the significance of this place?" Oh, right, they were mentioned in Still Life, I had almost forgotten.

"Nothing, except what people give it. But they give it a lot, make it a place of power for us. Enough to keep certain items here. The couriers brought them, and took them, and moved them where they needed to be." That's... very cryptic.

"What items? What was stored here?"

"Books, relics, but nothing since the skin."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN

"He was a-a tax inspector. He came here, and Daniel Rawlings, or his replacement, showed him something he claimed to be the oldest piece of taxidermy in the world. Gorilla skin from Carthage." Oh, right, thanks for the reminder Jon.

"Was this when you sent your ‘Sasha’ to interrogate us?" Oh. Ouch.

"Is the skin important?"

"Yes."

"For the Unknowing?"

"Yes."

Oh I really don't like that answer...

"And where is it now?"

"You have it."

I audibly said "what?" at the same time Jon did...

"The old woman, the one before you. She stole it. She killed Daniel, and took it." WHAT

She's talking about Gertrude, right? It would make sense, I just checked my notes and the statement in Still Life was originally given in 2013, when she was still alive.

HEY DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT, I WAS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THOSE SOUNDS WERE AND THEN I HEARD THE GUNSHOTS AND I JUMPED

"I hit her. I’m sure I hit her." I sure hope so, Daisy, cause if those three gunshots nearly made my heart skip a beat for nothing, I would be pretty upset.

"Oh, you did. Look. Sawdust and cloves. Damn." Welp.

Okay, that was... both creepy and funny.

So much lore about Breekon and Hope! I wonder if we'll learn their real names... if they even have a real name?

It was so interesting to learn more about them! The statement was unsettling, and I really feel sorry for that poor guy who was killed in a painful way...

Everything was creepy and uncanny but in a funny way, you know? Or maybe it's because I tend to laugh when I'm nervous as a defense mecanism?

Poor little butterfly, though :(

Sarah Baldwin... Well, looks like she's dead now.

Everything that we learn about the Stranger and the Unknowing, it's just... so confusing and unsettling. This is scary, and this is working very well on me. I think this is what's gonna the scariest part of this podcast for me. But that's alright, I mean, I knew that listening to a horror podcast meant that there would be scary stuff in it!

Also, Jon and Daisy is a duo that... works surprisingly well together? But this is the second time that them interacting with an avatar lead to Daisy killing said avatar, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not...

So, about that tape recorder I was talking about... I didn't find it :')

But I did find some cassette tapes that are pretty cool. I didn't know my mom used to listen to The Cure...

(She almost let me borrow them, but since we didn't find the tape recorder, we have nothing to play the tapes on... I'm definitely getting one for my brithday.)

Alright, another statement recorded by Martin!

Oh, this one's gonna be about the horrors of the war, isn't it?

"I joined up because I wanted to serve my king, because I thought that out there, on the field of battle, I could be the hero my country needed. But it turned out I was only ready to kill for my country right up until the moment I had the chance." Tbh, it's not a bad thing, not actually being ready to kill.

"They never tell you how difficult it is to take a human life. They tell you the enemy are monsters, an evil force sweeping across our fair land, burning and murdering because that’s all the enemy knows. They try to keep you far away, firing round after round from whatever hidden spot you’ve found. All so you don’t look your enemy in the eyes. Because they’re just people." THIS! This is so real! They decide to start a war, they fill your head with hateful propaganda so that you'll blindly obey, and they don't care if you get killed or kill people, because while they decide all of that, they stay in the safety of their office, they never put themselves directly in danger!

There is a Black Mirror episode about this.

"I wasn’t a fascist. I know that’s always the claim people try to make, but I honestly had no time for Mussolini."

"That said, I despised Communism, and under Mussolini’s rule the military enjoyed freedom and prominence as never before. I ignored, though, the rumours of what my brothers-in-arms were doing in Libya." Oh. I see.

"For all our leadership hungered for war, they had little idea, it seemed, how to wage it." That sentence is still relevant today.

"I don’t know what I expected to find when I finally arrived home. Whatever it was, it wasn’t my old Alpini comrades, uniforms torn and fading, preparing what weapons and equipment they could find for an expedition into the mountains." Why are they going there?

"I asked what they were doing, and their eyes fell to their guns. Deserters, I was told, in the mountains. Attacking people, and stealing from nearby villages. We were going to find them, and take care of them." Oh.

"Instead I asked if the deserters knew the war was over; it was likely they no longer needed to hide. Again, a shake of the head, and there was quiet for a few seconds. It was Antonio Cannavaro, one of my oldest friends, who finally spoke up. The deserters, he said, had gone rotten. Not mad, or desperate. Rotten. Sono andanti marcio." Alright, that's... weird, there's something wrong...

"I suppose I could have left them to it. Turned my back on them, and tried to leave my war far behind me. But I don’t think that was ever really an option. I told them I was coming, and Antonio nodded his head. There was no joy in the movement. He was a huge bear of a man, was Antonio, but I saw his hands shaking as he checked his weapon yet again." Even after it ends, war never leaves you.

The way his father used to describe the deserters is just so creepy...

Okay, they're on their way...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS A WOMAN WITH A BULLET HOLE IN HER THROAT, AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S WALKING TOWARDS THEM???

Oh dear...

"I heard a scream, and it was so hoarse and inhuman I assumed for a moment it must have come from this half-dead thing with its ruined throat. But it was Antonio. His face was ashen, and for a second it seemed he was about to drop his weapon and run, but instead he barrelled past me, tackling the woman to ground. There was an awful snapping sound, but her limbs still moved and flailed weakly as Antonio stood, and began to stomp down with all his weight. The others joined in, shouting or screaming, kicking and beating until the corpse was still. I was the only one left standing at the side, staring down at the beaten and bloody mess of… something. None of us said a word." I don't even know what to say, except that this is beyond horrible.

Oh, gunshots, they're attacked.

"We scattered immediately, instincts triggering to find cover. Too late for poor Alfredo, a small man whose sister I had once courted long ago. He remained stood exactly where he’d been when the bullet went clean through his skull. It was almost five minutes before he finally collapsed, but we watched for far longer to see if he got up again. He didn’t."

"From that moment the mountain was no longer the place where we hunted. But neither was it somewhere we were prey. It was simply the place we were going to die."

I can feel the despair through the words...

And they just went on for several day, and the only result they got was that more of them were killed?

"Something in us just knew that we were far beyond anything we could control, and if we were leaving this mountain alive, it would not be through our own decision." Oh.

AND THERE ARE ONLY THREE OF THEM NOW?

They found a cave... What is gonna be in there?

"The jagged hole into the cliff face oozed bitter, icy cold, and to call it the smell of death would miss the point of it entirely. It was the smell of our death. Antonio turned to me without a word, gripped my hand in his, and kissed me once on the forehead. Then he walked to edge of the cliff and hurled himself over the edge." Nooooo, Antonio :(

Now there's only that guy and the drummer boy... oh nevermind he probably died too.

"The first moment I realised what the tunnel had become was when I placed my hand fully over the cold and clammy skin of someone’s face." I BEG YOUR PARDON?

Oh no there are so many corpses...

"It wasn’t long before the one way forward was clambering over them, climbing along their stiff, unfeeling limbs." This is so disturbing....

WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY OPENED THEIR EYES

NO NO NO ABSOLUTELY NOT

"They did not move. I believe, though, at one point they started to sing, but that might just be in the nightmares I have since endured." That's so creepy...

Oh, he found the deserter... He looks so miserable...

"He lifted his rifle, and prepared to kill me. I tried to raise my own, knowing with a perverse sense of relief that I was too slow. He would pull his trigger before I would pull mine. It was over." Well, this isn't what's gonna happen...

Gunshots???

"For all his gaunt frame and emaciated body, he hit the ground with a weight that seemed to shake the mountain. I’d never before witnessed a firing squad, and I never care to again, although of course, I was alone in the tunnel." Huh???

Okay, that was horrible...

Poor Martin, that must have been so disturbing to read...

Don't worry, it's okay not to like to record statements, it's very understandable and not "unprofessional"!

"I guess we’re past professionalism now." Exactly! You're trapped in this job, and your boss is an evil murderer, I think you can forget about professionalism.

He's really not doing well, he sounds like he's about to have a crash out (which he deserves after eveyrthing that happened)

"Jon came by. He asked Melanie to see what she could hunt down about the owners of an old depot up in Newcastle, and asked me to get him a couple of books on taxidermy from the library." Oh.

"Then he left. Again. I mean, I’m glad he’s back, and I guess he seems to trust us a bit more, now, but… And-And I’m glad we can help, of course I am. It’s just what he’s doing seems really dangerous. And I get that he’s worried about us. I mean, we worry about him as well." He's disappointed that Jon isn't fully back to the Institute, he's disappointed that he barely sees him more than during the last few months... And he really worries about him, but he's mostly trying to justify that he just... misses him? It's okay to just miss him, Martin.

"I worry." Aww.

Going from "we worry about him" to "I worry". From a general feeling, to something more personal.

That's sweet.

Basira's here! Well, obvi, now that she works here.

"Um, how long have you been there?"

"Erm, I don’t know. Couple of hours? Why?"

LOL

"Y-You didn’t say anything."

"Yeah, I was reading."

MOOD. This is SO relatable. Reading in silence somehow makes you invisible to other people.

The awkward silence, I love this

"I just… er, feel a bit… self-conscious?"

"About what?"

"Well, I was just, doing a statement and notes and…"

And talking about how you worry about Jon.

"Ah. Was it… good?" I love how she doesn't care lol

"You weren’t listening?" She was reading, of course she wasn't listening! And when you read, everything around is put on mute.

"No, I was reading." EXACTLY

Oh, she's reading a book about alchemy!

"You’ve been reading a different book every time I’ve seen you for the last week." She's probably a fast reader.

"Well, it’s my job now."

"Kinda thought your job was to be a hostage."

"I mean, I guess, but… what? You want me to just sit, and mope around There’s a huge library up there…. and this stuff is kind of fascinating."

Basira, I love you so much. Forced to stay here? Might as well use that time to read. That's the spirit.

"Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, trying to escape?"

"Sure. How’s that gone for you?"

She's got a point there.

"Doesn’t it bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me, but so do a lot of things I can’t change. So you make the best of things. And, hey, you never know, maybe there’s something in these books that can help us." Yes! I love her mentality!

I loved this interaction. Martin being embarassed that Basira might have heard him rambling about his crush, while she was just like "don't care, I'm just trying to read."

Basira is such a mood, I love her very much, and I'm sure she'll find something useful in one of those books.

But Martin is really not doing well, I hope he can have a few days off or something. Quitting is not allowed, but a few days off would be fine, right? Right?

Statements about war are always so horrifying. They're very well written, they don't romanticize war, they show the true horrors of it. And this is a necessary reminder.

Because the most horrifying things in that story weren't the paranormal stuff.

Guess who's gonna look for a tape recorder tomorrow!

My mom says that chances of her old tape recorder still being with all of her old stuff at my uncle's house are low, but I wanna hope. If this thing is still there, I'm gonna find it.

I can already tell this is gonna be so interesting!

"There are some things it doesn’t help to know more about." And I absolutely agree with you, Georgie.

"It was my first year of university, before I’d met you." Oh, so she met Jon at university!

And she was studying English, so do I!

"I was still studying English at Balliol back then, and trying to hide how poor my family was from everyone else. None of them said anything, of course, but whenever they talked I could count the seconds before I got lost. Before one of them made a reference, or assumed something about my life, and I realised I was out of my depth."

"I’d read so many books, and nobody knew any more about my subject than I did, but the way my classmates all seemed to read Latin, or reference philosophers I’d never heard of… I’d, I’d never been able to travel outside the country, but everyone seemed to assume I went skiing every winter. I felt I’d wandered onstage without a script. I felt boring, like I was being judged on all the experiences I’d never been able to have. And I always remember their faces when I’d get excited, and a hint of Scouse would creep into my voice. Like I was some sort of… curiosity. I was scared all the time, terrified that someone would see through me, see the fraud I felt like I was."

This. This right here. This is why the so called equal opportunity, level playing field, feels like it never works. Because there will always be differences that only make the gap feel bigger, because they will always make you feel like you don't deserve to be here just because you're from a lower social class.

Poor Georgie, it must have been awful. You're intelligent, and you deserved to be here just as much, if not more, than they did!

"There was only one person I really felt myself around. Her name was Alex Brooke, and she was a medical student at Corpus Christi." Oh?

"She’d grown up in an ex-mining town in the Black Country, though I can’t remember which one, and she seemed to feel the same way I did. But where I was anxious and self conscious, she was angry. I never met anyone who could skewer the pompous dickheads like she could. I think she actually head-butted some rich kid from Christ Church once."

Well, at least it's great that she had someone to rely on. I know how lonely university can feel, especially when you feel like you don't belong. When I was studying Law, it was... very easy to be lonely.. I may have not succeeded in that field in the end, but the one year I had a friend went better than the others.

"Alex was always so confident, so… utterly unafraid. I always admired her for that, even if I sometimes found it almost as intimidating as the posh boys quoting Latin." We all need an Alex in our life.

"She’d discuss her dissections with me, I think just to watch me squirm a bit, and talk about how hungry she always got at the smell of preserved brain. Apparently, it’s exactly like tinned tuna. She liked to make that observation just before taking a big bite of her sandwich." LOL I want a friend like Alex.

"I’m sure you remember all the protests back then. I went on a few marches myself, so it didn’t exactly come as a huge surprise to hear that there was a group occupying one of the faculty buildings." Oh, yeah, protests. There was a lot of those at my uni this year.

It's weird that nobody knew why there were protests, though. And why is the Medical Sciences building the only one targeted?

"Alex was loudly angry about it, as was her way. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was about, but reckoned I was probably on the protestor’s side, or close to it, but she was having none of it. Apparently classes were being changed all over the place to avoid that part of the building, and it was playing havoc with her schedule." That happened to me too, lol. Classes and schedules being changed last minute to avoid the protests, stuff like that. It was kinda annoying if I showed up just to be told that class was cancelled, but it gave us more time to study, and I agreed with the protestors anyway.

Oh, is Alex gonna call the cops on the protestors?

No, she didn't. She went to see the building they're occupying. And she sounds scared?

"She’d found her way to the rooms they’d taken over, and was about to go in, when she’d glanced through the small window on the swinging double doors." She saw something unsettling...

"They were lying on the floor, she told me. All of them. Not like they were sleeping, but like they’d just… collapsed, motionless, where they had been standing. There were no placards, no signs, just a couple dozen normal-looking students fallen to the floor." That's weird...

And there's only one person who hasn't collapsed? What's going on?

It's an older woman?

It looks like she's looking for something? What is it?

OH NO SHE SAW ALEX

"And it was at that point Alex had recognised the woman, and run." She knew her??? Who was it???

Why doesn't she want to say who that woman was?

"Finally, Alex admitted she’d seen the woman during classes at the Medical Building. Was she a tutor? What was her name? Alex looked me right in the eyes. “They weren’t allowed to tell us their names.” HUH??? That's so sketchy... OH NO WAIT I GOT IT

That woman was supposed to be dead, wasn't she?

"We sat there in silence for a long time, trying to understand what had just been said. I mean, there was no way that there could be something in a university building causing students to collapse, and nobody was taking any steps to deal with it." I mean... what could be done to deal with that anyway?

"I told her I’d go with her if she wanted to take a second look. She didn’t, but we went anyway." Ah, yes, running towards danger.

(I would have done the same)

Oh, there's a police car in front of the building now?

"Finally, she pushed open a pair of doors to one of the teaching rooms, and… I saw the scene she had described." It must be an sight to remember...

"What Alex hadn’t mentioned was how grey they all seemed. Not in the sense they were sickly, but… like they’d had the colour simply drained away from them." HUH???

"And knelt in the middle was the woman. Her skin seemed grey as well, but in her it was clearly the colour of death." She's still there???"

"Then, very slowly, without any sense of urgency, the dead woman began to stand up." Oh no no no, absolutely not. RUN!

"As the woman got closer, I could see something in Alex tighten, wind so taut that it finally snapped. She lunged forward, grabbed the corpse by its shoulders, and began to scream into its face. What did it want? What had it done? Demanding answers." THAT'S A TERRIBLE IDEA

WHAT DID SHE SAY TO ALEX???

"Her eyes were different. They were still hers, and I could tell they still knew me, but something in them was gone." Oh no... It's too late for her.

She's lying down with the other people, nooooo

Poor Alex :(

"And just like that, I was on my own. It feels strange to think that even then I couldn’t find the strength to run. If I’m feeling generous to myself, I try to believe it’s because I was unwilling to abandon Alex, or maybe the thing had some power to keep me there, but honestly, it was fight, flight or freeze. And I froze." Which is a perfectly understandable reaction!

"I saw the dead woman approaching me. Smelt the chemicals that kept her from rotting, saw her lean towards me, saw her lips begin to form words." OH NO NO NO

"In desperation I slammed my hands over my ears and shut my eyes, willing myself not to hear, not to understand. As far as defences go, it was basically nothing, but I still think it saved me, at least a bit. I still heard the words." Well, you're still alive to tell the tale, so I'd say it was pretty successful.

“The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.” THAT'S SO OMINOUS

"And in an instant I understood. There’s no… difference between the present and the future, no other me that will suffer the indignity of death while I live on. It’s all a single moment, and there’s… there’s no difference between that last moment that ushers us out into oblivion and the one we experience now." Oh...

"I felt every feeling within me boil up: anger, despair, joy, hope, fear. Especially fear. They overwhelmed me, and burned up with the monumental realisation of the scale we existed on. Not the meaningless vastness of the universe, but the… the smallness of it." Yeah, talk about an existential crisis...

"And I realised I was in my bed. According to my phone, I had been for several days." Huh?

"And that was my life for several months. Eventually, the memory began to fade, and I started to feel again. I took the year out of university under the umbrella of ‘medical reasons’, and by the time I met you I was, well, I don’t think I’ll ever be the same person I was before, but I had started being able to actually live again." Oh...

She got out of that alive, but it deeply affected her. Those months must have been awful to live...

I don't think I'm reading too much into this when I say that it kinda reminds me of what depression feels like, when you're slowly recovering.

"There was one thing that never returned to me afterwards, though. Since that day, I’ve never been able to feel afraid. My fear’s just… gone." What??? How???

"I’m not foolhardy. I can still recognise danger, and I understand the likelihood of harm, but actual fear? Simply not something I experience anymore." Well it's a good thing that she's a reasonable, sensible person then. Imagine what it would have been if she had been the daredevil type?

"I can’t believe you never told me."

"Well, I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were on the run from the police over two murders, so…" Touché.

Jon sounds very exhausted :(

"I kind of wish I knew, uh, knew even one person who genuinely wasn’t involved."

"Maybe that’s why you thought of me?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, it’s been years, and there must be other old friends you lost touch with. Maybe you did know?" That would make sense, yeah.

Wow. Well, I wasn't expecting that.

It was so interesting and creepy... Poor Georgie, she didn't only loose a friend that day, she lost her own person too. She lived, but as she said, it took her a while to properly, actually live again...

She is very strong. And I love her very much.

But the fear being the only feeling never returning? That's so... weird. Why was it stolen?

I just know I'm gonna think about that for a while.

Sorry, I feel like I'm not talking or thinking as much as I usually do, I acutally feel pretty tired too :')

I think I'll go to bed soon, but before, I wanted to tell you about something that happened last night.

You know how I said that I don't ship Jon and Martin yet, but that it's only a matter of time?

Well, last night went pretty much like this:

Me: I don't ship them yet, though I know I will eventually.

My subconscious: Well it's pride month, enjoy the fanfic :)

Yes, I'm close to shipping them, but I'm not there yet. But my subconscious is, to the point where it decided that I apparently needed to dream about a JonMartin fanfic???

AND IT WAS ACTUALLY ADORABLE???

I'm gonna tell you about it. So, it was just a snippet of one of the many dreams I had last night, so it doesn't have a lot of context.

So, Jon and Martin were on a plane. I don't know where they were going and why, though. It's up to interpretation.

Obviously, they were sitting next to each other, and the plane was about to take off.

And Jon was starting to get really uneasy, nervous (though there is absolutely nothing that indicates he's afraid of flying in the canon???)

So, sheepishly, with the tip of his fingers, he reached for Martin's hand.

And Martin held his hand.

Jon said something to Martin, and Martin answered, but I don't remember what.

However, I do remember Martin telling Jon that he loves him, and Jon reciprocating. But in a casual, already established relationship way, you know?

And after that, I think that the plane took off and Jon was still nervous but seemed a little bit better?

Idk, that's all I remember.

And alright, I agree, it was really sweet. But when I woke up, I was so confused, cause as I said, I'm not shipping them yet!

I'm not complaining, but the fact that my brain made up a fanfic in a dream... That's some next level propaganda lol. Or maybe part of me just wanted a bit of fluff.

It feels so weird to go back to "normal". To start an episode with Jon saying "Statement of...", as if this is a regular episode, as if the previous one wasn't an absolute mess for eveyrone.

WAIT, THERE'S A CAT MEOWING, SKGBSIURGHSUGKJR

"Hello Admiral, how’ve you been? I’ve missed you too." THIS IS SO SWEET

THAT WHOLE SCENE IS JUST SO ADORABLE QFIHESFUNESKHGSRIUDBGV

The whole typical cat behaviour is very accurate lol, and as a former cat owner, I love this

Waiter, I'm gonna need 1247983 more "Jon interacting with cats" scenes, please

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, IT WAS SO CUTE

It was so adorable and now I'm just standing there, smiling, and I really needed that.

(I'm almost crying because of how heart warming it was, I'm not even joking.)

Alright, let's focus on the statement!

He can finally say "Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London" again!

Alright, so the statement is about that guy's father in law who seems to be obsessed with keeping everything clean and tidy...

Wow, both of them lost their wives within 10 months, that's... this is very sad, those poor guys.

"I don’t really know what I expected it to do to my relationship with my father in-law. I mean, I didn’t really expect anything at all. If you’d asked me at the time, I probably would have said that it should have brought us closer together, that we’d probably end up leaning on each other for support. But that never really happened. Instead, he stopped contacting me completely. He still answered the phone when I called, but was polite when I went to check upon him. Every bit of communication had to be instigated by me." It's understandable, this is what grief does to people...

"And he had gotten… cleaner. I didn’t think it was possible, but every time I went over there, the smell of bleach was almost overwhelming." Oh, so this is making that aspect of him even worse. But this isn't only because of the grief, is it?

"Finally, I decided I just couldn’t stand it any more. I sat him down, and told him that if he didn’t talk to someone about his compulsions, I was going to have to set something up for him. I told him that whatever he was doing, it wasn’t the right way to deal with Sandra and Dani’s death. I didn’t handle it well. I was still deep in grief myself, and I almost broke down, pleading with him, telling him it wasn’t healthy." Yeah, this was going to be difficult, obvi. This is difficult to try and help people in grief while you are too.

"Greg stood up, walked over to a small cabinet in his kitchen, and opened it to reveal row upon row of individually packaged miniatures of gin. He picked up one of them up and inspected it, checking the top and bottom, and examining the seal to make sure it was unbroken. Then, in one swift motion he opened the tiny bottle, and emptied it down his throat. He did this three times before he finally looked back at me." This isn't a healthier alternative, man...

What do you mean "There is mould in my drain"

Mould is indeed a problem, but there's something else going on here...

That guy is really trying to help his father in law to go through his grief, this is very sweet.

"But none of it seemed to weaken the cleaning compulsion that had taken hold of him. If anything, after a few days I noticed that I had adopted the habit of cleaning my hands a second time before leaving the hotel bathroom." Oh? Are the cleaning habits rubbing off on him?

"On the fifth day, I did see inside his bathroom, though. I won’t go into details, but suffice to say my use of it was over his protests. It was just as clean as the rest of the house." Oh no, he's gonna find something there...

"I shook my head and turned to leave, but as I did so, I saw a small flash of colour in the bath. I pulled back the white curtain and looked down. Surrounding the edges of the plug’s pristine chrome was a small halo of purple." Huh? What's that?

"I leaned over to get a closer look. It appeared to be some sort of fungus, scrubbed away so only the faintest traces remained. There was a spongy, fibrous look to it, and I had the sudden image of long, soft tendrils stretching away down through the pipes. It was the colour of a fresh bruise and smelled sour, like old milk." EW EW EW

So that's the mould in the drain. Well, that's disgusting.

"I couldn’t get that mould out of my head, though. When I went out to eat, I kept thinking I could smell that awful, sour odour, and I ended up just sitting there, watching my burger as it cooled down, searching its surface for any signs of… something." Oh, eveyrhting is gonna feel dirty now, isn't it?

Yeah, everything feels uncomfortable to him, like there's something wrong, unclean with literally anything.

Oh no, the father in law isn't answering to the door...

"The house was still spotless, but the cleanliness didn’t look quite as fresh as it had before. Like it had been cleaned earlier, and just hadn’t been used since then." Oh no...

Alright, he's still alive, that's already a good thing...

"I glanced behind him, and saw the bathroom door was closed. Not just closed, but sealed. All the edges and the cracks had been packed through with sealant. He’d even nailed extra wood to the bottom of the door, and sealed all the crevices of that. It didn’t do anything to stop that sour smell, which seemed to pulse and ooze from the doorway, and as I stared at the edges of it, I noticed the sealant was laced through with thin tendrils of purple." Yeah, I don't think that this is gonna be enough to contain whatever that weird mould is...

"And then I looked into his face. I saw the thin crust of purple around his eyelids, the corner of his mouth, and the colour of veins in his bloodshot eyes." HE'S BEEN CONTAMINATED TOO!

"He started to move, to open his mouth, but I didn’t give him the chance. I didn’t even stop to consider alternatives, I just turned on my heel and ran. Some people might call me a coward, but I am absolutely sure those people would not have made it out of that house alive." Buddy, self preservation instinct is something so scarce in this podcast, I'm not gonna blame you for prioritising your safety.

"I went back one more time, but I didn’t even get past the front gate before the smell hit me, and I turned back. It looked like my father-in-law was moving, though. I remember, it was Breekon and Hope doing it; they had a depot a ways down the street, and I recall thinking how odd that was, using a couple of local lads with such a small van, given how much furniture they were having to load up from Greg’s house." BREEKON AND HOPE??? Why are they involved in this...

"I asked them about it, about where he was, but they just looked at each other and mumbled something in Polish or Russian, and then they completely ignored me." Wow, rude.

Alright, that's how it ends...

"I should really have waited, got some rest before I recorded it, or until I’d had a chance to move out of Georgie’s. I’ve already stayed here too long. It’s not fair, putting her in danger like this. Or the Admiral." Yeah, I kinda agree with that...

"But Breekon and Hope? Speaking Russian and helping transport a victim of… whatever dark power rules over disease and rot. And insects, maybe? I was just about convinced that they served the Stranger, and their speaking Russian might well support that if it ties them to the Circus, but… this is not the first time they’ve been delivering things that seem to be tied to other beings." I was thinking about that too! This is very weird, indeed...

"Are they a neutral party, carting round whatever horror needs delivering, just a piece of otherworldly infrastructure? Or are they fully part of the Stranger, just serving as allies of convenience for other things that need to be moved?" Good question, Jon, good question...

"Most importantly, though, it mentions a depot in Newcastle. Sasha checked on the Nottingham depot when they first came up… huh, almost two years ago now. A different time." Wow, ouch, I don't remember asking for a pinch of angst today

Oh, Georgie's here. Well, obvi, this is her home.

"I asked you not to record them here." yeah...

"I’m sorry, I… I honestly forgot. It’s been a hell of a week."

"Yeah, not just for you. What, you think you just disappear for five days, then turn up looking like the, like the end of Die Hard, and I’ll just write it off? ‘Classic Jon, what an interesting life he must lead.’ " He disappeared for five days, didn't even say anything or leave a note or something? Jon, come on...

"Where have you been? And what happened to your hand?"

"I don’t want to talk about it." Well, that's too bad, cause you're gonna have to. Georgie deserves an explanation.

"Look, I’m moving out anyway, so just… just forget it. I’m out of your life. Alright?" JON, THAT ISN'T AN EXPLANATION

"No."

"No… No, what?"

"You leave, you don’t get your tapes back." Now that is an ultimatum lol

"When you disappeared, I took the tapes you recorded, and locked them away. Honestly, I thought I might need them as evidence. You want them back, you tell me what’s happening." That was a smart move.

"Georgie, please… You’ll think I’m… You’ll think I’m delusional." I'm pretty sure she'll understand.

"I really hope so, John. Because right now I just think you’re a dickhead." Oof-

He's finally explaining!!!!

"Then, a couple of years ago, the Head of the Archives, Gertrude Robinson, she disappeared, and Elias, my boss, chose me as her replacement."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why would he give you that job?"

"Uh… He thought I could do it?"

"You were a researcher, John – I mean, that’s, that’s a long way from an archivist. And I know you don’t just have a Library Science degree hanging around." YES, EXACTLY! That's what I was wondering, since the previous episode. Why Jon? Why did Elias choose him?

(Also, that reminds me of when I checked if there were any archives hiring for a summer job as a joke, and they were all asking for very speficic degrees indeed.)

"I – I mean it’s all the same… data and, and papers and stuff. Isn’t it?" I'm 99% sure I said something similar when I discovered about that too lol

"Now, I know you talk a good game, John, but hiring you out of the blue as an archivist is pretty weird." Yeah, of course it is! Elias, always beign sketchy, handing around employement contracts like leaflets.

"What I mean is, if there’s no-one above you, there’s no-one to point out you’re doing everything wrong." This... is very true.

"Look, can we put my professional competence to one side, please. Because I’m trying to tell you monsters are real!" A quote by Jonathan "You'll think I'm delusional" Sims.

"Okay." I JUST CACKLED-

"Okay? Okay, what?"

"Okay, I know monsters are real and I… assume there’s more?"

That was such a chill reaction lol

So, she already knows about monsters, which isn't that surprising really, but to what extent?

"Yeah, I mean, it’s not belief. I’ve seen them." Oh?

"You’ve seen monsters?"

"Not the time, Jon." Okay, I can't wait to hear about that.

"Right, it’s… it’s just, I think I’m turning into one." Jon...

Being linked to the Eye, your newly found power and stuff, it doesn't make you a monster😭

Just because that one archivist in Alexandria turned into an eldritch eye creature doesn't mean it's gonna happen to you! Of course it is a very reasonable concern , it could happen, but it could also not happen.

"Really? That’s… not great." That's an understatement lol

"And, and I can make people tell me their stories. Anytime I ask a question, people just… answer."

"Okay, well that bit… will need some proof."

This is gonna either funny or devastating.

"What is something you would never choose to tell me?"

"When we first met I thought you were putting on that accent to sound more impressive." LOL

"The Institute is… There are beings. Like, weird gods, or powers, or… something. They’re outside our universe somewhere, but they push through sometimes in the form of these monsters. A-A-And sometimes they choose people to be… er, servants? Conduits?"

"Avatars?"

"Avatars! But they end up getting these abilities, and they lose a lot of their self. Sometimes all of it."

Oooh, I like that word, avatars!

About the losing yourself bit... well, let's hope it won't fully happen. That he won't push people away and let them get close enough to remind him of his humanity...

"And you think… that’s what’s happening to you?"

"Yes. Yes. The Institute serves one of these beings. A-At least, Elias, who runs the place, does. Since accepting the Archivist job, I-I’ve been… different. A-And I can’t quit or, apparently, do any violence to him. I’m bound somehow."

You can't do any violence to Elias, but I do, and I will.

"That does at least explain why he picked you."

"Uh?"

"If your job is asking questions, I mean. You were always the one who pushed too far, and asked smart-arse, awkward questions. I always was surprised you never got punched." lol

"And… there were some… murders."

"Oh. Ah. I assume that’s why I had the police asking after you?" Probably, yeah.

So that means she lied to the police for Jon, and didn't even tell him that they had come to ask question, to protect him. That's very sweet!

"– that makes sense, but it doesn’t explain the hand."

"Oh, that was… that was one of the other… ‘avatars’. "

We're sticking to that word now? Good. I like it.

"This one was… The Lightless Flame, or, or I think she called it The Desolation. It’s burning, destruction, pain. All the bad bits of fire without any of the light or joy."

"Sounds lovely." LOL

"One of the powers, The Stranger, is… Its beings are trying to perform a ritual they call The Unknowing. Apparently it’s meant to remake the world, bring it closer to their master. I don’t know exactly what that means, or where it is, but… I need to stop it"

"Jonathan Sims, are you trying to save the world?"

He is.

And that is going to become a very heavy burden on his shoulders.

"I’m starting to feel like a bit of a punching bag, to be honest." Well, I hate to break it to you, but... you definitely are a punching bag, darling.

"So… You believe me?" WHY ARE YOU SO SURPRISED, OF COURSE SHE WAS GOING TO BELIEVE YOU!

"These, these things you’re talking about? Is… Is one of them, like, Death?" ... Okay now I'm even more curious about the monsters you've seen, Georgie.

"There’s one I’ve heard called 'The End'. Why?" (Adding The End to the list...)

THIS SILENCE IS OMINOUSLY LONG

"I’ll make us a cup of tea." Oh. So it is that bad, huh?

Well, I can't wait to hear about that.

Okay, I loved that episode. It was nice to have something a bit... calmer?

I'm glad that Jon finally explained everything to Georgie, though he didn't really have a choice there. It was nice to hear everything summarised, I sometimes need that kind of recap to make sure that I properly understood everything.

Jon is scared of becoming a monster, but mostly, of losing himself. And honestly? It could happen.

I think it had already started, for a while now. I'm thinking mostly about the statements, how he's willing to overwork himself just to get the answers he needs.

It was sad that he was actually surprised that Georgie believed him...

Please, keeping talking to people, Jon. You don't understand that there are at least several people who are willing to listen to you, who are going to believe you, and actually try to help you.

Also, I love Georgie very much, she is amazing. I like the way she thinks, she really asks the right questions! She is an amazing characters, and I can't wait to hear her story, about the monsters she has seen.

(If anything happens to her, I'm ready to sue.)

I need more Jon and The Admiral interactions, this is non-negotiable. I absolutely loved that moment, just pure softness that was very much needed.

I still wonder what's Breekon and Hope's deal, though? Why are they helping every entity, somehow? Is this part of the plan to accomplish the Unknowing or something?

The statement itself was so gross, but it reminded me of that apple pie I saw at the supermarket today. My mom and I wanted to get a nice dessert for tomorrow, but we decided that we would buy it somewhere else when we saw that one of the apple pies was past its expiration date, the packaging was see through and it was very visibly moulding, it was so disgusting.

And the supermarket was selling it with a 30% discount. I'm pretty sure they just didn't pay attention, but come on, it was very noticeable.

I'm SO nervous right now

I can feel that something bad is gonna happen, just the title makes me nervous!

Oh, it starts with someone dialing a phone number? Three numbers, probably a call to an emergency service or something...

IT'S ELIAS CALLING THE POLICE

What do you mean, to "report a crime in progress". Why "in progress", Elias? Why in progress???

"Sir, are you in any immediate personal danger?"

"Ah, y-yes, not immediately, but I will be shortly."

WHY ARE YOU SO SURE

Oh I don't like this. I don't like this at all, this weird phone call is just the confirmation that things are gonna go sour, but not only for him, somehow.

The tick of the clock being the only sound in the silent wait...

I'M SO NERVOUS

He said that Daisy would be there in fifteen minutes...

He knows about the plan. Of course he knows. Honestly, I'm not even surprised by that, but still, not good.

WHY ARE YOU READING A STATEMENT?

It's another letter adressed to Jonah Magnus, from 1824. Was it the only to give statements back then?

"And it was you who warned me not to cross Mordechai Lukas." WAIT, AS IN THE LUKAS WHO ARE CURRENTLY FUNDING THE INSTITUTE?

So, Jonah Magnus knew the Lukas family. Does it mean they've been giving money to the Institute for 200 years? They've always been connected to the Institute?

I... don't know if I like that. They're sketchy, but now, they're "hundred years of sponsoring the Institute so that nobody will bother them about the weird stuff they've got going on" sketchy. Wow.

Okay, so the guy in that letter had a debt toward Mordechai Lukas, and when he was asked for repayment, he basically laughed at him?

Well, at least that's the confirmation that the Lukas were already wealthy at the time, enough to lend people some money.

" He simply regarded me silently for many minutes, staring with such a cast to his face that I could feel my resolution beginning to falter. 'You shall pay me,' he said at last, 'in kind.' Then he walked away." You wouldn't understand that since you're from 1824, but you're cooked, mate.

"Let me tell you, Jonah, I believed myself profoundly lucky that day as my hansom deposited me on the steps of my townhouse, a mood only slightly shaken by the impression that, as the cab pulled away, it seemed to have no driver that I could discern." Oh. This is... odd.

That guy is kind of a loner, he only has his brother...

It means no wife or kids to mourn him when he dies (when will probably happens sooner than he thinks)

And he does feel kinda isolated and lonely...

"How is it that the books speak to me of my isolation more acutely than the silence? For every treatise I read on this world and its workings, the more I know I am to spend my time left in it without comfort or reprieve. With every tale of love or society I feel more keenly the absence of both." You know what you should do? Write poems about how lonely you feel, publish them, make some money and repay the debt you owe.

He went to Egypt and he got separated from the rest of the group...

"I revelled in the silence, then, embraced the loneliness like an old friend. But now that friend has devoured me, and I shall not emerge from its jaws. Not without your help." And how is Jonah Magnus supposed to help with your loneliness in that situation?

The remedy for loneliness is company. I don't know, try and find some friends around?

(I say, as an introvert who almost can't make any friend without something fandom related.)

"And you must help me, Jonah. If anyone knows of what might break me from this dreadful place, it is you. I know that what is done by those I cannot see might be felt here – I have found glasses broken and pages torn that were not so the night before." Broken glasses and torn pages? Yeah, that's weird...

"Please, Jonah, if you have any compassion within your heart, you will not leave me in this place." I don't want to be pessimistic, but...

Okay, that was a pretty short statement...

"Jonah Magnus did leave him in that place, Jon. He got the letter, oh yes, and was on good terms with Mordechai Lukas. He could have interceded, perhaps even saved him, but he did not." Okay, not nice. Also, Elias is recording that statement for Jon.

Also, how do you know that?

"And it was not out of malice, or because he lacked affection for Barnabas Bennett: he retrieved those bones sadly enough when the time came." Oh.

"Bones that you can still find in my office, if you know where to look." What-

Why are you keeping those bones in your office??? "if you know where to look", why are you hiding them??? How did you even get them in the first place???

"That’s what this place is, Jon, never forget it. You may believe yourself to have friends, to have confidantes, but in the end, all they are is something for you to watch, to know, and ultimately to discard. This, at least, Gertrude understood." Wow, that's mean. Just because of the Eye thing doesn't mean that the archivist should be alone, without actual connections to other people. Stop trying to isolate him to manipulate him even better.

"Let us begin." Oh, I don't like this. At all.

THAT'S IT, IT'S HAPPENING

Martin is so happy to say that Jon is back...

Basira and Daisy are here too, obviously.

I'm so nervous. Really really nervous.

"Martin, would you be so good as to fetch Melanie and Tim. I think it would be worth their time to be here." He wants an audience, that's not good at all.

What is he planning?????

"Now, you have something to ask me?" YOU ALREADY KNOW, YOU-

"Elias. Did you kill Gertrude Robinson? And Leitner?"

"That’s… That’s quite nice, actually. Tingly… but sort of freeing. You know, even Gertrude never properly tried to compel me. I always wondered –" Yeah, he knows what Jon's doing.

"Just answer the question." Thank you Basira, that's what I was about to say.

"Oh, no need to worry about that. I just feel it’s only fair to wait for your colleagues, Jon. They’ll want to hear this too. Uh, it’s also very important to me, in a personal capacity, that you understand I’m answering you of my own free will." That smug little- The compeling thing doesn't work on him. Once again, not surprised.

Okay, everyone's here now!

Tim's reaction to seeing Jon lol

"Elias here is about to confess his crimes." I wouldn't be so sure about that. But that was very theatrical.

"What?"

"Oh. Good?"

MOOD. BOTH.

"It’s very important to me you understand that no action I have taken has been controlled. I have done everything because I wished to." He's insisting about that, why? He's gonna use that to twist the situation, I can feel it...

HE'S ACTUALLY ADMITTING THE CRIMES

And everyone is losing it, understandable.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot Jurgen Leitner's body hadn't been identified and they didn't know it was him.

"Daisy, where do I know that name from?"

"Oh, the Yousuf case. An Introduction to Higher Anatomy."

"Ah… Oh, god! And you killed him? You sure we shouldn’t be giving him a medal?" LOL

"And Sasha? Did you kill her too?"

"Sasha died almost a year ago, Martin."

Ouch ouch ouch the ANGST. Of course, we as an audience knew that for a while, but it still hurts to hear...

Yeah, they didn't know for a fact that Sasha was dead, let alone what happened to her...

"He’s right, Martin. The thing you remember as Sasha was nothing like her. It toyed with your memory. If I showed you a picture of the real Sasha now, you’d have no idea who it was." No need to be so factual, Elias...

"So that thing we saw…?"

"Precisely. It finally tried to kill Jon. Then Leitner killed it. Then I killed Leitner. And I believe that brings us up to date. More or less." Okay, accurate summary, now can you let everyone process everything that was said?

Also, it shows he knew that Sasha had been replaced from the beginning.

HE KNEW ABOUT MICHAEL TOO.

Daisy wants to kill Elias right away. I get it, I really do, and he'll have to get killed eventually. But not now. There are way too many secrets he's keep, so much stuff he gotta talk about first.

Oh, sounds like the police is there.

"There. That should make it even easier for you. Right, Detective? I know you were planning to kill me, but surely an arrest is a consolation prize?" He's planning... to get arrested? Sure, it's a better option than getting killed, but...

I can feel he's planning something else too.

"Oh, didn’t she tell you why she hadn’t gone back to the station?" Oh?

"Allow me. She rightly suspected that I held evidence of various murders she had committed, and that I sent this to her superiors. She’s quite the killer, your partner. All in the public good, of course. And she was correct, I spent some time acquiring that evidence. Or creating it. And while your superiors don’t much care about the killings, the fact there is proof… They’re not happy. And they want you brought in." THE FACT THAT THEY ARE ONLY MAD THAT THERE IS PROOF, NOT ABOUT THE KILLINGS, THIS IS WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS SYSTEM-

"Heh. So I kill you, and go to jail. I’ll take that deal."

"For someone who used to be a detective, you’re remarkably reluctant to think things through." THAT WAS A ROAST-

"You think you’re the only police officer eager to do violence and call it justice? No, there are plenty of other rabid dogs out there, mad with the hunt. And some of them have signed a Section 31. There are plenty of others your superiors can call on to clean up this mess." Yeah, that's not surprising. At all.

"And anyone close enough to be implicated. They will kill Basira." Okay, now we're gonna have a problem.

"that’s the police that you’re talking about! Okay, they… they wouldn’t… Would they?" Martin, I have very bad news for you...

"If the officers down there take you away… Oh, but perhaps I was wrong when I called them. Maybe it was a false alarm." OF COURSE HE WAS PLANNING THIS AND HE ISN'T GONNA GET ARRESTED, THAT LITTLE-

"What do you want?"

"Collateral."

What do you mean?

What's that paper I hear?

"A contract of employment. For Basira." NO!

HE'S GONNA TRAP HER HERE TOO, NO!

"Sign it, and I’ll send your ex-colleagues on their way."

NOOOO

SHE ACTUALLY SIGNED NOOOOO

"So… what, you’re her boss now? Is that supposed to stop me?"

Yes"

I WANNA SLAP HIM.

"Basira is now tied to the Institute. All of you are. Like fingers on a hand. And I am the beating heart of it. Should I, or the Institute, be destroyed, you will all, unfortunately, follow suit." WHAT

So it means they can't kill him without all of them being killed too. Except for Daisy, I guess. Is she so desperate to kill Elias that she's willing to sacrifice Basira, though?

"Yup, that sounds about right." TIM, YOU SHOULDN'T BE ACCEPTING THAT SO QUICK. So much stuff happened that he's just receiving the information, he's just getting used to it by now...

"Then shoot me. Just squeeze the trigger, and watch the only person you care about die screaming. Your last connection to humanity. Do it." She's not gonna shoot.

Yeah, she didn't!

"The police are not the only ones who can find a use for your violence. I’m sure there’ll be plenty here for you to do. Feel free to go where you like in the meantime. I’ll be in touch." He gotta stop hiring people...

"This is insane!"

You get used to it." TIM😭

Oh, so now Elias wants to talk to Jon alone.

"Come on, Jon, there’s really no need for the scowl." UH, YES THERE IS, ESPECIALLY WITH EVERYTHING YOU'RE MAKING EVERYONE GO THROUGH

"What do you want?

Honestly? To offer some congratulations. You’re doing a lot better than I expected."

SOMEBODY SLAP HIM

"Feels like all I’ve managed to do is… not die."

"And believe me, that is a remarkably rare skill." I mean... He's not wrong.

"I’m not getting any answers out of this, am I?"

"The easily-digestible sort that wipe away any doubt and fear, and neatly organise your new world into happy little columns? No. Not from me. These are things you must discover on your own."

Of course, it would be too easy. For him, but also for us as an audience. He's not gonna deliver answers on a silver platter.

"Precisely. It is your job to chronicle these things, to experience them, whether first-hand or through the eyes of others." Ooooh, so when he reads the statements, it feels to him as he is living them? That explains why he always reads with so much intensity...

"I never chose this." EXACTLY. THIS IS UNFAIR.

"You never wanted this, no. But I’m 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, John, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless." No... But that's not fair, that's... That's not a real choice if you don't know what it means, it's....

"So what now?"

"You were doing fine before you forced this little scene. I suggest you continue."

Just like that? Like before? As if nothing happened?

"So it was you sending me the statements." OF COURSE IT WAS HIM

"A little bit of direction never hurt anybody. So to speak." NOT WHEN DIRECTION LEADS TO THOSE SO CALLED CHOICES

"The Unknowing. I need you to stop it." WHAT

I agree that the Unknowing has to be stopped. But why all of this, why...

What?

Oh, we're gonna know what it actually is!

SO IT IS A RITUAL.

"These things that touch us, they… don’t have a form of the sort that could exist in physical reality. So the Stranger wishes to remake that physical reality into something closer to itself. It wants to make this world its own." Oh no no no, this is so wrong....

YOU WANT HIM TO STOP THE UNKNOWING BUT YOU WON'T TELL HIM HOW????

"No. You are not doing that. I know you have Gertrude’s notes, her, her files. She was working on a way to stop this. Not to mention that apparently you can… effortlessly see anything at any time!" EXACTLY!!!! TIME TO EXPLAIN!

"So you obviously know how to stop it. You could just tell me!"

"I could. But I believe that if I did so, you would fail." Huh?

"We thrive on ceaseless watching, on knowing too much. What we face is the hidden, the uncanny, and the unknown. If you are to stop them, you need to get better at seeing. And my explaining things is simply not enough." What, are you gonna have to.. teach him how to "see"?

"And you can’t just give me all of the statements?"

"Jon, even when you had them all at your disposal, you barely got through one statement a week. Why do you think that is? It takes its toll on you. And I know you’ve had problems with moderation."

Okay, ouch. So the statement are really like a drug, huh? A drug that he needs to master, but slowly so that he won't OD.

"So it’s… it’s back to breadcrumbs, and statements, and risking my life talking to things that barely remember how to be human anymore?"

"For now. I’ll be in touch."

THE "Anything else?" AFTER THAT SILENCE, I-

I'M LOSING IT

"Am I… Elias, am I still human?" Oh, Jon...

Does it mean he doesn't feel like a human anymore?

"John, what does human even mean? I mean, really? You still bleed, you can still die. And your will is still your own, mostly. That’s more than can be said for a lot of the ‘real’ humans out there." That's barely helping...

"You’re worried about ending up like that thing, lurking in the dirt under the streets of Alexandria? Don’t be." Well, it's a pretty reasonable concern.

Poor Jon. Somebody give him a hug.

The way he asked if he's still human, I got tears in my eyes.

That was... wow. So much to process.

I knew that the plan of compeling Elias to tell the truth wouldn't work. I mean, he did, but as he said, because he wanted to. And he still got something out of it, he twisted the situation to his advantage. As I thought he would.

I wanted to slap him through most of the episode. He's very frustrating! But a smart villain is always interesting, he's such a well written character!

And he cannot be killed, because if he dies, so will everyone tied to the Institute. Which makes the whole thing even more frustrating! Cause seeing the villain die is supposed to be the satisfying reward at the end, but this won't be the case here!

AAAAAH

At least, now everyone knows that Elias killed Gertrude and Jurgen Leitner. And they know what happened to Sasha... but they barely got the time to process all of that.

Martin was so happy about Jon being back to the Institute, only for his joy to be shattered by devastating information.

I loved Tim's reactions to everything, but somebody get him a therapist appointment (and a hug) ASAP, please

Also, poor Melanie, who liked working here because it was "quiet" and understood the hard way that a job at the Institute is, in fact, not quiet and calm at all. Guess what, your boss is a murderer and evil, and you're trapped here because you can't quit and if he dies, so do you, and that's the same for the building.

And now, Basira is trapped here too. She didn't hesitate to sign, though. It was either that, or her and Daisy would have been killed by the police, but this is so unfair for her...

She deserves so much better than that.

And whatever her and Daisy got going on, they clearly deeply care about each other. Daisy could have just shot Elias, and walk out with her victory, unharmed. But it would have meant letting Basira die a painful death, and that's a sacrifice she wasn't willing to make.

The fact that Elias is also gonna hire her too eventually...

He will hire anyone but the person everyone at the Institute needs: a therapist.

Oh, and we got to hear Rosie! She had been mentioned before, but this was the first time we heard her voice!

Poor Jon... So much stuff happened, he's learning about what it means to be linked to the Eye and stuff, he got tasked to stop the Unknowing, with barely any information and everything to figure out on his own...

And he still has to go back to work as if nothing happened.

And about the Unknowing... The Stranger wants to make this world its own. This has to be stopped, of course.

But... I understand about Elias not telling Jon everything because it wouldn't be enough to just tell him, and giving him too much information with all of the statements would be too much to handle. I get that it's part of the whole "getting better at seeing" thing. (Which means that Jon will be forced to develop a power he didn't ask for, because of the burden of saving the world that is now on his shoulders.)

All of that, I get it. That Elias got all the information about how to stop the Unknowing and why he won't tell Jon. What I don't get...

Why doesn't he just... do it himself?

Outside of plot reasons, I mean. Elias clearly controls his own powers way better than Jon does, and it makes sense because he knows everything that is to know about those. But if Jon has to get better at seeing in the sole purpose on stopping the Unknown, why isn't Elias, who is better at seeing, doing that?

Is is something that only Jon can do? Is he destined to save the world? And if he's the only one who can do that, why?

That was so much...

The statement was interesting, though. A bit of lore about the Lukas, might be important later...

Also, why is Elias keeping the statement giver's bones in his office, like????

So, are we meeting Michael Crew in this episode?

OH, NEW VOICE, THAT'S HIM!

He sounds pretty nice, and polite for now! Just a chill guy making a cup of tea.

This is starting way better than with Jude Perry, and Jon sounds almost confused by that lol

"I think you threw a guy off a skyscraper in Paris." Jon, you can't just ask people if they threw a guy off a skyscraper in Paris.

I mean, of course Mike did. But this was a pretty... direct way to mention it, right after talking about Ex Altiora and The Boneturner's Tale lol

"Where did you get that scar?" JON, ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW??? Why are you asking this right away, this is just rude! I don't care about whether or not it has a paranormal explanation, you don't just ask people randomly about their scars! Some people are insecure about them, and I don't know if that's the case here, but that's still pretty insensitive. You didn't even phrased it properly, not even something like "Would you mind if I asked about your scar?" Rude.

Oh, Mike didn't like the question!

THE SOUND OF WIND???

"And I was trying so hard to be polite." THE WAY HIS TONE CHANGED

Yes, you were trying to be polite. Jon clearly didn't.

It was going so well, and now it's going to be trouble again!

"Hard, isn’t it, trying to ask prying questions at terminal velocity? The air… it doesn’t… leave your lungs like you expect it to. I mean, I know you’re still sat down, you know you’re still sat down. But whether your body knows it when I decide you hit the ground, that’s… that’s something I haven’t made my mind up about, yet." HE TRAPPED JON IN AN ENDLESS FALL???

"A little bit of privacy. Is that really so much to ask? I suppose it is, isn’t it? From you and yours at least." I mean, that's understandable...

"Maybe I’ll let you live, allow you to drag yourself back down to your den, but… you need to learn some respect." Oh. It means trouble, right?

And he's actually gonna tell about the scar? That's interesting... It seems like Jon is indeed compeling people to tell him stories, but he doesn't do it on purpose because he doesn't realise, he's just asking questions.

Being struck by lightning, yeah, I'd except that it hurt...

"The part that always bothered me was how I didn’t remember it. Not really. The sensation’s still vivid enough, but it exists in my mind completely detached from any actual memory. I remember the feeling, but not the event." Interesting...

"The doctors told me there would be no long-term damage from my accident. They, they were wrong, of course, but the damage wasn’t something they could see, so how were they to know?" Is he refering to that thing that seemed to chase him in the thunderstorm in episode 046, Literary Heights?

"Did you know that Lichtenberg figures are fractals? I didn’t, not back then, but as they travelled along the length of my scars, I sometimes think like my fingertips could feel it. When I was twelve, curled under my bed to escape the pounding of the rain against my window, the roll of thunder that just rattled my skull, I began to travel them once again. My hands ran down and along those jagged, discoloured lines, every branch, every turn, my nostrils full of ozone, my veins full of fear. And they didn’t stop. I knew where my scars ended, but… those I traced in the dark that night, they just went on and on and on, far beyond me and to somewhere that still flashed with that unspeakable white light." This is fascinating...

"That was the night everything changed. Before it I was odd, certainly, probably traumatised, and gripped with a terror of storms, but after that night, things were different. I think, looking back, that was when I called it. That was when it caught my scent." I'm guessing that this is when that thing started to appear...

"I could never look directly at it. The bright, arcing glow of its insides almost blinded me when I tried. It was almost a man, but I could never be sure. Its strobing, flashing Lichtenberg organs changed and flickered too fast." That's... certainly a curious description.

"It… never hurt me. Not once in all the years I was chased by its… malevolence." Oh?

"I remember when it found out where I lived." Chilling

"I had dreamed that night of shifting, branching avenues of light. I travelled them so fast I could feel my flesh peeling away, leaving nothing but the coursing, buzzing pain within me as I ran down these hideous corridors, aching for an end I knew simply wasn’t there." HUH?

And when he woke up and saw a wooden gate in the garden instead of the back wall, he actually got outside to open it?

I see that you got no self preservation instinct either, huh?

And it opens to... what looks like an endless forest? An endless forest that smells like ozone?

"I found The Journal of a Plague Year when I was seventeen." The Journal of a Plague Year? Is that a Leitner book?

It infected the house, making it collpase on his parents???

"And more than that, my eyes were opened to the powers that might save me." HUH???

Bro saw his parents get killed because of some dark powers the only thing he thought was that said powers could help him.

"But I knew that Filth was not for me. Buzzing flies and rot disgusted me, but they never spoke to my soul." Filth? Is that the thing linked to the disease and bugs, and that Amherst guy?

"I threw the book into a sewer, and began my hunt." Given that some of the those books are waterproof, this could have been so dangerous! Especially since he saw what the book can do! Why didn't you just destroy the book, Mike...

He tried with The Boneturner's Tale but it didn't work... so he just gave it away to a random library, as we heard in episode 017... Once again, why didn't he destroy the book? He knows those books dangerous, and he just gave them away, especially with that one, in a place where ANYONE could pick it up???

Mike, I get that you're trying to find the solution to your problems, and I'm sorry about what happened, but you've got some issues, man.

"My experiments weren’t entirely pointless, though, they did have a truth to me. I learned that I was more than capable of killing, if it brought me closer to what I needed." Oh. As I said. Issues.

He also found another book written in Cyrillic that tried to read him back, whatever that means.

And of course, he finally found Ex Altiora, as described in Literary Heights.

"The thing that chased me, you see, it was an arcing branch of the Twisting Deceit, taken shape to follow me." The Twisting Deceit???

"But the shape it had taken more rightly belonged to the sky. To those same vast unknowable heights that blessed book wanted to take me. Falling had always held a special place in my heart, that wonderful border between terror and delight." Alright...

"And I knew within that book was something that could not only release me from my pursuer, but chain my being to that rush of wind and vertigo forever." Well, I guess it worked...

"There are echoes of resignation, I think, almost desperation. That can’t be right, though. What reason would I have had not to jump? Not to become as I am now. Perhaps I just didn’t know the true joy of vertigo." I mean yeah, I can imagine that one would be reluctant to throw himself out of a window...

"In the end I threw myself into the arms of that vast emptiness, and I bound my tormentor to the book." Oh, so that's what he did, he used the book to trap the thing chasing him inside of it.

"Since then I’ve embraced my new life; gladly fed that which feeds me." Yeah, so you've killed people. A lot.

"A… uh, a Paris skyscraper, was it you said? I honestly, I, I can’t say I recall it in detail, but that does… sounds about right. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track." Yeah, A LOT of people.

He's actually pretty happy about telling all of that. Good for you, I guess.

He released Jon, yay!

Poor Jon, a bit traumatised and shaken, but mostly okay.

A KNOCK ON THE DOOR, WHO'S THAT?

WOW WHAT'S GOING ON

SOUND OF HITTING???

THAT WAS DAISY!

So, she's alive, not really a surprise. What is she doing here?

She knocked Mike out. Wow.

"Doubt he can do it in a coma. Now turn that off, and help me get him in the car. Don’t try to run."

So, she's basically kidnapping Jon to get him to help get rid of Mike, yay.

"So… so what now? You kill us?" DON'Y GIVE HER IDEAS, JON

WHY WAS THERE A GUNSHOT????

DID SHE KILL MIKE???

OH NO SHE FOUND THAT THE TAPE RECORDER WAS ON.

I'M SURE THAT THING HAD TURNED ON BY ITSELF

SHE'S MAD

DON'T KILL JON

"Why are you doing this? Tell me!" Ooooh, if she's forced to answer, at least she won't kill him for now, that will buy him some time.

It sounds like she's choking him. I don't like to hear him in pain...

BASIRA'S HERE!

GIRL I'VE NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY TO HEAR YOU

Okay, I trust that she's gonna handle the situation very well, and prevent Jon from being killed.

"You’re not that subtle. But I – I always thought you just killed monsters." Oh...

"Just let him go."

"You don’t know what he is. You don’t know what it’s like to have your secrets pulled out like teeth, just because he asked?" Yeah, alright, it does not feel nice, but it's not his fault, so let him go. He's not even fully aware he can do this. Elias, however, seems to have a similar power, and he was the one to use it to take that statement in episode 082. He's the one you should hurt.

"No? You ask me to take a tape over to this murdering freak, and I’m all set to tear you a new one for it. But then I get the cassette in my hand, and suddenly all I want to do is deliver his tapes, and spill my guts." HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THE EYE WHEN THAT HAPPENED, HE DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE

"So, so now you kill him?"

"First him, then his creepy boss." I don't care if you kill Elias (though it would be a shame not to get more information from him first), but don't kill Jon!

I'm really worried and stressed by this whole situation... I mean obvi, Jon is my favorite character, and I don't want him to get killed! And I know that Daisy won't hesitate to kill him.

(I probably look ridiculous right now, I just mutter panicked "don't" whenever Daisy talks about killing Jon)

Basira, please convince her not to...

"This is too far, Daisy. You know it is." LISTEN TO HER, DAISY

"He murdered two people, Basira. Maybe more. I’ve done one monster today, no reason not to do another." He's not a murderer!

"You reckon he can mind control people. Make them tell the truth? Why not try it on Elias?" I like the way you think, Basira. And this is honestly a smart plan! But I have a feeling that it won't be that easy...

Wow. That was intense.

Well, we got to hear Mike's backstory before he got killed. Which is kinda a pity, he could have brought answers to some questions about the entities or something.

Also, I really liked his voice, and if he's head, it means we won't hear it again :(

I wasn't expecting him to die on the episode he talked in!

And Daisy... yeah, sorry not sorry, but I really don't like her. Hurting and almost killing my favorite character is just the last straw.

(Don't get me wrong, she's very well written, and good as a character, but as a person, nah)

The way she just shot Mike...

Yes, he killed a lot of people too, I won't deny that. Like, he was far from innocent. But he could have brought so many answers...

The tape recorder just randomly turning on, on its own, was very weird too...

And okay, Jon was rude at the beginning. Trapping him in a temporary endless fall shook him a bit, but at least it ended well...

But in the last part of the episode, I was really worried about him, it was very stressful.

Hearing him being hit, and then struggling and whimpering in pain as Daisy was basically choking him... I felt so bad for him.

Hearing my favorite characters in pain always make me a mess. From that very moment, I want only one thing: that they make it out alive and safe. I focus on their safety, and I almost forget the rest.

So yeah, that was very stressful.

Not to mention that it wasn't his fault. The whole thing about having the power to make people tell him stories and secrets. He's barely starting to understand, he doesn't really control that.

So yeah, the first time he met Daisy, maybe he used that power to make her give a statement. But it wasn't intentional, he didn't know about all of that back then, he just offered her to give a statement.

I get it, I really do, that it must feel terrible for Daisy, but the worst was with her statement in episode 082, because she didn't even give the statement, it was taken from her! And Elias fully knew what he was doing!

Jon can't be blamed for accidentally using a power he didn't know about.

Elias, however, can be blamed of that, among many other things.

Thank you Basira for handling the situation so well and for saving Jon. Really, what a queen.

Her plan is smart. Using Jon's power to make Elias tell the truth sounds like a good idea on paper, however...

What if it doesn't work? What if Elias is immune, since he has a similar, if not the same, power? What if he figures it out and flips the situation to his advantage?

I don't work if that will work, but still, suggesting that saved Jon's life, Daisy would have killed him otherwise. So thanks for this, Basira.

I guess this is gonna be literal. I can already tell.

Oh, we're starting with a conversation between Elias and Tim!

"I heard you’d had some absences. Some unauthorised leave. I just wanted to talk it through with you." Oh, so now you start to actually act like a boss, huh? IF YOU WON'T LET HIM QUIT, YOU COULD AT THE VERY LEAST LET HIM HAVE A FEW DAYS OFF, HE DESERVES THEM!

"Were you sick? If you’re sick you really need to call in."

"Nope. Wasn’t sick. Try again."

THE ATTITUDE LOL

You know, earlier in the podcast, I would have said "You can't speak like that to your boss, you're gonna get fired!"

But now this is very different.

Go on, Tim, give Elias some attitude.

"I hopped a flight to Malaysia. Found myself a hotel."

"I see. You were trying to leave us?"

"Yeah."

Why are they talking about it so casually...

Tim literally tried to run to the other side of the world, just to escape his job. And that didn't even work! That's not fair!

The longer he tried to stay away and the weaker he felt... This is insane toxic workplace climate, they really need to get HR involved...

(Do they even have hr at the Institute?)

"You do know, right? I mean, you must know." YES HE DOES! HE DOES! ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU TIM FOR ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS!

"Tim, this place is very old. It has all sorts of… idiosyncrasies and not all of them are good for the people who work here." Yeah, no kidding. But this isn't an explanation!

"I think I’d prefer asbestos." lol

"I’ve always found the best way to deal with it is to lose yourself in work. Personally, the comfortable rigour of bureaucracy has always helped me. Perhaps doing a bit of mindless filing will help distract you." ELIAS YOU LITTLE-

He basically told him "Don't worry, just overwork yourself and you'll feel better👍🏻"

If he had Linkedin, that's what he would write in his bio.

"Yeah. I mean… maybe you’re right." No, don't listen to him! Don't lose yourself to this place, Tim...

Elias is very insisting on the "no more unauthorized leave" thing. This is unecessary cruel. Stop trying to break Tim, he's already got enough trauma as is it!

Oh, hi Martin!

Elias left. Good.

Alright, let's get started with the statement.

Ok, it's about some guy who had to find a new gym because he started to take steroids. I don't know much about those, but the little I heard wasn't putting them under a positive light.

"I hadn’t even started when I left. I just felt guilty. Like it was an admission of failure. Eleven years I’d been going, all natural, and, physically, I was at the top of my game." Interesting...

If everything in his body was so perfect, why feel the need to take the steroids? Body image issues, maybe? Cause with those, no matter what you do and how perfect your body is, you feel like it's never good enough...

"I’d reached my natural peak, and it wasn’t enough for me." Yeah, it's that. I actually feel bad for that guy...

"Eventually I found it, weirdly enough, in the Yellow Pages." Wow, the Yellow Pages! Is that still a thing?

"As you’d expect, most of the listings just pointed me towards the their websites, but I spotted a small, square ad box in the lower left corner. It was text only, and read, 'Your perfect body is here. Become all you can be.' " Oh, I can already feel that this isn't a gym...

"From the outside the gym wasn’t much to look at. Just the faded outline of a dumbbell on a grimy window, and the words 'Weights and Cardio' just about readable over the door. I realised that I actually passed this place pretty regularly, I’d just always assumed it was out of business." Well, alright, it looks like a gym. But maybe it's some sort of cover up. Maybe the actual gym is indeed out of business, and is hiding something else...

"The man who stood there was, without a doubt, the biggest guy I had ever seen, and bear in mind I spend my time hanging out with bodybuilders. He had to hunch down to fit through the doorway, and was almost twice as wide as I was. Most of his body was covered in a loose tracksuit, and I could see clear stitch marks where it had been enlarged for him. Embroidered onto the chest was the letter ‘J’. " WAIT, IS THAT JARED HOPWORTH, THE GUY WHO STOLE THE BONETURNER'S TALE?

Run, buddy. Your body is gonna change, sure, but not in the way you want.

Oh there's gonna be some body horror, I can tell. I mean, I remember what happened in episode 049, The Butcher's Window...

"But then he started asking me some slightly more personal questions: why I’d become a bodybuilder, how it made me feel, what parts of myself I hated." Oh this is gonna get bloody...

IS HE REALLY WONDERING WHY THEY'RE THE ONLY ONES AT THIS "GYM"?

I don't know, man, maybe because it's an OBVIOUS TRAP

"The lockers were absolutely enormous. They came right up to the ceiling, which was easily twelve foot from the floor, and must have been a good two or three feet wide. Each had what looked to be a unique lock, and only a few of them had keys in." Big enough to fit human bodies and body parts in...

Also, there were lockers in episode 049 too.

"When he shrugged, the fabric of his hoodie moved in such an odd way. It was fascinating, and I made a mental note to keep an eye out for him in the gym, so I could get a proper look at him." Trust me mate, I don't think you're gonna like the view.

"The locker was just as big inside as I’d thought, and went back about five feet into the wall." FIVE FEET? That's not a locker, that's a corridor!

"He told me to keep the key, and explained that he preferred to have membership fees paid in cash. That didn’t surprise me. I got the feeling that there were a few things about the place that wouldn’t pass any sort of official audit." Oh, you have no idea...

"The next day was the same, and the one after that. No matter when I went, the place was always empty, with no sign of J or anybody else. I wondered if somehow I’d been tricked into paying to use an abandoned gym or something, but it was well maintained and really clean, so someone was looking after it. In fact, thinking about it, I’d say it might have been the cleanest gym I’d ever used" I remember that the shop in episode 049 was also kept very clean...

Oh, there's another person using the gym as well! Some woman named Marie. She's been using the gym for two months and she's still alive, alright...

And she's doing way better than him. I suspect that this is because whatever the effects on the body are, since she's been here longer, it's already affecting her more.

The weird sounds from the locker room... Is it like in episode 049, that... thing, pit, whatever it was, that was in the ground?

"She’d push herself way past the point of exhaustion every day, and for all the awards her body had gotten her, it sometimes seemed to me like she wanted to destroy it. Often I’d find her staring at the mirror in the changing room, her gaze locked on her shoulders, moving them slowly up and down with a look of disgust on her face." Yeah, whatever's happening, it's going as intended.

"I didn’t really think about it too much, though, as my own steroid course was starting to show results, and I was spending plenty of time in front of the mirror myself. It wasn’t enough, though. I knew it wasn’t enough. I knew I was going to have to go on another course as soon as my body had recovered from this one. Maybe even sooner." The trap is starting to work for him too...

Oh, he forgot his phone at the gym one night and had to go get it. Of course. At night.

Alright, just go get your phone and leave.

"I grabbed it, and was just about to leave, when I heard movement coming from the gym itself, and nearly jumped out of my skin." Don't go check what it is. You're not gonna like it.

"I set my face hard, and walked through, preparing to give Marie, or whoever it was, a piece of my mind." Oh, he's so not ready.

There's someone on the parallel bars...

He turned on the lights. The nightmare starts.

"It was not Marie, swinging round and about on the bars. Marie only had two arms. Marie had legs. And Marie had a head. The thing that swung and flipped and twirled around the bars was nothing like Marie, though its flesh looked human enough. It did have a smile, though, stitched… right in the centre of its torso." I can't even describe the face I made as I listened to this.

"I screamed so hard I tore something in my throat. I don’t know if it heard me. I don’t know if it even had ears. But it wasn’t alone, and the other things in that place did hear me, because as I ran back and out through the changing rooms, all the lockers were opening." Oh no, what's in the lockers? It's gonna be disgusting...

"What came climbing out of them had once been people, I’m sure of that, and they called to me, offering to help ‘perfect’ me. To help me achieve my ideal body." They were kept like lab rats, experimented on...

"J was there, standing his full height. A distended, jagged body bared in all its twisted grandeur, and he shook his head in frustration. He said something, I think, but I couldn’t make it out. It might have been 'too soon'. " It's probably a slow process, and it had barely started for the statement giver... which is probably why he was able to give that statement.

"I try to remember some of them in detail, the confusion of limbs and joints and muscles, but all I can remember is the happy, joyful way they called to me. Told me that the pain was worth it. It makes me sick that a small, sharp part of me wishes I’d stayed to listen." Oh, this makes me feel bad for him...

At least, he didn't go back, and he tried to warn Marie, though she didn't believe him.

"I tried to contact Mr. Davenport about it, and did get through, but he told me to… um, he… he… wishes no further contact with the Institute." I'm guessing that the actual words Mr Davenport used were a lot less polite.

Marie disappeared, what a surprise...

"The last official mention seems to be a police report filed on August 23rd, 2013, which lists her as a ‘person of interest’ in a series of animal mutilations on a farm about five miles west of Aberdeen. A bunch of sheep were found dead, with their femurs removed. WHAT-

Oh no... Body horror is fine, I was expecting that, but animal cruelty???

Okay. Well.

Can't say that I wasn't expecting the body horror.

Killer for the mafia, gym owner... Jared Hopworth has many jobs.

The statement was interesting. May be interpreted as a metaphor of how far you're willing to go to push through the limits of your body, to reach the "perfect body", though body image issues will always convince you it's never enough...

To anyone who might struggle with that: sending you a lot of love. I know it can be difficult, and it's okay not to feel fully comfortable in your body. No matter what your body looks like, you're perfect the way your are.

The workplace atmosphere at the Institute is... not very nice.

The fact that Tim actually tried to run away to the other side of the planet.... And even that didn't work! It must have been soul crushing when he realised :(

And Elias is being so mean about it, what he said sounded like a hidden threat, like "don't do that again, please, or we're gonna have a problem."

Like, come on, obviously he's not gonna try again, since it didn't work!

Also, I'm starting to get used to Martin reading the statements. He's doing very well with that.

WAIT, JUDE PERRY IS HERE?

We get to meet her already, okay.

And she's already making fun of Jon lol

"Imagine you’re, um… a butcher, and one day an injured little lamb walks into your workshop, and strides right into one of the mincing machines, but when you go up to it, knife in hand, it shakes its head and tells you 'I’m not stupid'. Do you get why that’s funny?" This is the most ominous way I've ever heard to make fun of someone...

She's so unserious but threatening at the same time, she's all like "Hey, would you like this very specific way to die? No? What about this one then, huh? :)"

Yeah, explain about that burnt forest from episode 087!

"And it was because Nikola Orsinov asked us to. She was done with the place, and we’re always happy to help, when that help is destroying something someone loves."

Nikola Orsinov? So we finally have a full name....

She gets very defensive when Jon mentions Agnes...

"She’s not one of your little stories."

"According to the statement of Jack Barnabas, she very much is."

Jon, are you kidding me, this isn't the moment to be smug...

Jon: "I'm not stupid"

Also Jon, not even two minutes later: *acting sassy in front of a woman who won't stop threatening him in various ways*

"Yes, yes, I understand, you could easily kill me, I’m at your mercy, blah, blah, blah. I have heard it before. And from things much scarier than you." Jon. Please. This is true, but don't tempt fate, aren't you tired of collecting traumas like pokemon cards?

"That a fact?"

"Okay, so… why haven’t you done it?"

"We’re in public."

Yeah, she would kill him the first chance she gets.

"You’re hardly keeping your voice down."

"You talk about god and death and demons nice and loud, and watch peoplebend over backwards not to listen to what you’re saying. No-one cares."

Eh, she's got a point there. And this is reminding me of Supernatural, they do the exact same, talking loudly about paranormal cases in diners and stuff.

JON, ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO DIE OR SOMETHING, STOP TAUNTING HER, SHE'S GONNA END UP ACTUALLY KILLING YOU

"When I look at you I feel that burning liquid pain, eager to flow out and purify your rotten carcass, but I feel that a lot."

"Oh. M-More or less than normal?"

That was so unexpected lol

"I’m new to this. Everyone keeps calling me ‘Archivist', like I’m special, and that… that I serve the Eye. Trying to kill me for it." He's like a new player who doesn't understand the rules and the teams, but every other player in the server is ruthless and ready to annihilate him...

"Oh please, your god is nothing! The Eye, Beholding, Ceaseless Watcher, whatever you call it, that’s all it does, it watches and knows, sitting bulbous and comfortable in the ignorance of infinite knowledge."

Oh. Well.

Also, "Ceaseless Watcher", new name for the Eye, it sounds kinda cool.

"I serve a reckoning, a surging tide of destruction and pain." Ah, yeah, cause that's just so much better, a way more noble path.

The Desolation...

Of course, she's defending her team, like anyone would.

"You don’t even know what this is about, do you?" Of course he doesn't! So, are you gonna explain?

"Just kill me, alright? If it’s so easy? If you’re not going to tell me anything worth my time." Jon, please stop saying things like that

"And now I’m obviously not going to kill you." How kind...

"Consider it a favour."

"Thank you."

"Not for you. For Elias."

I almost choked-

Why does everyone involved with the entities seem to know about Elias' plan for Jon, except Jon?

"Wait, but… I mean, if I serve Beholding or… He-He’s in a lot deeper than I am. I think." Oh, you have no idea. I don't either, but yeah, he's very deep in there, there's no doubt.

WOW WOW WOW, DID SHE JUST BURN HIM???

"Try to compel me again, and I’ll burn it out your mouth." Huh??? He was just asking a question???

"Now you’re scared. Now you’re getting it. There’s no safety in sitting on the sidelines watching. The audience is only safe when the story isn’t about them." Okay?

"Maybe I do want to tell you a story." Alright? I guess?

"Fantastic. Well?"

"Aren’t you going to say your words?"

"Statement of Jude Perry, regarding… some advice. Recorded direct from subject, April 24th, 2017. Statement begins."

Yeah, it's not the same without a "statement begins"

"Well, if you smother a flame, it dies. The only way it grows and flourishes is if you feed it. It’s about making sure you find enough fuel for it, and… not caring where it comes from. If you spend your time hiding and fretting about who you hurt, you’ll sputter, and you’ll die as surely as any candle. Don’t be afraid to burn." Well, this is some pretty good advice for people who are too selfless and neglect their own needs to make sure that everybody is gonna be pleased. Don't burn anyone, though, please.

The way she describes what it feels to serve the Desolation, the sensation of burning and stuff... Is serving an entity feels different, according to the entity you serve? A specific sensation for each entity or something?

"At least, that’s how it feels for me. I don’t know how it would feel for you. Maybe you get an itchy eye? I don’t care. The point is, whatever form it takes, you have to feed it for it to grow strong. Otherwise you’re the one that gets consumed."

Yeah, how does that work for the Eye?

Also... feed it? Once again, how would that work for the Eye? With, like... knowledge or something?

(Does your sight improves when you serve the Eye? I mean, literal regular sight. That would be interesting.)

"I never hid my flame. Not once. Even before I found my god, I burned as bright as I liked, and those who ventured too close simply ended up fuelling my brilliance. At the time, the closest thing I had to god was cocaine, though I also spent my evenings as an acolyte to alcohol." GIRL-

"But my true thrill was money. Not mine, of course, though I had plenty, but the money of others I could fling upon the pyre of the stock market." LOL

"The point was, that I burned through too much of myself, because I didn’t know what else I could burn. My girlfriend saw it, though she had no idea how to help with the deep depression that had settled over me." Yeah, that kind of burn out hits really hard...

Oh, she's talking about her first time meeting Agnes!

And about how she got into that cult...

"Nicholas Tregenza was the one that I chose. I had other colleagues I hated far more, of course, and in many ways I might have even called Nick a friend, but… unlike so many of the others, he had a lot to live for. His wife Julie had just given birth to a squalling brat that he’d named Desmond – awful name for a baby – and he’d saved enough money to move away from London entirely. He’d just bought a house. When he spoke to me, he had hope in his face, and so much life in him, it still makes me smile to think about it." That's so cruel... That poor guy, he has a family...

(Can't say that I disagree about the baby's name, though.)

She killed him. Just like that.

And she burned the body.

"And as he burned, I felt my senses sharpen. My limbs were alive with searing energy, and my heart was aglow with love; the agonising, terrifying love of something that I knew must be a god. My god. The lightless inferno of desolation, of pain and destruction. My tears of joy were nothing but steam." This is so messed up😭

(The birds keeping chirping in the background as she speaks, the contrast between the normal ,every day life background and the horror she's talking about...)

It's reminding me of the way Jane Prentiss talked about the hive in her statement. I guess that when you get... idk, impacted, marked? by one of the entity, you either get terrfied by it, you feel confused and stuff, or you love it.

"After all, what does my god care about death? It was the destruction of his life that it hungered for, the agony and fear of his wife and child, those that loved him, so they had to know that he was dead. Killed and mutilated in a pointless and unforeseeable act of unutterable violence." So, it's the pain and fear that matter in those actions, hm.

The entities... they feed from their victims' fear... At least this is what I understand...

SHE LIT HERSELF ON FIRE???? IN FRONT OF HER GIRLFRIEND???

"I suppose you did compel me after all." WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

"I met Agnes in 1989, and completed my transformation in 1991."

"Oh. I-It’s just that you don’t… I mean you don’t seem like you’re, what, in your fifties? Or – Or burnt to a crisp." Jon, come on😭 This is why Basira says you're funny. Unintentionally funny, but still.

"Wax is remarkably easy to mould."

WITH THE NOISES, EW

"You have your god, as I have mine. Feed it, fearlessly and without hesitation, or it will feed on you." How is he even supposed to do that???

"I mean, what do I feed it?" EXCELLENT QUESTION

"I don’t know? You’re the one it picked. Not a great choice, if you ask me." Wow, ouch, there was no need to roast him like that.

(Get it? Roast? Because of the fire? Low hanging fruit, I know.)

"I didn’t ask you." Wow, that's an answer.

"If you’re really keen to keep chatting to things that could kill you, I might know someone. We’re not on great terms, he’s closer to your lot than mine, but I know where he… exists." Oh? Who's that?

OH, SHE'S TALKING ABOUT MICHAEL CREW!

DOES THAT MEAN WE'RE FINALLY GONNA MEET HIM TOO?

"You hurt my feelings earlier. I want you to shake my hand. Come on. It won’t hurt." That's totally not a lie...

YEAH THAT WAS VERY MUCH A LIE

Poor Jon, that scream of pain...

AND IT ENDS LIKE THAT, NOOOO

I hope that Jon is okay... I mean, of course he's not, but I hope the burn is not too severe...

(I'm so glad I thought of lowering the volume...)

Oh dear, that was something...

It's interesting to learn more about how it works when an entity, and in that case the Desolation.... marks someone.

Jude Perry, you absolute messed up pyromaniac. I mean, yeah, there are other people who are just as awful as her in this podcast, but to hear that from her perspective makes it look worse.

Not to mention that she was targeted at a very vulnerable moment when she got involved with the Lightless Flame. A burn out, especially from work... I know people who lived that, and let's just say their mental health wasn't the best, it drained them.

But that talk about feeding the entity you're linked to with fears, or it will feed of you... I wonder how that will go for Jon with the Eye. Is he feeding the Eye without knowing it?

Is that linked to the whole "compel" she was mentioning. Does he compel people to tell him stories, without even doing it on purpose? Is that what feeds the Eye?

Also, the one sided competition when she was comparing the Desolation and the Eye in the beginning, lol

And of course she was lying! Of course shaking her hand would burn! Jon, you idiot... I understand that he needed to know where Michael Crew is, but still...

Oh, and I'm starting to realising that "the Archivist" is more of some mystical title than a simple job description.

I wonder how Jon is gonna explain the burn to Georgie, though... What kind of stupid excuse is he gonna find, "I wanted to make pop corn but I accidentally burnt myself with the stove :(" ?

I just hope it's not too severe, and that it isn't gonna leave a scar...

Oh, Basira's here, hi!

She's looking for Daisy? Does that mean that Daisy disappeared after that statement in episode 082? Interesting...

Poor Martin is getting tired of people asking him where other people are while he has no idea.

Daisy's disappearance, right after Elias took that statement from her (statements are usually given, but that one was definitely taken, there's no other word for that), it can't be a coincidence. I don't think she's dead, though. No, there's something else going on, I can feel. And I don't know what it is, but it's concerning.

Martin keeps defending Jon, that's so sweet!

"Look, he didn’t kill anyone, okay? There’s… I think something’s going on, okay. I actually think he was framed." AND YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT THAT, MARTIN

Basira is unsure about whether or not Jon is a muderer, though.

"I actually thought I misjudged him. Hell, I liked the guy."

"Wait, you mean… like you…"

"Oh, what? Urgh, no! Why does everyone think that?"

"Right, yeah, ‘cause I don’t actually… I don’t actually think he…" Finish your sentence, Martin, you don't actually think he what? Hm? 🤨

Basira describing Jon as funny wasn't on my bingo card lol

I mean, he is funny, in his way. His sacarstic, cynical comments often make me laugh. Though most of the time, he's funny without even trying to be.

"I don’t think I’ve ever heard him tell a joke."

"Maybe you weren’t listening."

Oh...

"Right. Well, I’m sure it’ll get sorted out when Daisy brings him in and you can probably talk to him then. Oh, sorry, I forgot you’re not actually with the police any more, are you." Oh? Well, there's no need to be bitter all of a sudden like that, Martin, why being- wait... is that... Am I smelling some jealousy in here?👀

Like, he was so happy in episode 082, when Daisy mentioned everyone said him and Jon were close. So now hearing Basira saying that, implying that she was closer to Jon than he was, seems to upset him a bit, I wonder why is that, hm?

Yeah, I'm not worried about Daisy either. I mean, something's happening, but what I'm concerned about is that there will most likely be consequences, and not only for Daisy.

"I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably just using her 'operation discretion' to bully someone else." lol

Ok, I don't know what "full operational discretion" is, but it seems important, enough to worry Basira.

She sounds very determined to find Jon. I hope for him that she will before Daisy does.

Alright, let's get started with the statement!

Okay, it's about a guy who doesn't like digging, though that's part of his job, hobby or whatever...

He found something on a beach? What is it?

Oh, that's a watch!

"Not a bad little find, I remember thinking, as I started to clean the sand from around it. And uncovered the wrist it was still attached to." OH.

Okay, that was kinda funny.

"I cleared away a bit more sand, just to be sure of what I was seeing, and quickly revealed a stiff, unmoving hand. The flesh was icy cold and discoloured, so I was certain its owner must be dead, but it didn’t appear to have begun decomposing." A severed hand, not yet decayed? Interesting...

Oh, there's something else in the sand?

A BOOK??? IS IT A LEITNER???

It wasn't damaged by the sea water, definitely not a normal book.

"There was a label at the very front, but the ink had run and I have no idea what it might have said" I might have an answer about that...

So... the book is just the word "DIG" written on each page? Sounds ridiculous.

But the bloody hand is less ridiculous though, let's not underestimate that thing.

"You know the way that if you say or read a word over and over again, it starts to lose all its meaning? To just sound like a jumble of noises or unrelated letters?" YES. It feels so weird when that happens!

"Well this was the opposite. Every time I read it, it was like the meaning of the word became more solid in my mind. I knew what it was to find your meaning buried in the earth, to claw your sense from under the sand and mud and soil, to dig." ...alright mate, maybe that was the sign to put the book down.

Digging so much that he found the whole body, wow.

"one of the friendlier officers later told me the man had probably dug himself too deep a hole in the beach, and it had collapsed on him when the tide had come in." Is that what the book does? It makes you bury yourself?

"The book was in my bag, and they didn’t ask to look inside, so… I kept it. I probably should have mentioned it to the police, but they were very rude." Okay, this is so valid though

"I understand now, of course, that they were simply irritated that I had robbed them of their opportunity to dig." Yeah, totally why they were irritated...

That poor guy is going insane...

"I’ve dreamed of it, of course. Safe and happy below, wrapped on all sides by uncounted miles of crushing, loving, earth and stone." And I thought that my dreams were unusual...

"To travel down into the ground is to travel through time, that’s what I always used to say, before I found my book. And I still believe it, but time is the least of the things that waits for us down there, things I can barely think of without collapsing in fear. A thousand terrible things, trapped and alone, out of air and out of light, all contained within those three hideous letters: DIG." Whatever those things are, if they are trapped underground, they should stay there.

Every paragraph is ending with that word, it's a pattern.

Yeah, he's gonna bury himself.

"I have tried to find out more about the book, maybe even get rid of it. A bookseller I asked about it pointed me towards you and yours, before I dug into him, and so here I came." What- What do you mean "I dug into him"??? You wanna elaborate on that???

"There’s something here, you see. Something to be dug up, rooted out, buried within. A hollow space that all eyes point towards. And I intend to reach it, if my fingers don’t give out first. I know where to dig." I agree that the Institute hides many secrets, but I don't think you should dig here.

"Based on a few scattered notes and accounts from some of the older staff, it sounds like Mr. Macmillan got in a bit of a fight, which led to his arrest, and the replacement of quite a bit of the floor in Jon’s office. There are still a couple of boards with marks on them that I’d always hoped weren’t fingernail scratches, but I guess…" I don't even know how to react to that. At this point, I might just laugh, that sounds like an appropriate reaction.

That guy passed away from "asphyxiation". Which tends to happen when you're buried under the earth, there's not much oxygen there.

Oh, the book is in Artefact Storage now!

Knocking on the door! It has to be Melanie, since she's the only one here who seems to know about KNOCKING ON DOORS.

Thank you Melanie for being the only person in this podcast to do that. Why does nobody else knocks?

"Sorry, just a lot of change recently, y’know. You and John and Sasha and… everything’s gone a bit wrong. It’s the not knowing, you know? I mean, Jon’s still alive. Not sure why, but I’m sure of that. But Sasha, I…"

😭

It's interesting to learn about the whole process of getting information about people for cases. I like when they explain how they do the research and stuff.

"Tim used to do a great line in impersonating people to utility companies. Ah, the number of times he got them to give him ‘his own’ address…" LOL

Ah, of course, Melanie's looking for information about Jude Perry.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE CALLIOPE ORGAN DISAPPEARED FROM THE ARTEFACT STORAGE

OH NO NO NO THAT EXPLAINS THE MUSIC OF COURSE

Huh. I mean, that’s not… great." That is an understatement, Martin.

Let me rephrase that: IT'S A VERY BIG PROBLEM

The statement was... interesting. A Leitner that makes the reader bury themselves. Sure, why not.

Martin sounds tired of all of that, and tbh, he does deserve a crashout. But the whole passive agressive tone, that little pinch of jealousy👀 That is VERY interesting

The Calliope disapperaing is a very big problem though. Whatever is going on, the Unknowing, it's very much... well, it's getting closer, and I don't like this. We're not even halfway through the season and this threat is growing bigger episode after episode...

Well, at least I get to worry about that, and no more about my exams, cause I got my results today and I officially passed, yay!

I was happy to hear that Basira's doing pretty okay! Also, I'm intrigued about what's going on with Daisy, but I can't really say that I worry about her.

Also, I already told you, but I'm so close to start shipping Jon and Martin. I honestly can't say how I will react the next time they interact, cause you know, they haven't talked to each other in a while, but... idk, I can't wait to see how that will go. And how I will react to it.

You know how I said that having a new ship is like falling into a pit? I'm getting closer and closer, I can't feel it. I think a part of me has already accepted that, but I still need the moment to fully ship.

What a coincidence, I was explaining to my mom what the uncanny valley effect is just a few hours ago...

Oh, Jon received a mysterious tape!

And Georgie is concerned (and rightfully so!)

"Look, you just have to trust me, okay"

"Yeah, and I want to do that, but how can I when you still won’t tell me what’s going on?"

THIS IS A VERY VALID POINT.

You've got to explain, Jon.

"You wouldn’t believe me!"

Jon, are you kidding me? I'm pretty sure Georgie would believe you!

"It’s… It’s alright. I can just go." Jon, you absolute drama queen. Georgie doesn't want you to leave, she just wants an explanation. And you owe her that, so don't be dramatic to avoid that conversation.

"I know you wouldn’t be here if you had anywhere else to go, and I… I do want to help, but… y’know, you’re a good person. You were, at least. But whatever this is, it’s messing you up!"

"You listen, or don’t listen, or cross-record, or whatever you want, just... just think about it first, okay? You can choose to leave it alone."

Georgie being the voice of reason. If anything happens to her, I'm not gonna react well.

Oh, it's a statement from 2014, that Gertrude recorded in april 2015, barerly a month before she died!

Okay, it's about a guy who's not very good at noticing things...

And he's a plumber, alright.

He got a call that gave him some location in the woods? Bit odd for some plumbery work indeed...

And it's at night???

Oh, there are a few buildings there, alright.

"Megan", so that's the mysterious caller.

'She led me up to the big building, gripped the door, and flung it open wide. There was a damp, metallic smell that came from inside." Metallic smell? Blood?

Megan is acting very weird...

"Megan took me into a back room full of pipes and gratings, and pointed to a drain in the centre of the floor where dark water was pooling out of the top. You’d have thought the dark red would have clued me in to what was happening but, honestly, there are all sorts of industrial chemicals that turn water that colour, so it didn’t really register as worrying." That was definitely blood!

Blood + mention of pipes... it definitely doesn't remind me of [extended sounds of brutal pipe murder]

"She was whispering, making it a bit hard to hear her over the noise from the main building, so I mostly just nodded and made the appropriate sounds of interest. And I thought she was talking about her hobbies. After all, I’d never actually heard the term ‘flensing’ before, and the way she was talking about it I assumed it was some sort of a sculpture." I had to google it, and THAT'S DEFINITELY NOT A SCULPTURE

If that is her hobby, then Megan may or may not be a serial killer.

"I have, of course, since looked up flensing, and that certainly throws a lot of that conversation into a very different light indeed. I don’t think she was offering to do a sculpture of me." Yeah, she was very much not, mate.

"Anyway, soon enough I’d found the blockage: a big old wad of hardened fat and oil that had congealed at one of the bends, and removed it for them."

"I guessed that she’d come over a bit queasy when I’d pulled out the blockage, and was embarrassed to admit it. It’s a common enough thing: the sight of the sort of mess that builds up in drainpipes can really get to you if you’re not used to it."

Buddy, what you pulled out was human remains-

He's really the most obvious guy ever

And Megan called back the very next day for the same problem!

"Megan was stood there, waving a greeting at me, dressed in some sort of bright, blue and red costume, like a jester or a clown." HUH???

"Sat on a folding chair next to her was a squat, thickly muscled woman with close-cropped black hair, who stared at me with a really vicious-looking smirk. She exchanged a glance with Megan, who just nodded at her, and then she burst into cruel laughter, and I was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable." What is even going on???

"I had just about decided to leave when I felt Megan’s hand grip my wrist. I hadn’t noticed her moving towards me. Her fingers dug into me, and they felt really, really wrong. Like hard plastic wrapped in raw bacon." What the...

Hm. Well, I guess she's not human. If she's plastic, could she be like that mannequin in episode 083, Drawing a Blank? Is this connected to the Stranger?

That poor guy isn't gonna have a great time, he's trapped...

"Rows and rows of old and broken stools stood before crude frames of wire and wood. Sat on each stool were figures of all shapes and sizes. None of them were human. Some were wood themselves, old, and stained with rot. Some were a shiny, dark plastic or porcelain white. A few were cloth and hessian, stuffed to bursting and leaking sawdust from a dozen places. All of them were featureless, and moved with a jerky motion like nothing I had seen outside of my dreams." Oh. Well, this is terrifying. Well, I guess this is very much connected to the murderous mannequin from Drawing a Blank.

"Each gripped a razor-sharp knife, and moved it swiftly over the human heads suspended in the frames from wire and fishhooks, gently cutting around the edges. I could see the rest of the bodies piled haphazardly in the corner, and for a second all I was able to do was wonder why they didn’t smell worse than they did." ... I beg your finest pardon😃

They just... keep the heads? Like masks?

"And when I screamed, the eyes of every head swivelled in their frames and stared at me with the desperate pleading that told me they still knew pain." OH. OH NO.

This is VERY disturbing. In a "my stomach doesn't like that" way

THEY'RE DEFINITELY USING THE HEADS AS MASKS-

“You may call them I Do Not Know You.” Yeah, that's the Stranger.

"On instinct, and without warning, I swung the toolbox up with all the force I had in me into Megan’s face, and heard the crunching crack of something brittle shatter." GOOD, NOW RUN, ESCAPE FROM THIS CURSED PLACE

"I leapt into the seat, and started to fumble for the keys. The engine roared to life immediately, and I was just about to get out of there when I realised I could feel the woman’s hand on my shoulder. I looked at her, the door still open, and she winked at me. Without warning, a terrible, blistering heat erupted on my back, and I screamed again, this time in agony." Wait, that woman with black cropped hair,... Isn't she the woman who was talking with Agnes in episode 067, Burning Desire?

I was relistening to that episode on friday, why did that only click in my mind when there's mention of heat?

And of course, there was a fire at this weird place, so the police couldn't investigate.

"Nobody died, officially speaking, because although the police, fire crews and forest services combed the burned area acre by scorched acre, they didn’t find any human remains at all. The closest they found was the warped and twisted frame of an old, plastic mannequin." Well. At least, that mannequin was destroyed.

Oh right, the statement giver's last name is Skinner. Pretty fitting lol.

"The concerning part of this statement, at least as far as I’m concerned, is not so much what is happening, as the fact that it is happening so soon. I had assumed Orsinov and her ilk would have spent more time searching for their precious skin, maybe even acting against me directly, before they started alternate preparations. I had hoped I’d have a chance to recover. I can still barely stand." WAIT WAIT WAIT

Orsinov... that was the name of someone working at the Circus of the Other or whatever the name was. Not surprising that it's connected to the Stranger.

Also... we knew that Gertrude was somewhat fighting stuff linked to the Stranger. But that... sounds like a really tough and complicated fight. The fact that she was actively fighthing against those things is just... that's so cool. She was such a badass.

"I’d hoped there would be more time." Sounds like they're preparing something, a ritual of some sort, maybe?

"I think there’s every likelihood that they will be ready to perform the Unknowing within the next few years." The Unknowing, that was mentioned in episode 080! Is that... some big plan? An attack plan, an operation, something like that?

"There may be no chance for a more… ‘nuanced’ way to disrupt it, so I’ll likely have to resort to a somewhat more… direct countermeasure." I don't know what she planned to do against those things, but I'm sure it would have worked. But she didn't get the time to do so, I guess, as she was killed barely a month later.

I'm trying to connect the dots here... She knew so much about the Stranger, and the Unknowing. Leitner said she wanted to destroy the Archives. But why destroy all the informations she had about all of that? Was that part of her plan to stop the Unknowing from happening? Elias knew about this, he killed her and retrieved the files she had about all that. But why??? Even though they can do a collab sometimes, entities seem to be rivals of some sort, sometimes. If the Institute, and therefore Elias, is under the Eye, why preventing action against the Stranger?

Am I just... mixing it all up? There's so much stuff happening, and so little that we actually know about it... I'm trying to put the pieces together, and I can feel I'm getting closer...

Who is Jude Perry??? Is she that woman with short black hair?

Oh yeah, that's her.

Yeah, the Lightless Flame, the weird cult she was part of and that was connected to Agnes, yeah.

"I was unaware that The Lightless Flame had had any contact with the Stranger’s ilk, but I suppose it makes sense that it would be a possible ally to the Devastation"

Devastation? Another entity?

Alright, I'm guessing that's the entity linked to all the fire powers stuff.

Oh, so Gertrude knew about Agnes. Well, given that she knew about the Lightless Flame, it's not that surprising.

"I’ve been unable to contact Mr. Skinner since he gave his statement. Sad, but unsurprising. There’s no doubt in my mind that when the Unknowing begins, one of the dancers will be wearing his face." That sentence was genuinely so unsettling...

"Regardless, whoever my mystery pen pal is, it seems they’re pushing me in a very deliberate direction." Yeah, there's a pattern here. Also, "my mystery pen pal" made me laugh, I don't know why.

Also please, Jon, figure it out.

"What did Gertrude mean about skin? The page she was given by Mary, maybe? No, that doesn’t add up." I don't think that's connected either, but I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT PAGE, WE STILL DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT

Jon's gonna try to track down Jude Perry, alright...

OH NO NO NO WHAT'S THAT MUSIC

THE STRANGE MUSIC FROM EPISODE 024 NO

AND GEORGIE HEAD THE MUSIC TOO

Yeah, Georgie, put an end to that madness! Jon's self preservation instinct is clearly not working right now, thank you for setting boundaries about the tapes and the statements since he can't do it himself.

"No, you need to stop."

"I’m not sure I can."

...Those statements are actually like a drug to him. Like, really. I'm starting to wonder if there's something paranormal about that.

That was very unsettling. Is now a good time to mention that I dreamt about going to the circus last night, though it's been almost a decade since I last went to a circus?

So... the Stranger, preparing the Unknowing. Well, if that isn't gonna be a very big problem very soon....

And there's a link with the Desolation that the Lightless Flame worship or something, if I understood properly.

Whatever the Stranger is preparing, it's getting closer. Literally. The music????

Jon is gonna have to face those things, rather sooner than later. And of course he's scared, who wouldn't be? This is gonna be horrifying...

I can feel he's gonna get hurt... not to mention that this is also putting Georgie at risk.

I don't want any of them to get hurt or worse...

The horrors are on the way, and this is gonna get angsty.

This is the season that spooks me the most for now. And this is only the beginning.

Which means I'm gonna stay up later than usual, without my bedtime story :')

Oh, now it's Tim's turn to record a statement!

"Regarding a… a blanket. Dead friend. Monster. Regarding his unavoidable and gruesome end. How he tried to hide. He couldn’t." Thank you, Tim, you're doing amazing sweetie.

"Archival prisoner at the Magnus Institute." That's pretty accurate...

"This is stupid." He barely read one sentence 😭

"I mean, just what’s the point? We might as well be engraving them on wax cylinders."

Elias, you better set this man free. Or at the very least let him have a very long break.

"Whoever is listening to this, right now: you’re wasting your time." Tbh, I do that even when I'm not listening, so...

THERE'S A KNOCK ON THE DOOR!

I think that it's the first time that someone KNOCKS ON THE DOOR. It's something I've been noticing since season 1: nobody ever knocks. Everybody just barges in and interrupts the recording. That bothered me, I mean, it's basically common workplace etiquette to knock on doors? Especially when you know that a coworker is recording something?

It's Melanie!

Yeah, that's not a great first interaction between Tim and Melanie :/

"It’s not you. It’s his fault. He didn’t warn you properly, and now you’re trapped here. With us." He tried😭

"Oh, is this, this whole ‘you can’t quit because of spooky magic’ deal?" Yeah, something like that.

"I need a job, and it’s fine here. I like it. It’s quiet." Oh, darling... Whatever big scary thing happens next at the Institute, it's gonna hit hard.

"If this whole ‘give quitting a try’ thing is meant to be some kind of subtle hint… I… I just feel like you two don’t want me here."

"We don’t. Martin’s not big on change. I don’t want anyone to be here."

:( They don't want her here cause that means that she would be safe from the horrors happening there...

Of course, Tim being so bitter doesn't help, but it's understandable. He's been attacked by worms, on his workplace, and still has scars. While he's trying to recover from that traumatic event, his boss stalks him, which makes him rightfully mad. But nobody in the Institute has his back and they all worry about Jon instead, which makes him even more upset, and feeling lonely. He can't even quit the job he desperately wants to quit. And while knowing he's trapped here, a body is found, his stalker boss is accused of the murder and is on the run, and his coworker and friend is presumably dead. And now, a new person is gonna be trapped as well.

That man is on his last nerve!

And of course he is! This is too much to handle.

Yeah, that's not very nice for Melanie, but after eveyrthing that happened and that's probably gonna happen sooner or later, there's no point in pretending that eveyrthing is fine and that she's gonna have a lovely time here. Better spare her the disappointement.

"Wait. Tell me about the two Sashas." Oh.

"What did she look like?" He's realising what happened... and that he can't remember Sasha, the actual Sasha, because all of his memories of her have been replaced with the face of the thing pretending to be her.

The angst ;-;

I already almost cried today because I was thinking about Sasha, don't make me cry now...

"Who am I even sad for?" 😭

I HAVE TEARS IN MY EYES NOW

Oh, Tim... Somebody hug him :(

No really, this hurts, ouch. You can hear the sadness in his voice, as he understands...

So Melanie's doing the recording. Okay.

"My parents never let me have a night light. I was always afraid, but they were just that sort of stubborn which doubled down when I screamed or cried about something, instead of actually listening." Oh, I already feel bad for the guy giving the statement. It's so dumb for parents to absolutely want their kid to toughen up, especially with childhood fears as common as the fear of being in the dark!

"I don’t know why it was such a cornerstone of their vision to see me grow up strong, but even an adult they would tell me how they helped me get over my fear of the dark. It was such a point of pride for them that I could never bring myself to tell them, to say that the fear never really went away"

Ah, yes. That's what it is. Hubris. Parents who don't see their kids as their own person, but as an extension of themselves, like a shiny trophy they can show off to their friends.

"I’ve heard that being exposed to the source of your terror over and over again can help break its power over you, numb you to it, but in my experience it just teaches you to hide from it. Sometimes that might mean hiding in a quiet corner of your mind, but sometimes it’s literally a blanket." Yeah, that doesn't work when people don't actually fully support you emotionally in the journey of overcoming your fear.

Also, the good old "hiding under the blanket cause it protects me" : universal experience. Always did it as a kid, sometimes still do it to this day.

Fun fact: when I was around 8, a friend had told me a story about something similar to Bloody Mary. A lady in white, that had apparently appeared in the mirror of her bathroom, at midnight. And little me was absolutely terrified, to the point where I would always sleep with the blanket over me to feel protected, even in very warm weather as summer was approaching.

I eventually got rid of that fear by pretending that the lady in white had been sent on another planet far away. Yeah, I know, don't ask about the thought process for this one, I don't know about it either. I just know that it worked, somehow.

"Eventually I grew up, like pretty much everyone, and as the years passed I forgot my childhood fear. The blanket was just there to keep me warm. Until last week." Oh.

The mother of his old friend Robin called him because Robin disappeared and she wanted him to go check on her son... That's intriguing.

That's how the problems start.

He went over to his house...

"I was reassured, though, when I saw a shape watching me from the kitchen. I couldn’t really make it out, and it disappeared almost as soon as I’d seen it, but I managed to convince myself that it was Robin, probably wondering why I’d shown up at his door unannounced." That's clearly not Robin.

"When I reached the front door, I saw it was open, and shadows spilled out of it like paint." Oh. Wow.

Well, that is clearly the same darkness than in episode 073, Police Lights, I'm sure of that.

Is there an entity linked to darkness, something like that?

He turned on the lights, yay

And the place is messy, nasty.

Oh no, what's gonna be behind that door?

Darkness. Just darkness, and turning the light switch on does absolutely nothing. Great.

But he has a torch !

That's Robin bedroom, alright...

"Empty food packets and bottles were strewn about the room and piled up in the corner. It looked as though Robin hadn’t left his bedroom in weeks." He was living in that complete darkness?

Oh, he was hiding in the cupboard!

OH WAIT HE'S DEAD

Oh ew ew ew, the bed sheets he had taken were FUSED WITH HIS DECAYING BODY

"And as I stood there, in utter horror, the growing pool of dark liquid touched the tip of my shoe. That’s it. That’s the moment that I believe it started for me." Yes, yes it was.

"And I thought I was doing okay. At least while the daylight held. But that night it came for me." Oh well.

"It was impossible to make out any details of the form that stood in the doorway, it was simply a patch of shadow even darker than the night that surrounded it. A silhouette in the pitch black." This is so scary. Waking up in the middle of the night just to see someone, or something, in the room.

"Its body was fat and bulbous, with no limbs or head, so when it came towards me it did so with a slow, undulating pulse along the floor. I could see its outside was covered in what might have been feelers or fleshy tubes, and as it gradually made its way towards me I could see them flicking out and spasming wildly, in what looked horribly like excitement." Scary...

"Instinct, honed throughout my entire childhood, kicked in and I pulled the thick blanket I was under up and over my head. I gripped the edges close to my chest, weeping and muttering desperate prayers." THIS IS A VERY RELATABLE REACTION, I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME.

AND THE BLANKET WORKS!

This thing is like a reverse weeping angel. It only moves when you look at it. As long as you're not looking because you're under a blanket.

And in the morning, the thing is gone. Well.

THE SMELL OF FOUL WATER! LIKE THE BRACKISH WATER!

And it starts again the following night.

It kinda reminds me of FNaF 4, tbh.

"At some point I finally fell asleep, and I guess I managed to stay under that blanket." Well, as long as it works, it's nice that you can get some sleep.

What is he gonna do in the summer, though?

"It’s been awful, obviously, but in the end it wasn’t the gradual wearing down of my nerves that got me. If anything, it was the opposite. I got too comfortable." Oh. That is dangerous. Because that's how you let your guard down.

"Fear had given way to routine. I lay there, warm and protected, and simply waited to fall back to sleep. But this time, what I felt instead was a sudden weight pressing down on the end of my bed." Oh no.

"Then I heard a voice, crisp and clear, whispering."

“The blanket never did anything.”

I ACTUALLY GOT CHILLS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE BLANKET WAS NEVER ACTUALLY USEFUL TO PROTECT THAT GUY

Also, great voice acting. The way she whispered it got me to laugh nervously cause it was so unsettling!

"I won’t describe what happened after that. You’ve taken plenty of photos of my back and shoulders already. To say it hurts is the least of its horrors." That poor guy...

He knows he's doomed, because it will continue. That, that is even more scary.

"Well, er, that was… I suppose this is what I do now." Yeah. Welcome to the team, Melanie.

Oh, the guy died five days after the statement...

So this is like Fnaf-

AND IT'S IN 1983. Like the bite of 83, lol

"Then there are some old cuttings about Robin Patton. Profiles from magazines um Oh, he must have been quite something in the hiking community. Ah, apparently he wrote a book. Something about the best natural pools and lakes for swimming. Yeah, mostly just background fluff, and pictures of the guy emerging topless from waterfalls. Hmm, wasn’t bad-looking, before… well… that." LOL

Melanie, I like you more and more as the episodes go by.

SHE WENT TO MEET JON!

Oh this is gonna be interesting!

I love the banter so much

"Alright. Why didn’t you send the police, then? If you genuinely think I’m a killer, why meet me?"

"W– I mean, it’s not… it’s not like you’ve got any reason to kill me." 10/10 reasoning here.

"Fine. I don’t think you did it. But I still don’t want to get caught up in whatever it is." Valid.

"Should have thought about that before you joined the Institute." ...okay, Jon's got a point there. But she couldn't know.

"There’s a lot of very messed up things going on there and, I… I mean, we were already tied to them, but you I just… You didn’t need to get involved." Yeah, a bit of explaining doesn't hurt.

"I really don’t think that’s true." MELANIE, PLEASE

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GOT SHOT BY A GHOST????

Getting shot is already something big. But BY A GHOST-

We knew that she got shot. But not about the ghost.

What exactly happened???

"there’s a lot of messed up stuff at the Institute, and… I think the murders might be the least of it. I need someone on the inside to keep an eye on things, let me know what’s going on." Alright...

"You know what? Fine. Fine! But you tell me everything." Sounds reasonable enough.

Wow. That episode was scary.

The statement was terrifying. Being scared of the dark, or at the very least at night, is something we all experienced at some point. And hiding under the blanket is the universal answer to that. Of course, we know deep inside that it doesn't actually do anything, but... like it actually doesn't do anything, never did, and that's scary!

It was so well written. And once again, great voice acting.

I'm gonna sleep so well tonight...

And the angst! The angst! The way Tim's voice tone went from bitter to sad and quiet when he asked about Sasha...

:(

It hurts. I almost cried. And I know that this is just the beginning...

Tim deserves a hug.

And to punch Elias in the face. Wouldn't fix much, but it would probably feel good.

Melanie seems to be okay for now, but I know that this is only a matter of time before something happens.

Well, something did happen, even though it was before she started to work for the Institute: SHE GOT SHOT BY A GHOST!

And she's barely talking about it!

I wanna know the full story. Cause I can already feel that this is going to be a bigger problem later on...

I'm getting really attached to her too, and I don't want her to die...

Looks like Jon got a new statement in the letterbox...

"Statement of an unknown figure" Interesting...

"regarding an encounter that... may or may not have happened in their home" Alright?

"Date of original statement unclear, though paper quality likely puts it at between twenty and thirty years ago."

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE DETAILS, IS THERE EVEN SOMETHING CERTAIN ABOUT THIS STATEMENT???

William Hughes Mearns... I googled it, that's a real person.

Well, that is certainly a weird little poem. "Antigonish", I'll keep that in mind, might be useful my English student self.

It's about a man who wasn't there. Sure.

Oh, and that person giving the statement didn't meet him. As in, something that totally didn't happen. Okay, got it.

"But I couldn’t see this man. Obviously, I couldn’t. I couldn’t see him or hear him or speak to him. Because… there was nobody there. The staircase was empty, as he stretched his arm to gesture me closer." Alright...

That poor person giving the statement sounds so lost... It sounds like they lost their mind, also...

"It was dark when I didn’t see him, and I was about to walk up to bed. I remember being cold, damp. Had it been raining? No, the water was still."

I don't understand anything. I mean, I think that's the point, that poor person doesn't understand either, but that's fascinating. Weirdly poetic, too.

"The staircase in my house was not long, and it wasn’t steep, and it went straight up to the landing with only a single right-angle turn. It was not a spiral staircase, so after walking down that corkscrew for almost a half hour, I knew it couldn’t be mine."

Spiral, huh? Michael, do you have something to do with this?

It sounds like describing a dream...

"But the man didn’t come back. He didn’t come back every night. He didn’t come back until I made… a horrid mistake. I called to him. I stood on the landing and shouted at him to go away. I asked him if he was there. I demanded he show himself." Oh no. The weird dream is gonna take a full nightmare turn.

"As he wasn’t there, I have no way of telling how many teeth were on show when he smiled at me." Creepy...

"After that, it became hard to tell where he failed to begin, and easier to tell where I ended. People would forget me, but that was alright, because only real people care about who remembers them" Bro was gaslighted into not existing

"I remember the first time he was really in my house, and I wished for nothing more than that I had hands with which to strangle him." Okay, that made me laugh.

"My parents were the worst. They came for dinner once, shortly after I had called to him. They looked so confused when I served them their meal, and the conversations would die after only a few words. My mother’s eyes were bloodshot, and I could see them unfocus when they tried to look at me. She dabbed a napkin at her mouth and asked me where her son was. I asked her what his name had been. She didn’t know. She dabbed her mouth again and the napkin came away bloody."

It all reminds me of weirdcore, somehow. This is... disturbing.

"My father said nothing, as I had taken him up the stairs an hour before, and he now lay dead in his chair, his heart unsuited for the expedition." What-

"Eventually, after almost an hour descending the spiral, he keeled over in his seat and lay lifeless. My mother got abruptly to her feet and told my father that they were leaving. My father got to his feet, and silently followed her out."

It doesn't make any sense. And this is what makes it so disturbing. It feels like the weirdest dream, poetic and grotesque at the same time, it feels like losing your sanity.

"He existed so thoroughly that he was finally able to laugh at the joy of being. He looked around for me, but of course I wasn’t there, and in my absence I watched the realisation on his face that, in reality, whoever he was, he had died decades before. And he was now in reality. He tried to scream, but his throat decomposed around the noise, cutting it short with a slough of rotten flesh and collapsing, brittle bone. And as I stared from the empty spiral staircase, I wanted to laugh right back at him. But I couldn’t, because I just wasn’t there."

I can't even explain how it feels to listen to that. In a positive way.

So... basically, they swtiched places? The man upon the stair became real while the person giving the statement became not real, not there, the person trying to lead people up the stairs?

"There are some short pieces of correspondence in the file, addressed to Gertrude, from someone called Eric Delano, confirming that while he typed out this statement, he has no memory of doing so, and requesting some sick leave to address persistent migraines he has developed."

Wait a second. Eric Delano? Is that the same Eric that was mentioned in episode 062, First Edition?

"No, I am more interested, as before, with who is sending me these statements, and why this one, especially as the message, if indeed there is one, seems to contradict the last one." JON, ONCE AGAIN, JUST LIKE LAST SEASON, THE ANSWER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IS ELIAS.

"If the… ‘moral’, shall we say, of Ms. Ashburt’s statement was that ignoring the horrors stalking you just makes them more dangerous, then surely the message of this one is that confronting them directly is even more so. I suppose that leaves skulking around the periphery. Which is what I was already doing!" Yeah... Maybe that's the whole point: confusion.

"There is, of course, a different reading, which is that this is a targeted warning about trusting Michael, given the obvious parallels: swap out stairways for corridors and spirals for fractals, and there you go"

I mean, I thought that was obvious? Michael is... well, a lot of things. But he said he is neutral. Sometimes he helps, sometimes he makes things worse or even more complicated just to see what happens. So, it's pretty logical that he's not exactly trustworthy.

"Well, if this is a warning about Michael, then it is, as before, somewhat superfluous. If I never see him – if I never see it again, it’s too soon." Oh.

"Maybe that’s it. It. Maybe whoever sent this wants me to consider how many of these creatures used to be people. How many seem to have taken the mantle from the ones that came before them, and how none of them have been able to overcome their new natures. How most of them don’t even seem to think like people anymore. Given that there is every possibility I’ve taken one of these mantles myself, this is not an interpretation I’m keen on."

Wait... Is that the case for Michael? The whole identity issues thing, and the "I'm not a who, I'm a what" ? That would make sense...

Also, this is horrifying. Slowly losing your humanity to whatever entity or creature decided to claim you...

"Or it could be someone in the Archives randomly sending me statements, with no curation, rhyme or reason. Assuming they come from the Archives. They’re marked as Institute statements, but I have no idea who’s sending them." IT'S ELIAS.

I had to google what Occam's Razor is. Well, I learnt something today. Whatever helps you to stay somewhat sane and rational, Jon.

Oh, hi Georgie.

Ah, yeah... He had said that the previous statement would be the last one...

It's really like a drug.

Oooh, she has a date tonight!

With some guy, hope it goes well.

"Check out his profile."

"Good lord."

"Yeah."

"I mean, he does know what a book is, right?"

I LAUGHED SO HARD

"Unclear. He climbs mountains, though."

"Yeah, I got that. “Face to face with your own mortality on the frozen peaks, staring death in the face and saying ‘Not today, dude.’” The man’s a poet." LOL

"And… why are you going out with him again?"

"He, uh… he likes Hungarian food. And there’s place just opened."

"You’re serious? You’re going on a date with… the Dullard of Skull Mountain, just so you have an excuse to eat a shopska salad?"

AND THAT'S TOTALLY ALRIGHT!

Georgie, you totally deserve to treat yourself with your favorite food, girlie. Whoever you choose to enjoy it with is your own choice, and tbh, any excuse is good to eat something nice!

Oh, they're talking about Melanie!

"Is she – I, I mean, she survived?"

"I hope so. I’m going for a drink with her on Thursday. Be a bit awkward if not."

Georgie, I love you so much already.

MELANIE DIDN'T TELL HER SHE WORKS FOR THE INSTITUTE NOW

"I think she was a bit embarrassed, says her co-workers are super weird." Oof-

Wow, okay.

That episode was nonsense, but in a good way. Nonsense that's supposed to be nonsense. Nonsense on purpose.

Very weird, poetic and disturbing. And interesting too.

If it reflects what happens to somebody when they... "become" part of whichever entity decided to target them... then we know it's a horrifying experience. For the person living that... and their loved one too, I guess.

I have a feeling this isn't the last time we'll hear about this. It's gonna means angst. Yay.

Yeah, that episode got me feeling so weird, but fascinated.

Also, I really like Georgie. Go girl, enjoy your food! And the nice view, lol.

Jon not figuring out who's behind all of this, just like in season 2, is kinda funny, though. Even more now that he knows that Elias is a murderer with some evil plan. Or at the very least, evil secrets.

Don't worry Jon, you're gonna get there eventually.

I love his interactions with Georgie, also.

This is the first time we hear Martin recording a statement! Well technically, there was his statement in episode 022, Colony, and his part of the statement in episode 040, Human Remains, but it's not the same thing.

This is the first time he's recording a statement the way Jon used to.

His very first "statement begins"...

Alright, it's about a guy who moved to a small village when he was a kid...

He met some kid named Gordon...

And there's this woman who lives in a bungalow in a field, she's a hoarder but they don't know how she got all of the stuff...

And Gordon delivers her food, alright.

"Now Old Maggie fascinated me. Or rather, the stories about her did, because obviously there were stories. The two most common were that she was a witch, or that she'd killed her husband and chopped him up, keeping the land as messy as possible so nobody would think to dig him up." Well, there are always stories about lonely old women...

That reminds me of when I was in elementary school. We had swimming lessons every year, and we had to walk to the local swimming pool. On the way, we had to walk in front of a house that looked abandoned as it was old and the garden had grown according to its own will. And everytime we walked in front of that house, there were whispers about a witch living there. Some kids even pretended that they had seen her, stirring a greenish potion in a bubbling cauldron.

"Even so, the stories terrified me, and I loved them." Listening to this podcast be like

He goes with Gordon for the delivery but he always gets scared when they get near and goes back. At least, that kind of instinct keeps you safe.

"Then, one day in early October, Gordon didn't show up at school the next day." Oh no. Something happened.

"Nobody seemed bothered, and one teacher said his parents had called him in sick, but I was certain: this time Old Maggie hadn't let him go." So he's gonna go and try to save his friend, isn't he?

Oh, he's gonna try and see if he's home first. Smart move.

Gordon's father is lying when he says his son is there and feverish.

"If anyone was going to save him from Maggie's knife, it was going to have to be me." What a brave kid. He's gonna get traumatised...

"You know, for all the fear Maggie inspired in me, I was completely unprepared to be right about her. Not the knife, I got the knife wrong, but I do think that she was a witch. In the year since then I've tried very hard to convince myself that what I saw that night was a dream or a false memory or something, but... it wasn't. " Oh no, this is gonna get scary.

You know, the insistance on the filth of the place, everything that stays there to rot, it's nasty... It reminds me of everything linked to Amherst, all the disease, nasty and bugs stuff.

Or maybe whatever happened in episode 071, Underground. With the inside of the train covered in dirt, it was kinda nasty too.

ALL THE BAGS OF FOOD GORDON BROUGHT FOR THE LAST FEW MONTHS ARE UNTOUCHED, FULL OF UNOPENED FOOD

THAT MEANS SHE DIDN'T EAT??? OR ATE SOMETHING ELSE???

Or maybe that old woman was never human. I mean, the kid said before that he had never seen her other than from a certain distance, and he described a figure with white hair. Could very well not be actually human.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE TIN MOVED???

"as I tried to get away, I felt the ground give way beneath my hand, and it was sucked down, up to elbow in clinging mud." ...is the ground supposed to do that?

THERE ARE WORMS ON HIS ARM WHEN HE MANAGE TO FREE IT. EARTHWORMS, ALRIGHT, BUT STILL WORMS

"What I saw instead was Gordon's face, staring at me from the mud, from the hole I had torn in the ground." Oh no, no...

IT'S NOT THE KID, IT'S ONLY A MASK MADE OF CARDBOARD, COULDN'T YOU START WITH THAT???

Oh no, what is he gonna see inside the bungalow...

"I could see Gordon, sat in a thick, threadbare armchair, motionless. Bent over him with the thin, hunched form of Old Maggie. Tiny shapes moved over my friend's still form, as her thin hands smoothed pieces of ancient yellowed paper over his face. Her dressing gown was wet, and her wrinkled skin glistening with a pale fluid that dripped from her fingers as she smoothed the strips in place. I could hear her singing a soft, crooning song, and as her voice got louder the things crawling over Gordon got faster and more agitated." WHAT EVEN IS GOING ON???

This is terrifying...

He just ran home. Totally understandable.

And Gordon is back to school the next day???

And as an adult, that guy went back to the village... he's gonna learn something scary.

oh, he's asking about the dump!

"Did it have a name, I asked, and he nodded, casually, like he had no idea that what he was saying mattered in the least. Sure, he told me, it was named for the weird recluse who owned the place. They called it 'Gordie's Dump'. "

MY JAW DROPPED.

Gordie, as short for Gordon??? Whatever that woman did to him, it made him took over the place...

Wow... That was a creepy statement.

"I think that was okay"

"To anyone listening, sorry about the change of tone"

Don't worry Martin, it was very well.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT OLD WOMAN'S LUNGS "SEEMED TO BE FULL OF NEWSPAPER PULP"

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "INSECT LEGS"

WHAT

"It also describes them as having 'significant post-mortem autonomous motor function', which I'm guessing means they were somehow still moving."

I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, THAT'S CREEPY AND DISGUSTING. EW.

Oh, Melanie's there, hi!

SHE GOT SHOT WHEN SHE WAS IN INDIA???

Why is she saying that so casually, girl, you got SHOT!

"Look, are you sure I can't just talk to Jon? You know, Jonathan Sims? He still works here, right?" Well...

"that's actually quite a good question."

I'm pretty sure he'll eventually come back. For whatever reason, it seems to be part of Elias' plan.

"Jon's missing. And they... they think he killed someone."

"What, he finally snapped, did he? Or did he accidentally bore them to death?" LOL

"I mean, that, that doesn't sound like him, does it? I've only met him a couple of times, but beating an old man to death with a pipe seems kind of out of character." EXACTLY, THANK YOU MELANIE

Poor Melanie, she seems even more unwell than last time. And lost, too.

Why can't any of the characters that deserve it catch a break???

ELIAS JUMPSCARE

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU WERE ALMOST NEVER THERE BEFORE AND NOW YOU'RE HERE ALL THE TIME. WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

WHAT

HE'S OFFERING HER A JOB AS AN ARCHIVAL ASSISTANT???

RUN, MELANIE, IT'S A TRAP. YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO QUIT AND IT HAS TO BE PART OF HIS EVIL PLAN, RUN.

"Formal qualifications aren't everything, Martin." Of course, he knows that Martin lied on his CV. I'm not even surprised. In fact, I was thinking about that today.

SHE SAID YES.

NOOOOO, RUN

Martin tried to warn her, but of course Elias won't let him.

UGHHHHH

Well.

The statement was very creepy. And we don't know as much as usual, but that's understandable, given the... circumstances.

Martin really tried his best in this episode. He did well at reading the statement. A little bit less well at trying to protect Melanie, but he did try, and I love him for that. Unfortunately, Elias had decided to offer a job to Melanie, and there was no stopping him.

Melanie, who got shot and is very casual about it. Girl, please go see a doctor or something, you're gonna need your full health to survive here.

When she's gonna understand what this place does and that she can't leave... I'm already sorry for her. Because after all of the bad things that happened to her, she sees that opportunity as a good thing, a sign that things are gonna get better!

But it's gonna be the exact opposite. It's unfair, she doesn't deserve that.

When I catch you, Elias...

What is he even planning??? I mean, he seems pretty sure Jon is gonna come back, since he's not looking for a new head archivist. Why is he so insistant on keeping him at this job? Why does he need him here? I mean, why Jon specifically??? Why is he so special?

Aliright, it starts with a conversation between Jon and Georgie!

Jon still hasn't explained her what happened... I mean, it's understandable because it was a lot, and I'm pretty sure he's still processing that, but he's gonna have to explain eventually. Not even in details, but at least a long story short.

The way Georgie just laughed when Jon said he's not on drugs lol. Yeah, that's obvious he's not the type to do drugs. Except for cigarettes of course, but does it count if it's a legal drug?

"I could be on drugs!" Jon, buddy, you don't even drink coffee...

"I know that you get obsessive about stuff, and this right here, I… I’m guessing someone dragged you into something weird, you got hooked in and then it all went wrong." Yeah, pretty much what happened. She knows him so well...

Yeah, recording probably isn't the good thing to do if you actually wanna put distance between you and your former job...

"It drops through the letter box and you spend four days… like this."

So a statement was left in the letter box. Hm...

Did Elias dropped it there as a way to torment him?

Well, it's efficent as it seems to ruin his sleep schedule. Jon, please, listen to Georgie and forget about recording, it's not helping you...

But of course he won't listen, so a statement it is.

About a departement store's window display? Interesting.

HE'S STILL FORGETTING HE ISN'T HEAD ARCHIVIST ANYMORE😭

So that girl worked in a department store, and then something weird happen... It kinda reminds me of Rose Tyler in Doctor Who.

They set a display on the theme of the circus??? It's gonna be linked to the Circus of the Other, or whatever the name was, isn't it?

A weird mannequin??? Now this is REALLY reminding me of the first Doctor Who episode with Rose Tyler.

"a mannequin set up like a ringmistress, dressed in some of the more theatrical clothes that Fanton’s was selling that season. Topped with a bright red top hat and clutching a whip, it created rather a striking effect"

Oh this is gonna get creepy, I can feel it...

She likes to draw the mannequin, alright...

"So when I came in one day to find that the ringmistress mannequin had been replaced, I knew instantly. It was wearing the same clothes, certainly, and was posed the same way, but I could see the difference."

I don't like where this is going. Don't make me scared of mannequins, please...

"The arms were just a little bit longer, the neck ever-so-slightly twisted, and the face, where before there had just been the faintest hint of a nose and a slight smile, was almost completely blank, save for a small patch of broken plastic near its forehead." Alright...

"There was something about this new one, something in the way it didn’t quite fit with all the other figures on display, the way it held the whip in cruel, sharp fingers. And the way its head never moved, but somehow I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was watching me right back." Don't make me paranoid about mannequins, I have to go to the mall later in the week...

And whatever that "mannequin" is, it's messing with the other mannequins in the other window displays. Not cool.

Obviously it avoided the cameras...

"But as the days went by I noticed that some of my colleagues were getting nervous, jumping at little noises and glancing over their shoulder. It always seemed to be the person who’d been closing up the night before. And through it all that ringmistress stood there, malicious and unmoving, brandishing her whip ready to strike." Well, I really wonder what's the thing causing all of that...

My brain painfully reminded me that I applied for a job at a similar kind of store for the summer. If I do get hired, I know I will think about that episode the whole time😃

Poor Lana, she sounds like a nice boss, but I can feel that something's gonna happen to her.

"Everything was closed up, everyone else had left. It was just me and Lana. And she was making the final checks to lock up. I ran to the changing rooms and grabbed the small bag from my locker that contained my pencils, inks and paper, and then hurried back and over to the womenswear department. I couldn’t hear Lana anywhere, which is strange as she usually provided something of a running commentary, but I didn’t really notice." Yeah, she's dead.

"Then I rounded the corner of one of the aisles and stopped dead: the mannequin was gone. The pedestal where the ‘Nights at the Circus’ display had stood was empty, save for a torn pile of paper maché and the headless figure of a plastic acrobat." Oh no.

This is also reminding me of FNaF. Same scary vibes.

"The store around me was still and silent, and it felt as if all I could do was wait for something to happen. And sure enough, after a minute or two, I heard Lana’s voice calling to me." THAT'S NOT LANA, IT'S A TRAP

(And I just killed a mosquito. I knew I was hearing something ringing above my head, it took me five solid minutes to see the little blood sucker, but it was turning in circles on the ceiling. I usually don't kill bugs and spiders, I try to grab them and just put them outside, but for mosquitoes? Those things drink blood! I don't wanna get itchy mosquito bites, and don't you think I forgot about the episode with the mosquitoes. Sorry, mosquito, but I had to.)

"Except it didn’t sound quite right. There was a strangled, hoarse quality to it, like the words were being pushed out against her will." THAT'S NOT LANA, NOT ANYMORE, RUN

"I was terrified of what I would see when I reached her, but my only other option was to run, and if she was in trouble, I’d never forgive myself." It's already too late, sweetie, RUN

Oh no, what is she gonna find in that room...

THE MANNEQUIN'S THERE

"The faceless figure loomed over me, and when it bent down, the finger it placed upon my lips was cold, hard plastic. 'Shhhhh…' it said. Though it had no mouth to form the sound."

It's very warm outside right now. But this, this gave me chills.

They discovered what's left of Lana's body...

"it became clear quite quickly that there was no way I could have done it. The CCTV showed me almost constantly during the period Lana would have been killed, and the only blood on me was a single, neat line across my lip." Well...

"it is far harder to conduct a thorough investigation without the resources of the Institute or the… expertise of my assistants." Yeah, it sure is different now...

Lana was strangled and partially skinned??? Oh dear

WAIT WAIT WAIT THERE'S A PHOTO OF THE BACK ENTRANCE IN SOME NEWSPAPER AND THERE'S A DELIVERY VAN

BREEKON AND HOPE????

Oh, so it's linked to the Stranger?

"Not to mention more than one witness has described them as… as uncanny, not quite seeming like real people. Until I am more certain of the identities of the other powers out there, I am going to assume Breekon and Hope are at least working with, if not part of, the Stranger." That... does make sense.

"Of course, the biggest mystery to this statement is who sent it to me. And why?"

"Does someone from the Institute know where I am, or is it someone else?"

Oh, Jon, if you knew... Just like in the previous season: it's Elias. It's always his fault, somehow.

Well, that statement was terrifying. As I said, it reminded me a lot of the first episode of Doctor Who (from 2005), but it was even scarier.

I just know that everything we're gonna learn about the Stranger is just gonna get weirder and even more uncanny.

Very disturbing, but it was a good episode!

Jon is... unwell. You can hear he's still processing everything... And he might say he's not on drugs, but at this point it's almost like the statement are a drug for him.

I'm sure it was Elias who made sure he'd get a statement. Why, though? Is it just as a game, torment, or a warning? Is it part of some plan?

So many questions...

(Though the main one is: what is Elias planning?)