Free Palestine

Upon being introduced to TMAverse Alice, I was honestly a little disappointed we actually got to meet her, and as her story became clear I was worried this would add to the vibe of "TMA content is more interesting than the TMP stuff we're technically here for."

...but after the full episode I think her inclusion subverts that really, really well, and actually makes me care even more about the Protocol universe and its characters. Because TMA Alice is a shell of a person. She has nothing left. She's lost everyone, she's not taking care of herself ("I don't eat much"), and she willingly subjects herself to recurring nightmares of literal hell because it's easier than living in her new reality.

And that's partly got a note of tragic foreshadowing to it--it's easy to see how TMP Alice could fall down the same path, with how much she's already losing herself trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to Colin and Sam. But even moreso, it shows us how lucky she is. Maybe she's stuck in a dead end job, maybe she and Sam aren't together anymore, maybe her coworkers are being eaten by computers. But she's alive, she has something to live for, she has people that care about her, and she still has agency over herself. And while things could still get much worse, she has hope, opportunity. We just met an Alice at the end of her life, but our Alice still has a future.

I'm realizing the point of TMA content in Protocol isn't just to indulge in fanservice and continue that old story. It's to remind us of what's at stake. In the TMA universe, nobody gets happy endings. The world wasn't saved by a long shot--maybe burning it out would have been a mercy. And without that perspective, it'd be easy for TMP characters to make the same mistakes, to destroy themselves and others while tampering with things beyond their understanding. The Archives crew never really grasped how unimaginably awful the outcome of their failures could be. But maybe if Sam makes it back, knowing what lies on the other side, knowing how lucky he is to be where he is and to have what he does...maybe that will make a difference.