#mag126

(MAG100) “I’m looking for Elias Bouchard? He… runs this Institute. I do have an appointment.”

(MAG100) “Elias can be quite… ‘protective’ of his people. Never really understood why.”

(MAG100) “You are sure you don’t know where Elias Bouchard’s office is?”

(MAG108) “I’m sorry to have disturbed you. It’s one of Elias’s little jokes.”

(MAG108) “Did he suggest you record a statement today? One that mentioned me?”

(MAG108) “I have a meeting with him today. He suggested… I’m sure he’s watching from his office, grinning from ear to ear.”

(MAG108) “I almost thought he genuinely wanted me to meet the team! Oh well.”

(MAG108) “And what’s Elias like to work for? Aside from orchestrating unsettling encounters?”

(MAG108) “How is he as a boss?”

(MAG108) “Oh. That doesn’t sound like the Elias I know. He killed people himself?”

(MAG108) “Elias Bouchard, getting his hands dirty. Well-well. Must be the End Times.”

(MAG108) “Martin, I have a meeting to get to, and a few things to tell Elias to his face about wasting both our time.”

(MAG120) “Honestly, I thought there’d be more of a scene, but… he always surprises me.”

(MAG120) “Look, don’t let Elias get to you. […] I honestly think you managed to surprise him, even if he’d sooner die than admit it.”

(MAG120) “Well, you’ve successfully managed to remove Elias as the Head of the Magnus Institute. […] Not in any, hum, metaphysical sense, no, he’s still very much the… how did he insist on phrasing it… Ah yes, the ‘beating heart of the Institute’. But, practically speaking, he can hardly fulfil his more mundane managerial duties from a jail cell.”

(MAG120) “He… anticipated that you would likely find some way to remove him. So he made alternative arrangements.”

(MAG120) “Oh, and Elias said you’d probably be keeping a close eye on the Archivist’s condition, so I’d be keen to hear any developments.”

(MAG126) “Because, behind all his bluster, Elias’s just like all the rest. He’s so preoccupied playing the game he doesn’t pay attention to the big picture. He managed to convince himself that he could get his ritual off first, which would have made all of this a… bit moot, but that’s not really an option anymore.”

(MAG134) “Elias was, perhaps unsurprisingly, unwilling to help.”

(MAG134) “Honestly, if Elias hadn’t killed that woman, I’d have been very tempted. I warned him she was a danger, but he’s always been–”

(MAG134) “I’m not quite the accomplished voyeur that Elias was.”

(MAG134) “Then, your detective friend went on one of Elias’s wild-goose chases”

 List of things Elias has said about Peter:

MAG126 certainly gave us a lot to chew on.  Believe me, I’ve got SO MUCH swirling in my head after that episode, and a lot of people have touched on some of it.  But the one thing that it really gave me was a definite feeling that something which seemed simple is anything but:

I do not believe Peter Lukas is, has, or ever was working with Elias Bouchard.

Instead, I think Peter Lukas was working with Gertrude Robinson AGAINST Elias from within the Institute.

I believe he provided her the necessary transportation, financial backing, and interference to avoid Elias’s notice while she went about her business.  I think he’s the one who gave her the protection she needed to disrupt the Shaper in Clay.  After all, despite having been an Archivist from much longer, we know from Michael that Jon is, even from his short time, more of an Archivist than Gertrude ever was (MAG101) and yet she was able to walk in the middle of the ritual without an issue, ‘eyes cold’, no one noticing she was there.  Any resemblance to Mr. Pop Out Of Nowhere or is it me?

We know from Jon saying so that despite more fully accepting his role as Archivist and ‘stepping away from humanity’ he seems MORE inclined to feel connected to his assistants and worry about them and sad about the loss of them.  Gertrude, according to Gerard Keay, ‘traveled light’, ‘left things behind’ (MAG111), and put him in the Book of Skin despite clearly knowing Gerry hated the thing and Gerard hinted at knowing why but didn’t specifically say.  Gertrude could lie like a boss/manipulate liek wo, (re MAG101 and how she was with Michael, where she preyed on his loneliness) meanwhile Jon lies like a 13 year old trying to get a later bed time.  Slightly worse, in fact.  Beholding deals in TRUTH, wielding it like a scalpel.  See 90% of Elias’s Fuckery.

As early as MAG108, Peter shows up and speaks to Martin and asks him about Elias as a boss, already kind of promising that he’ll TOTALLY be a better one, setting up a certain dynamic well before we even know technically that Elias is going to be going anywhere.  What if Peter’s been angling to remove Elias for a while and Elias was only barely holding him off?  Kind of like a CEO promising dividends and once it’s clear he can’t deliver, the shareholders-

Well, replace him.

And the person who had the plan to replace Elias?  Martin.  The one Peter talked to.  The one he’s taken into his ‘confidence’ and wants to team up with to do something that Jon won’t like that will theoretically ‘protect everyone’ but also involves distancing himself from them to an unprecedented degree.  Not to mention that, well, Martin ‘won’t want to tell’ Jon when it’s all over.  Sounds a lot like something that might destroy the Archives to ME which was, in fact, Gertrude’s plan.  ETA: And can you imagine how effective it would be if Peter pulled out something like ‘I once loved an Archivist and that place killed her too’.  I don’t know how much truth there is to that, but he almost certainly saved her (MAG101): “And somehow Gertrude Robinson was back on that boat before Sannikov Land once again never existed.”

We ALSO know that Elias has put an uncommon amount of space between Jon and Peter, as meddling with the Lukases is one of the very few ‘full stop’ demands he’s made of Jon when it comes to poking around.  Something I could understand if you’re trying to 1. get your Archivist in working order quickly without interference and you saw the last one stagnate and never commit properly and 2. if you know that Lukas is trying to supplant you and you don’t want your Archivist getting nicked off of you. We know that Jon has always been Elias’s project (I have some theories as to how long but I’ll leave off) and that his development was definitely seen as important.  That Jon woke up is a ‘roadblock’ to Peter’s plans seems like a giant honking flashing light not just to not doing things the way Elias did but to ANYTHING Elias wanted.

Add to that the fact that we know Gertrude has interrupted at LEAST two rituals before this and possibly a third and yet this whole ‘attack the archives’ thing never came up?  It seems pretty likely that there was very possibly some manner of interference or a lack of coverage or sabotage that created the kind of crisis situation which would allow the Institute to fall into other hands.  All seems a LITTLE too pat.  And that’s not even bringing up the fact that Elias reacted like WHOAH to Martin burning statements but didn’t seem to care (what with letting the worms build up and clearly knowing about it as Jon accuses in MAG102) when Jane Prentiss was destroying statements (MAG 39).  Things were on an edge, one I don’t think Elias was ready to handle an extra variable for, and Peter swooped in for the snatch.

Do I think Peter let Gertrude take the fall for their shared schemes?  120%

Do I know why Peter is doing what Peter is doing or what it is? Nope.

Do I think it’s at ALL what Martin thinks it is? HELL NO.

But I have a feeling this season that we’re going to have a lot of our preconceptions (about the Entities, about the characters and their interactions, about what’s ‘good’ and what’s ‘bad’ in general) flipped on their head.

Totally looking forward to it too.

PS How long do you think it’s going to take Jon to realize that if he’s still dreaming Daisy’s fears SHE’S CLEARLY NOT DEAD?