MAG127, Remains To Be Seen: "[...] as we got closer I could see that it was a single tree that was burning. A gnarled and ancient elm, that sat removed from the rest of the forest. A small crowd surrounded the spectacle. One man, who I took to be a groundskeeper, stood closer than the others, with a lit torch in his hand. [...]
... All that I could get from him was a sense of… resignation, and the insistence that his master, who I took to be Albrecht, wanted the tree dead. I’m sure that he used that word, though. Not burned, not removed, or destroyed. Dead. I resolved to ask Albrecht about it when I saw him."
...and then we never heard from it again. This tree still confuses me!! I can't connect it conclusively to anything else, but there's such an emphasis placed on it that it feels like it has to be important!
The motif of a big gnarly tree being burned echoes the tree at Hilltop Road, so even though there are no spiders, something about it feels Webby - as does the way Fanshawe mentions it, says he wants to ask Albrecht about it, and then seems to completely forget about it...
...that's a very weak connection at best, when there aren't any other indications that the Web is involved with the Von Closens at that time and place. So what else could it be? Fire could indicate the Desolation, but that has the same problem of not being mentioned otherwise, plus just burning down one (1) tree doesn't really seem like its style to do, unless this specific tree means something;
Trees and fire are also reminiscent of Gertrude's protection circle from s1, though, again, that's Web & Desolation duking it out. The tree at HTR also seemed to be connected to Agnes' death in some way, she died when it was cut down. Maybe this tree is also protecting someone, but who? why? how? Albrecht? That makes no sense, at the very least unless "the Master" is referring to someone else, but that really just opens more questions than it answers!
Maybe the tree is meant to signify another 'rift' between worlds, and it links up to the vague implication that maybe the Von Closens seemed to be unable to get children in s1, but evidently had them later on. And maybe the bastard prince actually came through from another dimension as well.... However, that's still a very big leap to take just from one odd tree and two 'mysteries' that aren't really mysteries and didn't really need solving in the first place
I'd be curious to know if this was a plot hook for future episodes which never materialized into something more, or if I'm just missing something here. anyone else have a solid theory? @a-mag-a-day
