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Post by Oneiros on Sept 13, 2018 7:05:29 GMT
OR: "Fear wears many faces"
The final stretch. Plans are in motion. The battle is joined. The first shots are fired.
It's time to put down the red string and grab your comfort devices - the Unknowing is upon us and everyone has their part to play in this grand show. From the realisations at the House of Wax to Martin, a lighter and a stack of old statements, the players are in place. But the spotlight has yet to shine and we have to wonder who will be standing at the final curtain and who may have exited, stage down.
Lots of threads coming together in this one, and we finally get more of Martin's backstory... though I'm not sure this is the way any of us would have wanted it delivered. Heartbreaking and vicious - serious kudos to both Alex & Ben's performances here.
Stay in your seats folks, the main act is yet to come...
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Post by archer93 on Sept 13, 2018 12:36:37 GMT
Heartbreaking indeed, although I'm not surprised it didn't totally break Martin. He's a lot stronger than Elias thinks. (Still want to give Martin a hug, though.)
Any thoughts on what Elias might have shown him about Jon? And on whether even that would have thrown Martin off completely?
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liraven
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Post by liraven on Sept 15, 2018 3:07:04 GMT
Heartbreaking indeed, although I'm not surprised it didn't totally break Martin. He's a lot stronger than Elias thinks. (Still want to give Martin a hug, though.) Agreed! Much stronger than he seems at first glance. Still, poor Martin.  Melanie's encounter with Elias was awful, but this one felt worse to me because the subject matter hit closer to home. Really hope the rest of the finale doesn't include more sobbing characters. Or dead ones. Surely that gunshot missed everyone, right? Right?? Better not to think about it. Ugh, Elias is such a cold, horrible person! Of course he prepared something in advance for Martin. Bet he's got a spreadsheet labeled 'Employee Emotional Breaking Points' neatly filed away between meeting schedules and budgetary plans.  I'd love to see Mr. Terrible Knowledge get a taste of his own medicine, but it's doubtful Elias cares enough about anyone to be hurt that way.
Wonder what Melanie stole from his office? Maybe Elias kept the book Leitner was using to shift the tunnels around? Not sure Martin knows about it though. Whatever she took, I hope it works.
Not sure on that one. Jon doesn't always come across as the nicest person, but his desire to help people seems genuine. I can't imagine he's done something terrible enough to lose Martin's faith. But then again, we didn't know Jon encountered one of the powers as a child until this season so... who knows what he's done off tape?
Speaking of tape recorders, any ideas as to who or what is listening on the other end of them (besides us)? Awhile back Jon seemed to doubt whether it's Beholding. Martin spoke into the recorder as though Elias was listening and so did Nikola, but it turned back on by itself after Elias wanted it off, so I'm not sure he's controlling them. And a tape recorder appeared at the wax museum which is weird. Another power maybe?
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Post by archer93 on Sept 16, 2018 20:09:58 GMT
Agreed! Much stronger than he seems at first glance. Still, poor Martin. Melanie's encounter with Elias was awful, but this one felt worse to me because the subject matter hit closer to home. Really hope the rest of the finale doesn't include more sobbing characters. Or dead ones. Surely that gunshot missed everyone, right? Right?? Better not to think about it. Ugh, Elias is such a cold, horrible person! Of course he prepared something in advance for Martin. Bet he's got a spreadsheet labeled 'Employee Emotional Breaking Points' neatly filed away between meeting schedules and budgetary plans. I'd love to see Mr. Terrible Knowledge get a taste of his own medicine, but it's doubtful Elias cares enough about anyone to be hurt that way.
Wonder what Melanie stole from his office? Maybe Elias kept the book Leitner was using to shift the tunnels around? Not sure Martin knows about it though. Whatever she took, I hope it works.
Not sure on that one. Jon doesn't always come across as the nicest person, but his desire to help people seems genuine. I can't imagine he's done something terrible enough to lose Martin's faith. But then again, we didn't know Jon encountered one of the powers as a child until this season so... who knows what he's done off tape?
Elias' weak point seems to be over-confidence. He's not as good at reading people as he thinks, we're more than just our experiences. Seeing and knowing is not the same as understanding, and Martin appeared to have some idea beforehand of what Elias was going to show him. Martin has self-esteem issues, but he's not stupid. And maybe I'm over analysing, but he did seem to be deliberately goading Elias away from showing him anything about Jon. Possibly because it might have been something like "Here's what he REALLY thinks of you" which would be met with "Yeah, that's about what I figured", and Martin had to have a full breakdown reaction in order to convince Elias it had worked. If it had been something terrible about Jon, my guess would be that it would relate to thoughtlessness raised to the level of callousness. We know that he can care deeply about others, but I can totally see that sometimes he just didn't. Or that under the Giles exterior, there's a Ripper backstory! (Sidebar- re Melanie taking something from the office- was it me or is there a touch of Sasha there? Grumbling about the lack of a lock. :-p No theory about what it was as yet, still haven't re-listened to the whole episode. It's a bit painful!) Oh, good question! There's at least one other Archive linked to the Magnus Archive, in China, so maybe someone from there? Someone further up the Beholding food chain monitoring Elias? Trust and surveillance don't exactly go hand-in-hand. If it is another entity, I'd guess the Web. That particular "colour" of fear seems to shade into the Beholding quite a lot. |
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akelis
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Post by akelis on Sept 17, 2018 13:18:03 GMT
Oh, good question! There's at least one other Archive linked to the Magnus Archive, in China, so maybe someone from there? Someone further up the Beholding food chain monitoring Elias? Trust and surveillance don't exactly go hand-in-hand. If it is another entity, I'd guess the Web. That particular "colour" of fear seems to shade into the Beholding quite a lot. Elias has made comment that he is aware Jon listens to all of them. It may be that just as Jon seems unaware of his mastery of languages as a whole he is equally unaware of his reaching for and hearing the full story of things beyond his direct control. Jon is at the least marked by if not on the path to becoming an Avatar of the Beholding. I would suspect this may well be him, or another that intends to use him to their advantage. We know Elias had a very sudden and meteoric rise to power that even Gertrude took note of as potentially problematic. The Powers seem willing to move their pawns/pieces about the board without reguard to what social rules are broken in the process (ants to a giant and all that) so it wouldn't be a shock to find there is another listener. |
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liraven
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Post by liraven on Sept 18, 2018 1:51:50 GMT
(Sidebar- re Melanie taking something from the office- was it me or is there a touch of Sasha there? Grumbling about the lack of a lock. :-p That was a fun reference.  Maybe it means we'll get a Magnus Archives and RQ Gaming universe crossover? RQ Gaming light spoilers: If it turns out Melanie stole a set of Harrison Cambell romance novels from Elias's office to lure him into playing Martin's tabletop campaign, then we'll know for sure it's true.  Jon is at the least marked by if not on the path to becoming an Avatar of the Beholding. I would suspect this may well be him, or another that intends to use him to their advantage. There's at least one other Archive linked to the Magnus Archive, in China, so maybe someone from there? Someone further up the Beholding food chain monitoring Elias? Trust and surveillance don't exactly go hand-in-hand. If it is another entity, I'd guess the Web. So Jon might be subconsciously using his power to turn on the recorders? That's a cool idea. And while it's scary to think of a Beholder more powerful than Elias listening in, that's a very likely explanation too. Here are two more (wildly incorrect) theories just for fun: 1. There is no one actively listening. The tape recorders are supernatural artifacts tuned to record automatically when they detect potentially spooky content, then turn off afterward. Jon feels compelled to record everything because the tapes are essential for the Rite of the Watcher's Crown. Just as the Unknowing requires 'singers', Beholding's ritual also needs an aural component such as playing back all the statements at once. 2. The tape recorders belong to the Web because... um... hearing involves sound waves vibrating against an eardrum, or in this case a tape recorder microphone diaphragm, and many spiders 'listen' for prey through vibrations on their webs.
Yeah, #2's way out there. I just wonder if there's something special about the mechanism of tape recorders in particular, other than digital stuff is susceptible to corruption by the Distortion. Regardless, I do think the Web is manipulating Jon in some form or another. Hopefully he makes it to Hilltop Road in a later season and we get more answers. |
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akelis
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Post by akelis on Sept 18, 2018 11:36:55 GMT
Distortion in general could be an interesting player. Audio distortion is a common issue in trying to salvage old files, or parse information. And distorted understanding through the Corruption of data is all kinds of evil undermining of a power that feeds on abuse of knowledge. Knowledge is power, but if the information is tainted that can lead to many problems.
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Melanie's encounter with Elias was awful, but this one felt worse to me because the subject matter hit closer to home. Really hope the rest of the finale doesn't include more sobbing characters. Or dead ones. Surely that gunshot missed everyone, right? Right?? Better not to think about it.
I'd love to see Mr. Terrible Knowledge get a taste of his own medicine, but it's doubtful Elias cares enough about anyone to be hurt that way.
Maybe it means we'll get a Magnus Archives and RQ Gaming universe crossover? 