Leanne’s grandfather Nikolai - who she was very close with - died in 2004. He left her the house in his will, and when she was cleaning it out she ended up heading into his attic. At first she was scared there would be endless amounts of things to sort through, but the only two items in the attic were a locked steamer trunk, and a red calliope organ. In the chest were 23 dolls, 22 of which had their lower jaws removed. The 23rd one was an elaborately decorated clown doll.
The calliope had a brass carved plaque that read “the calliaphone” and “be still, for there is strange music playing”. Leanne’s favourite tune her grandfather used to play is one she used to call “faster, faster”, which she plays until she fumbles. At this point, she is unaware that to make sound, a calliope needs to be connected to bellows. She shows these to her boyfriend Josh, which freaks him out, and he asks to leave.
They broke up in the following weeks for undisclosed reasons (it’s implied he may have cheated), but towards the end of their relationship, he had a breakdown and confessed that he could still her the calliope music, and it was getting closer. Later, she finds a new doll that looks exactly like Josh in the trunk, and the clown doll looks as if it is reaching for it. She locks the trunk.
A week later, the house is broken, but the only things stolen are the calliaphone and the steamer trunk. Two men were seeing them being taken out of the house piece by piece. 4 days later, Josh is found dead in his room, his throat crushed , and his lower jaw was torn off and missing. Leanna says she had nothing to do with this.
Notes: Josh’s murder was never solved, and there was no DNA evidence at the scene. Tim notes that the calliaphone reminds him of a travelling circus (The circus of the other) through Poland and Russia in the 20th century, which Nikolai turned out to be part of. The calliaphone is now in artifact storage, with the words “do not play” scratched into it. Sasha interrupts the recording. Tim took a special interest in this statement.
Entities: The stranger
Names mentioned:
Nikolai Deniken
Leanne Deniken
Gregor Orsinov
Joshua Drury
Sasha James
Irene Harlem (neighbour who saw Breekon&Hope take the calliaphone)
Breekon & Hope (implied to have moved the artefacts)
Statements of Elias Bouchard, “Sasha James”, Martin Blackwood, Tim Stoker and Jonathan Sims regarding the previous infestation by Jane Prentiss, 29.07.16, Chelsea, London
Elias
Elias shows concern for Jon’s wellbeing, stating he should go home and get some rest. He tells Jon to relax as he saw the ECDC take Jane’s corpse away and burn it. Elias shares that he was going over budgets in his office when he heard the fire alarm, which annoyed him. He met up with Sasha, who warned him about the worms. She had set off the alarm, and told him that Jon, Martin and Tim were trapped by Prentiss. He suggested she turn the tape recorder se was carrying on, but Jon says that Sasha apparently lost it. He told Sasha about the fire suppression system, but on their way to it they became separated. He rerouted to the boiler room, and finally set the system off. As soon as he did, he heard Prentiss’ scream. He called the fire department, ambulance, and ECDC.
He headed back to the archives and saw Sasha already there, who seemed unharmed, but Tim and Jon had many worms in them (he describes their state as being like swiss cheese). Martin came back an hour after Tim and Jon had been rescued through the trapdoor to the tunnels, screaming that’d he’d found a body. The police were called. Jon convinces Elias to share what happened to Gertrude. On March 15th 2015, Elias came to her desk which was covered in blood. Her body was never found, but due to the large amount of blood at the scene and that the DNA matched, he assumed Gertrude was dead.
Tim
Tim is shaken and exhausted from his near-brush with death, and tries to deflect with humor. He picked up the tape recorder and heard Sasha yell a warning. Prentiss stood behind him. Worms started spilling out of every surface, and Sasha tackled him to the floor. They both scattered, he yelled for her to get help and ran into the side-room, unaware that this was where the first hole had been made. He sprawled into a pile of tape boxes that contained the CO2 Martin had hidden, and he killed the worms in the room. His memory becomes fuzzy from inhaling too much CO2, but he went into the tunnels. He noted there weren’t many worms in the tunnels, but those that were there were more aggressive and quieter. He says he thinks something in the institute makes them weak, but that the worms have been down in the tunnels breeding for months, but were disrupted by Jon finding the hidden passage - so they had to act.
The eventually found a wall that felt different, and heard Martin and Jon on the other side. He broke the wall down, and they ran from there. Tim wasn’t with Martin when he found the body. He notes that he did find a room where the worms were wrapping around each other trying to form a ring, or perhaps a doorway. He pumped the room full of CO2.
“Sasha”
Sasha’s speech is markedly different, as well as her intonation. She speaks awkwardly in shorter sentences, and she sounds insincere. Jon doesn’t seem to notice a difference. She gives a vague and non-descriptive account of finding Tim, that she pulled the fire alarm and found Elias. She also notes heading into artefact storage - and that she used to work in that department. She says that she stayed there until the fire system deployed before running for a window (which doesn’t make sense - as she should have been knocked out with the rest of the staff), and she watched the worms die. Jon mentions Michael. She mentions finding Jon and Tim unconscious. She had no worms in her. She describes Martin coming back after finding Gertrude. She claims she lost the tape and didn’t notice it was gone until he pointed it out. Jon tells her to go home and get some rest, concerned about her.
Martin
He mentions checking on the details 0081709 (unknown statement). He apologises for losing Jon and Tim tearfully. He got separated and tried to call for help. The walls of the tunnel were old, and the layout maze-like. He mentions ti’s likely that the tunnels connect to Millbank prison. He heard Prentiss’ scream. He tried finding a way out but felt more lost, and found the room. It was piled full of old cassette tapes and in the middle was a wooden chair. Her body wasn’t covered in worms or cobwebs. Gertrude was slumped forward, mouth hanging open. She was shot in the chest.
Jon
Jon is concerned that Gertrude was killed in the archives. Jon believes Gertrude was killed for knowing too much. Some of his tapes are missing - those of the case files for 0051701 and 0160204.
Notes: The two case files missing are those for MAG 24 - in which real Sasha’s voice is recorded on tape, and MAG 26 - which is Sasha’s statement regarding Michael. Sasha has been replaced by the Notthem from MAG 3, and fitting the trend, no one seems to have noticed she’s been replaced. The worms are weaker within the institute because it’s a centre for the eye. The worms creating a doorway is likely a reference to Michael - who is interested in the events unfolding. (spoilers for s4 below the cut)
Entities: The eye, the stranger, the corruption, the spiral
Names mentioned:
Sasha James
Elias Bouchard
Jonathan Sims
Matin Blackwood
Tim Stoker
Jane Prentiss
The comment about Gertrude having no worms nor cobwebs on her could be an early hint as to her death at Elias’ hand.
Jason North, 06.08.2009, Loch Glass, Dingwall, Scotland
The statement starts with a brief conversation between Martin and Jon - who are having a discussion about the deliveries from Breekon and Hope. Martin thinks they should destroy the spider table, he mentions Elias had agreed, but Jon declined.
Jason North’s statement begins angrily - as he makes accusations about the institute recording information while his son burns. Jason is an ecologist - and it’s his job to walk in big national parks and note down where animals have made their homes.
He discusses finding strange things in the woods a few times, so when he found the clearing in Lock Glass it came as no surprise. The clearing was warmer than the surrounding area, and the air tasted dry and acrid. The trees appeared to have been planted in a circle almost fifty years ago, and in the centre of the clearing was a large piece of stone - similar to an altar. There were no animals in the clearing at all. Crossing the threshold he knew he’d made a mistake, his shirt soaked through with sweat, the water boiled in his bottle and scorched the inside of his mouth.
He screamed, falling to the floor and laying there for half an hour. He saw scorch marks around the altar, and by following them found singed carcasses of animals that had either all died at once or had been kept from rotting by something. Driven into the trunks of each tree was a nail, and each had a worn glass bottle attached. Some were full of twigs, others photographs (of what would later be revealed to be Gertrude). Long, grey hair was attached to the bottles. He picked one up to get better look and dropped it. It shattered. He ran.
Since, everything he loves has been destroyed. His car overheated, his house burned down, and his wife Lucy died. Now all that’s left is his son Ethan (4 years old). He tried to find out who set up the ritual but found nothing, and is terrified in the knowledge that he will soon lose his son.
Notes: Ethan didn’t die in the end. Jason North doused himself in petrol and set himself alight, and he died in hospital 3 days later. Jon confirms that the picture of the woman from the bottle that Jason left with the statement is of Gertrude. He doesn’t know what this means. Sasha followed up on this statement.
Entities: the stranger, the spider, the desolation
Harold worked in restoration and had been hired to work on the basement and ground floor of the Reform club - the work was supposed to be minimal, but due to the fragility of the building they had to take extra care in the work, which meant that it stretched into a week-long gig. They also had to schedule for strange hours because the venue was constantly busy.
At 2am one morning a teenager showed up. Harold was alone with his coworker Rachel Turley, and their other colleague Alfred Bartlett was out getting coffee. In leaving, he’d likely left the door open, and while Rachel and Harold stood chatting they noticed a thin figure in the doorway. He asked them if they’d found any of “Leitner’s pages” yet. This shocked them as they’d just been talking about Leinter as a businessman - who asked for consultation in his offices in pall mall in 1987. He had asked them to dig a hole in his office, and had shouted them out of the building when they stated they needed the building owner’s permission.
The teenager (later revealed to be Gerard) knocks out a fake wall, and the four of them eventually decide to investigate. The tunnels looked to be mid-19th century, and they realised it likely connected to where Jurgen had wanted them to dig. They came to a central chamber with 13 corridors, plus the one they’d come down. One felt like they were going to fall into it, one was incredibly dark, in the centre of the chamber was a datestone. It read “Robert Smirke, 1835, Balance and Fear”.
Suddenly, Gerard took off into one of the tunnels, Alfred followed close behind, and the other two soon chased after them. They chased him, only to find him sprinting back in their direction. He evaded them easily and disappeared back the way they came. Aflred screamed in the dark, and Harold noticed small bones clattering to the ground in the corridor. They found Alfred dead in a small room at the end of the corridor. He didn’t seem hurt. On his chest were more tiny bones. They left, calling the cops. Harold thinks he went down other corridors first, he has vague memories of other entities (the spider, the stranger, the dark, the desolation).
Notes: Alfred’s death was listed as a heart attack. Jon discusses Leitner’s reputation and his collection of antique books, and that likely some were stored in his old offices. He also mentions Robert Smirke (an architect)- and that Tim know a lot about him. Smirke’s buildings have a much higher percentage of paranormal sightings than other architects of similar profile. In the post-statement section, Jon leaves to find extinguishers to kill some silver worms, and in his absence Breekon & Hope deliver a zippo lighter with a spider design to Martin to give to Jon. Sasha worked on this case. This is also likely where Gerard got the bone book for his mother.
Nathan Watts, 22.04.2012, Old Fishmarket Close, Edinburgh
The statement details Nathan’s encounter in March 2010 with an unsettling stranger who asks him for a cigarette near old fishmarket close after a friend’s celebration drinks. When he takes his phone out to investigate a swaying figure who repeats the phrase “can I have a cigarette” without intonation or moving its mouth, the figure folds at the waist and disappears.
Notes: Sasha did the majority of the digging on this one.
Entities: The stranger
Names mentioned:
Michael MacAulay (friend who was accepted to Master’s of Earth Sciences March 2010)
John Fellowes (student who had been at the party and went missing that night)
Jessica McEwen (went missing Nov 2005)
Sarah Baldwin (went missing Aug 2006)
Daniel Rawlings (went missing Dec 2006)
Ashley Dobson (went missing May 2008)
Siobahn Dobson (sister of Ashley - who she sent a picture to before she disappeared)
Original recording of Jane Prentiss’ attack on the Magnus institute (Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood, Tim Stoker, Elias Bouchard, Sasha James), 29.06.16, Chelsea, London, UK.
The episode starts with a flurry of activity in which Sasha, Martin and Jon hurriedly try to kill the worms with fire extinguishers before fleeing to a different room with soundproof windows. They extract worms from each other. Jon still has the tape recorder and is still recording because he doesn’t want to end up a mystery (like Gertrude). He discusses that the statements that feel real are the ones that have to be recorded on tape, and that there’s something that they can’t quite see the shape of yet.
Tim enters the previous room, and all of them try to shout at him to avoid the worms, but he can’t hear. The tape cuts to Tim doing a very funny joke statement beginning before Sasha bursts out of the room to warn him. Tim and Sasha flee in different directions. Martin and Jon remain trapped in the room, and watch Prentiss vomit worms into the tape boxes.
Jon is still in denial about the supernatural nature of the events happening around them, and Martin confronts him about this. Jon knows the paranormal is real, and he denies because he’s scared. He feels like he loses himself in the statements and like he’s being watched. The fire alarm goes off.
Elias and Sasha have a brief conversation about what’s happening, and that they could set off the fire suppression system (which uses CO2) to kill the worms, but this would also likely kill or injure the remaining staff in the building. Sasha decides to go in and do it herself.
Tim had escaped the room he was trapped in by killing the worms with Martin’s CO2 hidden in tape boxes, and breaks down the wall with an axe as Jon and Martin are about to be killed. They escape through the tunnels under the archives. Martin mentions using some tapes to record his poetry. Sasha tries to find the override, but encounters the spider table, sees someone, and screams. A strange voice mimics her speech before the tape clicks off.
Tim and Jon become separated from Martin. Tim and Jon try to leave through a trapdoor and come face to face with Prentiss. The tape clicks off.
Notes: I love Martin so much I have No Words. We see a return of the NotThem. The sound effects e.g. the static that plays in the tapes when Jon says certain things also makes sense with the hindsight that all the tapes record the real statements.
Amy meets a man named Graham through a criminology class they both go to and finds him slightly odd as he is constantly taking notes. On April 7th 2006, she realises they live on the same street, and while they are walking home she falls (or is pushed) onto the street and suffers a concussion. She goes back to Graham’s flat to recover and notices a hypnotic table and bookshelves full of notebooks. When she returns home, she realises she can see into his flat from hers, and takes to watching him. One night, she notices a piece of pipe that looks like “many arms with no hands” slip into his flat. When she calls the police, a man who is Not Graham answers the door, but the police find nothing amiss. It notices her watching and begins to stare directly into her room every night. She moves and never sees Not Graham again. His notebooks were just full of the sentence “Keep watching” written over and over again.
Notes: Amy enjoys people watching in her own time, and seems intent on watching Graham without his knowledge, but based on his notes it seems like he knows she is watching and is scribbling his notes specifically to attract her attention (likely so NotThem won’t get him). The first appearance of the web table. Tim worked on this one alongside Sasha.
Entities: The Stranger, The Web, The Eye
Names mentioned:
Graham Folger (goes missing and replaced by NotThem)
Joshua Gillespie, 22.11.1998, Amsterdam then Bournemouth
In Amsterdam when on holiday with friends in 1996, Joshua meets a short man with an “odd density” who claims he is “inside a foreign land” and gives him 10,000 pounds in exchange for looking after some cargo. Upon moving to a new home, he is delivered a strange coffin, chained shut with “do not open” scratched into the lid. When it rains, the coffin moans, and he begins trying to open it in his sleep. He resists its temptation for two years, and when the man known as “John” returns he disappears, and the coffin is removed by two strange delivery men.
Notes: I think Joshua managed to resist the buried so well bc he’s marked by the lonely. He needs space away from his friends when he meets John, knows no one in the new city he moves to, and lives entirely alone in his building for two years (unbeknownst to him). Tim works on this statement.
Entities: The Stranger, The Buried, The Lonely
Names mentioned:
"John”
Breekon and Hope make their first appearance
Richard (friend of Joshua)
Spoiler note for s4 under the cut
Potentially the building which Joshua lived in is a first test of Peter’s lonely ritual involving apartments.
