Episode forty three, Section 31. It's them! It's Dasira! I originally didn't care much for Basira specifically, but honestly I think hearing her voice actor, Frank Voss, as Ashes O'Reilly made me like her a lot more, and also I missed most of her character by playing Baldur's Gate 3 while listening to most of season two 😭 not an idea I recommend
-The Magnus Institute has their own type of NDA-style system, where tapes can be marked 'for internal use only' so members of the public can't request them. or cops. cops also can't request them.
--STATEMENT--
-Section 31 is a form cops sign to make sure they don't tell people about the spooky things they see
-only Sectioned officers deal with The Magnus Institute
(had to pause the episode because my friend just called to tell me they're making an Epic the Musical movie. not even a text., not even a voice note. a whole entire phone call. that's how big and exciting the news is. By the time anyone's gonna be reading this, everyone will probably know about the Epic the Musical Movie,,, but anyway. when it comes out and I watch it, I'm gonna have Basira's voice in the back of my head telling me about how she saw something spooky. permanent association between Epic and Basira's Spooky Experience 👍)
-Basira was called to an arson case that's definitely supernatural
-DAISY MENTION!!!!!!!
-I love Daisy so much. I adore her. she's so blorbo shaped.
-Daisy knows about vampires
post-statement:
-we're not investigating the stories Basira told us because she wasn't supposed to tell them to us in the first place
-the burn victim who Gerard killed in mag12 is the same guy as the guy in this statement
SUPPLEMENTAL
-Basira will be sneaking some of Gertrude's tapes to Jon
-Jon spoke to Gertrude a couple of times back when she was archivist
HAHA BITCH YOU DINT EXPECT TWO REVIEWS IN A ROW DID YOU
anyways eeek! Jane Prentiss mention! And another live recording. I’m starting to enjoy these ones more than sims recording on his own. Love him doing the cute voices for each different person but it’s nice to hear a new voice.
Anyways back to the content. So there’s more out there like Jane…I guess that wasn’t really a big surprise. Jane was only a host after all. I guess we got the premise that she was the primary host but there was never a guarantee about that. The ants is new though. Jane used the creepy worms in the attack, then there was the wasps thing. I can’t actually remember the first episode mentioning Jane and her incident. But the nursing home… that strikes a bell. The fire stuff too.
There are two episodes that come to mind, one a stretch and one I’m certain is connected. The immediate connection is to MAG 36 “Taken Ill”. Apparently antman owned the place. And the place did smell disgusting if I remember correctly, as Nicole was just barely saved by that old man and the other woman. At least I think there was a woman with the old man?
The second possible connection is MAG 37 “Burnt Offering”. There’s just a lot of Fire related shit happening here. Probably not a connection but I can’t be too sure. I don’t want to risk overcomplicating things.
Also there’s this other organization??? I mean I realize that they were tj group that burned Jane’s body, which means there is some sort of response/task force that’s equipped to deal with the supernatural in a way that’s more direct than the Archives. That’s true enough in MAG 43 “Section 31” though I don’t think that’s connected to this organization.
I give this episode a 7.5 squishy walls out of 10 highly flammable bug bodies. Would use insecticide dust again.
Statement Ends.
Supplemental review:
Oh Fuck It’s The Calm Before The Storm
Why? Why? How dare you give Sims a small break to lull us into a false sense of security? You ass. At least he enjoyed Halloween.
I am so obsessed with how incredibly abruptly and beyond unsubtly Jon cuts off the recording when he asks Basira to let him have the Gertrude tapes in mag43. Buddy, buddy please, you could not be more suspicious if you were actively trying </33
[Waves like an overexcited mum seeing her child in a school play] Hi Basira!!!!!!
What struck me most about this episode for this relisten was how quickly Jon and Basira seemed to click with each other. These two were on each other's level from the first few lines.
More information about how the Institute works! Makes snese that they'd have thorough policies in place for information control, and cool that Jon is apparently good enough at his job by now to be familiar with correct procedure off the top of his head.
Look at how much effort Jon is going through to reassure her and help her feel comfortable giving her statement! This is such a far cry from his behaviour during every previous live statement he's ever taken. Took him long enough, but I guess he's finally decided to be more lovely.
Look at this! An attempt at levity! This is basically banter. Maybe Tim isn't way off base for thinking these two had something going on. This is definitely the most pleasant Jon has ever been with a statement-giver that wasn't one of his employees.
Always so great when the Archivist switches into statement mode and the statement-giver is like '...wtf do you want me to do now.'
Love this in terms of world-building. There are people who know about the supernatural and basically have the job of sweeping as much of it as possible under the rug, but don't expect them to know what's going on because they don't get told anything more than anyone else ever does.
At some point I'll have to put together a larger post about way that various institutions in the world must have been effected by the presence of the Entites, because its an aspect of the worldbuilding of TMA that is endlessly fascinating to me. Really hope this is something we get some new angles on in TMAGP.
I know a lot of people had issues with the portrayal of law enforcement (and Daisy and Basira's arcs specifically) in TMA and I don't intend to dive super deep into it, mostly because I'm a white woman who has never had any significant interaction with law enforcement, so I probably don't have anything particularly insightful to offer. All I'll say for now is that I think the series does a better job of saying ACAB than some people give it credit for, and we can see that in moments like this that explore 'us versus them' mentality within the cops (especially from the POV of Basira, who has her own issues with black and white morality and loyalty versus ethics).
I really can't imagine Basira being thrown by any amount of weirdness. Do we ever see her lose her composure over supernatural shit?
God Molina's such a fucking moron. What was his plan here? Just walk away from the fire dipshit, don't hang out raving like a lunatic and getting into fistfights.
Haha, Basira is the kind of person who takes welding classes on a whim. She's going to fit in so well with all the autism/ADHD girlies in the Archives.
We were so close to a Desolation v Desolation, y'all. Alas, Section 31 stayed in the rankings with 126 votes last round, and is up against Burnt Offering and its 136 RR2 votes for 256 Redemption Votes so far! Side note, I don't think I put this in any of the posts yet but did y'all know Burnt Offering is partially based on a true story? Like the finding a weird ritual site?
Statement of Police Constable Basira Hussain regarding her time investigating strange occurrences as part of Section 31. Statement taken direct from subject.