Hamilton-style musical of rendition of Robert Smirke’s crew and the fallout between himself, Jonah Magnus, and the rest of them.
Ambitious Scottish upstart Jonah Magnus, plunging into the scene of higher society and academia
Interpersonal drama in the esoteric research and philosophy sphere
A power ballad aria from Smirke as he describes his grand, utopian plans for balance
Jonah seeing the wonders of this new world and getting increasingly involved in it, probably getting in some heated theoretical debates with Rayner et al. about it because, being Beholding- and Dark-aligned, their fundamental views would be diametrically opposed
A slowly-shifting musical motif for Jonah as his intentions develop over the course of the play
Barnabas pleading with Jonah through his letter; they’re in separate parts of the stage with different lightings and they can’t see each other. Jonah is reading, rather than listening to, his words
SPOTLIGHTS REMINISCENT OF EYES
Harrowing solo as Jonah sinks deeper into fearing the possibility of rituals
More below the cut because I’m going nuts about this.
I would feel like there’s too much ground to cover (c. 1809 [estimated year Jonah gets introduced to the Fears if he established the Institute in 1818 and talked Smirke into working on Millbank 1815-1821] all the way to 1867 [year of Smirke’s death and the final decommissioning of Millbank: the year in which I place Jonah’s first attempt at the Watcher’s Crown]) if it weren’t for the several decades covered in Hamilton. It provides a pretty good guide for such a varied timeline.
More insane scenes:
Contrast of Albrecht Von Closen’s 1816 letter informing Jonah of his findings at his nephew’s estate vs Dr. Johnathan Fanshawe’s 1831 letter revealing how Jonah knowingly caused Von Closen’s death by stealing his books and got him filled with eyes
Smirke watching the group he formed fall to the Fears in turn, clinging to his alliance with Jonah and therefore being blind to his own turn towards Beholding
Jonah’s financial wheedling with Mordechai Lukas and other donors for his fledgling Institute
Jonah being so gleeful about his brand new Magnus Institute in Edinburgh, after several years of compiling statements informally
HE GETS TO DELIGHT IN ALL THE SCHEDULING AND LOGISTICS!!!
Just. all the letters we have record of. I haven’t even gotten to Dr. Algernon Moss or the conflict between George Gilbert Scott and Sampson Kempthorne
I do kind of get why Basira and Jon haven’t been interacting much in season 4:
(MAG140) BASIRA: You don’t remember any of it?
ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] You drink the whole contents of a bar in three seconds, you don’t remember what the merlot tasted like. [SIGH] It just… hurt.
BASIRA: Sure.
ARCHIVIST: No, and I’m not about to push my luck in trying to force it. Besides, I– I rarely get anything when The Dark is involved? It… [SIGH] [DRYLY] It’s a bit of a blind spot.
BASIRA: Er… Jon. What’s this.
[DRY SOUND]
ARCHIVIST: Mm? … Oh. That’s… [SILENCE] That, uh, that’s… my rib.
BASIRA: … Right. [PUTS IT DOWN]
ARCHIVIST: Yup…
BASIRA: And… the jar of ashes.
ARCHIVIST: Not– Not mine; I–I mean, it belongs to me, I–I guess, but it’s not… Er, stationery is in the other drawer?
BASIRA: The darkest place on the surface of the Earth: the North Pole, during the Winter Solstice.
ARCHIVIST: I mean, are you suggesting that Santa works for the People’s Church?
BASIRA: Jon.
BASIRA: There is one more thing, that might convince you.
ARCHIVIST: They have an Eldritch ball of some sort of manifested dark matter, that’s going to be the focus of the ritual.
BASIRA: … I thought you said you couldn’t know things about them!
BASIRA: I will bring all the guns from Daisy’s old stash, you bring the Spook you used to mess up that delivery guy.
[SILENCE]
ARCHIVIST: Wh… at? That’s it? [PAUSE] Christ, I thought my plans were half-arsed.
ARCHIVIST: … Why am I always the last to know about these things?
BASIRA: By this point, I just assume the Eyeball tells you.
ARCHIVIST: That would imply it tells me anything useful… But no, I’m stuck knowing [STATIC] how your year eight PE teacher died.
BASIRA: … Miss Peterson?
ARCHIVIST: Pancreatic cancer, if you’re interested.
BASIRA: I… wasn’t?
ARCHIVIST: … No…! No, o–o–of, of course not. [CLEARS THROAT]
ARCHIVIST: I don’t suppose you could get some of the… team that helped you to get Rayner down last time.
BASIRA: Oh yeah. Sure. I’ll just drop them a message.
ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]
BASIRA: You know, we’ve actually got a group chat going called “British Cops Who Love To Do Extrajudicial Spook-Killings On Foreign Soil”.
ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]
BASIRA: I’ll just see if they’re free this Saturday.
ARCHIVIST: Yes, yes, alright!
