Call me a useless lesbian Annabelle stan (you’d be right) but... yeah, I don’t see Martin coming out on top of this one, even if he is trying to out-manipulate her.* He has one strategy, which is to get people to underestimate him enough that when he draws their attention by putting himself in danger they won’t suspect that he’s actually distracting them from someone else. This worked really well against Elias the first time, because Elias didn’t give a shit about him as anything more than canon fodder; it worked against Peter Lukas for much the same reason, and because he was sincerely Lonely enough to be convincing.
Crucially, though, it did not work against Elias the second time. Martin’s scheme in season 4, which basically amounted to “get as much information as possible, stall Peter, then die,” played right into Elias’ hands and was one of the final steps towards implementing the apocalypse. Someone who has seen him pull this trick isn’t going to underestimate him again; they will, however, have a deeper understanding of how he works and how to play off of him going forward. The thing about this strategy is that it’s also the flipside of one of Martin’s fatal flaws, which is his low self-worth and tendency to isolate. His willingness to put himself into danger because he thinks it might be helpful isn’t just a strength, it’s also his deepest weakness, and it almost gets him killed.
There’s a pretty clear line that can be drawn between this whole M.O. and his childhood, which he spent making himself small and overlooked and agreeable in order to manage and survive around his mother. It’s not surprising that this script, which was the only method he had of gaining any modicum of control, is the one that he falls back on when he’s trying to make things happen. And sometimes he does pull it off, and it’s great! But if he’s up against Annabelle, who has been watching this entire time and knows exactly how he works and what his tactics are, I don’t think he’s going to be able to use being overlooked to his advantage. And, if he does try... that’s making himself vulnerable, which could very well be exactly what she’s counting on.
*Assuming he wasn’t kidnapped, I think it’s also possible that Martin’s desperate for any tiny sliver of hope, and is just grabbing onto what Annabelle’s offering him with both hands. He doesn’t always have a plan; in fact, season 5 has pretty much just been him making choices with no idea of what he’s actually going to do, and his unwillingness to engage with things that disturb him means he’s not been great at looking ahead. She presumably found him at a time when he was struggling a lot with despair; all the things he didn’t want to admit are hitting him at once, including the very real chance that he might lose Jon. There are plenty of reasons why he would want to go along with her, including just... the fact that any chance at all is better than none. Theoretically. Personally, I think this decision will have horrible consequences, but we’ll have to see.
Things are coming to a head, spiders-wise, so I figured I should finally type up the Definitive Web Theory I’ve had floating around for a while before it’s too late! I think I’ve written parts of it down before, but never in its entirety. Let’s goooooo.
1. The Web is trying to unseat the Eye as the Head Bitch In Charge. This is the purpose of the heavy emphasis on arson that it seems to be pushing--the Web lighter, the references to fire in the statements left for Jon, etc. It’s going to manipulate someone, maybe Martin but also probably Melanie “little moth” King, into burning the Panopticon down, thinking that’ll save the world. It won’t. It’ll just create a power vacuum the Web can fill.
1b. This is what Annabelle is trying to convince Martin to do--she doesn’t even have to tell him any lies to convince him, just leave out a few pieces of important information.
2. Once in charge, the next step is going to be to solve that little food source problem Oliver mentioned. The powers are going to slowly start starving; they need a renewable source of fear, or at least, one that won’t be used up as quickly. This is where the crack in reality in Hill Top Road comes in. The Web will lure victims in from across the multiverse while staying in its home dimension like uh, well, spider in a web.
2b. It’s possible that the aforementioned unseating of the Eye will create a larger crack in reality, since the original one was made through inter-power conflict with the Desolation. If true, this will help the Web bring in a larger number of victims, or potentially reach more worlds. After all--Mr. Spider Wants More.
3. Speaking of Mr. Spider--we have a precedent for the Web luring someone to enter through a door, presumably to be eaten, and doors are often used as metaphors for inter-dimensional portals in TMA. See, for example, the I OPEN THE DOOR in the invocation that started this whole mess. The description Anya Villette gives of being pulled through the crack in reality--spindly arms reaching out through a portal to pull her in--sounds a lot like what happened to the kid in AGFMS. The difference is that Anya stumbled across the crack in reality, while the kid was compelled. But if the Web needs a larger number of victims, it’s probably not going to wait around for more coincidences like that.
4. Which is where the tapes come in. We have strong precedent of the Web using stories and media for its own nefarious ends. See AGFMS, but also Annabelle figuring out Jon’s weakness to getting stuck in statements and using that against him, the pseudo-archival message boards in Web Development, Creature Feature, etc. These were all experiments leading up to the Web using the tapes to build a complex lure--one that will evoke both fear and fascination, that will get people listening, get them invested in the Archivist, who also watched longer than he should have, not realizing that they’re in danger of sharing his fate...
5. ...Until it’s too late, and it’s pulled you in. The Web is already here, in this world--lurking on the other side of the thin membrane of reality, watching you through the cracks that wait in basements and abandoned warehouses and behind closed doors on otherwise unremarkable streets. It sent the tapes across, packaged as a podcast, and its threads are wrapped around you, now. It’s only a matter of time until it pulls.
Or... well. I think that’s the plan, anyway. Who knows how the cast will interact with this--there’s still time for them to throw some wrenches into the Web’s plans, if they are very careful and very, very lucky. Of course, that also means there’s still time for the Web to make things even worse for them. We’ll have to see!
As a certified Redstringer I am popping back out of the ether to say that I am pumped. My evil spider wife has returned and I love her so much. Also that argument was great and I can’t wait for things to just keep getting worse
