Not a very profound thing to point out and probably something that’s been said before, but Karolina Górka from Underground though always tracking dirt, does not seem like an avatar. She is definitely marked by Choke after her experience on the Underground, but she lacks the obsession that all other avatars possess. I think of her similar in a sense to Leto from Like Ants, though he was actively trying it seems to become an avatar. They are both marked but not quite “enough” to be an evangelist for their related fears. Karolina in fact seems to hold no fear related to the Buried whatsoever, and I struggle to think of her being that great of a victim for that entity or any entity. I could very easily see her becoming an agent of the end if she ever encountered the means to. And to reference Like Ants again, had John and Martin found her somewhere deep underground in season 5 I’m sure the eye would make her an avatar of dirt and crushing screaming metal.
It strikes me as interesting that the buried seems to have the most amount of recorded escapes. While it is true that everyone in the magnus archives survives long enough to give a statement, many of these people subsequently die from the very things they were giving a statement about, rarely through other means. If they do survive they are haunted by these events and similar fears for the rest of their lives. But Karolina Górka and Joshua Gillespie both had close encounters with the Buried and were able to get themselves through it. I find it hard to believe Joshua would have lingering fears about something he “forgot was even there” except when it rained. And Karolina still takes the underground.
Not predators, but not good prey either. Leto doesn’t quite fit this as his own love and respect for ants made him especially good for a unique brand of torture, but Joshua and Karolina are both in this unique limbo state. And after encountering the same entity no less.
