- colin is back, he's obviously still been antagonized by jmj and other watcher-like feelings since we last saw him, and he managed to smash 3 terminals and a server board before sam tackled him
- lena is once again concerned fir her workers' well being and is upset that they became physically involved, she'd rather colin break all the tech
- lena isnt concerned by the damage that much and says that even if its odd, its necessary. she may be in on that to some extent
- sam and alice were having a civil discussion and its clear alice cares for celia and her well being, sam also tackled colin to protect alice even though he partially agrees with him
gonna start posting my notes and theories on here more often, so
ep 17
some notes:
- the descriptions of the two men in the office sound suspiciously like jon and martin, though they, at that point, are in an entirely different dimension from both TMA and TMAGP
- description of the anger management office has similarities to the house on hilltop road (“whispered voices”)
- darrien experiences a sudden pain and very suddenly appears in another dimension
- “shopping centre”- oxford people’s trust at hilltop road, they sold donations for charity
- the magnus institute is somehow aware that weird shit happens at hilltop road and set up an outreach centre for it. quite possibly aware that people can sometimes end up there from another place
theories:
- the “viability as subject” is “low”, as opposed to the dice statement where it was “none”. this may confirm my suspicion that the institute wanted a person as their “subject”
- celia is from the original timeline, instead of taking the identity of the lynne hammond in this dimension, she made a new one. “not the same, isn’t it?”
Just listens to the first episode of the magnus protocol and I am so normal about it :) (lying)
Anyway here are my notes
I probably missed like 5 other names since there were a lot of people but oh well. Anyway I have a feeling that the guy who went spelunking might have grown new eyes and tried to scoop said eyes out, and I’m totally not biased because of that one fanfic I read where Jon tried to scoop out his extra eyes with a pomegranate spoon. (I’m so normal.) anyway everything revolves around the computers and I’m avoiding holding out hope that they ai bots are jon and Martin, although I guess the 3rd ai could be Annabel since that makes sense, but I really feel like jonny wouldn’t do that since it would undermine the ending of tma.
tma/tmagp spoilers under the cut as always, and im so sorry i keep posting these late, ive been a very busy bee!
celia:
- she's been collecting evidence about alchemy, with some of the examples including: transference, the spiritual substitution of elements, but an 'incomplete' version (pointed out by sam)
- she almost encourages sam to continue his research into the institute, telling him he was handling it well and teasing him with having information about it. i dont think she means it in any nefarious way, i think its most likely she wants to have another person to confide in and trust her findings to as she goes, and she finds having a second pair of eyes useful for research.
sam:
- he knows about alchemy from researching the institute, as they were very interested in the field. i think its important to note that he specifies he started learning about alchemy during his research, not during his time at the study. this doesnt mean alchemy played no part in the study with children, it could be that sam was too young to understand or they didnt involve the kids directly in that process, but the distinction feels important
- sam reveals he wants to try and let go of the magnus institute research (not followed by a glitch) because alice has been warning him
- sam has realized hes receiving incidents related to his conversations and interests, "are the computers listening to us?" he poses the question to alice, though, knowing shes unlikely to take it seriously or agree. i think he'll likely bring it up to celia next, but i do think its important he continues to involve alice in his questions despite her seeming indifference
alice:
- as usual, she doesnt believe theres anything supernatural about fr3-d1 and thinks the system is too buggy to do anything that advanced
- shes continuously getting jmj errors throughout her interaction with sam, and seems to be the only one experiencing the issue (no one else is complaining about them or getting them on-screen at least). i think its because she refuses to interact with the bait; the one time she received a targeted incident she chose to ignore it, so it seems that jmj have abandoned trying to reason with her
- this conversation with sam drives her to go visit colin at his house, and she still doesnt believe him ("idiots, idiots all the way down") though i do think she'll notice the connections between her conversations with sam and colin
gwen:
- shes very angry at lena for not giving her any protection or back up during assignments, clearly still shaken up by her encounter with bonzo (and that was with someone there as well)
- shes aware that starkwall have offered security to the oiar before, assumedly from her family and their connections since this seemed to be very hush/hush when sam and alice were discussing it
lena:
- she refuses to give gwen any back up because as she sees it, gwen volunteered for the job, blackmailed her, and is a bit entitled to safety she doesnt grant to others (she demands a body guard on assignments but has no problem with endangering celia)
- she rebuffs the starkwall idea, saying they escalate situations (and are likely not trained to delegate with externals, but to enact the protocol upon them when necessary)
- its revealed she used to be in gwen's position, and has completed many assignments alone before (getting a hint at her journey climbing the corporate ladder)
- she tells gwen to resign if she refuses to do her assignments (an offer she made to colin as well. and we see how distance and unemployment are suiting him and teddy respectively)
- she muses that gwen can have her family find her a new, better position if she does quit
COLIN:
- he's correct in assuming alice's phone is listening in, and refuses to let her enter with it on
- it sounds like hes boarded himself into his house (you can practically see the 4 different locks in the door gap) as he speaks to alice, and he sounds weak and ragged
- "you should be worried for yourselves"
- "what i need is to not be seen. he sees too much already" i dont think this is directed at chester/jon or augustus/jonah, rather i think the man whos been managing colin (the one requesting he make an app) is facilitating the surveillance of the office, but i still dont know the level of sentience jmj may have
- "not that anyone cares as long as it balances out", hes put together that the oiar is trying to establish a balance between the forces relating to alchemy, but wont go so far as to stop all suffering by them. he specifically references mercury and sulfur as elements in the equation
incident:
narrated by chester, directed at sam.
- this incident somewhat follows chester's normal themes: mentions of the magnus institute as well as using an incident relating to their recent conversation *(note on this in the extra comments)
- letter to robert boyle, from the bureau of robert hook (speaker), dated 1684 (before the tma!magnus institute was founded)
- the letter calls for help on the matter of isaac newton, who has been working in alchemy and treading upon 'mad scientist' territory, inciting use of "the protocol". its referred to in this way several times, never mentioning magnus in any way, making me suspect that the name could be a monicker claimed by the institute (or tmagp!jonah) as its own interpretation of the protocol. this also goes to show how old the protocol is, drawing into question if it has always remained the same or if it needs to undergo changes
- its revealed that the protocol was enacted over the entirety of london, potentially explaining why the magnus institute is based in manchester instead
- newton is working on the vegetative propagation of metals
- newton kept a mangy dog around the lab, important potentially for a connection to the corruption as we knew it in tma
- within the lab, there was a large, glowing element, the perfected work of wilhelm holmberg, an early chymist (bridge between the disciplines of alchemy and chemistry) who was working on transmutations of metalic elements
- the element was actually a small tree enveloped in a solution unfamiliar to the speaker.
- newton refers to the tree as a living work (a living organism) rather than a mineral
- the tree bore fruit that newton wanted hook to taste -> clear parallels here to the story of adam and eve, the lesson to not eat the forbidden fruit, when newton quotes a latin bible verse directed to adam
- isaac fed the fruit to the dog, which began to transform very similarly to the tree-hybrid man we heard from in episode 3 (flesh falling from the body, as tendrils root into the ground and it sprouts branches) and with an outside perspective, we can see the dog open one eye to look upon hook.
- this also draws another parallel to the bible (though this could be entirely coincidental), but newton feeding the element to his dog makes me think of abraham attempting to sacrifice isaac to god
- hook was horrified by the knowledge and consciousness within the dog's gaze, "it knew me not as a beast knows its master, but as a man knows another" / "it saw me and it knew me"
- newton 'cured' the dog by pouring the glowing solution over the dog, returning it to its normal form
- hook wants to enact the protocol to stop newton from spreading this to a human, fearing what evil a person could accomplish if given omniscience (another theme common to a chester-narration but equally well suited to an augustus one*)
- he specifies that the protocol should be enacted to destroy newton's lab and experiments, but not to harm newton himself, demonstrating that the protocol is a violent method of achieving balance
glitches/lies:
"just curious", said by celia in response to sam asking why shes looking into alchemy
extra comments:
- *i think that there was a scheduling conflict with the voice actors resulting in a switch between augustus and chester's incidents (since they read incidents back to back that seem to match each other's style and it seems odd that augustus would read a modern incident only for the next episode to match his usual flavor. im unsure if thats been confirmed by ajn or any other member of the crew, but if thats not the case it raises some very interesting questions about the nature of what each voice reads (do they have any control over it? is it driven by preference? by code? by the man colin is referencing?)
- any time gwen's family is brought up (usually as a gotcha) she steps down from the confrontation and deflects. i think she may have a rocky relationship with them, explaining why shes desperate to move up in the oiar, why she doesnt want to quit, and why she seems to cling to fragments of her posh life when she can
- this episode confirms the alchemy theory, and we now have a pretty solid base to start researching from. there seems to be a heavy emphasis placed on transformation between elements (with the trinity of alchemy being the mind, body, and soul) and keeping a balance of all the elements. though, sam observed the model/evidence that celia had wasnt complete. i think that the oiar classification book is a list of potential transformations of the trinity, and documents the different elements used to enact the transformation. i dont know much about alchemy, so ill need to do a deeper dive when i get the chance!
- the dog's transformation struck me as a very clear example of what makes a person a person, the question of tmagp (tma asked what made a person a monster). this poses that people have a level of consciousness that allows for evil and good, for complex recognition and knowledge, and potential. this is also playing on questions of free will (hook is concerned about what choices a person would make if given a higher level of sentience by newton's element. in tma, annabelle cain mused that Tolstoy cpuld be correct in his estimation of free will, that if a person was fully omniscient it would be revealed they have no free will, that by knowing every variable a person's actions predictable and set.)
- it was great to hear colin, even if hes clearly losing it in the physical manifestation of a VPN that he calls a house. i dont believe that the old fears still exist, but that seems to be the only explanation for how hes behaving. hes demonstrating every symptom of a victim of the eye, and i cant think of another element or force that could be triggering this exact reaction
i want to get more active on here again once s2 of tmagp starts but idk if ill be able to keep up w my old format of posting. i work 2 jobs and have just started full time classes (i took a gap year to work full time and this is kicking my ass) so my time is much more restricted now!! im thinking of making an excel spreadsheet to keep track of details that way i can add to existing observations? and it may not be a big addition every week, instead focusing on smaller things unless i have an epiphany? if this sounds interesting or if youde prefer how i used to log my episode notes lmk!!
TMAGP listening to ep1 and uhh oh my there are already a bunch of things... WHEW.
So is Sam marking that one statement for the "response unit" gonna be some kind of chekovs gun? i hope it is thatd be neat. Also Jon & Martin's voices reading out the statements is, PHEW, haunting...
So if i understand correctly this is another universe post-TMA finale, but if thats the case why do we have ANOTHER The Magnus Institute in... manchester? did i get that right? An abandoned Magnus Institute... Wonder if its an exact copy that had another Martin & jon & Tim & Sasha that just never got roped into discovering the fears... I mean ik if thatd be compatible with JOn & Martins voices being in the TMAGP machines... OR if its just another version of the magnus INstitute with different people that just... closed down around 2020 when the world ended in TMA... AGHH i love this sm there are so many things to figure out
NEVERMIND unpaused and it burned down around 2000 or 2004... maybe the version in which Gertrude managed to burn down the archives and so maybe... Jon & Martin & Tim & Sasha never entered the archives and are living normal if spooky lives. AGH its making me lose my mind.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN A BLAST FROM THE PAST SAM???? HUH. WHAT DO YOU KNOW.
