“There is nothing that interests you that will not be dear to me” is such a powerful statement said to Lucy, who as we can easily guess is prone to masks and dismissing parts of herself she thinks may be uninteresting to other people. Mina knows this tendency and constantly reassures her: No I don’t think it’s frivolous of you to talk about your wedding dress, or think it’s boring to hear you debate about public vs private weddings, or think it’s self-absorbed to get caught up in whatever little detail—I love hearing any of it because I love you!

Jon, after recording his statement about Mr. Spider: I don’t have any evidence to prove this, of course. If I had given this statement to myself I would have dismissed it out of hand.

Jon, every time he actually gets a statement about a Leitner: I know this is true and am going to fistfight Elias for not doing enough to protect people from these fuCKING books—

Who did Jon actually suspect in TMA season 2?

An age-old fandom joke is to make fun of season 2 Jon for “accusing Tim and Martin of murder” and “he suspected everyone but Not!Sasha.”  I’m on a roll from my “did season 1 Jon dismiss statements” series, so now I gotta tackle this one!

My main goal is to point out the times he DID suspect Not!Sasha--and was the only human on the team to do so--but for the hell of it I’m going to keep a tally of how many times he mentions investigating/suspecting each person.  I’m also going to note other out-of-place things Jon noticed, some of which were due to Leitner, but definitely played a role in confirming that someone within the archives was being deceptive.

TMA 41 Too Deep -  “Elias is a prime suspect, but it could have been any of them.”  

TMA 42 Grifter’s Bone - Jon is nervous about Martin’s sudden doting and attentive behavior.  He goes through Martin’s poetry and letters.  

TMA 44 Tightrope  - Jon discovers that someone had been rifling through his desk drawer with the secret tapes.  (possibly Leitner)

TMA 45 Blood Bag - Jon looks into Tim’s background and takes photos of his house.

TMA 46 Literary Heights - Jon discovers that someone with a key has been using the trapdoor into the tunnels.  Everyone denies it when he asks.

TMA 47 A New Door - Michael tells Jon “they’re lying to you, you know.”  

TMA 48 Lost in the Crowd - Jon reveals that he already looked into Sasha’s background and found nothing unusual, but is now conflicted about whether Michael’s warning was genuine or if he was just messing with his head.  After Elias confronts him for spying on the others and tells him to stop investigating, Jon doubles down on his suspicion of him.

TMA 49 Butcher’s Window - Jon looks into Elias’s background.  (Running tally: mentioned Elias 3 times vs. 1 for everyone else!)

TMA 51 High Pressure - Jon records a conversation with Sasha in Artefact Storage, then finds that she’s been visiting a wax museum every few days during her lunch breaks.

TMA 52 Exceptional Risk - Jon confronts Sasha about her long lunch breaks, learns about the “boyfriend.”  (Running tally:  3 for both Elias and Sasha, 1 for the other two!)

TMA 56 Children of the Night - Jon confronts Martin over ‘lying’ to him about Trevor’s death, brings up the letter he found.  After learning about his faked CV, this is the last time Jon expresses suspicion over Martin.  (I also can’t help but point out the previous few episodes show Jon softening towards Martin, with him inviting himself out to lunch with Martin in TMA 53 and learning the jar of ashes was real in TMA 55.  The severity of the confrontation no doubt is influenced by how much he let his guard down and it taking it especially hard since it’s Martin)  Grand total for Martin:  2

TMA 57 Personal Space - Jon searches Sasha’s desk.  Sasha is now in the lead with 4!!  “Suspected everyone but the Not!Them” my ass!!!

TMA 58 Trail Rations - Jon records a conversation between Martin and Tim.  He confirms he no longer suspects Martin, but doubles down on his worries about Tim.

TMA 59 Recluse - Jon notices the others avoiding and talking about him (planning the upcoming intervention).  

TMA 60 Observer Effect - Everyone confronts Jon over his behavior.  After reviewing the doctored CCTV footage (a monthlong process, according to Tim in TMA 65), Jon decides to stop investigating them. “I can’t quite figure out whether this exoneration of my colleagues is more of a relief or a frustration.  At the very least, it seems I have been...  I have been rather unfair to them.”

Running total so far:

The investigations stop temporarily, before Jon’s suspicion of Sasha is renewed, but it’s fascinating that fandom collectively forgot that Jon looked into Sasha as much as Martin and Tim combined, and mentioned Elias as his primary suspect twice, but somehow concluded “Jon accused Tim and Martin of murder, while ignoring Elias and Sasha!”

TMA 68 Tale of a Field Hospital - Jon notices that Sasha “seemed far too tall” in the tunnels, and that he didn’t recognize her at first.

TMA 76 The Smell of Blood - After Melanie accuses Jon of toying with her about Sasha, Jon turns his full attention towards her.  “There’s more than one thing in the files that can trick you. I can’t just ignore it.”

TMA 77 The Kind Mother - Jon learns about the Not!Them, and realizes Sasha has been killed and replaced.  “If it’s here, if Sasha… I’m going to find out how to kill it.”

And here we have our final total!!

Does Jon deny all the statements/the Supernatural ROUND EIGHT:  TMA 36-39

At last...the final installment I procrastinated on as I got caught up in my s2 relisten.  And the thrilling conclusion!!

- TMA 36 - Taken Ill:  “Another tale full of dead ends,” Jon says.  The lack of documentation and corroborating evidence for this one was notable even to Sasha, but Jon notes that “based on this statement, that’s not necessarily a point of incredulity.”  AND THEN!!  This entire last paragraph deserves attention!!

Jon, is your academic detachment fleeing you again?  Did you forget that you’re supposed to be pretending not to believe these?  Look at you comparing the vibes of the statement to one you’ve already stated you believe (and for the correct entity too!), working off your gut feeling again!  Look at you making connections to statement-givers that it took me three listens to catch!  These are not the words of a dismissive researcher.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed, connected to other statements.

- TMA 37 - Burnt Offering:  Jon admits that there’s no evidence that would require that this incident is supernatural, but doesn’t go so far to say it isn’t.  Despite the lack of definitive corraborating support, Jon concludes shakily, “I have no idea what this means. I have no idea what any of this means. I’m...very tired.”  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

- TMA 38 - Lost and Found:  The last statement of season 1!!  Here, Jon is clearly on the way to supporting it:  “Before I dig too deeply into the background of this statement, I feel I should mention something that puts much of it in a slightly different light.”  He then brings up the half-empty marriage license, then goes on to talk about Salesa as the source of many of the items in Artefact Storage--which he and his fellow professed-skeptic Sasha easily agree is full of genuinely supernatural items.  Conclusion:  Supported.

TMA 39 AND CONCLUSION

Throwing the rest under a cut as I tie it all together!

Let’s look at both Martin’s accusation and Jon’s response.

“It made sense at first” is a very curious comment here.  If you look back over my past posts, Jon is more critical of the earlier statements, but Martin thought that approach made sense.  However, more recently, Martin feels Jon has gotten more vicious and more in denial.  There’s a few important things to note, here:

- As I noted in my previous entry in this series, Jon flat-out stated that he knew the “worm queen thing” was supernatural.  Apparently, Martin hasn’t listened to this statement, which in turn shows that Martin isn’t listening to 100% of Jon’s recordings.  

- Jon is also recording dozens of false statements.  Which--as time goes on--he is more and more sure they’re false.  As soon as something starts recording to the laptop, the “this is fake” sign starts flashing in Jon’s brain.  He’s trying to be kinder to Martin and not take his stress out on him, so imagine him unleashing all his stress and fear by ranting about the statements he knows are lies, or pranks, or superstitions, or “I think my weird neighbor is a cultist,” or “I had sleep paralysis but I’m pretty sure it was a demon,” or conspiracy theories...   Martin is hearing all of this!  Martin doesn’t have the Beholding instinct of feeling the weight of a god’s gaze on his back whenever a Real Statement is being read!  He’s hearing Jon snarl and snark about a good 98% of what they record, and it’s a matter of chance for whether he even listens to the 2% that were caught on tape--and that we hear in the show.

- Martin was really, really worked up about the Carlos Vittery statement.  Just like what happens with a lot of listeners, that one no doubt stood out in his mind as the #1 example of “Jon comes up with bullshit explanations to brush off stuff that is OBVIOUSLY weird” that would easily overshadow more rational follow-ups like “this person admitted to drinking heavily that night.”

So what is Jon confessing to?

Here, Jon is repeating what we’ve seen the whole time: that he never said he doesn’t believe the supernatural, as we’ve seen from how up-front he is about the danger Leitner tomes pose, and how much effort he makes in the follow-up.  The difference is that after a certain point he knows which are and aren’t real right off the bat--

--but doesn’t admit it.  

It isn’t that he’s accusing them all of being fake, it’s that he KNOWS they’re true, but Hive is the only one where he admits “I know this is true because I can feel it.”  He’s feigning ignorance--pretending that he doesn’t know in his gut that those 2% are real.  That’s where the professional skepticism comes in, which genuinely is part of his job!  He’s relying on his skills as a researcher, using corroborating evidence and follow-up to verify the likelihood of a statement being a prank, a lie, a misunderstanding, or something genuinely paranormal.  

In reality, Jon feels the weight of those eyes on him the moment the tape recorder clicks on, and has to pretend he doesn’t know right away that it’s real.  

I was just sitting here thinking about how the Vampire Hunter statement actually bears a lot of resemblance to the Guest for Mr Spider book and

guess which was one of the three statements that Jon actually dismisses in season one

[[stares into the sun]]

Does Jon deny all the statements/the Supernatural ROUND SEVEN:  TMA 31-35

Oops I fell behind because I was most excited about doing Sasha’s episode.  But we got another milestone development in this batch! 

- TMA 31 - First Hunt:  Neither confirmed nor denied.  Jon admits he’s not going to investigate this one, bookending the commentary with how scared he is with Prentiss looming.  Conclusion:  None

- TMA 32 - Hive:   “We still don’t have any evidence that Prentiss is actually paranormal. It could just be an unknown, aggressive parasite. There are weird things out there that are perfectly natural. It’s not, though. I know it’s not natural. Somehow I… I feel it. I’m sorry, my academic detachment seems to have fled me.”  I CANNOT OVERSTATE HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS.  Here Jon is skipping over doing his job of weighing the evidence vs. other possible explanations, recording his gut feeling that he knows Prentiss is supernatural.  That’s not how investigations are supposed to work!  And he immediately admits this, that he’s supposed to have ~academic detachment~ and not just conclude off his feelings, but he can’t help it.  Also important: Martin must have not listened to this tape before Prentiss’s attack; he could have easily pulled out “I heard you admit that you know Prentiss is supernatural” in his argument, but instead went with “why do you not believe ANYTHING.”  Conclusion:  Believed.

- TMA 33 - Boatswain’s Call:  Part of Jon’s job is to narrow down what specific element of a statement is potentially supernatural to compare it to the evidence, and in this case says there wasn’t any precise moment--BUT he still ends up talking to Elias about it, on an off-limits topic, because of all the circumstantial weirdness he found.  He also gets so very pissy at how “Elias gets very twitchy when we look into anything that might conceivably have funding repercussions”; he WANTS to dig deeper, and chafes at the limitations Elias’s donor-seeking puts on him.  Quite opposite of the “this is all bullshit and a waste of my time” characterization.  Conclusion:  Possibly supernatural, brought up with Elias.

- TMA 34 - Anatomy Class:  Jon lines up the factors against this statement being real vs. what they could verify.  Each time he states one of his (fabricated) doubts, he states a reason against it:  “the admin contact could have been in on it, but Tim believes her” “it’s possible the teeth were planted in the apple, but it’s a long way to go for a joke” (side note: there are many real cases of people planting objects in food as hoaxes, so “the teeth may have been planted as a joke” has real-life basis).  In the end, Jon doesn’t come to a solid conclusion.  Conclusion:  Suspicious but nothing confirmed.

- TMA 35 - Old Passages:  “From an evidence standpoint, this case is a complete bust.  However, too many of the names and features match with other statements for me to dismiss it.”  Jon had a flat-out cover-up on his hands, where the only evidence he could find from his digging was lies, but there’s Gerry!  There’s Leitner!  Jon knows his stuff and is making connections!  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

This is the segment where Jon’s fear is making his own coping mechanism against the fear crack, but also where his natural curiosity is showing through.  “I’ll just feign disbelief” Jon says, but is still burning to know what’s really behind the statements he by now knows are true, and we all know how bad a liar Jon is.  Up to this point, it’s been really interesting to see how much Jon relies on his tone to convey disbelief and skepticism, while the actual words almost always leave the possibility open: it’s very much a performance.  And here he doesn’t even properly perform; he’s tangibly afraid of a threat he admits is supernatural at this point, even bringing it up in recordings that have nothing to do with the case.

Does Jon deny all the statements/the Supernatural ROUND SIX:  TMA 26-30

I’ve been excited to get to this batch for ages because it’s time for y’all to meet the real skeptic: Sasha James

- TMA 26 - A Distortion:  To get it out of the way: “If she says that this is what happened, then I believe her.”  It’s a bit hilarious that Jon gives the disclaimer that he might not believe one of the others so easily, but PAL YOU ALREADY BELIEVE MARTIN more than anyone else in the whole Institute!!

In the meantime, TMA 26 is incredibly underrated and underused for so many excellent Sasha characterization details!!  Among these is “I’ve always considered myself a bit of a skeptic, and until recently I’d have said working at the Institute only made me more so.”  We already know that Jon’s skepticism was an act for Beholding, but Sasha?  That’s just what she’s like.  

And then, of course, the big one, where she actually has evidence and eyewitness testimony and access to the threats Jon got over texts: “Well, I’m sure you know I was skeptical about how dangerous this Jane Prentiss was when you first suggested Martin stay in the archive.”  Oh, and this is with the documentation that Prentiss killed six people while escaping the hospital, not to mention the Squirm statement....but is Prentiss really a threat?  I mean, if Martin can encounter her and survive....

Anyway!  Conclusion:  Instantly believed, Jon badgers Elias again for more protections.

- TMA 27 - A Sturdy Lock:  “He admits himself that he has no proof of any of it. Yet part of me still wants to believe him.”  The follow-up almost exclusively brings up other peoples’ accounts contradicting the details of the statement, and Jon is inclined to believe it anyway despite there being obvious other possible explanations.  From the sound of it, Jon was the one who took him the most seriously, even compared to his family members.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

- TMA 28 - Skintight:  Another widely misinterpreted one!  The much-maligned “Jon told Melanie she was full of shit” characterization comes down to one line: “And you’re sure you weren’t dreaming?”  A pretty basic follow-up question, and almost identical to the “You’re sure about this?” question he asked after Martin’s statement.  Even despite the offense Melanie took to the question and the subsequent argument, Jon doesn’t dismiss the statement!  He starts with “there’s little we can follow up,” but a significant amount of follow-up was made, and Jon planned to review earlier files to see what “Sarah Baldwin” reminded him of.  He also examined the two recoverable frames of the footage Melanie got and made his own Spooky Notes on it.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

 - TMA 29 - Cheating Death:  Someone gives an account of inheriting and passing on the role of the Grim Reaper, and Jon doesn’t even make any snarky comments as he attempts follow-up and immediately hits a dead end.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

- TMA 30 - Killing Floor:  Jon details the follow-up attempts they made for this one, most of which resulted in no additional info.  He makes no comments doubting the experience.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed.

We’re in the home stretch!  I’m building up to a thought with all of these for what Jon actually meant by his confession in TMA 39, but you’ll need to stick with me until then.

Does Jon deny all the statements/the Supernatural ROUND FIVE:  TMA 21-25

IT’S TIME FOR YOU KNOW WHO~

- TMA 21 - Freefall:  Thanks to Martin rushing in with Worm Time, Jon didn’t complete his post-statement comments.  That said, despite Jon starting with the most theatrically put-upon tone of “before we address whether the sky can...’eat people,’” he combs through the follow-up details thoroughly, adding an adorable “Tim really outdid himself here” comment along the way.  He’s interrupted at the end while adding his own connections.  “One other thing bothers me--” before he starts to bring up the fact that his very first research case involved Simon Fairchild!  Conclusion:  Not dismissed

- TMA 22 - Colony:  THE BOY THE BOY THE BOY THE BOY--   Okay down to business.  “Okay-- Th...thanks. T-to be honest I-I didn’t, didn’t expect you to...take it seriously.”  Also Jon gets cut off mid-sentence, but I love how “I take it deadly serious” is like his Serious Face Archivist Catch Phrase.  Conclusion:  Believed, starts organizing protections and preparations, takes it more seriously than Elias, Tim, and Sasha

- TMA 23 - Schwartzwald:  Another historical statement Jon didn’t need to do follow-up on, but...he does it anyway!  “Obviously there isn’t much follow-up to be done here, but to slake my own interest I have done a little bit of digging myself.”  He then dives into a highly detailed description of his historical fact-checking, and then concludes with a nervous “it concerns me” when he traces it to Mary Keay.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed, does more research than necessary

- TMA 24 - Strange Music:  “While I have what I would consider to be some natural reservations about a tale of murderous clown dolls, there are a few things that make me more inclined than usual to believe this statement.”  Jonathan Archivist Sims that is the most flimsy “normally I’d be skeptical BUT--” you’ve done so far you ridiculous man.  “I know for a fact that sitting in the Magnus Institute’s Artefact Storage, is a bright red Calliaphone steam organ.”  Jon flat-out admits belief, but wraps it up in this silly “I might be more inclined...” phrasing to mask it.  Conclusion:  Believed

- TMA 25 - Growing Dark:  I have to start with a side note that Jon brings up Martin’s research in this follow-up with no disparaging comments!  The last one in the entire series is way back in episode 17.  

Anyway!  Jon begins with another laughably weak “The last section, naturally, is the one that invites my skepticism, but let us disregard that for now and discuss the other aspects.”  AND THEN.  He once again makes connections that the police investigation didn’t!  Jon connects the amulet with the Church of the Divine Host symbol on it to Julia’s statement, while the statement giver said the police had no interest in it.  No interest!  In something that connected with the #1 serial killer case in the country!!  

It wraps up with yet another “I’d be content enough to ignore this… if it wasn’t for the fact--” along with Jon adding his own Spooky Feelings about it happening the same day as Gertrude’s death.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed, takes more seriously than the police did, made connections they missed

And yet another batch without a single statement dismissed!  Add two to the “fully believed” count, and almost all of these Jon goes above and beyond with connections, research, or taking action.  His actions during this segment literally lead to Elias making backhanded comments about how gullible and overreactive Jon is about the supernatural later on, treating him like some sort of “boy who cried wolf” when it came to Prentiss.

Does Jon deny all the statements/the Supernatural ROUND FOUR:  TMA 16-20

SO MUCH GOING ON IN THIS RANGE OF EPISODES.  You get everything from the most absurd skepticism to Jon getting in fights with Elias again to Jon calling out the police for shortcutting their investigation.  Let’s gooooooo

- TMA 16 - Arachnophobia:  Here it is pals!  The one you’ve all been waiting for!  The very first full and complete dismissal and “there’s nothing supernatural about this OBVIOUSLY” statement in the entire series.  He drops the follow-up rapidly, barely wanting to touch the case.  And, not coincidentally, this is the statement that begins with “Can you be haunted by the ghost of the spider that ruined your childhood?” Conclusion:  Dismissed on practical and supernatural level.

- TMA 17 - The Boneturner’s Tale:  We go straight from the biggest dismissal to ANOTHER LEITNER.  Not only does Jon start with “as it stands now, I believe every word,” but he is ANGY.  Jon not only announces that he’s going to confront Elias again, but that it’s a regular conversation by now and he knows how Elias--I must emphasize, the head of the institute!! the one that runs the whole place and sets their goals!!--will just brush him off.  “I know he’ll just give me the old 'record and study, not interfere or contain’ speech again,” he grouses.  To the tapes.  About his boss.  The head of the Institute.  You gotta love it.

There’s also a later tidbit that stands out: Jon said he was doing “as much research as possible” himself, potentially on his own time as well, to help with the follow-up to track down the book.  He took this statement extremely seriously, and only concluded it when their last lead hit a dead-end.  Conclusion:  Jon is going to fistfight his boss for not taking it seriously enough.

- TMA 18 - The Man Upstairs:  Jon starts noncommittal on the wildest detail of the statement, but not dismissive: “I’m not entirely sure I agree [the vanishing meat monster with eyes was real], although obviously there’s little in the way of evidence to the contrary.”  And then he adds his own commentary on additional strange details he noticed.  Conclusion:  Not Dismissed

- TMA 19 - Confession:  Part 1 of a two-parter, but it’s noteworthy that Jon doesn’t make any derisive or skeptical comments about what he’s read so far.

- TMA 20 - Desecrated Host:  Along with Dreamer, this is another contender for a much-overlooked significant statement reaction.  To start, Jon refrains from dismissing or questioning any of the supernatural elements in the story, and points out the significance of Breekon and Hope showing up.  But his comments on the police investigation stand out the most:  “This all leads me to believe that there may have been a second person there that night, although from talking with the police, I get the impression that there is little appetite for re-opening the case, considering how successful the initial prosecution was.”  And the lead-up to it:   “What interests me... Also, it strikes me that... Finally, there is the small detail mentioned...”  Jon is puzzling it all together himself, noticing details that the official investigation swept under the rug or never noticed in the first place.  He ends with a backhanded comment implying that they took shortcuts in their case and closed it too soon.  Conclusion:  Not dismissed, fuck the police.

So in this stretch we have the dismissal that would come to characterize fandom’s perception of s1 Jon for years to come (bringing our total to two dismissals in the series so far).  In turn, this batch brings us TWO cases of Jon criticizing authority for not doing enough, and putting in a lot of extra work himself.  Good for him!!!