I am confused about something. How was the Not!Them both bound to the table and impersonating Sasha? I mean, we know it only impersonated her because Sasha came too close, but then wouldn’t it be free? Michael says the table was binding the monster when Jon breaks it. But isn’t it currently in the body of Sasha James (sort of)?
I mean, unless Michael is somewhat wrong and the table isn’t currently binding the Not!Them. Which is possible. Michael is the Distortion, after all.
All right, there are lots of theories! I’ll probably add more later, as more people comment.
1. The Not!Them just has a very wide range. Not!Sasha was able to go to the Wax Museum, which is a long way away from the Institute. Michael was BSing about the table being effective binding, because that is not effective, Adelaird.
2. The Not!Them was limited in power, not range—it wasn’t stuck to the table/ it could go full monster when unbound. Contradicted by the fact that Jon did notice something monstrous out of the corner of his eye before and that this isn’t actually limiting the Not!Them, as it can take fear and victims perfectly fine in human form in the statements it shows up in.
2a. I’m seeing this one a lot, actually. The contradiction above was from dathen, not me, so I’m going to think about it. It boils down to something like ‘the Not!Them was limited in power and the table let it reach full power. However, we don’t really see what ‘full power’ is. Sure, Not!Sasha gets creepier, but she doesn’t have cause to not be. Jon knows now.
3. The Web made it so that the Not!Them could only attack an archival assistant so that it would get Jon marked when he confronted it. A contradiction arises in that the Unknowing would be a much easier way to mark Jon with the Stranger. This is a very intriguing theory, though. (Also, while it’s canon, I’m not of the opinion that the Web is actually sentient.)
4. The Not!Them can attack only those who move near it but then have a wide range afterwards, using that human body. It seems like this would be the effect of the table. Which actually makes it a little more effective; push it deep into Artifact Storage and really, no one should come near! Sasha…*Beholds you for it* However, we have the weird-as-heck case of Graham, who was near the Web Table, with a bound Not!Them in it, for weeks if not longer. This is the new confusing part about the Not!Them.
Theory 4 seems like the most accurate. It seems as though the Not!Them, being bound to the table, is not able to attack anyone that isn’t right next to the table. However, it can use its new body to travel where it wants.
So, what binding the monster did was to decrease the chances of people getting attacked. What breaking the table did was quite possibly nothing. I feel like the answer to my question is ‘the Not!Them is now in the form of Sasha—there is no monster in the table’.
The real question here is: why did the Not!Them wait so long before eating Graham?