2025-08-21 0:30:52 ¶ ●

Jon and Tim will never not have an insane dynamic to me.

They aren’t even friends for 2/3 of the seasons of they interact, and yet when Tim dies it kills Jon’s humanity.
Not in a metaphorical sense either. In a quite literal sense as the events of the series are: Tim detonates off a bomb. The explosion kills him and mortally injuries Jon in a way that would have killed anyone else. Therefore, Jon has to give up his humanity and become an avatar to pull through.

Jon ending up as The Archivist is a direct consequence of him telling Tim to pull the trigger. It’s a direct consequence of him letting Tim go so he can keep an eye on him instead of leaving him back at The Institute.

It’s a direct consequence of him losing another friend.

Nearly everything that happens in Season 4 and 5 is because of the moment Jon and Tim’s arc come to end and their friendship ends for good. I know the phrase “haunt the narrative” gets tossed around a lot, but Tim really does haunt the rest of the series of the form of the numerus consequences that come from the aftermath of The Unknowing.

And quite frankly I don’t think Tim would want to haunt Jon is any other way.