a guest for mr spider is a top tier statement to me for a lot of reasons but the way it explains why jon is like That. his desire for answers is not a funny little protagonist quirk that dooms him or whatever, it exits because when he was eight he saw someone disappear behind a door, he was offered a mystery and then he spent the rest of his life chasing after answers, opening doors (elias is playing his victim blaming card over there because he’s manipulated jon by denying him necessary information that Would’ve discouraged him from making a lot of those choices, like accepting the job! but he’s also not lying). and doors in the podcast are a recurring symbol of separation of the mundane from the supernatural (it’s also in the way every ritual speaks of metaphorically “opening a door”), jon’s first fear mark involves him being traumatised (at a formative age. he was eight! something about the way that book was designed to attract a child is kind of vile to me, but why would the entities discriminate based on age?)—and traumatised in such a manner that it also cultivates in him a lifelong desire to seek out the supernatural. because he needs to know, something incomprehensible happened to him and he needs to understand. this doesn’t mean he brought that all on himself, it’s just another thing the podcast has to say about trauma and how it leaves its mark upon you (and in jon’s case, tangibly. you are living a chronicle of terror)
Jon’s phrasing describing avatars as things that “barely remember how to be human” demonstrates a view of humanity as a skill or a set of actions, signifying that he does not feel an inherent connection to the concept and so would understand what Jonah is about. In this essay I will
83, 85, and 87 are all so transparently curated down to story elements to get jon out of hiding and into chasing avatars. 83 - “drawing a blank” is about noticing ‘odd’ happenings and trying to ignore them, not seeking it out in any way, and then the monster gets your friend/colleague instead. obviously intended to make jon worry about putting georgie at risk by staying in hiding. 85 - “upon the stair” is a reminder that the avatars will hurt you because it’s their nature but also that you are turning into one and its in your nature to continue what you’re doing. 87 - “uncanny valley” is an interesting one, it’s a very good comedic setup episode about nikola not being able to scare the plumber (sebastian SKINNER lmao) because she targeted the most comically unobservant guy in town, but when you get down to it it’s a statement about voluntarily walking into danger because you have a job to do, you care very much about the job. and. crying. jon internalised all that and immediately got out of hiding once he heard the calliope outside georgie’s flat to directly confront an avatar that might give him anything to work with re the stranger. the opening of 89 with jude laughing at him is also very jude laughing at the plumber in 87 when he voluntarily goes to nikola’s warehouse a second time, “oh this idiot is WILLINGLY strolling into the slaughterhouse. what fun”
Jon canonically states that he doesn’t know much about the founder of the Institute, and I think we were robbed of the possibility of him being very interested in Jonah as someone who dedicated his life to making sense of the things that lurk in the shadows of the world. Since, really, making sense of things is the reason why he works in the Institute.
too many posts calling jon dumb for shaking jude’s hand and this has definitely been pointed out before but i’m going to say it anyway because it’s making me. angry. like he obviously knew what was going to happen, he’s listened to the uncanny valley statement, he knows jude irreparably damaged someone’s entire arm on a whim. the episode opens with him saying, “i’m Not going to shake your hand i’m not stupid” it’s just that by the end of it he realises yes, he would put himself through that pain and humiliation if it meant getting what he wanted/Needed (information). that’s not idiocy that’s a display of desperation and determination (stubbornness, if you want to be less charitable about it but i simply don’t think wanting to know what exactly he had gotten himself into when he accepted the job constitutes as a character flaw). it was a business transaction. jude is saying i fed your god with my fear now you feed mine with yours. quid pro quo.
this is soooooooo vile lmao… “would you support me in trying to regain some of my humanity? since you’ve been berating me viciously about it for two seasons?” “no. you disgust me.”
why would martin do this in the first place? when he is also becoming an avatar of the lonely and it is also negatively impacting everyone around him? is that another thing that only he’s allowed to do? like he KNEW that this would happen if he revealed jon’s feeding. he knew the archive crew would turn on him again.
oh actually saying this rn i think leaving this tape for the crew was a deliberately malicious expression of his own avatarhood… he’s being consumed by the forsaken of course he would want jon to be as isolated as possible and remove whatever tenuous goodwill he had built up with the girls
girl real shit you were a POLICE OFFICER i do not want to fucking hear it. how many people have YOU murdered extrajudiciously? at least jon was hungry, you were just a cop
again, it’s all good for melanie to be an avatar of the slaughter!! it’s all good for melanie to physically assault jon in the archives!! to maul him!!! to stab him!!!! melanie only has this high horse perspective btw because jon saved her life and stopped her transformation! she is only here alive looking down her nose at him because he saved her life.
daisy is so meek here i’m honestly shocked basira is still so deep in denial and so adamant on protecting her because she clearly resents her defanged gf so deeply
and wow the absolute spineless behavior on daisy’s end of being part of this mob while knowing that she did more and worse for DECADES but it’s an issue that jon’s eating people because he doesn’t have a badge and a dumb hat
it’s only ok to traumatize innocent civilians when you’re doing it with a police baton i guess
this is really really really really it for me like s4 set up a world for 38 episodes where every single person in jon’s life (literally except elias and helen, who aren’t people anymore) turned on him wrestled him to the ground and started steel toed boot kicking him in the kidneys. just psychologically curb stomping him every step of the way. being overtly cruel and cold and vicious. and then somehow the narrative was like [somber] this is a good thing for these people to do and logically jon should be doing everything in his power to lay belly up and take their abuse instead of having a villain arc
like somehow you’ve set up a story where the only place jon can find compassion, joy, or belonging is with the monsters in his life who call to him and then you turn around and are like “here is jon’s beautiful reward for choosing to ‘preserve his humanity’, it’s his shitty coworker who he doesn’t even like!! they’re in love!! there are cows :)”
