elias’s mag 40 statement is deliberately written to allude it’s all improvisation. it’s the way he starts actively lying halfway through when he apologises for not taking jon’s concerns seriously and the ellipses start getting prominent. the compulsion does not let people pause to recollect their thoughts.
elias’s tone and manner of speech also remain light and conversational, the statement is not characteristic of prose, of a story (his 92 and 120 narrations otoh are appropriately dramatic because they’re proper statements). at one point he says he had “one close call” and that he “composed” himself and made his way to the boiler room. if he was successfully being compelled he would’ve been forced to elaborate on these encounters, because beholding wants its victim’s fear in exquisite detail, they should be describing the memory like they’re being made to relive every horrible second of it. elias is not doing this, he’s not revealing any secrets he doesn’t want to and he’s not feeding jon his fear. nobody’s going to notice this on a first listen, but the way the episode is structured also helps here because you’re not expecting any grand revelations right at the beginning -> elias (doesn’t sound like an official statement; tries to make a joke at one point) -> then tim (real. unnerving) -> not!sasha (lying. dramatic irony) -> finally, martin (gertrude robinson was shot. which means someone here is a killer)
[ID: two examples from the transcript.
1: everyone else had already evacuated. We… had reached the ground floor when… well…
I… know I have often seemed dismissive of your concerns before,
2: he’s been stealing fire extinguishers. But… honestly, I didn’t fully appreciate what you’d been talking I about until I turned that corner and we saw what I can only describe as a… a tidal wave of filth
