2025-03-02 22:59:31 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 1 “First Shift”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025). No promises I’ll keep up with it. If you remember when I stopped and started doing this for series 1 during the hiatus? What on earth are you doing here, loves? You know how this is likely to go.
Summary: Teddy’s goodbye Party. Sam’s first Day. Cake in TMA continues to be untrustworthy.

Casements:
CAT2RC1157-12052022-09012024 — dolls, watching
CAT1RBC257-12052022-09012024 — the narrative immediately tells us our loved ones may not be loved ones just because they’re loved one shaped
CAT23RAB2155-10042022-09012024 — red-stringing for this show continues to be harder than working in a coal mine
Random Thoughts & Observations:
This season’s set in the OIAR i.e. Office of Incident Assessment & Response. Located at the Royal Mint Court, London (IRL former plague cemetery during the Black Death, and packed full of Smirke buildings, because of course it is).
Ministerial Prick who’s been hounding Colin for an app is later revealed to be Trevor Herbert. Interesting, on reflection, that he’s the only character of note from Manchester in the original TMA world. Is his family from there in this one? Did they have their hands on the Institute early on?
Sam ticks the 121 response box on his onboarding form. Still waiting to see what that might have triggered.
- 121 is pager code for: “I need to talk to you”, but I’m not sure we’re going that retro
- one-to-one request more likely
Is FR3-d1’s German source code a Von Closen/Schwarzwald connection? Easter egg? Would love if this alchemy trail leads to the Keay side of TMA canon.
Still want to know who’s checking the cases for a misfile.
RedCanary gives us a peek into the Magnus Institute of this verse.
- Burned down approximately 20 years ago
- Third floor entirely gone
- Asylum-like with offices laid out like cells
- All the files / documentation was cleared out before it was torched
- Alchemical graffiti
- Object to look for: empty wooden box with mysterious symbols
(was it empty, or did RedCanary unleash something?)
- Canaries should stay above ground
“Just a pair of wiggling vermicellis” as a descriptor for Sam’s arms continues to be a phrase I love with my whole heart.

2025-03-02 23:43:32 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 2 “Making Adjustments”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025). No promises I’ll keep up with it.
Summary: The Picture of Dorian Grey, Inked edition.

Casements:
CAT3RBC1567-23092022-18012024 — Artist is injected with the power to edit herself as the canvas. As she works the thing which gives her the power spreads and she has to cut out/around more of herself to keep tweaking it, the instrument more perfect than the vessel. Can’t help but think about what’s left of our favourite eye pupil and wonder what’s been carved from him.
Random Thoughts & Observations:
DPHW might not stand for anything, but it’s going to haunt me till I know the answer either way. This week’s guess: Don’t Process, Horrifically Weird.
Haha! Jenny Haufek’s the therapist. I would not trust Hartro with my mental health, but that’s a different series.
Darla/Daria? Well done, Alex. You know two different names. You’re one up on Jonny thru sheer technicality (and a letter swap). Do I think this is actually an early sign we’re playing with doppelgängers and doubles this series? Shh, I wanted to make a funny.
Daria found Ink5oul while looking up inspo for a portrait for a generic witchy alchemist. My want for this reality to be a delve into the Keay side of the story only grows.
When Daria’s tattoo is done, Ink5oul’s tools are bloody, but the tattoo is already healed. Might be nothing, but blood seems to be odd in regards to the powers at work here, so I’m noting it. Something to watch.
Alice’s warning to Sam that he needs to compartmentalise to survive this job is amusing just off the Season 2 opener “Compartmentalising” where Sam is reaping the consequences of ignoring her.

2025-03-03 0:59:48 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 3 “Putting Down Roots”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: Jared Hopworth could have upped his self-cultivation game

Casements:

CAT2C8175-03042009-22012024 — Someone with a spidery name goes on to have a very un-spidery case re: murdering his ex, her lover (?) and unravelling into the dirt to descriptors I hope never to have to hear again. Won’t look at blanched tomatoes the same.

Random Thoughts & Observations:
The .jmj error standing for Jon, Martin, and Jonah trapped in the server theory is old news, so I’ll just add that “this godawful program tries to throw itself into oblivion every time I turn on a console” is a sucker punch for thinking about two of those self-sacrificing idiots.
Since Webber lies down to compost amongst the arches of an old bombed out church and the evidence is being rerouted to a Police Storage facility in Lewisham (the site of Hither Green) I’ve got a pet theory that this is the remains of another Starkwall job. Unlikely, but we’re out here playing with strings it’s fun to imagine they’ve a list of TMA ritual sites, and are systematically taking them out at the root.
Betting the themes of nature healing a wound, sometimes unpleasantly (like maggots clearing away dead skin), will come up, though. There’s a scar in reality and it’s not sealed.
Will say this one took a few reads for me to wrap my head around the timeline. Still not sure I got it right, but leaning towards the interpretation that Webber killed his ex in April 2009. Got away with it, but was slowly going insane. Killed her lover in December when he finally snapped and ran to hide in his brambly grave. The casement date, then, refers to the first homicide.
Otherwise he’d be a time traveller and I hope RQ is not going to hurt my brain by throwing that into the mix.

2025-03-05 19:22:08 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 4 “Taking Notes”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: A spooky instrument gives a whole new definition to musical vamping and an unnamed bastard child from the 18th century becomes a renowned prodigy by feed-me-Seymouring his gifted violin.
Casement: CAT3C7494-19111831-29012024
Random Thoughts & Observations:

Sam sings under his breath while he works, which is precious, but I’m still curious why Freddie re-directs Sam’s security ping to Alice. I’m still not sure I fully understand what the gestalt consciousness (consciousnesses?) got from that. Does one of them resonate with Sam, and that’s why it tries to make him happy by forwarding him the TMI cases? Does the Tria Prime-a (that was awful, I’m sorry) collectively need him for some purpose? A whole season down, and I’m no closer to answering that. Would be real curious if it was playing favorites with Alice, considering she does everything she can to tune him out, but if there’s any truth at all to be found in the bonus content episodes it was a curious mention that (at least in the ‘what if everyone listened to Colin’ AU) she has the best KPI’s.
Starkwall mention!
We never get a name for the casement giver, but we do get a description of their “towering father” with an “unshakeable belief in his own significance”. With the obvious German connection in this episode, could be interesting if he’s peripherally related to one of the bigwigs messing about in the Great Work.
And yes, I was a little disappointed to look at a map and see that the route from Alnwick Abbey to the palace at Mannheim does not pass thru the Schwarzwald (although if I’m reading the maps right, I think we’re at least in the state of Baden-Württemberg, which is fun for Johann Von reasons). Really want this guy to be a Von Closen.
Hunger and luck are mentioned, two recurring themes in the show so far. More on that later.
“the blood for its strings need not be your own”
Neatly hints at what the OIAR could be up to with their balancing act, but with a lot of the playing with chance/deal-based stories in Protocol so far, I’m interested to see how far they can push it before something implodes.
Unhealed wounds of existence also casually mentioned in regards to satiating casement giver’s hunger. Skirted it, but think this is going to come into play re: the larger metaplot and what happened at the end of TMA, but I have a hunch MAGP08 is the best early episode to discuss that. For now, this a great first story from Augustus. His VA Tim Fearon (great name for a horror actor, btw) is a treat, and old-timey statements were always a delight in Magnus so I’m glad to see Alex and Jonny continuing that trend into Protocol.
“a 'jete’, a jarring musical demand for their attention, a declaration that I must be seen, and heard” also sticks out for this series’ focus on social media / Freddie’s whole shtick. The fears here aren’t thriving in the shadows. They want to be seen. Whether or not that’s a side-effect of having been brought here by The Eye is yet to be seen.
Klaus cameo! Really hoping he pops up in person at some point and isn’t just an ARG hero.
And unrelated, but in this week’s 'I doubt it’ll come up, but this was an entertaining find from over-googling everything’:

Lena is a name of German and Scandinavian origin, derived from the German name “Helene” which means “bright, shining light.” In Scandinavian countries, the name Lena is a shortened version of the name Magdalena, which means “of Magdala” or “from the tower.” This gives the name a sense of strength and protection.

2025-03-05 20:39:36 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 5 “Personal Screening”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: Don’t diss The Babadook

Casement: CAT2RB2377-10012023-05022024
Lena wonderfully continues to be the worst type of manager (short of actively feeding her minions to a fear entity).
Otherwise, this one’s not a particularly complicated. A blogger is invited to a private screening. Twist: the film’s about him. A caffeine/sleep-deprived Archivist is potentially spotted in the corner of the viewing. Either way, Tom sees something that terrifies him in a home video starring his past trauma and the statement ends.
Other than my minor quibble that the casement giver planned on using a speech-to-text app before knowing the theatre was going to be empty (like the worst sort of human imaginable), this case wasn’t my favourite. Wish the [unintelligible] bits had taken up more of the text for peak horror potential, but I also don’t have the skill it takes to write one of these, so no shade to the writer. Just expressing that something fell flat for me, although it was nice hearing Chester’s voice.
Speaking of Chester, at some point I want to do a better job seeing if he happens to read all of them, but I have noticed that a good portion of his narrated cases have parts redacted:
- Tom’s Terrors has certain posts deleted, MAGP05
- RedCanary’s eye gore pic supposedly removed by a mod, MAGP01
- Gordon J’s inbox shutdown, MAGP11
- 0 comments on Alesis Newmans’ forum posts, MAGP23
- Madam E’s final post never sent MAGP16
If Jon is the ghost in the machine, reaching out to edit in real time, it could substantiate that he is the voyeur in the corner of the hospital room in Tom’s screening, but only time will tell how much he (or what’s left of him) is capable of interacting with the outside and/or digital world. It would be vaguely reminiscent of what he was capable of doing in people’s dreams as an avatar, so not outside the realm of possibility. And I do like the idea of he, Martin and Jonah all having different agendas while sharing one joystick. Even more if Freddie had its own agenda before they were plopped into it.

I also wanted the graffiti outside the theatre to be more than it was. Graffiti’s only mentioned twice in MAGP, and both early-on, but the first time was at the institute, and alchemical so I’ve been primed to look for symbolic tagging. Maybe I have been since “silk will not stitch the butcher’s meat”, but that’s neither here nor there. Hasn’t come back in any meaningful way.
On to the next!

2025-03-05 21:35:22 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 6 “Introductions”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.
Summary: It took the internet .05 seconds to twink the pointy one.
Casement: CAT1RB4824-09022024-12022024
I haven’t instantly been so onboard with a character since Luke Booys first voiced Michael. Sorry, Alex. There’s just something refreshingly chilling about a spook who’s gone full ham on giving into their nature. Torturing someone as you can hear them smiling. Needles is having a great time, and you know what? Good for him.
“Oh the land is definitely marked now, same as me”
Might be the first talk of the land itself being marked, but it won’t be the last.
Re-emphasis on the idea that the fears here want attention. Needles wouldn’t get the satisfaction of the kill without the 999 call bragging about it, and there has to be a reason Freddie started getting vocal (outside of a cry for help). Ask Colin. Freddie does not equal friend.
This ep also gives us our first taste of Celia in TMP. Notable for giving the great if on-the-nose: “four weirdos in a basement reading scary stories? Dream job.”
If I only had a nickel…
Bonus Alice Lines That Feel Prophetic in Retrospect:

SAM
Is someone else leaving?
ALICE
Hope not, but this job has kind of a
high turnover rate, so Lena likes to
hire a couple of replacements when
an old-timer leaves

SAM

What, and just assumes one of them won’t stick it out?

ALICE

She’s usually right. And at this exact moment, my snoozy darling, the smart money’s not on you.

SAM

What happens if both of us thrive here?

ALICE

Then we draw lots and one of you gets eaten at the Christmas party.
No cannibalism in the OIAR, but he didn’t not get eaten.

2025-03-05 23:08:03 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 7 “Give and Take”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.
Summary: Hill Top Road [cough] sorry, Hilltop Centre, is the least interesting thing about this case.

Casement: CAT2RC3338-03022016-12022024

Sometime in 2015, an under-prepared Jonathan Sims is appointed head Archivist of The Magnus Institute after the death of his predecessor. Under the mostly absent watch of his superior, Elias Bouchard, he proceeds to be buried under the odd and uncanny statements brought in for him to sort. It’s a job that needs at least 6 archival assistants, but things quickly spin out of his control. In the end? The waking hell is only able to be stopped by a spark of ignition.
Sorry, no. Let me try that again.
Sometime in 2015, an under-prepared Dianne Margolis is appointed head Manager of the Hilltop Centre after the death of her predecessor. Under the mostly absent watch of her superior, Mr. C Clayton, she proceeds to be buried under the odd and uncanny items brought in for her to sort. It’s a job that needs at least 6 volunteers, but things quickly spin out of her control. In the end? The waking hell is only able to be stopped by a spark of ignition.
Now I don’t give the TMA timeline too much credence when it comes to interpreting or predicting TMP events (time’s gonna get weird, folks, we’ve been warned), but every now and again I glance at it to see if something resonant was happening around the same time, and this one was too good to pass up. And yes, Dianne ends up with far more than 6 uncanny helpers but at the start she says “I was somewhat dubious as to how helpful an associate of this young man would be but given that the site still needed at least 5 more staff members…” (5 + the man she’s hiring) = 6. Could be a random number, but it’s more fun if it’s a nod to how many archival assistants Jon had during his tenure: Tim, Sasha, Martin, Melanie, Basira & Daisy.
Now, what do I think it means?
No, I don’t think Jon was saved last-minute be some gun-toting security firm. I think he’s pretty well doomed in that .jmj error. But I think the narrative could be trying to tell us that we may see almost-but-not-quite versions of events in addition to almost-but-not-quite versions of our favourite players. Like the theory of convergent evolution, but spread across universes instead of miles. It’d be too big brained for me (clearly, as I’m already losing coherency), but I think it’d be cool if they were playing around with their own take on a fear-driven mirror universe this series, not just a parallel one. The reflection muddied because things are slipping thru in both directions. Disrupting the balance, etc. Something about the infected nature of the wound causing an unnatural number of these twisted doubles.
As for the volunteers as spooks, there’s definitely something a little spidery in their description. Dianne is unable to remember their names, or anything identifiable about them. Could mean they’re The Web’s agents, sent thru the crack. Spreading terror into this world with the types of objects Salesa used to peddle, but it’s also worth noting that the same could be said of Ink5oul (outside of their distinctive tattoo) and I’m pretty sure Ink5oul is native to the OAIR world. Then again, if the fears came thru the rift and were seeded into this world earlier in the timeline, it’d be understandable that anybody infected has a little bit of Web and Eye in the driver seat (in addition to the rest of the medley).
I’m getting rambly.
I’ll leave it with: I’ve still no idea what to do with the volunteers’ eerie “it’s all for a good cause!” other than to mention it sounds an awful lot like “for the continuation and preservation of good science”.
Oh, and who the eff is Gwen’s source for “they believe this man to be quite dead”?
She’s one I can’t wait to see more of outside the office.

2025-03-06 1:49:14 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 8 “Running on Empty”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP31, 2/27/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.
Summary: [on first looking up Forton Service Station] Mother-effers that’s the most panopticon-looking structure I’ve ever seen.

Casement: CAT2RC3338-03022016-12022024

So I’ve a hunch this ep’s doing the heavy lifting in teasing the metaplot via metaphor. Either that or I need to take a step back and hydrate. Walk my plants. Water my dog, that sort of thing.
But for now? Hold on, it’s gonna be a bumpy one.
I think the best way to approach this episode is to follow along with the case. I really do apologise for the clunkiness, but if you’ve read any of my other posts you know we’re flying by the seat of our pants, and none of this should be taken too seriously.
So! The visual similarities are undeniable. The tower at Lancaster (Forton) Services might not be circled by prison cells, but it is the spitting image of a panopticonic guard tower with its 360 degree views. Reminiscent, of course, of the tower. The Panopticon and the Institute merged. The place where the tether was cut. As stand-ins go, it’s about as subtle as the school of architecture Forton station’s an example of (i.e. not at all).

It also means it’s not too far of a stretch to take this essay on liminal spaces and extrapolate to learn what happened after MAG 200’s “Last Words” played out.

“Liminal’ spaces, derived from the Latin ‘limen,’ meaning ‘threshold,’ are transitional spaces normally inhabited for short periods. They have been shown to have marked effects upon the psychology of those exposed to them, and long-term exposure has been found to elicit anxiety responses (Augé, M. 1995), (Bachelard, G. 1994) and feelings of the uncanny (Trigg, D. 2012).”
Now. Threshold’s a fun word here, because it harkens back to MAG 146. One of those great, classic TMA titles with multiple meanings, but the one I want to focus on is 146’s clear allusion to the scar in reality at Hill Top as a threshold by virtue of the post statement. With what went down at the dethroning of the Watcher’s special little boy, I think we have every reason to believe the site of The Magnus Institute, London is now a similar scar bleeding into Sam and Alice’s world. It’d go a ways towards explaining Needles’ cryptic “the land is definitely marked, now” along with Leonardo Kenning’s recommendation that the building site of the Millennium Dome is unsuitable for The TMP Institute’s purposes because of a “psychical poison” in the soil. JMart broke reality so good a new threshold was born.
According to Joseph Peterson, the result of this type of brutal liminal space is an “architectural hunger” which I think tracks well onto the noticeably almost-manic underpinning of ravenousness the fears have this season. The way people falling from one world to the other are emaciated and starving. The land itself is hungering for something, because the wound isn’t sealed. It’s in transition, and resents it.
At this point, you’d have every right to say: ‘but hold on, that phenomenon is not exclusive to TMP’s London" to which I’d say:
Yes.
[moving unto the Weird, capitalization intentional]
The Restaurant.
Either the restaurant at the top of Forton services (where Peterson finds himself after ascending an out-of-service elevator) is an isolated spook to enhance the flavour of the ep, or we’re still in metaphor land. Considering the panoramic floor is chock full of diners with “oddly repeating elements to them” and this is the season of doppelgängers, I’d bet it’s the latter. And while cannibalism’s a nice jump scare for the end of a casement, what really made my blood run cold was the observation that outside the restaurant, past this space of brutal liminalism:
“There was nothing. Nothing above, nothing below, nothing at all. Nothing, save the tower and the restaurant.”

What if the tower is a guard tower? The restaurant, the feeding grounds for all that Jon and Martin sent through is Sam and Alice and Gwen and Colin and Lena’s world (concentrated, around the epicentre, but not exclusive to it). An unstable prison made in a last, desperate attempt to keep the fears it was pulling from one world contained.
There’s nothing but the tower (TMA verse) the restaurant (TMP verse) and the void.
Would leave us a cheery prediction for the end of the show:

“And so when faced with the prospect of being eaten alive, or leaping out one of those windows into pure oblivion… it was no choice at all.“
"I jumped.”
But it’s just a thought.

…
…
GERRY!
Fork, in all that, I nearly forget this is the episode we get Gerry. Don’t care a lick for anyone who says it was fan service, it’s worth it to see him "SO DEEPLY, PLAINLY HAPPY”. Thank you, transcripts for that gem. I will cherish it.
Nothing much else to say about the post casement. I would love Camden Epiphany to come back and be relevant, but I also held out hope “Grant us the sight that we may not know, grant us the scent that we may not catch, grant us the sound that we may not call” would lead to some great pay off down the line. Crafted an entire 'this is how we combat the Dread Powers’ theory around it that (predictably) turned out to be wrong, so keep that in mind with everything above.
I like throwing angst-filled mud at the wall to see what sticks.

2025-03-06 20:06:05 ¶ ●

TMA fans be like:
FAN
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in Eye-
BYSTANDER
Don’t you mean “ice”?
FAN
I know what I said.

2025-03-07 0:24:05 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 9 “Rolling with It”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: It’s been a year since its release, and I’m still laughing a podcast GM and one half of a games company wrote an episode with a character who doesn’t see the appeal of tabletop RPGs and wrote out the words: “two dee six”.
Casement: CAT3RB3354-14101998-08032024

This is a fun little tale. Has a lot in common with future casement MAGP13, so while I’m not in any way close to being confident what each category or rank is, it’s nice they’re at least both marked 3 and B for consistency.
The peek into Sam’s arbitrary questionnaire from the response team is also a nice treat.
But mostly for this one, I’m interested in trying to figure out what the Magnus team is looking for in the interviews they’re conducting.

Viability as subject – none
Viability as agent – low
Viability as catalyst – medium.

Recommend referral to Catalytics for Enrichment Applicability Assessment.
I’ve seen folks assume the subject, agent, catalyst divide is an assessment of the dice because the casement giver is under the impression they asked him to the Institute as part of a search for “supernaturally active items”. However, I’d be hesitant to take anyone affiliated at their word. Keeping in mind the Institute’s study of children born around 1985 (anybody else side-eyeing this as just a few years before a certain archivist was born in another world?) and their experimentations around human consciousness, they do seem to be focused in on people. I wouldn’t say the dice are irrelevant, but as the narrative keeps reminding us: “the position of ‘player’ and 'instrument’ [are] not so firmly set” in this verse.
Skipping ahead to the next time we see this assessment model in the case of two temper-full Darriens, the interviewers recommended course of action is incarceration. Seeing as there’s no spooky object to be seen in that case, only a self-murderer, signs point to person of interest. Not item.
And not ignoring the obvious, as this assessment is another set of three, the temptation to link each variable to one of the tria prima is there. If there’s any salt to that theory (heh), catalyst is likely sulfur (combustible), agent - mercury (in flux), subject - salt (solid) and the recommended course of action in the casement giver’s circumstance to send him to the Catalytics department for “Enrichment Applicability Assignment” suggests a vested interest in upping his viability as a catalyst from medium to high.
What they want to use him as a catalyst for is the question.
Oh, and for what won’t be the last time, Teddy almost tells us the definitely plot relevant things he’s been up to but gets blown off by Alice [heavy sigh].
I love her, but she’s excellent at evading exposition.
Looking forward to Teddy being more of a player in later seasons.

2025-03-07 1:51:47 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 10 “Saturday Night”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: Somewhere, Annabelle Cane is saying ‘I told you so’ to the naysayers of her children’s show pitch.

Casement: CAT1RB2275-06082021-09032024

With the hype surrounding his entrance, this episode absolutely nailed the landing with Mr. Blobby turned flesh horror Mr. Bonzo.

But I’ve something to admit [ducks and covers from thrown choco leibniz].
I didn’t like Mr. Bonzo.
At first!
I know he was an early fave in the ARG, and while conceptually he’s always had a great design (really excellent job toeing the line between something conceivably nostalgic and terrifying in the way so many 90’s staples were) I was afraid he was a little too… kitschy to mesh with the monsters I’d come to expect from TMA. But to be fair, the versions in my head have always been a little more muted than some of the takes I’ve seen online. For example: I love the creativity in the kaleidoscope-coloured Michaels/Helens I’ve seen, but for me my favourite designs are normal humans stretched to spine-chillingly impossible proportions. Able to sit across from you in a coffee shop then arrest you with terror when you catch them out of the corner of your eye being anything but. Even Monster Pig, arguably the most (affectionately) absurd from the OG cast of monsters, just looked like a rather large farm animal. Till you got close.
In the case of Bonzo, I’m so happy to be proven wrong.
Couple interesting things in the timeline with this one (relying on quite a hefty bit of supplemental info from the ARG, so feel free to discard if you only want to engage with show canon). I’m not implying correlation, but just in case there was something happening in the world-at-large that multiple players were tapping into, putting concurrent events here to do with as you will.

- 1994 Nigel Dickerson’s appointed the frontman of Saturdays on Six around the same time the OAIR’s modified NT 4.0 workstations are installed.
- Two years later Mr. Bonzo debuts, a year after OAIR announces their affiliation with Rightforce International.
- 1998 the treasurer of The Magnus Institute mentions plans for the turn of the millennium. Sam is tested along with a plethora of other “gifted” kids. Shows and attractions are closed at Bonzoland after a series of incidents.
- 12/24/1999 the Magnus Institute is burned down by Starkwall.
- 12/31/1999 on the cusp of the millennium, Mr. Bonzo’s New Years eve bonanza is cancelled.
- 1/03/2000 The OAIR cuts ties with Starkwall
- 3/03/2000 Bonzoland closes for good

Now we know Bonzo is affiliated with the OAIR. He’s a confirmed external, much to Gwen’s future delight. What hasn’t been confirmed is if the OAIR ever worked with The Institute. And someone please correct me if that’s wrong. I don’t have the answer, but we do know (thanks to Helen’s use of the word “quango” when she pops up later) that while TMI worked outside the civil service, they at some point received financial support from it. Were the two organizations’ goals aligned for some time? Was Leonardo Kennings successful in convincing the Institute’s higher-ups of the Millennium Dome’s unsuitability for their transmutative needs? Was Bonzoland plan B? Did the burning of the Institute somehow make what was planned for its grounds unable to pop off, so the OAIR cut off ties with the people responsible for flubbing it? Sheer conjecture at this point, but I’m having fun in the playground.
Also, “[HIS TEETH ARE NOT SOFT.]” deserves a shout for most awfully wonderful script addition.
And Sam and Alice visit the ruins! Break a seal. Free an Archivist (to the scent of sulphur in the air if the cesspit comments hold any weight). All in a day’s work.
Little disappointed (for as much as I love them as bonus content) that I feel like the transcripts did the heavy lifting with [ERROR]’s release at the end here. Spoken to a few friends who’ve agreed they would have had no idea what was going on had they not read along, and that feels slightly wrong to me for an audio medium. It’s a trend I’ve noticed more with Protocol than Archives. The transcripts are almost mandatory reading instead of supplemental if you want to get the whole story. Not upset with it, just…
Would hate to alienate folks who weren’t raised in the culture of the discord where we pick apart every detail.
[shrugs]
In more lighthearted news, Alice has a joke on page 16 of the transcript I can’t believe they got away with including. Kudos for the chutzpah.

2025-03-07 3:22:02 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 11 “Marked”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: The secret to perfect skin isn’t CeraVe, it’s a hundred odd years in a grave by the seaside.

Casement: CAT23RC5246-06012020-11032024

Marked.
Jonny Sims (derogatory).
Okay, there’s a slight tone of admiration in there, but that word after TMA? I can hear how pleased you are with yourself and I can glare at you while I respect the craft.
So.
marked (TMA)
/märkt/
1. a physical or metaphysical scarring via interaction with a fear entity
marked (MAGP 11)
/märkt/
1. Celia via the means she made it to this reality, calling her back
2. Sam. Doomed by Alice’s (again) oddly prescient joking:
ALICE
…I do get it. Facing your past is tough. Finding out there isn’t any past left to actually face… that’s even tougher.

SAM
Yeah.

ALICE
But at the end of the day, when all’s said and done, you just have to choose…
(Celia has no past to go back to. Celia is left with an impossible choice, and when push comes to shove… well, Sam loses. And the stakes are worse than pain au chocolate instead of cinnamon swirl)

3. Alice, targeted by [ERROR], already feeling watched
4. The tattooed skin. Obvious addition is obvious, but it still gets a mention.
5. Enjoying fame or notoriety. Perhaps to an obsessive extent where you start digging up graves for inspo, Ink5oul.
6. The doomed Gordon J. RIP if you were lucky enough to end up dead.
7. Gordie’s inbox, as something or someone marks it undeliverable as soon as he sends his last missive about the call of the sea.
8. Mr. Bonzo’s victim via envelope.
What can’t be marked? Cases as connected. Not allowed. No-can do. That’d actually be helpful, and we can’t have that in the civil service. Gertrude, you would have loved it.
And of course I’m hearing echoes, once more, of Needles’ “Oh the land is definitely marked now, same as me.” When I have more time to sleep on 32 I’m going to have to try and fit that into this looming worldview, because as we’re learning: the land can be marked (and transformed) too.
Did I miss anything?

2025-03-07 5:57:25 ¶ ●

Dumb Ways to Die (Archivist Edition)SPOILERS Seriously. Do Not Listen to Before MAG 200 - “Last Words”

(departure from my usual content, apologies for the self-indulgence)

SPOILERS FOR THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES - SEASON FINALE
Lyrics under the cut:

Find a Leitner when you’re eight
Take a job at a spooky place
Start smoking again way too late
Run back toward the worms to grab a tape
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Spun by the eye-eye-eye
So many dumb ways to die
Wander tunnels after dark
Chop a fractal table into parts
Let yourself be framed
Shake the hand of an angry living flame
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Spun by the eye-eye-eye
So many dumb ways to die
Don’t let Michael Crew be polite
Find yourself facing Daisy’s knife
Get skincare advice from a plastic face
Decide Distortion is a good escape
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Spun by the eye-eye-eye
So many dumb ways to die
Steal a ghost from the hunter’s den
Bring a bunch of C4 to The Stranger’s dance
Let a man dig in your chest
You know, who said you need all your ribs?
Dumb ways to die
So many dumb ways to die
Spun by the eye-eye-eye-eye
So many dumb ways to die
Walk into a coffin to save someone
Look into the heart of a blackened sun
Gouge out your eyes in a half-baked flight plan
Step into the Lonely cuz it’s taken your man
And when it all comes down the that last ending
At Martin’s hand, it’s quite possibly
The roughest way to die
The roughest way die
Roughest way to die-ie-ie-ie
So many dumb-
So many dumb ways to die
Be safe around webs. A message from the Archives.

2025-03-07 19:12:50 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 12 “Getting Off”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: Bonzo! Bonzo! Bonzo! Oh, and Sam is done with Magnus stuff, apparently. Pfft.

Casement: CAT1RB4728-09032024-13032024

Alice being the MOST ok with Sam & Celia is oof.
As for Celia, It’s a stretch, because we know she’s busy with the whole sleepwalking to Oxford thing going on, but just pointing out that she pivots pretty quickly from hesitancy to agreeing to meet Sam under the clock at Leicester Square for their first date. A 10 minute from Soho Jack’s (where Bonzo goes for a bro buffet). Most likely London is London and things are bound to be close every now and again, but if Celia wanted to do a little freelance investigation, I’m just saying it’d be a convenient trip to hop over and check it out. That’s all.

Otherwise, great showing from Bonzo. His chant “he wants to play, he wants to stay” does make me wonder if his whole monching deal is what keeps him able to manifest / stay in this world to do it. A trade, like the one Celia’s gearing up to make.
And still no closer to defining CAT1 but at least worth mentioning most of our classic monsters do seem to filter into there. Mowbray, Bonzo, Ink5oul, Needles, Rupert the demon child, etc. Don’t think it’s as easy as “inhuman”, but something to watch.

“I dream about it most nights. In the dream it digs through all those men to get to me, grabbing fistfuls of them and throwing them to smash against the wall. The strobe fires as its hands plunge into the pile of us and each flash shows a little less flesh between me and it, between me and all those teeth… Finally everyone else is gone. I raise my arm to protect myself and it gently but inexorably lifts it into its mouth, smiles and bites.”

Haven’t been paying too much attention to dreams in TMP, but I might retroactively look to see if there’s anything there. Doubt it’d be the same mechanism as Jon’s dream hopping after he feeds from TMA, but suppose I shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet. In general, I hope the more this mystery unfolds the more it’s it own thing. I like the homages, and of course adore the source material, but I think it’s a much more compelling game to take what we think we know and twist. Part of the reason I never tried too hard to fit any of the early casements into Smirke’s 14. We don’t know the rules here. That’s the joy of playing.
I will also be keeping a lazy eye out for mention of a Barry, Basil or Sebastian. With Gwen’s upper class contacts, and the way she keeps her cards close to her chest, I wouldn’t put it past her having known Baz before he was on the menu. Feels like a real Lena move to test Gwen’s mettle by having her be responsible for the death of someone she rubbed elbows with.

GWEN
You never wonder what the point is? Who benefits from all this awfulness?

ALICE
I don’t wonder. I know.

GWEN
What? (sitting up) Really?

ALICE
Oh yeah. (portentous) I’ve known for a while, what we’re doing here. It’s all part of a grand plan to satisfy one of the most unspeakable evils known to mankind…

[Gwen’s on the edge of her seat.]

ALICE
(almost a whisper) …the UK government.

[GWEN sighs, sitting back]

GWEN
Thanks, Alice. Utterly useless as always.

Hilarious, but Alice’s probably not wrong. Again.

2025-03-07 20:12:31 ¶ ●

# Recap Notes: MAGP 13 “Futures”

Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.

Summary: I’m not saying Darrien (first of his name) deserved it. I’m just saying he sounds like the type to drive a cybertruck and I think that speaks for itself.

Casement: CAT3RB4622-17092023-14032024

Sue me. I’m not above enjoying episode 13 is about bad luck.
Think I mentioned before, but overall this case functions much the same as MAGP09 just with e-trading instead of dice rolls. It’s well done, I just don’t have too much to say on it.
We do get a nice backstory expansion pack for Sam and Celia (one more padded than the other). And I’m glad Jonny and Alex confirmed in the season 1 Q & A that we can take Celia’s word here that she had a few wild years (post finding herself in TMP-verse) and Jack’s her son, because I don’t I’d have been particularly interested in a cuckoo subplot. He’s just her kid and that’s that.
Sam’s a confirmed disappointment to his parents.
Also thought I had a candidate for who the law firm might be from a blink and you’ll miss it mention in the text, but seem to have lost that. If I find it later, I’ll come back and edit it in.
Would like more details on just what sort of incident he had that led to him parting ways.
And tiny bonus Alice lore in that she became an orphan during her and Sam’s time at uni. Explains her protectiveness towards Luke (and her misplaced turning that towards Sam, possibly the reason they broke up? do we have mention of why they broke up?) as well as her financial support of her brother. Probably something she was forced to do via circumstance, and has trouble letting go now that they’re both adults. Provides motivation for sticking it out in this job.
And for the big boss woman, Lena’s worldview is hella fun here when we compare it to Gerry’s from MAG 111.
LENA
(speech-like:) The world is full of opposing forces. Some benevolent, most not. In order for the wheels to keep on turning, all these forces need to be monitored and balanced. That is where we come in.
vs.

## GERARD
No. There aren’t any god-like powers of hope, or love, or indigestion, or whatever. At least not that I’ve seen. Just fear. I don’t know why.

Do I think there are actually benevolent supernatural forces in TMP? Not sure yet. But considering the case we’re bookmarking, my money (even if I don’t have millions in personal equity to bet) is on: any benefit the OAIR thinks they’re gaining from playing with fire is a long-con towards a bigger, more catastrophic crash. The folks who think they can control anything are just too busy congratulating themselves on their cleverness to see it.
Excited for the fire.