UNASKED FOR MAGNUS THEORY #5: THE TAPES BELONG TO THE WEB

There’s been a resurgence in speculation about the tapes in the red-string community since Salesa dropped onto the scene - but I’d like to throw my two cents out there and say I’m not convinced the tapes’ ability to manifest in Upton House tells us anything new. We’ve already known they’re exceptional. The tapes are able to record real-life spook statements when nothing else can, and remembered Sasha’s voice after the Not Them replaced her. They seem to operate by their own set of rules, so while I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s episode about our smooth-talking Samoan merchant - I don’t think we learned anything new about the way the tapes function.

Or who’s behind them.

But looking back at evidence from the show so far? I have a strong suspicion it might be The Web.

EXHIBIT A: In the pre-launch trailer there’s a lot of language that sounds eerily foreshadowing in retrospect, and in that statement Jon mentions he’s going to give the tapes a “spin” - which sounds an awful lot like a nod to The Spider’s interference. However, spin is quite literally also an apt descriptor of the mechanisms inside, so this one might be nothing. 

EXHIBIT B: Multiple characters throughout the series point out that it doesn’t make sense for the tapes to belong to The Eye. 

TIM: It’s that…the thing that runs The Institute. ‘The Watcher’ or ‘The Eye’ or whatever.

JON: I dis…I disagree. This whole place is a temple to The Eye, Tim. I don’t think the tapes make any difference. (MAG 114) 

Not only would they be redundant during The Archivists tenure at The Institute, but the tapes continue to appear after The Eye has successfully performed The Watcher’s Crown. Even Jon questions why they’re there in the season 5 trailer: “It’s over, you’ve won. What can you possibly still need to hear?”, and Martin echoes this thought later in The Lonely - trailing off as he struggles to figure out what it wants, “Why? The Eye has won. It can already see everything; it wouldn’t need a – w-wouldn’t need a –”(MAG 170). That’s the point, Martin. The Watcher can see everything now, it wouldn’t need a statement. 

EXHIBIT C: Gertrude’s tapes seem to have a spider-like control over Daisy when she brings them to the Institute. “You ask me to take a tape over to this murdering freak, and I’m all set to tear you a new one for it. But then I get the cassette in my hand, and suddenly all I want to do is deliver his tapes and spill my guts” (MAG 91) .

EXHIBIT D: In The Masquerade, the team finds the Wax Museum full of cobwebs just before discovering a tape that’s manifested to record them. 

EXHIBIT E: In Binary we learn that the tapes are in fact digital, even though most people think of them as analogue, while in Web Development we learn that The Spider is managing to work around technology’s tendency to act strangely around The Great Powers. Is it such a stretch to believe The Web tinkered with earlier technology first? Tapes seem like a breeze compared to impossible chatrooms - and the statements recorded to tape serve an eerily similar function when compared to the posts submitted to the Chelicerae. 

EXHIBIT F: Gertrude herself started using the tapes around the time The Web bound her to Annabelle. As with anything relating to Gertrude Robinson, the timeline’s fuzzy. We know she worked at The Institute for approximately 50 years. Elias confirms this when he shoots her in MAG 158, “Fifty years is a long time. End of an era”. While it’s not an exact date, if the tape in question was recorded in 2015 we can presume Gertrude started working at The Institute around 1965. However she doesn’t start using the tapes until 1975. This is extrapolated by her own estimation from another recording taken in 2015 where Leitner points out a tape’s been recording their conversation about blowing up The Institute without her noticing. Gertrude lets slip: “Oh, good grief. Forty years I’ve been using them, and I swear, I’ll nev–” before unceremoniously turning off the recorder. So why the gap? Why did she not start using the tapes until ten years after she started at The Archives? Could it be that The Web wasn’t able to gain a foothold until after Agnes and Gertrude were intertwined? While it’s also difficult to pin down the date of that bond - I think it’s worth noting that Hill Top Road burned down in 1964 - which seems exactly like something a creature of fire incarnate would do if they realized they’d been tricked into something by The Mother of Spiders. 

EXHIBIT G: Annabelle Cane seems to be able to hear through them. Twice in the post-apocalyptic world, Annabelle tries calling Martin. Once in MAG 163 and once in MAG 166. The first time, Martin has quite literally just finished saying to a tape “you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here” when the phone begins to ring. Almost as if Annabelle was calling in response. The second time is not as direct, but the tape recorder does click on just in time for Martin (who has just wandered away from Jon) to find a spade and discover a buried, ringing cell phone. We don’t know how long she’s been at Upton House. We don’t know if she pops out in order to make her calls, but if she doesn’t? Then Salesa’s theory that those sorts of things shouldn’t work in his oasis don’t seem to apply to this particular avatar of The Web. The tapes, as they always have been, are an exception, an Annabelle seems to hold sway over their operations. 

I don’t think a lengthy conclusion is needed for this one. I’m still happy to hear other people’s theories till the very good cows come home. Whether or not it’s right, at the very least The Web’s been invested since the beginning. After all, Annabelle did greet Jon at Hill Top with the recording of his first tape. Was it simply a taunt? Or a hint that The Mother’s had her in his web since he first hit record. 

Stay safe out there, folks.