#tmagp thoughts

[animsid]

As a non-Archives listener, this is what I’ve gathered.

Archives Fandom, aggressively shaking and sobbing: What are you doing in my house?!? What are you doing in my house?!?

Trevor Herbert, delightful autism pose: I Want Waffle Fries.

[clare-89]

She girlbossed too close to the sun

[charlies-tma-blog]

as much as i LOVE all the multi-layered tmagp statements where you have to think about who is reading out which statement, and how it plays into the metaplot and everything going on, i’ve missed statements about it unhinged lil guys terrorising people for fun. like yes creature made entirely of sharp needles stab a guy and call the cops to feed off their fears. slay

[murderandcoffee]

WAIT HOLD ON WAIT

anger management/poor darrien blacked out during his therapist's appointment and woke up by the magnus institute outreach center where?

in OXFORD

WHERE IS HILLTOP ROAD LOCATED?

IN OXFORD

[magnus-marmot]

Transmutations in TMAGP

Since most of the incidents deal with change and transformation, I'd like to collect my thoughts on their nature in one post. So I'll be explaining some ideas on the alchemical processes taking place. First I'll explain a (relatively) simple Tria Prima model, and then I'll try to break down some processes and symbolism we see in the show. This will be really long, like excessively long. Look, I'll throw in some nice alchemy pictures to make it more palatable. Feel free to skip the Tria Prima part if you've been reading my previous theories, I'm not really covering anything new in that.

Transmutations broken down with the Tria Prima

I think the most simple way to view it would be with the Tria Prima. Many of you are probably aware of the Body/Mind/Soul division, and while it's extremely simplistic, it actually works for us here.

From Alchymia complementum (1630)

We have the Body, or the Salt 🜔, which is the core, the physical shell, the metaphorical earth that the change is inflicted upon. In an alchemical transmutation, Salt must first be separated from the volatile components by burning or decomposition, and in the end they are brought back together. In TMAGP, Salt would be the physical, grounded part, such as a human body, a Bonzo suit or a creepy toy. You can think of it as a vessel.

Then we have the Mind, or the Mercury ☿. This is trickier to break down because the alchemists saw it as so many different things, but you can think of it as the essence. Not just the essence of the subject, but of everything. It's the malleable and volatile part of the subject, but it's also the intangible thoughts, concepts and archetypes in the collective unconscious, the metaphorical water or air that flows through everything. It's both the prima materia and the dissolving principle. In TMAGP, this would be the the changing ideas and beliefs around a concept, most recently demonstrated in how Henrich Unheimlich came to be, but you can see it in a lot of the cases. It's why all the supernatural phenomena reflect not only fears but also expectations and other strong feelings. Why the lack of clocks and purpose creates timeless liminal spaces, why the fear and reverence given to Bonzo made him what he is. It's what the Archivist uses as a fuel for its human transmutations and what the Magnus Institute tried to tap into for their Magnum Opus.

And finally we have the Soul, or the Sulphur 🜍, which seems to confuse people the most because of what we usually think of as the "soul". It's not the entirety of a human psyche, just the active, conscious and feeling part. But it's also the soul of all matter, in that it gives them life and allows active change. It's the metaphorical fire. Alchemists thought that Sulphur can be used to coagulate Mercury, to give it form. In TMAGP, Sulphur would be the catalyst that initiates the transmutation. It can be literal fire (like what possibly created Heinrich Unheimlich), or just a metaphorical fire, such as the violent act that gave birth to Bonzo.

From Hermaphroditic Child

There are also clearly two types of transmutations in the show. First we have the active ones, caused by fire or intent. Then we have the passive ones, caused by slow dissolution and characterised by coldness. These mirror the active (Celestial Nitre or Sol) and passive (Celestial Salt or Luna) principles of alchemy. It also evokes solve et coagula, where all matter is constantly dissolved and coagulated. As alluded to before, Mercury is what dissolves and Sulphur is what coagulates, and their purified counterparts in Luna and Sol form a harmonious unity when brought together. Which brings them back to their Salt.

A lot of the cases can be broken down into Salt/Mecury/Sulphur, but it's not an entirely clean model because many of the transmutations go wrong or are incomplete. Next I'll try to break down the actual processes based on some common symbolism and what we're given in the show.

Transmutation stages and common symbolism

For this I'll assume the most basic version of the Great Work, which consists of three stages: nigredo, albedo and rubedo. There are loads of different stages and processes, but they generally fall under these three. The cases in TMAGP rarely involve the entire process, and some are clearer than others.

From Pretiosissimum Donum Dei (1475)

Sealed vessels

First of all, I've noticed that a lot of these transmutations take place in a sealed vessel of some kind, much like they do in alchemy. This can be anything from a Bonzo suit to a closed Victorian carriage, a coffin, a locked room (such as a prison cell, a lock museum, a room in a reptile emporium, a virtually made zoom call room, the Archivist's office), a closed off liminal space (like a secret garden with no exit, a pier enveloped in fog, a brutalist building trapped in a void), or even a human body (like in Alice's dream, like alnewman's thigh, or like Herr Schmidt's brain).

Nigredo (blackening)

The stage where matter is broken down, burned or decomposed. Transformation can only occur once the old has been reduced to ashes so that something new can be born from it. Spiritually it involves ego death, stripping down the conscious thought and dissolving into the unconscious. Common symbolism/imagery include death, corpses, skeletons, dismemberment, rot, toads (ie. the decomposing prima materia), crows, ravens, Saturn/lead, darkness/night, indistinguishable black mass (massa confusa), flooding, drowning (especially of the king), eclipse, the green lion (=mercury) swallowing the sun.

From Philosophia Reformata (1622), coloured by Adam McLean

Here are some examples I've found in TMAGP:

Calcination or decomposing matter with heat (either open fire or a more subdued, natural heat). While there are cases with proper fire, heat seems to be the important factor here. In her dream, Alice describes the unbearable heat that envelops her when she's stuck inside her heart. We also get the exterminator at the reptile shop complaining about the heat when she's stuck in the room with an infection (=decomposing flesh), Lady Mowbray's caterer is cooking with high heat when his experience begins, Magnus mentions the unreasonably warm weather when he encounters the carriage, Menke was "sweating buckets" in the Bonzo suit, Mrs. Locke keeps forgetting to get someone to turn the heater off, and so on. Heat is what begins the transmutation process in these cases.

Dissolution into the mercurial waters. This is usually what drowning signifies in the alchemical imagery, and also what I think it signifies in TMAGP. Especially the drowning of the old king, which we're straight up given in the lock museum. Bonus points to the pest control lady who was about to be drowned in snakes, an extremely common symbol for Mercury. We also have the tech review guy speaking about the screen dissolving, and one of the transcripts has an instance of the Archivist dissolving into the wind. (No one can convince me that these word choices are coincidental.) And then we get some dissolving egos. The guy with his cursed dice seems to be losing his identity and starts seeing himself only as an archetype of a stranger who tricks people into rolling the dice, and poor Kyla's ego was dissolved into the emergent mind of Liverpool. We also have several cases of people who get lost in liminal spaces (such as the pier or the service station, even the custodian at Hilltop) and then get their identities dissolved. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happens at liminal locations, which are very aligned with the concept of Mercury. Especially if there's an element of water present. These themes are also usually accompanied by mentions of coldness, which tracks with Mercury's properties being wet and cold.

From Splendor solis, coloured by Adam McLean

Descending or entering a dark space, both of which align with the idea of descending into the collective unconscious or the "dark night of the soul". The darkness is pretty straight-forward. It's the violinist getting lost in the dark woods, Doctor Webber entering the dark garden, Patricia repeatedly talking about being in a dark space/world with her baby. The descent is more incidental, but I'm keeping an eye out for patterns. For example, the old couple had to descend to enter the lock museum, the food critic descended the alleyway to Hungry Man's Grill, a lot of descending into basements. It's a recurring theme but could be meaningless.

Infections or putrefaction, or the literal decomposition of living matter. We've got our fair share on the account of this being a horror podcast, but this should be seen as a transitory stage in a transformation. Some good examples include Dr. Webber's body breaking down and decomposing to give way to his new plant self, or Alesis's body becoming paralysed and moldy to allow the coral to grow. Magnus's colleague being ingested in the carriage, Bonzo's victims putrefying inside the suit, Alice/Sam's rotting corpse in her dream, the rotting food in Hungry Man's Grill (this one seems interesting, because the restaurant seems to be stuck in the putrefaction stage and the food refuses to decompose even when the guy leaves).

Sunset as a manifestation of the green lion devouring the sun (gold dissolving into mercury), which symbolises the onset of ego death or the beginning of the blackening (or the night). This has been emphasised in two cases. Firstly, the crypto bro from ep. 13 looks at the sun setting behind the sea (=Mercury) twice when making decisions on the trading app, and secondly, Lady Mowbray's hunt begins when the sunset colours everything crimson. Both of which are pivotal moments for these characters' personal transformation.

From the Rosarium Philosophorum

Albedo (whitening)

This stage marks the purification of matter through repeated washing, distillation and the like. It's where we begin to see the true essence of the prima materia and will be able to separate it from the rest. This stage is often associated with Luna, silver, or the White Elixir/Tincture. In psychology, it's where you discover and reconcile with your Shadow (or Animus/Anima) in the unconscious. Common symbolism includes doves, swans, lilies, whiteness, vibrant colours and eyes (known as the peacock's tail stage, though it's technically the transitional stage between nigredo and albedo), water of life, bathing, dawn (as in "always darkest before"), light emerging from the darkness, the queen, the moon (Luna), Anima (in the Jungian sense).

From the Mellon Collection

Some examples in TMAGP:

Purification or washing as an intentional attempt at removing impurities. Daria making adjustments to her painting in an attempt to perfect her own body. The violinist washing his hungry violin with blood in order to purify the music it produces. Alesis attempting to rid herself of her own impurities by growing a new self out of a coral (a lot of water and moonlight in that one, which fortifies the connection for me). Since purification is also often attributed to mercurial water, a lot of the water symbolism fits here too.

Colours, as seen in Daria's vibrant tattoo. Also the colours rushing into the liminal service station and the odd colours seen in the fog surrounding the pier. It's fitting, but not a very prevalent theme. Unless you count all ink, in which case it's very prevalent.

Encountering one's Shadow, which is a big theme in both TMA and here. Coming to terms with your inner darkness, fears and desires is what purification is about in spiritual alchemy. I think this is what the Archivist is doing. It's an embodiment of the Shadow, covered in eyes, here to distill and purify your fear and then project it back to you (killing you in the process). Although it's up to debate whether it feeds on the purified, distilled fear or the impurities left behind, it does leave something to be coagulated into the physical manifestation. (It's also worth noting that the compulsion has a lot of water imagery attached to it in the transcripts, things like "the dam breaks", "words gush out", "pouring out of her unstoppably like a river". And just to be extra clear, rain, dew, seas and rivers are all common symbols for Mercury.) Other than that, there are plenty of doubles or reflections in the show. We've got Darrien and his alternate darker self, the Millenium Dome construction worker's clone, Herr Schmidt's actual Anima crying to be let out of his brain, the horror blogger seeing his traumatic memories projected onto the big screen, Dr. Webber encountering his late wife in the garden, Alesis meeting her Piece in a dream, the list goes on. The important part for purification is the acceptance or healthy integration of the Shadow, which usually takes a twisted turn in TMAGP.

Dreams are often attributed to Luna, and they function as a link to the subconscious. In TMAGP, many of the dreams are linked to an epiphany, though it's not always a purifying one. Especially on the TMA side. Though I think the tech reviewer's meditation in the locked room could be seen as a form of purification. I think dreams and meditation have a wider metaphysical effect that I won't go into here.

The queen or the mother would go more into discussions on characters than processes, but I'll mention it here anyway since the albedo stage is most often equated with Luna and the emergence of the queen. We've got a couple of mothers, most notably Patricia (probably not Rupey's real mother but anyway) who's feeding her baby with her own blood (this is often symbolised by a pelican which were believed to bite their own chests to feed their young). Alesis is also very nurturing, and her entire case screams lunar symbolism. And the most obvious queen would be Lady Mowbray, who's described as a matriarch. But the most interesting one of all is our very own Celia, who fits the lunar archetypes of motherhood, secrets and deception to a T.

From the Ulrich Ruosch Manuscript

Light in the dark is pretty straightforward. Patricia describes Rupey as bringing light to her dark world, in the Hilltop custodian's memories there's a sudden light coming from one of the shops in the dark shopping centre, the computer monitor sheds light into the dark zoom room, the ritual Sam witnessed radiates yellow light into the dark. (Though the yellow makes it more in line with the citrinitas or yellowing stage, which is specifically the solar light shining through instead of the lunar reflection. It's a frequently forgotten stage with little direct symbolism so I thought it would make more sense to omit it, but just know that depictions of sunrise or yellow light might lean towards the citrinitas stage between albedo and rubedo.)

Rubedo (reddening)

The final stage marks the completion of the Work and the emergence of the Philosopher's Stone. It includes the conjunction of the opposites and the coagulation of the ultima materia. In psychology, it involves the integration of the unconscious and the ego into a singular self. Common symbolism for the reddening includes a phoenix, the king, a crown, the sun (Sol), gold, red or purple dye, red roses or poppies, blood, trees (specifically the Philosopher's tree) and lions. The union of the opposites (Sulphur and Mercury, silver and gold, Animus and Anima etc.) is symbolised by a marriage of the king and queen, sun and moon, red and white flower, two lions fighting, a lion (sun) devouring a serpent (moon), procreation, and so on.

From The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine

Examples in TMAGP:

The union of opposites is a continuation of encountering one's Shadow, and sometimes this part is counted into albedo (or citrinitas) as well. But the conjunction can only happen once you've separated and purified the components, or made peace with them. Dr. Webber is unified with his late wife (queen) in the garden, and the two are coagulated into one tree. In Alice's dream, she's also unified with her late husband (king) into the same body, though the process is incomplete and has to begin again (probably because she's not able to perform the separation, which is thematically fitting and painful for my soul). The conjunction is also present in the union of Sulphur and Mercury (or their purified versions Sol and Luna), which I discussed in the Tria Prima section. And I currently think it's also what Fr3-d1 or the entity inhabiting it is trying to do with the data it's collecting.

Blood and dye, which are symbolic of the liquids that give the Stone its crimson color. Lots of blood to go around, but the most relevant case would once again be the violin and the blood that purifies it. Purple dye reminds me of one case alone, and it's notable that the more purple paint there was on Bonzo's cards, the more present he became. It's not entirely clear to me when Bonzo actualised into what he is now, so it's difficult to say whether that was intentional. Though the episode was written by Alex, which means I'm much more willing to read intentional alchemy symbolism into it.

Devouring is big in alchemical iconography, and it's big in TMAGP too. We've got masses of people biting into each other (the violinist's audience and the hungry non-people in the service station), obviously Bonzo eating people (and letters), Lady Mowbray's cannibal party, little German kid eating a mum sandwich, demon baby eating his "mum" just cause (bringing us back to purification with blood), and Hungry Man's Grill which we can't prove isn't serving human meat. Either way, it's often used as a metaphor for the conjunction.

Trees have also only popped up twice (as far as I recall), but in compelling cases. First is Dr. Webber, who by now has gone through all the stages. Second is Newton's Arbor Philosophorum, which is usually formed with Mercury or Silver. He feeds its fruit to his dog (another act of devouring and union), who begins to grow into a tree itself. Newton truly was on the precipice of something.

From the Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine

Conclusion

Whew, I'm never writing something like this again [bzzt]. If you read this far, wow. I'm impressed, and I appreciate you. Did the pictures help? Or make it worse? Let me know.

PS. I recognise that I might be drawing parallels where there are none, but that's what I do. I hope you got something out of it. Also do not ask me what's up with Needles. I have no idea what to make of him.

[theboombutton]

The interesting thing about tmagp episode 9 is that, from one perspective, it's about a pair of dice that kill you if you roll a crit fail. And in TMA that would be very End-coded. Games of chance were End-coded, and death is obviously The End. Open and shut case.

Except it's not, here. The statement giver had never seen anyone roll a 2 before he ran into Gary in that coffee shop, even after thousands of rolls. That's not an End artifact. Those dice are going out of their way not to kill anyone, save those who try to part with them.

The compulsion to roll feels like the Web, but is it? Certainly games of chance can become addicting, but I don't think that's the whole story. The Web is about the fear of the loss of control, yes, but it's also about something else controlling you instead. Here that something else is an embodiment of "random" chance - although again, it's not properly-random, not even pseudorandom. I have thoughts on that but they're best addressed further on.

Weirdly, of all the manifestations of Fear from TMA, this statement seems most akin to Jude Perry's - rolling the dice with other people's lives and fortunes, for the thrill of sometimes devastating them.

Which brings me back to the possibility of AU Fears.

In the Protocolverse, why shouldn't there be a Fear associated with chance and luck and fate and misfortune that happens for no good reason? A fear of lacking control and losing everything, without anyone else necessarily having that control.

This is where the way the dice are rigged becomes possibly meaningful. Their outcomes aren't random - they're what humans expect random to look like. They operate according to the gambler's fallacy, where the longer a chain of bad luck you have the more you're due for a good roll, and vice versa. Snake eyes aren't just a normal outcome of the 1-in-36 chance of rolling 2d6 - they're reserved for when someone is cursed with truly rotten luck. Notably that isn't true of boxcars: those just happen sometimes, without prerequisite.

Logically, a Fear of Misfortune wouldn't operate on the actual rules of probability, would it? It would be shaped by the superstitions of those that feared it.

(Also, I hope this statement puts the "they're not fears they're desires!" theory to bed. This guy didn't want the dice, and didn't especially want to roll them, but seemed compelled to anyway.)

[spooksnett]

Reminder to everyone

The OIAR cut contact with Starkwall protection services in January 2000. (10 days after the Magnus institute burnt down)

its been a damn while since they ever used their services. Gwen you're 24 years too late to asking for them

[brainbleedo]

Tmagp 1 - Gwendolyn Bouchard evil, badass, kill your boss with a pipe wooo

Tmagp 18 - Gwendolyn Bouchard is pathetic and scared of a children's mascot turned fleshy horror, she will not be killing anyone soon frankly I think she's afraid to get in a fight and cries when people shout at her.

I love her, best character everyone else go home.

[maxthemediocre]

the really long silent pause at the end of the episode when celia is putting jack down is so uncomfortable it works so well at making the audience aware of how much they’re intruding on a private situation, how they Shouldn’t Be There but they keep watching anyway. it’s not even the most tense or gory or explicitly horrific part of the episode, it’s just a moment, but it put me on edge more than anything else it’s so well done

[thenerdrant]

Today I re-listened to the first episode of TMAGP and the part surrounding the reddit thread about the magnus archives caught my eye (pun intended)

I dont think the archivst creature is John. I think the reddit user RedCanary was turned into the archivist that we see later in the season

[animsid]

“Hi, I’m Trevor Herbert. The Minister. And you’re watching The Magnus Protocol.”

*tortured OIAR and Fandom screams in the background*

[stockardluskin]

Unpopular opinion:

While it's great to hear what a happy Gerry sounds like, I just feel like something is wrong. He sounds kinda...empty to me. And I don't trust this iteration of Gertrude. At first I thought she was just being protective but the way she was speaking for him kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

[scorpio-and-a-half]

New Video Out Now!

FINALLY! This hiatus was crazy.

TMAGP EP. 39-42 My Thoughts, Ideas, and Theories. Check it out here :)

[eliassimp]

There is still a chance that Colin survived. He's just in a computer now and I hope Heinrich Unheimlich can do something about it

[magnus-marmot]

TMAGP Archivist theory

After giving way too much thought to alchemical symbolism and transmutations in this post, I feel like I have a pretty solid theory for what's up with the Archivist.

When the Magnus Institute burned down, someone must have been locked up under the trapdoor in the Archivist's office (whether or not this was the actual Archivist is still up in the air). The fire burned them alive along with all the information they had been archiving, calcinating it all together into a massa confusa and apparently dissolving it into the waters accumulating at the bottom of the "manky hole". For 25 years it's been putrefying in the sealed vessel of the office until Sam and Alice freed it. If the person wasn't the Archivist when they died, then the putrefying process made them into one by mixing them with the archived material. But it's still just a black shadow without a proper form.

After being released, it entered the peacock's tail phase, which is characterised by colours appearing into the blackness and is often symbolised by eyes. It's a clever red herring, making us think it has something to do with the Beholding, but it doesn't (at least initially, but if the Fears have truly entered this universe, then it's not an impossibility that the Eye would latch onto it). The peacock stage is a transitional phase between nigredo (the putrefying stage) and albedo (the purifying stage). Which is where we're at now.

(Side note: I know I've seen an alchemical illustration of a man wearing all black and covered in eyes, but for the life of me I can't find it now. So just trust me on this.)

The albedo stage is all about washing matter with mercurial waters until its true essence shines through. The Archivist goes around distilling peoples fear and memories, ingesting their pure essence and leaving the concrete manifestations (Salt) behind. It's purifying itself with Mercury, or the Mind. The proof is in how the transcripts describe the compulsions with watery metaphors:

"Gwen begins monologuing, the words pouring out of her unstoppably like a river." (Episode 21) "Words seemed to tumble out in a cascade" (Episode 26) "The dam breaks and the words gush from the CUSTODIAN’s mouth." (Episode 30)

The words are the purifying water, they are the Mercury. The Archivist is a work in progress, which is why it's repeatedly dissolving and coagulating (see my post on episode 37). And I bet that every statement brings the Archivist closer to revealing its essence until coalesces into its true form, whatever that might be. The tape players appear to be the catalyst for this. It's also interesting to see whether or not the form the Archivist takes will be affected by what the people on the TMA side think it should be. We're working with dream logic and manifesting ideas, so it's not out of the question that it might take a form reminiscent of their own Archivist. Or at least whatever they saw him as.

[autismprotocol]

TMAG Theory Board Update (EP 11-12)

Hi guys sorry about the late posting I've just started a new quarter of college and its been pretty hectic. also got into my school design BFA program so pretty stoked about that! Anyways lets get into the Episode Breakdowns because even though not a lot of lore related things happened I still have a lot to talk about

For the breakdown I'll separate each by episode in sequential order

What Happened in Episode 11: Marked

Celias Rude Awakening- we jump right into the weirdness straight away with Celia waking up on the side of the interstate. she indicates that this is not a weird occurrence and ends the scene by telling someone named Jack that she's "on her way." If you remember episode 8 after Celia and Sam talk to Gerry and Gertrude, she mentions stuff about wanting help with her own mystery. When Sam asks about it she says she's looking into Time travel, other dimentions and teleportation. Many people have theorized that maybe Celia is just a super heavy sleepwalker, but I think the she teleports random places out of nowhere. This could be a side effect of her reality hopping if this Celia is originally from The archives universe.

As for the identity of Jack I'm not quite sure about that yet. I cross referenced the name Jack with past episodes of TMA. The only thing that came up was Jack Barnabas from the statement about dating Agnes Montague (aka an avatar of the desolation and Jesus-like figure for the cult of the lightless flame) So Unless Celia is secretly Agnes of Agnes reincarnated , I can't find any way to link Barnabas to Celia. (if anyone has a theory feel free to send it my way.)

Sam Lore- this one is pretty minor story-wise but I thought it was interesting. Before the statement for the episode is presented we get some classic Sam and Alice Banter ™ most of it is pretty lighthearted but I noticed Sam mention something that could indicate he might be an amputee.

These could not mean anything and I find it weird that it hasn't been mentioned until now but thought it was kind of cool and I will probably be drawing sam with a prothetic leg in the future cause I really like this head-canon. It also begs to question if he is missing a leg. it might have anything to do with his past as a Magnus institute test subject but then again could just be a fun character detail added by Jonny and/or Alex .

The Statement- Getting into the statement we get another Ink5oul appearance. Also possible Ink5oul identifying as she/they. (and lets be honest being a fear avatar is pretty non binary core). I found this Episode gave me a feeling of a hybrid between the Vast, Buried and the Flesh some people are theorizing that is might be a new entity called the Deep but I think that the fear of the ocean could easily apply to the vast or buried. Not much to say about this story though pretty standard Magnus horror that also gave us a hint to what Ink5oul's goal could be/which entity they serve.

Post Bonzo- Gwen has a debrief with Lena after her first Externals Liason assignment and her meeting with Mr. Bonzo. Undoubtedly Gwen is still pretty shaken from her encounter, even arriving late to work due to sleeplessness. Gwen is able to ask Lena a few questions mainly she wanted to know who's name was written on the letter given to Bonzo

Lena is largely unhelpful but tells Gwen she should have worked it out by now and if not to pay close attention to the case load for the next couple of days. before the latest episode my guess was Klaus because that is the only person mentioned so far that the OIAR intends to kill. but more on that later

Marked- Now were getting to my favorite thing about this episode. This episode title can have two meanings. The first is the more literal interpretation. Tattoos are marking of the body and the case this episode was all about tattoos so easily a good name would be marked. But I believe this is a red herring meant to misguide listeners who have not consumed all 200 episodes of TMA because if you know the world of Magnus Archives the term Marked takes on a entirely different meaning.

In TMA the term marked is used to indicate that somebody has been influenced by one or more or the fears and are one their way to becoming an Avatar. I think this could be a coded way to tell the audience someone in the OIAR has been marked. I have two potential candidates

Alice Dyer- Alice has been having dreams about the Institute after her and Sam's adventure into the ruins. also she mentions feeling like someone's watching her (common to people influenced or fed upon by the Ceaseless Watcher/The Eye) My guess if she is marked it would be by the Eye.

Gwendolyn Bouchard: Probably the most likely culprit. The main way an entitly tends to mark people is through encounters with other avatars. Gwen has just had an encounter with Mr Bonzo last episode who I strongly believe must be an avatar of some sort.

What Happened in Episode 12: Getting Off

Aww Sam!!- Sam asked Celia out and it was adorably awkward. not much to say I just loved this interaction and I'm longing for a new Magnus brand office romance hopefully is wont be an agonizing slowburn that ends tragically like a certain pair of morons from Archives (I love you Jon and Martin but Jesus christ)

It's Bonzo time bitches!!- Probably one of the most gruesome Magnus statement I've ever listened to (good work Alex) Mr Bonzo completely annihilated some poor dude at his bachelor party. Based on the date of the Incident the I can confidently say that whoever Baz (the groom) was he was our mystery person the OIAR sent Mr Bonzo to get rid of. Along with some of the bloodiest imagery we learned a few things about Bonzo. The most interesting detail is that Bonzo has to be summoned by playing his theme song I think the CD of his theme song acts somewhat like the tapes did in TMA by materialising out of nowhere. Also fun fact you know that torn seam that is right down Bonzo's middle? that is actually is his mouth lined with rows sharp teeth so I guess I know that now (so fun) Moral of the story dont f*ck with Mr. Bonzo

Alice knows something: Theres been this recurring audio glitch throughout TMAGP thatnks to a few extremly observent fans we have started to relize that these glitches are not at all random and are actually letting the audience know when a character is lying (i actually reposted somones deepdive into all the istances of this glitch so far if you guys are intrested in knowing more) why i bring this up now is becuase since we know when any charater is lying we also know when they are being truthful if there is no glitch when they say somthing and at the end of this episode this interaction occurs

Alice goes ahead and makes a joke about this to annoy Gwen but the fact theres no audio glitch when she says "I know" means she does actually know who is behind the OIAR and is activly refusing to share it with Gwen or the others. What do you know Alice!?

and that's about it im already loving these next batch of episodes and am so excited to learn more (ERROR has to show up somtime )

thanks to everyone who resonded the poll on the last update I will continue to include drawings into the breakdown even if it takes me a little bit of time to post. anyways I wrote this all in one sitting and I'm about ready to pass out so thanks again and the ask box and comments are always open for discussion and theory crafting.

-Echo