#*Eric Delano Voice* Elias BOUchard? SeRiousLy?

[beegs-bugs]

The Eye Opens

Art by my irl bestie Vin Who Is Not On Tumblr

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 154 - Bloody Mary

Jon: I found a – erm, I went back to Eli– Peter’s office, to that box of tapes, started rifling through. And I started to pay attention to the ones I… wasn’t drawn to. The tapes I instinctively wanted to discard.

Oh, that's clever!

Gertrude: James? He died about twelve years ago. Elias is Head of the Institute now. Eric: Elias? Elias Bouchard, seriously?!

This is the first moment that Eric doesn't sound utterly flat and monotonous, which is pretty hilarious, actually. Also should've tipped me off that something was off about Elias, but it didn't.

Gertrude: Hm. I’m not exactly a mother figure. Eric: You could hardly do worse than her.

I mean, she tried her hardest with the whole "binding him to a book and then promptly abandoning him to his fate" thing but the bar was veeeeeeeeeery high.

Gertrude: I suppose he might be useful.

That's oddly honest, given that she's talking to the boy's loving dad. I suppose there's no real reason for her not to voice her thoughts in this context.

But d’you know what the strange thing is? Despite the violence, death, even my own murder, I still don’t feel like she… betrayed me. She was what she was. And I knew that. And even though I told myself that she would never harm me – of course not! I was her husband, her true love – even then, the only one lying was me. She never promised anything, not even in her vows. She never betrayed me. Not like you. - Statement of Eric Delano.

This starts out just being sad ... poor fucker, even after everything that was done to him he can only blame himself and ... WAAAIT A MINUTE. Just ... that moment when you realise that, yeah, a poor exploited fucker who blames himself for being abused he may be, but Gertrude treated him so badly she managed to BREAK THROUGH THAT. Also, if I'm not entirely mistaken, the soundscape changes after that 'Not like you.' to become slightly more ominous.

But at least she didn’t bother to hide behind noble aims. Maybe that’s why I chose her, in the end. At least she was honest.

As much as I'm not particularly fond of Gertrude as a person (though she's a pretty amazingly written character!), I actually think Eric is wrong about this. I think Gertrude genuinely does have noble aims and yes, that does make her a better person than murder-for-the-sake-of-power Mary. That just happens to only get you so far in the eyes of someone like me who doesn't believe that the ends justify the means.

Eric: Then if you don’t mind? I think I’d like to go away now.

The calm sadness he says that with hit me like a sledgehammer.

- Tape clicks on - Jon: Fuck. - Tape clicks off-

You know, yeah. RATHER. (Also that is one well-deployed f-bomb.)

Martin: What, you going to gouge your eyes out, or something? ... Fuck off.

And yet another excellently deployed f-bomb. This is the first (and only?) time Martin says fuck isn't it?

Martin: You know I can’t do it, not now; you don’t want to blind yourself; you don’t want to die; what you want is a reason to not do those things, so – you come to me. Well, you’re welcome. B-because I can’t follow you on this one. Jon: The Lonely’s really got you, hasn’t it? Martin: You know, I think it always did.

The thing is, yeah, Martin's building walls but ... he's not necessarily wrong...

My impression of this episode

Eric's story is just so ... sad. Not even creepy, despite all the unwanted immortality. Just quietly sad. The poor guy was genuinely trying to be ... good. A researcher. A dad. And he never stood a fucking chance. The conversation between Jon and Martin is an exciting character development moment for both of them. (Also a relationship development moment, I suppose.)