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TMA relisten continues
Discussion through episode 43, but with absolutely ginormous spoilers for all aired episodes .
37 (Burnt Offering): The start of Martin trying to look after Jon, who clearly needs it even though he's not listening to Martin at all. *hugs Martin* The other sweet moment in this incredibly creepy episode is "Do you know what a pine marten is? It's a wee bear. An adorable wee bear." Besides that . . . *shudders*. I don't know if this re-listen will clarify what the hell is up with the Witchcraft Clearing and the tree at Hill Top Road and Gertrude's link to Agnes Montague, but at the moment I still find it incredibly confusing. I'm also thinking about the fact that several early episodes (e.g. "Dreamer") suggest that something much more sinister happened to Gertrude than just getting shot by Elias. By the standards of TMA, being shot dead by your boss is a peaceful and merciful end. So . . . what if something worse did happen? What if Gertrude isn't actually dead? On the other hand, the stakes are much bigger now than just Gertrude's fate, so maybe this is just some of the tangentially creepy stuff that will never be explained.
38 (Lost and Found): This one is so sad. I want to believe that David found his way out eventually, somehow, or was given back. Alas, this is not a universe with much mercy in it. As for the meta-plot: the spider that Jon kills, thus opening a hole in the wall, revealing the worms, causing the worms to attack before they're ready, is obviously some kind of manifestation of the Web. I wonder if the Web will continue to be a quasi-helpful Entity (in that it doesn't particularly want the world to change, and therefore will do things to block other Entities' plans) now that the world has changed and it too has fully manifested.
39 (Infestation): All the character development and all the action, combined! I wonder if the thing about recording becoming a compulsion for the Archivist was planned from the start of the show, or if it got written in to make episodes like this possible.
Sasha: I really like her a lot, on re-listening, and I wish we'd been able to get to know her better.
Tim: I find Tim the hardest character to make sense of, in a lot of ways. He comes across as, frankly, dumb as a box of rocks, but his backstory contradicts that and so do things like his recreational interest in architecture. My best guess is that he's someone who learned early to conceal his intellect in order to get along, and now it's become an instinctive part of his personality.
Martin: *hugs Martin some more* And speaking of people who conceal their intellect . . . Martin is really, really perceptive, and it comes through despite how much he doubts his own insights. For instance, he uses words like "trapped" and "caught" to describe why he hasn't quit, while all the others are still rationalizing it. (And in passing I note all that Web imagery--I'm still wondering whether the Web isn't somehow the secret manipulator behind everything that happens, right down to the big manifestation in S4. Although why the Web would do that, when it supposedly likes the world as it is, is a question.) He's also the one who sees through Jon's skepticism--and challenges him about it, even though Jon is his boss and also (maybe, because I'm not quite sure what Martin's feelings are at this point) the object of his crush. This and his ability to gently, kindly tease Jon are big factors in the way Jon starts to change at this point.
Elias: Even now that I know what's going on, and I know just how evil Elias is (and worse, how petty, because I could respect him more if he were evil for some bigger reason than just "I'm scared to die"), and I know how much he's manipulating everyone . . . I still kind of love him. I blame The Voice.
Jon: Has such a breakthrough here, in terms of how he relates to people. And not just Martin, although largely Martin, and that's important in ways beyond the shippy (because Jon's early dislike of Martin is rooted in his dislike of any vulnerability and "weakness" and non-detachment and capacity for caring about other people in himself). It's a pity this is immediately followed by the discovery of Gertrude's body and Jon's spiral into paranoia.
40 (Human Remains): Poor exhausted!bleeding!pained!frightened!Jon. And also, goddamn creepy horrible Jon, driven half by his fear and half by the Beholding's growing influence to force a bunch of equally exhausted and frightened people into hanging around making statements. Poor Tim sounds like he's literally experiencing traumatic dissociation, and even Elias (whom we have no reason to believe invulnerable to the worms) probably would like to go home.
In re: Elias, it seems to me that everything Elias says about Gertrude's death is actually true, he just leaves some fairly important bits out! I'm trying to remember any instances in canon where Elias outright lies, as opposed to just telling the truth strategically, and I can't. It's got me wondering if, as an avatar of the Beholding, he can't lie. Or if it's just that he can't lie while making a statement, any more than anyone else can (apart from giving false names).
Not!Sasha is so, so disturbing. It's brilliant.
And Martin. *hugs Martin* (At this point, we can probably just assume *hugs Martin* to be my reaction to everything Martin says or does.) He is still so worried about Jon--even though Jon's back to being horrible and even shouting at him--and so guilty for accidentally leaving Jon (and Tim, but really Jon) behind. I suspect he neglected to mention that the whole time he was wandering in the tunnels, he was unutterably miserable because he was sure Jon was dead. (I see from the transcript that when Martin apologizes for leaving them, Jon actually says "Oh, Martin." So say we all, Jon. So say we all.)
41 (Too Deep): True romance is giving your beloved a jar containing the ashes of his enemy. (*hugs Martin*) And it's also kicking your boss out of the Archives when you think he's come back to work too soon for his well-being. Damn, Martin can be fierce when in caretaker mode. (*and again*) And Jon did as he was told! Mostly, I'm sure, just to lull Martin and evade his watchfulness, but nevertheless, the Jon of a few months previously would have comprehensively explained to Martin that he had no right trying to tell him what to do, and didn't he have some basic research to go and fail at? So I'll call it progress.
And apparently Jon can lie while giving a statement, at least to some extent. He manages to exaggerate his interest in the tunnels. I still want to think most of it is true, though: his apology (!!) to Martin for going behind his back is halfway real, I think, and his rueful admission that he's not brave, but he is stubborn, is entirely real. And the factual stuff is true, as Jon says in the supplement.
42 (Grifter's Bone): The case isn't very interesting, but Jon's paranoid misinterpretation of Martin's attentions to him is saddelightfulsad. "He's ignoring his work to try to look after me! He's really really interested in everything I say! Obviously it's a plot!"
Also, Jon, you are an absolute bag of dicks for reading the stuff Martin left behind. I know you're understandably worried about being murdered, but you could have stopped reading the poetry, at least, once you realized what it was, instead of reading the whole thing and then recording a fucking critique! (This does further solidify my headcanon about Jon's frustrated academic career, though. He studied English lit at university and desperately wanted to do a Ph.D. and become a professor, but he never fully understood that literary scholarship is different from just liking to read, and as a consequence was rejected for postgrad work. There's a happy canon-divergence AU here in which Jon is a lecturer writing a book on 19th C anti-romanticism, and he meets Martin at a secondhand bookshop. Martin is buying an edition of Keats, and Jon is scathing, and Martin surprises himself with a passionate defense, and they live happily ever after and Martin quits the Institute because he's just a researcher and therefore can, and the world doesn't end, and maybe their flat has a few too many spiders and once Martin had an eerie experience where the Institute was inexplicably deserted one afternoon, but he was due to meet Jon for dinner so he left. And nothing weirder than that ever happens to them.)
Tangentially, I do not see any resemblance between Martin's poetic style, in the one poem of his that we get in the audio canon, and Keats's.
43 (Section 31): Hi Basira! You are awesome. (Side note: I am kind of irritated that all the fan art I've seen of Basira shows her wearing hijab. There's nothing in canon to indicate that she's an observant Muslim! And not all observant Muslim women wear hijab! I mean, I think this fanart comes from people trying to be inclusive, but it sort of ends up being a stereotype from the opposite direction.)
This is a really minor thing, but it struck me as odd that Basira used the word "Hispanic" to describe Diego Molina. It's one of several things that crop up in TMA that I would think of as Americanisms if they weren't coming from an English writer writing British characters. ("Goddamn" and "gotten" are big ones. I wonder if these are becoming more common in English/British/UK speech, or if they're just part of Jonny's own dialect so he writes them without thinking about it.)
Okay, I started writing this post two days ago and it's rather long, so I will conclude for now.
37 (Burnt Offering): The start of Martin trying to look after Jon, who clearly needs it even though he's not listening to Martin at all. *hugs Martin* The other sweet moment in this incredibly creepy episode is "Do you know what a pine marten is? It's a wee bear. An adorable wee bear." Besides that . . . *shudders*. I don't know if this re-listen will clarify what the hell is up with the Witchcraft Clearing and the tree at Hill Top Road and Gertrude's link to Agnes Montague, but at the moment I still find it incredibly confusing. I'm also thinking about the fact that several early episodes (e.g. "Dreamer") suggest that something much more sinister happened to Gertrude than just getting shot by Elias. By the standards of TMA, being shot dead by your boss is a peaceful and merciful end. So . . . what if something worse did happen? What if Gertrude isn't actually dead? On the other hand, the stakes are much bigger now than just Gertrude's fate, so maybe this is just some of the tangentially creepy stuff that will never be explained.
38 (Lost and Found): This one is so sad. I want to believe that David found his way out eventually, somehow, or was given back. Alas, this is not a universe with much mercy in it. As for the meta-plot: the spider that Jon kills, thus opening a hole in the wall, revealing the worms, causing the worms to attack before they're ready, is obviously some kind of manifestation of the Web. I wonder if the Web will continue to be a quasi-helpful Entity (in that it doesn't particularly want the world to change, and therefore will do things to block other Entities' plans) now that the world has changed and it too has fully manifested.
39 (Infestation): All the character development and all the action, combined! I wonder if the thing about recording becoming a compulsion for the Archivist was planned from the start of the show, or if it got written in to make episodes like this possible.
Sasha: I really like her a lot, on re-listening, and I wish we'd been able to get to know her better.
Tim: I find Tim the hardest character to make sense of, in a lot of ways. He comes across as, frankly, dumb as a box of rocks, but his backstory contradicts that and so do things like his recreational interest in architecture. My best guess is that he's someone who learned early to conceal his intellect in order to get along, and now it's become an instinctive part of his personality.
Martin: *hugs Martin some more* And speaking of people who conceal their intellect . . . Martin is really, really perceptive, and it comes through despite how much he doubts his own insights. For instance, he uses words like "trapped" and "caught" to describe why he hasn't quit, while all the others are still rationalizing it. (And in passing I note all that Web imagery--I'm still wondering whether the Web isn't somehow the secret manipulator behind everything that happens, right down to the big manifestation in S4. Although why the Web would do that, when it supposedly likes the world as it is, is a question.) He's also the one who sees through Jon's skepticism--and challenges him about it, even though Jon is his boss and also (maybe, because I'm not quite sure what Martin's feelings are at this point) the object of his crush. This and his ability to gently, kindly tease Jon are big factors in the way Jon starts to change at this point.
Elias: Even now that I know what's going on, and I know just how evil Elias is (and worse, how petty, because I could respect him more if he were evil for some bigger reason than just "I'm scared to die"), and I know how much he's manipulating everyone . . . I still kind of love him. I blame The Voice.
Jon: Has such a breakthrough here, in terms of how he relates to people. And not just Martin, although largely Martin, and that's important in ways beyond the shippy (because Jon's early dislike of Martin is rooted in his dislike of any vulnerability and "weakness" and non-detachment and capacity for caring about other people in himself). It's a pity this is immediately followed by the discovery of Gertrude's body and Jon's spiral into paranoia.
40 (Human Remains): Poor exhausted!bleeding!pained!frightened!Jon. And also, goddamn creepy horrible Jon, driven half by his fear and half by the Beholding's growing influence to force a bunch of equally exhausted and frightened people into hanging around making statements. Poor Tim sounds like he's literally experiencing traumatic dissociation, and even Elias (whom we have no reason to believe invulnerable to the worms) probably would like to go home.
In re: Elias, it seems to me that everything Elias says about Gertrude's death is actually true, he just leaves some fairly important bits out! I'm trying to remember any instances in canon where Elias outright lies, as opposed to just telling the truth strategically, and I can't. It's got me wondering if, as an avatar of the Beholding, he can't lie. Or if it's just that he can't lie while making a statement, any more than anyone else can (apart from giving false names).
Not!Sasha is so, so disturbing. It's brilliant.
And Martin. *hugs Martin* (At this point, we can probably just assume *hugs Martin* to be my reaction to everything Martin says or does.) He is still so worried about Jon--even though Jon's back to being horrible and even shouting at him--and so guilty for accidentally leaving Jon (and Tim, but really Jon) behind. I suspect he neglected to mention that the whole time he was wandering in the tunnels, he was unutterably miserable because he was sure Jon was dead. (I see from the transcript that when Martin apologizes for leaving them, Jon actually says "Oh, Martin." So say we all, Jon. So say we all.)
41 (Too Deep): True romance is giving your beloved a jar containing the ashes of his enemy. (*hugs Martin*) And it's also kicking your boss out of the Archives when you think he's come back to work too soon for his well-being. Damn, Martin can be fierce when in caretaker mode. (*and again*) And Jon did as he was told! Mostly, I'm sure, just to lull Martin and evade his watchfulness, but nevertheless, the Jon of a few months previously would have comprehensively explained to Martin that he had no right trying to tell him what to do, and didn't he have some basic research to go and fail at? So I'll call it progress.
And apparently Jon can lie while giving a statement, at least to some extent. He manages to exaggerate his interest in the tunnels. I still want to think most of it is true, though: his apology (!!) to Martin for going behind his back is halfway real, I think, and his rueful admission that he's not brave, but he is stubborn, is entirely real. And the factual stuff is true, as Jon says in the supplement.
42 (Grifter's Bone): The case isn't very interesting, but Jon's paranoid misinterpretation of Martin's attentions to him is saddelightfulsad. "He's ignoring his work to try to look after me! He's really really interested in everything I say! Obviously it's a plot!"
Also, Jon, you are an absolute bag of dicks for reading the stuff Martin left behind. I know you're understandably worried about being murdered, but you could have stopped reading the poetry, at least, once you realized what it was, instead of reading the whole thing and then recording a fucking critique! (This does further solidify my headcanon about Jon's frustrated academic career, though. He studied English lit at university and desperately wanted to do a Ph.D. and become a professor, but he never fully understood that literary scholarship is different from just liking to read, and as a consequence was rejected for postgrad work. There's a happy canon-divergence AU here in which Jon is a lecturer writing a book on 19th C anti-romanticism, and he meets Martin at a secondhand bookshop. Martin is buying an edition of Keats, and Jon is scathing, and Martin surprises himself with a passionate defense, and they live happily ever after and Martin quits the Institute because he's just a researcher and therefore can, and the world doesn't end, and maybe their flat has a few too many spiders and once Martin had an eerie experience where the Institute was inexplicably deserted one afternoon, but he was due to meet Jon for dinner so he left. And nothing weirder than that ever happens to them.)
Tangentially, I do not see any resemblance between Martin's poetic style, in the one poem of his that we get in the audio canon, and Keats's.
43 (Section 31): Hi Basira! You are awesome. (Side note: I am kind of irritated that all the fan art I've seen of Basira shows her wearing hijab. There's nothing in canon to indicate that she's an observant Muslim! And not all observant Muslim women wear hijab! I mean, I think this fanart comes from people trying to be inclusive, but it sort of ends up being a stereotype from the opposite direction.)
This is a really minor thing, but it struck me as odd that Basira used the word "Hispanic" to describe Diego Molina. It's one of several things that crop up in TMA that I would think of as Americanisms if they weren't coming from an English writer writing British characters. ("Goddamn" and "gotten" are big ones. I wonder if these are becoming more common in English/British/UK speech, or if they're just part of Jonny's own dialect so he writes them without thinking about it.)
Okay, I started writing this post two days ago and it's rather long, so I will conclude for now.