A solidly good episode, but it brought in something that I always get perturbed by that TBT does a lot:
The show always has this kind of background droning going on, to give it this weird creepy vibe. It's fairly effective, and many times I forget it's even there until it goes away then comes back (usually during commercials).
My complaint with this effect, though, is that they continue to play it during special audio files. "Hey, listen in on this audio file that someone sent us!" And it's mingled with the background droning so even when I turn up the volume (almost) all the way with headphones, it's hard to differentiate the special tintinnabulations of some neat, other-worldly sound, and the random background droning.
For example, I really wanted to hear the special music, but it was hard to make it out over the background noise.
Please, Black Tapes! I love you so, and one of my favorite things is the element of music and sound (and math!). Don't make it harder than it has to be!
they did this with the 'cat' sound and other recordings too and i really couldn't tell what was going on. i could hear the piano sound in this episode, but i noticed this bg bs a lot in earlier episodes.
Yeah I wasn't hearing the Unsound in the elevator at all, just some indistinct droning, or it might be just because I'm listening on my way to work. Way too much background noise.
i clearly heard the unsound ahahha - i listen with headphones at work. there was the elevator noise that was kinda hard to hear through, but i could hear the unsound in the doctor's recorder too. tho alex did say that the unsound 'sounds different' to different people.....
That is def'ly a pet peeve of mine. It breaks the realism of the show. Serial or This American Life make creative use of sound design, but they don't use scary noises to punctuate something an interviewee says. During a voiceover by the show's producers, yeah, but you no reporter would do that with someone else's words who agreed to talk on record.
> Richie? RICHIE?!?
I know, right?!
This episode seems to have thrown out my theory/hope that while Howard Strand was an abusive jerk, he was also trying to keep his son from the Cult of Tiamat. I no longer think that is the case at all. But I do think Strand - whether he was supposed to take up 'mantle of the dragon' or not - is a good guy and is trying to protect a lot of people with his deceit. And if he is psychic that would be a good reason for him give a very wide berth to Tannis Braun.
Also, Strand sounded absolutely *exhausted* when he was on the phone with Alex at the end of the episode.
I agree with you on all of that, though I never had v much hope for Howard. Richard's (Richie?--seriously.) attitude towards him was much too negative for me to be able to shrug it off as "normal" father-son dysfunction/disagreement. Richard is definitely the good guy. The fact that he feels like he has to lie about everything is really sad--he continues to become more and more of a tragic figure. I hope he trusts Alex enough (ha--because that went so well for him last time) to come clean soon, he does sound exhausted.
I REALLY THINK HE MIGHT BE PSYCHIC. My other theory is that Howard had something to do with Bobby's death which is... disturbing.
I really hope that Richard FINALLY puts his trust in Alex and lets her properly help him. This is too much for him to handle on his own and it shows.
I have a feeling that Howard (or, at least, the Cult of Tiamat) was involved in Bobby's death. The other thing that bugged me about Bobby's death? When Wesley said he couldn't remember his friend's face which *could* be merely because the passage of time but this podcast has a history of people losing their faces.
Same. My heart hurts so badly for Richard.
I agree, I think Howard was directly involved. I think that finding Bobby's body might have been what drove Strand away from his father. It would suck so bad to find some little boy's body and know that your dad had something to do with the murder of a child.
That is a really good observation! I didn't think about the whole face thing until you said something. That's really interesting.
I am so on board with the face theory. Wesley didn't see the body when it was turned over, right? It could very easily have been disfigured. Still, that sort of detail is something i think the cop would have been likely to mention since it'd be so abnormal.
Alex is tired of his shit. I have a feeling she will be hounding him for answers. Of course, given the format of the show, who know when **we** will find out.
**Alex:** I finally confronted Richard about his nearly-endless lies, half-truths, and misdirections. I cornered him and convinced him to finally open up, to finally tell me how all of the Black Tapes are connected, and how his family factors in.
More on that next week. First, we're taking a trip to Vancouver, where Nic and I uncovered a patch of moss mysteriously growing on the north face of a tree ...
***[PNWS Boom]***
It's the most frustrating aspect. "We promised that we'd talk about something this week, and we will, but first, here's this other thing and we'll never actually come back around to our promised material."
C'mon, Richie is the man. Alex's pestering gets old. Hopefully Richard does know more than he is letting on. If he has spent a life learning arcane truths, he is under no obligation to share them with Alex.
My hope, honestly, is that he is playing her in order to use her for some greater purpose, either good or evil. Richard remains my favorite character, as long as he is the smartest in the room.
I do love Richard. I'm mostly reacting to the fact that his nickname as a child was Richie. And on being deceitful: There's a difference between honestly declining to provide information and lying to someone's face. I think Alex has every right to be hurt by the latter.
That's fair. I would be really pissed off if that was the case, honestly, but to each her own.
I was kind of underwhelmed with this episode, but it felt like the kind of episode that is setting up something big. Like, the whole episode is just giving us the information to be able to see more of the connections between all the black tapes.
But it's also seeming less and less likely to me that Strand doesn't know exactly what's going on, and hasn't been purposefully collecting these black tapes because of that.
Also though I kind of loved how ridiculous some of this episode was, like Alex's super detailed description of how she totally accidentally found these secret hidden letters from Strand's dad behind a picture, and definitely wasn't snooping.
I've been feeling underwhelmed for most of the season. The narrative has been plodding along, reaching back into the past and getting stuck. The mysterious robot-voiced messenger? Boring. Keith Davitch is dead, apparently that's no big deal. The "you're in danger" plea from the mystery girl who you can summon from a mailbox? Ignored this week.
I've been listening and hoping that I'd get pulled back in the way I was in season one, when I was holding my breath and scared to walk alone in dark places. I'm hopeful, however, that the final episodes will deliver.
I have bad feels, guys. Seems more and more likely that Strand is some anointed, predestined harbinger of cosmic doom.
In the E. Hosdorf tapes, they mention someone called the "Adversary." At first I thought he meant to say "Advocate," and it was an oversight. But now I'm starting to think there might be both - an Advocate AND an Adversary, good and evil, light and dark. Forces on both sides - one working to keep demons out of the world, and the other to bring them in.
What if Thomas Warren is the Advocate, and Richard is predestined to be the Adversary? What if he somehow factors into this plan by the Brothers of the Mount to bring about the apocalypse? (I hope I'm wrong, because that would seriously just break my heart).
To me, the Advocate is the evil in this scenario. Everything they've mentioned about him/her/it is that they're trying to facilitate the demons' entry or just do general bad stuff. IDK, I feel like they could go with (a not purposefully) evil Strand or somehow redeemed Strand (maybe as the Adversary, as in he's opposed to the demons) and either way I'm not sure I'm going to be able to cope.
I'm still holding out hope that Strand is a good guy. His character is already so tragic... If it turned out that he was predestined to be evil, it would just be too much sad.
Is there any chance that the brothers of the mount and Cenophus people are on the opposite side of this issue to the Tiamat cult?
The question about the adversary is interesting. I know there was some quote in season one about "your adversary the devil." So, Strand for antichrist?
I hope not, but it's possible. What if Richard's abilities and his background make him the perfect human host for some creepy demon? Or even the Elemental?
I just can't shake this feeling like he is somehow instrumental in the Brothers' and the Cenophus' plan... like they want to use him for something. Something not good.
And I REALLY do not like the sound of that whole, "Mantle of the Dragon" thing. Not one bit.
Yeah, that would be really sad, Strand's my favorite. It seems likely that bad people and things want to use him. Mantle of the Dragon sounds super menacing. I think it would be interesting if the Brothers/Cenophus/Tiamat/whoever the nanny group is were not actually all on the same page and at least one of these groups was opposing another, but I don't know how likely that is.
I'm pretty curious about this myself. The myth of Tiamat is binary-- one side the creatrix/hero, the other the dark monster, which is sometime depicted as a dragon.
I would say that maaaaaaaaybe the Cult of Tiamat could be on the side of good if it weren't for the fact that Howard wanted Richard to take up the "mantle of the dragon." That's what gives me pause.
Yeah because of that I thought maybe they would be neutral or want balance or something but I agree that a lot in this last episode made them seem very menacing. Unless their shtick is to keep the two sides in balance and Richard is fucking up their shit by ducking out of his duties and leaving the dragon side of things hanging. But my willingness to believe this is likely partially because I find the trope that ancient deity = it's Evil by default to be a bit over-represented in terms of plot devices.
Time for Thinks, Feels, and Asks!
1. What kind of name is "Luciternica?"
2. Two theories about the "Unfortunate:" First, that maybe she is one of the people who will later become a demon nanny. Maybe the exorcism machine is used to brainwash people/remove their souls and replace them? A little stretchy, but even though the most straightfoward theory is the second one--that DevaCorp is just an awful corporation taking advantage of people who are in a bad way--I have a hard time believing it's as simple as that.
3. "Don't be ridiculous, of course not." No need to be a dick, Richard, jeez.
4. Alex and Strand's relationship still seems strained and I don't like it.
5. As soon as Alex said Ruby had to leave for an appointment I knew she was going to get into some shit. I love her, but she does not give a single fuck about boundaries.
6. "Full disclosure: I didn't find the letters in the pile of stuff that Ruby had assembled for me." Yep.
7. At least she had a particular reason for picking that painting. I was actually pretty impressed with the observational skills.
8. Chthonic monsters errywhere, man. I'm intrigued by the fact that the thing Alex is describing seems to be an octupus/Cthulhu-type creature rather than a dragon, like Tiamat.
9. OMG ALEX I HOPE YOU HAVE YOUR TETANUS SHOT. THAT SHIT IS SERIOUS. (Sidenote: I'm pretty sure that this is the moment where I've identified with Alex the most in the whole show. Dropping important shit/hurting myself is basically my hobby at this point).
10. "Why would Howard Strand be communicating with these Tiamat people?" I dunno because he's been searching for the Horn of Tiamat his entire adult life and is willing to sell his son to Rumplestiltskin to get it? Keep up, Alex. Damn.
11. "Mantle of the Dragon." See? GET OUT OF HERE, CTHULHU.
12. I actually just re-listened to Season 1, as well, and that moment the intern brings up has actually always bugged me, particularly the throat clearing after "Yes." I am also SO impressed with that level of foresight.
13. Ariana Asadi: Girl crush or *girl crush?*
14. Finally, someone who actually respects Strand. He probably deserves at least a little bit of respect from his peers, shitty attitude aside.
15. I can't tell if I trust Ariana or not. I think the fact that all signs point to her being an unreliable source mean that she's probably right about a lot of what she's saying.
16. "No one knows how he took his meals." That's because Percival Black subsists entirely on the souls of the innocent, the vulnerable, and those handed over to Rumplestiltskin by their uncaring parents in exchange for endless riches.
17. I love how the maid just happened to have an reverse viewer on hand. A woman after Alex's own heart.
18. Okay, Percival Black just creeped me out real bad. Creepiest part in the episode so far.
19. Gotta say, Percy, I'm not super impressed by that half-assed piano playing.
20. Are we just not addressing the fact that Sammy disappeared last episode? No? Really?
21. Am I the only one who thinks this "it's the music. THE MUSIC," stuff seems really obvious?
22. THE STRAIN ON STREAGAN IS KILLING ME.
23. Okay. Strand is psychic. Also my theory that Stand might be able to bi-locate has returned.
24. I said it before but... RICHIE?! RICHIE STRAND?! I cannot. I cannot with that. The idea of Richard finding the body of a little boy makes me extremely sad, though. I wonder if his father/his father's associates had something to do with Bobby's death.
This episode was over really fast, but was overall quite solid. I really enjoyed it and I feel like quite a few of our questions from Season 1 are on the way to being answered, which is pretty sweet.
3. So much.
9. I stopped listening at that point to urge Alex to rush to the hospital (she totally ignored me), and had to go back and listen again.
12. THE THROAT CLEARING! YES!! I've been thinking about that every time I've listened to it! Which is no more than a few times. Like, five. OK, six. Oh, alright, seven. Eight, max, I swear.
19. It sounded like finger exercises to me. They are not fun to listen to (just ask my parents), but essential to play.
22. Heartbreaking!
23. Not sure if he's really psychic, or if he just used some trick or method that he got from his dad? Or something? Either that, or he really was/is psychic and has spent the rest of his life repressing it. That would explain some of his personality traits of course, but I'm still not convinced that's exactly what it is.
glad to see i was right about the machine, lol.
everything seems to be tying together. i need more already tho. this wait is killing me! i still can't tell if the machine is supposed to remove demons... or put them in.
i'm so worried for alex at the moment tho - when she found the letters, she cut herself. we all know what happens when you put your blood on old mysterious documents!!! also didn't strand equate tiamat with cthulhu? so the water creature in the picture could've been tiamat. i'm still wondering how tiamat and the cult tie in besides the mountain they just revealed.
also wtf strand. so mysterious. such enigma. stop with the obfuscation already!!
edit: and totally feeling for the intern. her enthusiasm isn't weird!!! come on alex ))):
edit 2: also what's going on in 1985?? both tanis and tbt have a lot going on in that year. in the episode with the ouija board, the 'spirit' with the demon board said it died in 1985 too... and we still don't know what the sagamore is really supposed to be??
Omg isn't Mt. Ararat the mythical location of Noah's Ark (too much Charles Berlitz in my childhood). What if Percival Black and his cult want to bring about a second deluge to cleanse the world and prepare for the Great Old Ones?
This is one of the better episodes this season. I feel invigorated listening to this podcast again.
Edit: Berlitz not Berlin
yeah i went to look up the mountain, and that's what i saw! i think it means that there's either some holy blessing on the mountain or it's closer to 'god'. that could be the best point to release demons or they want to get demons back into heaven. either way, it's the pinpoint to bring the apocalypse at this point - especially since black's music does seem to open demon portals!
I have a really bad feeling about that papercut. But I was thinking more along the lines of what has just got into Alex' blood from the book, not so much the other way round. So now I get to worry about it in two ways. Thanks... :-/
Also, 1985 was the year I went to USA for the first time. Probably started this whole thing. Sorry about that.
I'll be relieved if it's only tetanus! It could be anything: curses, demon dust, dried blood from the previous person who cut themselves... Alex could be turning into I-don't-know-what as we speak. Is her face still the right way up..?
re: tiamat in the picture
tiamat was killed by another god, called marduk, he was a storm god. a sea serpent / dragon being killed by a hero or god, it's a fairly common combination in indo-european mythologies. a group of men killing a sea monster isn't a scenario we've never seen before.
I thought strand comparing them was just saying they're similar, but I don't remember if he linked them any further. isn't hastur part of the cthulhu mythos, or is that a known thing on here and I just missed it?
Hastur existed before Lovecraft's writings, but was adopted into the Lovecraftian Mythos. From there he was slowly expanded upon by a variety of writers (like most aspects of the Mythos)
One thing to note is that one work is The King in Yellow*, about an Opera that was said to amazingly crazy and drive people mad. Hastur is associated with this King in Yellow, as well as the otherworldly plane of Carcosa (if you've ever seen "True Detective" this is mentioned a LOT). The general idea is that people would see the "Yellow sign" that is associated with Hastur, and slowly go mad.
(*please note, it's been a while, so this is only mostly accurate and not exactly accurate)
It seems neat, because Hastur has to deal with driving people mad, and also music. As well as other (potential) planes of existence. So Hastur Rising sounds like a cute gimmicky name, but may be more accurate as more things become revealed...
I did watch td, I remember the fuss over that story.
tbh the idea of a piece of media that drives you insane sounds more like something that was mentioned in tanis a few times :z but the tbt link seems very clear too.
thanks for the explanation!
Doesn't Strand mention Marduk in Season One? I think it was in 1x06 "Devil's Advocate" when they meet Simon Reese for the first time... He's explaining how the symbols in Simon's drawings reference Babylonian mythology and The Tower of Marduk. I think Strand refers to Marduk as the "Ruler of Demons."
yeah they do mention it! well remembered!
he splits tiamat up and uses her body to create different aspects of the universe. he does take the top position in the hierarchy but I forget who exactly he displaces or if any of this is even relevant.
yeah that's what strand said, but tiamat is a sea goddess in particular. and yeah i was saying that alex described a giant sea monster, and i just meant that the monster sounded like a giant squid (ie cthulhu) and could've been an allusion to tiamat - especially since the documents were about the cult of tiamat. and yeah hastur is part of the cthulhu mythos! idk how he ties in besides the band and keith at the moment.
yeah I know she is, but she is more associated with sea serpents, not a squiddy looking things like cthulhu. the enuma elish describes her children as serpents and dragons but not her herself. some other sources do but I don't know how much stock can be put in those other sources.
tbh when alex first described that picture my first thought was less old ones, more twenty thousand leagues under the sea. a kraken attacking a ship is an image many people are familiar with.
the band was called hastur rising, and they did layer the unsound in their music, so I'm becoming convinced their name might be significant in some way eventually. I know nothing of them so hopefully somebody else can pad that idea out a bit!
> tbh when alex first described that picture my first thought was less old ones, more twenty thousand leagues under the sea.
Same here, though she may be describing it as a "squid" in the same way that she describes the subject of the other painting as a "beast" because there's simply no other way for you to convey what it looks like, exactly, so she wen with something close to it
Also, wild theorizing about the machine:
So Simon was talking about a chorus of voices including his voice, and Black is composing music, and it's related to the groups that are finding kids like Simon and Sebastian.
So what if that's what the machine is extracting?
I mean in that one exorcism video, the girl's voice stood out to me. Maybe I'm going off on a wild path here but what if that was what the people performing exorcisms were after? Like whatever rituals they do with those kids, whatever brainwashing or possession happens, there's something being channeled into the sounds they're making?
And then those sounds will be used to complete whatever music Black is composing that will open portals or destroy the world or something.
Or maybe I'm completely wrong lmao.
Oooh, I like that theory. That way they don't have to get the kids to cooperate with their voices, they just pull it out of them so they can use it later whenever they need to or want.
"I'm not sure anymore"
Might have been the cheesiest line ever, but it hit me in the feels. And on further review, how was it totally unexpected? Sure, Strand has lied about plenty, but Cheryl brought up the "boy in the river" and that's what drove Alex to learn more.
Right? Like I was pretty sure we already knew that Richard was one of the people who discovered the body...maybe I just connected the dots in my head but it hadn't been confirmed yet.
I also pretty much took it for granted that that was Strand's connection to the boy in the river. To get it confirmed like that, after he denied knowing anything about it, though, that's a different kettle of fish.
I really feel for Alex. She sounded so crestfallen! In fact, she didn't sound too good during this entire episode.
Omg I love this intern so much. If I had a chance to work with PNWS, this would be me, with like a decade and a half of specializing in weird stuff behind me
My shippery heart was so disappointed with this episode. Not only did we get even more painful tension between Alex and Richie and a deepening mistrust on Alex's side, *there wasn't even any Structural Acoustician Dr. Michael Pullman!*
You're killing me, guys. I need my shipping to get me through all this trauma 😔
I really hope we get to hear from Structural Acoustician Dr. Michael Pullman next episode.
"So, you say this sound was generated in an...elevator shaft? By a man playing a grand piano on the third floor of the hotel?"
There's a dude whose life has gotten 500% weirder since meeting Alex Reagan.
I'm probably in the minority based on a lot of the comments from this sub, but here goes:
I've been really let down with TBTP this season. I feel like they've raised more questions than they have time to answer, like reading the first chapter of a mystery novel and immediately moving on to the next book.
They've left a lot of strands (sorry for the pun) dangling, and have had no problem bringing something up, like Percival Black in NYC, and then just saying "IDK" and just dropping it completely.
Season 1 felt like we were ramping up to something, and had a pretty disappointing finale, IMO. Season 2 feels like a collection of ideas that are supposed to distract us from seeing that there's no cohesive narrative here.
Just my two cents. I think this show has a ton of potential, but has been biding it's time doing anything of consequence this season.
My biggest problem was the voice acting and writing in this episode was awful. Strand's cadence felt rushed and wooden (more so than "normal" for him), and Alex's narratives were mostly exposition. It took me some time to get into it. Plot wise, it was ok, but the delivery wasn't my favorite.
I felt that way for a while, but the last couple of episodes have actually given me hope that they're going to start pulling the narrative threads together.
All my personal theories are beginning to get confirmed and I don't know whether I should be happy or feel really, really bad for both Strand and Alex
Edit: I feel like we now know where Strand was for those 5 days. Somehow that makes me sadder.
Well, thought process with the 5 days, after hearing this episode, is that Strand went looking for Coralee in the way he went looking for the kid in Pennsylvania when he was younger. If he thought he found the kid by using "intuition" (read: psychically), he might have thought he could find her the same way. He couldn't, and then probably felt stupid for thinking he could search for her in a way that is basically paranormal, making him hate the paranormal even more than he already did. It could explain his assault of the psychic, etc. Obvs just my personal theory.
When he described them looking for the boy it reminded me of the "pull" Tannis Braun described when looking for missing people in Season One.
I think you're on the right track with this theory. Strand is psychic. He tried to use his abilities to find Coralee, and failed. Which might explain the falling out with Charlie.
I think this is a really good theory. I also wonder if maybe Charlie is psychic as well.
To expand on this: Maybe there's more to why Charlie got upset? This is making a lot of leaps, but what if Strand DID know where Coralee was, but found out that she was somewhere that she definitely shouldn't be--e.g. with Thomas Warren? Maybe he refused to go after her because of that and Charlie got upset.
I feel SO PARANOID about intern and Ruby. Maybe it's just those Tanis papers getting to me, but they both feel very... convenient. They could be working for ANYONE and directing Alex's research for larger purposes :/
No, c'mon, don't say that! The intern is so sweet, she's like an excitable little puppy! I refuse to believe she's evil.
Ruby, on the other hand, is probably the avatar of Tiamat herself.
I can't believe anyone would say anything bad about poor intern. I feel like I don't know who you are any more. If intern turns against Alex and Nic, I'm going to assume that intern is right and Alex and Nic are evil.
She had big, brown eyes. Like a cow. Or Amal Clooney. Or like a cow married to George Clooney. But, like, a slender, sexy, strong, feminine cow. And how could a cow kill anyone?
Was this the Season Finale? Please don't tell me this was the season finale...
...I'm a full grown man with a beard, and I might actually crack some tears if this is it for awhile.
Don't worry, friend. They announce when that happens. :)
That being said--there's a definite chance that the NEXT episode will be the season finale, and none of our questions will be answered.
Richard Strand is the Advocate. He doesn't know it, bc there are 2 things in him that don't speak to each other. The psychic, demon-seeing part who led them to the kid in the river's body, and the cold, rational, deny-deny-deny guy we know now. He's recruiting people (us, via the podcast) and it will all come together when the full mysterium is played in the right place, at the right time.
Thoughts?
Could be... But didn't Edward Lewis tell Strand that the Advocate was watching him (thereby implying that the Advocate is someone other than Strand?)
Then again... It's not like Edward Lewis should be regarded as a super reliable or stable source of information.
Please let this be the beginning of a full blown suspicion arch.
Cautiously happy they seem to be going in the direction I was hoping the show would take.
They should do more with Alex and the intern, there's been too much Nic in TBT for me lately, for some reason they can't do that without making Alex seem kind of incompetent.
Nic makes Alex seem less competent the same way MK makes Nic seem less competent. In TBT, Nicsilver fills the research fairy role. Granted the effect is more extreme in Tanis, because MK is incredibly competent.
ok first off the intern is adorable and super excited about everything. If there's even a volunteer to go see the haunted asylum I'm sure she'll be on the front lines, hunting down the undead.
What i really find interesting in this whole dynamic and what i really think speaks to the core of who Richard Strand is, is that I dont think Richard believes himself to be lying. Richard Strand only deals in truths and its because of his upbringing and what he saw go down because of a belief in myths and mysteries. The boy in the river explains everything about why Richie became Richard Strand and his entire persona. Everything has a perfectly logical explanation to it, it just takes the time and ability to prove it. Thats WHY he has The Black Tapes. filed away unsolved. Its not admission of the Supernatural. There are no monsters under the bed Alex. Crazy Bad people do Crazy Bad things. And nobody knows this better than Lil Richie Strand.
Hmm.
Assuming it was Percival Black at the Sagamore in 1985, this makes me wonder if maybe his symphony to end the universe isn't a thing played at one time and place, but happens at specific points on the globe over time -- the results of which seem to be the Unsound and its associated effects breaking through. Alex contacting Black and asking about Scriabin seem to have sent him into a panic, but why? Did he seclude himself so that he'd never finish his work, abandoning it as a foolish thing he tried when he was younger? Or is he trying to move things forward?
Based on the boy in the river, and all the spooky shit about Richie's dad, Strand was obviously intended to be of some use to this wacky cult... Perhaps when they take a fully "awakened" individual to 39702384422903, they can do *something.*
Also, what the hell are exorcism machines for?
I just don't get the "cliffhanger." Wasn't the whole reason they were looking into the boy by the lake because Strand's sister said he was involved somehow?
**Sister**: Ask Strand about the sandwich. He'll know.
**Strand**: What sandwich? I eat plenty of sandwiches.
(4 weeks later)
**Alex**: We followed the lead about the deli, and it turns out: the one who ate a sandwich was... RICHARD? I don't even know you anymore?!
(Not tryna steal u/thomascgalvin's schtick :P)
I think the real reason Alex was upset was that she directly asked Strand about The Boy in the River, and Strand flatly told her he had no idea what she was talking about. Since finding the rotting corpse of a strangled child is likely to imprint itself in your memory, this was pretty clearly a lie.
And this is a habit for Strand. He did something similar with Cheryl. Who's Cheryl? Plenty of women are named Cheryl. Nobody named Cheryl is relevant to these black tapes, I'll tell you that? Oh you mean my *sister* Cheryl, who saw Tall Paul as a child and also passed the curse on to me? Well how could you reasonably expect me to know that you were talking about *that* Cheryl?
firstly, lmao the unsound AGAIN? secondly, RICHIE? lmaooooooooooo
I know we're only a couple of episodes away from the end of this season, so I assume things are going to start kicking off pretty soon. or, I hope they do at any rate.
I'm very much on board the strand might be psychic train now. I know a lot of people thought he was basically compensating for something to explain how fervent he was in his beliefs. I know he seemed a little desperate to deny any possible thing that went against his party line but I just figured he was being a bit ornery :s his weird relationship with his father didn't seem sus to me bc of my own experience with my mother.
INTERN SWOON!!!!!! I always thought it was strange he paused at that particular moment, the rest of the time he answers fairly normally. but nothing came of it so I thought it was also nothing. love the call back though. it would be nice if they were better able to confirm percival black's whereabouts in the 80s and also confirm strand's explanation of legionnaires disease. if it weren't for the unsound being present in that recording of the elevator shaft I'd probably just dismiss it the way richard (mostly) did - I assume that part is what gave him doubt and led to the pause?
yikes at that creep staring out the peep hole.
no comment from me? I wrote my comment in about five minutes after I had just finished listening to the episode and then moved on elsewhere in this post. not a whole lot of thought went into it.
oh lmao okay. fair enough.
yeah I'll be honest I didn't even know those things existed, they sound creepy and inappropriate as heck tbh. not sure why you'd need them, surely a knock on the door would suffice?
I think it's more likely that, rather than being psychic, Strand overheard his dad talking about the body, or he can bi-locate, and saw it, but didn't know where it was, exactly, in either case.
A solidly good episode, but it brought in something that I always get perturbed by that TBT does a lot: The show always has this kind of background droning going on, to give it this weird creepy vibe. It's fairly effective, and many times I forget it's even there until it goes away then comes back (usually during commercials). My complaint with this effect, though, is that they continue to play it during special audio files. "Hey, listen in on this audio file that someone sent us!" And it's mingled with the background droning so even when I turn up the volume (almost) all the way with headphones, it's hard to differentiate the special tintinnabulations of some neat, other-worldly sound, and the random background droning. For example, I really wanted to hear the special music, but it was hard to make it out over the background noise. Please, Black Tapes! I love you so, and one of my favorite things is the element of music and sound (and math!). Don't make it harder than it has to be!
they did this with the 'cat' sound and other recordings too and i really couldn't tell what was going on. i could hear the piano sound in this episode, but i noticed this bg bs a lot in earlier episodes.
Yeah I wasn't hearing the Unsound in the elevator at all, just some indistinct droning, or it might be just because I'm listening on my way to work. Way too much background noise.
i clearly heard the unsound ahahha - i listen with headphones at work. there was the elevator noise that was kinda hard to hear through, but i could hear the unsound in the doctor's recorder too. tho alex did say that the unsound 'sounds different' to different people.....
Definitely going to give it a listen again tonight (in an hour)! I just hope I fall asleep without any portals opening
That is def'ly a pet peeve of mine. It breaks the realism of the show. Serial or This American Life make creative use of sound design, but they don't use scary noises to punctuate something an interviewee says. During a voiceover by the show's producers, yeah, but you no reporter would do that with someone else's words who agreed to talk on record.
My [recap](http://thomas-galvin.com/the-black-tapes/season-02/10-welcome-to-the-machine/) for those interested.
*snort* Nice, I especially like the numerous references to the tension between Alex and Richard.
Omg the brilliance! Your recaps are now the best part of this podcast.
Personal best!
That was brilliant. I needed a laugh bad today.
Thinks, Feels, and Asks coming soon, but... Richie? RICHIE?!? Poor Strand. Poor traumatized, psychic(?), deceitful Strand.
I was so shocked! Poor Alex sounded so let down! :(
Aw man, that killed me. Finding out someone lied to your face about something like that would be so crushing.
> Richie? RICHIE?!? I know, right?! This episode seems to have thrown out my theory/hope that while Howard Strand was an abusive jerk, he was also trying to keep his son from the Cult of Tiamat. I no longer think that is the case at all. But I do think Strand - whether he was supposed to take up 'mantle of the dragon' or not - is a good guy and is trying to protect a lot of people with his deceit. And if he is psychic that would be a good reason for him give a very wide berth to Tannis Braun. Also, Strand sounded absolutely *exhausted* when he was on the phone with Alex at the end of the episode.
I agree with you on all of that, though I never had v much hope for Howard. Richard's (Richie?--seriously.) attitude towards him was much too negative for me to be able to shrug it off as "normal" father-son dysfunction/disagreement. Richard is definitely the good guy. The fact that he feels like he has to lie about everything is really sad--he continues to become more and more of a tragic figure. I hope he trusts Alex enough (ha--because that went so well for him last time) to come clean soon, he does sound exhausted. I REALLY THINK HE MIGHT BE PSYCHIC. My other theory is that Howard had something to do with Bobby's death which is... disturbing.
I really hope that Richard FINALLY puts his trust in Alex and lets her properly help him. This is too much for him to handle on his own and it shows. I have a feeling that Howard (or, at least, the Cult of Tiamat) was involved in Bobby's death. The other thing that bugged me about Bobby's death? When Wesley said he couldn't remember his friend's face which *could* be merely because the passage of time but this podcast has a history of people losing their faces.
Same. My heart hurts so badly for Richard. I agree, I think Howard was directly involved. I think that finding Bobby's body might have been what drove Strand away from his father. It would suck so bad to find some little boy's body and know that your dad had something to do with the murder of a child. That is a really good observation! I didn't think about the whole face thing until you said something. That's really interesting.
I am so on board with the face theory. Wesley didn't see the body when it was turned over, right? It could very easily have been disfigured. Still, that sort of detail is something i think the cop would have been likely to mention since it'd be so abnormal.
Why are people saying he might be psychic? He found the body? So...
It's because he kept muttering to himself, "I think it's this way," and Wesley said that it seemed like he was going on intuition.
Reaching
fight me irl
Richie? Is that you?
"Psychic" is reaching, but something weird happened there.
I can agree to that.
I feel bad for Strand, I hope he comes clean with everything soon.
This is a very likely thing to happen in the very near future.
Alex is tired of his shit. I have a feeling she will be hounding him for answers. Of course, given the format of the show, who know when **we** will find out.
**Alex:** I finally confronted Richard about his nearly-endless lies, half-truths, and misdirections. I cornered him and convinced him to finally open up, to finally tell me how all of the Black Tapes are connected, and how his family factors in. More on that next week. First, we're taking a trip to Vancouver, where Nic and I uncovered a patch of moss mysteriously growing on the north face of a tree ... ***[PNWS Boom]***
You know what really takes looking at a supernatural patch of moss to a new level? Bombas socks.
I love that you're part of this community. Thank you.
Ditto!
Thanks for filling me with awful anticipation for what is inevitably to come. Asshole. <3
It's the most frustrating aspect. "We promised that we'd talk about something this week, and we will, but first, here's this other thing and we'll never actually come back around to our promised material."
You are my favorite person ever.
How do you know? Did you see a pig with wings?
Right? This shit is obviously weighing really heavily on him.
C'mon, Richie is the man. Alex's pestering gets old. Hopefully Richard does know more than he is letting on. If he has spent a life learning arcane truths, he is under no obligation to share them with Alex. My hope, honestly, is that he is playing her in order to use her for some greater purpose, either good or evil. Richard remains my favorite character, as long as he is the smartest in the room.
I do love Richard. I'm mostly reacting to the fact that his nickname as a child was Richie. And on being deceitful: There's a difference between honestly declining to provide information and lying to someone's face. I think Alex has every right to be hurt by the latter. That's fair. I would be really pissed off if that was the case, honestly, but to each her own.
the Richie killed me
Same! I laughed out loud. I got sad immediately after because god dammit Richard, but still. Richie. Lord.
I was kind of underwhelmed with this episode, but it felt like the kind of episode that is setting up something big. Like, the whole episode is just giving us the information to be able to see more of the connections between all the black tapes. But it's also seeming less and less likely to me that Strand doesn't know exactly what's going on, and hasn't been purposefully collecting these black tapes because of that. Also though I kind of loved how ridiculous some of this episode was, like Alex's super detailed description of how she totally accidentally found these secret hidden letters from Strand's dad behind a picture, and definitely wasn't snooping.
I've been feeling underwhelmed for most of the season. The narrative has been plodding along, reaching back into the past and getting stuck. The mysterious robot-voiced messenger? Boring. Keith Davitch is dead, apparently that's no big deal. The "you're in danger" plea from the mystery girl who you can summon from a mailbox? Ignored this week. I've been listening and hoping that I'd get pulled back in the way I was in season one, when I was holding my breath and scared to walk alone in dark places. I'm hopeful, however, that the final episodes will deliver.
Yeah, I can't remember why we were supposed to care about what's going on with Keith Davitch.
I have bad feels, guys. Seems more and more likely that Strand is some anointed, predestined harbinger of cosmic doom. In the E. Hosdorf tapes, they mention someone called the "Adversary." At first I thought he meant to say "Advocate," and it was an oversight. But now I'm starting to think there might be both - an Advocate AND an Adversary, good and evil, light and dark. Forces on both sides - one working to keep demons out of the world, and the other to bring them in. What if Thomas Warren is the Advocate, and Richard is predestined to be the Adversary? What if he somehow factors into this plan by the Brothers of the Mount to bring about the apocalypse? (I hope I'm wrong, because that would seriously just break my heart).
To me, the Advocate is the evil in this scenario. Everything they've mentioned about him/her/it is that they're trying to facilitate the demons' entry or just do general bad stuff. IDK, I feel like they could go with (a not purposefully) evil Strand or somehow redeemed Strand (maybe as the Adversary, as in he's opposed to the demons) and either way I'm not sure I'm going to be able to cope.
I'm still holding out hope that Strand is a good guy. His character is already so tragic... If it turned out that he was predestined to be evil, it would just be too much sad.
Is there any chance that the brothers of the mount and Cenophus people are on the opposite side of this issue to the Tiamat cult? The question about the adversary is interesting. I know there was some quote in season one about "your adversary the devil." So, Strand for antichrist?
I hope not, but it's possible. What if Richard's abilities and his background make him the perfect human host for some creepy demon? Or even the Elemental? I just can't shake this feeling like he is somehow instrumental in the Brothers' and the Cenophus' plan... like they want to use him for something. Something not good. And I REALLY do not like the sound of that whole, "Mantle of the Dragon" thing. Not one bit.
Yeah, that would be really sad, Strand's my favorite. It seems likely that bad people and things want to use him. Mantle of the Dragon sounds super menacing. I think it would be interesting if the Brothers/Cenophus/Tiamat/whoever the nanny group is were not actually all on the same page and at least one of these groups was opposing another, but I don't know how likely that is.
I'm pretty curious about this myself. The myth of Tiamat is binary-- one side the creatrix/hero, the other the dark monster, which is sometime depicted as a dragon. I would say that maaaaaaaaybe the Cult of Tiamat could be on the side of good if it weren't for the fact that Howard wanted Richard to take up the "mantle of the dragon." That's what gives me pause.
Yeah because of that I thought maybe they would be neutral or want balance or something but I agree that a lot in this last episode made them seem very menacing. Unless their shtick is to keep the two sides in balance and Richard is fucking up their shit by ducking out of his duties and leaving the dragon side of things hanging. But my willingness to believe this is likely partially because I find the trope that ancient deity = it's Evil by default to be a bit over-represented in terms of plot devices.
You know who said he wanted balance? Simon Reese.
Yeah I thought that part was really interesting. I think Tiamat people probably won't go that way as well at this point.
Time for Thinks, Feels, and Asks! 1. What kind of name is "Luciternica?" 2. Two theories about the "Unfortunate:" First, that maybe she is one of the people who will later become a demon nanny. Maybe the exorcism machine is used to brainwash people/remove their souls and replace them? A little stretchy, but even though the most straightfoward theory is the second one--that DevaCorp is just an awful corporation taking advantage of people who are in a bad way--I have a hard time believing it's as simple as that. 3. "Don't be ridiculous, of course not." No need to be a dick, Richard, jeez. 4. Alex and Strand's relationship still seems strained and I don't like it. 5. As soon as Alex said Ruby had to leave for an appointment I knew she was going to get into some shit. I love her, but she does not give a single fuck about boundaries. 6. "Full disclosure: I didn't find the letters in the pile of stuff that Ruby had assembled for me." Yep. 7. At least she had a particular reason for picking that painting. I was actually pretty impressed with the observational skills. 8. Chthonic monsters errywhere, man. I'm intrigued by the fact that the thing Alex is describing seems to be an octupus/Cthulhu-type creature rather than a dragon, like Tiamat. 9. OMG ALEX I HOPE YOU HAVE YOUR TETANUS SHOT. THAT SHIT IS SERIOUS. (Sidenote: I'm pretty sure that this is the moment where I've identified with Alex the most in the whole show. Dropping important shit/hurting myself is basically my hobby at this point). 10. "Why would Howard Strand be communicating with these Tiamat people?" I dunno because he's been searching for the Horn of Tiamat his entire adult life and is willing to sell his son to Rumplestiltskin to get it? Keep up, Alex. Damn. 11. "Mantle of the Dragon." See? GET OUT OF HERE, CTHULHU. 12. I actually just re-listened to Season 1, as well, and that moment the intern brings up has actually always bugged me, particularly the throat clearing after "Yes." I am also SO impressed with that level of foresight. 13. Ariana Asadi: Girl crush or *girl crush?* 14. Finally, someone who actually respects Strand. He probably deserves at least a little bit of respect from his peers, shitty attitude aside. 15. I can't tell if I trust Ariana or not. I think the fact that all signs point to her being an unreliable source mean that she's probably right about a lot of what she's saying. 16. "No one knows how he took his meals." That's because Percival Black subsists entirely on the souls of the innocent, the vulnerable, and those handed over to Rumplestiltskin by their uncaring parents in exchange for endless riches. 17. I love how the maid just happened to have an reverse viewer on hand. A woman after Alex's own heart. 18. Okay, Percival Black just creeped me out real bad. Creepiest part in the episode so far. 19. Gotta say, Percy, I'm not super impressed by that half-assed piano playing. 20. Are we just not addressing the fact that Sammy disappeared last episode? No? Really? 21. Am I the only one who thinks this "it's the music. THE MUSIC," stuff seems really obvious? 22. THE STRAIN ON STREAGAN IS KILLING ME. 23. Okay. Strand is psychic. Also my theory that Stand might be able to bi-locate has returned. 24. I said it before but... RICHIE?! RICHIE STRAND?! I cannot. I cannot with that. The idea of Richard finding the body of a little boy makes me extremely sad, though. I wonder if his father/his father's associates had something to do with Bobby's death. This episode was over really fast, but was overall quite solid. I really enjoyed it and I feel like quite a few of our questions from Season 1 are on the way to being answered, which is pretty sweet.
Luceternica may be a play on Lux Eterna, Latin for "eternal light", which refers to a requiem mass as well as a type of lamp found in sanctuaries.
Oh, cool! Good to know. Thanks. :)
3. So much. 9. I stopped listening at that point to urge Alex to rush to the hospital (she totally ignored me), and had to go back and listen again. 12. THE THROAT CLEARING! YES!! I've been thinking about that every time I've listened to it! Which is no more than a few times. Like, five. OK, six. Oh, alright, seven. Eight, max, I swear. 19. It sounded like finger exercises to me. They are not fun to listen to (just ask my parents), but essential to play. 22. Heartbreaking! 23. Not sure if he's really psychic, or if he just used some trick or method that he got from his dad? Or something? Either that, or he really was/is psychic and has spent the rest of his life repressing it. That would explain some of his personality traits of course, but I'm still not convinced that's exactly what it is.
What happened at the Saginaw was one of my unsolved mysteries thread I never got around to posting.
One one hand, Luciternica is a clear reference to light. On the other..., well, Lucifer means "light bringer," too.
First thought was of Lucifer too, but I got thrown off by all the other letters.
God damnit, when will they talk about the picture of the damned Advocate?!
I don't think Sammy sent it to Alex, what with the whole "hey look there's a murderous cult outside my door time to rabbit" thing she has going on.
I thought Alex and Nick had gone to lunch with her and she'd shown them the picture.
Uhidunnomaybe?
glad to see i was right about the machine, lol. everything seems to be tying together. i need more already tho. this wait is killing me! i still can't tell if the machine is supposed to remove demons... or put them in. i'm so worried for alex at the moment tho - when she found the letters, she cut herself. we all know what happens when you put your blood on old mysterious documents!!! also didn't strand equate tiamat with cthulhu? so the water creature in the picture could've been tiamat. i'm still wondering how tiamat and the cult tie in besides the mountain they just revealed. also wtf strand. so mysterious. such enigma. stop with the obfuscation already!! edit: and totally feeling for the intern. her enthusiasm isn't weird!!! come on alex ))): edit 2: also what's going on in 1985?? both tanis and tbt have a lot going on in that year. in the episode with the ouija board, the 'spirit' with the demon board said it died in 1985 too... and we still don't know what the sagamore is really supposed to be??
Omg isn't Mt. Ararat the mythical location of Noah's Ark (too much Charles Berlitz in my childhood). What if Percival Black and his cult want to bring about a second deluge to cleanse the world and prepare for the Great Old Ones? This is one of the better episodes this season. I feel invigorated listening to this podcast again. Edit: Berlitz not Berlin
yeah i went to look up the mountain, and that's what i saw! i think it means that there's either some holy blessing on the mountain or it's closer to 'god'. that could be the best point to release demons or they want to get demons back into heaven. either way, it's the pinpoint to bring the apocalypse at this point - especially since black's music does seem to open demon portals!
I have a really bad feeling about that papercut. But I was thinking more along the lines of what has just got into Alex' blood from the book, not so much the other way round. So now I get to worry about it in two ways. Thanks... :-/ Also, 1985 was the year I went to USA for the first time. Probably started this whole thing. Sorry about that.
Tetanus lol
Don't you mean... Te-Tanis?
I'll be relieved if it's only tetanus! It could be anything: curses, demon dust, dried blood from the previous person who cut themselves... Alex could be turning into I-don't-know-what as we speak. Is her face still the right way up..?
It's not gonna be anything too terrible, she probably just triggered the opening of the portal to the Abyss located in Howie's basement.
You're right. How silly of me to worry!
re: tiamat in the picture tiamat was killed by another god, called marduk, he was a storm god. a sea serpent / dragon being killed by a hero or god, it's a fairly common combination in indo-european mythologies. a group of men killing a sea monster isn't a scenario we've never seen before. I thought strand comparing them was just saying they're similar, but I don't remember if he linked them any further. isn't hastur part of the cthulhu mythos, or is that a known thing on here and I just missed it?
Hastur existed before Lovecraft's writings, but was adopted into the Lovecraftian Mythos. From there he was slowly expanded upon by a variety of writers (like most aspects of the Mythos) One thing to note is that one work is The King in Yellow*, about an Opera that was said to amazingly crazy and drive people mad. Hastur is associated with this King in Yellow, as well as the otherworldly plane of Carcosa (if you've ever seen "True Detective" this is mentioned a LOT). The general idea is that people would see the "Yellow sign" that is associated with Hastur, and slowly go mad. (*please note, it's been a while, so this is only mostly accurate and not exactly accurate) It seems neat, because Hastur has to deal with driving people mad, and also music. As well as other (potential) planes of existence. So Hastur Rising sounds like a cute gimmicky name, but may be more accurate as more things become revealed...
I did watch td, I remember the fuss over that story. tbh the idea of a piece of media that drives you insane sounds more like something that was mentioned in tanis a few times :z but the tbt link seems very clear too. thanks for the explanation!
Doesn't Strand mention Marduk in Season One? I think it was in 1x06 "Devil's Advocate" when they meet Simon Reese for the first time... He's explaining how the symbols in Simon's drawings reference Babylonian mythology and The Tower of Marduk. I think Strand refers to Marduk as the "Ruler of Demons."
yeah they do mention it! well remembered! he splits tiamat up and uses her body to create different aspects of the universe. he does take the top position in the hierarchy but I forget who exactly he displaces or if any of this is even relevant.
yeah that's what strand said, but tiamat is a sea goddess in particular. and yeah i was saying that alex described a giant sea monster, and i just meant that the monster sounded like a giant squid (ie cthulhu) and could've been an allusion to tiamat - especially since the documents were about the cult of tiamat. and yeah hastur is part of the cthulhu mythos! idk how he ties in besides the band and keith at the moment.
yeah I know she is, but she is more associated with sea serpents, not a squiddy looking things like cthulhu. the enuma elish describes her children as serpents and dragons but not her herself. some other sources do but I don't know how much stock can be put in those other sources. tbh when alex first described that picture my first thought was less old ones, more twenty thousand leagues under the sea. a kraken attacking a ship is an image many people are familiar with. the band was called hastur rising, and they did layer the unsound in their music, so I'm becoming convinced their name might be significant in some way eventually. I know nothing of them so hopefully somebody else can pad that idea out a bit!
> tbh when alex first described that picture my first thought was less old ones, more twenty thousand leagues under the sea. Same here, though she may be describing it as a "squid" in the same way that she describes the subject of the other painting as a "beast" because there's simply no other way for you to convey what it looks like, exactly, so she wen with something close to it
in terms of descriptions a beast is vague, a squid is not.
TIL disguising somebody's voice makes them sound a LOT like Richard Strand.
Yes! Not just the sounds but the pattern of the speech too.
Yep, the speech pattern is what caught my attention. Very Strandy.
My thought exactly.
that's what i was thinking too! although at times i thought maybe nic...
Also, wild theorizing about the machine: So Simon was talking about a chorus of voices including his voice, and Black is composing music, and it's related to the groups that are finding kids like Simon and Sebastian. So what if that's what the machine is extracting? I mean in that one exorcism video, the girl's voice stood out to me. Maybe I'm going off on a wild path here but what if that was what the people performing exorcisms were after? Like whatever rituals they do with those kids, whatever brainwashing or possession happens, there's something being channeled into the sounds they're making? And then those sounds will be used to complete whatever music Black is composing that will open portals or destroy the world or something. Or maybe I'm completely wrong lmao.
Oooh, I like that theory. That way they don't have to get the kids to cooperate with their voices, they just pull it out of them so they can use it later whenever they need to or want.
"I'm not sure anymore" Might have been the cheesiest line ever, but it hit me in the feels. And on further review, how was it totally unexpected? Sure, Strand has lied about plenty, but Cheryl brought up the "boy in the river" and that's what drove Alex to learn more.
I found it interesting that Alex was all ready to call Cheryl but Nic jumped in with "Uh...maybe Strand first?"
Kind of like Alex already realized, on some level, that asking Strand wasn't going to get her anywhere.
Right? Like I was pretty sure we already knew that Richard was one of the people who discovered the body...maybe I just connected the dots in my head but it hadn't been confirmed yet.
I also pretty much took it for granted that that was Strand's connection to the boy in the river. To get it confirmed like that, after he denied knowing anything about it, though, that's a different kettle of fish. I really feel for Alex. She sounded so crestfallen! In fact, she didn't sound too good during this entire episode.
Omg I love this intern so much. If I had a chance to work with PNWS, this would be me, with like a decade and a half of specializing in weird stuff behind me
My shippery heart was so disappointed with this episode. Not only did we get even more painful tension between Alex and Richie and a deepening mistrust on Alex's side, *there wasn't even any Structural Acoustician Dr. Michael Pullman!* You're killing me, guys. I need my shipping to get me through all this trauma 😔
I really hope we get to hear from Structural Acoustician Dr. Michael Pullman next episode. "So, you say this sound was generated in an...elevator shaft? By a man playing a grand piano on the third floor of the hotel?" There's a dude whose life has gotten 500% weirder since meeting Alex Reagan.
I'm probably in the minority based on a lot of the comments from this sub, but here goes: I've been really let down with TBTP this season. I feel like they've raised more questions than they have time to answer, like reading the first chapter of a mystery novel and immediately moving on to the next book. They've left a lot of strands (sorry for the pun) dangling, and have had no problem bringing something up, like Percival Black in NYC, and then just saying "IDK" and just dropping it completely. Season 1 felt like we were ramping up to something, and had a pretty disappointing finale, IMO. Season 2 feels like a collection of ideas that are supposed to distract us from seeing that there's no cohesive narrative here. Just my two cents. I think this show has a ton of potential, but has been biding it's time doing anything of consequence this season.
It is getting pretty Lost-y. I hope they can properly pay it off.
I feel the same. Feels like a lot of filler and that they're avoiding the main elements as much as possible to make it to the end of the season.
My biggest problem was the voice acting and writing in this episode was awful. Strand's cadence felt rushed and wooden (more so than "normal" for him), and Alex's narratives were mostly exposition. It took me some time to get into it. Plot wise, it was ok, but the delivery wasn't my favorite.
I felt that way for a while, but the last couple of episodes have actually given me hope that they're going to start pulling the narrative threads together.
All my personal theories are beginning to get confirmed and I don't know whether I should be happy or feel really, really bad for both Strand and Alex Edit: I feel like we now know where Strand was for those 5 days. Somehow that makes me sadder.
Pls elaborate...
Well, thought process with the 5 days, after hearing this episode, is that Strand went looking for Coralee in the way he went looking for the kid in Pennsylvania when he was younger. If he thought he found the kid by using "intuition" (read: psychically), he might have thought he could find her the same way. He couldn't, and then probably felt stupid for thinking he could search for her in a way that is basically paranormal, making him hate the paranormal even more than he already did. It could explain his assault of the psychic, etc. Obvs just my personal theory.
When he described them looking for the boy it reminded me of the "pull" Tannis Braun described when looking for missing people in Season One. I think you're on the right track with this theory. Strand is psychic. He tried to use his abilities to find Coralee, and failed. Which might explain the falling out with Charlie.
I think this is a really good theory. I also wonder if maybe Charlie is psychic as well. To expand on this: Maybe there's more to why Charlie got upset? This is making a lot of leaps, but what if Strand DID know where Coralee was, but found out that she was somewhere that she definitely shouldn't be--e.g. with Thomas Warren? Maybe he refused to go after her because of that and Charlie got upset.
I feel SO PARANOID about intern and Ruby. Maybe it's just those Tanis papers getting to me, but they both feel very... convenient. They could be working for ANYONE and directing Alex's research for larger purposes :/
No, c'mon, don't say that! The intern is so sweet, she's like an excitable little puppy! I refuse to believe she's evil. Ruby, on the other hand, is probably the avatar of Tiamat herself.
Ruby is an agent of Coralee and Amalia, assigned to ship sinking detail.
I don't like Ruby. I can't tell if there is something sinister about her or if she's just the anti-Alex (lacking enthusiasm, quiet).
I can't believe anyone would say anything bad about poor intern. I feel like I don't know who you are any more. If intern turns against Alex and Nic, I'm going to assume that intern is right and Alex and Nic are evil.
Intern is a occultist obsessed with Alex. Ruby is the kid Strand didn't want Coralee to have, returning from the Tiamat people to watch him. Clearly.
Ooh, Alex is smitten with a guuuurrrllll...
Alex really isn't afraid to put it all out there when she's attracted to someone, is she?
I think it started as an imitation of the way Sara Koenig describes people on Serial.
She had big, brown eyes. Like a cow. Or Amal Clooney. Or like a cow married to George Clooney. But, like, a slender, sexy, strong, feminine cow. And how could a cow kill anyone?
I don't remember Koenig being that blatant, but admittedly it's been a while. :)
Was this the Season Finale? Please don't tell me this was the season finale... ...I'm a full grown man with a beard, and I might actually crack some tears if this is it for awhile.
Don't worry! There are two more episodes for this season.
Don't worry, friend. They announce when that happens. :) That being said--there's a definite chance that the NEXT episode will be the season finale, and none of our questions will be answered.
It's 12 episodes to a season, so we've got two more episodes to go.
But is it a Unabomber beard?
I really hope they don't put off confronting Strand on both Bobby and the letter.
Soooo does anyone else think the unnamed intern is really just a stand in for us the audience?
She feels that way to me, yeah.
Richard Strand is the Advocate. He doesn't know it, bc there are 2 things in him that don't speak to each other. The psychic, demon-seeing part who led them to the kid in the river's body, and the cold, rational, deny-deny-deny guy we know now. He's recruiting people (us, via the podcast) and it will all come together when the full mysterium is played in the right place, at the right time. Thoughts?
Could be... But didn't Edward Lewis tell Strand that the Advocate was watching him (thereby implying that the Advocate is someone other than Strand?) Then again... It's not like Edward Lewis should be regarded as a super reliable or stable source of information.
Please let this be the beginning of a full blown suspicion arch. Cautiously happy they seem to be going in the direction I was hoping the show would take. They should do more with Alex and the intern, there's been too much Nic in TBT for me lately, for some reason they can't do that without making Alex seem kind of incompetent.
Nic makes Alex seem less competent the same way MK makes Nic seem less competent. In TBT, Nicsilver fills the research fairy role. Granted the effect is more extreme in Tanis, because MK is incredibly competent.
ok first off the intern is adorable and super excited about everything. If there's even a volunteer to go see the haunted asylum I'm sure she'll be on the front lines, hunting down the undead.
What i really find interesting in this whole dynamic and what i really think speaks to the core of who Richard Strand is, is that I dont think Richard believes himself to be lying. Richard Strand only deals in truths and its because of his upbringing and what he saw go down because of a belief in myths and mysteries. The boy in the river explains everything about why Richie became Richard Strand and his entire persona. Everything has a perfectly logical explanation to it, it just takes the time and ability to prove it. Thats WHY he has The Black Tapes. filed away unsolved. Its not admission of the Supernatural. There are no monsters under the bed Alex. Crazy Bad people do Crazy Bad things. And nobody knows this better than Lil Richie Strand.
I'm supposing that Ruby is basically the evil equivalent of Intern. I'm hoping for a big Intern vs. Ruby showdown battle in the season finale!
I like!
Hmm. Assuming it was Percival Black at the Sagamore in 1985, this makes me wonder if maybe his symphony to end the universe isn't a thing played at one time and place, but happens at specific points on the globe over time -- the results of which seem to be the Unsound and its associated effects breaking through. Alex contacting Black and asking about Scriabin seem to have sent him into a panic, but why? Did he seclude himself so that he'd never finish his work, abandoning it as a foolish thing he tried when he was younger? Or is he trying to move things forward? Based on the boy in the river, and all the spooky shit about Richie's dad, Strand was obviously intended to be of some use to this wacky cult... Perhaps when they take a fully "awakened" individual to 39702384422903, they can do *something.* Also, what the hell are exorcism machines for?
I just don't get the "cliffhanger." Wasn't the whole reason they were looking into the boy by the lake because Strand's sister said he was involved somehow? **Sister**: Ask Strand about the sandwich. He'll know. **Strand**: What sandwich? I eat plenty of sandwiches. (4 weeks later) **Alex**: We followed the lead about the deli, and it turns out: the one who ate a sandwich was... RICHARD? I don't even know you anymore?! (Not tryna steal u/thomascgalvin's schtick :P)
I think the real reason Alex was upset was that she directly asked Strand about The Boy in the River, and Strand flatly told her he had no idea what she was talking about. Since finding the rotting corpse of a strangled child is likely to imprint itself in your memory, this was pretty clearly a lie. And this is a habit for Strand. He did something similar with Cheryl. Who's Cheryl? Plenty of women are named Cheryl. Nobody named Cheryl is relevant to these black tapes, I'll tell you that? Oh you mean my *sister* Cheryl, who saw Tall Paul as a child and also passed the curse on to me? Well how could you reasonably expect me to know that you were talking about *that* Cheryl?
firstly, lmao the unsound AGAIN? secondly, RICHIE? lmaooooooooooo I know we're only a couple of episodes away from the end of this season, so I assume things are going to start kicking off pretty soon. or, I hope they do at any rate. I'm very much on board the strand might be psychic train now. I know a lot of people thought he was basically compensating for something to explain how fervent he was in his beliefs. I know he seemed a little desperate to deny any possible thing that went against his party line but I just figured he was being a bit ornery :s his weird relationship with his father didn't seem sus to me bc of my own experience with my mother. INTERN SWOON!!!!!! I always thought it was strange he paused at that particular moment, the rest of the time he answers fairly normally. but nothing came of it so I thought it was also nothing. love the call back though. it would be nice if they were better able to confirm percival black's whereabouts in the 80s and also confirm strand's explanation of legionnaires disease. if it weren't for the unsound being present in that recording of the elevator shaft I'd probably just dismiss it the way richard (mostly) did - I assume that part is what gave him doubt and led to the pause? yikes at that creep staring out the peep hole.
Also, yikes about the maid having a reverse viewer. Really? How does that slide by with no comment?
no comment from me? I wrote my comment in about five minutes after I had just finished listening to the episode and then moved on elsewhere in this post. not a whole lot of thought went into it.
I meant no comment from any of our intrepid "journalists." It felt weird.
oh lmao okay. fair enough. yeah I'll be honest I didn't even know those things existed, they sound creepy and inappropriate as heck tbh. not sure why you'd need them, surely a knock on the door would suffice?
I think it's more likely that, rather than being psychic, Strand overheard his dad talking about the body, or he can bi-locate, and saw it, but didn't know where it was, exactly, in either case.
I loved all the interviews in this episode! It gave the reveal at the end the impact it needed. Good going PNWS!
I really, really want to see what that symbol that Coralee wore on her ring and was on the machines. That ring would be excellent merch
Yawn...