A personal archive of my Magnus Protocol reviews/theories/thoughts, originally posted on Cohost. Thanks to ash (@astral on cohost) for developing the web component I am using to display my posts like this. You can find the component at meow.garden

"Not even sure who he is"

I'm sure this won't be relevant at all :))

"A really weird time for me"

Oh???

Finally we're getting some Sam back story.

"The first ones that didn't want me"

...Interesting.

More Sam back story!! And...maybe some answers??

Need to know more about Sam's "incident".

ALICE LORE ALICE LORE ALICE LORE

"Do you think they're real?"

Now why does this seem familiar? (remembering early episodes of The Magnus Archives)

"I'm pretty sure they're real"

Well, there goes my tentative theory about Celia being the "normal one" who gets sucked into all the stuff that's going down. Celia, what happened to you doing your "weird time"?

"Tell me why"

YES PLEASE

"The world is full of opposing forces"

OH?????

"Some benevolent, most not"

Interesting.

"All these forces need to be monitored and balanced"

So the theory about there being desires instead of fears is...kind of correct? Because that sounds to me like the Fears aren't the only forces at work in this universe. Which opens the floor to even more theories.

"Balanced", huh?

"We are managing the bad guys"

My theory about the UK Government being the actual villains at the center is getting stronger.

So what I'm getting is that the thing/whatever following Alice probably isn't connected to the OIAR.

"Another external"

If this turns out to be Needles I'm going to lose my mind.

Didn't expect to hear "crypto" mentioned in an episode of The Magnus Protocol, but here we are.

Luck. Gambling. The desire to be rich. Is there something going on with people "harvesting" desires, fears, etc.?

Gotta say, an app would be the easiest/best way to harvest desires. "Modern problems require modern solutions" --The Entities probably

This statement (or whatever we're calling it) reminds me so much of Magnus Protocol 2 (Making Adjustments). Someone has a desire, they go to extremes to get what they want (including self-harm). Magnus Protocol 4 (Taking Notes) features a similar theme with the violin. This all adds weight to my theory about someone "harvesting" desires or someone/something/Entities (??) feeding on human desires. There's also been this focus on modern technology/social media (Instagram, blogs, an app, etc.) as outlets for peoples' desires being exploited.

"I'm happy you're happy" glitch in the audio

...ARE YOU ALICE?

"Bussin' and fire". ALICE IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

Starting to buy the "Sam is going to die" theory. Like they're setting up Alice to be the first person who will investigate his death or disappearance (she keeps talking about how Sam should just keep his head down and do his work, but she obviously cares about him and doesn't want him hurt/maybe still has feelings for him, so she'd probably be the first along with Celia to break that rule). Something is happening to Sam, he's been a little too "safe" these past episodes. Alice disappearing/dying is possible of course (Celia is the obvious choice for that, but she's so obvious I find it hard to believe she'd be the one to die/disappear).

I'm glad Alice isn't bottling her feelings (coughcough toxicofficepolycule coughcough ha ha who said that?), but this means she must have really been shaken up by the incident.

Sam is the only character who hasn't made contact with something yet. It's funny, he's so dedicated to researching and he's connected to The Magnus Institute, but he's the only one who hasn't made direct contact with what's going on.

I predict Gwen will be taking Lena's position and things will go to complete hell from there. And I don't see that happening without Gwen going all sounds of brutal pipe murder on Lena, so it should be interesting.

Every episode without Colin makes me think he's been replaced and he's going to come back a totally different person wearing Colin's face (like...well...you know who).

Everyone loves Needles and Lady Mowbray, valid. I, on the other hand, fall deeper in love with Inksoul every time they appear. The scariest thing about them is that if you told me they were a real influencer, I would believe you.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSES REAL??

Anyway, there is now an even more likely chance of my wild theory (Alice gets replaced) being true. I want to believe.

And now we have a better idea of Celia's deal, which I'm glad about. And some worrying news about Colin. He's either dead or replaced at this point....or he's about to encounter something or has encountered something. Maybe he was gotten rid of because he found something out/was poking in places he shouldn't have been? Or maybe he's just gone off the grid so he won't be monitored and he's about to come back for a big Hero Moment when everything goes more to shit. He's the only major character we don't have eyes (heh) on right now and that seems important, given how much they've focused so far on being monitored/watched/followed. So the one character we haven't seen in a while has either learned to evade whoever/whatever is watching...or they're dead/missing because they tried.

That actually ties nicely back into the themes of social media and Internet-based horror we've had going so far. Evading the spotlight and not wanting to be seen, a contrast to most of the characters we've met so far via the statements.

Gwen and Alice are both Going Through It (TM) and it seems like they might become their only (reluctant) lifelines, what with Sam and Celia dating (and Sam pulling away from Alice), so who else does Alice have? And Gwen, as far as we know, has no one. Feels a little....lonely.

I have never felt more bad for Gwen. Like imagine you have the one person in the office who wants to get to the bottom of The Horrors...and then when you tell him you've encountered The Horrors, he laughs in your face.

ABAB (Assigned Boss at Birth) Lena.

I have some thoughts about the name of this episode and this theme throughout of isolation. The statement of course, but Alice desperately trying to connect with Teddy and he brushes her off, plus the implication Teddy is not alright, Sam and Alice laughing and making fun of Gwen when she tries to open up about her trauma, Sam trying to talk to Lena but she literally can't carry on a casual conversation that doesn't involve work, etc. It all feels very isolating. I thought it was just Alice feeling lonely, but the OIAR seems created to evoke feelings of isolation and loneliness....on purpose?

Wild theory time: Is it possible that you can quit at the OIAR, you just won't be able to find another job? Is that how it works? I allow myself one wild theory per episode and this is mine for this one.

Is Alice's greatest fear...being alone? The way she acts when she feels abandoned seems to indicate it's something she's terrified of (possibly due to her parents' deaths?). If so, it feels like she's being primed to be trapped/killed by her greatest fear.

inhales

GEORGIE BARKER!!!!???? I know she was mentioned before, but. My favorite character from TMA in TMAGP???? FUCK YES. And she doesn't seem to be fearless, interesting. Given what we know, this opens up scary/interesting possibilities.

WAS NOT EXPECTING SIR ISSAC NEWTON IN MY HORROR AUDIO DRAMA PODCAST HELLO

So the current theory going around is that the "protocol" mentioned might have been The Great Fire of London in 1666, given it happened a few years before this statement. And The Magnus Institute also burned down, so...very worried about the fate of the OIAR. And Colin (alive for now, but for how long?)

Alice's skepticism is starting to feel less like skepticism and more like...intentional denial? Like she's afraid of what might happen if she accepts that Colin and Sam are right and there's something going on? Current theory: I think Alice's parents died in front of her in some horrific unexplainable way (even more crackpot theory: it had to do with Mr. Bonzo) and she's been guilty over it, maybe thinking she could have saved them and also doubting what she saw/experienced. And now the trauma is forcing her to look away from The Horrors, so she doesn't have to accept the truth? For this level of denial, I feel like Alice needs to have a personal emotional investment. And her reaction to when she does encounter The Horrors right in front of her? It freaks her out so badly that for once she doesn't play emotional avoidance, she actually talks about it and accepts comfort. She doesn't outright deny it happened either...but she also refuses to accept Colin's paranoia or Sam's insistence that something is going on. Like...girl, are you okay? What happened to you?

All the stuff about forbidden fruit, the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve symbolism...has Sam already taken a bite of the "forbidden fruit" (i.e. started researching The Magnus Institute?) That..doesn't bode well for the fate of the OIAR or Sam. Especially now that we know about The Protocol (or at least have an idea what it might be).

"He". Who is this he Colin is talking about? He mentioned The Stasi so I looked it up and

(from Wikipedia)

"The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, pronounced[minɪsˈteːʁiʊmfyːɐ̯ˈʃtaːtsˌzɪçɐhaɪ̯t]; abbreviated as "MfS"), commonly known as the Stasi (German:[ˈʃtaːziː]), an abbreviation of Staatssicherheit, was the state security service of East Germany (the GDR) from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function in East Germany resembled that of the KGB in the Soviet Union⁠ ‍—‍it served as a means of maintaining state authority."

This could be nothing, but....Colin mentioned it in his rambling so I'm just putting it here for anyone who might not know.

Also...alchemy. ALCHEMY. "Transference", huh? And it's incomplete...Celia is trying to do something. Maybe secure her place in this universe and/or travel to another universe? Does it have something to do with her ending up in random places seemingly not of her own will?

Okay, I love Gwen now. Out of her depth and doesn't know when to shut her mouth.

So...I was right??? Everyone who guessed the Protocol was fire-related...we were all right???

This is a great day for Alice enjoyers (Alice hates the government and cares about her friends)

CELIA KNOWS

Colin mentioned a "he" watching them in the last episode. With what happened in this episode, I think Sam and/or Celia and/or Alice are about to meet this "he".

The way Gwen is able to pull a statement out of Ink5oul...the way Ink5oul's entire way of speaking changes when they give their Statement and they go back to normal after... Archivist vibes.

Alice knows more than she lets on. This bodes ill.

There's a very strange theme of wealth and classism in TMAGP. Gwen obviously, but also Lady Mowbray, "small inheritance" Ink5oul, Darrien, etc. The social media related stuff I get, but I wonder if there's something deeper about how often wealth/class are being brought up? Deeper than "fuck rich people", anyway.

Okay, wild theory time: I think Gwen might become an Avatar/External. And maybe this was Lena's plan all along. With how much Gwen is interacting with/learning about the Externals and how she pulled a Statement out of Ink5oul, this doesn't seem farfetched to me. And if she didn't die at the end of the episode? More likely she's going to become an Avatar/External.

And we're back!

Sam continues to narrowly dodge experiencing The Horrors (TM) yet again. Alice is trying so hard to protect him. It's funny how Sam is furiously researching all of this and has a personal connection to The Magnus Institute, but it's Alice and Colin who are closer to the truth than he's been so far. Of course Alice is actively trying to keep him away, so that factors in.

I can't be the only one who zeroed in on the mysterious Pakistani guy mentioned in the statement, right? It's rare a person's race is brought up in statements unless it's directly relevant in some way or another. So I did some digging into the surname "Khalid" (as in our main boy Sam) and sure enough, it's a somewhat common surname for people of Pakistani ancestry. Could this mean nothing and maybe it was just implying the statement giver is racist, given he also claimed Pakistan was in East Asia (it's not)? Yeah, sure! But this is The Magnus Protocol we're talking about, since when is anything a coincidence? If this guy is related to Sam, it explains why The Magnus Institute was interested in him and maybe also why he's being pushed into finding out the truth. Why did the computer want Sam to read this particular statement? Sure, it's full of valuable information, but it also just so happens to reference a guy who sounds like he could be related to Sam! If the goal is to keep Sam on the hook, this is the perfect bait. If the goal is just to push more information at Sam and encourage him to look deeper, that works too. Or both. If Alice hadn't deleted that statement, Sam would have looked into it.

The computer knows Alice knows, so what's the next move? Is Alice going to get a statement about what happened to her parents?

Are they trying to imply the world was supposed to end in 2000? As in literally Y2K? These writers are unhinged.

RITUAL RITUAL RITUAL RITUAL RITUAL RITUAL Y2K RITUAL RITUAL RITUAL ahem

So they were trying to unmake/remake/transmute the world into something else? But clearly it failed or went wrong. Is that maybe related to Celia? This episode basically confirms 100% that Celia is from another universe (and maybe possibly killed the Celia from this universe/took over her life???)

There's this focus on balance and transformation. What if instead of Fears or Desires, we have Fears and Desires? Maybe working with each other? That folds really well into all the stuff they've been doing with social media and class actually: social media represents both intense desires and intense fears. The wealthy ruling class uses fear (among other things) to keep the working class in line. Hell, we literally see this play out with Lady Mowbray.

If there really are multiple forces at work and they're not helping each other, it could be some of them are trying to protect/help the people at the OIAR for some reason or another. [Error] really seemed to be trying to protect Gwen at the end there. And apparently (according to the transcript) tape recorders can bite???? They can BITE????

Next week's episode is gonna be wild.

going insane rn give me a second.

what i want to know is how exactly did gwen got away from [error]?? did [error] just...let her go? what happened???

"ministerial visit"?? so the big boss is visiting?

i'm stuck on this "two selves in one body" thing because it opens up a horrifying possibility. i'd been thinking celia might have killed/or otherwise somehow replaced the celia from the tmagp universe. what if she did replace this universe's celia...but it's more like she took over the body of tmagp's celia and locked her away in her own head somewhere?

celia pretending she doesn't know who jon and martin are....or maybe she actually doesn't know? if it's the former (she does know) then it seems like she might be manipulating sam by lying to him/trying to guide him in the "right" direction....which is exactly what alice is trying to protect him from.

that little thing in the audio (a glitch?) when sam says he can take care of himself...oh no...

so alice was "controlling". or at least sam perceived her to be "controlling". that would explain why they split up.

the computer literally answering alice's question ("whose in there?") from the last episode with that statement.

more mentions of water/the ocean. and alice's brother plays bass in a band called dredgerman....this does not bode well.

sam knowing instantly that alice is lying. it makes such a difference that these characters have known each other since before the story started, it heads off potential conflict.

and now alice is completely alone. is she going to join up with gwen?

controversial take maybe, but i do think alice is trying to protect sam as best she can. maybe she was controlling in their relationship and that's why they broke up, but she does seem to legit care about him and want him to be safe. the problem lies in the fact sam can't extricate her genuine (and completely valid) concern for his safety vs. her history of being controlling. in other words, a clusterfuck. it's a messy messy clusterfuck. as it should be.

"who?" SCREAM.

something up with the response department and potentially alice's connection too??

even more about clones/doubles?? except more horrifying this time.

wait is the computer trying to tell sam that he needs to open the computer to let them out? is that why he was given this statement?

"pretty generic as names go".

"cycling accident and some kind of heart thing". "no connection to the magnus institute". "as far as i can tell, they've never even met". so the jon/martin (supposedly) trapped in the computers would have to be the jon/martin from another/the other universe? if it really is them in the computers. and they died twenty years ago....around the same time the magnus institute burned down. that smells like a coverup to me. but just because this universe's jon and martin are dead doesn't mean there's not a jon and martin in this universe. because we've had so many statements (especially lately) referencing the idea of doppelgangers.

BASIRA MENTIONED BASIRA MENTIONED BASIRA MENTIONED

HELEN MENTIONED HELEN MENTIONED HELEN MENTIONED???

just watch it's going to turn out this universe's basira and helen are literally just normal people who have nothing to do with what's happening and we've all been duped again.

poor gwen

alice coming up about to be snarky and then seeing gwen's actually upset and stopping herself....I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE

alice my absolute beloved who cares about her friends

alice being unable to engage very well with intense emotions so she takes cover behind sarcasm and humor. but she does actually care!! truly one of my favorite character types that is hardly ever done well, but the magnus protocol writers have nailed it. alice doesn't (for me anyway) come off as an insufferable emotionally stunted asshole, the way this particular character type is often written poorly. also i want that mug.

gwen/alice office yuri real?????

ALICE BELIEVES

"i've not been arsey" (glitch)

EYES?? EYES!! TAPE RECORDER?? TAPE RECORDER!!!

i feel like whatever happens next is going to be a clusterfuck of miscommunication caused by relationship rifts. sam is going to regret pushing alice away (although it's not entirely his fault and he's jusitified in that reaction). and sam is going to regret laughing at gwen's story (also pushing her away). the frustrating part is they all have pretty big pieces of the puzzle, but they're not putting any of it together.

so jack is not a normal baby, right? that should be our main takeaway?? very concerned about celia getting along so well with some kind of vampire/demon baby.

this has been asked before but i'm asking it again because i genuinely want to know: who heard that statement??? the statement happens and not a single person says anything about it. surely if anyone heard it, they would have had some kind of reaction to celia's name?? or did sam/alice/whoever brush it off as a coincidence? or was that a rare moment of "the audience heard this but the characters didn't"?

seeing a few people turn on sam after this latest episode and like....really? of course sam is skeptical and hostile. alice (according to sam, but why would any of us doubt him, especially when alice didn't defend herself against this accusation??) has a history of being controlling, potentially lying and using other less than moral means of forcing sam into doing what she wants/dropping something she doesn't think he should pursue. maybe alice has grown since then, but they have a history of this being their dynamic. of course sam's defenses are up. of course sam has trust issues, especially concerning alice. yeah, he's searching for the truth and shouldn't (logically) be dismissing other people when they tell him there's something dangerous going on. but....that's kind of the thing, isn't it? at the end of the day, sam and alice are both people (fictional characters, but you know what i mean) and people aren't logical. sam and alice are both operating from places of emotion. sam is not being rational/reasonable about this because he's seen hurt by alice in the past and he's (understandably!) reluctant to accept anything she tells him. will this get him/all of them killed? maybe! but that's not really on sam. or alice. or anyone really?? the decisions they make come from places of trauma and hurt.

this was not supposed to be a "defending sam" post, but this really troubled me when i was scrolling through tumblr and saw how many people were turning on sam. i got a tiny tiny little whiff of that oh-so-familiar fandom thing where people eagerly turn on the black/brown characters at the drop of a hat and it kind of rattled me. call me paranoid, but i've seen fandoms turn on black/brown characters so often that catching even a whiff of that immediately triggers a response from me. well whatever. i'm only human.

basira!! basira!! basira is a teacher!!! the more we learn about this universe, the more it feels like this is literally just the "what if the characters we know and love were saved from the horrors?" AU. basira didn't become a cop, gerry is happy, etc. of course jon and martin are dead without ever meeting each other, which is.....i'm not sure what to think honestly?? if this really is the "our faves are happy" universe, i'm strangely fine with the implication that any universe where jon and martin meet each other is bound to end in disaster, so the happiest outcome is both or one of them dies before that can happen. yeah, it's fucking depressing, but it's like the opposite of "in love in every universe". it's "doomed by the narrative in every universe, but sometimes it's doomed (good, because they don't encounter the horrors) or Doomed (bad, they do encounter the horrors)".

i appreciate sam being just fucking awful at doing actual investigation work. he does not know what to do or what to ask or how to be subtle. he's just....really bad at it. i love when characters are determined to do a thing but they suck shit at that one thing their entire narrative is built around.

hey remember when celia said her baby (jack) was "human"? and we all took it as a joke/funny haha? yeah that clarification makes more sense now.

okay. so we've had some imagery/themes relating to adam and eve. and now we have what (could be) the birth of the antichrist. as someone who is a sucker for that kind of thing (using religion/religious themes and motifs in storytelling) I'm seriously wondering where this is going. adding on top of that, all the fire and references to bodies of water (although those could be a coincidence/not important, as these aren't direct religious imagery)

but what if the minister is micheal distortion? what then???

you know "colin going (sounds of brutal hammer time) on the computers" wasn't on my bingo card but it probably should have been. i was honestly kind of expecting colin to die before he could come back, given how unstable (and aware) he's been. i like how the characters are each tangled up in The Horrors but they're not in sync so they just kind of trip over each others' efforts.

so i noticed the statement triggered a memory for alice and sam, prompting them to bond. was that on purpose? like did the computer (which we know is sentient and has definitely done this before) pull up that specific statement to get alice and sam talking?

either the universe is trying to get rid of celia (and failing) or trying to keep her away from the oiar. i noticed she was absent specifically on the day colin decides to attack the computers. there's a chance she would have been hurt if she'd been there. it's a long shot, but was this maybe intentional? not just intentional story-wise but intentional like...some outside force is trying to keep celia away from the oiar to protect her?

sam tackling colin to save alice. we love to see it.

gwen definitely has some kind of agenda, it's just not clear what she's hoping to do.

maybe colin was onto something in more ways than one. maybe he does need to smash the computers, but specifically to let whatever is trapped in there out.

worried that colin is about to die under mysterious circumstances and in the next episode (or maybe the one after that) we're going to get a statement about his death, freaking out sam and alice. alice will probably insist it has to be a different colin or something, sam will want to check and they might get into a fight over it. i'm just theory-crafting here, i have no idea (it's going to be fucking wild if i nailed it)

or (long shot, i know) colin might have written down his thoughts somewhere and we'll get a statement from him about what he thinks is going on. i refuse to believe he's out of the story for more than one or two episodes at most. like he's not just going to slide gracefully into the background and never be mentioned again.

today's wild theory: it's going to turn out all of them (including Lena) had experiences with The Horrors as children and it's not a coincidence they're all working at the oiar.

you win some (basira is no longer a cop) you lose some (helen is still a tory)

i could say a billion things about this statement but the main thing is. AN ARCHIVIST. there's more than one!! it's not just THE archivist. is it possible gwen is on path to becoming another archivist? is that why (error) basically let her go? and it would also explain how she was able to compel a statement out of inksoul.

speaking of gwen. i'm not the only one who noticed right?? she hears a statement about an archivist and tape recorders and she hardly seems to give a shit. she's being dismissive and compliant suddenly. i feel like she's planning something for the minister's visit. or the trauma's gotten to her fr.

why do i feel like the season is going to end on a sudden cliffhanger where lena introduces the minister and it's like micheal distortion or something and then the credits roll?

still no follow-up to celia's name being mentioned in that statement. jack seems like a normal baby, but i'm not fully convinced.

"security options". "big basement". what exactly were they doing? creating archivists?

knife wife (celia) vs. hammer man (colin). who would win?

the actual reason celia wasn't at work that day was because she literally would have pulled out a fucking knife on colin after sam and alice failed to talk him down.

i love having audio processing issues i jump onto tumblr and people are talking about how much they hated the kissing noise at the end of the episode and i'm like ??? the fuck are you talking about

i'm sure we all remember what happened last time a character talked about being followed.

alice is starting to have some realizations which makes me scared she might get killed off at the end of season one.

wild theory time! i actually forgot about the whole "jon sending sam an email" thing because it was dropped so quickly and hasn't been mentioned since, but what if that was an archivist (not jon specifically, but an archivist) trying to contact sam through the computer?

Don't trust Celia. I don't think she's being actively malicious, but she might be...playing with Sam's heart a little to get what she wants? She did lie to him and hasn't shown any overt signs of telling him the truth. The way she just brushes him off and lies to him so easily.

JONAH MAGNUS?? Maybe??? He never actually mentions his first name, could be any Magnus.

Good: Basira is no longer a cop. Bad: Helen is still a Tory. ????: Trevor Herbert the fucking vampire hunter is the minister?? Okay sure???

Can't believe this is the Trevor Herbert minister JMart anti-soulmate Basira teacher Helen real estate agent AU.

TRANS ALICE CANON TRANS ALICE CANON

The Magnus writers really know what we want: socially awkward brown protag + trans woman who hates the government <3

Still not sold on the Celia/Sam relationship, but I think that's the point?? The fact they got together so quick (in season 1! before the finale!)?? Plus Celia lying to/possibly manipulating Sam?? I can see this turning into a tragic "I was playing with you at first but now I've fallen for you" situation. But staying together?? Doubtful.

Alice and Gwen continue to best duo.

I'm starting to think Colin is really getting sidelined the rest of S1, which is disappointing to me.

Celia/Sam being the reverse Jmart would honestly be the best direction they could take this, both for TMA fans and new Protocol-only fans. Like you listen to TMA for the first time after Protocol and it takes several seasons and major tragedies for Jon and Martin to get together. Meanwhile Sam and Celia get together within the first season having instant (kind of) chemistry. It'll be even funnier if Sam and Celia break up after being together several seasons, therefore truly contrasting Jmart.

I've seen complaints about Protocol being hyped up as it's own thing but introducing all these characters from TMA. I get the frustration, but considering the (implied) plot direction, looks like only Celia will actually be relevant? And she feels almost like an easter egg for TMA fans. It's not like you need to have listened to TMA to enjoy Protocol, you know? It just enhances the experience. Holding onto this until something happens to change my mind lmao

I get that honestly. Wildly speculating here, but I feel like the writers were a little worried about divesting from TMA entirely, you know? Like all the new characters and format and universe are great, but old TMA fans might be reluctant to give it a shot without stronger ties. So introducing all these old characters in new circumstances slightly lessens the risk of disinterested TMA fans tuning out.

Sam is decent at sex. This is canon.

From asexual Jonathan Sims to "decent at sex" Sam Khalid. Third Magnus podcast our protag is a bisexual sex god everyone wants to fuck, calling it now.

So now Celia got a weird email?? Interesting. Is Alice next?

Dropping this theory now: the email sender is (error)

So is the Trevor Herbert we're about to meet actually Trevor Herbert? Or is this an Elias situation?

Kind of interesting how the OIAR seems to embody multiple Fears at the same time. Mostly The Eye and The Hunt.

Haven't seen Teddy in a hot second. I know he's not really a main character and he literally noped out of the plot in Episode 1, but the last time we heard from him he was struggling with finding another job. Could be nothing, could be Entity-related.

If they send someone to "take care" of Colin (unlikely, but he clearly knows too much), we'll probably get another crisis of morality from Gwen. But I'm more interested in which External they'll get to do it. Mr. Bonzo??? And if that happens, who is getting that statement? Sam, as a warning? Alice, as a confirmation that she was right about keeping their heads down?

It just hit me that there are so many ways Colin could die off-screen and the news would be delivered via statement. Or Teddy actually. Or literally any of the characters we've met?? Sam and Celia are out magnussing and Alice gets a statement about an "unidentified man" being found like. Drowned in an alleyway or something. Or they could really mess with us, have the computer read out a statement that sounds like a character we've met before and it turns out to be a bait and switch. We get a statement describing someone who sounds a lot like Sam, Alice freaks out and leaves to help, we find out a second later Sam is alive and well. They could so much with this new format. They have blog posts and police reports and forum posts and just anything to work with, it would be surprising if they don't reveal at least one character death via statement.

So we finally get Sam's statement and it's somehow both more horrifiying and less horrifying than I was personally expecting.

I knew Gwen was planning something I just did not expect it to be that. Really girlbossing too close to the sun with that one, isn't she? So now we know what was in the email. Question remaining: why?

This feels like a chess game, like every member of the OIAR staff (even Alice) is being put into position for some higher purpose. Or perhaps a ritual of some kind?

I'm a little disappointed we haven't gotten a follow-up on any of those Alice leads/implications. We're almost at the end of the season and Alice has slowly become the least relevant, despite all these hints to her greater purpose in the narrative. Like what happened to Luke and Dredgerman? I was so sure they were going to do something with that, with water being such an enormous theme this season. I know it's Season 1 and there's plenty of time for Luke to vanish under mysterious circumstances, but Alice's role in the plot is starting to shrink in a way I'm not optimistic about. If she doesn't get more focus in future seasons (other than being a potential love interest/snarky best friend) I'll be very disappointed. She's such a great character! So much potential!

Great day for people who are insufferable (me). Celia is canonically pansexual and Alice is canonically trans.

Funny how Sam talks about Celia opening up and then he gets forced to give a statement. Sam's traumatic back story aside, I don't think Celia is actually going to tell Sam the truth...willingly. But if she gets caught by The Archivist and forced to give a statement in front of everyone...

Speaking of The Archivist and statements, we've had two by OIAR staff: one from Gwen and one from Sam. Whose next? Alice? Colin? What if Gwen compels a statement out of Celia or Alice or Colin?

And we continue the theme of "something inside breaking out". More fuel for my "there's something trapped in the computers and someone needs to smash the computers to get it out" theory. Maybe Colin was onto something.

Gwen does not know what she's getting into and I love that for her. She's so consistently out of her depth.

Jeremy????

It would be the funniest thing ever if it turns out Celia isn't from the TMA universe at all. Like she's from a completely different universe we've never seen of/heard of before that just has some superficial ties to the TMA universe. I would respect the writers so hard if they did this.

Sam finally experiences The Horrors up close. About time. So does Sam still see skulls when he looks at people or...?

Well that explains why Sam is so obsessed with The Magnus Institute. It's not just academic, it's personal. We already knew that of course, but this adds even more layers.

It's funny how Sam was actively looking for The Horrors but the horrors ended up coming to him.

The OIAR seems to be losing whatever little control it had. Let's prepare for a shitstorm.

If Sam isn't dead (and I don't think he is, because it's not even the end of Season 1 yet), my pick for first death of the the series is Luke. Colin's my second most likely pick. And finally, my third most likely pick: Lena. She's been too cozy and safe from The Horrors.

WHAT AN EPISODE

Celia and Sam and The Archivist in the same space? Sounds like my theory about Celia being forced to give a statement might actually happen.

This is feeling more and more like Sam and Celia and Gwen are being moved into position for some kind of ritual. Everyone at the OIAR has encountered The Horrors without dying.

The Archivist very clearly got what it wanted out of Sam's head and that's why it let him live. So it's been searching for something this whole time? Something about The Magnus Institute? With all the focus on fire and water this season (and the last statement involving water and people dying and betrayal), we seem to be on track for our first main character death. So is it going to be Celia or Sam? Or Teddy even?

Sam encounters The Horrors for the first time and immediately goes in for seconds. Net zero survival instinct protag. Sam is not beating the sad wet cat allegations.

The differences (and similarities) between Sam and Jon are great, because you can draw some parallels but they're so obviously their own characters.

Got fucking jumpscared by that statement. I thought it was going to be about Colin somehow (because it started off with mentioning the police) until it read off the date. No Colin mention in this episode.

We're probably never seeing Teddy again. The only question is what (or who) is going to get him before Alice can talk to him again? Regardless of who dies in the finale, Alice will (probably) be safe since she's not interacting with The Horrors directly. And she'll be wracked with guilt that she'll need to unpack over the course of Season 2.

Loving all the designs for The Archivist I'm seeing. Just a black shadow blob thing covered with eyes.

Who is willing to bet the "terrible thing" is about to happen because Sam and Celia are there? And The Archivist is following them?

If everyone is being put in place for some kind of ritual, that only begs the question what the ritual is for. I have a few wild theories: transmuting the world into something different, shifting to another universe, summoning the Fears, summoning the other Desires. But given this show is literally called "The Magnus Protocol" and we know "the protocol" likely refers to fire, it's possible the ritual won't go off. Maybe someone or something working with the OIAR will try to stop it by setting the building on fire and that's what leads to Sam and/or Celia dying. Maybe Alice gets there just in time to rescue one of them (but not both) as foreshadowed in this episode's statement. If she does rescue one of them, it'll probably be Sam. With the finale being double length (according to a Tumblr post by Alexander J. Newell) anything could happen.

How wild would it be if Celia dies in the finale? After giving her statement in front of Sam and Sam finding out she's from another universe (and she's potentially been using him this entire time)?

Predictions aside, there's so many things that need follow up. Celia's mention in that statement about the demon baby comes to mind. Like what's up with Jack?? Is he a normal baby?? What does Celia know? What's with all the references to the Bible and we even have a statement referring to what might be the Antichrist?? Does this mean anything??

Fire is often associated with rebirth. What if the ritual is about creating another new world, another universe and destroying the one that already exists? Maybe not at the end of Season 1, but far enough down the road?

TRULY THE FINALE OF ALL TIME

I'm completely shocked they didn't kill anyone off. Like Colin is probably dead, maybe Teddy, maybe Sam. But they went out of their way to leave it open. This bodes ill for the season 2 premiere.

Gwen girlbossed too close to the sun and now she's ruined everything for herself (and possibly the whole world) and at least the OIAR.

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT CELIA BEING FORCED TO GIVE A STATEMENT!!

i was also right about celia's betrayal (last episode's statement really was foreshadowing, huh?) and that she's been using sam. poor guy. hopefully he's okay (optimistic because this is only season one and if they were planning to kill him off so early they would have done it at the finale)

alice is so tunnel-visioned about keeping sam safe that she's willing to ignore teddy and colin appealing to her for help. she cares about him so much and i think she's really put it on herself to make sure nothing bad happens to him, which makes this whole thing more tragic. and if colin is dead because she ignored him??? alice is going to be a wreck next season. with the oiar falling apart around her because gwen doesn't know what the fuck she's doing.

i feel like alice's character journey is going to involve her realizing it's not her job to keep sam safe at all costs (to the exclusion of everyone else).

i legit thought the caretaker guy was colin for a split second (the accent)

it's all coming together: the abandoned mall, shops eating people (probably), emaciated people wandering around, the rift in time and space.

good on sam for finally confronting celia. i'm so proud of him.

the focus on balance. about celia needing to go back to "keep" the balance. but what if it wasn't about her and the balance is off for another reason entirely? what then?

the fearless one, huh?

"you'll do a fine job" (glitch) lmao

so where did sam get yoinked and how fucked is he? celia needs to come up with one hell of a cover story to keep alice on her side.

cohost shutting down and the tmagp season finale all in one week?? and this will probably be my last ever tmagp notes/theories post on cohost. fuck. i'm sorry to see this go. i had so much fun posting on here and especially my notes/theories about tmagp. i'll be posting them someplace else of course but cohost was just perfect for these kinds of things.

damn. fitting that my final magnus protocol notes/thoughts/theories post (on cohost anyway. i'm on pillowfort and i have a blog, in my pinned post) is the season one epilogue. next time i listen to another magnus protocol episode (like a proper episode, not the between season stuff), the world will have changed enormously.

this will be a short post because the episode was shorter than normal, and my takeaways are basically what i said in my season 1 finale post.

SAM IS ALIVE (for now) and colin is dead (for now...because...well...)

just putting this out there: i have a suspicion that we haven't seen the last of colin. if people are getting put into computers, whose to say colin isn't next? or even sam?? that would be a fucked up way to kill off a character while not technically killing them off.

i was right: celia lied to alice about what happened to sam. i wonder if alice is going to find out next season?

of course the big question is what exactly happened to colin?? who or what killed him? did he do it to himself? he sounded so resigned when he said goodbye to alice, like he knew he wouldn't be talking to her again.

so where is sam? the magnus archives universe? or a brand new third universe we've never seen before? we already know there's multiple.

alice's guilt next season is going to be enormous. if she'd gotten to sam, if she hadn't ignored colin. fuck.

and there's still teddy to think about....

are we going to just be splitting the story between sam and alice/celia/gwen? because i'm kind of into that. maybe we'll even have some new characters on sam's side!!

gwen has no fucking idea what she's doing even slightly at all. i should feel sorry for her but all i can do is laugh. she literally asked for this and she just. like. can't handle any of it right off the bat, instantly needs lena to have left behind instructions/a handbook or something. number one out of her depth girlfailure. and alice is going to be all sarcastic and snarky to deal with her trauma over losing two people in such a short amount of time. next season is going to be a shitshow (affectionate).

lmao. gwen becomes the boss and instantly loses like. more than half of her staff. are we getting new characters next season? is teddy getting his job back?

goodbye season 1 of magnus protocol. goodbye cohost.