Archive 81 thoughts
24 November 2022
EP 1
mmm love environmental storytelling. it's about the not-knowing, unseeing, but the space knows. the city knows and its trying to tell you something
ah yes the dead woman on tape. "i'll be back before you miss me" i bet that you will not be
dan likes his privacy. and/or is he also hiding something?
creepy creepy man. how long is this supposed to take? like the test run he did before was pretty short but he did it in a day. how did they know that was a good place to start? that it wouldn't have something weird on it? what else is in the archive? there's a bunch of other shelves, rooms.
john smith—wonder if that is his real name. julia bennett huh. "stay away from the sixth floor" is ominous. does john smith even know she's doing a project?
wow melody is really affected by this music. hm. sensitive? no resistance?
setting traps for mice. and potentially in a trap himself. what was he playing on the piano?
jess was born there so she's already part of it. who's samuel?
haunted by this music. it was always going to be him. he had a sister?
this is a creepy child
okay so at some point melody meets dan's dad. circa 1994. is that before or after he was supposed to have died by dan's memory? so that's why he recognized the song dan was playing on the piano. maybe it's like. a fire song. and it played in the mansion and it burned down. and it played in the visser and it burned down. and dan played it and it burned down.
EP 2
blue string on a branch like a signpost in the wilderness, a marker on the path
beatriz of the tarot cards seems like a fun and normal person in opposition to the occult. but she still Knows Things. does she actually know what's going on in the community room? as a side note, whenever someone does a tarot reading in media, it's always totally correct. is it ever not?
julia bennett- okay so did melody not know her? why does she care so much about her?
past: three of swords- pain & loss, present: hermit- something about a person, future: death. beatriz staring directly at the camera, into the future at dan. whose fortune is it? dan's too?
so this is The Samuel. hitting on her immediately??
steven turner on the answering machine. were he and melody a Thing??
WHOMST THE FUCK IS THAT LIL MISS RED RIDING HOOD OH MY GOD
"what if im trapped in a fucked up board game" OOF
i remember the secret of nihm vaguely
oh okay so it's his dad. that's still fucked up. what is he seeing? something something ghosts are impressions, records of something gone. oh fuck it was all a dream
juxtaposition of hell opera in old church. melody's deceased mother did documentaries. dan's deceased father did ?? okay apparently melody's therapy
the panty closet- artificial packaged name brand velveeta and stove top and pop tarts. and also 'sos' cookies (?)
TB + AF ?
how the fuck did virgil get there so quickly??
virgil mentions board games. did he know what dan had been thinking about earlier? "maybe in another life"
are these all the residents? most? what the fuck is in that fucking cabinet??
ah okay so julia bennett is melody's birth mother
dan in the present knocked on melody's door in the past?
EP 3
horror movies. we love a scary story
church child. but not necessarily child of god.
dan really said "panopticon? bet."
so davenport and co really don't care if dan knows that he's under surveillance, if they sent bobby in like that. how long was dan "under"? so they're betting on his curiosity to keep him there. what will they do with him when he's done? also, what's the difference between thriller:horror::sci fi:fantasy?
what is Up with cassandra, sniffing them like that?
"i just wanna get better"
so mark obviously doesn't believe melody that the tapes were made up. so in his perspective, she's just very obviously lying to his face. but does she believe it? are her memories really gone, like erased tapes? lost information? is the song the harbinger of fire? is her house about to burn down now that mark's played it for her again?
he's like an angel to her. "it's a feature not a bug", a turn of phrase that is maybe impossible for her to understand. out of place, out of time.
we like telling scary stories -> we like creating horror -> the church preaching against the horror movies saying they're promoting the devil -> that's their own scary movies -> and he says go watch it for yourself and figure out how you're going to steel yourself against it -> and he hopes they will be corrupted? a lie in a lie, demon in a priest's frock -> to create horror is to engage with god. is the horror in the knowing or in the unknowing.
and she says it too, "it's a feature not a bug" !!! "what the fuck does that mean?" so dan KNOWS IT'S TRUE, HE TALKED TO HER
okay now big question is: is he traveling back in time and everything he did really happened, or is he switching universes, to one where it's still back in time and all those things happened? then he's haunting that other place. and jess is slipping between the cracks, just a little bit?
why is mark lying to dan about seeing melody? oh. okay so wait he's lying to try and convince dan that melody is definitely dead without having to provide any other details. proving a negative, sort of.
pov you're watching a memory you recorded before it ever happened? they're talking directly to each other
EP 4
okay so cassandra was eleanor's sister. is cassandra human??
spirit receiver art, communicating with the unknown, not knowing where your art is going. comet material, reflecting her image as if she is trapped inside of it
jk they were lovers??
why did dan smash the tape—what did dan find out about his dad that made him think he wasn't what he had thought? whose notebooks are these (t bellows ?) and is what's written there true? oh SHIT he tried all those possibilities. how long was t bellows there???
"who says i need to get anything out of it?" YEAH mark says FUCK your transactional relationships
evie crest? wait do we know her? oh from the circle
cassandra wants the snuff film ! why for??
i'm nobody who are you by emily dickinson. okay but why is cassandra so fixated on the snuff film? when beatriz says 'stay away'—warning from evie crest's father to stay away from the film? warning to cassandra to stay away from evie?
okay so what did beatriz see?? it wasn't something of cassandra right because cassandra looked surprised when beatriz started tearing her face off
EP 5
"don't let it out"? okay so how many things are haunting? there's a warning to "not let it out", so there's something warning about something else. is it whatever caused the fires?
is the sixth floor already burned? the addicts know who father russo is. "is it time?" he asks.
mold in the building—that woman comes and says there's mold in dan's shower. the mold making them see things, it's all explainable. the mold is otherworldly, it's creeping through the door. they're addicted and they can't leave—none of the residents leave. it calls and we call back. it's a parasitic symbiotic relationship. chris is drowning in it. is melody allergic to it? that's why she hates the song.
in father russo's church—is that the same church dan finds????? or am i just not good at telling churches apart.
isser apartment = vos mansion.
"your friend is on fire" yikes lol. the mold is in the paint. davenport was there ?? davenport says
EP 6
man backed by flames => he's in hell. the unaired tv show by william crest
"now you can watch all the greatest hits until your eyeballs fall out" i LOVE how this show makes a cute turn of phrase horrific !!!
maybe the mold in here in dan's compound? "fuck your fishbowl" why now? who took the video of melody napping? => she's in a fishbowl too
playing the tape destroys it. THERE'S MOLD IN THE PLAYER!!! IT LEAKS FROM THE INFORMATION!!
is the rat helping or hurting? why did davenport care about the soaps? does he think there's a clue or something? oh those are the initials!! who IS he looking for?? THERE'S BLOOD IN THE REFRIGERATORS??? WTF !!! maybe was he looking for dan? for some kind of organ donor situation? there's a face in the tapes—when the thing that you are watching is WATCHING YOU BACK
patricia was the one recording the soaps to begin with. she thought there was a message there—and maybe she was right. who is this davenport employee woman who keeps checking him. she tells him to just finish the job—what kind of warning?
okay so jill used to date dan until she cheated on him. did evie crest really die from a stroke? that's a fucking coincidence. so who's in the snuff film?
"it's proof of our devotion. it's a manifestation of the divine. it's the matter of a shared universe. body and blood." that's so fucking raw. also, samuel's not even pretending to be normal anymore. and he's just gonna let her keep recording him??
okay but why is the prayer song painful for her to hear? what makes her special? she is baldung ? so he was looking for her all along. and he says there aren't many. who else? he's playing the snuff film, right? but wasn't cassandra looking for it? or is this just some other film, not necessarily the snuff film? oh yes, snuff film. okay so who's the volunteer? if melody isn't the vessel then why did they need her?
melody's mom was never at the visser, but her ring has the weird symbol? so. was the ring her mom's or not? if it wasn't, is that why the seance got all messed up?
today and every day we say FUCK INVOLUNTARY HOSPITALIZATIONS. HOLY FUCKING FUCK SHIT THE THING CAN CRAWL THROUGH THE SCREENS??? OH FUCKING CHRIST HELL THE MOLD IS THERE TOO.
SIR I BEG OF YOU DO NOT GO DOWN INTO THE MOLD TRAPDOOR WHAT THE FUCK DAN I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMARTER THAN THIS
okay so is this a recreation of that room? or is this a wormhole situation where he's there again? the screens here are playing the tapes too. can the thing reach through these screens too?
EP 7
kharonite, death omen in the skies. half of a pair.
he ate the mold?? he dreamt he ate the mold. he's back home?? LMG what just disappeared. wait so is samuel virgil's brother? did i miss something? davenport is offering to let dan go—why? but dan's already too deep in it.
kaelego. everything matching to what dan say. iris vos is haunting anabelle.
okay now we're in 1924—iris meets rose. flower names. iris checks that rose is all alone. her previous maid "disappeared". the music box plays the prayer song, rose doesn't have an adverse reaction to it. oof okay so rose is the 1924 jess, "capable of holding a whole new world inside her". iris wants a child?
iris has the black comet pendent. do we trust emma? she lost her baby, who was the father? does she want the child or need it?
emma stealing iris's book. emma is 1924 melody ? iris says emma is baldung. emma says they've set it free before—what happened there? oh shit they needed her for something, because she was baldung, so same way they need melody?
"all this for a child". lucas says, there's something unnatural and evil about refusing to give up on people who have died, about desperately wanting to see them again. great jazz, though.
mark really the mvp. always doing his best for dan.
melody's in the other world like iris was. as a result of the fucked up ritual??
EP 8
the ferryman = the comet. so jess does get out to become a nun? video recorded on audio. a corruption of media. "i know you wanna help people but that's why they chose you."
why doesn't melody just follow??????? why would she stay behind????????
tamara takes the place of jess. okay but what language is this supposed to be? huh, masks are a little different this time. also, way less baldung blood. or this hand wound is bleeding like a lot.
so why did iris show up instead of kaelego?? "let's break it down" THANK YOU MARK i appreciate this.
and again, how did dan's younger sister know the prayer song? why did his childhood house burn down??
"you believed something was on those tapes, or in them" nice distinction there. also: is the thing trapped in those tapes??
if virgil doesn't want to save samuel, why did he care about the tapes? MARK I LOVE YOU
oh so that's the blood of the baldungs, yikes. MARK I LOVE YOU
deus ex bobbi who the fuck is she?? is she part of the anti-kaelego group?? oh the tuning fork is the key. HER MOTHER????
this time the dad says he likes the prayer song, an inversion to the memory. does dan even remember why he's there?
wait but isn't samuel in there somewhere still? and iris? where is dan going? wait so did samuel save her??
NEVER MIND FUCK THIS ADAPTATION.
I KNEW IT WAS BASED ON A PODCAST. I JUST LOOKED UP SOME REVIEWS AND FOUND OUT NETFLIX FUCKING STRAIGHT-WASHED MELODY, A CANONICAL LESBIAN WITH A WIFE. FUCK THAT.
I'M FEELING SO BETRAYED.