Thread by @SquidFromSpace

Evening, presumed humans! It's Wednesday once more, and that means #MagnusArchives.

This week, we're filling some blanks in the back-story, as that there Archivist traipses through the life, times and personnel files of one Gertrude Robinson.

It's Episode 4.07 - "Curiosity".

Before we get on to Jon and Martin's predecessors, though, let's talk about their relationship. #MagnusArchives

It's rather fun how Jon's boundless new terror-powers are being framed here as an issue to be navigated within their relationship. #MagnusArchives

Jon can now obliterate previously indestructible fear-beasts with a glance, but Martin's chief concern is with how omniscience might erode the healthy barriers of privacy between partners. #MagnusArchives

Note that this is the first episode of the whole season in which our intrepid pair meet no-one else, and hear no-one else's voices. #MagnusArchives

(The closest equivalent is "In The Trenches", but the fact the occupants of Kinloss Barracks are unresponsive does not mean they aren't there. #MagnusArchives)

Which means that, other than a few minutes at the start of "The Eye Opens", this is the closest we come to seeing how the two act as a couple when no-one else is around. #MagnusArchives

And I gotta say, Martin alternating between explaining to Jon where and why he's screwing up, and gently teasing him for being a colossal, sprawling mess, seems entirely right. #MagnusArchives

("CURSE THIS FLESH PRISON!" is a beautiful moment, too. A lovely line-read, too, the sort of thing you can only make work when you know another performer very well, and you know which tics to accentuate. #MagnusArchives)

(In that moment, Martin sounds more like Jon than Jon. #MagnusArchives)

There's also something entirely fitting about Martin deciding that, after being forced to listen to Jon, he's earned the right to force Jon to say something - in this case, that Martin is the reason he keeps going. #MagnusArchives

Being an incredibly unromantic soul, I'm not the right person to judge whether this hit the mark in terms of squee-degree. I didn't hate it, though! So that's something. #MagnusArchives

Anyway. On to the Five Flunkies of Gertrude Robinson. #MagnusArchives

First off, just to tick this off - yes, Leitner said that Gertrude only had three assistants. Remember, though, and this is crucial, that Leitner was demonstrably an idiot. #MagnusArchives

And it's true Gertrude only ever had three at a time - Jonah Magnus being a horribly evil man, but not one for taking liberties with his operating budget. #MagnusArchives

Obviously fans have been hoping for the full stories of Sarah Carpenter and Emma Harvey since they received their respective first mentions - one reason why this episode has the title it does. #MagnusArchives

Just because people think they want something doesn't mean it's sensible to give it to them, though. The tales of Sarah and Emma needed to have something more to them than just filling in a previously blank section of the #MagnusArchives map.

(This is something Sims himself is well aware of, as per his answers in previous Q&A episodes. Some references need to stay unexplored. He's building a world, not writing a wiki. #MagnusArchives)

So is the tale worth the telling? Yes. Well, mainly. Let's start with the least successful aspect, and work our way up. I'm left fairly uninterested in Sarah Carpenter. #MagnusArchives

We just don't much to her, other than the idea she was brave and headstrong in a way Emma couldn't quite understand. A strong woman character, which is to say a female cipher without obvious negative associations. #MagnusArchives

I mean, maybe it's clever that she's described as having "a fire", only to be burned alive by Diego Molina, but I read that more as clunky. #MagnusArchives

It's always nice when the show reminds us the Cult of the Lightless Flame isn't *completely* without game, I'll grant you, but I'm not sure torturing and killing women is necessarily the best approach there. #MagnusArchives

Happily, Emma is a much more obvious success. Not just for the idea the Web managed to infiltrate the Institute without Gertrude (and perhaps even Jonah) noticing... #MagnusArchives

...Though that's definitely interesting, and given my long-held belief about the role the Web will have in this season, quite possibly significant. #MagnusArchives

What I like most about Emma though is the idea she's fulfilling the goals of the Institute. Not their *actual* goals - there's Magnus himself and (in her own way) Gertrude for that. #MagnusArchives

Emma is fulfilling the role everyone is told is the Institute's aim - studying the supernatural and its effects on humanity. #MagnusArchives

And delightfully, she's taking no less of a messed-up approach to things than those who know the Institute's true goals. #MagnusArchives

Almost as though abn academic doesn't need to be directly in service to a literal embodiment of terror in order to be an arsehole. #MagnusArchives

This then intersects with what's easily my favourite part of the episode, poor old Fiona Law. #MagnusArchives

I adore Fiona. She's just so clever an idea - a coward thrown into the endless (and sporadically literal) meat-grinder of #MagnusArchives...

...Only to keep on surviving because of the unique logic of the monsters surging forth from Sims' brain. #MagnusArchives

Of *course* fainting keeps most of the ghouls 'n' ghosts away - there's no fear to be had, so why bother? #MagnusArchives

This is a reminder that the violence and pain in the show, however extreme both can be on occasion... #MagnusArchives

(...And whatever else Gertrude may regret about her life and eventual death, at least she came to a less agonising and horrifying end than Angus... #MagnusArchives)

...They're never the point. #MagnusArchives doesn't revel in torture; it's just one of many means to the *real* end.

Further, while I've said already that I'm not hugely enamoured of Sarah, considering her in contrast to Fiona gets us somewhere interesting. #MagnusArchives

Because just as it's Fiona's cowardice that keeps her alive, it's Sarah's bravery that gets herself killed. She just walks up to the mysterious, murderous stranger, and gets halfway through calmly introducing herself when she's burned away. #MagnusArchives

Perhaps the best reading then is that Sarah is intentionally uninteresting - your standard hero-type gets herself killed because this isn't the kind of story she belongs in. #MagnusArchives

Fiona, meanwhile, is smart enough to be afraid (though not smart enough to know who's locking all those doors - no-one bats a thousand), keeping her alive for far longer. #MagnusArchives

Which is a nice twist. It's an inversion of... well, of a standard narrative Law. #MagnusArchives

The result is a statement which doesn't try to do too much, but takes a few smart ideas and runs with them. What counts, by #MagnusArchives standards, as a breezy romp.

Which in the context of the ongoing enslavement of all humanity, and the accompanying doom-laden explosions of portentous nightmare-visions, is a smart call. #MagnusArchives

I don't think it's at all a coincidence that this statement takes place in the middle of a pause to rest. #MagnusArchives

That's just about me done for another week, but it feels wrong to sign out without at least mentioning what we learn about Gertrude here. #MagnusArchives

I think the Archivist is (unsurprisingly) right - it makes sense that had she lived to see the apocalypse, Gertrude wouldn't have known what to do next. #MagnusArchives

For all she was clearly dedicated to fighting the fears, she never gave any sense of actually caring about the people she was saving as a result. #MagnusArchives

Hence why it was so easy for her to sacrifice Michael in the first place, and why Emma dies not in the name of revenge, but of hygiene. #MagnusArchives

No doubt she genuinely did believe she was doing good. Still, no matter the fervour with which she acted, Gertude gave the impression of seeing her actions not as part of a crusade, but as part of a game. #MagnusArchives

A game with incredibly high stakes, of course, but still, something done as an intellectual exercise rather than because she cared about all the skin that was in the game. #MagnusArchives

And once an entity managed to outwit her and take control of the world, it would be game over. There'd be nothing left for her to do but take her consolation prize - whatever domain the winner left her. #MagnusArchvives

Which means, of course, whether Jon is right to consider this a doomed quest or not, we've definitely got the right Archivist for the job. #MagnusArchives

And that's all I have to say this week. Onto the orderings, then:

1. The Sick Village
2. Dwelling
3. Revolutions
4. Curiosity
5. The Worms
6. A Cosy Cabin
7. In The Trenches

#MagnusArchives

And once more, that's a wrap. See you in seven days for some tweets about #MagnusArchives Episode 5.08 - "The Roots".