Thread by @SquidFromSpace

Hello, presumed humans. Time once more for a walk through dark places, with this week's #MagnusArchives.

Well, I say "walk". More of a sit-down this time around. Still, at least no-one's sitting comfortably.

Nevertheless, I shall begin. It's Episode 5.10: "Recollection".

No sense in beating around the bush on this one: what I find most interesting about this episode is the implications in the fact it doesn't really work for me. #MagnusArchives

By which I mean I suspect me not really getting on with this episode says far more about me than it does anything else. #MagnusArchives

I can't really dissect the issues underlying my dissatisfaction until I've laid them on the slab, though, so here goes. #MagnusArchives

Basically, "Recollection" doesn't really work for me as a statement centered on The Lonely. It seems far, far closer to being in The Spiral's domain. #MagnusArchives

The expansive structure through which lost souls endlessly shuffle? The mirrors that might not be *quite* what they seem? The inconstancy of memory? These are classic trappings of It Is Not What It Is. #MagnusArchives

Even the surrounding fog, cold and chemical-tinged, seems to be operating as a metaphor for mental degeneration rather than physical isolation. #MagnusArchives

Yes, fog has been associated with The Lonely ever since we first encountered it in Episode 13... #MagnusArchives

...But against that you have the fact that googling the phrase "brain fog" generates over 50 *million* hits. #MagnusArchives

I realise this comes closer than is desirable to an argument through cliche. Still, it helps season my broader point, which is why The Lonely should be so focussed on hoping to make Martin forget. #MagnusArchives

I mean, I very much like the idea of severe mental health conditions being a place where The Spiral and The Lonely intersect. #MagnusArchives

On top of all the internal damage a malfunctioning brain can do, there's always the possibility your friends and even your family will start to drift away, unable to cope with what standing by you now entails. #MagnusArchives

But it's not a two-way street: amnesia can make you lonely, loneliness doesn't make you amnesiac. #MagnusArchives

Or at least, I don't think it does. I can't really be sure; I'm not that kind of doctor. Even if there *is* a link, though, it's certainly not one with the same force as the fear that we'll become not just ill, but abandoned. #MagnusArchives

"Look, this is actually technically possible, so just you think about that" isn't really a good way to tap into our bone-deep existential fears. #MagnusArchives

In fact, I'd argue that the tail end of Season 4 rather worked against the idea that The Lonely runs a sideline in amnesia. #MagnusArchives

One of my favourite Lukas-related ideas is the one that you can't be lonely unless you can measure the distance between where you are, and where everybody else is. #MagnusArchives

This, as should be obvious, is rather harder to do when you're not even sure where *you* are. #MagnusArchives

It's not that this is a bad set-up, in other words - listening to how many ways Sims finds for each new reset to go off on a new tangent is certainly interesting - it's just not a *Lonely* set-up. #MagnusArchives

Add in the fact that the repeated references to how uncomfortable Martin's seat implies something more interesting is going on, only for nothing to materialise, and I'm left with a sensation of the episode not really landing. #MagnusArchives

And here's the thing: I yam what I yam, and only the fact that Newall nails Martin's anguish so totally is going to save "Recollection" from the bottom of the current ratings list. #MagnusArchives

But I'm almost *certain* I'm wrong. I mentioned before that I don't see this really working as a statement focussed on The Lonely, but that isn't quite what we're dealing with, is it? #MagnusArchives

What matters here isn't that this is the demense of The Lonely, but that it's the demense of The Lonely deliberately altered in order to try and capture Martin. #MagnusArchives

This is obvious right from the very start. The Lonely had Martin, and then lost him. It's time to collect him once more. An act, therefore, of re-collection. #MagnusArchives

Of *course* The Lonely has to make use of amnesia in order for this to work. It needs to suppress everything that's happened since Jon followed Martin and Peter into the Lonely's domain. #MagnusArchives

The show has made it clear at least four times now that The Lonely can't maintain its grip in the face of its victims choosing to remember their connections with those they love. #MagnusArchives

But it's not quite as simple as that, because loving someone who barely knows you exist as anything beyond an irritant is its own form of loneliness. #MagnusArchives

So Martin is allowed to remember not just the mother who resented him, but the boss he fell for and received nothing but contempt in return. #MagnusArchives

(And naturally, he's allowed to remember the months he spent with no-one to talk to but a tape-recorder. #MagnusArchives)

And it doesn't work. He's come too far for some cheap tricks with memory-rotting chemical fog to stop him now. #MagnusArchives

This is why Martin keeps being unable to believe this is his house. It once was somewhere he might have called home - might have become his domain, had Jon returned from "The Last" alone - but now it no longer fits. #MagnusArchives

This is also why Martin keeps complaining about the chair he's sat on. The current situation literally does not sit well. He knows he's still supposed to be walking. #MagnusArchives

Plus, of course, it's why Jon can't find him until the end of the episode. As with the last time Jon tried to save Martin from The Lonely, Martin has to *want* to be saved. #MagnusArchives

The result then is an episode which allows the standard nightmare logic of the powers to slip a little in order to focus on the human cost of their manipulations, and to give Martin a victory in a season with precious few of them so far. #MagnusArchives

Which I'm quite sure is the right way to go. It's just a shame from my perspective that one of my favourite fears gets reduced to acting as some kind of gaslighting ex-lover in the process. #MagnusArchives

Like I say, it's my problem, but then this is my series of threads. And with that, it's ranking time! #MagnusArchives

1. The Sick Village
2. Dwelling
3. Fire Escape
4. Revolutions
5. Curiosity
6. The Worms
7. Roots
8. A Cosy Cabin
9. Recollection
10. In The Trenches

#MagnusArchives

That's me done for another Wednesday. See you next week for some musings on #MagnusArchives Episode 5.11 - "The Gardener".