Why wasn’t “Hostile Workplace” the episode we got when the series returned from a hiatus? It’s much, much better than “Internal Investigation,” and reveals a ton of plot information without giving the game away. A single speculation from Sam about how alchemy works was honestly enough to make my mind go whirring. Not to mention the statement.
The wait is over, but “Internal Investigation” was not worth that wait. The hiatus made me think that we would get a bombshell of an episode once we returned to The Magnus Protocol. I was wrong. Not only is this episode not scary, it barely gives us any new information for any of the ongoing mysteries.
“Public Image” is a classic little horror story of an episode. There’s the tiniest cut back to the OIAR, but mostly we spend all the runtime with Heinrich Unheimlich.
“Dependents” is a sad, brutal exploration of trauma with excellent and heartbreaking acting from several of the voice actors. It’s shorter than a lot of other episodes but has managed to get a much deeper emotional response out of me than any other in the series. I am bummed out right now.
Well, somehow I predicted right. “Circling Back” contains a standard horror story. The fact it also has a pretty strong push on almost all overarching plotlines was just a bonus.
“Scrutiny” is a lore dump episode for fans of The Magnus Archives, that also happens to contain one of the most emotionally brutal statements in the whole season. It’s barely even supernatural.
“Out of the Box” is perhaps the first comedy episode in this series and the second in Magnus as a whole. Maybe that’s just because of me being exposed to some much horror content, and not being bothered by the body horror, but I chuckled multiple times.
“Terms and Conditions” is an odd little episode. I’m unsure of the goal, to be frank. Besides the last two scenes, it’s just kind of mildly spooky stuff happening. Maybe that’s just a testament to how subtle the foreshadowing is, but I doubt there were that many big clues in the Bonzo section. It’s just Bonzo being Bonzo.
“Eliminations” is exactly what I wanted. In my article for “Peer Review,” I said I would like to please check in on Sam, and this over-delivered. We get a whole episode set over in The Magnus Archives world.
“Peer Review” Lacks One Important Horror Aspect “Peer Review” is evocative of a classic episode. I liked it quite a bit. The writing is strong and the voice acting stellar. But it did lack this one point of magic that The Magnus Archives has. It’s the implication of explanation within the horror. In other words,…
“Restructuring” is a weird episode—mostly in its writing style. It’s juggling two very different conceits within one horror statement. And that becomes only more apparent when it’s clear that there’s nothing else of note in this episode. No big revelations. No multi-dimensional anything.
“Compartmentalising” confirmed so many of my theories. I feel quite proud of myself, actually. After consuming so many episodes of The Magnus Archives and making it a part of my personality, I was hoping I’d gotten a good enough sense of things to predict matters.
