“Slipping” takes the format of Protocol and pushes it to the absolute extreme. There’s implying a horror story through the medium of whatever technology or multimedia thing we’re exploring that episode, and then there’s burying it so deep in that framework that it feels like a twist when the shift happens.
“Transferal” picks back up a plotline that I had—admittedly—forgotten about. It hadn’t really been referenced since season one, and, thinking on it now, had seemed mostly handled. It’s possible there was a throwaway line where Celia was still dealing with being pulled back to the Archives universe—but I can’t recall it. Certainly, the narrative didn’t make a big enough deal to reinforce it.
Honestly, this is one of the most complicated stand-alone stories we’ve ever featured on Friday Fiction. It’s set in the future, with some comedy layered in, and then is also an apocalyptic horror story.
“Back to Basic” is an odd episode to talk about. It’s not really an episode; it’s exposition. The statement is barely a statement. The conversations don’t feel like conversations. The whole point of the runtime is just to teach us some worldbuilding elements.
Welcome back for Part 3. The final part. The conclusion.
In it, our narrator will find the Hidden Gnasher—but it won’t be how you maybe expected.
“Sink or Swim” is a disturbing, creative episode that would’ve likely creeped me out if I weren’t very used to these kinds of stories. Sometimes, horror media still “gets me,” and I jolt a little, but I was mostly just enjoying the little clues that I picked up as it went.
Not every monster is a scary, massive thing, as this story proves.
In our second installment of “Hiding In Plain Sight,” our protagonist is now trapped in a room with something so small that he can’t be sure where it is, but it’s quite capable of hurting him.
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.
Some worlds have monsters. This is one of them—but they’d done a very good job of containing them. They are objects of study, as much as horrible dangers.
When they get out, though, they are only one of those things.
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.
Is there a more classic spooky horror scenario than hiding from something or someone who’s looking for you?
This is the tale of Marcus.
He has a monster inside of him. But not in, like, a metaphorical way. Somehow, by some mechanics, Marcus ends up with a being of immense knowledge inside his soul.
