The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Compartmentalising”

“Compartmentalising” Gets Right Back Into Things

“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.

Only, there’s a sort of odd bugbear to this. I didn’t review the Season 1 Q&A, but I did listen to it, and I frankly disagree with the assertion that these episodes aren’t using the Dread Powers. Maybe the intention was to pivot to alchemy. Maybe some of the statements work under that framework. But so many others directly map onto specific fear gods. The “Externals,” also prove my point. One of them is clearly a Hunt Avatar.

So, just know that I’m holding onto that framework. Just know that I’m assuming the Dread Powers until proven by the narrative otherwise. And, at least in “Compartmentalising,” the narrative is showing—more and more—that the Dread Powers are in this new universe because they escaped from the old one.

Because, yeah, Sam is in the original series’ world. And it’s, apparently, still reeling from what happened more than I imagined. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the Dread Powers would leave behind Domains and even a lot of their monsters. I suppose it was just a naïve assumption on my part that all of it would go away. And I’m so glad I was wrong. It’s an amazing idea. One of the coolest post-apocalypses I’ve ever heard of. I am so freaking excited to have Sam wander through that and see how the surviving characters are doing.

This does lead to yet more interesting theories, though. It makes the existence of John and Martin’s voices likely not a sign of whether they survived or not. It could just be voice recordings of this world’s versions of them. Or the computer ate them, too. If Colin’s voice starts doing statements, then I think that will be all but confirmed.

Now, you may have noticed I’ve yet to talk about the spookiness in “Compartmentalising.” Or the actual story. And that’s because this episode doesn’t feel like it exists for any other reason than setup. It’s just telling us the new situation. It’s putting down the new story trajectory. Yes, hearing Colin die is nightmarish. It was disturbing. But it’s so quick. And the Domain statement much later is also super quick, and doesn’t tell us much new information—so it’s kind of disappointing. Though I will fully admit to loving the visual of the cameras biting people. “Compartmentalising” is really going for techno-horror, and “Binary” from Archives long ago proved how effective that can be.

So, yeah, my assertion, my conclusion, is that “Compartmentalising” is a good episode. It’s a strong episode. But it’s not a “re-listen” episode if you’re going back through the best hits. But next week, oh I have a good feeling about next week. I think it’s going to be something iconic.

 

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