The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Deep Trouble”

“Deep Trouble” Has Two Great Ideas Put Together

I loved “Deep Trouble” in theory. I liked it in practice. There’s a difference between conceptually enjoying the decisions made and having the delivery be only okay.

Let’s take the fear domain, for instance. Somehow, a submarine going through the ocean managed to combine so many different Dread Powers without it feeling like it was going down a checklist. There’s deep water, war anxiety, being eaten, being judged, being burned, being crushed/trapped, and even tinges of loneliness and being part of a hive simultaneously. And, of course, death in general. If we had gotten some description of what the war was about, or confirmation those bombs were nukes, then it also was for sure an Extinction thing. I worry about potential problematic elements with how the statement utilizes eyes/not having eyes—but otherwise, it has got a ton of creative horror ideas.

But there’s also no story there. It’s a horrible submarine that the main character is trapped in and keeps dying. I get that’s how the domains work, but for a statement that abruptly cuts away from the Archivist story, I’d like a little more context. A little less reliance on nightmare logic to hold me, the listener, in the story. “Eliminations” took an even simpler premise and really wrung a lot of meaning out of it—and this one could’ve, too.

But, okay, that’s just the statement. They don’t seem to matter as much to Protocol’s overall storytelling. How about the meeting with the Archivist? Well, again, awesome conceptually. Altering visual perceptions to hunt people is a terrifying power. The Archivist being strong enough to just kill someone that quickly makes the monster a much bigger threat. And I really enjoy the (spoiler) reveal that it’s not John. That’s all super cool. And, in hindsight, of course it’s not John. Protocol’s version of John and Martin was likely eaten by the computer. We know Getrude is alive. So, my guess is it’s another version of Sasha, since Elias wasn’t around to deny her a promotion.

But the actual pacing and even the audio of the events in “Deep Trouble” were off. The whole thing was off.

Like, it was really hard to understand what The Archivist was saying. I enjoy the spooky effect, but maybe tone it down a tad during dialog.

“Deep Trouble” Has Moments Of Pretty Bad Audio

And even more mishandled was the death. This version of Alice has had a lot of character work done. I still think about what happened in “Dependents.” And to have her death be treated as such a short, anticlimactic moment feels insulting. It’s not exactly subtly foreshadowed that Alice was going to show up to save the day. “Deep Trouble” hinted at it so hard. But it’s so fast when it actually happens, and so jarring, that I was left almost confused. We’ve had longer episodes. Could we not have given a minute or two more to really get across the drama? Even to just have more of Sam’s reaction to this horrific event? I can’t recall for sure, but isn’t this the first time Sam’s seen someone he knows die? Protocol really seems to gloss over how quickly people overcome trauma to keep the narrative ball rolling.

The only thing in “Deep Trouble” that I just think is a cool concept and was handled well is that the zone is getting bigger. A monster is running around reactivating people’s fear from their domains. I’m not—at all—surprised that could make the weird magic fear swamp more aggressive. I don’t know how much of a problem that could be going forward, but it does give a nice creeping horror for the Archives universe people to face.

Now, I sometimes end these articles by saying I wouldn’t re-listen to an episode—or would—based on how relevant it feels to the story or how scary it is. And you might expect me to say “Deep Trouble” doesn’t demand a re-listen, but I think it’s got a good amount of plot progression and character moments. On the latter, Alice and Sam’s multi-dimensional connection has a lot of depth to it, and I’m deeply curious how the surviving two will progress. It’s possible this series will also eventually have a main couple. On the former, “Deep Trouble” is aptly named because we’ve likely reached the peak of the conflicts and problems the characters can have on their plates, and we’re either going to see that all explode into one big thing, or a ton of smaller, exciting moments.

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