The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Dependents”

“Dependents” Explores Grief After The Apocalypse

“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.

Like, “Dependents” is skillfully bleak. I’ve seen stories that deal with alternative versions of lost people. I’ve seen stories that use concepts like that as a way to allow one character to express what they never could before. Dark Matter did some stuff with that concept. This episode is not that. This is much more realistic, even if the backstory is pure cosmic horror. I fully believe if a grieving wife met a copy of her dead husband—let alone after so long having nightmares where he’s still alive—she would cling to him as hard as she could.

“Dependents” Has Such Amazing Character Acting

And then there’s that Domain statement. I don’t quite know why the start of it has a semi-normal premise, but it descends quickly into the type of hell I would expect. It’s a Buried and Flesh combo that I think is supposed to be a metaphor for a few things. I get impressions of body dysmorphia and codependence for sure, given the entangling of flesh and the feeling of being trapped by skin, as well as possibly a fear of crowds. I don’t know how effective the metaphor is for people who’ve experienced those things, but I completely understand why that would make this version of Alice have trouble coping with the world after being endlessly subjected to it.

And really, that’s all I have to say about “Dependents.” It’s very efficient. It’s incredibly well-written and performed. I don’t know if I could handle multiple concurrent episodes with this much sadness and trauma in them. I’d probably break down crying on a re-listen.       

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