The Magnus Protocol Reviews: “Hostile Workplace”
“Hostile Workplace” Has Reveals Protocol Needed
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.
And what a strange statement it was—and I mean that in a good way. From, I believe, episode one, Sam mentioned having a mental breakdown that resulted in him being fired. I can’t speak for sure, it has been such a long time since then, but I think I assumed that was just an aspect of Sam’s character—him having some mental illness issue. I hadn’t considered it tied into the plot, but considering this is a Magnus series, I suppose I should’ve expected him to have a statement relating to it. A statement that breaks all the rules.
Now, because—I like to think—some of the fun of these articles is having me speculate wildly, and then learning later if I was right, I’ll go into some implications that I noticed. The core of what we learn in “Hostile Workplace” is that fear is still the magic system in Protocol, but it’s more an energy source, or at least a force of some kind. It’s not tied to distinct beings. Sam’s acute fear of that plastic skeleton clearly animated it somehow. There was no buildup, no slow hints in his story. He was viscerally afraid, and then magic happened.
“Hostile Workplace” Potentially Ties Stuff Together
But, as far as we know, that kind of thing isn’t commonly occurring in Protocol. It’s not a constant issue of people’s phobias creating monsters—though clearly it’s widespread enough for the government to get involved. So, I think we have a good speculation about what the “gifted” program was looking for. Some people can channel fear into magic somehow. I have to assume that’s also how Externals end up happening, in some way. Plenty of people ended up afraid of Bonzo, so maybe either collective fear is enough to do something—like how the Dread Power’s chunks form—or one of the many people Bonzo scared was an alchemy user, whether they knew it or not.
But all of what I just said doesn’t even cover the weirdness with The Archivist. I have so many questions—in a good way, that makes me happy to listen to more episodes. The implication presented toward the end of “Hostile Workplace” is that fear magic adapts to what dimension it’s in. The Archivist wasn’t part of The Eye, but now maybe is. The ending of “Hostile Workplace” makes me worried that we’ll get a full return of the Dread Powers—which feels like such an insult to the original series’ ending. But, assuming we don’t get that terrible decision, we get to speculate—and hopefully see—how fear magic works in a place the Dread Powers left. Also, if I’m right that Sam has some kind of alchemy ability, we might get to see how that is altered by being in a different dimension. The absolutely horrible (but very well voice acted) eye-stabbing scene from the beginning of this episode maybe tells us how his powers will manifest.
Again, I must ask: why was this not how we started with the new episodes? “Hostile Workplace” might have bad consequences for later episodes, but taken as itself, it’s a wonderful series of conversations with new and returning voice actors that finally gives us some clarity about what is going on. It’s exactly what I would want from a spinoff series of my favorite podcast, and I hope it begins a run of absolutely banger episodes.
Possibly Related Posts:
Comments