TMA Relisten, episodes 21-30
Apr. 24th, 2026 05:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anysinBehind the cut!
Freefall
A Vast episode! And like a lot of Vast episodes, it doesn't have that much going on for it. (Sorry! I love Vast conceptually but most of its episodes are just there.) Still, it's the first appearance of Simon Fairchild, who isn't much of a presence yet, and Robert sort of reminds me of Danny with his varying interests and passions. Which makes it make sense that Tim would have been the one to really get into investigating the case, although that is probably just a coincidence. Either way, Jon gives some praise to Tim! I like how the wrap-up makes it questionable whether Robert himself existed at all either, and then we have Martin at the end, pouring worms on Jon's desk!
Note on Simon: he is accompanied by Harriet Fairchild here, and later Mike Crew talks about a Fairchild family, but we only ever get to know Simon from it.
Re: Robert & Danny parallels, it's interesting that in this statement we hear Robert's side of the story (though filtered through his mom) about what happened, while what happened to Danny is more mysterious in sense that we never hear what happened during his first encounter with the Stranger and in the end we're never even sure if he's dead or not. I do think the similarities are probably just coincidental, but it's still interesting for me to think about.
Colony
Martin appears vocally for the first time! It's a pretty great introduction to him, you get a sense of what he is like personality-wise and you get a sense of what he's capable of, although not full senses of either. I love that you can see here that he is actually quite a thorough investigator, although it seems like he has some Jon related trauma about having not been that always, heh. I do also love him commenting on the spider guy and how his death wasn't natural. Jane Prentiss appearance here is great too, the description of her is just so wonderfully awful and I love how she plays around with Martin. I love that Jon believes Martin and takes him seriously, and that he did apparently try to call him during his sickness, when it seemed like he didn't give much of a fuck about that before.
Also, this is the first implication we get that The Magnus Institute isn't very in-universe respected as Martin says he hides where he's coming from when he does his research.
Schwartzwald
And here we have the first Jonah Magnus statement, fittingly in a statement about the Beholding! We don't hear that much about him, except for his love for creepy and macabre things and having opinions about the German Confederation, but I always enjoy a historical episode, although this one isn't one of my favorites. Still, I'd say it's a pretty solid creepy tale, and I think we return to this place and the mystery books in the Fanshawe statement of S4, as well as to Albrecht's ultimate fate.
LOL at Martin showing up pantless wherever Jon was recording his statement. What was he even doing there? Also, for someone who was under attack from Jane Prentiss for weeks, he seems to be quite blasé about her possibly still being around, but Jon isn't. Jon says he doesn't know much about Jonah Magnus or the origins of the Institute, but he is interested enough to investigate the case all on his own and he isn't overly skeptical about whether it happened or not. We also have a connection between the von Closen and the Keay family that is never mentioned again as far as I can remember.
Strange Music
This statement was a bit meh, not too bad but still modest compared to the banger episodes that we've had this season. Nikola's Circus makes the first appearance here, as does Sasha! I had completely forgotten that she does appear before her own statement. Her conversation with Jon about the pronunciation of "calliope" is cute, heh. Jon believes the statement and says so early on this time, and we hear about Tim's interest in the Circus (he will later complain about this case having been a dead end). The calliope is of course at the Institute's Artifact Storage at the moment, where I think it gets stolen from later on? But how was it acquired in the first place? Can't remember if that is ever brought up. Elias's vague answer to Jon is kind of funny.
Also a minor note, but Jon being a Greek Mythology fan!
Growing Dark
The attempted Dark apocalypse hinted already with this statement! Anyway, not the best episode of the Dark, but a solid one, I like Natalie's downfall into cult craziness and I like the creepy dark chapel. Interesting that Jon is skeptical about the statement even though Rayner's cult is known to exist, but I love that he's disturbed by the cult's possible connection to Gertrude's death. I wonder how Tim knew about Ny-Ã…lesund, though perhaps he just googled.
A Distortion
Michael's first appearance! And a statement from Sasha. I loved Sasha questioning Jon about wanting to give her time off vs. not giving any to Martin, and also describing Martin as a great researcher while also dissing his self-preservation skills. She's a lot, ha. Jon's hateboner for Martin is so funny sometimes, but also man, he gets slightly victim-blamey here. We also hear about Tim's Smirke obsessiona and his and Jon's debates about it. We also got Tim doing April Fools' jokes, which sounds like it was something not so funny, which just supports me in my idea that Tim isn't really a prankster by nature, but who knows. But yeah, a lot of stuff for Jon and his staff too this ep.
As for Michael, I love how it's described as large here, yet it's very rare to see fanart reflect that. I do love its interactions with Sasha a lot, I love that she instantly pings it as a monster, asking it what it is, and I love it being so creepily friendly to her but also very creepy. Also trying to hint about what is really going on, and name-dropping Jon, Martin and Tim all. It's doing a lot this ep! Also, love it stabbing Sasha in order to save her. So helpful! At the end we have Jon and Sasha both knowing they should quit, but not doing it. I do wonder how much of it is the inability not to quit and how much it's real curiosity. Probably more of the latter with Jon.
A Sturdy Lock
This episode hits quite close home for me in ways that makes me irrational about it, but I still think it's one of the saddest statements we ever get. Of course, there was an episode later that revealed that the statement giver's son had his own troubles and his parents hadn't really helped him, putting this statement into new light. But at the moment I only remember this one, so I feel bad for the old man. And so does Jon apparently! Although he manages to be slightly condescending about it, heh. Not much to note in the wrap-up, except that the lock seems to have been some kind of a hallucination. Spiral doing a double-mindfuck?
Skintight
Melanie! I love her so much, crankiness and all, and she's in great form here. Love the antagonistic chemistry between her and Jon. This is where we also hear about Georgie for the first time (no implications about her relationship with Jon) and meet Sarah Baldwin, who was mentioned in episode 1 as someone who had disappeared due to Anglerfish fuckery, and she will show up later again. I do find it interesting how Sarah tries to interact with the ghosts in the hospital before getting attacked, I wonder about her motive. This episode also made me wonder about the status of the supernatural in this verse. It seems to be some kind of legit, but not all the way legit, if that makes sense? Minor note about Melanie having a roommate called Andy at this point, I wonder what happens to her friends later on. We'll see!
Cheating Death
This one is a bit unusual among the statements, coming off very fairytaleish, but I like it, and I think I like it better than most End statements. The gamble with death is a fun concept and I think it was done nicely here. In the wrap-up, we have the appearance of Fiona, one of Gertrude's assistants, and we find out that OG!Elias was a clerk around this time, and this is the first time this is specifically mentioned. I wonder if Jonah had feelings about this undying guy, haha. Jon doesn't outright dismiss the statement this time even as it sounds out there, and I like the anticlimactic ending.
The Killing Floor
I remember liking this quite a lot the first time I listened to it and I do think it's still mostly solid as a horror tale, but it's not one of my favorites anymore. The descriptions of what gets done at a slaughterhouse were quite rough on me, but also drives in the horror of it for the animals, and the POV character's dulled emotions really come through in this. Also the first appearance of Tom Haan.
Freefall
A Vast episode! And like a lot of Vast episodes, it doesn't have that much going on for it. (Sorry! I love Vast conceptually but most of its episodes are just there.) Still, it's the first appearance of Simon Fairchild, who isn't much of a presence yet, and Robert sort of reminds me of Danny with his varying interests and passions. Which makes it make sense that Tim would have been the one to really get into investigating the case, although that is probably just a coincidence. Either way, Jon gives some praise to Tim! I like how the wrap-up makes it questionable whether Robert himself existed at all either, and then we have Martin at the end, pouring worms on Jon's desk!
Note on Simon: he is accompanied by Harriet Fairchild here, and later Mike Crew talks about a Fairchild family, but we only ever get to know Simon from it.
Re: Robert & Danny parallels, it's interesting that in this statement we hear Robert's side of the story (though filtered through his mom) about what happened, while what happened to Danny is more mysterious in sense that we never hear what happened during his first encounter with the Stranger and in the end we're never even sure if he's dead or not. I do think the similarities are probably just coincidental, but it's still interesting for me to think about.
Colony
Martin appears vocally for the first time! It's a pretty great introduction to him, you get a sense of what he is like personality-wise and you get a sense of what he's capable of, although not full senses of either. I love that you can see here that he is actually quite a thorough investigator, although it seems like he has some Jon related trauma about having not been that always, heh. I do also love him commenting on the spider guy and how his death wasn't natural. Jane Prentiss appearance here is great too, the description of her is just so wonderfully awful and I love how she plays around with Martin. I love that Jon believes Martin and takes him seriously, and that he did apparently try to call him during his sickness, when it seemed like he didn't give much of a fuck about that before.
Also, this is the first implication we get that The Magnus Institute isn't very in-universe respected as Martin says he hides where he's coming from when he does his research.
Schwartzwald
And here we have the first Jonah Magnus statement, fittingly in a statement about the Beholding! We don't hear that much about him, except for his love for creepy and macabre things and having opinions about the German Confederation, but I always enjoy a historical episode, although this one isn't one of my favorites. Still, I'd say it's a pretty solid creepy tale, and I think we return to this place and the mystery books in the Fanshawe statement of S4, as well as to Albrecht's ultimate fate.
LOL at Martin showing up pantless wherever Jon was recording his statement. What was he even doing there? Also, for someone who was under attack from Jane Prentiss for weeks, he seems to be quite blasé about her possibly still being around, but Jon isn't. Jon says he doesn't know much about Jonah Magnus or the origins of the Institute, but he is interested enough to investigate the case all on his own and he isn't overly skeptical about whether it happened or not. We also have a connection between the von Closen and the Keay family that is never mentioned again as far as I can remember.
Strange Music
This statement was a bit meh, not too bad but still modest compared to the banger episodes that we've had this season. Nikola's Circus makes the first appearance here, as does Sasha! I had completely forgotten that she does appear before her own statement. Her conversation with Jon about the pronunciation of "calliope" is cute, heh. Jon believes the statement and says so early on this time, and we hear about Tim's interest in the Circus (he will later complain about this case having been a dead end). The calliope is of course at the Institute's Artifact Storage at the moment, where I think it gets stolen from later on? But how was it acquired in the first place? Can't remember if that is ever brought up. Elias's vague answer to Jon is kind of funny.
Also a minor note, but Jon being a Greek Mythology fan!
Growing Dark
The attempted Dark apocalypse hinted already with this statement! Anyway, not the best episode of the Dark, but a solid one, I like Natalie's downfall into cult craziness and I like the creepy dark chapel. Interesting that Jon is skeptical about the statement even though Rayner's cult is known to exist, but I love that he's disturbed by the cult's possible connection to Gertrude's death. I wonder how Tim knew about Ny-Ã…lesund, though perhaps he just googled.
A Distortion
Michael's first appearance! And a statement from Sasha. I loved Sasha questioning Jon about wanting to give her time off vs. not giving any to Martin, and also describing Martin as a great researcher while also dissing his self-preservation skills. She's a lot, ha. Jon's hateboner for Martin is so funny sometimes, but also man, he gets slightly victim-blamey here. We also hear about Tim's Smirke obsessiona and his and Jon's debates about it. We also got Tim doing April Fools' jokes, which sounds like it was something not so funny, which just supports me in my idea that Tim isn't really a prankster by nature, but who knows. But yeah, a lot of stuff for Jon and his staff too this ep.
As for Michael, I love how it's described as large here, yet it's very rare to see fanart reflect that. I do love its interactions with Sasha a lot, I love that she instantly pings it as a monster, asking it what it is, and I love it being so creepily friendly to her but also very creepy. Also trying to hint about what is really going on, and name-dropping Jon, Martin and Tim all. It's doing a lot this ep! Also, love it stabbing Sasha in order to save her. So helpful! At the end we have Jon and Sasha both knowing they should quit, but not doing it. I do wonder how much of it is the inability not to quit and how much it's real curiosity. Probably more of the latter with Jon.
A Sturdy Lock
This episode hits quite close home for me in ways that makes me irrational about it, but I still think it's one of the saddest statements we ever get. Of course, there was an episode later that revealed that the statement giver's son had his own troubles and his parents hadn't really helped him, putting this statement into new light. But at the moment I only remember this one, so I feel bad for the old man. And so does Jon apparently! Although he manages to be slightly condescending about it, heh. Not much to note in the wrap-up, except that the lock seems to have been some kind of a hallucination. Spiral doing a double-mindfuck?
Skintight
Melanie! I love her so much, crankiness and all, and she's in great form here. Love the antagonistic chemistry between her and Jon. This is where we also hear about Georgie for the first time (no implications about her relationship with Jon) and meet Sarah Baldwin, who was mentioned in episode 1 as someone who had disappeared due to Anglerfish fuckery, and she will show up later again. I do find it interesting how Sarah tries to interact with the ghosts in the hospital before getting attacked, I wonder about her motive. This episode also made me wonder about the status of the supernatural in this verse. It seems to be some kind of legit, but not all the way legit, if that makes sense? Minor note about Melanie having a roommate called Andy at this point, I wonder what happens to her friends later on. We'll see!
Cheating Death
This one is a bit unusual among the statements, coming off very fairytaleish, but I like it, and I think I like it better than most End statements. The gamble with death is a fun concept and I think it was done nicely here. In the wrap-up, we have the appearance of Fiona, one of Gertrude's assistants, and we find out that OG!Elias was a clerk around this time, and this is the first time this is specifically mentioned. I wonder if Jonah had feelings about this undying guy, haha. Jon doesn't outright dismiss the statement this time even as it sounds out there, and I like the anticlimactic ending.
The Killing Floor
I remember liking this quite a lot the first time I listened to it and I do think it's still mostly solid as a horror tale, but it's not one of my favorites anymore. The descriptions of what gets done at a slaughterhouse were quite rough on me, but also drives in the horror of it for the animals, and the POV character's dulled emotions really come through in this. Also the first appearance of Tom Haan.
