The Magnus Protocol 21 – Breaking Ground

CAT2RBC4254-04011998-12042024Architecture (landmark) -/- corruption (entropy)

Created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J Newall Directed by Alexander J NewallWritten by Jonathan Sims Script Edited with additional material by Alexander J Newall

Executive Producers April Sumner, Alexander J Newall, Jonathan Sims, Dani McDonough, Linn Ci, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton Associate Producers Jordan L. Hawk, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius d’Raven, and Megan Nice Produced by April Sumner Featuring (in order of appearance) Lowri Ann Davies as Celia RipleyShahan Hamza as Samama KhalidBillie Hindle as Alice DyerSarah Lambie as Lena KelleyAnusia Battersby as Gwendolyn BouchardVera Chok as Ink5oulCallum Dougherty as BystanderBeth Eyre as [ERROR]Jonathan Sims as Chester

Dialogue Editor – Lowri Ann DaviesSound Designer – Tessa VroomMastering Editor - Catherine Rinella

Music by Sam Jones (orchestral mix by Jake Jackson) Art by April Sumner

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[localsamalicer]

I can only imagine Celia saying “complicated immigration status” Whist she’s thinking about being from a different universe and Sam wondering why she made the stupid decision to work for the government if she was an ‘illegal immigrant’

[marinterry]

I’ve always thought the tape recorders were cute, at least ever since Martin started talking to them in season 3 and 4, but now that I know they bite I NEED one as a pet

[bugjams]

Sam: Evil doesn't just grow on trees!

Hilltop Road: _Are you sure about that?_

[Yumeki-san]

"Complicated immigration status"
"Couldn't take Jack with me"
Okay, so now there is no doubt that Celia is from tma or at least from some other different universe

[elliesteele]

So [ERROR] is the one making people ramble about their darkest fears. In hindsight this checks out as it was freed from the Magnus Institute on the 9th of March (TMP 10) and the earliest known case of a talking corpse was on the 20th, just 11 days later (TMP 18). Also of note is the fact that Ink5oul seems to be familiar with [ERROR], meaning they must have met previously at some point in the last month. Since both Alice and Gwen have now had direct encounters with it, I believe [ERROR] will most likely be the main villain of Season 1. What we don't know is who/what [ERROR] is/was. Since it's gimmick appears to be making people recite a somewhat exaggerated version of their most traumatic experiences, I believe it may have once been an Archivist, transformed in some strange way by the Institute.

There is of course one other thing that, out of all the strange details and revelations in this episode, baffles me the most. Right at the end of the episode, we hear Ink5oul shout in pain. Looking at the transcript it says *[THE TAPE RECORDER BITES INK5OUL]* .




w h a t ?

[KIDD-VIDEO]

sorry but Ink5oul being all like "No fair!! I found Gwen first, I dont wanna share! 😡😤🤬" to [ERROR] is so funny to me 😅

[Kelpic]

No one seems to be talking about it but Alice catching onto Sam being targeted was awesome. Now that we've seen her start to get more serious I think she's probably gonna end up being the most competent at dealing with the supernatural like Sasha was in s1.

[beans_boi]

I'm sorry, but the tape recorder bites??! That's a new one. Makes it seem like a pet, and I love that

[seras]

My theory is that Jonathan and Martin might have tried to talk to Alice like they are talking to Sam but Alice never paid them any attention so they gave up.

[ZuriElysium]

Everyone in the comments is saying [ERROR] saved Gwen, but every other victim of [ERROR] we have seen died/was dead. I'm not convinced Gwen is at all okay.

[TroublingZeal]

“Barbed wire?”

*looking at my tattoos*
Ooh I’d be so fucked.

[elliesteele]

In case you were wondering what Gwen was saying at the end, I've copied it out here:

When I was a little girl, there was a shed at the bottom of the garden that I was always told never to go inside. There were tools and sharp and deadly things that were not right, too dangerous for a little girl.

But then one year we lost the gardener to another house and the new one brought everything they needed in the van, so the shed was locked up tight and sealed against any nosy children who would think that something in there might be rusty toys for playing, without the fear they needed at what damage such sharp metal can inflict on uncareful flesh.

It took no more than the smallest push to break it open, and inside spilled out teeming swarms of writhing bone-white maggots. Flesh poured forth from the rotted fox that must have come in through the window seeking warmth, not death, instead finding only putrescence seeping, squirming, reaching for me as I…

[marinterry]

Okay so Celia being aware of her cross dimension travel probably confirms she knows about the other world. I suspect she came through when the P!institute (protocol institute) did their ritual which aligned with the A!institute (archives institute) universe’s apocalypse.

[goitcore]

new magnu... oh wait you don't exist.

[elliesteele]

It would seem that the Magnus Institute was planning a ritual at the Millennium Dome (now known as the O2 Arena) at the turn of the millennium, almost certainly the reason for Starkwall's attack.

Interestingly, Leonardo Kennings believed this ritual would be to improve reality, rather than condemn it, meaning if the Institute did serve a malevolent power, not everyone there was aware of it. The incident with the construction worker and his elderly copy appears to be related to the Extinction, as it deals with the fear of change, which would very much include aging and the future. It is therefore possible that people's anxieties about the future made the Millennium Dome into a place of power for it.


This, combined with the Institute's focus on alchemy, the practice of transforming one thing into another, leads me to believe that it is highly likely that the Institute of this world does not serve the Eye, but the Extinction.

[CallumnWasHere]

"The tape recorder bites Ink5oul"

W H A T 😃
HELLO???

(I swear someone needs to take this podcast away from me. I screamed seeing the notification🙏)

[kelseymiller]

"The new millennium will bring only new ways to suffer"

(Typed from Sadness Machine which I carry in my pocket at all times and which is possibly giving me both cancer and anxiety)

[moradoesvideos]

“looks so sharp you could cut yourself” I LOVE YOU

[CHMERAKNGHT]

i feel like "ERROR" might have something to do with The Web as well as The Eye considering the transcript describes them as a "spectre of an old world", their whole hissing voice thing reminds me of spiders, theyre kinda trying to manipulate/control things with the "all of them are mine" line (they want everyone as their victim), and their connections to the tape recorders (like annabelle's whole "the tape recorders were actually from the web the whole time" thing)

[AlexDeMiro]

Lying chirps: 15:40, 15:46, 15:54, 16:04, 17:08

also, the transcript just sent me:
"A tape recorder clicks on in an empty back alley on a miserable night." And it BITES.
"[ERROR]: MINE. ALL OF THEM MINE.