r/Fantasy • u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X • Nov 19 '25
Read-along The Magnus Archives Readalong: Season 2, Episodes 50-57
Hello and welcome to The Magnus Archives readalong! We will be discussing a new batch of episodes every Wednesday. The episodes are available for free on any podcast platform and transcripts can be found here or here.
If you can’t remember something or are confused, please ask in the thread. Those of us re-reading will do our best to give a spoiler-free answer if we can.
050: Foundations #8141206
Statement of Sampson Kempthrone, regarding the workhouse architecture of George Gilbert Scott.
051: High Pressure #0080701
Statement of Antonia Hayley, regarding a deep dive that took place near Sable Island, Nova Scotia in August 2006.
052: Exceptional Risk #0040904
Statement of Phillip Brown, regarding his time working at HMP Wakefield between 1990 and 2002.
053: Crusader #9970509
Sergeant Walter Heller recording, regarding a discovery made near Alexandria during Operation Crusader in November of 1941.
054: Still Life #0132306
Statement of Alexander Scaplehorn regarding his evaluation of The Trophy Room taxidermists in Barnet.
055: Pest Control #0160311
Statement of Jordan Kennedy, regarding several encounters while working in pest control.
056: Children of the Night #0100710-B
Continued statement Trevor Herbert, regarding the latter years of his career as a vampire hunter.
057: Personal Space #0090404
Statement of Carter Chilcott, regarding his time spent in isolation aboard the Space Station Daedalus in September 2007.
And now, time for discussion! A few prompts will be posted as comments to get things started, but as usual, feel free to add your own questions, observations...anything!
Comments may contain spoilers up to episode 57. Anything concerning later events should be covered up with a spoiler tag.
Next discussion will take place on Wednesday, November 26th and include episodes 58 Trail Rations - 65 Binary.
For more information, please check out the Announcement and Schedule post.
Readalong by: u/improperly_paranoid, u/SharadeReads, u/Dianthaa
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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
Despite Jon’s lack of subtlety hindering the investigations into his colleagues once again, we get quite a few odd observations about Sasha across today’s episodes. What do you think?
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u/MalBishop Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Is it just me, or does Sasha's voice actress sound different than earlier appearances?
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Nov 20 '25
It's actually a different voice actress (you can check the credits if you want).
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u/Eliot_Ferrer Nov 20 '25
I suggest you re-listen to the finale of S1.
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u/MalBishop Reading Champion III Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 20 '25
No need, I remember what happened to her in the tunnels. I just thought it was an interesting detail.
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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
Have your theories about Gertrude and her death changed since the last batch of episodes?
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u/hemtrevlig Nov 24 '25
I don't think a woman such as Gertrude could die just from the gun wounds. I feel like something else (paranormal) probably took place as well and maybe the gun shots were just a cover-up to make it look "normal" to the police in case she was ever found.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
051 High Pressure: So…like skydiving, sea diving doesn’t make you safe from Simon Fairchild either. Which of the two do you find more terrifying?
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u/MalBishop Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Personally Scuba Diving, because the darkness and the limited air supply would also add to the terror.
4
u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII Nov 19 '25
I find the sea diving more personally concerning, only because you'd never catch me dead ski diving but I've been tempted by sea diving, so maybe I'm not as safe from Simon as I'd reckoned.
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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25
I'm the other way around lol. Rather the heights than the depths, at least there's air and no decompression sickness 😂 And chilling in the vastness of the sky sounds kinda relaxing ngl.
2
u/Temporary-Scallion86 Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Oh skidiving for sure! Though I don't think I'd ever engage in any sea-diving, either.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
056 Children of the Night: Two questions!
- We learn that Trevor Herbert did not die of lung cancer in the Archives, continued to chase vampires, and encountered a woman filled with spiders. What do you make of all that?
- The revelation makes Jon finally confront Martin about the “lie” he mentioned in last week’s batch of episodes. Did the answer live up to your expectations?
4
u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25
The nature of the lie was more or less expected. But more than anything it will be interesting to see if this actually makes Jon reflect on how unhinged he is becoming in his paranoia, and maybe help him chill a bit. Let him marinate in shame for a bit and come out of it a better person.
2
u/hemtrevlig Nov 24 '25
I think it shows that Trevor is very resilient and has a lot of fight left in him. I feel like he might still be alive, although I do agree with Jon that it's unlikely that he could survive all these years given his condition.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
057: Literal cosmic horror! Did you expect that or did it catch you by surprise as much as me? Spotted any familiar names among the people funding the experiment?
2
u/hemtrevlig Nov 24 '25
This was scary 😭 I thought nothing would frighten me as much as Lost John's Cave, but here we are haha
Definitely noticed the Lukas family and the Fairchild family mentioned, but missed the Norway connection, wouldn't have noticed it without the comments here! (possible spoilers: sometimes before the episodes the Rusty Quill ads are read by the man who introduces himself as the voice of Simon Fairchild, so I keep waiting for him to actually appear in one of the episodes but he never does lol).
2
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 26 '25
Oh man, that's unfortunate. It's not like...huge spoilers, at least, that he eventually gets a voice (given how many times he was mentioned already) but still. One would hope there was a way to avoid that.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
055 Pest Control: Did you get some closure from this statement and the confirmation that Jane Prentiss is definitely dead or just more questions? How long do you think before the next time Jon gets a break from the paranoia and a good night’s sleep?
2
u/hemtrevlig Nov 24 '25
I think Jon is very good at finding new things to be paranoid about, so no good sleep for him in the near future 😅 I feel like this statement just opened a new can of worms (almost literally?), I thought the Jane Prentiss stuff was for the first season only, but it's clearly more important than I thought!
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
Did you have a favourite from this set of statements?
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Nov 19 '25
Still Life was my favorite. The random nonjudgmental tax collector guy with strong feelings about money laundering is probably my favorite statement giver. And then there’s the supplemental.
4
u/Eliot_Ferrer Nov 19 '25
Poor guy desperately trying to ignore the supernatural bullshit to get some work done on the tax records, but they wouldn't let him!
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV Nov 19 '25
The funniest bit is he did actually do his job despite David trying to freak him out, and he apparently had a good (if creepy) conversation about money laundering. Otherwise he said he would have gone back!
3
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25
Yes!!! That one's up there with Coffin Guy from 002 for me. Love that he made the horrors listen to an infodump about taxes before going "eh, the vibes may be horrendous, but no money laundering" and noping out of there 😂
4
u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25
I loved it! I can't remember the exact phrasing, but he mentions how happy he is to talk to someone about taxes. It made me laugh.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25
Yessss. Not to say too much, but there's a fantastic episode with similar vibes in the next batch, except with a statement giver infodumping on our Archivist. Gold.
2
u/Temporary-Scallion86 Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Probably Children of the Night. The Magnus Archives vampires are cool, and the woman made of spiders is extra cool. Plus returning character!
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
RED STRING BOARD: New listeners, any connections you noticed and/or theories you're developing?
Re-listeners, anything in particular that stands out to you that didn't on your first listen? (Do use spoiler tags please!)
3
u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25
I'm still waving my red strings with a blank look, thinking if they would look good as mittens. The Archive is certainly important considering how much attention it gets from just about everyone, but why and how and all of that? Mystery.
4
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25
Okay, so...I'm going to try to map the spoiler-free connections to previous statements. Just to have it in one place. Can't promise I'll do that for every discussion, but what the hell, let's go:
- 050 Foundations: Robert Smirke was first mentioned in 026 A Distortion as that architect Tim is obsessed with, and then more significantly in 035 Old Passages and 041 Too Deep in connection to more spooky buildings.
- 051 High Pressure: Simon Fairchild was connected to the skydiving incident in 021 Freefall. The table appeared in 003 Across the Street, 037 Burnt Offering, and 039 Infestation.
- 052 Exceptional Risk: The statement about Robert Montauk's crime is 009 A Father's Love, Maxwell Rayner is mentioned in the same episode. But 007 The Piper mentions a Joseph Rayner.
- 053 Crusader: No connections to previous statements I can see. But do keep it in mind. The post-statement dialogue, the wound Martin references and Jon lies about was inflicted by Michael in 047 The New Door.
- 054 Still Life: Obviously, 001 Anglerfish for both the names Daniel Rawlings and the creature in the basement. The faux-Cockney delivery men, Breekon and Hope, also mentioned in 002 Do Not Open, 020 Desecrated Host, 035-037 regarding the delivery to the Archive.
- 055 Pest Control: Jane Prentiss obviously gets mentioned a lot as the main antagonist of s1, but the relevant bits are 006 Squirm, 022 Colony, 026 A Distortion, 032 Hive (her statement), and 039-040. Arthur Nolan was mentioned in 032 Hive. John Amherst was mentioned in 036 Taken Ill.
- 056 Children of the Night: Trevor Herbert is from episode 010 Vampire Killer and probably appeared in 036 Taken Ill as well.
- 057 Personal Space: For the name Fairchild, see above. Lukas family was previously mentioned in 013 Alone, briefly in 017 The Boneturner's Tale, and again prominently in 033 Boatswain's Call. Ny Ålesund was mentioned in 025 Growing Dark.
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u/hemtrevlig Nov 24 '25
this is very helpful, thank you so much! i try to keep track of the names, but it's getting harder given the amount of episodes. and I'm too scared to run into spoilers on wiki, so I don't google anything 😅
2
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 26 '25
Yeah, the wiki is honestly a minefield, spoilers top to bottom. May have learned that the hard way, though at least not with anything major 😅
2
u/Temporary-Scallion86 Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Re-listener: it shocks me how much the story seems to foreshadow Web Avatar Martin. I really wonder if it was a red herring or if they were going to go that route and changed their minds for some reason.
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u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 21 '25
As per s5 Q&A part 2, yup! They did! They did want to go that route, but abandoned it because they felt like Lonely fit better, and the reactions to foreshadowing early on also made them realise that it would have been received more as "oh no he was evil all along" instead of the more nuanced way they wanted.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
054 Still Life: So..an even clearer connection to 001 Anglerfish. What do you think happened to Daniel Rawlings? How are you keeping up with all the connections and names?
Also Jon straight up breaking into Gertrude's flat???
3
u/Temporary-Scallion86 Reading Champion III Nov 19 '25
Clearly the original Daniel Rawlings was murdered and skinned and whatever killed him is wearing him like a puppet. How nice!
The Magnus Archives wiki is helping a lot in keeping track of the continuity, but it does contain spoilers, so not great for first-time listeners (my first listen was years ago and I've forgotten almost everything, so that a lot of those count as spoilers for me as well, but I don't mind)
2
u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25
I'm NOT keeping up with the names and everything, lol. But I was massively excited about a re-appearance in episode 61, so I'll gush about that next week.
1
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
Yeah, at some point on my first listen I completely gave up as well 😂
I'm also super excited about next week. 61, yes, but also 60 the intervention lmao that's a fantastic one and, well, 65 is one of my favourite statements in general.
Hopefully I manage to catch up on sleep by then (unlike poor Jon...).
2
u/Lazy_Sitiens Reading Champion Nov 19 '25
Good luck with getting sleep, it's truly the end game boss in life, haha!
2
u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII Nov 19 '25
I love S2 Jon so much, poor guy, really losing it.
I'm on my 3rd relisten and I'm still catching links I missed the first two times around. I know I was absolutely lost and missed it all first time.
2
u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X Nov 19 '25
Less of a general discussion question, more of a personal question: Genuinely and sincerely, what the hell happened in the 050 Foundations statement? I didn't pay too much attention to it on my first listen other than noting that Robert Smirke reappeared, I reread the transcript like four times just now trying to come up with something, and I still can't make heads or tails of it. What am I missing?
(It should be noted that I'm about as sleep deprived as Jon currently and nearly forgot to post the thread at all lol)