#john uvela

Mystery: Upside-Down Faces and Face-Wearing
Updated: 8/07/16

SPOILERS THROUGH 2x11 


1. Episode 1x04 is about the Festival of the Upside Down Face in Charlesworth, WA. In 1957, a 17 year old girl named Sarah Benning, who was bullied by the other girls in her class, murdered the homecoming queen, Catherine Williams. She slit Williams’ throat, and the story is that she sliced off Williams’ face and stitched it back on, upside-down. 

Townspeople say that the spirit of Catherine Williams is the girl with the upside-down face, and to commemorate her, they wear their Halloween masks upside-down for the festival. However, Crystal DeNevers disputes this, saying that it’s actually Sarah Benning who haunts the town, and that she stitched Williams’ face on her own, upside-down. 

2. Later, Sheriff Boyd Osenga notes that both the graves of Sarah Benning and Catherine Williams were desecrated. Nothing remains of Sarah Benning. Catherine Williams’ body remains, but someone had removed her face.  (1x04)

3.Clara Simone, the psychic from the séance at Glushka, describes to Alex the first demon she ever saw as a child:

Simone: I tried to speak to him, I asked him his name. And he opened his mouth and all these flies flew out of him. It was like a dark cloud pouring out of him. And all the flies gathered on my ceiling, totally covering it. And then the boy whispered his name. Aleister. And as soon as I repeated it, these great, big black wings appeared out of his back, and the boy’s face peeled away and that’s how I saw the face of my first demon.

4. Professor Alice Kermode describes the cave paintings at Boulder Field in Bath, England, close to where Percival Black lived for a time. She says that her guess is that they were left by an Anglo-Saxon group, owing to their militaristic nature, though they might be too modern for that, possibly being as recent as the 16th century. She describes the characters being “placed in several rows and there is a tall figure at the head. Perhaps a general or commander.”

When Nic and Alex look at photos of the cave paintings, Alex notes she sees “what appeared to be hundreds of black shapes, barely more than stylized stick figures. They were arranged in rows.” Nic says the tall figure appears to be a “scary shadow leader.” It is approximately five times taller than all of the other figures, with its long arms raised above its head.

Further down the cave wall are photos of “black shapes in a circle around a tall central figure, whose arms were held wide like Jesus on the cross. And, again, the one in the center was much taller than the others.” When they zoom in on the tall figure, they see “its mouth was where the eyes should be, and its eyes were where the mouth should be.” It has an upside-down face. (1x11)

5. There are similar cave drawings at Urraca Mesa, NM. Alex says they contain “rows of dark figures, very militaristic, but they were surrounded by concentric circles, and outside those circles stood a giant figure. Tall. It didn’t have a face. None of the figures did. But this one had something interesting, it looked like a large crown that hung down off the head. It was hard to tell what it was supposed to be, but the connection to Kermode’s photographs sent a chill through me.” 

Alex visits Urraca Mesa with John Uvela for a guide, who says most people think the petroglyphs there portray a war that the Anasazi fought against evil spirits. Of the circles surrounding the apparent shadow “army,” Uvela says that they depict a gateway, and that Anasazi beat back the evil spirits to the gateway and then built totems to keep the gateway locked, two of which are still standing.

Alex then sees a petroglyph where there is a large symbol  etched into the wall. “It was a circle, about five feet in diameter. Inside the circle, a horizontal line and below that line, two dots side by side. Like a pair of eyes.” Another upside-down face. (1x12)

6. Alex describes the following scene at the exorcism of “John”:

Alex: It was hard to get a clear frame, due to the shaky camera. But there, on the wall opposite John’s feet, were symbols. Numbers. Circles. Pentagrams. And at the center, what appeared to be a face. A face with the eyes where the mouth should be, and the mouth where the eyes should be. This was not a church. This was something else entirely. (2x07)

7. In 2x05, the PNWS team receives a photo of Keith Dabic from Glushka. In 2x11, after learning of Dabic’s potential death, they re-examine the photo to find a seam at his hairline. His eyes have also changed. They surmise that someone else is wearing Keith’s face.

Mystery: Tall Paul / The Tall Shadow / Mr. Splitfoot
Updated: 8/16/16

SPOILERS THROUGH 2x12


1. A tall, dark shadow is seen in childhood photos of Robert Torres, and again in his wedding photos. (1x01) Robert also talks about strange occurrences in the family home, and of feeling followed. (1x02) Says that things stopped for a while during the time when Dr. Richard Strand was investigating the case. (1x02)

2. The same dark shadow mars all photos of Robert’s son, Sebastian Torres. (1x02)

3. Maria Torres, Sebastian’s mother began to be able to see the tall shadow figure, who she calls “the shadow man.” She describes it as a “tall person dressed in black. Freakishly tall, she said his head almost touched the ceiling.” Other paranormal researchers called it a “malevolent spirit.” Sebastian says that the man, whom he has named “Tall Paul” lives in his closet, which is marred with a frightening drawing. (1x02) This drawing later shows up in the cabin in which Sebastian is found after his abduction. (1x07)

4. At the University of Washington in 1993, a tall shadow appears to its leader, Dr. Roth, during a taped study done with the use of a Ouija board. The participants do not know that the board they are playing with is, in fact, a demon board. The underside of the board features a pentagram within two circles, as well as a number sequence. Michelle Braid, a participant in the survey, also saw the figure, which she describes as “this tall, dark thing.” She describes its smell as “almost like a musk, but rotten. Like a wet, rotting deer. It was overwhelming, and there was this… sound, as well. Kind of a dark, throbbing, static. It was horrible. I wish I’d never taken part in that.”  She further explains, it was “dark, but not black. More negative? Or kind of an absence of light. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it was terrifying. It had two legs, but like an animal: tall, thick, maybe like a deer. And it had really, long black hair covering its face. (pause) And it was… smiling.” (1x08)

5. Clara Simone may also have drawn a tall shadow during her automatic writing at the Glushka séance. (1x10)

6. Professor Alice Kermode describes the cave paintings at Boulder Field in Bath, England, close to where

Percival Black

lived for a time. She says that her guess is that they were left by an Anglo-Saxon group, owing to their militaristic nature, though they might be too modern for that, possibly being as recent as the 16th century. She describes the characters being “placed in several rows and there is a tall figure at the head. Perhaps a general or commander.”

When Nic and Alex look at photos of the cave paintings, Alex notes she sees “what appeared to be hundreds of black shapes, barely more than stylized stick figures. They were arranged in rows.” Nic says the tall figure appears to be a “scary shadow leader.” It is approximately five times taller than all of the other figures, with its long arms raised above its head.

Further down the cave wall are photos of “black shapes in a circle around a tall central figure, whose arms were held wide like Jesus on the cross. And, again, the one in the center was much taller than the others.” When they zoom in on the tall figure, they see “its mouth was where the eyes should be, and its eyes were where the mouth should be.” It has an upside-down face. (1x11)

7. Cave paintings featuring a tall shadow and an upside-down face very similar to those in Boulder Field are also found in Urraca Mesa, New Mexico. The cave might have likewise been used for ritualistic sacrifice by the Anasazi people according to John Uvela. He says that  most people think the petroglyphs there portray a war that the Anasazi fought against evil spirits. Of the circles surrounding the apparent shadow “army,” Uvela says that they depict a gateway, and that Anasazi beat back the evil spirits to the gateway and then built totems to keep the gateway locked, two of which are still standing. There is a prophecy that when the last two totems fall, a gateway will re-open and demons will be able to cross into our world. When Uvela was young, he personally witnessed a tall, shadowy creature fly from the mouth of the cave. Alex likens the figure to the one that Michelle Braid described, and specifically mentions its cloven foot, aka– a split foot. (1x12)

8. A brief glimpse of a dark shadow precedes the death of a crow in the home of Rebecca and Katie Yi. (2x01)

9. Cheryl Strand is able to see the “tall men” in the Black Tape titled “Cheryl.” She says they want to come in their house, and after her brother, Richard, opens the window, she says that they’re inside now. The camera pans towards a wall, and then back to Cheryl, who is staring at something unseen on the ceiling. She says “hello” to it. (2x05) As an adult, Cheryl describes them as “tall, thin giants.” Of the one inside the house, she says, “Yes. That one was tall. The top of its head would have touched the ceiling, but it was hunched over like something like… a twisted, crooked tree. It’s eyes were huge. Unblinking. Its arms were kind of shaking… as if it was getting ready to… it was excited. And there was a smell. A swampy… sick, musty sweat in the air. It smiled then. A crazed smile. I froze… and its fingers. They were long, incredibly long… it pointed at me.” She says that Richard was convinced that the tall men were after their family. (2x06)

10. From the tapes made about E. Hausdorff in 2x08: “Four patients are claiming nightly visitations by ghostly figures, and two of them claim that a tall, dark man came to them in their dreams and left illegible scribbles on their walls.”

11. A psychiatric patient, E. Hausdorff, screams about a “shadow army and the end of days.“ E. Hausdorff’s rooms at Riverview contain Three of the drawings of shadow men, similar to the ones from Urraca Mesa and the caves at Bath. After a “mass hysteria” sweeps the hospital, these drawings show up in several other of the patients’ rooms. (2x08)

12. “The patient is recovering in the infirmary. He has lost vision in one eye, possible permanent damage to the lens of the other. At times, he’s cognizant of the fact that he did this to himself. Other times, he insists on blaming someone he calls ‘Mr. Splitfoot.‘” - In reference to E. Hausdorff (2x08)

13. A shadow appears in the surveillance camera footage immediately preceding Edward Lewis’s death by hanging. Strand thinks it may be someone in the cell with him, but a pentagram within a double circle and numbers are also found at the scene. (2x09)

14. The TBT team discuss “Mr. Splitfoot” in reference toThe Fox Sisters, mediums from the mid-1800’s who later admitted to be frauds. They had repeatedly made reference to a “Mr. Splitfoot,” who they later identified as Charles B. Rosna, who had been murdered with a butcher knife. Strand then clarifies that “Mr. Splitfoot” is “one of many names for the Devil” on the East Coast. (2x09)

15. The team discusses the totems at Urraca Mesa after Nic discovers that there had originally been five. Alex asks, “maybe someone had to destroy the last two totems to complete the ritual?” and promptly finds from John Uvela that the final two totems have fallen. 

Upon closer inspection of the Urraca Mesa petroglyphs, Alex decides that the tall figure surrounded by circular figures that she once thought were armies carrying weapons and saluting a shadow leader may, in fact be an orchestra with their instruments, following a conductor. (2x12)

16.  Simon Reese leaves a voicemail for Alex in the season 2 finale:

“I’m sure by now you’ve realized the interconnectedness of all things. Or, at least the interconnectedness of your things. The children, the shadows, the doors, they’re all… they’re here for Him.

“Some call him the Adversary, some call him other things, but if you build it, he will come. And when he does, he brings chaos, and madness, and death.

“What you’re calling the Unsound? That wasn’t what you thought it was. You weren’t going to die within a year. That was only the first gate. There are five gates, Alex. You have to hear all five in a row in order to be infected.

"You see, Alex, it’s a curse… it’s a virus. The end is not coming with a bang, but within each of us. Those who hear the five movements of the Mysterium, in order, will be followed by a darkness, by evil. When they turn out the lights, their darkness will be a little darker than most. When they look into the shadows, they’ll see a little farther than most. And when the time is come, they will enter his kingdom, and the world will be lost. Goodbye, Alex.”  (2x12)