Listening to Do Not Open again and had some thoughts, although it’s a Buried/Stranger episode, Joshua has some very Lonely vibes.
-He liked walking the streets of Amsterdam by himself.
- He sat alone at the table when John approached him.
- He didn’t know anyone in Bournemouth and didn’t want to share a flat. Obviously we found out at the end he was the only person living there.
- After he got the coffin, he mostly stayed in and did not make connections that would have people coming over.
He basically lived by himself with a coffin for 1.5 years. John obviously thought Joshua would be taken by the coffin but what if being possibly marked by the Lonely kept him from it.
What if he’d been one of Peter’s bets?
Maybe it’s coincidence but Joshua has a lot of ties to the Lonely it seems.
okay but this just makes me think that for some reason all or at least multiple entities wanted Joshua Gillespie
like obviously the buried
the stranger is also associated
as op pointed out there could be ties to the lonely
maybe by making his statement the eye also kept an ‘eye’ on him
maybe links to others can be found but i just love to think that all the entities were going after him and he just…fk minded his business so hard that he walked away unscathed
There’s been really good meta about how Anglerfish is a reflection of Jon’s story, of how he got lured in and how the entities prey on people just trying to be decent and help those that ask for it
But the very next episode, the famed-to-meme-levels Do Not Open, is also a reflection of Jon’s s1 strategy
Joshua Gillespie copes by just ignoring the singing coffin in his room as hard as he can and refusing to look closer. Jon in s1 copes by ignoring the looming terrors around him and refusing to look closer. Joshua gets hailed as a genius because his approach worked for him. Jon gets dragged for the very same strategy, both in-universe and out:
“It just felt safer.”
“Well, it wasn’t.”
“No…it wasn’t.”
The first two episodes are echoes of Jon’s current situation at that time, except unlike the statement-givers he wasn’t lucky enough to escape them, and the same strategy that saved them backfired for him. The statement-giver in Anglerfish didn’t end up trapped and used as a puppet by a monster; Jon did. “Ignore it until it leaves you alone” worked for Joshua Gillespie, but not Jon.
He didn’t have Breekon and Hope showing up at the end to take away everything dangerous and leave him alone; they showed up to deliver the Web lighter, the hook that would drag him to his fate no matter what he did.
I love how the biggest shock Jon has in Nesting Instinct isn’t the fact the dude in the statement was in love with beetle which devoured him. It’s that the statement is in French and he doesn’t speak French.
the Magnus archives is such a mixed bag. because some episodes are like do you feel it? the perpetual loneliness that screams at you through the crowded streets? the fear that lingers every time you sit alone on the busy train? do you understand why you are alone, do you? is it better to be alone and miserably uncertain as to why, or to be isolated knowing what your faults are? do you understand what it is to be lonely? and then the next episode is like, My coworker is having Sex with a Beetle
jonathan sims was really the character of all time. he was kidnapped three times. his only friend was his ex-girlfriend. he pretended to be a skeptic while also working as a ghost secretary. he said “good lord” unironically. he was a stalker. he called a merry-go-round “thrilling.” he hung out and listened to soap operas with a woman who kidnapped him and tried to slit his throat. he said mercy-killing another guy that kidnapped him was “like doing a favor for an old friend.” he could almost definitely suck his own dick. he was forcibly moisturized by a clown for a month. he lied about being ten years older than he was for no discernible reason. he wasn’t even mad about the third kidnapping. he thought his coworker was a ghost. he died once. he tried to cut off his own finger. he was even bi
