theory: the tapes are agnes montague
i think the ghost of agnes montague is bound to the tapes. it’s a theory that i’ve had for a few weeks now, and the fact that 196 directly addressed the tapes without actually jossing this theory has only fueled me. vincent @girlbossgertrude made a post about this exact theory earlier today which is much more concise than this, i just wanted to post my own version for documentation purposes!
theory reasoning, speculation, and other thoughts under the cut:
gertrude knew that agnes was immortal. logically, since gertrude was not, binding agnes directly to gertrude to prevent the desolation’s ritual would inevitably lead to agnes being unleashed upon gertrude’s death.
so instead, she used the binding web ritual to bind agnes not to gertrude herself, but to the tapes, the archives, and/or the position of archivist, which would continue to exist long after her.
in ep 161 dwelling, in a recording from 2015, gertrude notes that she’s been using the tapes for 40 years, aka since 1975. 1975 is also approximately the year that she carried out the web binding on agnes. the timeline fits!
upon agnes’ death, she began haunting the archives, and inhabited (and/or could manifest herself through) the tape recorders.
not too sure about the above point - either she is the tapes, in the same way that gerry was the book, or she’s just a ghost who can speak through the recorders EVP-style.
side note: we already canonically know that gertrude is absolutely the kind of person who would bind someone’s ghost into a supernatural object after their death against their will! someone who was born into a terrible destiny, raised in an evil environment and taught terrible things, who felt like they could never fit into normal human society due to their upbringing... the parallels and foreshadowing are already there, is all i’m saying.
gertrude knew about agnes being in the tapes, but as established in ep 167 curiosity, had no interest in connecting with agnes or furthering the web bond between them. she continued to use the tapes for her work, but never spoke directly to agnes, up until her emma betrayed her and she needed to speak with someone to talk it over.
the “one person she could trust” - why would agnes be this for her if they had never spoken to each other before? maybe because she’s been carrying her around and using her for her work for years already?
additionally, how did agnes know the details of sarah carpenter’s death? if she was still with the lightless flame, then it’s certainly possible that she was told all the gory details by a cultist - but the timeline sets this meeting after agnes’ death. is it not also possible that she knew because she was there? because emma was taking notes and recording the encounters she orchestrated in order to analyze them, and had used a tape recorder during the event?
this would explain how the tapes are clearly web-aligned. agnes grew up with the web, was bound by the web all her life, and was bound to the tapes by the web in death.
this would explain why the tapes are the only medium through which supernatural phenomena can be recorded without corruption, even though, as established in ep 65 binary, they are a digital medium just like computers.
the above is a point in favor of agnes literally being the tapes - binary was about a person whose consciousness inhabited a digital medium! what if it was foreshadowing all along?
this would, of course, also explain the timeline discrepancies, how agnes and gertrude spoke after agnes’ death. agnes was dead, she just wasn’t gone. it would also explain how their meeting happened at all - as the episode establishes, the lightless flame would not have been keen to allow their messiah to meet with the archivist. how did gertrude contact her, meet with her, and keep this whole thing a secret from the cult, when agnes seemed to have been under pretty heavy surveillance for most of her life? maybe gertrude didn’t need to contact her at all; maybe she was already in the archives.
various other assorted evidence/interesting implications:
the earliest known instance of the tapes turning on by themselves is in order to record gertrude’s death.
all of the tapes that mysteriously made it to the cabin with the pack of statements had to do with fire. people assumed this was blatant foreshadowing for the archives burning down, but even back in april i thought that seemed too obvious, and indeed as of ep 196 it’s seeming more and more unlikely. what if it was, in fact, a hint that the tapes are also desolation-aligned?
agnes and gertrude were implied to be anchors - much like the tapes have been an anchor for jon, such as when they helped him escape the coffin.
in 161, gertrude say that she’s going to tell leitner about agnes’ pyromania sometime, and then the very next line is leitner noting that the tape is still running. it could be a coincidence, but what if his attention was drawn by the reminder of agnes because he knew she was in the tapes?
additionally, there’s that odd moment in ep 80 the librarian where he addresses the tapes directly, saying that he’s “not sure you would have liked [Jon]”. sure, this could have been vaguely addressing gertrude’s spirit - but it could just as easily be saying ‘i’m not sure you would have liked him compared to how i think you felt about gertrude.’
gertrude says in ep 162 a cozy cabin that she generally only uses the tapes for things that she thinks her successor needs to know. implying that she thinks all the tapes are ensured to reach the next archivist? obviously this didn’t turn out to be true in canon, but there must have been some reasoning behind this that made her think it would happen.
that goddamn web lighter - an intersection between the web and fire/desolation - has been with jon all along. as have the tapes.
in ep 196 this old house, annabelle reveals that agnes was the thing that finally ripped open the crack and turned it into an actual hole. shortly thereafter, annabelle reveals the hole, which is held together/being maintained by a web made of tape.
annabelle doesn’t actually say that the tapes have been her all along! they’re obviously web-aligned, but she says that she’s been using them as material/tools to spin her web - much like the web used agnes as a tool to open the gap!
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