urwa's Reviews > The Magnus Archives: Season 5

The horror genre at its finest!

"Together, one way or another."

Screaming, crying, throwing up, absolutely numb because I feel like I had an emotionally harrowing experience and I won't be the same again. There is Before Magnus Urwa and After Magnus Urwa. Both are equally depressed but at least After Magnus Urwa got to experience this beautiful wonderful story, and now feels at peace (not really).

Full disclosure, I started crying even before the final episode started. Just listening to Alex say goodbye and thank you to the show was enough trauma for me. With that said, Season 5 was an absolute masterpiece. I believe <->The Magnus Archives is Rusty Quill's Magnum Opus, and they redefined the horror genre, and the way we conceive and consume horror. It made me rethink many horror tropes, and the nature of humanity. How fear is such an integral part of our existence, and how fear shapes and reshapes the course of our world and our actions. The themes, the character arcs, every single stand-alone statement, and the overall plot of the show, it was all handled wonderfully and I am still in awe of how they were able to build up the strings of the mystery from Episode 1 and were able to conclude it in such a satisfying manner. The ending was perfect considering the characters' motivations and personalities, the nature of the story and the foreshadowing from the start. I have to admit I was in a state of numb acceptance by the end because I knew where the characters were heading emotionally so it wasn't as much of a shock. In terms of the plot, the climax was the perfect 40-60 ish blend of stuff I predicted and stuff that surprised me. The perfect formula for executing a horror mystery, where the reader/listener is given enough red string to be able to predict most of the big stuff, but there are still tiny surprises that make you go "oh my god what!".

Honestly, it took me about a month to finish Season 5 while I often listened to the previous seasons for around a week. The main reason was how emotionally heavy this season was. After the events of the season 4 finale, all bets were off, but apart from the uncertainty of where the plot was heading the horror was a more front stage. I've said it before, seasons 2-4 pale in comparison to the creep factor in Season 1. Season 5 might be the only season able to match Season 1, and sometimes exceed that. Season 5 is very very dark. It might just be due to the events of 2020 affecting Jonny's writing, because it got a lot more political, and there was a lot of real-world trauma infused into the statements. The mental hospital statements, the war statements, and the dark and lonely statements were genuinely hard to listen to. I had to take frequent breaks between Acts because at times the horror started to get too real. I also don't think I can do the "top episodes of the season" this time because all of them were genuinely so good?? I don't know how Jonny managed to keep the show so fresh after 200 episodes of horror, but still, every statement hit hard.
Season 1, Season 3, and Season 5 are my favourite seasons, but if I had to choose a single one I still think it would be season 5.

Spoilers!
(view spoiler)[I fucking knew the Web would turn out to be the biggest player in the story. Way more than the Eye. I've had that theory since season 3, and it was sooo satisfying to see how everyone, and I mean everyone (I'm looking at you Elias) was played by the Web. I didn't predict that the tapes would be an agent of the Web, but it was such a cool twist, and I loved that spider web built of all the archive tapes. Such haunting imagery (might need to dust off my shitty digital art skills for some swag fanart). I did expect there to be more Jonah/Elias this season, and I was a bit bummed that we only got to have the final showdown that lasted like 2 mins. Though that statement about stoner!Elias was absolutely chilling (So tell me Elias, what are you afraid of?).

In terms of character arcs, I had made my peace with Daisy's death at the end of Season 3, and as I never really liked her, post-coffin-Daisy held a special place in my heart, and that scene where Basira had to put down wolf wife was so painful to listen to. I loved Helen this season, the episode where Jon smites her made me so sad, I really liked her a lot even if she was the embodiment of lies. Gertrude and Helen remain my favourite characters on the show, with no competition. The Tim/Sasha tapes at the start of the season were so difficult, I was crying so much, we really needed more of real!Sasha :(

Martin's arc in seasons 4 and 5 has been amazing to see. I liked Martin, the way you like a soft bunny, but I agreed with Alex, he needed to grow up in order to develop as something more than the Archivist's foil. The Lonely episodes were hella emo, and I felt oddly and disturbingly seen by them, but it was nice to see him have some agency in the story. Jon's arc has been a lot. Of course, I felt bad for him, the guilt and trauma he had to shoulder were awful. But I couldn't help but be impressed by how wonderfully Jonny plotted his development from season 1 to the final scene of season 5.

And now the ending. yes, it was painful, yes it made me scream, and yes I am an emotional wreck. But I don't see how else it could have ended. The Romeo and Juliet esque ending to JonMartin's story was fitting. This was and always has been a tragedy, and any hopes I had about them being fine at the end were just my denial. That said, I do believe that they were whisked away to our world, and live here happily ever after. I do think the FearApocalypse is a rather macabre chain mail, but I also believe yeeting it to other universes resets the Fears, because how else would the Web take the W? And since Basira found a running tape in the epilogue, and people are hunting Avatars in MagnusVerse, the fears are still a pretty big part since they form the basis of humanity. (hide spoiler)]

IDK what I'm going to do with my life now, I guess relisten to all 5 seasons before Magnus Protocol comes out 🤡. Glad I was able to be a part of the story, however late. This is something I will carry with me my whole life. I am left with that wonderful feeling of having finished a particularly good book that comes around every 5 years. Thank you to Jonny, Alex and the whole team at Rusty Quill for such a nuanced exploration of fear and humanity. Brilliant voice acting from everyone and brilliant sound design (especially these last couple of seasons).

Blog Review

Before Starting:
on one hand, i want to jump right in because i am so curious about where the story goes now. on the other hand, i don't think i can handle the emotional devastation this season will ultimately turn out to be