Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I'm your host Paul and the mold never bothered me anyway.
Cringey intro out the way, throughout this video we're gonna be breaking down Archive
81, the new camera based horror show that's designed to make you shutter.
The season is packed with a lot of cool reveals as well as an ending that deals with some
timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff that you might not be able to get your head around.
Fear not though, we've gone through the tapes and are here to bring you everything you need
to know about it.
Full spoilers from here on out and if you enjoy the video then please hit that thumbs
up button and don't forget to subscribe to be filled with a world full of spoilers every
week.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let's get into Archive 81.
Ok so Archive 81 is based on the podcast show of the same name that involves characters
cataloging the tapes of a missing filmmaker. Initially we follow Dan, an employee of the
Museum Of The Moving Image who's tasked with restoring severely damaged tapes that were
recovered from a building known as the Visser.
This job is given to him by a man known as Davenport, the owner of a DNA Ancestory company
called Well spring which was about bringing people together. Much like the motto of that
organisation, Davenport says that he wants the tapes restored so that he can bring some
closure to those that were lost in a blaze that burned the apartments down.
However this is revealed to be a lie and it turns out that Davenports brother Samuel was
actually the leader of a cult that wanted to bring a demon known as Kalego into our
world.
Thus he hires Dan and plays on his hearstrings because Dan shares a lot of similarities
with those caught in the blaze.
When he was very young he too lost his family in a fire and thus it seems like the perfect
job. Dan is somewhat a recluse that doesn't want anything out there online about him and
the archive building which is located in the wilderness will allow him to get away from
it all.
However, as he starts to wipe away the black mold from the tapes he discovers something
far more sinister.
Whilst watching them we learn the story of Melody, a young filmmaker who documented the
Visser and in doing so she unearthed Samuel's cult which lived there.
Melody was abandoned by her mother when she was very young and it's revealed that this
is because she actually carries the bloodline of a group of witches known as the Baldung
Coven. They possess the ability to thin the veil between dimensions which will allow Kalego
to come across and thus her mother left her in a church so that she would be spared this
fate.
However Samuel learned of this and through Melody's psychiatrist Steve, he lured her
to the apartmenet. Now how this connects to Dan is that Steve was his father and he too
learned of the cult from Melody. He attempted to hide her tapes away in storage but the
Baldung Coven ended up burning his house down to stop the secret of Kalego getting out.
It's revealed part of a comet known as Kharon crashed on Earth millions of years ago and
that this is named after the ferryman of Hades who carries souls across the river styks.
The comet passes through our Solar system every 70 years and when this happen the walls
between our dimension and Khalegos thin which allows a portal to be opened.
During the middle ages, The Baldung witches all got together and came up with a way to
trap Kaelego inside a statue and after giving up their magic they've done whatever they
can to stop Kalego getting out.
We learn that in 1924 a ritual to bring the demon across was also carried out by a woman
named Iris who used spirit photography to film the presence of Kalego. His prime vessel
is an idol that also brings infectious mold with it. This mold has hallucinogenic qualities
that allows one to catch a glimpse into other domains where the demon resides and it exists
on not only the tapes but in the walls of the visser itself.
When Iris had the the ritual filmed, she carried out a sacrifice and this opened the veil between
worlds that allowed her to travel across into Kalego's domain.
It's said that tapes, films and photographs can capture things invisible to the human
eye and since then a cult has built up around Iris' teachings in which they are trying to
bring Kalego back through the use of technology. They want to not only use Melody to open the
doorway and through having this somewhat documented, create a guide so that others can do the same.
Now mirroring this, as Dan starts to watch the tapes, cleaning the mold from them, it
also thins the veils between realities and he is able to connect with Melody across time
and space. Just as he dreams of her, she starts to dream of him and the pair become connected
because it's always connected.
The mold allows those from the other side to somewhat
communicate with those in our world and this is why those who are trapped there are often
brought across in art by those who have come into contact with the mold.
Dan's sister plays the demonic prayer known as purgatory on the piano and Melody's friend
Annabelle starts to paint not only Iris but also Melody, the both of which we learn are
trapped in Kalegos dimension.
Also I kinda feel like Annabelle might be James Wan planting an easter egg in the show
but ey, let me know if that's a reach.
Either way though the prayer purgatory of course ties in with the timeless void that
Kalego lives in and the rituals were also somewhat shown in an unaired TV show that
Dan restores known as the Circle. This was actually created by a man who found Iris'
footage and this snuff film inspired him to make the show, though it wasn't ever released.
The symbol in this appears on the Visser and we learn that this was actually based on the
rituals of the Cult carried out by Iris. The Visser was actually built on the ruins of
her mansion which too burned down during the ritual in which they tried to bring Kalego
across.
The room in which it was carried out in was the only thing that survived and Samuel wants
to carry out the ceremony once more in order to finish the job with his buddies.
They slowly sink their claws into a young girl called Jess who Melody wants to save
from the building and though Steve tries to hide her away whilst the sacrifice is carried
out she eventually returns to the Visser in order to save the young girl.
Now the cult all have their different motives for summoning Kalego and whereas Iris wanted
a child, there's others who want power and Samuel ultimately wanted the demon to reside
in Jess. This is why one of his helpers Cassandra fed her mold and the frequent seizures that
she had were actually caused by it.
In the final episode we discover that in the basement of the Visser a fire broke out and
though Jess ran from the building, Melody and Samuel ended up entering the other world
where they have remained trapped since.
Now in the present, Dan along with the help of his friend Mark tracks down Annabelle who
we learn was given tapes by Jess that no one knows about. Dan uses these to bribe Davenport
into letting him back in the compound and here he and Mark knock him out and travel
into the basement in order to try and open the door way to save Melody.
We learn that one of the mysterious figures that has been on the grounds is actually Melody's
mother Julia and that she's spent 25 years trying to get her back. She's dreamt about
Melody every night and has used Davenport and Dan to thin the veil by playing the footage
so that the doorway can be opened. She uses her blood and a key to open up the doorway
once more so that Dan can travel into the other dimension.
We discover that Kalego is Mr. Lonely and though people have tried to summon him, all
he wants to do is keep those who enter his realm trapped there with him. In the void
Dan comes across an illusion of his family. It's said in the season that Kalego can bring
back the dead and give you your hearts desire which for Melody is being reunited with her
mother.
Dan finds her trapped in one of Kalego's illusions at the spot where she was abandoned and she
has sat waiting for her Mum to come back from buying a pack of smokes for 25 years.
Though she's tied to this place Dan convinces Melody that it's a f**king lie and the pair
follow the sound of the tuning fork key that Julia possesses in order to escape.
Melody makes it out into the present and is reunited with her mother but Dan actually
ends up going back to 1994, ten days after the Visser fire.
This is confirmed not only by an MTV news report that chronicles the death of Kurt Cobain
but also by the twin towers that are shown in the reflection of the hospital window.
The nurse who sees to him implies that he was found at the site so the character probably
came through the doorway right after the fire died down.
Now I have seen some say that this could be one of Kalego's visions but the strange floating
specs of mold are nowhere to be seen and if we look at the podcast it too had a moment
in which Dan woke up in the city so I think that it's likely following that. However,
since it's release, the creative team have spoken about how this isn't just standard
time travel which we'll talk about in just a bit.
Now before diving into my own theories about what could happen, I wanna discuss what the
showrunner said in an interview with the wrap.
Rebecca Sonnenshine said that though a second season hasn't been greenlit yet, that the
show was conceived as having multiple entries and that they do know where they want to go
for the future.
She also said Davenport and Julia's past will be unearthed in more depth so we can really
see what they got up to after 1994. Now an interesting thing that she touched on with
Davenport is that his motives aren't as clear as you might assume. Though Rebecca didn't
give too much away she stated that he's quite an ambiguous character and he could even end
up wanting to destroy the statue to lock Kalego away.
He clearly wasn't that enamoured by his brother and it is possible that he simply wanted to
pull him from the void before being done with the whole demon summoning thing. Now we don't
know where Samuel is but it is possible that he travelled back to 1924 and who knows, we
may even find out that he was linked in with the creation of the circle.
Now as for what Rebecca said on the ending, she said that it wasn't strictly time travel.
In the interview with the Wrap she stated:
This is, for us, just a new spin on time travel. It’s kind of going through another dimension.
It’s not what we think of as time travel. But there’s so much of this show that’s
about time and how it moves and what it is. Is it a flat circle? Is it an expanding universe?
Is it a block universe? We don’t know. But the adage of having this alternate dimension
puts a new playground in play.
Now I think that what this means for Dan is that he's in an offshoot timeline similar
to what we saw in Avengers Endgame or something. That means that even if he did go and stop
the Twin Towers attack that it wouldn't change things in our reality because he's in a different
universe.
Similar to this I think that he won't be able to stop his family from being murdered either
and I believe that when he attempts to do this that this is how he will realise that
he's in a different reality.
However his father will be here and Melody did inform him before the portal was opened
that she'd been speaking with him. Thus one can assume that the one in this alternate
dimension would know that too.
Now Samuel might also be in this dimension as well but either way I think that the second
season will revolve around Melody trying to open the portal once more so that she can
save Dan.
There was also talk about the Baldung Handbook which we know can't be burned because Iris
told her brothers about it. However Julia may possibly know of a way to destroy it
and I think that she and Melody may attempt to track this down to put an end to the rituals
once and for all.
It is gonna be interesting to see what they do and overall I did really enjoy the series.
It's one of those ones that I think is gonna either make you fascinated once you learn
the full premise or it might turn you off. It actually turned my wife off when she learned
it was a bout demons and stuff and she was also turned off because I've turned into a
right state since we got married.
However I was really caught up in the mystery of it and the season does a really good job
of blending a found footage blair witch project feel with more normalised horror sensibilities.
There's a great mystery here that you just want to uncover and lots of things that will
creep you out without a reliance on cheap jumpscares.
Overall I really can't wait to see what comes next and the series gets a solid 8/10.
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I'd love to hear your thoughts and also what you wanna see in the series
next. Comment below and let me know and if you enjoyed this video then please hit the
thumbs up button.
If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of why a
certain scene in Ghostbusters afterlife is perfect which will be linked on screen right
now.
Hope to see you over there and you take care of yourself, much love, peace.