[The Magnus Archives] The web is responsible for EVERYTHING
Spoilers below.
For fans of the podcast, by the end it’s pretty clear how much influence the web has over the events of the story. But what’s never spelled out is how wide reaching the and intricate the web’s influence is. My theory is that it permeates every little detail of the story.
An example of this the differing effect Jane Prentis’ infestation has on Harriet Lee and Timothy Hodge. Harriet is infected first, and she…explodes as the worm infestation grows. Timothy on the other hand becomes a flesh hive like Jane. John mentions that he finds this puzzling.
The worms have been shown to have some kind of hive intelligence. According to my theory, the web manipulated this intelligence to make Timothy a flesh hive. It did this because it needed Timothy in this state so Michael could show Sasha how to kill the worms with CO2 gas. The web also likely manipulated Michael into doing this as well. This was important because this way when Jane attacked the institute, John had a way to fight back against her. This meant that John would survive after the worms started burrowing into him, as Elias activated the CO2 system to kill them right as they did.
This is important to the webs plan since being touched by the corruption was necessary for John to bring about the beholding ritual, which was part of the webs plan for escaping it. Which is spelled out at the end of
Literally every unexplained action or coincidence in the story can be explained by the web’s influence, which i think is intentional since the web is a stand in for the writers themselves and is a reflection of how the manipulate the characters for the voyeuristic pleasure of the listeners (of which the eye is a stand in).