Episode 5 of our demonically bookish adventure opens up with a bit of a flashback – Father Menchú is in his office, fretting over how much politicking goes into a job he never thought he’d have when he became a priest. Referring back to the tragic end of Episode 3 (when Team One just straight up murdered that poor sailor Katie for the crime of witnessing some magic, remember?) Menchú wonders endlessly over just how righteous the organization is.
Enter Sal, come to muddy the waters even more as she opens up about her odd chat with Aaron (also in Episode 3, when he basically was like “I know who you work for!” and then poofed away). She tells Menchú she thinks Aaron might be an angel…and Menchú shoots down that theory faster than a punch from Grace.
It’s a pretty tense moment – Menchú is clearly harboring some intense feels on the subject of supernatural creatures who might be trying to help (rather than the demons they know to fight). Sal knows when to drop a line of enquiry and backs away slowly.
Back in the present day Asanti (hey boo, missed you girl) flags down Menchu with a “thick, cream-colored envelope addressed in perfect copperplate handwriting.” They have a tantalizingly mysterious exchange about a “Market” and Asanti tells Menchu he has to take Sal. Next stop: MENCHU + SAL BUDDY ROADTRIP!
But first there is a lovely little scene where Sal spots Liam at the gym being all sexy, sweaty, and tattooed and well…let’s just say she get’s distracted.
Unfortunately our favorite Father shows up to cock-block like a good priest would and sexy times must be postponed.
Sal and Menchu take a train to Zurich and then a car into Liechtenstein. He’s acting pretty shady, refusing to tell Sal where they are going, until finally he determines they are “close enough” and its time to tell her about… The Market Arcanum!
“It’s properly known as the Market Arcanum, or more commonly, the Market. The Society was first invited in the 15th century, thanks to the connections of certain members of the Order of the Dragon. From what we can tell, however, the Market dates back at least another half-millennium before that. In any event, every year at Beltane, covert practitioners of magic gather for a three-night conclave. It’s part auction, part high-level diplomatic conference for every power player who uses magic to rig the game.”
They continue their journey and end up at the Gutenberg Castle near Balzers. Props to episode author Margaret Dunlap for choosing this totally perfect real-world setting for a secret gathering of the magical elite.
Menchú explains the rules of the Market which basically amount to:
- You do not talk about the Market Arcanum.
- You do not talk about the Market Arcanum.
- The Market Arcanum is the Switzerland of the Magical landscape, so no fighting.
- Any deals struck in the Market Arcaum must be fulfilled before the next Market, or else.
They arrive at the gates and are greeted by the Market’s showrunner, a woman known as the Maitresse.
If the Maitresse had been anyone else, Sal would have pegged her age as somewhere between her forties and her sixties, an indeterminate maturity where experience, strength, and sex appeal came together and women with the standing to back it up could wear their power without even a whisper of apology. Something about her bearing, however, made Sal suspect that this woman had not apologized for her authority for a very, very long time.
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LIKE A BOSS[/caption]The Maitresse grants them entrance and Sal gets her first glimpse at the international magical community. It’s a diverse group: everything from wildsmen in wolf pelts to techno-cultists in Matrix-garb. With a clap of her hands, the Maitresse declares the Market to begin.
Immediately Sal and Father Menchú are approached by a man who oozes wealth and sleaze. He introduces himself as Mr. Norse, owner of the Fair Weather from Ep 3, and harborer of grudges against the Society for stealing his magical sludge demon book.[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"]
(Not sure why but I totally am imagining Norse as a present day Littlefinger in a three thousand dollar suite)[/caption]Norse is pretty open with his aggression, but the rules of the Market make it clear that he can’t attack Sal and Menchu so they think he’s just posturing…until their phones start ringing.
It’s Liam. The Archives are under attack: a windstorm sprung out nowhere and is tearing the place apart. Also, they are trapped – the doors have been magically sealed.
Sal and Menchu turn back to Armani-Littlefinger and and are all “Ok, we get it, you’re mad. Now stahp.” And Norse is all…
And tells them that they have three days to return his book, otherwise he’s going to kill Grace, Liam, and Asanti – and the attacks on the Archive will escalate to keep the pressure on.
When the first night of the Market concludes Sal and Menchu drag themselves back to their hotel and call my rainbow sunflower, Asanti. She tells them that the windstorm has desisted – for the most part – but they are still trapped. She suggests that Norse isn’t really after the sludge book, or even after murdering Team three – he must have a bigger fish in mind.[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"]
That Asanti, so smart.
Back in the Archives, Liam, Grace, and Asanti attempt to prepare for the expected attack by creating an electricity field to hopefully guards against the windstorm. At sunset, the field seems to hold and there’s no windtunnel….but then a high pitched noise begins. “Like an icepick through [their] eardrums.” Within seconds, all three are down for the count, knocked unconscious by the magical torture-noise.
Meanwhile at the Market, word has spread of the feud between Norse and the Society. Sal vents her frustration at not being able to fight fire with fire: they have thousands of magical books at their disposal, what about seeking answers in them? But Menchu shoots that down – It’s only been a few weeks since Glasgow and that was just the most recent reminder of the uncontrollable nature of magic. No, his plan is to find allies.
First candidates: the techno-cultists Sal spotted the first night. One calling himself Opus93 approaches and throws her off guard by asking about Perry – it seems Sal’s brother was known in certain circles. Sal shies away from that (easy to do as there’s no news on the coma front) but entertains his other proposition.
Opus93 (who Sal deigns only to call “Opie” and I fully support that power move) suggests using The Index<insert dramatic="" crescendo="" of="" background="" music="">. He claims it contains the sum of all human knowledge – not just what knowledge people put on the internet, but all the knowledge of anyone who ever even interacted with the internet. #biotechnology</insert>
There’s a catch though:
“For every question you ask, the Index takes one piece of knowledge from your mind, and you can never know it again.”
Sal takes this proposition back to Menchu. She’s all “I know it’s a bad idea but what else can we do?” and Menchu is all “IT’S A TERRIBLE IDEA AND WE CAN DO LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.” And then Sal says “eye-fucking” to a priest and your rereader giggled endlessly.
But I shouldn’t be giggling because things are getting serious: Menchú is vehemently against the idea of trusting anyone offering magical help. He tells her that demons are ingenious at pretending to be forces of good, only to eventualy reveal their true, awful nature. And that might well be so…but Sal gets the feeling that Menchú is speaking from personal experience. She pokes and prods until… <cue time-warpy="" music="" that="" indicates="" we’re="" in="" a="" flash="" back=""></cue>
Guatemala, many years ago. Menchú was a priest in a small mountain village during a time of horrific violence. One day the army arrived, intent on slaughter – on one side were armed rebels, unwilling to go down without a fight, and on the other were more soldiers with more guns, unwilling to leave without bloodshed. Caught in the middle were the innocent villagers. Menchú prayed for God to step in…when suddenly there was a tug at his sleeve. A local boy was now transformed into something of heavenly beauty—an angel, it had to be. He promised Menchú he’d stop the massacre…if only Menchu would ask him to do so.Menchú asked.Suddenly shots rang out: the soldiers and the rebels fired unerringly at each other until every armed man was dead, but no villager had been harmed.But then the boy-thing smiled, and revealed its true colors.It was a demon. And it turned on the villagers, torturing and killing every last one, as a lesson to Menchú.
Back in the present, Sal now totally, 100% gets why Menchú doesn’t want her to trust Opie, or anyone who ever offers magical aid.
(can we just stop here and give ALL THE HUGS to Menchú? I mean damn.)
But unfortunately, the team’s woes are still getting worse. Back at the Archives, the situation is dire – Grace is unconscious and Liam and Asanti are at their wits end. Eventually Asanti breaks the electromagnetic field, figuring a windstorm of flying books would be better than a brain-shattering noise. Once the wind picks back up though…she notices something.
The windstorm is only effecting books that are unique to the archives! But what does this mean? Liam suddenly understands…
That’s right, Norse is magically hacking the Archives.
Over in Lichtenstein, Sal shows up for the third and final night of the Market. Menchu is off somewhere and Sal heads straight to the techno-cultists, seemingly ready to take them up on their offer of help. But she does call them on their bullshit first: they aren’t just offering to help out of kindness, they want something. Given their interest in Perry, they probably want to know what happened to him. It follows then that they have some way to control just what piece of knowledge the Index steals from its users.
She blows right past Opie’s attempts to intimidate with smoke and mirrors and gets right down to business. Out comes The Index<insert dramatic="" crescendo="" of="" background="" music="">. …And it’s a box you stick your hand into while holding a piece of paper with your question on it.</insert>
In a scene very much like the opening scene of Dune, our stalwart hero writes her question and then puts her hand in the box…finding pain. Excruciating pain. She fights back though and finds she was right, the Index goes straight for her last memory of Perry.
But then THE SECRET PLAN IS REVEALED! Turns out Liam managed to tell Sal and Father Menchu that the Archive was being hacked and send Sal a graphic representation of a mathematical equation to memorize. The second Sal felt the Index probing her memory, she forced her thoughts to that graph.
It was a virus! The Index blew up and a quick call to Liam tells us that the attack on the Archive has suddenly stopped.
After that, needless to say, the wind is gone from the Norse-Littlefinger’s sails and the techno-cultists pack up their biocomputers in defeat. The nefarious Norse, however, seems content to walk away from the field of battle, but not the war in general.
Later, in the car on the way home, Sal considers the slip of paper she had held when she put her hand in the Index. On it she had written, “What is Mr. Norse looking for?” But the question had been replaced by its answer: “Codex Umbra.
Back at the archives everyone is glad to be alive, but very much bruised and battered. Sal tries to interest Liam in some old fashioned comfort time…but he is having none of it. The hack shook him, badly, and it doesn’t appear that he’ll be back in the mood for some off-hours sporting any time soon.
The final scene of the episode finds Menchu and Asanti surveying the damage…and then engaging in LITERALLY THE MOST GUINAN + PICARD INTERACTION EVER. Menchu reveals that he told Sal what he learned in Guatemala: “Never cut deals with demons.” But Asanti offers a different take—perhaps the better lesson was instead: “Cut a better deal.”[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="267"]
#micdrop[/caption]Whew! That was a doozy. A slow clap for Margaret Dunlap and now I need a stiff drink. See you next week!
