So! Thoughts on the Archivist!

I find it's behavior so fascinating. It behaves a lot like you'd imagen an Eye avatar would broken away from John morality. But it also saved the OIAR employees not once but twice. First Gwen, and then Sam. While it's compulsion of Celia could have been purely because she had the big fuckoff knife. But it's still worth noting.

I have 3 main theories for the Archivist's identity.

​John-This in my mind is still my most likely candidate. I know that Johnny isn't credited in Ep 30 but that second "SPEAK" still sounds infinitely too much like John imo. He was the Eye's pupil when the Panopticon fell, he was the Eye's sole avatar by the end of TMA (assuming Jonah was actually fucking dead.)

If it is John he might be trying to escape to a world without the Eye, where he might shed it's influence.

Annabelle Cane- This one I've seen thrown around a few times. The tapes were the web's domain, the Archivist's multitude of Eyes could be a red herring for the Ceaseless watcher, as having far too many eyes is a feature of spiders. While she wasn't in the Panopticon she likely was at the actual rift.

Granted her discussion with John about what would happen to the avatars after the Fears are banished seems to imply she doesn't think she's going, or just doesn't intend to. But she's also literally the least trustworthy individual.

It is all of the Archivists- This one has a little less meat to it. But one idea I've been thinking about, is what if the Archivist is just that. It was never human, just a physical manifestation of the Eye the same way that the Spiral or Nikola were for the Spiral and Stranger. With little bits of all of them to create a homunculi. When relistening to that "Speak" clip. It sounds as though it could maybe have been more than one voice. Like Beth's layered with some others.

And not that I have evidence of it per say, but Jonah was in the panopticon when it collapsed lmao. Not like he was using his body or anything.​