Episode Forty-Six: The Letters (Part Two)

In which nothing becomes clear. Featuring: a variety of opinions, and a promise.

Episode description: Many voices address the girl-ouroboros.

Episode Overview
Voicemails by the dozen.

Trigger Warnings

 * Death, suicide mentions, gun violence, gore, unreality, distortion.

Episode Summary
This entire episode contains monologues of various characters talking to Mabel Martin.

The first is Aurora Silver. She says that she does not play favorites among the children she is around, and that she in fact dislikes children strongly, but that there is something strange about Mabel. She wonders why Mabel is special. She then states that she wishes to find out Mabel's secrets and will scoop them out of Mabel's skull if she has to.

The second is Eidolon García. She talks about a spirit she saw outside her mother's house when she was twelve years old. The spirit, a teenage boy continuously shooting himself, was horrified when Lolo tried to save him. Lolo realized that being stuck in a loop of his death was his "heaven", and he felt that he did something meaningful by dying. Lolo then says that she was caught up in what she stood for-- trying to save him-- without realizing she was hurting him in the process. She tells Mabel that she's trying to remember that Mabel is someone Anna loves, even though Lolo is scared that Mabel represents a bringing of chaos Lolo says she can't stop herself from "hoping that maybe--" before the narrative cuts her off.

The third is the Emissary. He talks about seeing a star fall and the entire world changing due to it; he tells Mabel that the King feels "a certain way" about her, and that she is his blind spot, which is dangerous due to the King's entropic state. The Emissary says he has nothing against Mabel and calls her "little star", linking her to the catastrophe he spoke about earlier.

The fourth is Veratrine. Vera says she's jealous of Mabel because of how "[Vera's] image" (presumably Anna) looks at Mabel. Veratrine is jealous because she cannot get emotions to settle onto her face like they do on Anna's. Vera says she knows she should tell Luna what Mabel had said (see A Superfluity), but she won't, because she doesn't know whatever it is Mabel does. Vera says she's afraid of what Mabel means and what it will bring to herself and Luna; that Mabel is like a black hole, and that might have been what the King had always saw in her.

The fifth is Janet Kirk. She talks about her insecurities, saying that though she's been ghost hunting, she's always worried that she didn't matter enough for the spirits she searched for to try to put on a good show for her. She explains that now, going back to the Martin House, is the first time she feels that what she's doing matters. She says that both Mabel and Lolo are "larger than life" and important, and that she isn't, but she feels going to find Mabel is the most important thing she's ever done. Janet thanks Mabel for helping her "do something right" and says she has a good feeling about what they're going to do.

The sixth is The House, which plays scratchy recordings of old songs. The lyrics played are as follows: lonely, lonely as can be / for I want you only [STATIC] want you only [STATIC] you only-- and home, just like before / roam never no more / no place like home [STATIC] home [STATIC] home--

The seventh is Anna Limón, She tells Mabel that she questions her memories sometimes, and isn't sure how she grew up. She talks for a bit about keeping a notebook about the good things that happened to her when she was a kid, and how she never thought to keep a notebook of her and Mabel's time together, as she never thought they'd be apart. She says she remembers every part of her time with Mabel and it doesn't matter if she isn't physically with her: there's no "unwriting what [they've] made." She explains that herself, Lolo, Janet, and (possibly) the Emissary will be driving back to the House soon; she'll be getting back to Mabel soon, and promises to find her if it "kills her all over [again].".

Continuity
''' Please note that this section contains spoilers for later episodes of Mabel. Continue at your own risk. '''

Special thanks to Sky for putting together the big transcript document I used to find all these references!


 * "Girl-ouroboros" is one of Mabel's nicknames/titles. She is first called this by a faery in Danse Macabre; Anna mentions the nickname in Ashes, Ashes.
 * Aurora Silver asks Mabel what makes her special; Jonathan questions a similar thing during his final monologue in Ashes, Ashes. She also says there is something special about Mabel in her first ever monologue during the beginning of Aurora Silver is Willing to Wait.
 * The spirit Lolo watches die is presumably Brandon, the teenage boy who shot himself in Temporal Snake in order to do something that matters to the world around him (see this tumblr post).
 * The repetitive loop Lolo mentions can also be linked to Thomas's ultimate fate.
 * In Killing the Moon, Mabel says that she thought "the worst thing in the world was repetition".
 * In The King Speaks, the King says that "There are no endings, only repetition."
 * The Emissary then refers to the King's force of entropy as having no ending-- make of that what you will.
 * The Emissary also says Mabel has a lovely voice, and that previously that was all that would have mattered. Mabel once told Anna that the Hill would make her "sing for [her] supper" (see (Orientation).
 * Veratrine says watching Anna is like watching a mirror "if your reflection didn’t care at all about what you wanted." Mabel's reflection is Luna Thorne, who is exactly that.
 * Vera calls Mabel a black hole. In Temporal Snake, Mabel says that Aurora Silver is as incomprehensibly dense as a black hole. In Reverie, Mabel refers to the Martin House as a black hole.
 * Anna references motherhood several times through her monologue, which is an overarching motif in the show.
 * Anna says she remembers everything about her time with Mabel. In The Consort, Mabel says that she remembers everything Anna says: "All of it. Every single word."
 * Anna calls the House both hers and Sally's, which has happened several times throughout the show.
 * Anna says she'd tied her thread around Mabel's wrist; this references Anna being the ball of thread in the Crete Hierarchy.
 * In Underworld, Anna is referred to as "a gift tied in ribbon." She also says "Didn’t I say I’d come after you, hand over hand, fist over fist, into the rot of the black earth, into the labyrinth?" This ties to her saying "I can make my way, hand over hand, to you" here.
 * Anna says the King put Mabel in the seed of the universe-- this could reference the acorn he used as his champion during Temporal Snake. Anna also refers to herself as a seed several times, and drinks a poison involving seeds to die in Legacy. Mabel says she has planted seeds of herself everywhere in Matryoshka.
 * Anna says the roads to the House are the map of her heart, referencing the line from The Freeze: If the house is a heart, you’re the hook cut through it.

Trivia
'''Please note that this section contains spoilers for later episodes of Mabel. Continue at your own risk.'''


 * Maybell Marten reads the introduction to this episode; in every other episode, Becca De La Rosa has that particular honor. Mrs. De La Rosa still reads the end credits.
 * The "in which" portion of the episode is identical to the one from the original The Letters.
 * Seeing as the Emissary referred to himself as a bird in Daddy Issues, the star he references changing the entire world could be the meteor which killed the dinosaurs ("oceans split, earth walked") as birds evolved from dinosaurs.