Episode Forty: The Deterritorialization Of Time

In which the wheel turns. Featuring: an insidious remembering.

Episode description: The past is never what we believe it to be.

Episode Overview
The sins of the father...

Trigger Warnings

 * Torture, unreality, disassociation, screaming, distortion, abuse, anxiety/panic attacks, death.

Episode Summary
Back in the usual universe, Mabel talks about a dream. Anna was playing with her hair, the two of them in the Green Parlor, before Anna became afraid of Mabel and pulled away with "stars running out of her eyes." Then we cut to Anna and Mabel. Anna promises that their plan will work, and they kiss, Anna telling Mabel happily to stay with her forever. They then go see Aconite and before she can speak, they play her the recording from Aurora Silver. It's Aurora Silver telling a young and scared Aconite to tell her her name, torturing her when Aconite can't remember. The tape recorder cuts to Aconite repeating her prophecy as Aurora Silver laughs. Back in the present, Mabel explains to Aconite that she was wrong about herself, and she isn't the King's daughter at all. They tell her she can stay in the Hill, as if she leaves, Aurora will kill her. Anna very gently asks Aconite if she wants to know her true history.

Anna-- and, later, Aconite herself-- then fill in the gaps of Aconite's backstory. Her real name is Ekaterina Roskova, and she's a Russian immigrant who went to school and was indoctrinated in the cult at Saint Olga's. Her mother was a teacher and her dad was a political dissident, and after her dad died, her mom sent her to America, where she arrived at the school and met Aurora Silver. The cult tortured her and she eventually died after summoning a god of strange colors and fractured fragments. The god took her down to the underhill when her human form died; it then gave her its name. Though Ekaterina is cut off before she can say what that was, the little the audience can hear makes it sound like the god's name is "Anna".

Ekaterina gives the throne back to Anna and Mabel and Anna discuss their marriage. They kiss and the audio fades into distortion, which then cuts to Janet, finding a strange woman in the garden of the Martin House. The last thing we learn is that the woman is a miraculously alive Anna, conspicuously missing her wife.

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


 * This is the return to the "natural" canon of Mabel after Reverie took us into a different world.

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


 * JANET ANNA BUDDYCOP ROAD TRIP FILM WHEN BECCA DE LA ROSA!!! [Edit, March 2022: Now, apparently. Featuring Miss Garcia!]
 * Janet likes Reese's Pieces.