The events of the alternates continued in the early 2000, spreading their mayhem throughout not only Mandela County, but Bythrone County. Last month, the Madela Catalogue Pt. 1 ended with Mark Heathcliff’s horrific backstory and now we shift between different times.
Mandela Catalogue Volume 2 is a forward shift in time from the 1980s and 90s to the winter of 2009. Two delinquent amateur ghost hunters from Bythorne County, Adam Murray, and Jonah Marshall, marked victims three and four, like Mark and Ceasar, are sent by an unknown caller to investigate their home, requesting to stay for three days while she’s away to put her dead cat’s spirit to rest. Hotwiring a car and heading towards their destination, the two bots talk about alternate but almost as if they’re unsure if they exist or not as if it was just a tale from the 80s to scare people and mention the banning of televisions. As discussed in Part 1, TVs were banned to prevent intruders from harming anyone else, and it worked. It seems like alternate occurrences have died down drastically to the point where many don’t think they’re real. Arriving at the house, we notice the uneasiness of it as it was Caesar’s house from volume one. Not only was the woman not real, but she was leading them to their deaths. Once at the house, they suspect nothing happening, but Jonah appears creeped out by the house and suggests they leave before a scream comes from inside the house and Adam decides to go back inside and spend the night while Jonah stays in the car. As time passes by, Adam’s equipment starts being interfered with by the alternates, repeating words Jonah says to make them think the other is talking. A scene from the Beginners Bible interrupts, showing Eve giving Adam an apple meaning whatever decision Adams makes, he’s going to be punished for it.
A voice speaks to Adam, telling him to wake up and once he does, a face appears, possibly an alternate way of getting Adam M.A.D. However, he seems to be undaunted. The close captions reveal “Patients report multiple sleepless nights after their symptoms initially become apparent. It is not difficult to avoid, however. The patient must try to actively seek it out.”
This, along with “Information that is not desired to be known,” suggests that because Adam was unaffected because he voluntarily seeks answers, he is unaffected by the alternates. After a while of no communication between Jonah and Adam, Adam sends a message about a once-locked door open, the basement. A bunch of meows echo through the door and inside we see a TV with a cat on it then the intruder tells Adam no one is coming for him. We cut to Jonah driving off, abandoning Adam. A voice over the radio taunts him for leaving Adam behind causing him to pull over and hear a grunt of pain before things get quiet. (needs to mention the fight between Adam and Jonah)
We next go onto Volume. 333, opening at the house from intruder alert, where the child disappeared and the mother died. Audio plays between a mother comforting her children and then calling her ex-husband, the father of the child, Jude and Lynn Murray. Lynn Murray, the mother, asks Jude if he can come over because the baby won’t stop crying, noting the TV has been unplugged for weeks thus the Television and Mirror Destruction Act. We cut to a shot of someone watching the TV, likely Adam.
The video moves to a speech from Thatcher Davis, the Lieutenant from before immortalizing his promotion as Lieutenant and Sergeant Ruth Weaver. It then moves to a message to Thatcher from Mark Heathcliff’s worried teacher, asking him to check on him as he’s been absent for a while now. An investigation is initiated, showing footage and pictures of Mark’s body, bullet casings, and fingerprints from Mark and…others. We see and hear videos of shadows beneath his door and recordings of voices. Inside Mark’s notebook, Mark writes to God, praying for protection, and towards the end, he questions “Who have I been praying to all this time?” realizing the deity whom he’s been begging for help is his tormentor all along.
The video focuses back on the Murray situation. We start with a clip from a children’s show called The Might of The Subconscious. It stars Stanley the puppet, a reference to Limbo, a character created by Jim Henson. Stanley explains to the audience how to create an imaginary friend and manifest it into reality, ending with the quote “Can you keep an even bigger secret? I think it worked. Your new friend is somewhere in your house, now it’s up to you to go and find them.” We transitioned to a 9-1-1 call between Thatcher Davis and Jude Murray. Jude reports a man in his house, this seems to be in the beginning where he’s gone to visit Lynn. Davis asks questions, following procedure from volume 1, asking if the man looks like Jude knows, to which he replies that he’s never seen anything like this before. The sergeant who took a picture in intruder alert who took a picture and left, Ruth Weaver calls, saying the officers who already checked out the house had left. Davis and Weaver arrive at the house, and place cameras. They come back to the house to see Lynn’s body. Davis gets separated from Weaver and encounters the imaginary friend who runs down the hall and creeps out, singing a terrifying version of Amazing Grace. Dravis scrams into the police station where he radios Weaver and requests backup from any county police department but no response. The imaginary friend follows Davis, lurching towards him in a pose reminiscent of Jesus on the cross as it mimics the voices of others. The captions reveal the names of its victims; “Cesar Torres,” “Ruth Weaver,” and “Mark Heathcliff,” as it molds its face. Davis takes the chance to shoot it then a new creepy face appears with the following message “There not enough room for the two of us Lieutenant,” that interprets that the imaginary friend is Davis’s alternate. The final cut shows the eerie eye from the beginning with no reflection. From this, we can conclude that Adam’s family is the same one from intruder alert. The eye in the beginning was Adam as a baby where he watched The Might of The Subconscious and accidentally summoned the imaginary friend where it kidnapped him, causing his mother to end herself. This was after the phone call.
While this isn’t the end of the Mandela Catalogue, explaining the lore in just words doesn’t allow the audience to grasp its understanding better. The story extends to a depth of themes, and theories that I feel that will only be understood by watching yourself.
