Totheark Uploads: Season Two
Fragments
Fragments was posted on February 10th, 2011.
Its description is "hello again".
It is tagged with "always" "see" "you".
This video features a photo of Alex Kralie that has been torn up into pieces that shift to distort his face more and more as the video progresses. Text intercut between shots of the photo reads "You are broken", "you cannot be fixed". Distorted tone audio increases in volume and distortion over the course of the video.
Black frame that are interspersed at regular intervals throughout the video can be timed out into morse code, reading "Must" and "Die".
Read More
Broadcast
Broadcast was posted on February 26th, 2011.
It has the description "are you drowning".
The video features distorted red/cyan footage of what seems to be a figure peering down at the camera that has been placed underwater. The audio seems to be composed of warped and distorted speech, and it's nigh unintelligble, but may be saying, "Enjoying watching you suffer. Do you know me? I will always know you."
It is a popular interpretation for this video to be a message directed at The Masked Man/Tim, since it was uploaded in response to Entry #35 when his leg is broken by Alex. While I understand how/why people draw this conclusion, I do not think I agree with this interpretation of events.
Based on what we know of the timeline of the internal totheark relationship, I do not believe the animosity in the "Enjoying watching you suffer" sentiment nor the question of "Do you know me? I will always know you" makes sense at this point. Although Tim has been separated from totheark by the time these videos were being uploaded to YouTube, I do not believe that Brian holds any particular vitriol towards Tim at this point in the series (Brian does not find out about Tim's medical history until much later -- although we don't know exactly when he Found the records in relation to Jay posting them to YouTube, there is nothing about Brian's character to suggest he has the emotional control to hold onto a fact like that for over a year, and so it does not make sense to me that he would know anything about Tim's history by this point in Season Two), and because Brian is also intimately aware of how Operator-related memory loss works, I also don't know if it would be anticipated that Tim would be watching either the Marble Hornets channel or the totheark channel to be a recipient for this message.
Instead, I think this is yet another message directed primarily towards Alex. Before Tim was unmasked in the Entry #35 upload, it's significant to note that he stabbed Alex -- we can hear Alex cry out in pain, see the blood on his arm when he pins Tim down before unmasking him, and see blood on the knife when Jay hesitates to pick it up. It also feels very pointed to me that in the entry uploaded after Broadcast was posted, one of the lines of dialogue that was captured clearly in audio and also subtitled by Jay was Alex saying "he'd just stabbed me".
Additionally, we know for a fact that Alex keeps a close eye on videos uploaded to both the Marble Hornets and totheark channels. It makes much more sense to me that this video would be a message for Alex, given that he is much more likely than Tim to be watching the channels at this point in the timeline. The "Do you know me? I will always know you" is a line that does work very well for the Alex-Brian dynamic: Alex may have moved on from what happened in college and might not recognize Brian anymore, but Brian has never forgotten what Alex did to him and will never move on from it.
Read More
Sidetone
Sidetone was posted on March 15th, 2011.
It has the description "# 000-0000".
The video contains Black screen with dial tone, a screeching distortion overlapping at 00:03. Part of a phone number pad is shown, focused on 7 (PQRS) 8 (TUV) * and 0 (OPER) that cuts to quick image of a hand-written sign, "Ring" spelled backwards. Three beeps are heard. The footage starts to jump and distort with images of a silhouetted figure of The Operator is seen over top of the background footage. Numbers can be seen quickly flashing in the back ground: 12, 9, 5, and 19.
Over the video, a recording of Alex's voicemail message plays: "Hello, you've reached the voicemail of Alex Kralie, I'm not answering the phone right now. Please leave your name and a number, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
The numbers flashing towards the end of the video alpha-numerically spell out "LIES".
Since this video was uploaded after old footage of Jay trying to get a hold of Alex was posted on the Marble Hornets channel, the message totheark seems to be trying to get across is the fact that Alex is lying about needing Jay's help and about trying to be helpful in return.
Read More
enttry 37
Enttry #37 was posted on March 23rd, 2011 on the original Marble Hornets channel.
Its description is the description "memories".
The video seems to be an old VHS home video, filmed on April 4, 1991, of a young Alex's birthday party. When Alex blows out the candles, the video becomes extremely distorted and the image of the operator appears superimposed over Alex.
Three significant details to be drawn from this footage. For one, the fact that totheark was able to obtian this footage from Alex's home movies implies that they knew where Alex grew up, or at least where his parents currently live.
The second is that this video establishes both the date of Alex's birthday and the first of several "birthday videos" that totheark would make and post on/around Alex's birthday - this particular video was posted about a week and a half in advance of the date, while all subsequent ones were posted on April 4 specifically.
Finally, while it is popular interpretation that this video is "proof" that Alex has been followed by the Operator since he was a child, I do not believe the Operator in this footage is diegetic to the scene taking place. In every other video the Operator is in, it is a tangible physical presence in the scene -- it can be seen by people and is beholden to whatever light sources are present in the area when it shows up. The clip of the Operator in this upload, to me, seems to have been clearly edited into the footage, since none of the people in the scene react to its presence AND it does not make sense for the Operator to be visible given that there are no lights on in the room.
Instead, rather than "proof", I think this video is a Statement made by totheark to theorize/claim that Alex was the "source" for the Operator's presence in everyone's lives. totheark took advantage of the black screen caused by the candles getting blown out to edit in a different clip of the Operator as a hypothesis; they did not post this footage unaltered as 'evidence'.
Read More
Forecast
Forecast was posted on April 21st, 2011.
It has the description "c2VlIHlvdSBzYXcgeW91" - (see you saw you).
Footage of a dog lung being inflated and deflated from Experiments in the revival of organisms part 1. The numbers 2 26 18 2 32 36 30 32 16 10 40 show up in the top left hand of the screen. A very distorted Beethoven's 5th is heard. Distorted writing and a face with eyes drawn operator symbols comes on screen, followed by the words "here is something i have wanted to show you", referring to footage taken from outside Jay's car of him sleeping inside it.
The numbers that appeared at the left of the screen, when divided by two, alpha-numerically spell out "AM I A PROPHET"
Read More
Intermission
Intermission was posted on May 16th, 2011.
It has the description "YmV oaW5kIHRo ZSBjd XJ0YWlu" - (behind the curtain).
Sketches of trees are shown, including one with a strange figure lying against a tree. The sketches are followed by distorted black and white footage of a forest. White text throughout the video reads "DID YOU SEE ME; I SAW YOU". Cut to black screen. Four digit numbers appear in the middle of the screen. Each number overlaps with the previously shown number and then disappears two numbers later. The numbers, in order, are: 1122, 3125, 1920, 85185.
If the numbers are broken up as 1/12/23/1/25/19 20/8/5/18/5 it says "always there".
This video was posted after Entry 40 was posted to the Marble Hornets channel. Looking back at that video, there is a figure standing up against a tree in the background of Jay's footage - the text and the sketch of the figure shown in this totheark upload both state that this figure was a member of totheark, subsequently revealed as the Hooded Man.
Read More
Indicator
Indicator was posted on June 2nd, 2011.
It has the description "blind".
The video is mostly made up of footage of a mangled baby doll. Text interspersed throughout the video reads "MESSAGES EVERYWHERE", "SIGNS EVERYWHERE", "YOU WILL NEVER BE FREE".
Several rows of flashing numbers appear on screen:
00010010
.
.
00010010
10100110
.
00010010
10100110
00110110
10010110
01100101
11001110
00000000
00000000
00000000
11111111
11111111
11111111
These numbers can be translated to the text "HE LIES".
Read More
Memories
Memories was posted on June 20th, 2011.
It has the description "NT Qz MjE =" - (54321).
The video is mostly made up of black and white footage of a bench or front porch. Text intercut throughout the video reads "YEARS WASTED", "YOUVE DONE" "NOTHING", "SO MUCH MORE THAN TIME HAS BEEN TAKEN".
Read More
INQUIRY
Inquiry was posted on July 7th, 2011.
It has the description "maɪnəs sɛntrɔɪd" - ("minus centroid").
The words "LOOK AT YOU" appear on screen. A white silhouette of a person's head and shoulders appears, and steadily gets larger, then the silhouette fades, and the image of a human brain is left where the head was. An arrow appears, pointing to the PARIETAL LOBE of the brain, and the words "YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE" appear and focus. The words YOU ARE YOU appear over what might be an image of a face, in the lower left-hand corner. A different distorted face, appears, as do the words "BUT WHO ARE YOU" in the lower left-hand corner. Two more faces appear on screen, each overlayed with the text "WHO ARE YOU". The audio cuts out and only a faint noise can be heard. This noise corresponds to the words "DO I HELP"/"OR DO I KILL" found in the spectrogram of the video.
There's a lot to speculate with this video. The focus on the brain and different areas indicated - such as the Parietal Lobe which focuses "sensory input, language, mathematics and spatial relations", or possibly the Wernicke's area, which spans the region between temporal and parietal lobes, which plays a key role in speech comprehension. This could be denoting general influence the Operator has over the brain, or possibly outlining a more specific damage dealt to one person (perhaps the Hooded Man himself, as he communicates exclusively in code as opposed to more straightforward messages - it's possible this is his attempt to express the idea that he Cannot be more explicit in his communication).
The message "DO I HELP OR DO I KILL" could also be twofold. On one hand, it's possible this is the Hooded Man trying to pin down his own intentions - should he help Jay or should he kill them? Alternately, it could be an expression of self-doubt - he's Trying to help Jay, but worries he's doing more harm than good.
Read More
Classified
Classified was posted on August 15th, 2011.
It has the description "[][]".
In the video, a series of zeroes scroll across the screen. The word “I know you’re there” are written behind the zeroes in red letters. A picture of the Hooded Man sitting appears on the right side of the screen. There are two glowing dots over his eyes. The numbers “19 14 9 23 20 5 8 20 21 54 57 54 36 33 24 54 96 96 42 30 6 42 51 21 72 21” flash on the left side of the screen one at a time. Loud, scratchy music plays during this part. Finally, an orange tinted close up of an eye appears. The words “I saw it” are written in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The picture disappears and the words flash a few times before the screen goes to black.
The number code shown translates to "The twins do you know what he did". "The Twins" likely referring to the Hooded Man and the Masked Man in conjunction with one antoher.
Read More
Sidenote
Sidenote was posted on September 1st, 2011.
It has the description "remainseated iwillfindyou".
This video features a clip featuring both the Masked Man and Tim plays. Alex's line, "You've done nothing but make everything worse" is heard. "You've done nothing" repeats at the end. Text shown at the beginning and end of the video reads "BE SILENT" and "THIS IS THE BEST PART"
The timing of this video in between Entry's #48 and #49 means it's likely the Hooded Man identified the footage shown in 48 and is anticipating the footage Jay will upload as 49, another implication that he already knows everything Jay is still in the process of uncovering.
Read More
Extraction
Extraction was posted on September 27th, 2011.
It has the description "never".
This video features footage of the Masked Man limping toward the camera on a dark street. Flashes of videos are seen, including a shot of Tim from Entry 20 and the tunnel from Entry 49. The video ends with the words: "HOW MUCH DO YOU HATE", "IT IS NOT ENOUGH".
It's possible this upload was a message to Tim - although he might hate Alex for breaking his leg, it's insufficient motive in the face of Alex murdering a stranger. Or possible that it's another message to Jay - who up until now has seemed ambivalent about Alex's character at best - to say once and for all that Alex is irredeemable and that any effort made to Help him is utterly wasted. Either way, it places the Hooded Man as the one with the most amount of animosity aimed towards Alex - 'neither of you hate him as much as I do'.
Read More