SBR 1.21: Enlightenment

"'Sam is back! He has a plan. Well...kind of. And there's no guarantee it's a good, clear, or practical one.'"

Events of Note

 * Sam was in a coma after the events of SBR 1.20: Door.
 * Sam tried to contact Madame Marie through various means, and could not get a response.
 * Where Marie's office was previously is now just dirt.
 * Sam has a phone interview with Rhytidia Delphus

Summary
Sam begins the episode by thanking the faithful listeners for their concern and retelling what happened. He explains that he doesn't really know what happened, but that Kitty saw a flash of light, and that Sam remembers the smell of roses. They talk about how they have tried to contact Marie via several arcane methods, but to no avail. They are quite distressed by this.

Sam changes topic, acknowledging that he doesn't have the experience to run the Advice Segment the way that Marie did, and so instead is rebranding the episode into the Spirit Box Radio Enlightenment Segment. The purpose is for Sam to learn with the listeners, talking to other, more proficient arcanists.

Their first guest is Rhytidia Delphus, who starts, quite abruptly, explaining about the mud. There is some tension between the two, as Rhytidia believes that the lines of magic are far more blurred than arcanists like Sam think. After talking about the dirt, Rhytidia states that Anna was always the more open-minded of the three siblings, which Sam is shocked at. Rhytidia briefly explains their reasoning before hanging up.

Sam is, understandably, a bit annoyed by this. They tell the listeners about Rhytidia's visit when they had first woken up from their coma. She dumped an entire jar of mud on Sam's face. Sam then talks about the Algiz shaped birthmark that he has on his neck, and how after the events in Marie's office, it became inflamed and bruised.

Sam talks about the first day that he was alone in the house after Kitty and Anna left. He talks about the old window in his bedroom, and how, when they were staring into it, they saw a hand and toe of a boot in the door behind them, but when they turned, no-one was there. Sam was very distressed by this, needing to be comforted by Revel for a bit.

He explains that Anna hasn't spoken to him since she left, and he suspects that she's blocked his number. Sam apologises for rambling, and moves on to what's been happening on the forums. People had been sharing their stories that were similar to Jimmy's, with temporary roses after the death of a loved one. The two that Sam thinks are notable are Janet's and Michael's. Janet's neighbour Beryl fell onto pruning shears, impaling her neck. Janet rushed over and saw in the hedge a dark rose that dissipated into smoke once she touched it. Michael returned after a weekend away to find his roommate Josh had died in his sleep. Michael found a rose on Josh's keyboard, and it seemed to fold in on itself until it disappeared.

Sam speculates on the nature and implications of these stories for a minute, but notes that none of them mention the rose reforming as his did. They debate going to ask Oliver for advice, but decide that they look a little too worse for wear to do that yet. Sam ends the episode by thanking everyone for their kind words and altar sacrifices for Marie, and apologises for not talking about her more, confessing that he's not ready to do that yet.

Characters Featured

 * Sam Enfield
 * Rhytidia Delphus ‘the Bog Witch’ (phonecall)
 * Madame Marie (mentioned)
 * Anna Enfield (mentioned)
 * Kitty Enfield (mentioned)
 * Oliver Boleyn (mentioned)
 * Revel (Cat) (mentioned)

Listeners writing in/mentioned:


 * Jimmy, mentioned regarding the story he told about his partner, Ben, in SBR 1.20: Door


 * Janet, regarding the death of her neighbour Beryl and the rose that she found within the bush
 * Michael, regarding the death of his roommate Josh and the rose that he found on Josh's keyboard

Trivia

 * This episode includes an instance of Pippin re-using a name, albeit unintentionally. The faithful listener Janet shares her name with Janet the Tarot Witch, but apparently there is no connection. There is slight irony that the name-double is in the same episode that features a listener called Michael, as in The Magnus Archives, there are several characters called Michael, and it is often joked about by both creators and fans.