Episode 207

"Personal Possessions" aired on June 7, 2016.

## Summary

### Thomas Warren and the Advocate

Nic tells Alex the enigmatic Thomas Warren was scheduled to be in Vancouver the following week for a conference, and though he had cancelled his engagements at the conference, Nic suggests he and Alex drive up anyway to see if he's there. Nic had also discovered on a conspiracy discussion forum that the Advocate was recruiting, and had approached high-profile leaders and thinkers to join his movement. Nic said a hacker in Portland, Maine, has a photo of the Advocate, but an unstamped letter would have to be hand-delivered at a particular time and place in order to arrange a meeting.

### Cipher on the Back of the Painting

Alex had taken a picture of the numbers that covered the back of the strange painting she and Strand found in his hotel room in Victoria, and she, Strand and Nic analyse the work. Nic determines it to be a book cipher, using letters of subsequent words in a specific text as a key to encode and then decode a message. Strand recognizes the code as belonging to a book he knows, and he and Alex meet at his home (previously his father's) to search for it. Strand retrieves a copy of JD Salinger's "Nine Stories" as he believes this to be the key to the cipher.

### The Boy and the River

When Alex questions Strand about the boy and the river that his sister, Cheryl, mentioned, he claims to have no knowledge of the specific boy and river Cheryl had mentioned.

### Reconciliation with Amalia

Alex apologized to Amalia for inadvertently emailing her an audio clip of the Unsound, though Alex maintains she didn't send it and her account had been hacked. She and Amalia agreed that time apart might be best.

### The Symphony of the Universe

Nic goes over Alex's last interview with Simon Reese, and notes Reese's choice to use the term "symphony", wondering if he was referencing Scriabin and the Mysterium. Nic also wonders why Simon wanted Alex to dig deeper into Amalia's whereabouts when she was in Russia, because while Amalia disclosed to Nic that she was there to meet with a high-level political whistle-blower, Simon couldn't have known that, so his curiosity seemed more than a coincidence.

### Meeting with Jessica Wheldon

Jessica Wheldon--the girl from the exorcism tape from 1993, one of Dr. Strand's black tapes cases--had contacted PNWS, initially angry that they were airing a personal and disturbing event in her young life, but eventually interested in the other cases Alex aired and wanting to speak with her. Now 35, Jessica believes she was actually brainwashed, and she remembers being filled with murderous rage towards her mother as she bit her arm hard enough to draw blood. Before she contacted the station, Jessica listened to other episodes of the series and recognized the story of Maddie Franks, and her strange communications with her young charge before her untimely death. Jessica tells Alex she remembers her own babysitter teaching her strange songs when she was three or four years old; she also started remembering the presence of strange men in black suits during her exorcism. One of the men present during the exorcism had contacted Jessica a few months prior to tell her about the podcast, and Jessica passes his contact information along to Alex, telling Alex to make sure she "watches his tape".

### Meeting with "John"

After initially refusing to speak with Alex, the man involved in Jessica's alleged exorcism who had contacted Jessica to alert her to the Black Tapes--who prefers to be called "John"--calls Alex and sets up a meeting with her and Strand. He describes the exorcism, saying he weighed 210 at the time and he could barely restrain Jessica, who may have only weighed 90 pounds. The three watch the tape, and when Strand denies this was demon possession, John points out that Strand can't deny he was scared as he filmed the event. John says he assisted in this exorcisms back then and believed in demon possession, but hadn't heard the kind of voices that came out of Jessica during the event. John asks Strand for confirmation that three men in suits were also present, but Strand denies remembering of them. John says hearing the episode of the Black Tapes with Jessica's exorcism brought up memories of his own exorcism that took place five years prior. He produces a VHS tape and plays it for Alex and Strand: it's a younger John, restrained and appearing crazed, and they see an unidentified man in the room in a suit. Two other suited men wheel a device into the room and hook John up to it; when it's activated John screams in pain, but he tells Alex and Strand that after this he felt cured, that he had experienced inexplicable rage before his "exorcism", and the treatment seemed to cure him. Strand and Alex watch the tape more closely, and notice symbols on the wall opposite John's feet: circles, numbers, pentagrams, and an upside down face at the center of it all.

### Follow-up with Cheryl

Alex calls Cheryl to clarify what she meant by "the boy by the river", but she doesn't provide any more information. Alex then asks about Strand's father, and Cheryl tells her he was largely absent, either travelling the world or locked away in his office, until he started taking a particular interest in Richard, bringing him more peculiar and arcane gifts from his travels abroad: old books and rare archaeological items. When asked about her relationship to Strand's disappeared wife, Coralee, Cheryl says that she felt closer to her than to her own brother, and actually believed at one time that he may have had something to do with her disappearance.

## Characters

### Recurring Characters

Nic Silver, producer

Alex Reagan, host and producer

Dr. Richard Strand, paranormal investigator

### Guest Characters

Jessica Wheldon, exorcism subject

"John", man who assisted in the exorcism on Jessica Wheldon

Cheryl Baker (nee Strand), Richard Strand's sister

## Notes

http://theblacktapestranscripts.weebly.com/episode-207-personal-possessions.html