Marble Hornets/Fridge

Fridge Logic:

A kid in the background of enttry #37 was wearing a Spongebob shirt. Odd, given the "entry" takes place in 1991, whereas spongebob began to air in 1999.
- The video was quickly taken down, and re-uploaded with the Spongebob shirt edited out. You'll notice a slight jump-cut at :14 where it used to be. This is probably to be consistent with the timeline; obviously they weren't trying to imply anything about the chronology with the Spongebob shirt, it was just an oversight.
Amnesia or no, it seems atypical of Jay's behavior to not update his twitter or youtube channel for seven months.
- Fridge Brilliance (with a twinge of Fridge Horror): Who says he didn't? His entire memory of those seven months got erased, and his Twitter and Youtube accounts have been screwed with before... what if a lesser Mind Rape happened to the viewers as well?
  - Fffffff-- new personal canon, and thank you for giving me the "someone is right behind you watching you" feeling. .-. Adding on, if Slendy/Masky/TTA could erase all the viewers memories of Jay's 7 months, the next obvious question is: (if Slendy did it) Does that mean we're all on the list of "next victims"?
It's always been thought that Alex was pissed at Jay for leading the Operator to him, but later it's kinda conflicted by the fact Alex seems to go looking for him. Who's Alex mad about that Jay led to him? The Maskies. Alex wasn't looking for his girlfriend, he was looking for a way to get the Masked men off his back...

Fridge Brilliance:

Why were the comments enabled for a short while on Entry #####? At first you'd think it's a slip up on the part of the creators, but because Jay didn't upload the video (As far as we can tell), he couldn't have disabled them until he found the video.
As of Entry 35, it's shown Jay and Alex encountered Tim/Masky somewhere between the 7 Month blank period. But Masky is seen attacking Jay at the hotel, when 7 months ago we saw Alex try to bash his head in. However, we see Masky with a limp chasing Jay in the hotel. Alex didn't beat his head in, he broke his leg.
- Confirmed as of Entry 36.
- Minor, but still might count: In Entry 35, Masky is seen wielding a knife. Jay mentioned in Entry 18 that the knife he brought with him in that entry, where he first encountered Masky, went missing.
The terrifyingness of Marble Hornets, to me, was always amplified by the fact that the entries resembled the recurring nightmares I had when I was little, oftentimes involving darkened gardens and houses, distorions of time (everything was in fast or slow motion) and being stalked by an invisible figure (my nickname for him/it was literally "Invisible").
- The scariness of Marble Hornets owes a lot to how the makers utilised Primal Fears and Childhood Fears that we forget but remain with us for the rest of our life. It is the boogeyman of a generation spoilt by CGI and grew up knowing that the boogeyman doesn't exist.
In enttry 37, we see Alex's mom uneasily look to the side, as if she saw someone in the distance. Later on, she nervously waves her hand at something offscreen.
- At almost the exact moment the Operator symbol flits over little Alex's face.
Alex refers to people as being 'gone' in episode with the abandoned underground building. In 44, we find out that may literally mean gone and not dead since the Operator can teleport people with him out of the room. What was thought to be a case of Never Say "Die" was actually planned out in advance to have unclear wording, making this revelation fit easily without seeming like an Ass Pull.
- Entry #49 raises the possibility that they're gone because he killed them. He only knows that they're 'gone', but he doesn't remember killing them because he only has selective memory when under the Operator's influence. Jay was to be next, if he hadn't run away in Rosswood Park.
"Do I help or do I kill?" was referring to Alex's drawings in entry #46.
- Fridge Horror from this as of #49. He chose kill. He seemed to think the unknown guy was (likely) Jay. Alex intended to kill Jay.
Possibly unintentional but even more awesome if so: the name Jessica means 'one who sees/beholds/seeks out' depending on what source you're using. All of these readily apply to the character. Jessica has had dreams where she was a little kid and something was watching her. To behold is also to sense. She comes and talks to Jay about the batshit insanity around them - she seeks him. See probably refers to the Operator at some point since she's been memory wiped.
Technically, Jay's excuses for why he's staying at the hotel are all true: He's making a documentary, which is indeed about a hotel at this moment, his apartment building is most likely being renovated currently, and he pretty much does this for a living now, as far as we can tell.
We all like to get on Jay's case for being Genre Blind and going into Brian's house during the night. However, one has to remember, since no one was living there, and he already knew Brian was long gone, Jay was technically breaking-and-entering. Horrific story about Eldritch Abominations aside, he's still got to worry about the law too.

Fridge Horror:

In entry #9, children can be heard in the background of the park, and Alex even complains about them ruining the sound of the shot. Then the camera turns off for a second, Alex freaks out about it being off...and the sound of kids has completely disappeared. Now think about one of Slendy's canonical preferences for victims...
As noted on the main page, Alex's dog is mentioned in Entry #2, and never mentioned again. However, in the often overlooked Entry #15, Tim mentions Brian finding dead animals in his front yard. When Jay asks whether or not was somebody's pets, Tim changes the subject and tells him to talk to Brian about it.
- Considering who turned out to be Masky, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities on who put the dead animals in the yard.
- Don't worry! It Gets Worse! Totheark's video Forecast, has some distorted footage of what appears to be a reanimated dog heart.
  - Heart? This troper was told it was an animal lung. Which doesn't make it ANY better. In fact, in some way, it's worse!
  - That may be a DOG LUNG!!
When we first see Masky, where is he? Calmly sitting and waiting for Jay, right in front of the glass sliding door that Jay came in from. Blocking the only quick entrance/exit that wasn't locked. Now let's think about what could've happened had not Masky went into seizures.
Entry #36 isn't too scary... until you realize that given how distorted the footage is, anything could be happening in the background. Additionally, a lot of the tape is so badly corrupted it can't be played at all. Despite everything that's happened, there's only been one other segment like that so far. What the hell happened that could have damaged it that badly?
- Jay said that the dropped camera messed up the tape or something on his twitter.
enttry #37 is already scary enough, being an old video of Alex on his birthday with the requisite audio and visual distortion and an appearance by our friend, the Operator, but then you realize what this implies: Alex may have been stalked by the Operator long before Marble Hornets.
- Don't forget though, one factor of the Slender Man mythos is that he stalks children. Alex probably didn't notice he was being followed until he started making Marble Hornets.
  - Enttry. Ent being a tree based monster, and "try" being pronounced as tree. Guess who shows up.
Entry #38 is creepy enough on its own, but when taking into context the fact that the Operator may be the result of several child molesters and murderers executed in the woods, which gives form to a Humanoid Abomination, the previous entries of the Operator stalking and snatching characters, especially enttry 37 become far more sinister, as does his aforementioned preference for children as victims.
- I interpreted it more as the aforementioned murderers and pedophiles feeding/being sacrificed to him or the legend being fictional, but inspired by him. Neither of which is really any better.
- This would make sense when you remember the execution method that Alex mentions. They were tied to split-growing trees that grow apart so fast that they act as torture racks. The Operator has long limbs, almost like they've been stretched out by something.
This one deals with the peculiarities in Entry 38 and 37. Jay likely didn't post "enttry #37" of his own volition, considering the misspelling and the fact that his twitter reference wasn't neatly updated. Now, consider "Entry #38." Properly spelled...but the description, until recently, wasn't ("unalbeled"). For a brief time, comments were also open for a brief time before being shut off again.
- The real clincher, though? Didn't he say on his Twitter that he lost all his tapes? And speaking of Twitter...he hasn't said one word about this entry yet. Someone is making a conscious effort to pretend to be Jay, or Jay is lying about the tapes being gone.
  - It might not be though. He's gone a couple of days without updating his twitter before.
    - Looks like it's indeed debunked.
The terrifyingness of Marble Hornets, to me, was always amplified by the fact that the entries resembled the recurring nightmares I had when I was little, oftentimes involving darkened gardens and houses, distorions of time (everything was in fast or slow motion) and being stalked by an invisible figure (my nickname for him/it was literally "Invisible").
In Entry #40 Jay drops the camera and runs. Drops it right next to the Operator. The camera with a tape in it that eventually ends up in the safe in the hotel room Jay stayed in...
- Which leads to the question of just what the hell Jay got involved in near the end of the 7 month gap. Also on a bit of an interesting Fridge Brilliance, there is a lot of speculation that it was at that point he bought his chest camera, thus leading him to end up filming with two cameras during Entry #29. Looks like we may be getting a clear chronology of events.
  - Fridge Brilliance: Intermission suggests that Totheark watched Jay in the woods, meaning that he very well could have retrieved the camera later. It would explain how he got the tapes in the first place, too.
  - As of Entry 41, we find out who brought it back. It was another Masky who may or may not be totheark.
In Sidetone, we get a close-up of a phone's digits. Scary enough on its own, but we see that the camera is focused on the number zero. For those who don't get it, the zero key is the key for an operator.
- Even better, in Indicator we see a twisted little baby doll with the 0 key in its eye. Perhaps an idication that the Operator has seen them since they were children?
  - Since it's a baby doll, it could imply he was there even when they were babies. Which would explain why babies scream and cry randomly...
Seth, although a very minor character, manages to get this. He was last seen helping Alex explore and videotape the dark industrial place they spend nearly an entire episode in. Then Slender Man appears. The footage goes berserk. Alex says Seth is 'gone' and he is never referrenced by Tim or Jay ever again. Either he's dead or Slender Man has him - take your pick on what's worse. If the implications aren't already horrific enough, pause and realize this minor character was the only person prior to Jay (years later) who knew what was going on with Alex. After that Alex was completely alone in his fight against the Eldritch Abomination. And people wonder why he's experiencing Sanity Slippage.
- Not necessarily. If Alex ever had a run-in with Masky aka Tim, Tim might have known. Although, that kinda makes it worse.
- He might be alive as one of the Maskies. Which would involve years of Mind Rape, since it's been two years since Jay got involved and he was late to the party in the first place. There's Fridge Horror on top of Fridge Horror here.
  - Thankfully Jossed. In the gap between seasons, Alex has had the help of Jessica, Amy and Jay himself. Still, what happened to Seth is up in the air.
- Since in 44 Alex vanishes along with the Operator gone might actually truly mean gone and not dead. He might even have woken up afterwards with no memory of the whole thing. Everyone else seems to have been memory wiped to varying degrees.
As of Entry #42, we find out that Jay's second camera was once Alex's. This makes the implications about the current status of Alex a bit more bleak.
Entry #43 does the forest Alex walk into look a little familiar?
In Entry 3, Alex is seen tearing up paper and setting it aside while sitting on his couch. In Entry 16, Jay finds an overturned couch in the same color, paper scraps littering the floor all around. Was he the one sleeping in the closet in that house? Was he already insane that soon into this?
The implication of what would've happened to Jay if he was close enough for Alex to grab in Entry 49 is terrifying.
- Not to mention that Jay may be partially to blame for the man's death. He says he's been observing Alex for a long time after the events of Entry #47, but whether Alex ever spotted him during those times we have no way of being certain. Plus, we have to take into account all the recent actions by Jay that have really gotten Alex angry. Then fans were making fun of Jay in Entry #48 for being horrible at trying to be quiet despite Alex seemingly not hearing him, but #49 seems to suggest Alex DID hear him. Meaning if Alex had been feeling less paranoid and tense at the time, he might have just yelled at the man to go away. Whether Jay leaving Alex alone would have changed things is unknown, but still, the idea is pretty terrifying.
  - The guy that Alex killed was the civilian that Jay passed on the way to his car. Jay might not only have inadvertantly caused his death by following Alex, but he might've been the last person to see him alive.
When Alex drops the camera in #49 at the start of the fight, there is a few frames that appears to show the Operator just standing in the tunnel mouth. This could be taken as meaning the Operator was there all along, just not making himself visible. Meaning he could have been looming over Alex's shoulders for a while, an nooone would notice. How many more people could he be following without their knowledge yet? He could even be in the room with you, right now!
- Cool!
In 49, Jay edits the footage, but he had to see the unedited footage of some of the most disturbing events of the series. He had to watch that. It's official, he is now a case of Break the Cutie.
- Especially since one of the people involved is someone he would've called a close friend at one time. Imagine Jay's position- watching someone you cared about being driven slowly insane by supernatural forces you can hardly comprehend, coming to a head when that person commits a brutal murder. That would be heartwrenching. Even though we never see it, I'd be willing to believe that Jay's probably had more than a few emotional breakdowns during this whole thing.
Entry 26 can be seen in a completely different light considering the evidence from later entries that Alex's descent into madness may have been going on longer than we thought. We see evidence in Entry 51 that Alex may have led Brian and Tim to the Operator to begin with. Now, go back to Entry 26 and wonder why Alex is so calm and rational.
All the way back in Entry 16 Jay found (among other things) a bullet casing when searching through where Alex had lived. Due to the other events of both season 1 and season 2 this is quickly forgotten. however in entry 52 Alex pulls a gun on Jay and Jessica and is about to kill them to "tie up loose ends". Seeing as it is now all but confirmed that Alex is working for the Operator, one wonders how many other times he had to "tie up loose ends".
One of the reasons Alex was furious with Jay was for showing the videos to the world. This chewing-out occurred the day before Entry #27. Jay has just spent nearly an entire year posting even more videos, and seriously incriminating ones for Alex at that. If he was pissed enough back then to try and kill Jay...one wonders what he might be thinking now.
On a related note to above, since all of the TOTHEARK messages took place after entry #52, some of the messages they contain become far more sinister.
- Fragments says "you are Broken" and "you cannot be fixed". As chronologically this is the first thing TOTHEARK relays to Jay after #52 when he was attacked by the Operator and Mind Raped this raises the question of what the hell actually happened to Jay
The closet in the house was terrifying until quite late in the series. Imagine being stalked by the Operator in your own house, and you retreat to the only space left (or the only room with one door that you can keep watching/filming) with nothing but some blankets, a bottle of water and maybe a gun. All the while there's this thing outside, making you more paranoid, fearful and sick. Then we see the room again in a later entry and things have moved around. However, later on we find out that it was probably Alex and he probably wasn't in fear of his life from the Operator after all. But until then, that was a very disturbing scenario, and one that gets worse the more you think about it.
- It may not be so disturbing for Alex, but what about Jay? In Entry #16, the screen tore while he was exploring the house for the first time...right when he was inside the closet! It's probably a good thing he never found out about it.
At the end of the footage on the DVD, during the end credits, the video tears during the cast roll. This could be considered unsettling.
In Entry #26, Jay makes it clear that for the past couple of weeks, he's been drifting from one hotel to the next, never staying in one place for too long. Despite this, Alex is still able to track him down and send him a package. How could Alex have possibly done this? If Season 2 is anything to go by, probably because a little bird told him...or rather, a tall faceless thing told him. Which means that despite Jay's apparent recovery to his mental well-being during that time, he was still being unknowingly stalked!