"Spirit Receivers" is the fifth episode of Season One of the Archive 81 Netflix TV series and the fifth episode of the show overall. It first aired on January 14, 2022.
Summary[]
The past blurs into the present when Melody visits a forbidden floor in search of an inspired Anabelle. Music leads to lost souls - and revelations.
Plot[]
Melody sleeps with the television on at the hospital, waiting for Beatriz to wake up. She walks out of the room and gets a coffee as she hears Dan. Suddenly, she wakes up startled and sees that she is still at the hospital. She calls Beatriz and asks who the man she saw is, asking her if she could go one more time, but Beatriz sobs and says no, grabbing Melody by the hand and squeezing very hard while saying "Don't let it out" with a demonic voice.
Desperate, Melody visited Dr. Turner, who told her about the Baldung.
After that, Melody leaves the hospital and visits Dr. Turner, but is told that he is on leave. She rushes to his home, where he is surprised to see her. She tells him that she needs his help and tells him it is important. She tells him that she thinks she is being haunted because the day she moved into the Visser she started having dreams and conversations with a man she does not know and went into a séance a few days ago where she heard the exact conversations she was having. She tells him that Dan was visiting her and told her that she died in the Visser. Dr. Turner asks what she really wants because someone had filed an anonymous complaint against him, so he was now on leave. She says she wants his help and did not file the complaint against him. He admits to posting about her on a message board, but did not mention her by name. Dr. Turner tells her that a researcher was studying a group of people with certain sensitivities, calling them Baldung and everybody made drawings exactly like hers, having some sort of genetic predisposition to unusual psychic perception. Melody gets excited and asks if he talked to the researcher, which he says he did, but says that the researcher did not find her to be a match. She asks if he believed that what she sees is real, to which he responds that he tries to leave room for the unexplained corners of the universe, but feels that she is just imagining things. Melody tells him that she has everything on tape, but Dr. Turner says that his family arrived, so he hands her a referral.
Melody sees Jess on the elevator, who has a jar. However, she simply asks if Beatriz was going to be okay and tells Melody that she could not tell her what was in the jar or who it was going to.
While watching the recording of her conversation with Beatriz, Melody saw a demon which scared her.
As she walks into her apartment, Melody calls for Anabelle, but cannot find her. She knocks on Ms. Lewis' house and asks if Jess is there, but is not allowed to see her. Melody starts playing her tape as Beatriz calls for Julia. However, the voice sounds very distorted and a demon takes over the tape, startling her and causing her to jump back. Melody seals the tapes in an envelope and prepares to send them to Dr. Turner. However, she opens her door and Jess tells her that she knows where Anabelle is.
Cassandra opens the door for Melody, who walks in and asks to see Anabelle, which confuses Cassandra. Melody tells her that she knows that she moved her stuff to Cassandra's apartment, but she simply asks if she wants a cup of tea. When Melody starts calling for her friend, Cassandra tells her that she smothers her and needs to let her emerge from her cocoon, so she gave her an apartment on the 6th floor.
Melody reaches the 6th floor and knocks on apartment 6C, where Anabelle paints obsessively. Anabelle tells her that the building is special and feels connected to it. Melody says that she thinks they should leave, but Anabelle does not listen. Melody repeats that they should go back to Brooklyn, which confuses Anabelle since she thought Melody wanted to find Julia, which she says she does, but does not think the building is safe. However, Anabelle tells her that she needs to stay and prepare for her show that night, inviting her, but also locking her out of the apartment.
Melody saw addicts on the sixth floor, which scared her.
Melody sees another door and opens it, hearing indistinct chanting. She pulls out her camera and starts recording, asking herself what she was doing there. In front of her, she sees people sleeping on the floor and people humming rhythmically in a circle. She approaches them and they all stop to look at her, so she turns around only to stumble upon a man who asks if it was time and if she was sent by Father Russo and tells her that he needs her help. However, John Smith shows up and tells the man to get away from her, also telling Melody that she should have stayed away from the 6th building. He tells her that who the people are is none of her business. She asks what that song was and wonders if they are part of the cult, which confuses him, but locks them in for their own protection because they are drug addicts, so Samuel was protecting them.
Back in her apartment, Melody starts gathering her things and packs a suitcase. Behind her, she sees Dan for a second and keeps packing until she is interrupted by the man she had seen on the 6th floor, who scares her. He tells her that Anabelle said she could be trusted and tells her that he knows she wanted to find Julia, so they could help each other and wants her to let him in.
Chris Lee introduces himself, saying that he had not given Anabelle any stardust and wanted a ticket.
Melody turns her camera on and the man introduces himself as Chris Lee; he says that he has been in the building for 2 years, or maybe 20, but Samuel does not want them to leave since he wants them to open a door. He says that he did not give Anabelle any stardust, which is what brought them and keeps them there. He describes stardust as mold that grows there and keeps them there and ran through the building. She asks if he knew Julia and if she lived there. He says that names are a little confusing to him and asks what she looks like, but Melody does not know. Chris says that there was a woman who looked a lot like her, but she was gone, but when Melody asks where, he simply gets up and asks if she hears a sort of humming, which was calling. He gets up and says that the building calls and they call back. He starts humming the song Melody hates, which irritates her and she yells at him to stop it. She asks if he can help her find Julia, but he simply says that Father Russo had offered him a bed and said that he would send somebody back with a golden ticket, which meant rehab. He says he wants to get clean, but it pulls him, so he needs to get out of there or the ferryman would drag him to hell. He tells her to get him a bed and he would help her find Julia. Melody says that they should leave immediately, but he tells her to give her a ticket or no deal.
Melody looked through Father Russo's books, seeing Samuel's name there repeatedly.
Melody walks to the church, but sees that people were mourning Father Russo. The night before, he had been waiting for a train and fell onto the tracks. She sneaks into Father Russo's office and finds a paper for rehab, taking it. She also grabs his key and opens the secret cabinet, which surprised her, since it had a chronology of events linked to the Visser and the comet. She finds a book labeled "Visser?" which was about occult artifacts, gods and demons, recognizing the figure in the cabinet in the community room which was labeled as a "Pedestal sculpture, Greenstone, 14th Century, provenance unknown. Entity known as Kaelego," both a god and demon. She finds a book about witchcraft and dark magic which has Samuel in it, as well as two other people on a page which contains information about Baldung. Melody grabs her ring and sees it is identical to a drawing inside the book. Somebody tries opening the door and Melody grabs a few books before hiding in the desk.
In the office, Samuel walks in with a woman, saying that he needed to grab a book. Once only he and Melody were in the room, she hears him grab some papers and books. As they get ready to start the vigil, Samuel leaves, saying he had found the book. Melody leaves the room after that.
At a telephone booth, Melody calls Dr. Turner, leaving him a message and telling him that the Baldung were witches and it was a coven. She says that her mother's ring has the same markings, wondering if her mother was part of the cult. She hears Dan calling her again, but cannot contact him. She walks back to the payphone, where Anabelle asks her where she is, so Melody says that she would be there soon.
Anabelle showed Melody her paintings, convinced that there was somebody inside.
Melody makes it to the art show, where Anabelle introduces her to a woman named Gabby; however, Melody wants to tell her something, saying that she could not go back to the Visser. Anabelle says that home is where the heart is and she was her heart, but she tells her that they would both leave the Visser. Anabelle takes her to see her paintings, which were of people who she did not know, but she felt her in the paintings. Anabelle tells her that it was "the other place" which the paint let her see, telling Melody that she was now a Spirit Receiver just like Eleanor. Melody pulls out her camera and starts recording the paintings, which worried her. She touches one and recognizes that it was the mold Chris was talking about. Tamara asks what the paintings are, but Melody wonders that herself. Tamara tells her that it was the same person as one of Eleanor's crazy spirit visions and had maybe given Anabelle a peek.
Jess walks up to Melody, saying Cassandra had brought her there. She does not answer when Melody asks if her mother knew she was there, but Cassandra tells her that Jess was not a child, but a bright young artist who needed stimulation, telling her to stop smothering.
After that, Melody sees Anabelle yelling at Gabby, telling her that her paintings were not for sale and were not there to share them with the world in order to show them where she was. Gabby tells her that people had already paid, but Anabelle tells her to give it back, but the buyer wanted to stay anonymous, so Anabelle starts taking them down. Melody tells her to calm down, but her friend tells her that if she was not going to help her, she should stay away and shoves her to the ground, saying that Cassandra was right, so Melody leaves.
Melody confronted Samuel, asking him about his cult until Chris fell from the building and died.
Melody walks back into the Visser, asking Samuel if he had bought the paintings, telling him not to mess with her. He pretends he does not understand, saying that Cassandra had only asked him to stop by as a favor, but assuring her that he did not buy any paintings. She asks him what kind of game both she and Cassandra were playing since she knew about the 6th floor, but he pretends to not know. She asks him who he is, naming Alistair Spare, Samuel Grant, and Virgil Samuelson, wondering if Father Russo had discovered who he was and that was why he had shoved him onto the tracks. Samuel tells her to turn her camera off, but she asks if Julia had also been a part of his cult. He tells her that she was clearly drunk or high as suddenly, Chris falls from the building. After Chris fell, Dan sees Virgil approach Samuel on the tape.
When Dan saw Virgil on the tapes, the latter explained that Samuel was his brother.
Dan walks up to a camera and yells at Virgil, asking who he is after seeing him on the tape. Later, Virgil walks into the house as Dan waits for him. Virgil starts by saying that Samuel was his brother, mentioning that he had a lot of potential, but had channeled it into all the wrong places. Dan asks what he was really doing there restoring all the tapes, to which Virgil replies that he believes Melody had murdered his brother and believes the evidence would be found in the footage. He says that Samuel was charming, but did go quite down a rabbit hole with his occult nonsense. Dan says that Samuel was leading some fucked up cult at the Visser, but Virgil says that it was not real since it was just Samuel's overactive imagination. Dan says that that cannot be real, but Virgil says that Melody had let it all go to her head and that was what killed Samuel, but Dan does not believe it. Virgil asks if he had seen anything which contradicted what he was saying, stating that he does not even know her. He asks Dan to wonder if Melody had not been the one to set fire to everyone, including his family, which he says is impossible, but Virgil asks him to wonder. He tells Dan to finish the tapes so they could both get some closure.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dan Turner - Mamoudou Athie
- Melody Pendras - Dina Shihabi
- Samuel - Evan Jonigkeit
- Anabelle - Julia Chan
- Jess - Ariana Neal
- Mark Higgins - Matt McGorry
- Virgil Davenport - Martin Donovan
- Steven Turner - Charlie Hudson III
- Cassandra Wall - Kristin Griffith
- John Smith - Eden Marryshow
- Tamara Stefano - Kate Eastman
- Beatriz Reyes - Sol Miranda
Additional cast[]
- Chris Lee - Zach Villa
- Mrs. Turner - Africa Miranda
- Erika Lewis - Gameela Wright
- Church Secretary - Karen Baum
- Young Dan Turner - Trayce Malachi
- Emily Turner - Jaxon Rose Moore
- Sheila Church - Carrie Knight
- Gloria Francis - Cherie McClain
- Ross Bauer - Tony Bingham
- Gabby - Daina Griffith
- The Maid - Haley Muir
- Grad Student - Allyson R. Hood
- Female Bystander - Mandy Simpson
- Male Bystander - Sean McGee
- Addict - Penelope Bauer
- Addict - Frances Chao
- Addict - Dennis Joseph
- Visser Tenant - Daniel Johnson
- NYC Businessman - Robert Kwiatkowski
- Visser Tenant - Johnna Leary
- New York Pedestrian - Roger Petan
- Beatriz - Hilda Ivette Rodriguez