Episode 109

Summary
As we sink deeper into the mystery swirling around Dr. Strand's missing wife, a familiar voice reaches out to Alex from the other side of the globe.

Synopsis
Alex interviews Strand about how he felt listening to the recording of Coralee, and he admits that she sounded more like herself, as she seemed to be more distant near the time of her disappearance.

While speaking with Nic, Alex learns that he received information from Coralee's mother, Mrs. Jacobsen, including a USB with a cloned copy of Coralee's phone, some documents and some emails, one from a store in Lake Tahoe that references a Warren Beauchamp. Nic contacts the store owner, Tina Stevenson, and she tells him that Warren was a locksmith she sometimes employed. Tina finds a copy of the same email to Coralee mentioning Warren, but Tina notes that it was actually addressed to Lisa Graves. Tina had sent Lisa the message 5 years prior, as Lisa had a P.O. box in the store when the store experienced a break-in, and they therefore needed to change the lock on her P.O. box. Alex and Nic later discover that Lisa Graves was the name of Coralee's college roommate.

Alex and Strand discuss the video taken during the Ouija board experiment. Alex points out that Michelle Braid's hair clearly moves on her shoulder though no one touches it, and Strand acknowledges that he saw it as well, and that that event - as well as the accuracy of the planchette's movements - was the reason he considered the case unsolved.

Alex plays a Skype message from Keith Dabic the week prior, in which he explains that an old schoolmate who listened to the Unsound around the same time Keith did drowned recently. In an attempt to reverse the effects of the Unsound, Keith says he's found someone on a deep web forum that may be able to neutralise the Unsound's curse: a teacher and composer named Percival Black. He also tells Alex to research Alexander Scriabin. Keith has travelled to Russia to find him. Nic and Alex research Scriabin, and learn that he was a 20th century composer who eventually achieved notoriety for composing sonatas that were considered so evil by the BBC that they were banned from the airwaves in 1930.

Nic and Alex look over the images attached to Keith's email, which appear to be a series of photographs from an old journal (along with what appear to be musical compositions). The number 1.01364335043922 is repeated amongst the notes. Nic tells Alex he's tracked down Percival Black to a remote Russian Orthodox monastery in Saransk, Mordovia.

Alex interviews Professor Alan Downes, an expert in Russian classical music, to find out more information on Scriabin. Downes tells her that Scriabin fell out of favor with the musical establishment of the time when he began composing movements which reflected his esoteric leanings--as evidenced in compositions such as The Satanic Poem--and that some scholars believe Scriabin thought he could decipher the secrets of the universe. Downes plays some of Scriabin's music for Alex, and conjectures that Scriabin was trying to exorcise something or make some kind of confession, though he composed some movements that he, himself, refused to play. Downes explains that Scriabin experienced synesthesia, which he used to compose. He claimed music helped him to "see God", and Downes claims it eventually may have led him to believe he could become god.

After Alex finishes interviewing Downes and while she's still at the University of Washington, Nic calls to say he's scheduled a meeting for her with Sandy Singh, a doctoral candidate in modular arithmetic. She identifies the number 1.01364335043922 as the ratio for the Pythagorean comma going upwards, the Pythagorean comma being the small interval (or comma) existing in Pythagorean tuning between two enharmonically equivalent notes. Sandy plays a sound clip that sounds like a note constantly descending, but it's actually the Shepherd Tone, or two octaves together, demonstrating the musical manifestation of the ratio. While she doesn't say she believes it's evidence of god, Singh posits that the ratio may be a glimpse into the design of the universe.

Nic and Alex receive another message from Keith with an unidentified sound file attached. They send the clip to Dr. Pullman to analyze it, and when Alex interviews him, he tells her that not only is the frequency pattern of this sound the same as the Unsound, but when it's graphed using a simple formula, it shapes uniformly using the specific ration of 1.01364335043922.

Alex next gets Percival Black on the phone for an interview. He says that he's looking forward to performing for live audiences again as opposed to recording in a studio, and that he's working on some sacred compositions that he feels bring him closer to understanding god. He doesn't recall working with anyone named Keith Dabic, and when Alex asks if he's heard of Alexander Scriabin, Black disconnects. Nic tells Alex that near the end of his life, Scriabin was obsessed with his unfinished masterpiece, the Mysterium; according to his notes, there would be no audience but only players and a communal orchestra, and the piece would conclude with the implosion of the universe. Scriabin also described a new race of beings arising out of the destruction, "shadows stepping forth from the shadows". Though there seems to be a version of the Mysterium based on Scriabin's notes--composed by Alexander Nemtin--Nic concludes that something was obviously off in the translation as the universe didn't come to an end.

Alex visits with Charlie in person, where Charlie reveals that although she was angry with her father when her mother first went missing, she now understands why he disappeared for five days in order to look for her. She also admits that she was with her father when he went to look for Coralee.

Recurring Characters
Alex Reagan, producer and host

Dr. Richard Strand, paranormal investigator

Coralee Strand (mentioned), Richard's wife

Nic Silver, producer

Keith Dabic, musician, Hastur Rising

Charlie Strand, Richard Strand's daughter

Guest Characters
Tina Stevenson, store owner in Lake Tahoe

Percival Black, composer

Professor Alan Downes, Russian classical music expert

Sandra Singh, doctoral candidate in modular arithmetic

Dr. Michael Pullman, structural acoustician