Episode 203

"Hush Little Baby" aired on February 16, 2016.

Session with Dr. Bernier
Alex has another session with her sleep doctor, where Alex expresses she's experienced no change in her insomnia, partly due to her worry regarding Dr. Strand. The doctor suggests avoiding thinking about work after eight p.m., and even trying marijuana.

Alex expresses concern that her sleep problems are affecting her work performance, and that her lack of sleep is leading to errors in judgment and hallucinations. However, Alex believes having Amalia stay with her has had a stabilizing effect, and she reveals that Amalia was not lying low in Russia because of anything related to the podcast.

Strange Occurrences at the Hochman Residence
Wendy Hochman had contacted Alex after hearing about Rebecca Yi's experience in Episode 201, having experienced similar strange phenomena with her son, Robbie. Wendy sits down with Alex in the studio and recounts hearing something like a cat howling coming from her baby monitor, though everything was normal in Robbie's room. Two weeks later she heard the sound again, but when she carried the monitor to Robbie's room, the sound stopped as soon as she approached his door, and she entered his room to see a shadowy figure scurry away from Robbie's crib. Alex plays the recording Wendy captured, and Wendy shows Alex a photo of the underside of Robbie's crib, displaying the same symbol Alex had seen in Simon Reese's room and the cabin where Sebastian Torres was found. Alex asks if Wendy's housekeeper, Maddie Franks, could have been behind these, but Wendy denies any involvement on her part.

Alex next interviews Maddie, but she doesn't recall seeing or hearing anything unusual in the Hochman's house. Alex sends the sound file Wendy recorded to structural acoustician Michael Pullman, whose colleague identified the sound as biological and a kind of singing, though the sound didn't seem to any animal he could identify.

While he's working on cleaning up the EQ on the recording, Nic discovers the audio actually continues for three hours, not five minutes as Wendy originally believed. As the baby monitor is sound activated, the recording ran another hour and a half before capturing another sound after Wendy left Robbie's room: a woman whispering to Robbie, whom Alex identified as Maddie Franks. Alex tries unsuccessfully to get a hold of Wendy, and Wendy's sister says that no one has been able to reach Wendy or her husband for days, filing a missing person's report.

Nic and Alex go to Maddie's apartment to question her, and after knocking and repeatedly calling to her, discover that her door is unlocked, Alex entering despite Nic's protests. The apartment is dark, and has been ransacked, and appeared one wall had been painted black, while the rest were a stark white. They turn on the light to discover the black wall is not black, but red, and covered in blood. They find Maddie Franks hanging from an apparent suicide.

Strand's Search
Alex finds Strand in the studio, assigning research tasks to interns and asking the producers to impersonate police officers in order to track license plates. He expresses the belief that Thomas Warren is the Advocate, and that Warren was involved in a research excavation in Hillah, with indicators suggesting he and his team were looking for the Horn of Tiamat, a dragon-like, aquatic creature that is believed to be the embodiment of primordial chaos. Strand's father wrote an unpublished paper referencing the location of the Horn of Tiamat, and explains that it was actually the center of his father's work, though he's not sure how Warren got a hold of the paper.

Nic Checks in with Alex
Nic asks how Alex is feeling and whether she's made progress with her sleep schedule, and expresses concern over her judgment being compromised when it comes to Strand and the Hochman story, asking Alex to listen to the last few interviews again with more objectivity. Alex notes that she did so, and made some of the edits Nic suggested.

Recurring Characters
Alex Reagan, host and producer

Dr. Richard Strand, paranormal investigator

Guest Characters
Dr. Monique Bernier, sleep doctor

Wendy Hochman, experiencing unexplained phenomena

Maddie Franks, housekeeper for Wendy Hochman

Dr. Michael Pullman, structural acoustician