Tape D

February 23, 2021·24 min·2 clips

Jack refuses to discuss his personal investigation because he uses information from future tapes.

Lena opens the episode by welcoming new viewers and thanking the growing community for their efforts to help identify the trapped man. Jack briefly explains her investigation approach: she is building a profile of the trapped man using details from across the tapes to narrow down who might have gone missing matching his description, and she does not want to share findings yet in case she is wrong. She credits listener Matthias J. Dejean for noting that the trapped man's claim that insanity is contagious suggests he may have spent time in an institution. She also credits listener Jim for the Freedom of Information Act suggestion, noting she is familiar with it but needs something specific to request. Lena raises a comment from viewer Paul Kemp suggesting the trapped man may be in purgatory. Jack confirms that a future tape, Tape F, has the trapped man settling on a similar theory and incorporating it into his daily routine with anecdotal success, though Jack herself is not yet ready to accept a supernatural explanation. The episode's main content is Tape D itself. In the tape, the trapped man cheerfully reports acquiring a bike, helmet, gloves, hatchet, food, and other supplies by crossing a bridge he built between the flower shop basement and a neighboring business called King's. He announces this will be his last night in the bowling alley. He then shifts to describing a fear about visiting a house before leaving, deciding he needs to confront something he is afraid of. He then begins what sounds like a heartfelt confession or memory involving his brother, building slowly — mentioning that it was a happy memory, something they shared — before the tape abruptly transitions to the sound of him snoring and a door closing. After the tape ends, Lena and Jack discuss what happened. Jack theorizes the man was sleepwalking, started the recorder, began his confession while still partially asleep, then walked off and shut a door. She expresses frustration that whatever he said was lost. After the gap, the tape continues with the trapped man describing his love of movie rental stores and concerts as things he misses, including a film about a car featuring an actor named Brendan that was released while he was trapped. Jack reveals her personal history with the tapes: she received them when she was thirteen, and she and her mother became deeply invested in solving the mystery while her father, sister, and her brother — who alternated between sides — were skeptical. She connects this divide to the eventual collapse of her parents' relationship, noting her mother left the family when Jack was sixteen, but declines to elaborate on the reasons.

As heard by us

A tense tape that turns investigation into slow, human-scale dread.

Tapes From Beyond keeps circling the problem of what can be known before certainty arrives. It opens by greeting new viewers and thanking people for the comments, then lets Jack explain why he cannot lean too hard on future tapes or plant assumptions in the audience.

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Why you'd press play

You want one more tape before the house stops being easy to avoid.

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