The Black Tapes · Pacific Northwest Stories

Episode 206 - All in the Family

May 24, 2016·42 min·3 clips

Cheryl describes seeing a twisted, smiling giant with huge eyes in her childhood home.

The episode begins in fragments. Voices, bits of ominous verse, and production chatter slide into Alex Regan trying to reset the season before it gets away from her. Strand is still the center. The story moves back to his institute and to the Bulgarian monastery thread that keeps nagging at her. Then the tape turns inward. Alex and Nick fight over a recording she took from Richard Strand after a disclosure he never meant to make public. Nick does not soften it. He says she lied, that her judgment may be clouded, and that the recording needs to go. Alex pushes back, but the argument lands like more than office tension. It feels like Nick grabbing the wheel before she drives the reporting straight off the road. She deletes the recording. What is left is her version of what Strand said, without the illicit tape but with plenty of damage still attached. Strand believes he is being followed. For several years, he has suspected a group wants artifacts and information that may have belonged to his father. Cheryl now sits in a different light. Alex thinks Strand's anger over Cheryl being named may come from years spent trying to protect his sister. Cheryl gave permission, though. Alex says Cheryl insisted on being included, which makes Strand's silence messier, not cleaner. The family tree keeps widening, and every new piece seems to cost a little more trust. Nick's question lingers. By the end, Alex is weighing her conduct against the names still circling the case: Keith Davich, Cora Lee, Cheryl, Strand, Simon Rees, and Maddy Franks.

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