Entry #71 was posted on May 15, 2013.
It has the description "Another burned tape".
In total, this clip is 6:10 minutes long.
In this entry, footage from the burnt tapes shows Jay visiting Alex at his home, and convincing Alex to give him the tapes. After giving Jay the tapes, Alex appears to change his mind and attacks Jay.
1
[0:00] Black screen; at 0:03, white text appears: "Entry #71"
[0:12] White text on screen: “I’ve gotten another one of the tapes we found to work.”
[0:21] Video starts with a shot of a pile of tapes sitting on the floor near an open closet. Alex walks in and stuffs the tapes into a box, which he hides in the closet before picking up the camera and walking out of the room.
[0:55] Video cuts to a shot of a pair of windows in a dark room, then to Alex looking out of the windows.
[1:10] Video cuts to Alex putting the camera on a window ledge facing the front door. He turns around to let Jay in after he knocks on the door.
[1:28] Jay: Hey.
[1:29] Alex: Hey. Come on in.
[1:33] Jay steps inside and notices a box sitting near the door.
[1:37] Jay: Someone moving out?
[1:38] Alex: Yeah, I am. Um, my roommates left and now I can’t afford the rent so…
[1:43] Jay: Well, that sucks. Uh, you have any more packing left to do? I’ll help you out if you want me to.
[1:49] Alex: Yeah, um, come on.
[1:51] Jay and Alex walk into another room off camera.
[1:55] Jay: Where are you moving to?
[1:56] Alex: Somewhere cheaper.
[2:00] Screen cuts to black.
[2:03] White text on screen: “About 35 minutes pass with the camera still recording.”
[2:12] Video cuts back to the view of Alex’s front door. Jay and Alex can be heard in another room, moving closer to the camera.
[2:20] Jay: I don’t see why you can’t just keep the footage for something else. I mean, you could at least use it in b-roll for something you shot later.
[2:26] Alex: I just don’t want to have to deal with it anymore, okay? It wasn’t that good to begin with and I just want to start with something new.
[2:34] Jay: Well, if you don’t want it, just, I’ll take it. It’s better than the alternative, being all dramatic and burning them.
[2:43] Both Alex and Jay walk back into the other room and out of shot.
[2:45] Jay: Is that okay? Can we do that?
[2:46] Alex: Fine. They’re in the attic.
[2:50] Jay: As long as it’s okay.
[2:51] Alex: It’s okay!
[2:52] Jay: Alright. You know, you probably shouldn’t keep tapes up in an attic without climate control. I mean, humidity can ruin that type of stuff…
[3:01] Video distorts and goes to black.
[3:03] Brief audio distortion.
[3:06] Distorted shot of a face.
[3:09] Distorted audio and video.
[3:10] Video resumes with Alex walking towards his front door, opening it. Jay follows behind him, carrying a couple bags of tapes.
[3:15] Jay: I didn’t know you had this many of them but thanks for giving them to me. You got, uh, like lots of shots of wooded areas and stuff on here?
[3:22] Alex: Yeah, probably. Okay, look, I don’t wanna talk about this again, alright?
[3:27] Jay: I’m sure it’s not that bad.
[3:30] Alex: Jay, I’m not kidding. Don’t ever bring this up around me again.
[3:35] Jay: Okay.
[3:36] Alex: See you around.
[3:37] Jay: Goodbye.
[3:38] Jay leaves and Alex closes the door behind him. Alex watches out of the door for a moment and then grabs the camera and films Jay putting the tapes in his car through a window. There is a faint audio distortion heard from the time the door shuts.
[4:07] Alex goes outside to where Jay is standing by his car. The audio distortion continues.
[4:12] Alex: Hey, Jay, hold on.
[4:14] Jay: What is it?
[4:15] Alex rushes at Jay and attacks him. There’s the sound of a struggle before the video glitches out at 4:19. The audio distortion continues.
[4:22] Video returns to Jay rolling around on the grass with Alex standing over him. The video goes to a blue screen at 4:25.
[4:29] A heavily glitched picture of someone looking up with a shadow slowly covering their face. The color fades out of the picture and the audio distorts more at 4:35 before going blue again at 4:37.
[4:42] Normal video and audio return. Jay is laying face down in a field as Alex backs away from him. Audio distortion begins as Alex backs further away from Jay until he turns around and walks off.
[5:07] Shot through the windshield of a car at night until the screen cuts to black at 5:18.
[5:22] White text on screen: “This was when I originally got Alex’s tapes from him, which was almost 7 years ago.”
[5:33] White text on screen: “But it’s not right. It isn’t what I remember happening at all.”
[5:40] White text on screen: “Alex never attacked me. He gave me his tapes, I left, and that was it.”
[5:50] White text on screen: “If I don’t remember this correctly, what else could be wrong?”
[5:59] White text on screen: “What else has Alex caused me to forget?”
[6:09] Screen fades to black.
Main Theories and Observations
This entry contains the footage of Jay's meeting with Alex described in Jay's original Something Awful forum post.
Jay has no memory of being attacked by Alex after receiving the tapes.
Further Speculation
Someone was looking into the camera after Jay and Alex left the room. For a second it looked like Tim, but then again it could be Alex checking to make sure it's still recording. Seems he's eager to capture something (Operator?). ~iWantToBelieve.
It was Alex looking into the camera. I can tell by his clothes. He's definitely trying to catch TO. I'm not sure why Jay doesn't remember being attacked. What could have caused Jay to forget is a question that won't stop running through my mind. - TheHood
Could it possibly be the Operator that removed Jay's memories? In the past, Jay says he does not remember a lot of occasions in which TO appeared in, and the seven months lost from his memory in Season 2 was after a confrontation with the Operator. If Alex was allied with the Operator at this early stage, could Alex have possibly convinced (even ordered) TO to remove Jay's memories, to ensure that Jay only remembered what Alex wanted him to? It seems pretty likely to me. ~ NobodyIP
Why wipe that incident? It wasn't anything important. TO seems an unlikely suspect in this case. I believe it may have been Alex. If Alex was allied with TO this early on, it means he's a proxy. Now if I'm right proxies are known to do the bidding of TO, and Alex made the image on the camera turn static when he was checking it. So maybe Alex has inherited some ability. Although I suppose if Alex ordered or convinced TO as you suggested NobodyIP, it could possible mean that Alex is taking control of Jay in some way. Controlling what he remembers, shaping his actions. I need to see more footage before a full conclusion can be formed. - TheHood
I think it's safe to say that Jay has been an unreliable narrator in the course of the series. What else has he forgotten? Let's assume that totheark is Seth. Maybe Seth witnessed Jay being attacked, say he forgot something at Alex's house or wanted to help him pack. He ran away, not knowing what was going on, and probably encountered the Operator afterwards, making him forget the incident. Then Alex convinced him to help him defeat the Operator, after Seth became aware of it. And after Alex took him to the location in Entry 22, he decided to end his alliance with Alex, formed to defeat the Operatorbut Alex probably started it to get rid of the MArble Hornets crewand go out on his own. Then Jay came into the picture with the Marble Hornets channel on Youtube. Seth suddenly remembers the attack and tries to scare him away with the frightening early videos. Then he becomes furious as it becomes apparent that Jay does not remember the attack, and Jay gains Seth's sympathies and he decides to help him. And all of this is because of the Ark. Also this video suggests that Alex had "changed" long before he gave Jay the tapes, and was probably dangerous even then. Plus this provides a theory-the Operator brings the worst out of people, their deepest flaws and magnifies them tenfold. Maybe Alex was a sociopath/psychopath before all of this? I'm reading about those now. I'm gonna make a section in Theories dedicated to my suspicions. ~TallShadow
