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Jonathan Sims is an absolute disaster, but he is Martin’s raison d'être. The primary aspects I will focus on as far as impact heavily lean on later seasons, as the first year they work together passes by with Martin making eyes and a damned fine cup of tea for a man that acts like he can’t stand him. Their relationship is a trauma-fueled slow-burn; it takes three seasons for John to openly react to the office gossip of Martin having feelings for him. Of course, it’s on the Eve of the Unknowing; a ritual that John plans to put a stop to. Melanie and Martin are to stay back to distract Elias, while John, Tim, Daisy, and Basira do the dirty work of blowing up a wax museum.

In the same episode (Mag 117: Testament), Martin states with frustration that he has lived his life afraid, though in this case, it isn’t for himself. He’s tired of being passive, of letting life happen to him with little say, but this time he has a plan. He wants Elias to pay for the harm he has caused John (and the team, but it is blatantly obvious where his priorities lie) and doesn’t care if it hurts him in the process. At face value, the plan is a distraction, but Martin is more than aware of what Elias can do from what he did to Melanie. He actively uses himself as bait, knowing it will hurt a lot. His plan does work, and Elias is arrested but the spoils of victory are short-lived.

After the team's combined efforts to stop the Stranger's Ritual, John was left in a medically impossible coma. Tim is gone, Daisy is missing. Martin, whose innocent office crush had fully blossomed into love, mourned the loss of both John and his mother, who passed two months after John was brought to the hospital. To add to this grief, the Institute had become a target for those who served the other Fears, as they viewed the Eye as a threat rather than a neutral, voyeuristic nonstarter. The trailer for season 4 takes place after a particularly gruesome attack, with Martin tearfully pleading for John to wake up. A call interrupts their one-sided conversation, leading to another, more troubling one. He quickly composes himself to strike a deal with Peter Lukas, under the pretense that his compliance would ensure the team’s safety. He apologizes to John once the call ends and tells him goodbye. There is a sense of finality to it.

It’s not bravery that has Martin agreeing to help Peter Lukas by refining an already natural affinity for The Lonely. He feels he has nothing to live for, so while his efforts could be useful, it could also just be an easy way to die.

John wakes up from a six-month coma, despite all odds… and Martin suddenly has a reason again. This theme of self-sacrifice is recurring in their relationship. There is a difference in how guilt guides the two of them; for John, it’s a matter of atoning for the monster he believes himself to be, and for Martin, it’s to save the man he believes John yet to be. To keep Peter’s attention off of John (much like he did with Elias before the Stranger’s Ritual), Martin obliges Peter’s insistence that he commit to truly isolating himself from the others while slipping statements and tapes around the office to help offer guidance, the best he could (if it wasn’t the Lonely, Martin would have definitely become an avatar for the Web with his tendency to gently manipulate a situation).

It comes to a head when, in the throes of his isolation, Peter moves their plan ahead only to be confronted by Elias. Martin, absolutely over being a pawn for someone else’s ego, refuses to kill him (even though he wants to), and, in a fit of pique, Peter casts Martin into The Lonely. While he had tipped off John to what was about to happen, John didn’t arrive in time to stop the banishment. Scared and knowing he might die, he willingly goes into the Lonely to find Martin and bring him back. The most depressing love confession ever happens, but an underlying factor in their bond is explained. They act as anchors to one another, reminding them of who they are beneath the influence of their Patrons. He knows John better than he knows himself, and to not have that focal point would be damning.

There are too many, but one in particular weighs on his shoulders more than the rest. They’d escaped to Daisy’s safe house after John dragged Martin from the Lonely, and for a few weeks, he and John lived in a rosy glow of domesticity. There were a few caveats to this arrangement; as Archivist, John needed Statements to survive and didn’t want to take them directly from people. Basira did her part by slipping statements from the archive to the cabin’s PO Box in town. At this point, Martin was the one trusted enough to be around other people to fetch them and run errands.

He’d allowed himself to get too comfortable. John had asked him if she’d mentioned sending tapes along with her latest drop – and while Martin didn’t recall her saying anything like that, he had jokingly dismissed it, suggesting that it might’ve been her way to give him a varied diet. Knowing he was due for a Statement, Martin excused himself from the cabin, claiming it was for John’s privacy and not the discomfort that came from understanding what truly sustained him.

It was while he was out taking a walk in the Scottish countryside that John settled down to read what he thought was a standard-grade, genuine Statement. The “statement” was a ruse, orchestrated by Elias/Jonah to trick John into acting as the linchpin of the Eye’s Ritual. Because of his ties to his Patron, John was unable to stop the incantation once he started, and when it was finished, the world was plunged into chaos and terror.

Martin blames himself for not being present and for condemning billions to endure their worst nightmare to appease the Eye. He blames himself for letting his guard down, for not vetting Statements before they were passed on to John. Elias was a significant enough danger that they’d hidden in a remote village in Scotland, and yet, he’d naively believed they were safe (enough) from his reach. Even if Martin, with his partial alignment to the Eye – read that incantation verbatim, likely, the Ritual would not have succeeded. He had been groomed for the Lonely, while John had essentially been curated to become the Archive of Fear itself, marked by the 14 through his time with the Institute (the latter was a necessary part of The Watcher’s Crown successfully kicking off).

He'd have burned that statement like he had years ago, just to spite Elias again.

I like the idea of the Lonely clinging to him through the jump – and the one area strongly resembling his Patron’s Domain is the Yawning Sea. He is naturally drawn to the allure of quiet solitude, isolation, and indulgent guilt. It is that perfect storm of guilt and unknown effect on this new world that will have Martin wary. Sacrifices were made in the world that he knew before this one, that he is reminded of whenever he looks at John. The guilt he harbors for having to untether the Fears from their world in the vague hope it would leave those that had been tortured a chance to rebuild is an immense and crippling thing.

He wants, desperately, to just accept that they got lucky, that any of the hundreds of realities potentially touched by these Entities will have centuries before they can gain enough influence to even have a chance of breaching into the population residing there. He wants to be happy – which only perpetuates his guilt. The danger of him getting in his car and just driving until there’s an empty tank to accompany vast, empty expanses of a post-apocalyptic land is very real.

Martin has never seen himself as much of a leader, but he is very good at acting as support. The last several years of his life have been spent navigating active threats to the Institute, John, and the world as he knew it. He’s adept at surviving and has spent an indeterminate amount of time walking through a literal hellscape. He would find it fulfilling to help those who are less inclined to handle horrible scenarios – he is very good at putting himself into perilous situations for the greater good.

That makes him sound like he’s not a contender for The Web. He’s not above being dishonest or manipulative to get a situation to go his way. Looting? He’ll feel a tug of remorse for doing it, but if it means they have supplies to handle the grimdark scenarios scattering their second chance, he’ll do it. Employment? He lied on his CV in his early 20s to get a job at a spooky Institute. He is slightly more confident now than he was back then. If he can survive the apocalypse, he can charm his way onto someone’s payroll.