| ATTENTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!! This article contains information from later episodes of The Magnus Archives and may contain major spoilers for the setting and plot. Continue at your own risk. |
Gerard Keay is a distinctly goth-looking young man who frequently appears in connection with the supernatural. He is the son of Mary Keay and Eric Delano.
Description[]
Gerard has been described as pale and thin, with long, (badly) dyed black hair. He frequently wears a long, dark leather coat. Sometime between 2009 and 2011, he acquires small tattoos of eyes over all his joints and his heart.[1]
History[]
On his mother’s side, Gerard is a descendant of the Von Closens.[2] Gerard never knew his father, Eric Delano, as Mary Keay killed him when Gerard was 2 years old and bound him in the book of the dead. She raised him on her own and was not a caring mother.
His education in the supernatural starts early and he grows to hate Jurgen Leitner for his mother’s obsession with his books. Mary runs Pinhole Books in Morden, but they rarely stay in London for more than a month at a time. They often travel for her job as a rare bookseller and her interest in the supernatural. This causes Gerard to become isolated from his peers and he has no close friends.
Gerard tries to run away a few times but feels out of place in the “real” world and always comes back to Mary in the end. He eventually tries to find a place for himself in his mother’s world and throws himself into her work. He hunts Leitners for her and even manages to find a few. It is always the books that she is happy to see though, not him.[3] In 2002, Gerard helps Harold Silvana, Rachel Turley and Alfred Bartlet find the catacombs beneath Pall Mall. Once he has grabbed a Leitner, he flees the scene.[4]
As he grows older, he starts to see the truth of his mother’s hubris, that she is chasing an untameable power for her own petty ends. Their relationship quickly degrades once he no longer has any desire to partake in her work or to carry on her legacy.
Gerard believes this is what pushes Mary to finally attempt to take full control of the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead by binding herself to it. In September 2008, he finds her in the shop, having partially skinned herself. She entreats him to help her finish the binding but Gerard panics and flees the scene. He becomes the primary suspect once the police find her corpse but the case is eventually judged a mistrial after Mary Keay manifests and takes back the book, contaminating the evidence.[5][3] Mary blames Gerard for her imperfect binding and damaged state, and he is tormented by her for the next five years. He takes what little revenge he can whenever her form fades for a few days, destroying books and leads, or even fleeing to far-away places.
In 2009, Andrea Nunis encounters a young man matching Gerard’s description in Genoa, Italy. He warns her that she is marked and tells her to keep her mother's face in her mind. This later helps her escape from ensnarement by The Lonely.[6]
On December 23rd, 2011, Gerard and Diego Molina are taken to St. Thomas' Hospital for severe burns. When Diego starts chanting to invoke the Lightless Flame, Gerard kills him. A few days later, he is discharged into his mother's care.[1]
In the winter of 2012, Dominic Swain brings Ex Altiora to Pinhole Books and shows it to Mary Keay. Later, Gerard tracks him down and burns Ex Altiora after purchasing it for £5000.[5]
Around 2013, he meets Gertrude Robinson and she offers to free him from Mary. He gives her the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead and she manages to destroy Mary’s page, but unbeknownst to Gerard, she also learns how to make new pages. They team up and start working together, researching how to stop The Unknowing.
Sometime in 2014, Gerard manages to track down Jurgen Leitner and assaults him. Upon seeing Leitner’s pathetic response, he becomes convinced that it cannot be Leitner and leaves without killing him.
Later that year, he is travelling with Gertrude as they research the Unknowing. They track several false leads, visiting France and New Zealand, before following a lead to the US.
Gerard has a massive seizure when they are in Pittsburgh and is taken to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. He soon has another seizure and passes away from an untreated brain tumour. Gertrude breaks into the morgue and binds him to the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead, which necessitates mutilating his body.[1][7] She is arrested but talks her way out of being charged with anything. She leaves the book behind as she returns to the UK and it sits in evidence storage for almost a year before disappearing.
The book eventually ends up with the hunters Julia Montauk and Trevor Herbert. They use it to question Gerard about the monsters they are hunting, utilising him as their personal monster manual.
On June 30th, 2017, Trevor and Julia allow Jonathan Sims to use the book to talk to Gerard. Being bound to the book is existentially painful and John agrees to destroy his page in exchange for a statement. Gerard tells him his life’s story and explains much about the Entities before confiding that he has always wanted his friends to call him Gerry.
John manages to hide Gerry’s page from the hunters and brings it back to the UK.[3] In August 2017, as he prepares to stop the Unknowing, John finally burns the page, at last freeing Gerry.[8]
Known Powers[]
- Knowing - Gerard has demonstrated some capacity for Knowing. In MAG 12, he Knows the code to a supply closet and in MAG 48 he detects that Andrea Nunis has been targeted by the Lonely.
Episode Appearances[]
Bold marks episodes where Gerard has given a statement.
| Appearances |
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Trivia[]
- Gerard is described as a talented artist by Mary Keay, having painted an elaborate painting of an eye which incorporates the Lichtenberg figure.[5]
- Writer Jonny Sims has stated that, despite some similarities, Gerard Keay was not deliberately based on Gerard Way.[9]