Once upon a time, in the small kingdom of Bavaria, in what would become today a lander in the south of Germany, was born a quite important person. Louis of Wittelsbach, was born on the 25th of August 1845 in Bavaria, son of King Maximilian II of Bavaria and of Maria of Prussia. So, even though this may be just another story of another king that just got started, this one, however, will mark history in its very own way.

Let’s first place a setting to this story. Bavaria is now part of Germany, as what is called a lander, or a federal state, whose capital is Munich. It’s a nice area, Green with nature and absolutely stunning countryside, amazing lakes such as the Lake Constance or the lake starnberg, where we drink the most famous beer at the winter festival of Munich… and trust me, being half French and half British, even though it doesn’t sound like it, we don’t mess with beer. Anyway, some of my ancestors come from this area, in fact. But this is like that since Germany is reunified. But when Louis II was born, well, things were a little different.

For centuries, what we call Germany today was called the Holy Roman Empire, and, this was an elective monarchy composed of many duchy and kingdoms, who obeyed before to a sort of a high-king, or Emperor, who was elected once his predecessor died, by the reunion of all the head of states of various lands this area included. Basically, for any emperor or King, becoming the Holy Roman Emperor was THE title everybody wanted, and this led to many rivalries, as for example Charles V of Spain and Francis I of France. But, one day, the French Revolution struck, (to which you might say, French, not German, and you’d be right, indeed) and there was at this moment that emerged from this chaos, a Corsican guy named Napoleon Bonaparte. And, as I’m sure you guys know, was accountable for the hell of a mess in Europe. But, as much as the British people hated him back in the days, throughout his battles, Napoleon reshaped the European Political landscape. And as a result, managed to make the Holy Roman Empire collapse. But trust me, guys, we’re not gonna enter into the details as to why and how the Holy Roman Empire collapsed because… it’s gonna take us a couple of hours otherwise.

But long story short, now we had a problem, because the holy Roman Empire has fallen in 1806, with Napoleon’s help, and we had many duchies, kingdoms and other counties that gained sudden independence. All those were now reunified under the banner German Confederation, and Bavaria was in this confederation. Prussia was also part of the confederation, and was the most powerful country within this, and sort of alliance or confederation political system would look like, in certain ways, as to what the European Union is today. Whilst Napoleon managed to turn most of them into client states and playing funny games on making sure France would prevail and the rest obey, Napoleon’s reign came brutally to an end in 1815 when a coalition of nations defeated him at Waterloo, in present Belgium. Now, there were many counties and areas that were geographically numerous over Germany, and no central government to keep an eye on this beautiful mess. But, that wouldn’t last very long. At this moment, the period that is called the Concert of Nations would start, and this period would bring huge changes to Europe. Huge changes, but it also made quick changes: in Britain, for example, we started industrialising the country and the Industrial Revolution was booming. After all, all those nations were independent and recognised as independent countries but, for politicians at this moment, especially for those in the big states such as Britain, France, Prussia or Austria-Hungary, the main powers back in the days, those places were for grab and go. So, whilst everyone had the idea on reunifying this mess and making it a single kingdom, one of them proved to be more dangerous than the other. This guy’s name was Otto Von Bismark.

And Bavaria was one of those numerous kimgdoms where the threat of an imminent invasion from Prussia was holding, King Maximilian II, just like every kings, intended to be sure that his lineage would survive. So he had two heir, Ludwig, and Otto, Ludwig was the older and the future king once his father dies, and Otto the younger, or the spare. Maximilian wanted Ludwig to be prepared from an early age to his future functions, and as a result, placed him under a very strict regimen of study, and got used to all the formalities a future king must carry out. But this, just like many of the kids throughout Europe who were meant to become kings later in their future, this brought him a certain stress, stress that will take a certain toll in his future life. On top of that, Ludwig didn’t really have good relationships with his parents, as Maximilian and Marie of Prussia remained somewhat distant with him. One of the famous examples was when Maximilian was suggested by one of his advisors to spend more time with Ludwig, to which Maximilian would have replied, “But what am I to say to him? After all, my son does not take any interest in what other people tell him!” So that says a lot about the type of parents Louis actually had.

But, despite having questionable parents, Louis wasn’t truly unhappy as a child, even though he did not have the happiest childhood ever. As a teenager, His parents sent him to Hohenschwangau Castle, some sort of fairytales castle located near the Alp Lake that his father built. In this castle, he made friend with his aide de camp Prince Paul who was a member of another Bavarian wealthy family with whom he shared interests in poetry and, more importantly, in Richard Wagner’s operas. In modern days, I think we could easily call Louis II to Richard Wagner a groupie. He also had as a friend his cousin the Duchess Elizabeth of Wittelsbach, who would later be known as Sissi, and whom I will certainly write an episode in the future series. In some ways both of them will have very tragic lives and end of lives.

But, of course, the years of innocence would soon come to an end and our young Louis would face his responsibilities soon enough. His father died when he turned 19 and, as a result, he became the king. And as it was there those serious things started, and as he finally met his destiny, he was, in the grand scheme of things, not really prepared for taking office considering the challenges that were waiting for him, as being in charge of the Bavarian Throne was perhaps not the easiest job considering the overall political climate around. He may already have a government, a Prime minister, but our young King Louis was… let’s say, he had his head in the clouds. Amongst his very first royal decree was to summon Richard Wagner to his court, because, this was important, and this gave towards his government a relatively bad impression. Bad impression, from the government, yes, but not from the people: as he travelled throughout his kingdom, he was actually noted as being completely different from his father. He was more inclined to go to people, and had this tradition of gifting whomever was welcoming him and hosting him. Even, at the beginning of his reign, Louis II was nicknamed “our cherished king”, everybody loved him because, he was the good guy. So, the beginning of his reign was relatively what we could call a honeymoon.

Several things were waiting for Our Cherished King Louis, amongst which, the main one: Prussia. Certainly the most pressing one. What was happening was, as you remember the story of the ending of the Holy Roman Empire, things were going really messy on the diplomatic point of view in what was now Germany and two main actors, Prussia, from one part, led by Bismark, and Austria, led by Franz Joseph I, were now on the edge of war. But, of course, in war, you never go alone, you always need to bring up a few friends with you, both Prussia and Austria asked Bavaria, which was, back in the days, quite an influent, yet small state, for an alliance. Marie of Prussia being the mother of King Louis II, and given their quite bitter relationship, Louis II chose instead to fight for Austria, as Sissi, the much beloved cousin, was the wife of the Austrian Emperor. But we’ll come back to this war in a bit.

What is to remember, is that, generally, Louis couldn’t care less about politics. No, he loves arts. He loves Wagner. He loves simple pleasures. And he loves music, so, so much. And Louis also hates military and wars and battles.

But if it were only that! There was also this pressing concern: who would succeed him? Because not only he was young, but he was still single and had no heir apparent. And this would be a problem, because, if the king succession would be in some ways guaranteed by changing hands within the resourceful Wittelsbach family, this would still lead to an avoidable crisis, that would, in the grand scheme of things, benefit only one man: Bismark. And as the Royal Dating Services are a bit different than modern days, so many “candidates” were offered to him. Okay, when I say this, this looks like a competition, but in fact, kings were only married generally to secure political alliances. Probably a reason why they had mistresses, but generally, a marriage wasn’t because a man and a woman were in love. No. It’s all about politics, powers, and, unfortunately, history has many examples of that. As a matter of fact, Louis’ very own parents were an organised marriage. This may sound revolting today, but it was the unfortunate reality back in the days.

And that were causing certain headaches to our lovely Louis who certainly believed that, as a king, he could be free of his moves and could just enjoy Wagner’s music, with whom he became actually a good friend and a profound admirer. So, in order to make sure he could fulfil his royal duties and, thus, produce an heir, he married… I mean, married, I’d rather say became engaged to Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria, who was his cousin, and… And, yes, of course, this was normal back in the days. Family business, in a way.

But of course, there was still this little big problem: Sophie Charlotte and him were, let’s say, struggling. They got engaged in 1867, and, the problem was, Louis had more passion for Richard Wagner’s music rather than for his own future wife. Okay, she liked Wagner too, but perhaps not as much as her future husband. In a letter found later after his death, he wrote to her that “The main substance of our relationship has always been … Richard Wagner's remarkable and deeply moving destiny”. Damn… if one of my ex would have said that to me… anyway.

But, all the kingdom was hyped by what was to happen. Our Cherished King will get married, hallelujah! Wedding dates were announced and postponed… and postponed… until this month of October when it was announced to be finally cancelled. He actually wrote to her "My beloved Elsa! Your cruel father has torn us apart. Eternally yours, Heinrich." – and in case you’re wondering, Elsa and Heinrich are two names that they gave each other as this comes from Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. And yes, I know, Wagner, again. But, there’s gonna be a lot of him throughout this episode.

So, okay, he broke up with her, so now you may wonder, okay, why? Has he found better? Did he fall in love for someone else? Was this this lovely brunette he fell in love with whilst at the Opera listening to Richard Wagner’s latest single? Well, turns out that, no. No, in fact, this rupture had nothing to do with Sophie Charlotte at all, nor any other women. Louis II was not known to have any wife or mistresses, for the mere reason that, he was actually not at all into women. No. Louis II was in fact gay. So, I hear you guys, you may say that, “yeah, okay, he was gay, then what?” and, I would agree with you, being gay isn’t something that would have had a major impact on his life. Actually, I think that, today, it would probably have made a few headlines in some tabloids, but it wouldn’t have made a big drama, but remember, we are now in 1870. And, the influence of the Catholic Church is still present, especially in Bavaria. And back in the days, a gay man was unfortunately a big deal.

In fact, homosexuality was criminalised in nearly all European countries back in the days. And this came as the church, during the 1600’ age, wanted families across Europe to come back to more traditional family values. There were many gays around European Courts, for example the very own brother of King Louis XIV of France, Philippe d’Orleans, was himself openly gay. But things have changed, at least for France, during Napoleon’s Empire when Napoleon Bonaparte abolished the law criminalising homosexuality. The reason, one of his close lieutenants, named Cambaceres, who turned out to be born in Montpellier, just like me, was gay. But, despite, in France being legal, this remained highly controversial and, of course, gay people were made pariahs. And why I’m talking about France here, it’s because this country was the only in Europe, with Bavaria, to be the most legally tolerant towards homosexuality. So if being gay was not well tolerated across Europe, a gay king would be even less accepted, especially since being gay in Prussia was a criminal act.

So, of course, the fact that Louis II was gay and, of course, feared because of that, because of his position of king, would bring a big scandal. So, as a result, he tried to suppress his feelings his entire life. For that, he decided that, building castles were certainly a hobby to pass on the real priorities. In 1869, he laid the first stone of what would turn out to be his most iconic Castle, The Neuschwanstein Castle, (sorry if I don’t say it properly…) which will become iconic of his reign, and, is absolutely fabulous and worth the trip if one day you guys travel to Germany for holidays. This castle is actually nowadays reused mostly by Disney, and this was the place that he loved above everything. Louis had it decorated with fine furniture as well as absolutely stunning paintings, mostly representing the old German universe and mythology. But, Newscheanstein wasn’t the only castle, he also built the Linderhof castle, the Herrenchiemsee (again, sorry for the pronunciation… it took me forever to read those words during my researches), those became initiations of the Versailles Palace, as Louis II loved Louis XIV of France.

But above everything, our Cherished king was a groupie. Once coronated, Ludwig ordered his secretary to find this Taylor Victoria Holcroft. No, I’m joking guys… he was already subscribed to that channel, turned on all the notifications and he followed me on my Instagram already because he followed the links in description and checked on my website. No, the reality is, he asked his secretary to find Wagner, to whom the secretary replied, “Who is this guy?” Louis was surprised, he was like, come on, Wagner, the greatest composer of our times… and the reason why Wagner was not really known, was, this: during most of his life, the composer struggled. He struggled for recognition, because everybody found his operas too modern and, above all, too expensive. So, Wagner was, let’s say overwhelmed and like any artist struggling for recognition… something I can understand, wanted to end his life. He was certainly far from realising that a king would end up reaching him. Anyway, the secretary found eventually Wagner, and the two men eventually met.

And now Louis was happy. He could finally meet the man he cherished so much. Wagner, on the other hand, was also happy, he could finally find the wallet… I mean the man he also cherished so much. Louis decided to grant him a new house, in a fancy area of Munich, pay off all his debts, ensuring he could play in the best operas in Munich, and, more importantly, he granted Wagner the salary, like, the one. The one even higher than a minister. Of course, in the Bavarian society, struggling, this did not came as good news, because a man popped out of nowhere was just paid to compose music, and this would annoy a little. Wagner got hated as a result, and Louis… a bit less loved. And, to say the least, Wagner knew the passion this king had for him, and he used that to ask for even more, knowing that it was hard for Louis to refuse.

You know this friend whom you give something and they ask even more? Well, turns out that when Wagner wanted to move in his new house, entirely paid for by his cherished friend the King Louis, with his mistress, things turned sour very quickly. Remember, the Bavarian society was really pious and as a result, the ministers knew the scandal was to explode. Louis was given no other choice but to kick Wagner out of Munich, lay low in Switzerland for the time things would settle. Which Wagner would do. But seven years later, Wagner, once forgotten, would come back, and ask Louis to build him a theatre. Louis was initially reasonable and refused. But, Wagner knew how to convince: you know, if we don’t do it in Bavaria, perhaps America will be more interested, or Britain, or France…

So the theatre was built. But, Wagner grew old. And since, unfortunately for Louis, he was not eternal, he left Germany for Venice, to take some rest from his eventful life… and he died there. Upon learning the news, Louis was heartbroken. Literally heartbroken. He ordered his body to be returned to Bavaria to be buried. However, Louis would not assist to the funerals. But this event will change him for the years to come, and would certainly make things worse as they were already. Because, not only Louis mourned his friend the composer Wagner, but he mourned the humankind in its entirety.

His lifestyle completely changed: he started sleeping during the day and living during the night. He was going to the opera alone, and when the opera was finished, he asked comedians not to come for the farewell, but instead to just leave as if nothing happened so he could continue his fairy tale alone in his head. He also organised dinners in his castles where he was alone and had long, endless conversations with Marie-Antoinette of France, who died years ago and whom he dearly cherished… or he was going by night for long jouneys on a sleigh. One of his eccentricities, for example, was on his bed: it took two years for an expert in lights to design the perfect light to bring him a moonlight so he could sleep properly.

But the opera remained his greatest passion. According to various records, he had more than 200 private performances, in fact. This wasn’t actually due to the fact that he had an aversion for the humanity, but the mere reason why he wanted to be alone at the opera was mostly because of who he was and his position as a king. He in fact complained to the Actor-Manager of the theatre Ernst Possat that “I can get no sense of illusion in the theatre so long as people keep staring at me, and follow my every expression through their opera-glasses. I want to look myself, not to be a spectacle for the masses.” The entire sum spent for the private spectacles started costing a whooping 100,000 marks in total, making indeed a considerable amount of money.

But, of course, money is not unlimited. And Louis II had a quite expensive lifestyle. But Louis wanted to pay himself the bill for everything, which was very noble from him, and also made him quite popular amongst his people. But, he may be the king and may be rich, all his pet projects, lifestyle, private performances, started to make a considerable sum, and Louis started borrowing. In fact, in 1885, his personal debt was of about 14 million marks. So, his plan was to keep borrowing, ideally to European royalties, which, of course, you might say, his cabinet would disagree, fearing that it would escalate the perilous financial situation where Bavaria was at that moment. And it’s here that Louis’ downfall was to start.

Bavarian was a constitutional monarchy. Like the United Kingdom is today. What that means, is that, the King is here pretty much as a symbol, but he does not hold power. The power is reserved to his cabinet, whom the king can change as he wishes. Or… at least he can decide who is in his cabinet. So, as his personal debt grew, the cabinet recommended to him that he should start saving money, by putting on hold his projects. But Louis didn’t care. No, he started even bigger ones, contributing the Bavaria to be in a financial disastrous situation, even worse than it already was.

Because, building castles, going to the opera alone or living during the night is a thing, but being a king is another, and as the relationship between himself and his cabinet turned sour, things went really bad and led him to a struggle of power. You remember the war between Prussia and Austria? Well, turns out that his cabinet pushed him to enter in the war to help Austria. Turns out that Austria lost the war, and that led to some dramatic consequences: Bismark, fierce winner of the war, now started to plan the reunification of Germany, under a single flag and a single country. That led to a strong loss of independence for Bavaria, and of course, Bavarian, who were pretty conservative and patriotic, didn’t really like that new mess. But since the cabinet was alone to make decisions and the king was elsewhere, or at least not concerned by what was going on in his kingdom, they negotiated with Bismark and Prussia to manage to keep their independence. They were however forced, at the outcome of the war, to sign a treaty and enter the North German Confederation, in order to fight with Prussia should the need arise.

But of course, in order to keep a semblance of independence, the cabinet, represented by the Count Otto Von Brey-Steinburg, managed to secure a special agreement with the confederation, saving the monarchy, retaining its own diplomatic corps and its army. And that would become soon important since Prussia had views on France, and was utterly fed up with Napoleon III’s provocations. Forced to fight alongside Prussia, Louis was forced to engage in this war. Forced, because Louis loved France. He loved the Versailles Palace, he loved the French monarchy. And he hated army and wars and everything that comes to it. The war was won by Prussia, and had Napoleon III deposed, leading in France to some profound changes as the Third Republic started, and Louis II was profoundly disappointed, and this became certainly the event that triggered the decline of his mental health, and contributing to his isolation and to the fact that, now, the main priority of his cabinet was to get rid of him.

But, Louis was still highly popular. And we cannot get rid of a king like that. The problem was, Louis II changed. At the beginning of his reign, he was a slim and very handsome young man, and at the end, problems started to accumulate. He was morbidly obese, had insomnia and a poor dental hygiene, had frequent headaches, was paranoid and, of course, was alcoholic and, pretty delusional. What is mostly believed today was that, Louis was certainly the wrong person at the wrong moment.

So the cabinet took in total secrecy the decision to act: Louis’s brother, Otto, was clearly unfit to reign as he also struggled with mental disorders, certainly worse than Louis’s own problems. Knowing that the King’s place would soon have a vacancy, they started plotting with Prince Luitpold, Louis’ uncle, in order to become the future king once Louis was deposed. But, deposing him was the problem… or… it wasn’t actually one: the cabinet hired a college of four psychiatrist, led by dr Von Gudden. Without seeing Louis, and based on testimonies they heard as well as family background, the diagnosis was set: Louis II of Bavaria is paranoid and therefore unfit to reign. They would have in June 1886 the final report ready, stating that Suffering from such a disorder, freedom of action can no longer be allowed and Your Majesty is declared incapable of ruling, which incapacity will be not only for a year's duration, but for the length of Your Majesty's life. Acting accordingly, and as per the constitution of Bavaria, the Cabinet ruled the end of his reign and his deposition as the evidence they needed to terminate his reign was there. Now, it was all about arresting him.

And that would be quickly done.

At 4 am on the 10th  of June 1886  a group of soldiers led by the cabinet and the prime minister located Louis II. He was in his castle, Newschwanstein. The thing was, what was happening in the cabinet was not really kept secret, and King Louis got informed by one of his servants of what was happening, so, as a result, he ordered the local police to protect him. During the standoff, Louis was of course taken aback, and now alone. He still had friends, like Sissi or his cousin, Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria, so he sent him a telegram to try to find a solution to the ongoing situation he was facing, but this time, it was too late. But of course, this was already planned that Louis would try to reach out to his cousin and therefore, Luitpold ensured that Ludwig Ferdinand was locked up in Nymphenburg Palace, to make it harder for him to act. Two days of hard standoff, when the army was stationed in front of Neuschwanstein and Louis inside, perhaps his fortress became a nightmare, but at the same time, things were changing in Munich, and not the way he wanted.

Problem was, the cabinet already proclaimed Luitpold as a prince regent and, as a result, Louis released this statement: The Prince Luitpold intends, against my will, to ascend to the regency of my land, and my erstwhile ministry has, through false allegations regarding the state of my health, deceived my beloved people, and is preparing to commit acts of high treason. ... I call upon every loyal Bavarian to rally around my loyal supporters to thwart the planned treason against the King and the fatherland.

But his calls for help didn’t reach. In fact, even though those words were published, the government made everything they could to make sure this would not get published and, the few that were out for release would be destroyed and not remain in history. Understanding that it was the end, understanding that trying to escape would be vain and, either way, was too late, Louis got finally captured at midnight by a squad making their way inside the castle and… by 4 am he got dragged to a carriage. But Von Gudden was there. As he was outside, he asked him, “how can you declare me insane? After all, you never examined me?” To which Von Gudden replied “it was unnecessary; the documentary evidence [the servants' reports] is very copious and completely substantiated. It is overwhelming.” As a matter of fact, Von Gudden met Louis once at the beginning of his reign. But not during the investigation on his state of his mental health.

Either way, everything was already settled for Louis, who was now meant to go to to the Berg Castle on the shores of Lake Starnberg, South of Munich, for his treatment. Everything was already set up, a special room for Louis, a heavy guard, should a rebellion of this special patient would come to try to help him to escape… but if Louis was famous for his castles and Neuschwanstein, it’s certainly this moment that will make him enter history.

It is the 13th of June 1886. On the morning, Louis was now acclimated to his new condition, but seemed quiet, didn’t make any fuss. In fact, he was mostly sleeping. As he woke up at the beginning of the afternoon, Von Gudden came to him and the two man spoke. Louis asked, I would like to go for a walk, and they eventually went for a walk together, escorted by two attendants, and as they came back for dinner, Von Gudden and Ludwig were more, let’s say optimistic towards the situation. And as Louis asked for going to another walk before the night, Von Gudden accepted.

After all, the pair seemed to have talked all afternoon, and seemed to get along quite well. So, at 6pm, after dinner, they went together for another walk, but this time, Von Gudden made a specific request on those terms: No attendant may walk with us. After all, there was no sign of evident threat since Louis and Von Gudden seemed fine together, getting along well, and, after all, what would an eventual problem be? So Von Gudden said that, they should be back by eight o’clock for going to bed, and said that they were going to what is today the Shloss Berg Parkland. At 6.30, the pair is seen departing the area.

7 o’clock. 7.30. 8 o’clock. No one is back. So now, the aide saw no one coming back, and, considering the importance of the person who was here now, the alarm was quickly triggered, and the entire staff around the castle started searching. And it was a very difficult night. It was raining, it was actually windy with heavy rain and it didn’t play in favour of the staff. But, it wouldn’t take very long before a chilly discovery would be made.

At 10.30pm, Louis is found, head down and shoulders above the shallow water of the lake. Dead. His watch stopped at 6.54, and, after further investigations, the gendarmes or patrols nearby did not notice anything suspicious. Von Gedden is found a bit further away, also dead.

So, what happened to him? Well, to this day, we still don’t know. An autopsy was carried out on Louis’ body later on and a suicide by drowning was highlighted, despite the fact that, Louis did not show any suicidal behaviour in the past, and Louis was himself a quite strong swimmer. But the fact that Von Gudden’s body was found with traces of fight, such as blow to the head and neck and was apparently strangulated highlighted a different version of the story. Louis wasn’t known to be a violent person, which is what doesn’t make sense. And from there, many theories started to pop in everybody’s mind. Has he been murdered by someone? Many people heard a gunshot around the park as they left, however this doesn’t seem to be brought with evidence since no signs of bullet has been found in neither Louis or Von Gudden’s body. Has Louis tried to escape? It could explain why Von Gudden had blows on his head and neck, but it seems unlikely since the area was surrounded by police and made any attempt of escape nearly impossible.

What may most likely have happened to this date is the theory that Louis had a heart attack or a stroke as he entered cold water after a quite copious dinner. But, this will remain a mystery for the years to come. He was forty.

Either way, Louis’s death came as a dark day for Bavaria since he was very popular and, he lay in state in Munich before being interred to the Saint-Michael Church. It’s on this note that, Here we are, at the end of a narrative that winds through the fairytale castles and shadowed corridors of Louis II of Bavaria’s life. A man dubbed the ‘Fairy Tale King,’ but whose story ended far from happily ever after. His grand architectural visions stand as monolithic question marks, pondering the complexities of a man who, in many ways, was a riddle unto himself. Did he lose himself in dreams and opulence, or was he a misunderstood genius, at odds with the political manipulations of his time? His death in the waters of Lake Starnberg remains an unsolved mystery, much like the enigma of Louis II himself. In the grand scheme of things, we’re left to wonder how much of him was a king, and how much was a captivated soul in a world of his own creation. As you reflect on this episode, let your imagination roam through the halls of Neuschwanstein Castle or the verses of Wagner, and I invite you to share your thoughts in the comment section below. Could your insights shine a light on a dark corner of this intriguing tale? Until our next rendezvous with the enigmatic and the inexplicable, keep your minds open and your eyes keen. See you in the next episode, fellow seekers of the unknown.