Unknown 9: Out of Sight is an audio drama created by Reflector Entertainment, produced by Gideon Media, and written by Jessica Kincaid. It premiered on August 28, 2020 with three episodes, and is one part of Reflector Entertainment's wider Unknown 9 "story world", along with a comic book, novel and video game.
Blake Elrich is an urban explorer who investigates the inexplicable and unexplained. After having one of these strange encounters, he began a podcast named Out of Sight with his partner and producer, Lazari, where the two travel across the country looking into cases concerning strange phenomena given to them on message boards.
Across their journey, they get a peek into the strange and supernatural, while encountering all manner of people. Blake also hints that Lazari's nature — her distorted voice on the podcast and the strange way she is perceived (or not) by others — is tied into whatever is going on.
Unknown 9: Out of Sight contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Human: Lazari sounds human, aside from the distortion in her recorded voice, and uses human slang, and when people see her they don't really bat an eye. However, she can also seemingly cloak herself from being perceived and make people forget her. It's left ambiguous how intentional this is, or why Blake has no issues seeing her.
- Cult: The inhabitants of an apartment complex in Seattle who worship the rectangular hole in the basement of their building. They discuss hearing things that the listener can't hear, talk about its feelings and want to offer themselves to it. May overlap with Cargo Cult, if the thing is inanimate or not. If it even exists.
- Invisible to Normals: Lazari, kind of. It seems that only Blake is able to see her consistently, while nobody else can until she actively prompts them in some way, such as by talking to them.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In "The Elevator", Lazari and Blake meet with two paranormal investigators. Afterwards, when they meet with Blake one final time before he leaves, Lazari shows up and they don't recall meeting her prior to that meeting.
- Mysterious Past: The podcast alludes to Lazari's past and why she is the way she is at least once per episode. She is obsessed with the unexplained just like Blake, had some event in her past that made her the way she is and it's implied her curiosity is what set said event in motion. Whatever's up with her is also tied into the wider mystery, given how drawn she is to the mysterious pyramid that Lindsay gives to her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "The Hole", Blake and Lazari's visit to the eponymous hole and then fleeing the cultists results in the landlord of the apartment complex the hole is in joining said cult, and then the disappearance of said cult afterwards.
- The Noodle Incident: Blake makes mention of a strange incident in his past that turned him onto investigating these things, while later also alluding to Lazari's weird nature and how they met. It seems the two stories are connected, especially since Blake can see Lazari consistently unlike everyone else and implies "The Hole" is his first encouner with the unexplained aside from his first, but he doesn't explain.
- Older Than They Look: Blake says this almost word for word when describing how Lazari can pass as a typical college student.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The pyramid that Lindsay makes that Lazari holds does weird things to her and makes her obsessed with getting it, and she seems to be in a trance when she holds it.
- Secret-Keeper: Whatever's up with Lazari, Blake says it's her story to tell and not his.
- Show Within a Show: The podcast contains an in-universe podcast that goes by the same name, omitting the "Unknown 9" part — Out of Sight. It's a paranormal podcast about Blake and Lazari's adventures that uses a documentary style, and also acts as the framing device for the actual podcast.
- The Social Expert: Blake suggests that Lazari is good with people after she effortlessly gets Lindsay to open up to them.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Blake Elrich, who investigates supernatural phenomena that seems connected to an eldrich abomination.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: The father of Lindsay — a high school cheerleader who has suddenly taken to creating strange art — has this reaction when Blake and Lazari question him about her pieces. He's very casual about the sheer creepiness of most of her work, because he just sees it as outsider art that can be sold for high amounts.
- Vanilla Protagonist: In-universe, Blake lampshades that he is one himself, and is there to tell the stories of the people involved in the strange goings-on that he looks into.Blake: I'm not nearly as interesting as the stories I'm here to tell.
- Weirdness Magnet: Blake, though he goes out of his way to have it happen to him by asking for cases on weird message boards. He's hounded by cases that, despite what they appear, are not mundane — they are clearly supernatural once investigated, and it seems to have all started with however he met Lazari.
- Wham Line:
- In "The Hole", Blake goes to talk to the landlord of the apartment where the eponymous hole is to learn more about it before he goes to see it. The landlord's reaction? There is no hole.
- In "The Nightmare Artist", when Lindsay is told by Blake and Lazari that her uncle, Trevor, sent them to her, she responds with "I don't have an Uncle Trevor", which is what kicks the idea of a long-term mystery into high gear.
