This week’s episode, “All That Josh” was The Magicians season 3’s musical – and like all good musicals, there were soloists, joy, sorrow, and a rousing all cast number that made us excited to return after the one week intermission. And we got a very Josh-centric episode, with a bonus side of Todd! So, let’s dive into the recap and review.
As always, spoilers (but again, it’s a week later – I hope you are caught up by now).
Don’t Rain on My Parade
Kady and Q return to Brakebills, lamenting the fact that the Mirror Bridge was destroyed with Victoria and Harriet still on it. Kady accuses Alice, who is already back in the Physical Kids cottage, of knowing about it but not doing anything. She wants to use the Truth Key to see if Penny made it back, but when she tries to call to him, nothing happens. In the meantime, Q pulls out the quest book; since they secured the fourth key from the library book, it’s ready to give them more direction.
But the direction they receive is not really what they are expecting – it’s several pages that fold out that look like they are written in code. They are right, to a certain extent – it’s actually a medieval musical score. Alice tries to play it on the piano, and can’t figure out why it doesn’t make sense – Kady points out that in medieval times, the scale started with A, not C.
She starts playing the melody and to their surprise, a rockin’ party breaks out behind them in the Physical Kids cottage. They also find, much to their chagrin, that the piano, their current keys, and the book have all disappeared. They don’t recognize any of the party goers, save for one – Todd!
But they are soon in for a surprise, because it seems that Todd is merely there to introduce the host – Josh! And Josh is living it up as much as he did back in Fillory and at Bacchus’s party earlier in the season. Bong in hand, he leads a dance and song number to “Don’t Know What You Got Til It’s Gone,” complete the background dancers, table dancing and a slide down the bannister.
While Alice and Q look confused, Kady is just annoyed that they are wasting time at this party. She tries to leave, but every exit has been replaced with a painting of Josh in some form or another. Josh tells them to relax, all they have to do is keep the vibe going, and all is well. When Alice brings the mood down by not understanding the party slang, all of the background dancers/party goers creepily stop dead in their tracks to stare at the newcomers.
Todd clarifies things for Alice, noting that as long as everybody keeps up the fun, they’ll stop being weird and threatening. Plus…here, there’s magic. Josh and Todd offer them joints, and to the delight of the party goers, they magic a flying ship from the smoke. Todd and Josh approve, pleased that Kady, Q, and Alice are getting into the spirit of things.
But the only type of magic they can do is party tricks, as they learn when Kady is unsuccessful at blowing a hole in the wall for them to escape. She’s getting increasingly frustrated that all they are doing is sitting around drinking, disagreeing with Q that maybe this is part of the quest. She even accuses Alice of orchestrating this whole thing as a method of subterfuge for the quest on behalf of the Library. Q tries to get her to have a drink to calm down, but Kady knocks the glass out of his hand, effectively bringing the party to a halt once again.
This time, however, the party attendees act on our questers downing the vibe – they start to attack Kady and Q, only to be stopped by Alice singing Happy Birthday. The three realize that they need to get Josh alone to talk to him about what the hell is going on – Alice offers to seduce him into going upstairs with her, while Kady entertains the weirdos at the party. Q will lie in wait upstairs for when Alice brings Josh.
And a hell of a show Kady puts on. Magic-ing herself into a glittery gold dress, she sings a sultry version of “All I Need Now is the Boy,” with Todd even correcting what key should sing it in (he has a thing for the key of E). After stripping down to an adorable bralette and garters, she starts dancing and singing behind a shadow screen. The screen allows her to cast an illusion that it is still her, while she heads upstairs to talk to Josh and the gang.
While Kady is getting her groove on, Alice has coaxed Josh upstairs with the promise of sexy time. He’s rather disappointed to find Q awaiting him instead. They tie him to a chair to talk to him, and notice the piano and book are now in the room. But they are confused because Josh shouldn’t have a room in the Physical Kids cottage – he’s a Naturalist. Josh gets a little bitter at that point, noting that’s the only thing they know about him. He called and texted them repeatedly after Bacchus’s party to continue helping with the quest, but only Julia ever responded to him. They try to defend themselves by bringing up the fact that he abandoned them in Fillory, but Josh points out that it was based on cowardice, rather than indifference. He also tells them that it doesn’t matter now, magic is back, so no need to do a quest and get to know one another.
But he’s quickly proven wrong when he can’t magic himself out of his ropes. Alice tries to convince him that this isn’t life, and the longer he stays there, the less likely he is to want to leave. Kady, on the other hand, could care less what Josh does and just wants to know how they got there, so that they can leave. Josh shares that after a few weeks of realizing that they ditched him (after they found the book to start the quest), he returned to Bacchus’ party, which was still going strong. Disillusioned, because apparently being ditched is a lifelong thing for Josh (from friends and family), he’s leaving the party when he’s stopped by Todd, of all people. Todd managed to get them into this magical place using the Fifth Key, which means he’s had it the whole time they’ve been there.
Josh initially questions Todd as to how magic can be back if he has one of the keys, and that he should let his friends know, but Todd warns him not to ruin the vibe with all that logic, or face the wrath of the party goers. Josh lets it go rather quickly, because a) he’s vulnerable and hurt, and b) because it was still magic, just evolved.
But before the gang can get much further into what has happened, they realize that the music from Kady’s illusion has stopped – it seems that Todd (or un-Todd, because this can’t possibly be the real Todd) has discovered her trick, which, of course, ruins the vibe of the party. They need Josh to buy them some time, because the quest brought them there for a reason. Alice finally realizes that they aren’t dealing with the real Todd, but with something that brought them there to provide pleasure and happiness and “vibe,” as it were.
While Josh leads a conga line, Alice shares with Q and Kady that the fake Todd is a tramasseur, a demon who creates a pocket world where all of one’s fantasies come true, and then feeds off of that happiness. Which seems appropriate for both him and Josh – he feeds off of joy, and Josh’s fantasy was to be loved, which he was by all of the party goers. They are still confused as to why a demon would have the key and how he got it in the first place. But Q points out that the book brought them there for a reason, so the key must still be here.
As their contemplating where it could be, Kady remarks about the song Josh is singing – it’s not in the key of E, which is the key Todd asked Kady to perform in earlier. And suddenly, the light bulbs go off as they realize the key is in the piano in the key of E. Since E is the fifth key on a piano from the A note.
Retrieving the key, a neon sign appears in the room with a newly formed door, telling the questers how to exit.
Do You Believe in Magic?
Luckily for the gang, back at the real Physical Kids cottage, the piano, book and keys all still exist, and are there when Julia and Fen return from Irene’s house. They are still arguing about whether or not to help Skye, the fairy – Fen is convinced all fairies are evil, and while it’s terrible she got her leg cut off, she’s not helping Skye. Besides, they couldn’t possibly be enslaved, since they can do magic on their own. Julia, however, is still just as adamant that something is different about the fairies here on Earth.
Fen refuses to help further, so Julia goes to see Skye alone, using the Truth Key to make her visible. She tries to get Skye to understand that the McAllisters have been using her, but Skye insists that the magicians protect her – fairies can’t do magic. Julia offers to show her that she can do magic, which would prove that Irene has been lying to her.
Meeting Julia and Fen in the lab at Irene’s later that day, Julia attempts to help Skye do magic, much to Fen’s annoyance. Julia tries to get her to produce magic through the finger tutting, but Fen points out that fairies are magic – they don’t have to access it. They just…do it. Julia instead asks Skye to imagine a flower growing out of the palm of her hand, and picturing it in the real world.
Skye manages to start a small flower, but before she can get very far, her skin starts to crack, and she begins bleeding from the eyes and mouth. The McAllisters have the fairies wearing necklaces that cause them to start dying if they try to do magic, knowing that the enslavement would be over if fairies discovered the truth. So, literally, it’s like a yoke around their necks.
Julia manages to freeze time, and thus stop the dying process, but as she’s doing so, her eyes glow gold, similar to how they did when she discovered that she had the seed of a god in her after Reynard raped her. But this time, instead of being born of destruction, the magic was born of salvation.
A Little Fall of Rain
Eliot and Margo are being led to their punishment by their adviser Tick – the Fillorian people have sentenced them to death. Well, a wombat actually sentenced them – apparently, Tick thought they were asking for trial by wombat rather than a trial by combat. Tick, in his normal positive manner, shares with them that because they are some of Fillory’s greatest deposed monarchs, they get to pick their method of execution. Of their several incredible options (death by serrated spoon, a climb up Fire Ant Mountain, the stone crush, and the Infinite Waterfall), El and Margo go with Infinite Waterfall. They figure this might buy them the most amount of time to determine an escape plan, despite it being icy cold water against razor sharp rocks…like, forever.
Confined on the Muntjac heading towards the Falls, El and Margo discover that their sunny, super optimistic, ass-kissing advisor Tick (more like Dick, after this) has been plotting against them the entire time. He gleefully informs them that he won’t be helping them escape, that they are the worst rulers Fillory has ever had, and that they will be chained to the boat until they reach the point of no return near the Falls, at which point they will be dumped into a life boat to sail to their death. And since they have been deposed as rulers, the Muntjac is under no obligation to follow their commands, but she can follow Tick’s.
Later, Margo tries to convince the Muntjac to do her own thing – she doesn’t need to listen to Tick. But the boat is unresponsive…or is she? I suspect she was listening as Margo and Eliot talk through some self-reflection – they agree that the only right they had to rule was the stupid restrictions put into place by Ember and Umber that the rulers were Children of Earth. They weren’t great rulers, but they did do some things right (like El forming the alliance with the Lorians), and they wouldn’t take that back for anything. After a pep talk from Margo about how they’ve always had each other, and always will, there is a beautiful callback and reversal of Return of the Jedi, as El is the one to tell her he loves her, with Margo simply responding, “I know.” Damn it, I love these two.
Unfortunately, they’ve reached the point of no return for the Falls, and despite Tick’s insistence that the Muntjac stop so Margo and Eliot can be discarded in the lifeboat, she refuses. Panicking, Tick and his guards instead abandon ship, leaving the Children of Earth to plummet over the Falls. He does, however, order his guards to scuttle any ship that can think when they get back to Fillory.
Eliot and Margo realize that this is it, and prepare for their deaths.
No One is Alone
Before everyone can continue on their journeys, however, they discover the real power of the Fifth Key – it unifies the questers mentally, regardless of where they are. Alice, Kady and Q can hear Penny in the Underworld Library, and they are soon able to hear Margo and El as well. Julia can hear them too, but one quester is missing at the point – Josh. He can hear all of them, but is pissed that they are ruining the vibe. Everything was great until they showed up, and he tells the party goers to f-off.
Which obviously doesn’t go over well, as they begin beating him. Everyone else is concerned about their own crises – El and Margo about to die, Julia almost killing a fairy, Penny stuck in the Underworld. But Q finally grows a pair and plays his role as the Hero, telling them to put their shit aside for a few minutes and come together for Josh – we are always going to have shitty things going on, and sometimes you have to stop thinking about yourself for the greater good.
Q enchants them so they all know the words, and the group filters downstairs to Josh singing Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.” Which is perfect, since Josh shared with them upstairs that his own brother had abandoned him to attend Bowie’s last concert before he died with his girlfriend instead of Josh. They manage to draw the party goers away from Josh with the song, and Eliot and Margo soon join in, celebrating that they can at least go down in song if they are going to die. Julia uses the power of the music to fuel her magic again and reverse the effects the curse had on Skye.
The only one not yet singing is Penny, but he finally gives in near the end of the song. At the same time, the Muntjac spills over the Infinite Falls, only to reappear, flying through the air, saving Eliot and Margo. I’m not doing this whole segment justice. though – the director/writers timed various points in the scenes with the lyrics that reflected each of the quester’s struggles, and all of them singing together made me (and my husband) ugly cry. And this was after he sighed and fussed about the fact that this was the “musical” episode, and that he hated musicals.
Not-Todd changes into an unfamiliar man facing Josh, Kady, Q and Alice with the final snap of the song, telling them that “he” said they would ace it. He’ll only elaborate so far as to say that “he” is the only one he would do this for, and to be honest, after a couple of weeks, he wasn’t sure they would come, or they would be worthy. When Josh scoffs that this was all a test, they suddenly realize they can’t hear each other anymore. When they try to ask the shape shifter what the hell is going on, he shoos them out the door, noting that feeding on Josh’s dream world has made him a bit gassy – he needs to visit the ashram. He sends them away, congratulating them, and wishing them goodbye and encouraging them to move quickly in German.
They find themselves back in the real Physical Kids Cottage, and panic initially because the Truth Key is gone. But Julia returns with it at that moment, gently chiding Josh for never returning her text. They are interrupted, however, with the book opening to Chapter 6, which is now unlocked. Alice tries to snag it, only to have Q demand it from her. Josh realizes he has a ton to catch up on.
Q & A About Q & A and Everything Else
- Q is sporting the man bun this week, and I kind of love it.
- Kady, Alice and Q’s smoke party trick of the Muntjac flying away earlier in the episode was a nice little bit of foreshadowing for Eliot and Margo’s fate.
- Holy shit, can Jade Tailor sing.
- Rizwan Manji does a fabulous job this week selling his character as a passive aggressive usurper. I went from loving Tick to loathing Tick in less than an hour. I did wonder, though, since they are pas the point of no return in the lifeboat, does that mean he’s now condemned to die in the Infinite Falls? Or will El and Margo show compassion for their former adviser and rescue him?
- Trevor Einhorn also gives us a new side of Josh this week – vulnerable. I kind of love it, the way I love Q’s man bun.
- That tramasseur form of Todd sounds an awful lot like Ember and Umber, doesn’t it? A magical creature creating entire pocket worlds (like Cuba, per se, or Fillory), and feeding off the residents’ emotions.
- Who is the “he” the tramasseur refers to that had faith in the gang to ace the quest? The Great Cock? And an ashram is a monastery in Indian religions, so what kind of deity might this be? But he sends them on their way in German. Hmmm…
This Week
Gah, how are we up to episode 10 in this season already? That means there’s only like 4 episodes left before season 4! The previews showed the Fairy Queen on Earth, which is never a good sign. But we will find out more tonight at 9:00 PM EDT in “The Art of the Deal.”
Photo courtesy of Syfy.com