This week on The Magicians, all sorts of deals were made by everyone on the quest – some worked out better than others.  But they all did take a certain amount of finesse, and the gang just sharpened their skills in this art form.

As always, spoilers.

 

Mom and Dad are Fighting…Again

Alice and Q are still having their lover’s quarrel – Q still doesn’t trust Alice with the book, and Alice is pissed about this (and the fact that Kady borrowed the Fifth Key for a bit to try to talk to Penny).  He’s not sure where she stands on getting magic back – she points out that he wanted her to go questing 5 minutes after her dad died.  She’s also annoyed he gets to be the only one that’s moping and depressive, when they all have shit they are dealing with.

They are interrupted unexpectedly by Julia just after Alice tells Q to fuck off, which makes things a smidge awkward.  Alice uses the moment to demand the book from Q, noting that they can fight about this more after they’ve completed the quest.  He resignedly hands it over before she storms out of the room.

Julia and Q talk about the quest – the book notes that the sixth key is in the Throne Room at Whitespire.  Which is where Eliot and Margo were just kicked out of by the Fillorian people.  He’s totally exasperated and shares that he needs an aspirin – Julia instead places a hand on his forehead and heals up the headache in seconds. She tells him she needs to take care of the fairy business before she can continue on the quest with everyone.

But Alice, Q and Josh have their own adventures to embark upon, and they meet El and Margo on the Muntjac, telling them about the need to get into the Throne Room at Whitespire.  Margo notes that Tick is there, which creates a problem.  But Tick, in fact, is near Loria, leaving the room empty.  And they need to access it tonight, as the key will only show itself only during the light of two half moons in Fillory.  Before they can explain further, El questions as to why Tick is near Loria, to which Josh shares that Fillory is at war, with the Lorians and the Floaters.  El and Margo make plans to send bunnies to Idri and the Stone Queen, and Q points out that technically, they aren’t the kings and queens of Fillory anymore.  El is unconcerned about that, saying that the people of Fillory needed scapegoats, and were misguided and scared.  They are choosing to help their people, the same way they chose to serve as High King and High Queen.  They agree to take on the war, while Q, Alice and Josh take on the quest.  To Josh’s delight, the Muntjac can drop them off at Whitespire after dark on a balcony, so that they can rappel into the Throne Room like bad asses.

Once in the Throne Room, Q recounts how in this chapter of the book, the girl from the first chapter finally is knighted, and the moonlight reflecting off of her shield and onto three keystones with illuminate the location of the sixth key.  They decide to set up several mirrors to try to recreate the scenario.

They manage to identify the three keystones, but nothing happens. Q and Alice get annoyed with each other when it doesn’t work, much to Josh’s discomfort (given that they have broken into a Throne Room that no longer belongs to anyone they know).  Alice finally admits that she is working for the Library, but she isn’t trying to stop the quest – if anything, the Librarians want to help them. Q is a little skeptical, given what they did to Harriet, Victoria and Penny.  Which upsets Josh quite a bit, as he didn’t know what happened to his ex-girlfriend.  Pulling a joint out of a secret stash, from when he was the Interim King of Fillory, he chastises Alice and Q for giving him shit for smoking, considering that they are probably going to get caught, and the fact that his ex is dead.  But he does have a sudden epiphany – he knows where the sixth key is, pointing out the window of the Throne Room.

 

Diplomacy Ain’t Dead

Eliot and Margo are meeting with Idri and The Stone Queen while this is happening, trying to convince them to pause the invasion of Fillory, since they are all in this mess because of the Fairy Queen and her meddling.  Idri and the Floater Queen aren’t convinced that the deposed rulers will get their thrones back, and Idri insists that without magic, Loria has the advantage over Fillory, and it would be foolish not to advance.  Eliot reminds him of their engagement, but since he is no longer king, it is now invalid.  Seizing an opportunity, the Stone Queen offers up Prince Fomar as a potential new husband for Idri (ewww).  Eliot and Margo excuse themselves to regroup, and Margo suggests that the only way to stop them from creating that new, weird, and pedophiliac alliance is to offer the other rulers magic.

While Eliot convinces Idri to give up the fight with sexy time, and promises of educating potential Lorian magicians, Margo makes the Stone Queen realize that if they invade Fillory, and magic does come back, she and the Floaters are kind of fucked, since re-powered magicians like her and Eliot could incinerate them without much of a fuss. The Stone Queen still isn’t convinced, since she’s not sure how the former High King and Queen will get their thrones back.  Margo notes that once they give magic back to the people of Fillory, they won’t even have to fight to be put back into power.

 

A Daring Rescue

Julia and Fen are talking about next steps to help the fairies.  Well…scratch that.  Julia is talking at Fen about helping the fairies enslaved by Irene; Fen is discovering the joy of emojis on her new mobile phone.  Julia tries to get her to focus, since she can’t find anything in the library about how to remove the fairies’ necklaces, and she needs Fen to work with her.  Fen responses by texting Julia a GIF of a crab with a dagger.  Julia pushes her again – she needs a fairy necklace to examine, one that isn’t around an actual fairy’s neck.  Fen reluctantly agrees to help, but insists she’s not going to pretend to like the fairies.

And this honesty works out quite well for the women – they go to see Irene, and confront her about her fairies.  Julia tells her that Fen’s family had a problem with the fairies too, and she’s trying to help her fix it.  Fen’s vitriol does well here, convincing Irene of their story. They keep being honest, noting that a deal was made with her family on Fen’s behalf, and now Fen wants vengeance.

Irene is puzzled, though, as she thought that her fairies were the last of their kind.  She’s also wondering how Julia can see them – she tells Irene she bargained for a Snickers bar.  She still hasn’t caught one yet, so she grills Irene on how hers are so docile.  Irene points out their collar/necklace, which she offers to Julia and Fen – in exchange, though, they need to bring her a fairy.

Irene’s Uncle Edwin gets Julia set up with a collar, explaining to her how it instantly kills fairies if they try to do magic.  She asks him how it works, given that there is no magic, but he insists it’s a family secret.  Julia pushes, wondering how she will know the collar is secure – she asks if a fairy has ever broken out of one.  Uncle Edwin introduces Julia to Dust, a fairy who has been with the McAllisters for over 400 years.  He sends Dust away to tell Irene that Julia has the collar, and notes that the only way to remove them is with a machine that only he has access to.

Julia and Fen meet secretly with Skye, who has been sharing with the other fairies in the McAllister household that they can do magic, and they have been serving as slaves.  Not all of them believe her, however.  Skye is not sure what to tell the others to convince them, and neither is Julia.  They are all too terrified to try to break free.  Skye also shares that things have gotten more complicated, as other members of the McAllister family have arrived, along with their fairies.  She gets called away by Irene, leaving Julia and Fen to try to figure out what to do.  Fen suggests they introduce the fairies to someone scarier than their owners to help convince them of their need to break free.

Which means a trip to the Fairy Queen.  Naturally, the queen is distrustful, given that humans were the ones that drove them from Earth in the first place.  She doesn’t understand what Julia has to gain from helping the fairies – Fen points out that perhaps she’s just a good person who can’t stand to see their suffering.  Fen tries to appeal to the Fairy Queen as a mother – she is, in essence, leaving her children on Earth to be enslaved and die.

The Queen does eventually agree, however, but is not at all happy about having to wear a slave collar.  But it’s the only way the Fairy Queen can get close to Skye and the rest of the fairies.  The Queen suggests killing the McAllisters instead.  But Julia is worried that the family could have some mechanism in place to activate the collars and kill them all in one blow.  The Queen’s still not convinced that leaving herself defenseless in the hands of a powerless Magician is their best option.

But Julia shows her that she is not in fact powerless, but instead god touched.  The Queen relents slightly, since now Julia can protect her, but she is still wary of Julia’s and Fen’s intentions.  She understands that Fen is helping to heal her motherly instinct, but can’t figure out what Julia wants.  Julia just wants to bring meaning to being god-touched – she can either use her gift to help others, or be overwhelmed by what made her god touched in the first place.

Now committed to infiltrating the McAllisters, the Fairy Queen is collared and presented to Irene.  Irene questions where she came from again, and neither Fen nor Julia can remember the name of the town they originally told her.  Luckily (or not so luckily – I couldn’t really figure out if Julia made this happen, or it was just a fortunate coincidence), Irene’s phone rings before they can answer her question.  From Irene’s side of the conversation, it seems that someone in the universe is jonesing for all of the fairy dust, and while Irene is concerned that it’s too quick turn of an around, she’s confident that if they pull from all of the family’s fairies (not just hers), they can meet the demand.

Irene directs the Queen to be taken away, noting how well behaved she is given that she’s feral.  Julia feels that something isn’t right, and texts Fen that she’s going to look around while Irene prepares for her family dinner.  The Queen, meanwhile, is taken to a fairy jail cell, and is horrified and saddened to see her children downtrodden and hopeless. But Skye is thrilled that the Queen is real, and that Julia didn’t lie to them.  She bows her head to her Queen, who gently lifts her chin, and tells her never bow her head to anyone, not even her.

Fen, meanwhile, manages to get into Uncle Edwin’s lab of sorts, looking for a collar breaker.  But she’s soon interrupted by Edwin and Dust, as well as another random fairy.  Fen hides out of sight and watches in horror as she sees that they don’t remove the collar – rather, they remove the fairy’s head.

Julia has been listening in on the McAllister family dinner, learning that they have to act on a deal someone is offering them, or they will lose out for good.  Irene is convinced that they can provide an adequate supply, suspecting that the new fairy Julia brought them is even better than their current fairies (to, you know, grind into fairy dust).  The Queen, in her cell, is attempting to rally her children, sharing how they were born of divine inspiration.  She’s come to restore them to themselves, since they are the embodiment of magic.  She notes that once they are free, they will do horrible things to those that have enslaved them – gouge out eyes, cut out tongues, and strangle them with their own entrails (jeez, tell us how you really feel, Fairy Queen).

Fen follows Dust down to the cells, confronting him about killing his fellow fairy.  Dust calmly notes that there is nothing to be done, since fairy deals cannot be broken.  Which leads Julia to realize that the collars themselves are fairy deals.  Since Dust is the oldest fairy there, she asks him if he was the one that set up these deals.  It was him, but it appears his intention was for the greater good of all fairies.  Hundreds of years ago, Magicians hunted fairies nearly to extinction, until their Fairy Queen found passage to a new world.  Several of them, including Dust, offered themselves up as a sacrifice – they would be bound to the McAllisters in exchange for the humans not following them into their world.  But fairies in his generation died, new ones were born (how, I wonder), and Dust began to regret the sacrifice of the few for the many, given how humans treated them, or if his Queen and fellow fairies even made it to the new world.

The current Fairy Queen confirms that yes, her mother, Dust’s Queen, did make it away safely.  Dust is relieved, but now horrified that his current Queen can never leave since she is collared.  But Julia points out that there is a way to break a fairy deal, although the Queen is hesitant to do so.  Deals are the only leverage they have over humans, and once they start breaking them, they lose the trust and thus potentially cause a greater war, since then humans can then follow them to their world.  Julia tells her to buck up and be their Queen, but Edwin interrupts them, telling Dust to start bringing up the fairies.  The Queen tells them not to go with him, and Julia steps in to try to stop him.  But even god touched, she’s not strong enough, and Edwin throws her and Fen into a wall.  Edwin then grabs one of the fairies by the hair and begins dragging her screaming upstairs.

It is seeing child’s suffering that prompts the Fairy Queen into action.  Cutting into her own palm with her nails, she places her bleeding hand on the wall in a very Supernatural-esque, angel disappearing act.  But instead of just her disappearing, all of the fairy slaves are now invisible, since the deal has been broken.

A semi-conscious Julia and Fen watch as the fairies, unencumbered by their collars, viciously kill Edwin in front of them.  They then head up to the whole McAllister clan, who have just happily agreed to the wicked plan over a sumptuous dinner.

It doesn’t remain that way, however, as the rest of the family is killed just as violently as Edwin was.  The only thing that would have made this scene more satisfying is if we had the “Feels Good” background music from the “Purge” episode of Rick and Morty.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j9x_vPefn8&w=560&h=315]

 

It would have been super awesome if they had taken out Irene as well, but she manages to hide under the dining room table before the fairies can cut her throat.  There’s a lovely bit of cinematography here, as well, as there are only the bloody footprints of the fairies surrounding the dead family members.

Back in the Fairy Realm, Julia apologizes that they couldn’t save more of the fairies, but the Fairy Queen is grateful for those they were able to save.  Julia promises not to tell anyone about the broken deal, but the Queen notes that it is too late – there are consequences for broken deals.  The Queen notes that Julia is the only human who ever approached her without seeking personal gain – perhaps if more humans were like her, they could have co-existed. Julia insists that they still can – they can try.  The Fairy Queen gives Julia a rueful look as she asks about the quest she and her friends are on, sharing that one of the keys is in the fairy realm.  But it is what created and sustains the Fairy Realm, so Julia and the gang can never have it.

 

Welcome to New Job Orientation, Penny

Penny, in the Underworld Library, is shelving books haphazardly, pissed about Sylvia’s betrayal, and the fact that he’s chained to his book cart (my daughter has that feeling sometimes working in the library, heh…).  We see Harold again, the Librarian who was forced to kill himself by the spell Harriet placed on the book to try to help them infiltrate the Poison Room in Season 2.

Harold gently asks Penny if he knows the proper way to shelve the books; Penny tells him since they have a billion years, he’s just trying to keep things interesting.  Harold tries another approach, inviting Penny to join his book club.  Penny accuses him of inviting him because he’s ethnic, pointing out that it’s not really a great look for the Library to be shackling people of color.  Harold assures him they shackle people of all races here (no…Harold…no.  Just…just stop talking).  Harold tells Penny that he read Penny’s book, because he had unresolved issues about the activities that led to his death.  While he may have killed himself, his hand was kind of forced by Penny’s actions. He says the least Penny could do is join the book club, and still encourages him to think about it, even after he tells Harold to fuck off.

Penny then runs into Sylvia who tries to explain why she turned Penny in.  When magic went away, all of her family were killed, and even though they came to the Underworld, they have already moved on.  The Underworld is really just a way station. While Penny notes that all of his people are on Earth, and he can’t travel or astral project to see them again either, she shares that she doesn’t really know where her family moved on to.  But Sylvia can’t leave until she’s fulfilled her billion year contract.  So, she took the bounty that was out on Penny’s head, which shaved a million years off of her obligation to the Library.  Penny doesn’t care, really, because he’s still stuck forever in the Library because of Sylvia.

At some point later (who knows, really, since time moves differently in the Library), Penny spots a weeping woman coming out of a room marked “Secrets Taken to the Grave.” When he asks Sylvia about it (suspending his “I’m-not-talking-to-you-because-you-condemned-me-to-a-billion-year-contract” vow of silence), she shares that it’s a research division the Library opened in partnership with the people that run to Underworld (so Hades and Our Lady Underground?).  Librarians aren’t allowed access to that room, because it’s like therapy – people in the Underworld who are about to move on unburden themselves of all of their troubles.  Apparently, they get a Metro card to move on once they have confessed.  And the transport method is a long pig type creature that one must climb into.  While Sylvia tries to tell him that they are never going to get their own Metro cards, given their contracts, Penny begins scheming for how he can steal one.

He confronts a guy leaving the room at some point, remarking that it looks like those inside the room made it really tough on him.  The man remarks that he couldn’t really tell who he was talking to, except that he was in a hood and had red eyes.  Penny tries to scare him, saying that where he’s moving on to can’t be good if he got that dude as his therapist, of sorts.  Worse than Hell, even.  The guy freaks out and says he isn’t ready to move on, dropping his Metro card on the floor of the Library.  When Penny stands up from retrieving it, he’s confronted by a man who we’ve never seen before, but who knows who Penny is.

When they sit down to chat, we learn that this is Hades (ha! Called it!).  He usually doesn’t interact with inhabitants of the Library, but he just finds Penny to be too fascinating to resist.  He’s intrigued, as he’s never seen someone run so much from their own destiny while, at the same time, propelling themselves towards it.  He’s mystified as to why Penny tried to escape death, twice, but then willingly snuck into the Underworld.  He tries to get Penny to realize that while he’s doing all for the Quest, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter.  Magic always returns, even if it’s millions of years later, and all of humanity is dead – magic will come back sooner or later.  It’s a carrot the gods dangle in front of humans to keep them in check.  Hades tries to convince him that Penny’s life is destined to begin after life – while Penny believes that his human life is his destiny, it’s really his life beyond death that is important.  Eventually, after a thousand years, this Quest will be like the memories we have before the age of three – vague and faded and disappearing.  Penny, like all of us, is a little confused about the existential advice, thinking this is all a weird punishment for stealing a Metro card.  Hades assures him that it’s not, sharing that Penny could have ended up anywhere, some places much worse than the Underworld than shackled to a book cart.  He also shares that he can lose the chains if he just joins Harold’s book club, and embrace the fact that Penny is in the most extensive Library in the universe, and has forever to explore it.  Hades hits a nerve referencing something from Penny’s life book, noting that since a time in Savannah in with his real mother, he’s been trying to please people, even though he puts up a front of not caring.  He gives Penny a choice – he can use the Metro card and move on and try to find his way back to his human life, or he can choose to embrace the amazing destiny that awaits him by staying.

Penny, accepting his possible fate, apologizes to Sylvia – she died for him to live, and he left her when he shouldn’t have.  He hands her the Metro card to move on to her family, and gets the biggest, “I love my big brother” style hug from a stunned and ecstatic Sylvia.

In the last moments of the episode, Penny asks Howard if he can join his book club, feigning sincerity so he can be unshackled.  Kathy, another book club member, gabs on about the book of Gill and Stacey, a love story for the ages.  Penny is polite, but doesn’t really start to warm up until Harold points out the cupcakes Kathy made, which are the most cartoon and delicious looking cupcakes ever.

 

Q & A About Q & A and Everything Else

• We didn’t see Kady at all this episode – she took the Truth Key to try to talk to Penny again, but where would she go to make it work if it didn’t work in the Physical Kids cottage?
• OK, seriously, I’ve never thought about magic curing headaches, and I really should have before now – how much better than Botox and a thousand other drugs would that be for migraines?  Why can’t this be a real thing? Cure by magic?
• Actually, come to think of it, we learned in Season 1 that magic usually can’t cure physical ailments, so I suppose it has to come from God-touched magic.
• And really, Q? An aspirin? You do have old person tendencies sometimes, but just…no.
• I would imagine things are not going to get any easier when Irene realizes Julia betrayed her and her family, nor for Irene when Julia and the Fairy Queen find out that she’s still alive.  So…not a good scenario all the way around.
• So, “long pig” is slang for “human” – does that mean you have to climb into a person to leave the Underworld? And does that mean reincarnation when you move on? Like you are literally stepping into a new skin?  I’m thinking it might, since Hades offered Penny the Metro card to move on and find his way back to his human life.  And if that’s true, will some of his companions on the quest encounter Sylvia, just in another body, who could give them an update on Penny?
• Will we find out any more about Penny’s childhood and his issues with his real mother that Hades references?
• When did it become a good idea to trust a god? That has not worked out well for any of the gang in the past – was Hades being truthful or is Penny in for a world of trouble by accepting his destiny?  Hades does bring up a good point too through all of his metaphorical talk – eventually his friends will die, even if magic doesn’t come back in their lifetime – Penny will get to see them again at some point if he stays in the Underworld.
• I’m going to assume that Josh knows that the sixth key is in the Fairy Realm, not the Fillory, Throne Room.  Which would make sense, given that the girl in the story was knighted by magic.  I’m not sure the humans of Fillory could have done that, even being magicians.  So, now I want to go back and watch “We Have Brought You Little Cakes,” where he and Margo met with the Fairy Queen in her tub to see if the key is visible somewhere.
• Kathy is delighted when Penny tells her “sup.” Has she read Penny’s book too and knows he’s destined for greatness? Is she excited, like the way fans are when a celebrity acknowledges them?
• I’m assuming that the book “Gill and Stacey” Kathy is gushing about is just a book about a random couple, but it would be fun if we got to meet them at some point on the show.
• My daughter pointed out that Penny’s reaction to Kathy’s summary of the “Gill and Stacey” book is like every day at work for her from book patrons.

• Is Hades the “he” the tramasseur was referring to last week? Or have we not met “him” yet?

 

Next Week

This week, Episode 11, entitled “Twenty-Three,” just makes me think of Lost, since this was one of the “magic” numbers.  But I’m thinking it refers to something else. Or lots of something else-s, since 23 has a lot of weird things related to it.

There’s Discordianism, who’s whole premise is based around the fact that chaos is the building blocks of life.  Twenty-three is their holiest number.  In the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, the 23^rd verse also refers to the end of the fifth day of creation, when God finished creating the world, before he created humans.   So, since they’ve just finished collecting the fifth key, maybe we’ll get something related to Q’s mending specialty, major and minor.  In the Magicians books by Lev Grossman, Quentin rebuilds worlds at one point with his specialty – maybe he has to rebuild the fairy realm from the chaos that will ensue if they take the key? Or maybe I am reaaaalllly reaching with this theory.

But there’s also 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body, it’s the lowest prime number with consecutive numbers, and it’s also one of the most famous Psalms in the Bible (“The Lord is my shepard, I shall not want…”).

Or all of this means nothing and the 23 refers to the number of times Kady and Penny manage to bang via astral projection before he has to return to his shift at the Library.

Who knows? We’ll find out this Wednesday, March 21, at 9 PM EDT!

 

 

All photos courtesy of Syfy.com

Rick and Morty “Feels Good” clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j9x_vPefn8