Well…we are on the night of the finale, and here is my recap of The Magicians “The Fillorian Candidate” from last week. But for those of you who may be discovering these recaps after the season is over, or don’t give a damn about timelines, read on. This week had quite a lot of reflection in the real world, sometimes more than I was comfortable with. But all in all, a great lead up to the finale on April 4.
As always, spoilers.
Alice’s Espionage
There’s a whole great recap that Josh does to start us off with Penny about his life in Timeline 40, including a hook up/murder chart with the whole gang. Kady interrupts before they can start making connections, hugging Penny. But she’s soon disappointed to see that he doesn’t know her here.
Alice insists on consulting with the Library given that Beast Q told Julia she releases a monster if she opens the door in the Castle at the End of the World. But Q is more than a little suspicious given Alice’s recent actions, and Julia asks Penny 23 to astral project and follow Alice to the Library .
Alice is meeting with Zelda the Head Librarian, who has heard of the Castle at the End of the World, but mortals really know nothing about it. The questers need to consult with a god, which Zelda thinks they will have no problem doing.
Zelda then gives Alice a Siphon – she needs Julia to give up her magic for the Library. If not, Alice needs to take it by force, potentially killing Julia. She has 30 seconds to attach it to her once magic starts flowing. The McAllisters haven’t fulfilled their side of the bargain with fairy dust (well, who could imagine why…), so this is the only way to save the Library – taking Julia’s magic. Zelda tells her that everyone has had to make sacrifices to restore magic, making Alice hesitate as to what to do next.
Alice shares what she learned with Q and Julia about the Castle, and they try to think about a god they could contact. Both Our Lady Underground and Bacchus are unavailable, so Alice leaves to try to get a recommendation from Dean Fogg. Penny uses the opportunity to rat out Alice and the Siphon.
Penny and Kady have a heart to heart about how Timeline 23 Penny isn’t her Penny, and that he respects all of the lengths she went to in order to save her Penny – the only person that would do that for him in his timeline was Julia. He asks Kady to tell him how Julia is different in this timeline, and over a drink, she shares the whole story of Reynard, and how the current spark of magic Julia has is from him. Penny realizes that even though Reynard is powerless, he can tell them about the Castle at the End of the World.
Quentin confronts Alice about the Siphon, and Alice tries to argue that it’s just a fail safe the Library is trying to put into place, to make sure magic doesn’t fall back into the wrong hands once it is turned back on. She’s remembering all of the terrifying things she did as a niffin, and thinks the Siphon can help curb people like her from making bad choices with magic. He tells her that they can do the quest with or without her, and she reluctantly hands it over. But Alice does remind Q that once magic comes back, his dad’s cancer will return too (kind of a low blow there, Alice).
An Election Cycle to Remember
Josh brings Eliot and Margo tacos on the Muntjac, along with Fen. Eliot tells her that because he’s not king, she’s under no obligation to stay with him. Fen reminds him that if she hadn’t married him, she would be betrothed to one of the three boys in her village, who now want to kill Eliot. If she went back there now, they would kill her too. So, Eliot is stuck with her.
Margo requested a meeting with the Fairy Queen, but all she got back was a bunny sending tidings of “eat my ass” (or that rabbit has quite a kink). Not getting anywhere, Eliot, Margo and Fen go to an animal bar in Fillory, where Fray is working after being banished by the Fairy Queen. Fen asks her if she has fairy stepsisters that she could reach out to, but Fray is confused – only human children they bargained away exist as young’ins in the fairy realm. She’s also bitter because she’s an outcast now in both realms, which is why she works at a bar only patronized by animals.
And those animals are quite a group, particularly a bear named Humbledrum, who Margo chats with while El and Fen make their plea to Fray – if she helps them, it could lead to actual peace between fairies and humans. Fray insists she’s not alone, and it quickly comes out that she’s dating Humbledrum, which is taboo in FIllory. But Margo shares with El that he’s very interested in getting Fray’s dad’s approval, and Eliot has the best line of the night: “Well…I will tell you what I wish my father said to me…I’m so happy you’re dating a bear.”
The Fairy Queen does finally meet with them, and they propose to her letting the fairies settle in Fillory, but they need the key. She threatens instead to take Fillory by force after their enemies destroy it, since they can wait – they outlive most creatures. But then Margo points out what Fray shared with them – fairies can’t reproduce in the Fairy Realm. Without Fillory, they will go extinct. Unfortunately, because Margo and Eliot are no longer king and queen, it doesn’t matter – Tick is in charge currently and isn’t interested in negotiating with her. So they need to return to her with their crowns, or an army to take the key.
Margo, Eliot and Josh are contemplating what to do next over tacos, and Josh suggests they try for democracy, like they were planning on doing before magic went away. Eliot points out that there is no incentive for Tick to call for an election, but Margo corrects that by distributing hundreds of flyers off of the Muntjac across Fillory. When Tick finds out, he initially wants to stop it, but one of his advisors reminds him that he’d have to tell the currently revolutionary people of Fillory that he was canceling the election.
The plan works, but things do not stay awesome, as Eliot tells Margo that given Fillory is a patriarchal society, he should be the one to run for king. Margo is rightfully pissed, but assuages to Eliot’s wishes for the greater good of Fillory. Josh has another idea of how to please the people, and Julia shows up, since Josh was thinking about how he needed her (one of the weird things happening to her as her power grows). They go to the Forest of the Druids that Julia destroyed when she was Shade-less, and Josh asks her to try to just grow something small back – what makes Children of Earth special is their magic, and if they can show the people of Fillory they still have it, they have a better chance of winning the election.
Julia, however, doesn’t just cause a tiny sprout to appear – she grows back the whole damn forest in just a few minutes, to the awe and wonderment of local Fillorians passing by. Josh takes the opportunity to promote Eliot for king (Josh is the best hype man ever).
Julia continues her refurbishment of Fillory – feeding the starving peasants, growing crops, filling up dry wells – in general, winning Fillorians to their side. But Tick has a solid strategy in place for economic stability, and it’s sound, but boring. Eliot begins making wild declarations – all he has to do is say he’s going to do something to get elected, it doesn’t have to be true.
And thus begins a promise-off between the two candidates for High King, with Eliot leading in the polls. That is, until the transcript from his trial is leaked by Tick’s advisors. The ones where he called Fillory a “malodorous shithole.” Not the best look for a candidate, but people have said worse and still gotten elected (*cough*Trump*cough*).
Later, Rafe and Abigail the Sloth come to deliver the results of the election to the Children of Earth. In the first ugly cry moment of the evening, Rafe announces that both Eliot and Tick have lost, but the new High King of Fillory is…Margo! The talking animals of Fillory (like Humbledrum) wrote her in as a candidate, and they far outnumber the humans, so their vote was always going to matter more. It also gives us insight into the fact that Rafe reaaalllly loves Abigail the Sloth…
Eliot, as usual, is the best friend ever, and immediately pledges his loyalty to the new High King of Fillory. As she takes the throne, Eliot talks to Tick – while the traitor asks to be executed by the Death of a Thousand Pokes, Eliot instead invites him to be a member of the new administration. They don’t trust him, but they do need him and his detailed policy work.
Margo’s next act is to make a deal with the Fairy Queen – she offers Fillorian citizenship to every fairy, full protection under the laws, and a seat for the Queen in her cabinet – but they need the key. She will give them the key as soon as every fairy moves to their new home. In the second ugly cry moment of the night, the Fairy Queen tells Margo that she always saw something in her, even when Margo couldn’t see it herself. She offers the new High King the opportunity to see it now by restoring her eye…with a fairy eye. She can see all sorts of things now, and as Margo revels in being able to see again, Fen has a great moment asking for some fairy toes – but the Fairy Queen has already taken her leave of Castle Whitespire.
Our Lady All Around
Julia is praying to Our Lady Underground for the umpteenth time, trying to get some response and ask her about the Castle. Instead, she hears the desperate cursing of Dean Fogg in her head. Turns out this is becoming a common thing – her ability to feel what others are feeling. She goes to his office to talk to him, and Fogg suggests that perhaps she’s hearing prayer. Julia thinks she’s supposed to help him, and she offers to heal his eyes. He’s afraid, since magic can’t heal magic, but she’s more than magic – she’s goddess-like. She touches his face, and just like that, Dean Fogg can see again, which he hasn’t been able to do since the second episode of Season 1.
Julia keeps hearing prayers, and is interrupted from healing a little boy through her mind by Kady and Penny, asking her to help them get to Reynard. Even though she has all of the power, Julia is not at all excited to see Reynard again, given that he’s still a trickster. Kady suggests that she just locate him, power up Penny’s tattoos, and the two of them will confront Reynard, but Julia refuses to let them go alone. She immediately travels them to outside of an expensive, gated home, and Kady is disappointed to see that Reynard is living in luxury, instead of suffering.
But they spoke too soon, because a moment later, a shitty compact car drives up to the house, with Reynard delivering a pizza to its occupants. So yeah…he’s suffering, no worries.
At his apartment, he tries to convince them that living among humanity has given him perspective, but Julia isn’t buying it. Julia asks him about the Castle, and he discourages them from going – the Architect put it at the End of the World for a reason. She asks about the Architect, but he says it’s not for humans to worry about. He laughs at Julia, telling her that now she has this power she can’t handle, and she should have just shut up and left well enough alone. In a very empowering moment, she lets Reynard sense the level of power coming off of her – she’s far, far, far more powerful than he ever could have been.
He tells them that the Castle is where the gods put all of the stuff they made before humans – mistakes that never should have happened, similar to Julia. Before he can say anything else, he goes for a gun in a side drawer. But Julia stops him before he can shoot – she takes the bullet out of the chamber, which is the one Kady brought to kill him back in Season 2. His step-father Hades took pity on him, and gave him the gun to shoot himself should he need to – he’s still a god, whether he has power or not. Julia suspects that the god-killing bullet will also kill the monster in the Castle, so they take the gun and leave Reynard to his shitty Earth existence.
The Final Steps of the Quest
Back at Brakebills, the Unity Key starts singing again, and as they all hear each other, Kady is excited because she thinks she hears her Penny. But, instead, it’s Penny 23 – so we may not ever get our Penny back from the Underworld.
They’ve reached the end of the quest, now that they have all seven keys, but Q is hestiatnt to move forward, since it means his dad’s cancer will probably come back. Q wonders if this is how he is supposed to grow – be willing to sacrifice who he loves for the betterment of magic.
He goes to see his dad, telling him about the quest, and the fact that his cancer will return. His father asks him if wants his blessing, and Q tells him about how so far on the quest, he’s lived a whole life – he got married, had a son – he’s not there to ask for permission, he wanted to look his dad in the eye and apologize, because he doesn’t know what is going to happen when magic comes back on. His dad only wants to know what his grandson’s name was, and is touched to learn Q named him after his father. Cue ugly cry time 3 of the night…
Q and A About Q and A and Everything Else
- How great is it that Margo is High King?
- Reynard said Hades was his step-father – so who is his real father? Will we find out this season?
- The Fairy Queen mentioned the Western Hordes at one point as an enemy of Fillory – will we see them next season? Is this how Margo gets her ice axes (a weapon from the book series)?
- Where the hell did Marina get off to when she leapt into Timeline 40?
Next Week/This Week
Tonight, April 4, is the season finale for Season 3 (boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo). However, it just means we can go back and watch the whole thing again in a glorious day of binging and pouring over obscure details we missed the first time around. Tonight’s episode, “Will You Play with Me?” sounds appropriately dark and ominous, like a creepy horror movie kid. But we will see later tonight at 9 PM EST on Syfy!
Photos courtesy of Syfy.com