Warning: The following review contains spoilers for the latest episode of The Magicians. If you aren’t caught up, please do not read any further. Also, you can find my review for Episode 1 here.

We’re back here again folks. The Magicians Season 5 is officially underway, and this second episode puts a few things into perspective, while also presenting new questions. One thing I want to mention before we get into the actual episode though is the prevailing problem I have seen with the season so far. In previous seasons, even when there were dark, heavy themes going on, there was humor and moments of levity.

Without Quentin’s presence and, quite frankly, with things being bleak all around, the show has this sort of darkness to it that kills the escapism factor for a lot of people. Contrary to what the showrunners might say, their target demographic is well aware of death and grief. So why would we want that in our genre-fantasy fiction?

At the same time, I do applaud them for not glossing over Quentin’s death like it didn’t matter. I just feel as though the entire setup of this season has a weight hanging over it that would be so much better if there was the slightest bit of hope for anyone involved. Whether you liked Quentin or not, I can’t imagine this new tonal shift is lost on you.

Anyway, let’s get into covering the actual episode because there’s a lot to unpack. When we last saw our merry band, Margo was trapped in a magician-proof Blackspire dungeon. Eliot was in full-blown denial and grief. Julia had a plan to tackle the magic surges since the sexist pig wouldn’t give her a quest, and Alice looked to be taking her mother’s advice about doing something crazy.

Additionally, Penny 23 got roped into a professor-gig at Brakebills by Fogg, Fen and Josh are dead since Fillory is 300 years in the future now, and Kady is trying to figure out how to help the hedges who were affected by the Library’s “anti-hedge” measures. Also, the Library is in shambles and is not able to contact the Underworld Branch, so who knows what’s up with Penny 40.

Spoilers begin here, so if you somehow missed the top warning, and you aren’t ready for spoilers, stop here.

If you were hoping that the promo trailer for this week’s episode would lead to Jason Ralph returning as Quentin, I’m sorry to say you’ll be sorely disappointed. Alice attempted a golem resurrection spell and managed to bring back young Quentin, approximately 12 years old. It becomes apparent that she is hoping to have Quentin translate a paper she found in his things, a spell or riddle of some kind that she thinks is the key to giving her a chance to actually fix something and fulfill Quentin’s last wishes.

At the same time, Margo is in Whitespire’s dungeons, which we discover were made magician-proof by Josh when he and Fen were ruling Fillory. This turned out to backfire on them, because they spent so much time trying to reach Margo for help when Magic returned, that they did not see the threat of the “Takers” coming, leading to the people revolting and killing them both.

They were unable to reach Margo because (as revealed in the last episode) the return of magic and the surge therein, caused a discrepancy in the time between Earth and Fillory, messing up the connection between the worlds. My biggest problem with this particular idea though is that Josh was a werewolf. When he was in his own magician-proof cell, why couldn’t he just wolf out and bust the door down? Alternately if that wasn’t possible, he was the one who made the cell magician-proof, couldn’t he undo it?

Also in Fillory, Eliot finds himself face to face with the Ghost of Fen, who fills him in on part of what went down. She doesn’t blame him for not coming to rescue her, though she did expect someone to come help. She also begs Eliot to find a way to fix this, in a rather chilling performance where she fearfully tells him that vultures are coming to peck out her eyes.

We then shift to Julia talking to Fogg, trying to figure out what is causing the surges. Fogg tells her that it is due to “circumstances” like the tide, the phase of the moon, and a variety of other factors that can either strengthen or weaken casting. When asked if that can be predicted, Fogg attempts to direct her to his ex, who is a genius in Meta Math, except as soon as he mentions her, a surge happens that blows up her Brakebills classroom.

We then shift to Kady, who has been sober for quite some time now, yet is drinking club soda at a bar while talking to Pete. She is still stumped over the missing building from last week’s episode, which quickly finds itself at the center of a new mystery and conspiracy involving memory alteration.

She finds herself waking up with a man she met at the bar, and at first believes she fell off the wagon and is hungover, until a conversation with Penny reveals that her memory of the missing Library Book Depository that she was investigating is gone.

Upon further investigation, she discovers that the man from the night before is a magician hired to remove people’s memories of things, before removing his own memory of the work he does. Someone doesn’t want her looking into the missing building or anything else related to this new development.

I’m still not sure what her plot has to do with anything else this season, but with Penny being willing to assist her with this, it makes me think that eventually this plot is going to tie in with some of the others. Alternately, they could pull a season 4 and just drop it halfway in. Kady’s fight scene with the assassin was well done as well. Jade Tailor’s physicality and her acting have been good in this episode.

Julia and Alice’s storylines converge again here, as Julia drops in to get Alice’s help finding some pattern to the surges. Because of this unexpected appearance, she finds Young Quentin and realizes what Alice has done. Yet again, I can’t help but feel like Stella Maeve and Olivia Taylor Dudley are carrying a lot of the emotional weight in these scenes. Their acting is strong, and it is enough to keep people engaged while the other plot threads develop and intermingle.

Here comes my big point of frustration with the writers for this episode. Eliot finds himself meeting with Jane Chatwin in her cottage at the Clock Barrens. Jane’s cottage, existing outside of time, is full of her time-magic inventions. Eliot and Jane have a conversation, in which she tells him that any attempt to change the timeline usually makes things worse, and thus, she won’t help him bring Quentin back or fix Fillory.

It is easy for her to say that when she is dead in all the timelines but is safe in her cottage existing outside of time itself. I loved Hale Appleman’s acting here as Eliot, but I keep finding myself frustrated that no one acknowledges what he and Quentin meant to each other, outside of friendship. We learn from Jane that the first Time Loop came about because Quentin was grieving the loss of Eliot.

However, the writers seem to be leaning away from the romantic nature of Quentin and Eliot’s relationship, even though they spent an entire episode last season showcasing that Eliot’s rejection of Quentin’s desire to try and be together was the biggest regret he had when he was imprisoned by the Monster in his own head.

That is the biggest issue I have with this entire “Q and Eliot were close friends” revisionist history. No one who has spent 50 years with someone else in another timeline would ask to try again, just out of obligation, or out of platonic love. No one would reject that, and then say that it is their greatest regret, because their love was platonic. That does not make sense in any logic, on any planet, in any universe.

Also, it undercuts its own message that Jane won’t help them because later in the episode Eliot and Margo change things anyway. Granted, does this meddling with time cause the apocalypse plotline? Or does it just tie things together? Probably both.

The only redeeming part (aside from Hale’s acting) of this whole Fillorian mess with Jane is that she, like Margo before her, can tell just how much Eliot is pushing down his feelings. “Stiff upper lip eh? Positively British of you,” she tells him. To which he responds with, “Someone’s got to keep it together right?”

Then she asks what we, the viewer already know the answer to. “Is that what you think you’re doing?” because she knows he’s not keeping it together, not really. Eliot isn’t one for that, he self destructs quietly, drinking or doing whatever he can to numb the pain. This is reflected in her story about the first timeline, where Eliot’s death came as a result of his own vices.

Also, Jane’s words of “let the dead stay dead,” in this context, entirely contradicts the previous episode’s message of “no one can tell you how to grieve.” Fillory and Earth are both messed up, and yet she worries more about the consequences of trying to fix it? Doing nothing is worse, at least in my mind.

The current plan to get a message to Josh brings us to a new magical creature. We see Eliot attempt to send Whitespire’s talking bees, to give Josh a message in the past. This plan works, inexplicably allowing him to put Fen’s cell phone in a hidden place in the cell. The confusing part is (both to the viewer and Josh) the cell phone got reception in Fillory. How that works I have no idea.

The plan spectacularly backfires, due to Josh being allergic to bees. Who knew? There was a little bit of humor there, and in sparing places in the episode, but I still find myself wondering, “How many times will they try and fail, before they ultimately just realize that they need to do a full reset on the timeline?”

Julia’s interactions with Young Q are a high point of the episode as well. His comment about endings being the worst part because characters die or leave echoes feelings that many fans have had before. We grow attached to our favorite characters and when they die, or a show, movie, or book ends, there’s an absence there.

Psychologists have even compared it to real loss because we share memories of these characters with those we love. People who sit down and watch shows with us, or people we talk about them with. Fiction is escapism at its best, and The Magicians was a show that many people celebrated for that. Yet, at the same time, now we’re grieving alongside these characters because nothing is the same as it was.

The end of the episode brings a lot of things in perspective. The paper Alice found will likely come back into play at some point, as will the letter Eliot seems to be sending to the past. Josh, Fen, and the Fillory Court have traveled into the future to meet up with Margo and Eliot, and Julia has found another lead. On top of all that, Kady and Penny know that there is something going on, even if Kady is struggling with her sobriety and leading the hedges.

Overall, this episode, despite the plot holes and the issues I have with it, was still a strong one. Plot threads are forming, and as the season grows I can only hope that they come to some sort of convergence. They’re trying very hard to sell a “you can’t really change the past” narrative, despite the entire show being built on it. Yet at the same time, they’re giving us strong acting from all sides, and an intriguing series of plots that are carrying us forward.

Eliot’s arc is one I’m quite curious about because I would love to see him actually get a win for once. Hale’s acting is always spectacular, but it would be nice to see him experience some joy, or at least find his place in a world he doesn’t really fit in anymore. Ideally, I’d like to see a return of Quentin as well, even if Jason Ralph doesn’t return and they recast the role. However, I don’t honestly see that happening until a potential season 6 at the earliest unless they surprise us. So keep watching folks.

We’ve got at least 8 episodes left, though if previous seasons are any indication, we more than likely have 11 since previous seasons have been 13 episodes. This show is at its best when it knows where it is going, and when emotions are at the forefront. I may not like where the writing has taken some storylines, but credit where it is due, the acting is top-notch.

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The Magicians

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Great Acting by Stella, Olivia, Summer and Hale
• Kady's Fight Scene was Awesome
• Plot Threads are Coming Together Slowly
• Lots of Emotional Character Work

Cons

• Cell Phones in Fillory?
• Certain Plots Don't Seem to be Relevant
• Teasing with Quentin's Return Too Much