Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinWarning: This review contains spoilers for the most recent episode of The Magicians. You can check out the previous episode’s review here.
Wednesday’s episode of The Magicians put me in a very strange position. I try not to let personal feelings about these things get in the way of my work, but this episode made me conflicted. Normally I write the reviews for these episodes as I watch the episode, but I decided this week, that because the episode contains such emotional material (more so than previous episodes) that I needed to sit and simmer with it a little first.
Before I get into recaps or anything else, let me just say that this was a painful episode to watch because it confirmed something to me that I had hoped was just me being frustrated with the writers. It confirmed to me that the writers have no idea how to write gay characters who don’t suffer constantly or whose only purpose is being tortured emotionally or mentally. If they do know how then it is clear that they have no desire to.
Additionally, they also are constantly hiding behind the idea that this is a “feminist” show when they clearly have no idea what that means. I’ll get into this more in a bit. To recap a bit, Alice gave Julia the information on a magician who could help her figure out the surges, Margo and Eliot figured out how to save Fen and Josh by bringing them to the future, and Kady and Penny found out about a strange conspiracy.
Warning: Spoilers for the episode begin here.
We got a glimpse of Jason Ralph as Quentin today, in a dream of Alice’s, which presumably uses unused footage from a previous season since Jason Ralph hasn’t openly returned to the show. I wish I could say that this makes me optimistic for Quentin’s return, but the rest of this episode kind of obliterates that by shooting hope out of a cannon, something these writers seem pretty good at.
Anyway, Margo, Eliot, Fen, and Josh return from Fillory, and Margo realizes that the letter Eliot sent to Josh and Fen was not what she had originally given him. Granted, it saved them both and got them a win, but now they’re celebrating her when she believes she’s undeserving. Eliot then sees Alice, and after speaking with her, he discovers that she made a Golem of Quentin in the previous episode, and now she needs to dispose of a certain byproduct of that spell.
That byproduct is part of Quentin’s essence, which Alice pulled from the underworld to make the golem. Instead of it disappearing when the golem was released, it has lingered. This particular part of the episode (the bits surrounding Eliot and Alice) are heartbreaking in more ways than one. I can’t stress enough how good the acting was here, but I have a lot to say about the writing choices that were made.
Alice doesn’t want Eliot’s help getting to the top of the Mountain of Ghosts to drop Q’s essence in the well that leads all the way to the underworld, but Eliot insists on going anyway. Instead of this being an opportunity to attempt to bring Q back, we get Alice and Eliot bonding, and…a whole lot more.
We get a short segue of Penny, who is still having residual effects from the weird tone he heard in episode 1, though he agrees to give Julia a ride to meet the contact Alice directed her to in the last episode.
After this short cutaway, we divert attention back to Margo, Josh, and Fen. Josh and Fen are hiding something big, but before that bomb gets dropped, we discover that Josh and Fen created a tournament to find the best warriors in the land, to promote as their head guard. Their plan is to use the tournament to overturn Margo’s banishment from the kingdom of Fillory.
Alice and Eliot embark on their trek and discover that they must carry rocks and ash with them because they burn the Takers, these strange creatures that appeared around the time the Dark King did. They learn from the “tour guide” that Takers don’t just take people, they take things those people hold dear. The guide thinks they aren’t ready for the mountain, but they insist on it anyway.
After Eliot and Alice begin to argue over whose pilgrimage this is because obviously Alice can’t handle Eliot grieving Quentin, even though Eliot loved him too. They trade barbs and then their guide gets unceremoniously taken by the Takers, leaving them to continue on their own. They each have said things they don’t really mean out of anger and grief, but I can’t help but hate the way they wrote Alice for this. Her characterization in this episode gets worse sadly.
Next, we go back to Margo, Fen, and Josh, who are signing up for the tournament. Margo signs up to use axes, and instead of staying out of it and letting Margo at it, Fen signs up to use knives. We then transition back to Penny and Julia who, for once, have the most disconnected plot of the episode. I guess they decided to give Kady a break.
They meet the sister of the contact that Alice recommended in an establishment that is themed exactly after the Physical Kids Cottage because she is a Brakebills alumnus. They explain the situation and Julia admits that she is concerned about a major event happening. She needs Daniella’s help to predict it so that they hopefully have time to stop it. The sister, named Zoe, declines to help but Daniella appears, seeming to disagree with that idea.
We switch back to Margo and Company and discover that Margo is having a problem with her magic because she is preparing to transform into a werewolf, thanks to Josh’s sexually transmitted Lycanthropy which he passed to her last season. He found out that both of Fillory’s moons are close to being full, which means that Margo is really being affected.
Seeing Summer Bishil play a murderous Margo was delightful but that cutaway is short-lived because we transition back to Eliot and Alice. After setting up a place to temporarily rest, Eliot starts hearing Quentin’s voice. A Taker then steals the bag containing Quentin’s essence, so Eliot naturally runs to catch it. Eliot is saved from a Taker by a new character, sort of. They are given back the bag that the taker stole.
Before we could get any more information, however, we transition back to Penny and Julia who talk to Doctor Lipson. Lipson mentions that she knew Zoe and mentions that the rumor is that Zoe, Dani, and their third sister, “avoided apocalypse in senior year” much to Penny and Julia’s confusion and surprise.
Back to Margo and company, we get to see Fen and Margo fight, which is probably the most fun scene in the episode. However, that fun is short-lived, because we discover that the Dark King has made a new decree. As a sexist moron, he only allows one female Centurion on his guard, which means Fen and Margo will have to fight for the honor.
I’m really getting sick of such a “female-empowering” show relying on pitting women against each other. Julia couldn’t be a goddess for long, Alice is relegated to the grieving widow, and now Fen and Margo have to fight one another. I wish I could say it doesn’t get worse.
However, it is here that we discover that Josh is a cheating dog, who slept with Fen, thereby giving her the sexually transmitted Lycanthropy as well. I’m sorry, but Josh is an idiot. I’m a homosexual male and even I wouldn’t cheat on Margo because she’d bite my bits off, not to mention the fact that she’s a strong, assertive, sexually empowered woman who could have anyone she wants. Why the hell would he cheat? Except oh yeah, Josh has cheated before, on Victoria, a character from previous seasons.
Summer Bishil portrayed the surprise and emotional weight of this reveal expertly. I swear if that woman doesn’t get a career in more shows after The Magicians ends I’m going to be very upset. Anyhow, switching back to Eliot and Alice, they get to know this new stranger a bit more. We discover that his family is from Earth and that he lost the love of his life, a man he loved dearly.
So yes, we’ve circled back to the crux of the issue. Gay characters can’t have a happy backstory or ending, and female characters can’t be anything other than the butt of a joke or a plot device. How progressive of you Sera Gamble or maybe this was John McNamara’s doing, who knows. Alice leaves Eliot and the stranger alone before we switch back to Julia and Penny again.
Julia and Penny return to Zoe and Dani, who wants to help, while Zoe is afraid that Dani will get obsessed and they will lose more. Stella Maeve’s performance here is great because she pushes on, telling them that they’re not the only ones who have lost people, but they get thrown out anyway.
Eliot and the stranger continue talking, and Eliot finally admits to a complete stranger that he loved Quentin. It’s unsurprising based on Eliot’s unwillingness to confront his feelings, but it is growth. Eliot thinks that Alice doesn’t know how he loved Quentin but ironically, the stranger encourages Eliot because his love of Quentin is no less valid than Alice’s. It’s nice to hear it be said, but at the same time with everything else that has happened, it doesn’t feel genuine on the writer’s part.
With that being said, Sean Maguire who plays the stranger, revealed at the end of the episode to be the Dark King himself, is very good in this role. As frustrated as I am, I look forward to seeing his motivations and his acting this season. I won’t say that I’m frustrated by him being a gay villain, because that’s totally a valid idea, but the Kill your Gays trope is getting really old, villain or not.
I will say, I’m really glad they chose not to have The Stranger and Eliot have sex because that would have complicated things and given Eliot, even more, to feel guilty about. Now we have the fight between Margo and Fen, which further shows (due to the comments of the fight master) that the Dark King is just as sexist as he is evil apparently. Why did they make the gay villain sexist? I don’t know, maybe the writers are pissed at the LGBT community for being mad about Quentin’s death. Who knows?
Margo thinks for a moment that she has killed Fen, and shows remorse for some reason. I think I’d gain some semblance of joy for murdering the woman that my boyfriend cheated with but I guess they’ve written out Margo’s balls this episode. In any case, Fen is still alive and we have a heartbreaking moment between Alice and Eliot, where Alice acknowledges and tells Eliot that Quentin loved him.
How she knew this I have no idea, and if she did know prior to season 5, then her trying to get back with Quentin at the end of season 4 is nothing short of manipulative and horrid. This is another case of the writers forgetting things they’ve done in previous episodes and seasons. If Alice truly understood that Eliot and Quentin loved each other, then she should have left it alone in season 4.
Not doing so only means one thing in my mind. The writers don’t value LGBT stories, they don’t value the love that two men or two women share. All they care about is representation in name only. Representation is more than just HAVING LGBT characters.
It is about giving them the same space straight characters have. It is about giving them storylines that straight characters would have, without relegating them to comedic relief or tragic stories. The writers have shown their true colors yet again and if people still aren’t aware of it, then they aren’t paying attention.
Olivia Taylor Dudley’s acting as Alice and Hale Appleman’s acting as Eliot in this scene, are nothing short of emotional, heartbreaking, and very well done. I don’t agree with how they’ve written Alice and I definitely don’t agree with how this plot has developed, but credit where it is due, I cried. I cried for so many reasons and I’m not ashamed of that.
The infuriating moments don’t stop there though folks. Instead of sending the letter he wrote to Quentin, that would reach him before he went into the Seam, Eliot drops it down the well. He does so because he’s worried if he sends it, Everett might come back. Quentin risked the world to keep them from killing the monster so they could save him and Eliot and Alice just let it go. They could have fixed it, and they chose not to because the writing dictates that he has to move on and that logical ideas for a character who would normally never stop fighting for someone he loves, are unimportant.
Eliot finally admitted his feelings about Quentin to Alice and tells her about the Mosaic timeline and yet, none of that matters. Sure, they’re showing a realistic portrayal of grief and moving on, but it is entirely unnecessary. It is unnecessary pain, all in the name of Eliot’s growth when he could just as easily have learned these things a thousand different ways, and LGBT folks wouldn’t have to be the scapegoat.
Do not get me wrong. I am so glad that he finally admitted it, and that it was admitted on screen and not erased in a way that just had Eliot be “his friend” like I complained about the last episode. However, with the context of everything else in this episode? It doesn’t send the right message. A show about magic that lets characters come back at will, should be free to give characters of all walks of life positive treatment, not constant misery.
I wanted Alice and Eliot to bond, but this was not the way. This spits in the face of everyone who valued what Quentin and Eliot had. It spits in the face of everyone who praised Sera Gamble and John McNamara for being progressive. As it stands, I feel like a liar all over again. I suggested that people should watch season 5 if they felt like it, and now I’m not so sure.
Anyway, to wrap up this episode, Margo, Josh, and Fen become human again the next morning, only for Margo to admit that she’s pissed about Josh cheating but that she doesn’t own him and he can do what he wants. She admits that she thought the fake knife was a real one and that she would have killed Fen otherwise, but still. What is happening to these characters? There is no way Margo would have let that stand with anyone else.
Margo’s character deserves better than this. She had no reason to apologize and yet she does. It is absolutely ridiculous. She also reveals, at the worst time, that she was going to let Fen and Josh die. Then they have the audacity to be angry that she was going to let them die. I have no idea what is going on anymore but the writing has taken a sharp turn once again.
Then here comes Penny, telling Julia that he wants a life with her after this is all over and that while he’s not sure she wants that because she’s busy chasing a quest and purpose, he’s willing to wait. Dani takes this moment to appear and tells them that they have two weeks before something called the Harmonic Convergence, which will magnify a very powerful surge, possibly causing everyone to die. There is currently no way to stop it unless they stop the surges.
The end of the episode also reveals that the stranger is (as I mentioned previously) the Dark King, leaving Eliot and Alice flabbergasted. He offers Eliot a favor if he ever needs to call on him for any reason. It is a deal with the devil and I’m sure that will be revisited at some point.
This episode of The Magicians was a lot to process, but since I’ve started this series so far, I’ll be back next week with another review. The acting was top-notch, and there was some plot development moving forward, but I am so disappointed in how this turned out. It looks like we’ve got a lot of bleakness ahead. Takers still prowling, The Dark King now has Margo in his service, and worse yet, a two-week timer for the end of the world. Who knows how things will end at this point, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opinions on it.
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🔥675The Magicians
Pros
- Great Fight Scenes
- Powerful Acting
- Takers Look Creepy
Cons
- Alice's Character was Written Terribly Here
- Having Margo Apologize is Horrid
- Josh is a Slimeball
- More Widowed Gays
