Warning: This review contains spoilers for Episode 10 of The Magicians Season 5. If you aren’t caught up, beware spoilers. You have been warned.

Well, folks, we’re in the home stretch now. Episode 10 of The Magicians’ final season has landed. We’ve got a lot of unanswered questions, and last week’s episode ended on a startling cliffhanger that has me fairly concerned for a few of our merry band of misfit magicians.

To recap where we left off, Alice got trapped in a psychic loop by the Couple, who are trying to get the page of information about the World Seed. After she noticed the deception, she was tortured, losing a few fingers in the process. In Fillory, The Dark King used Eliot and Julia to summon the spirit of his dead lover Lance, who possessed Eliot temporarily. At the same time, Margo learned that all the trees in Fillory are connected and in order to kill the Dark King, Fillory must be destroyed.

Julia is still pregnant, we don’t know what’s going on with Alice or Kady, and everything has gone to hell in a handbasket. Also, Penny and Plum are trapped in the room the signal keeps drawing them to. So, that’s the rub. Let’s get into the madness, shall we?

Spoilers for the Episode begin here!

The episode begins with something that gives me mixed feelings. The Dark King killed Josh by sacrificing him to the Takers. Normally, I would be dancing a jig because I’m not fond of Josh’s character, but knowing that A) Josh has Margo’s faerie eye, and B) Josh is still someone Margo cares about, somewhat dampens my excitement.

The next scene involves Plum and Penny, who are still in the room the signal brought them to. The circumstances of magic are chaotic there and every time Plum tries to teleport them out, it doesn’t work. They are greeted by another Time Traveler, who wants Plum to stop time traveling at all. He doesn’t want her changing the past such as saving Hyman last episode and wishes to remove her power to time travel at all.

Traveling in itself is fine but he fancies himself a protector of the space-time continuum, so he wishes to remove her ability to time travel, which is apparently limited anyway. After she refuses, he basically tells them that he will return when she does consent and that they are outside of time, so they cannot escape.

Next, we see Kady and Alice. Kady thanks Alice for saving her and not letting the Couple kill her. Alice can’t cast anymore but has magically-prosthetic fingers. They don’t work for casting but she can at least use her hands. She suggests that maybe they should walk away, rather than getting back at the Couple for this. Kady isn’t having it. She is on the warpath for what they did to Alice, and frankly, I agree with her for once.

Then we find Josh, who is… somewhere? The Taker that dragged him there touched the amulet Rupert (TDK) put on Josh’s neck, and suddenly it falls over dead. He pulls out Margo’s faerie eye and she wakes up with a massive headache. She can see Josh, but she has no clue where he is and being in an entirely different world from her eye is having a strange effect on her.

Her nose begins to bleed and she collapses, landing thankfully on a couch. Luckily, Alice, Kady, and Fen are there. Alice says she has an idea and then we switch to Eliot and Julia. Eliot and Charlton know that magic doesn’t work in the cell. After telling Julia, we get to see her go full pregnancy hormones on Eliot, which is hilarious.

I love Stella’s acting here and I kind of hope she channeled her own pregnancy for this because holy hell, that was both deeply entertaining and accurate at the same time. Eliot, to his credit, takes it like a champ and is doing his best to be supportive. In the midst of her rant, she realizes that she can hear Charlton. The line “What the F*** is a Charlton” is another bit of unintentional comedy gold honestly.

They begin to realize that because Julia’s baby is Penny’s, she got a psychic burst because the baby has power. They begin to wonder if the baby is a traveler, and if so, can they use that power without harming the baby? Eliot admits that his first year, he took sex ed and “inter-magician relations” but he was so high that entire year that he isn’t quite sure he remembers it.

Charlton decides to plunder in Eliot’s mind. If those memories are there at all, he would be able to access them. We then get a delightful view of Margo and Eliot in first year, taking a class by Fogg about do’s and don’ts of magical…well, sex. He discovers that in order to duplicate the abilities of her baby, Julia will need to feel imminently in danger.

Back with Josh, he meets a young girl played by Summer Fontana, who also played young Hope Mikaelson in The Originals. It seems that this realm is where all people and things are taken by the Takers. He asks the girl about her friends, and she mentions that the Takers took them to a shining cave with a golden eye. In reality, it is an elevator, presumably the elevator to the underworld. So, it seems that Josh is in Purgatory.

Just as expected, when they arrive at the elevator, the only button is to the Underworld. With no other option, Josh takes the elevator with the girl. They are greeted at the top by a man who assumes they are dead, though to be quite honest, at this point I’m not certain if they are or if the Takers merely took their living forms to wherever they ended up.

They are then greeted by Penny 40, who I was wondering if we’d see before the end of the series. Back at Brakebills, Margo is with Alice, Kady, and Fen. Alice wants to sever the connection between the magic of Margo’s faerie eye and her body. Margo isn’t fond of this idea, so they simply put her to sleep with a spell, while Alice and Fen go looking for a solution.

We briefly see Eliot and Julia trick a guard, to get something Eliot needs for a spell. Then we switch back to Penny 40 and Josh. Penny tells Josh that Hades has vanished and that the underworld is in shambles. After consulting an expert, Josh and Penny discover where Hades’ hidden retreat is. Before we can go too far with that though, we’re back to Penny 23 and Plum.

Plum and Penny 23 have been there a month it seems. The lack of having to eat, sleep, or “pee” as Plum put it, is wearing on them. Plum ultimately makes her choice. She sits in the chair and lets it take her power or at least we think so. Before we can know for sure, we switch back to Penny 40 and Josh.

They find themselves in Hades’ hideaway and Josh samples Hades’ pink Himalayan sea salt. Personally, rule number 1 of the underworld is not to consume anything there. Something tells me that may be a problem or a potential plot hole. They find out from one of Hades’ servants that he left and may never be back. Josh finds something though, just in time for Alice and the crew to create a spell that diverts the signal from Margo’s eye to a prism instead of her brain. This allows them to see what her eye would normally show. They discover that Hades is on Earth, in Queens specifically.

Margo’s acting in this scene was absolutely hilarious. “I’ve got a movie projector in my eye hole!” is just one quote, and it is delivered beautifully. Back with Eliot and Julia, they attempt their plan. She drinks a potion to incite fear and anxiety, and immediately her water breaks. So, she’s having her baby, right there, in the cell, with Eliot and Charlton.

Except…it was a simulation, an idea to teach Julia how to make the traveling work, which ultimately succeeds. Julia goes to get the keys to the cells, to free Eliot so they can escape. Now we find ourselves in Queens, where Alice and Kady find Hades. Hades was apparently expecting them, though it is strange that he answers the door in a T-Shirt and a gray hoodie. What kind of death god looks like a depressed average joe?

I’m going to take a moment and segue for a second, to mention an easter egg other folks might miss. In Hades’ living room, he mentions playing video games. On his television, you might be delighted to find that he was playing Untitled Goose Game by the indie developer House House. There’s something hilarious about the idea of Hades playing as a jerkface goose.

Hades isn’t helpful at all, he grieves the loss of Persephone. He reveals that there is no underworld for Gods and that he doesn’t know what happens when they die. At the mention of the Takers, however, Hades becomes very alarmed. The world of the Takers is a barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

He tells them that he will help Josh and he will return to the underworld. However, if they do not stop the Takers and Rupert, not only will Fillory be consumed, so will Earth. It could mean the end of everything, because if Rupert resurrected Lance, then all the dead could come back. Josh and the girl he saved arrive back in Fillory and the girl has decidedly warmed up to him. Perhaps he and Fen may adopt her?

When they arrive, however, they discover dead Takers all over the ground. It seems Rupert has accelerated his plans. Without the Takers to stop him, well…I don’t think I need to tell you how bad it is for our merry band. Back with Penny and Plum, Plum is having a bad reaction to the chair. Penny is concerned she may die, but Plum insists on continuing.

They discover that their captor isn’t trying to eliminate her power. He is trying to take it for himself. He isn’t a guardian of space-time. He’s a junkie looking for more power. They manage to bargain with him and escape from the place, landing back in the apartment where Eliot and Julia have reunited with Fen, Kady, and the rest.

Penny gets a big wakeup call, seeing Julia hugely pregnant. However, before we can get into anything else, the episode ends. Honestly, this was a very solid episode. I think time travel is going to play in somewhere by the end of this. They wouldn’t have introduced a warning against it for nothing.

Also, now we know what Rupert is after and we have an idea of how the ending stretch is meant to go. Sure, with The Magicians, nothing is as it seems and rarely do things go according to plan. However, this is something clear and cohesive. The Magicians is at its best when there is a clear goal and now that the gang is back together, the beginning of the end has begun.

This was a solid episode and between the humor, interesting world-building, and all sorts of other fun details, I can’t help but be excited to see what comes next. I hope Alice gets the ability to cast back and I hope we see some sort of happiness come to these characters. Next week we’ll be on to Episode 11 and I am very excited to see what comes next.

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The Magicians

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Margo's Lines During the Projector Scene Were Hilarious
• Stella Maeve's Acting is Fantastic
• Plot Points are Coming Together
• More Knowledge of the Underworld
• Nice Untitled Goose Game Easter Egg

Cons

• Fen Serves What purpose?
• Why Didn't They Focus More on Hades' Grief Rather Than Kill Quentin?