If you guys watched all of season 1 of The Magicians, you’ll remember that Quentin, Eliot, Alice, Margo, Penny and Julia’s battle with the beast (Martin Chatwin) failed because Julia took the knife (that kills Gods) away from Alice for her own selfish means of revenge against the Trickster God that raped her. I know it’s wild. Julia and the Beast leaves the Brakebills team (BBT) for dead.
Season 2 jump-starts us with Quentin, surprisingly unharmed and unscathed, running aimlessly in a fillory forest. Searching for anyone to help his friends after their horrific encounter with the Beast. He finally comes across a small house in the middle of the forest with a strange woman. Here the show takes an opportunity to poke fun at the Hansel and Gretel fantasy the witch with the house made of Candy. Only thing is the woman assures Quentin that her house isn’t made of Candy, nor will she eat him so it’s fine for him to come inside. Yeah, sorry, what about the part of being a witch?? Well in order for Quentin to receive her help, he must give her a vial of his blood. Against his better judgment, he agrees and they run back to the Beast’s house to help his friends. Only thing is, Quentin’s friends are all just fine. If you remember from Season 1, Alice drank the semen of a God and was endowed with his powers. Let’s just call this “the endowment” because this is disgusting. Alice was dead but with her “Endowment” she came back to life and used her powers to help her friends recover. With that being said, Quentin asks for his blood back but the strange woman refuses. Leaving Quentin with a very ominous message, which I’m sure will come into play later on in the season.
Now with the BBT back together and the Knife (that kill Gods) gone, the goal is to find a new weapon to kill the beast. Quentin, in his usual nerdy way, suggest that they check Castle Whitespire’s Armory – a.k.a. a fancy way of saying library of spells. To enter the castle, they need to be crowned but to in order to be crowned, they have to go to the coronation spot across a rainbow bridge. Alright, my nerdy sense is tingling. The rainbow bridge had to have come from Thor’s famous rainbow bridge that leads into Valhalla. Even so, in this moment the show gets a little too corny in this moment. Some great one liners, snarky comments and mentions from other fantasy stories. It becomes a bit too much. They finally reach the coronation spot and encounter the Knight of Crowns. Here. They are tested with a series of questions related to the BBT’s world of Nineties pop culture. Remember we are still in Fillory. Apparently, Eliot’s hilarious Patrick Swayze impersonation is what seals the deal.
During the coronation and crowing each other. The BBT takes this time to confess their faults and relieve issues among themselves. A tender moment from all except Penny (I’ll get to him soon). The results:
High King Eliot – the Spectacular
High Queen Margo – The Destroyer
Queen Alice – The Wise
King Quentin – The Moderately & Socially Adjusted
The BBT can finally enter the armory only to find out that it’s surprisingly bare. Alice does find a book with a spell they need but it’s back at brakebills. Okay so here is where we really see how the season will be broken up. Eliot and Margo will remain in Fillory, with the goal of fixing a broken Kingdom. It’s not like Eliot has a choice anyway. Quentin, Alice and most likely Penny will return to Brakebills in search of the spell that can kill the beast. As for Julia… The writers clearly have no mercy for this poor girl.
I’m just really exhausted with Julia’s story line. Exhausting in a very conflicting way. She goes from being obsessed with learning magic to obsess with killing Reynard, the Trickster Fox God. In order to do this, she makes a spellbinding pact with the Beast. Help me kill Reynard and I will give you the knife (that kill gods). The deed is done and the two set out in the real world for Reynard. The beast asks Julia, how in the world did she survive the encounter with the God? Apparently she didn’t. The trickster killed after the act. So when she was raped, she received the trickster Gods “Endowment” and came back to life. Like Alice. The start of her story this season is just another violence against woman story. I’m sorry but it is getting old. I only wish she could be driven by other means than this.
During the episode the beast starts to take a keen interest and Julia, enticing her to get rid of her shade – a.k.a. her humanity. She’ll be able to live without the problems that feelings bring. This story line is looking like she may end up becoming the beast’s apprentice. I predict that somewhere along the line Quentin and Julia will be going against each other which makes for great story telling.
Oh before I forget. Remember when Penny got his hands chopped off? Well he gets them back. He goes to the Chatwin Torrent (a magical spring or pond) to fix them. There he meets the attendant that helps him but Penny is rude to him (of course) and gets a hex placed on his hands. Now he has to deal with performing spells… involuntarily. Honestly, serves him right. I can see this story line changing him. Especially since the attendant kind of foreshadowed Penny’s position (of greatness).
And where the hell is Kady??? How the hell did she manage to get away from the trickster god? I have way too many questions for this character that should have been answered in the Season premiere.
I still think the show has potential. I still can see that they have no regards for character time management but it may be too early to tell. We shall see. Catch you guys next week.