Everyone had ten different things going on this week on The Magicians and while it could have easily felt cluttered or rushed, each problem connected seamlessly to the next, weaving an exciting and emotional hour across several worlds (even Canada). Alice is back but very different from the Alice of the past. Kady and Julia finally find a way to kill Reynard once and for all but as always things are more complicated than they seem. Eliot and Quentin discover a hidden force in their quest to return to Fillory. Penny and Sylvia break into the poison room with disastrous consequences and speaking of disastrous, Fillory is left in the chocolate covered hands of Josh in their King and Queen’s absence. “Ramifications” was written by David Reed & Christina Strain and directed by Chris Fisher. Here’s what happened this week.
TIME TO PUT DOWN A GOD | After coming so close to getting her shade back only to lose it for good, Julia (Stella Maeve) returns to Brakebills to convince Kady (Jade Tailor) to be her “missing chip” and help her do good. Kady needs Julia just a much with Gaines (guest star Christopher Gorham) hiding out there to avoid Reynard (Mackenzie Astin). Julia fills them in on the Persephone angle of it all and they think they can use his obsession with her to lure him out in the open. Killing Gaines for his power is off the table so they stick to trying to teach him magic so he can harness his own power to defeat him. Reynard is wise to Gaines’ team up with the girls and kills Gaines’ wife to send a message. Gaines realizes that he will never be ready in time and that the only hope of killing Reynard is by one of the girls’ hands using his power. He sends Julia off on a pizza run and jedi mind manipulates Kady into performing the ritual and killing him. Julia returns to find Kady covered in blood and shaking. While Kady tries to get cleaned up, Julia converts the power into a single magic bullet for them to use to take down Reynard once and for all. They go off to a farm and create a giant storm meant to trick Reynard into thinking Persephone is back on earth and it works like a charm. What they weren’t expecting was Persephone (guest star Garcelle Beauvais) herself to arrive right before Julia pulls the trigger and beg Julia to spare his life because he is her son. She pleads with Julia to let her handle him and to not let Reynard raping and then tormenting her rob her of her ability to have mercy. Julia lowers the gun and Persephone vanishes herself and Reynard. Kady is furious that Julia would let him go after everything they did and lost to get there and storms off. As a thank you, Persephone returns Julia’s shade (guest star Imogen Tear) to her to be reunited.
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BACK FROM BEYOND | Julia and Quentin (Jason Ralph) recruit Mayakovsky (guest star Brían F. O’Bryne) to help them reunite Alice’s (Olivia Taylor Dudley) Shade with her Niffin form and he is not having it. He is convinced it is crazy and would never work but between Julia pointing out his magical super battery he’s been charging and Quentin reminding him he is partially responsible for Alice’s brother becoming a Niffin, he begrudgingly agrees to help. They separate Alice’s Shade from Julia and in doing so lure Niffin Alice to the magical cage they constructed where they re-bond Shade and Niffin to produce Human Alice Quinn. She isn’t the Alice they remember though as she has seen the universe only to be ripped away from it and forced back into a human body. Quentin tries to give Alice time and space while Mayakovsky watches over her. She furiously tries to write down all the knowledge she acquired as a Niffin before it fades away forever and hates being back in a human body. Mayakovsky tries to convince her she has the opportunity to do more than any other magician could ever dream of but she still isn’t content.
POISON ROOM HEIST | Penny (Arjun Gupta) and Sylvia (guest star Roan Curtis) put their plan to break into the Poison Room into motion by figuring out the room’s corresponding fountain and breaking in the back door. Sylvia is more powerful than Penny gives her credit for and is the one who breaks the spell sealing the room. He still wants her to sit out but she is determined to find her own book and figure out why every single person alive has twenty blank pages signaling some kind of catastrophic event coming soon. This isn’t her first fountain hopping rodeo so she doesn’t give him another chance to argue and ties a rope around her waist and proceeds to dive headfirst into the fountain. He follows and they find themselves in the Poison Room which looks more like a dusty old attic in a haunted mansion than a library. Penny finds the book he is looking for but realizes the poison is starting to take effect on him. He rushes to find Sylvia but she is even worse off than he is. He tries to get her to leave with him but she tells him she read her own book and she doesn’t make it out of the room alive. He refuses to leave her but she tells him if he doesn’t, they both die. He travels back to Brakebills where he collapses in Kady’s arms.
FILLORY’S BIGGEST FAN | Eliot (Hale Appleman) has been banished from Fillory and is determined to get home so he can find his pregnant wife and help save his kingdom. Unfortunately, Quentin gave away the button to travel to the Underworld so they are left to figure out what the dragon meant by, “The first portal is still open.” The figure out that it must be referring to the original clock the Chatwins used to travel back and forth and track the clock’s ebay buyer to Vancouver. There they find a man who has been collecting every bit of Fillory merchandise he can get his hands on. He knows a bit too much about Fillory and after some prying, they figure out that he is none other than the lost god of Fillory, Umber. He has given up on Fillory however, and is busy building his new world. He finds their determination to save Fillory laughable but after Eliot pleads with him, he agrees to give them the clock. He warns them that Ember is easily bored and not only was he the one who turned people into rats and banished Eliot, but he would sooner smash the place to bits than be bored by it.
NEW MANAGEMENT | With Eliot and Margo (Summer Bishil) nowhere to be found, Josh (guest star Trevor Unicorn) finds himself the only Child of Earth left in Fillory making him High King by default. That comes with all the problems Fillory is waist deep in but Josh convinces the council to channel their inner Timon and Pumba and “Hakuna Matata”. To him, that means getting blazed and having a party. One particular high lets him see into other worlds and Margo appears to him to kick him into gear and find her and Fen (Brittany Curran) before it’s too late. They are stuck in the fairy world and don’t know how much time they have. Josh confers with the council about it and Abigail the Sloth’s cohort gives him the same potion he gave to Margo. Before Josh can figure out what to do with it, Prince Ess (guest star Arlen Escarpeta) arrives looking for his father. Josh tries to explain that Idri is currently in rat form but Ess isn’t in a listening mood and has his men attack. Josh makes a gas weapon to drug Ess and his men so that he and the council can sneak by but accidentally inhales some of it himself. The high allows him to see into the fairy world again where Fen is being dragged away. He makes a game time decision and takes the potion to transport him to the fairy world to find Fen.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• Line of the Night has to go to Josh for, “There was a great king on earth who had a philosophy, ‘Hakuna Matata.’ Roughly translated it means no worries.”
• Julia wanting to do good despite her “chip missing” and doing everything she can to help her friends, especially Quentin and Kady makes me incredibly emotional.
• Leaving Josh in charge was both the best and worst thing to happen to Fillory.
So what did you think? What will happen now that Julia is reunited with her Shade? What is the event coming that everyone’s book alluded to? With Josh find Margo and Fen in time? How are Quentin and Eliot going to stop Ember from clearing the Etch-A-Sketch? Will Alice save them all with her vast knowledge of the universe? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
Be sure to catch The Magicians Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy!