Stories interwove in surprising ways on this week’s episode of The Magicians. Quentin tried his hand back in a world without magic and made a new connection along the way. Margo and Eliot dealt with a rebellion from within Fillory itself while Penny played assistant to everyone’s favorite Russian professor. Elsewhere, Julia and Kady’s quest took a sideline to yet another horrible addition to Julia’s trauma at the hands of Reynard. “Cheat Day” was written by Mike Moore and directed by Joshua Butler. Here’s what happened in the episode five.
REAL WORLD | Quentin (Jason Ralph) tries to adjust to life without magic and finds himself working in the most banal and literally gray job imaginable. While there, he meets Emily Greenstreet (guest star Abby Miller) who some may remember as Charlie Quinn’s friend from when he niffined out in school. She also left magic behind after falling in love with a teacher and consequently watching her world fall apart. She and Quentin bond over running from magic but after a rough day, decide that just for the night, they are going to cheat and have some fun. It starts out all fun and games with truth or dare and smoke shape parlor tricks involving some weed in the park but it quickly escalates to something much heavier. Back at her apartment, she shows him a spell that allows the other person to temporarily appear to be anyone the caster chooses. She does the spell on Quentin first, choosing to make him appear to be her former professor and lover, Professor Mayakovsky (guest star Brían F. O’Byrne). Quentin puts it all together in his head and is definitely weirded out but lets her cuddle with him as Mayakovsky. For his turn, he enchants Emily to appear as Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and tells her how much he truly misses her. They do a lot more than cuddle (I see you, promo department, putting that scene in the season trailer to make us think we could have nice things). The next morning, she tries to get Quentin to stay and continue their cheat day into more of a cheat week but he turns her down, saying that while it was fun in the moment, it left him feeling even worse than he did before. As he is walking home, he glances up and sees a zombie-looking Alice, staring at him from across the street. She mouths, “help me,” before vanishing into thin air.
FIGHTERS OF FU | A delighted Fen (Brittany Curran) comes to Eliot (Hale Appleman) with a Fillorian pregnancy bunny (have I said today how much I love this show?) to announce that she is with child but he not quite as overjoyed as she was hoping. He tries to tell her why he is hesitant but is interrupted when a young man jumps him from behind and tries to strangle him. Margo (Summer Bishil) responds to the ruckus and saves him, having the young man dragged to the dungeon. They meet with the council to discuss what to do about the boy and the council (including the ever savage Abigail the Sloth) suggests a public and gruesome execution. Eliot and Margo hold off on making any decisions at the moment and go to talk to the boy who proclaims that his name is Baylor (guest star Rhys Ward) and that he is a proud soldier of Fillorians Unitied – a *snicker* Fu Fighter, if you will. He tells them that the Fu Fighters will not rest until a native Fillorian sits upon the throne and that they will kill any Child of Earth who comes into Fillory. Eliot and Margo discuss it privately and come to the conclusion that their only choice is to execute him but Eliot, thinking of what kind of world he wants to raise his child in, changes his mind at the last second. Margo is furious and tries to exact her power as High Queen but Tick (guest star Rizwan Manji) reminds her that the patriarchy isn’t just an Earth thing and that she has no power over Eliot. Later, Fen visits Baylor in the dungeon and they are way more familiar than she led everyone else to believe. However, she has left her life as a Fu Fighter behind and when he threatens to tell Eliot about it, she shoots back that she will tell him herself.
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WAX ON, WAX OFF | Penny (Arjun Gupta) discovers that while his newest new hands aren’t out of control, they are unable to cast magic at all. He ventures to the arctic wasteland that is Brakebills South to seek help from Professor Mayakovsky. Having never given anyone anything unless it also benefitted him, Mayakovsky strikes a deal with Penny; cured hands for Penny’s assistance on a project Mayakovsky is working on. His first task is to de-knot a mountain of rope. Once he completes that seemingly pointless activity, Mayakovsky tasks him with sanding down a giant wooden table using only a glorified nail file. Not long into this task, Mayakovsky calls break time and shares a bottle of vodka with Penny and tries to convince him to leave magic behind. He tells Penny that magic is dying and when it does, it will be a very bad time to be a practicing magician. In a “You jump, I jump” moment, Penny tells him, “You leave, I leave,” but Mayakovsky has been trapped in a corporate bond after sleeping with the wrong student (who we discover was none other than Quentin’s new friend, Emily). Mayakovsky passes out while Penny actually finishes turning the table into sawdust and when the tiny (now fuzzy) bitter Russian man awakes, he finally fills Penny in on why he is having him do these ridiculous tasks. When magic dies, Mayakovsky plans to have a giant magical battery fully charged for himself. He has been using Penny to take the magical energy out of things like the knots and the table in order to store in the battery. Next on his scavenger hunt of magical energy, he sends Penny to Fillory to collect some magical moss with the promise that soon he will help him with his hands.
NOT ALONE | Julia (Stella Maeve) and Kady (Jade Tailor) try to track down the woman who was able to banish Reynard but their search is put on hold when Julia discovers that on top of everything Reynard did to her, she is also suffering from a rape pregnancy by him. Not knowing if a simple abortion will even be enough if it is the product of a god, they go to an abortion clinic to try anyway. The doctor (guest star Michelle Harrison) recognizes the signs of assault in Julia’s demeanor and allows her to skip the waiting list and instead come in the next morning for the procedure. That night, Julia is still blaming herself for her part in summoning Reynard in the first place but Kady reminds her that not only did Reynard trick them all, but that it is not Julia’s fault in the least. Julia confides in her that she is nervous about the abortion and Kady tells her that she is not alone, that she has her Best Bitch right there with her. The next morning, they go back to the clinic but the receptionist is taken over by a spell and tries to keep her from going in. They manage to get the doctor to bring her back but Kady’s spidey senses are tingling in the lobby where she waits for Julia. The doctor gets Julia all set but right before she starts the procedure, she is also taken over by a spell and jams a surgical instrument into her own eye. Julia screams out for Kady who comes rushing in but it is too late. With the doctor dead on the floor, Julia begs Kady to just perform the abortion herself but Kady tells her they have to get out of there and promises they will find another way to terminate the pregnancy.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
• Line of the night goes to Margo with, “When we’re the least snobby people in the room, there’s something wrong with the room.”
• How does one make soup using a Keurig? I am genuinely curious.
• I would like to give kudos to the show for accurately portraying abortions as a normal thing and a completely understandable option especially for someone who was the victim of sexual assault.
So what did you think? What was going on with Zombie Alice? Will Quentin be able to keep this magic-free life up? Are the Fu Fighers going to prove to be a real threat? Where does Julia go from here? Let us know your theories in the comments below!
The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9pm on Syfy.
