Magic – The Magicians S5 E12 and E13

Jason and Cristina discuss The Magicians Episode 12: The Balls and Episode 13: Fillory And Further! What a great time we had these last 5 years with this show. Thank you to our Klatchers for going on the wild ride with us, and thank you to the cast and crew of The Magicians for bringing Magic Into Our Lives! Time to start the show all over again and relive it once more.

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Podcast Notes –

 5.12:  THE BALLS

Written:	John McNamara
Directed:	Meera Menon
Imdb:	7.7

5.13: FILLORY & FURTHER

Written:	Gamble & Myers
Directed:	Chris Fisher
Imdb:	8.8

OVERALL THOUGHTS

DEN OF GEEK:     “The Balls” centering the songs around emotions, bottled or otherwise, was an appropriate choice. However, combining the musical elements with a heist, another tried and true narrative in this show, may have had a diluting effect on both fan favorite formats.  The mistakes made during the heist and the overly simplistic fixes for those errors, tempered the effectiveness of the caper (Marina needs Harmonic Convergence to break in but plan works despite stupid mistakes made by Pete, Baton breaks but able to easily fix it, Psycho Fogg drinks flask).   Compounding this issue was that the Couple weren’t very menacing villains. The series built George and Paloma Ball to be this evil force that would stop at nothing to get what they wanted.”

There was no way that The Magicians was going to be able to wrap up its five year run without displeasing fans simply by ending, but “Fillory and Further” provided a surprising amount of closure and a happier conclusion than we’re used to with this show.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

• Disappointment – Eliot & Margo not being together, Eliot’s ending, no final mentions of Quentin
• Good – full circle with Rupert and Martin going down with Fillory, creating a new/better world, Margo ruling

FUN FACTS:

MUSIC:

• Cruel to be Kind by Nick Lowe.  Opening scene with Effingham.
• Afraid by David Bowie.  Alice knocks out bellhop.
• Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel. Alice & Eliot. 
• I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones. Ending heist with group.

The Magicians, in fact, for reserving the killer voice of Jade Tailor’s Kady for the triumphant “I Wanna Be Sedated” in the final moments of the heist rather than having her overshadow the other vocalists as in previous seasons. This allowed Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice and Hale Appleman as Eliot to shine in the more heartfelt moments highlighted by the ballads.

5.12 – THE BALLS

PENNY & JULIA – TRANSMITTED POWER

In trying to figure out the problem of transmitted powers, Julia has come to the conclusion they need to talk to Penny’s mom. They go to the hospital where Neela Adiyodi, works.  Penny tells her he’s going to be a father.  She explains that she started hearing voices about 3 months into her pregnancy and after he was born, things only got worse.  The doctors said the stress of the baby probably brought on a latent psychological disorder.  The voices always went away and came back with Penny – she wanted to raise and love him but couldn’t.  As they’re talking, she begins hearing voices yelling for her. 

Julia is watching on the cameras and through a lens, notices there is some kind of light cord tethering Penny to Neela.  When she tries to explain that to Neela (the existence of magic and how she might be able to help cut the tether), Neela says she can’t go through any of that again.  She asks Julia to give something to Penny – a picture of them together when he was young. 

THE GROUP – THE HEIST

Marina describes The Nave Hotel – which is the current home of the Couple for two reasons.  1) The House Rules – you can’t do any battle magic; wards prevent traveling in and out; no cell phones; if caught with a weapon or trying to scam, you’re kicked out.  The magical world’s number one safe space, enforced by the bellhops – Empath Golems – if they sense radiated micro-aggressions, you’re kicked out (but they need to see you).  2) The Vault – famously impenetrable.  Marina though it would be vulnerable during the Convergence.  Even when the plan went awry, the broke in there, but there was no World Seed.  And because it took so long to crack, they were discovered by the bellhops.  Fen says this makes sense because the World Seed can only live when the temperature is 99 degrees with 99% humidity (the vault is freezing). 

Kady magically builds a miniature model of the hotel so the group can plan their heist.  There’s a room 30 degrees hotter than all the others, where the Seed must be.  The Seed once belong to Magnus Dellacorte – who was best friends with George and Paloma Balls (The Balls).  Magnus died and the Couple stole the Seed from him.  The group deduces they kept it inside an incubated pocketbook.  Zelda thinks they can use the Conductor Spell – created by a conductor who was going blind so he and his orchestra could communicate – each person only hears the conductor, never one another.  It won’t set off hotel protections because it is innocuous in nature (designed to help artists).  Marina will be the Conductor (using a baton to operate the spell) and the rest are given tasks.

In range of the spell, Effingham hears and pleads for help assassinated the person responsible – Julia. As yelling and fighting breaks out, Effingham starts singing and dancing.

“Cruel to be Kind”

They realize that during the song, they all heard each other, which will happen when they have a strong emotion, so Alice has them bottle them before the heist.

Pete smuggles the Group into the Hotel inside a magically extended suitcase (Fantastic Beasts).  As they disperse, Pete distracts the Couple by arranging a meeting over a bottle of wine (36 minutes).  Meanwhile, the Group searches the room for the bag.  Fen finds the Couple has been translating the World Seed page wrong.  They’re ready to leave when Psycho Fogg enters and takes Josh, Margo and Fen captive.  Meanwhile, the bellhop finds out Pete lied about the bottle and kicks him out for deceit. 

A guard stops Eliot and Kady and has them by the throats when Alice’s bottle breaks and releases back her emotions.  She bursts into song and he is temporarily knocked out due to an Empath overload.    

         “Afraid”

The Couple finds the others and Fen tells them they’re translating the page wrong.  She will do it correctly if they spare her friends.  She tells them the first thing you need to do is explain to the Seed exactly what you want and why (if you lie, it refuses to grow).  The Couple has made powerful enemies here, one of which cursed them not to have any children – they want to create a new world where they can have a family. 

Eliot stays to help Alice, taking a small sip of his emotions back and encourages Alice to talk to him.  After, she has an idea and sends a paper airplane message magically out the window. 

         “Don’t Give Up”

Kady goes to take care of Fogg and when she’s seemingly caught, she tricks him into drinking from her flask, laced with Archie.  Fogg is sent to the Etheric Realm, where they’re hoping everyone is too high to notice there are two of him.

Meanwhile, at the apartment, Anna tracks down the Heist Book using a locator spell and confronts Marina.  But finally being honest, Marina thinks if Anna can’t lover her for who she really is, they’re finished.  She leaves but in the skirmish, she broke the baton.  Luckily. Zelda is able to fix it.

In the Nave, when the group is discovered, Eliot takes the rest of his emotions.  Margo, Kady and Fen do the same. 

         “I Wanna Be Sedated”

The Couple is having Fen translate, when the Group enters and takes Paloma hostage (causing George to grab Fen).  Margo informs them they’ve cranked the AC so if they don’t give up the Seed, it will die.  She’s momentarily distracted when the bag’s incubator fritzes out, but pulls a gun and shoots George.  They grab the Seed and run out (Fen hiding somewhere ‘warm and moist’).  That’s when Alice shares her plan and the run to the roof where Santa comes to rescue them.   “HO HO HO motherfuckers”. 

5.13 – FILLORY & FURTHER

Alice wakes to Christmas decorations that Santa just couldn’t resist.  He reveals he was the one to put the Page in a locked drawer of Quentin’s desk for Alice to find.  “It wasn’t his adventure; it was yours.”  But as the others awake, he disappears.  They unwrap gifts (Eliot – bracelet, Zelda – pipe, Margo – necklace, Fen – knife sharpener, Penny – ‘baby shit’), until a bunny delivers the message – “Fillory needs you, NOW!”  The Dark King is planning to open the portal the Underworld that night. 

In strategizing their plan, they decide:

• Margo & Eliot will go to Fillory, operate Umber’s Ark, and then go to the Clockwork Dwarf, turn back time, and Travel out.
• On Earth, Team World Seed – Alice, Fen, Zelda – retrieve the seed and bloom it in the Neitherlands, because Circumstances are more stable there. Alice thinks New Fillory should be able to grow a Wellspring. 

As Julia’s water breaks and they take her to Lipson, Kady is contacted by their Fogg, who was spit out by the Etheric Realm when they sent psycho Fogg there. He can’t speak, is yelling, and seemingly driven crazy.  Lipson is preparing to seer the Energetic Umbilical (but she’s never done it before).   And then, Fogg disappears.  Julia gives birth to a healthy girl.  But as Lipson prepares to cut the tether, Dean Fogg rushes back in and slashes it down the middle. 

The others go to ask for Hyman’s help to travel them.  He’s opposed until Charlton suggest taking his body and letting Hyman exist on the Astral Plane.  Hyman agrees with one condition – as long as Charlton does weird sex things with his body.  So they perform the spell and it works (Hyman – “this is the best episode ever!”)  Unfortunately, Charlton can’t get a hold of Traveling and Margo insists they’re running out of time; she knows a shortcut to the Portal Tree.    

In Fillory, Rupert starts performing magic to open the portal.  Checking the Royal Census Scroll, they see the Fillorians are being ‘raptured’.  Just then, Eliot disappears as Rupert summons him to the Taker Realm for his help sealing the door after Lance comes through.   It works but as Lance moves to touch Rupert, he pulls back and reveals himself to be Martin, The Beast in disguise. He never even met Lance; he must have moved on centuries ago.  He spent time in the Library with Cassandra, learning about the lengths Rupert was willing to go to save Lance – he didn’t work nearly so hard to save him from Plover.  Rupert insists he did everything he could until he needed to save the people from Martin.  The Beast freezes Eliot and Rupert, opening the door to let the Takers through.  As Martin turns his attention to Eliot (“the sad little addict”), Rupert unfreezes himself and travels them both out they can be killed.  Back in Whitespire, Eliot admits the plan was to destroy Fillory in order to destroy Rupert.  Rupert volunteers to stay and hold off the dead and reluctantly, Eliot leaves him, hoping he can find a way to survive. 

In the Neitherlands Library, Zelda produces a container to keep the Seed safe for a short time.  But Fogg shows up and magically grabs it from them.  Trying to formulate a plan, the Beast approaches.  Zelda hurriedly takes them back to a warded room and insists Alice and Fen use the portal – “You can control the forces inside you, and one hand is plenty.”  She stays to initiate Permafrost, closing the fountains to stop the dead traveling to other worlds and is killed by Martin.   

Lipson gives Penny the news that while his daughter is healthy, Julia hasn’t regained consciousness.  Her organs are shutting down and they’re trying everything but it’s not working.  Penny begs Plum to travel them back and save Julia but she says they already did.  It got so much worse, so fast.  He took her to her grandmother Jane who agreed a time loop would give them a clean start, but Plum would only have enough power to do it once.  When she did, only Josh escaped Fillory; the rest got trapped waiting.  So she pushed Josh to find a way.  They tried the Seed here and it failed; when Zelda took them to the Neitherlands, they never came back.  And Jane said not to do too much or it could create more damage.  When they tell her their plan to destroy Fillory to stop Rupert, she insists they’re doing the right thing.  And she will still be here in the Clock Barrens, just harder to find without Fillory. Only, Fogg didn’t attack that time.  Penny realizes Fogg remembers time loops and he’s trying to change this one.

Lipson tries something banned in 14 countries – a cat can hold Fogg’s crazy while he’s touching it.  It works and he explains he’s doing all this to ensure the plan works.  He ensured the others would get out of the Neitherlands; he tells Kady the seed is in the Lab.  And he cut the cord because both Julia and baby would die if they succeeded in the delicate separation, a procedure that would render the cord useless.  With a quick rough cut, it puts cord into a state of shock, allowing time for implantation. But they need to attach the cord to someone else, someone who can handle the psychic output from a Traveler baby. Julia wakes and can’t hear the baby, so it worked. Penny hears Julia’s thoughts to name her Hope Quentin.  Penny has his Psychic powers back but only while holding the baby. 

In Fillory, Eliot, Margo and Josh go to the slide to the Clockwork Dwarf.  Margo admits there’s no shortcut and she knew it, she’s going to sacrifice herself so the others can get back to the Tree.  Margo puts her eye in the container and gives it to Josh to watch them – they get there and checking the scroll, find all numbers at zero.   She slides down and finds the Dwarf has been raptured, so turns the clock and eats the sandwich from Josh as everything falls apart.  We see Fillory as volcanoes erupt and it starts collapsing in on itself.  Martin gets through to Fillory and finds Rupert in the Throne Room.  But Penny is able to travel in at the last minute and grab Margo out before a shot of the planet crumbling. 

In the lab, the group all gathers together for a cooperative spell.  Eliot wants to help but Lipson says he’s sustained permanent damage to his hands.  Alice says she’s going to accept everything she is right now and they’ll all need to do the same. Internal Circumstances are the one thing they can control.  Josh, Margo, and Alice stand around the triangle chanting and casting.  Fen walks in and talks to the Seed, giving her memories of the world – the first time she saw a Pegasus, when she saw her dad make a knife with magic, when he gave her away to a stranger.  “Fillory kind of sucks sometimes…can’t I just have the best of Fillory and the best of Earth, us…that’s what we deserve.”   The seed starts to open and everyone but Eliot and Kady disappear. 

Some time later, Fogg wonders to Lipson why nothing can ever be easy.  He remarks on where they all wound up:

• Kady and Pete working with the Hedge Witches (keeping a Moon Lunatic on retainer).
• Eliot is the newest member of the Brakebills faculty; his hands are healed but his friends are gone and he’s unhappy. As he wonders if there’s any way Seb made it, we see him drinking tea with Jane in the Barrens.  Charlton reveals that Santa’s gift to Eliot turns him back into his true Charlton form, and wonders if Eliot could ever have romantic feelings for him – a man who is emotionally available and plans to stick around.  So they go to ‘find out’ and Hyman follows. 
• Penny and Julia prepare for another quest – to find their friends (as a family).
• Fogg thinks that because they still have magic on Earth, the group must have accomplished creating the Wellspring again. After a far shot of a new planet, Fen, Josh, Margo and Alice comment on the discoveries of their new world – knife trees, a field of bacon.  “It’s not Fillory, but it’s not NOT”  They haven’t let the Fillorians out of the Ark yet because they’re worried about ruling this new world – they’ll need to rebuild everything within it.  As birth mother to the planet, Fen dubs High King Margo, the Creator.  And she opens the Ark. 

CLOSER LOOK

EXOTIC PLANT (MAGICIAN’S LAND) –

Warning – Book Spoilers ahead.

“I thought you’d like it. Of course it was different when it was new, but then when it started to get overrun everyone thought it looked better this way, and they let it go. But it’s more than a garden, it’s deep magic. Keep your eye on one spot and you’ll see.”
Quentin did, and he saw. Slowly, but far faster than they would have in nature, some of the plants were dying and reviving, crisping up before his eyes and bursting back into bloom, rising up and sinking down in slow motion, making tiny crackles and whispers as they did. It made him think of something, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“Rupert mentions it in his memoir,” she said. “We call it the Drowned Garden, though I don’t know why. The plants aren’t just plants, they’re thoughts and feelings. A new thought happens and a new plant springs up. A feeling fades away and the plant dies. Some of the more common ones are always in bloom—fear, anger, happiness, love, envy. They’re quite unruly, they grow like weeds. Certain basic mathematical ideas never go away either. But others are quite rare. Awe and wonder are harder to find than they once were. Once in a while you even see a new one.”

“Look. This one is very rare.”
Quentin kneeled down too, and a few of the sparkly motes gathered around them helpfully, for illumination. It was a humble little plant, fragile, a fledgling shrub with a few sprays of leaves. As Quentin watched it wobbled, losing heart, and its leaves browned and spotted, but then it caught itself, filled out again and stiffened and even grew an inch. A couple of seedpods sprouted from its branches.
He recognized it. It was the plant he’d seen drawn on the page from the Neitherlands, and again in Rupert’s spell. He’d given up on ever finding it, and now here it was, right in front of him. Julia must have known. All unexpectedly his eyes were full of hot tears, and he sniffled and wiped them away. It was ridiculous, crying over a plant—he hadn’t cried when he killed Ember—but it was like seeing a loyal old friend he’d never even met before. He reached down and touched one leaf, gently.

“This is a feeling that you had, Quentin,” she said. “Once, a very long time ago. A rare one. This is how you felt when you were eight years old, and you opened one of the Fillory books for the first time, and you felt awe and joy and hope and longing all at once. You felt them very strongly, Quentin. You dreamed of Fillory then, with a power and an innocence that not many people ever experience. That’s where all this began for you. You wanted the world to be better than it was.
“Years later you went to Fillory, and the Fillory you found was a much more difficult, complicated place than you expected. The Fillory you dreamed of as a little boy wasn’t real, but in some ways it was better and purer than the real one. That hopeful little boy you once were was a tremendous dreamer. He was clever, too, but if you ever had a special gift, it was that.”

Quentin nodded—he couldn’t quite talk yet. He felt full of love for that little boy he’d once been, innocent and naive, as yet unscuffed and unmarred by everything that was to come. He was such a ridiculous, vulnerable little person, with so many strenuous disappointments and wonders ahead of him. Quentin hadn’t thought of him in years.

He wasn’t that boy anymore, that boy was lost long ago. He’d become a man instead, one of those crude, weather-beaten, shopworn things, and he’d almost forgotten he’d ever been anything else—he’d had to forget, to survive growing up. But now he wished he could reassure that child and take care of him. He wished he could tell him that none of it was going to turn out anything like the way he hoped, but that everything was going to be all right anyway. It was hard to explain, but he would see.

“Here. Take this with you. I think you should have it.”
It looked like a seedpod from any ordinary plant anywhere, brown and stiff and ratty, but it was unmistakably the one from the page. He’d have to find a way to show it to Hamish. He put it in his pocket. The plant didn’t seem to mind. It would grow again, sooner or later.