Magic – The Magicians S5 E8 Garden Variety Homicide

Jason and Cristina give you a in-depth review and discussion of The Magicians Season 5 episode 8, Garden Variety Homicide! The World Seed, Red Monkey Month, Vitality.

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Podcast Notes –

NEW FACES/ PLACES/ MAGIC:

FACES:

• Raylan (“Ray”) a botanist and Taxonomist who has traveled the Multi-verse and been to dangerous locations
• The Couple powerful, bad people tracking the plant page

MAGIC:

• Fungus that can merge consciousness with other creatures.
• The World Seed a magical botanical organism whose seed is pure potential and can grow into anything (even a world) with proper nurturing.
• Vitality Conduit an old naturalist ritual that draws life force and connects to nature (Blackwood Tree)
• Swap Potion allows Margo & Eliot to switch bodies
• Red Monkey Month everything moves faster (crop growth, healing)

SYNOPSIS:

BRAKEBILLS – EXOTIC PLANT

Alice brings the Greenhouse Circumstance Panel inside so she can study it.

(Tertiary): Age? Position of Pleiades. Altitude. Moon (phases). Body of Water

Hamish is fixated on his plants dying and in a fit, locates a drawing of a plant. He can’t place it because it’s not terrestrial but knows a Taxonomist who’s been around the multiverse.  Raylan – a botanist on the Dean’s “Do Not Admit” list, has visited a world called Anansia – home to highly infectious items.  So Penny doesn’t want to allow him into the school.  It’s too risky and they have other things to focus on.  But Alice admits she found the paper in Quentin’s desk and must have been important to him, so she wants to figure out why.  Reluctantly, Penny agrees, as long as they thoroughly test Ray to make sure he’s clean.

Arriving and testing clean (purple), Ray explains that the drawing shows

Phyllotaxis:

“It’s the way leaves are arranged around a central stalk.  It looks chaotic but it’s not, it follows a mathematical sequence.  Usually Fibonacci, sometimes Lucas.  But the leaves on this plant don’t follow either of those.  Which suggests that its origin is exceptionally exotic.  The plant has a certain integrity to it that you can’t fake.”

BRAKEBILLS – A FUNGUS

Asking for further supplies: a Spectral-reactive Phytomoter, a Bertirc Lens, and a Pamplmousse Lacroix – Alice goes to get them and upon returning, finds Bax unconscious and Ray trying to steal the page.  They fight and when she pushes him back, he falls over and a hole in his middle starts leaking a dust-like substance.  Bax explains that a few fungal species have been known to join their consciousness with other creatures (Ray merged with a Fungus a long time ago and while he is dead, the spores that came out will want a new host body).  Penny tries to evacuate the school while they figure this out but the spores have already spread to two students who threaten them to return the page.  Hamish realizes this fungus can spread to multiple hosts.

The group goes to talk to Fogg 17 in the Clean Room and he tries to negotiate a solution in exchange for his release.  He developed a potion with Dr. Maria Pilkin, dead in this timeline, and can give them the information.  But Alice says her discovery was published after her death so they don’t need him.  Turning to leave, Fogg says he will escape and get revenge.

Up in the Library, Alice steals the book they need but attracts the attention of the host guards.  Penny knocks one out and they get the information, creating a potion and testing it on him.  It works to expel the spores but they go into Penny.  Realizing the spores have a networking ability and can direct their target, Hamish tries to work out a solution.  He shares the loss of his wife Isobel with Alice and advises that the grief will always be hard but will get quieter with time.

BRAKEBILLS – THE WORLD SEED

Laying a trap, Alice agrees to give Penny the page in exchange for information.  The fungus says the page is part of an Instruction Manual for The World Seed – a magical botanical organism.  Legend says the seed is pure potential and can grow into anything, even an entire world.  Alice admits that they figured out the spores contain a consciousness with limits like a human – Bax spread them out so thin it won’t be able to infect others.  It will be permanently part of its host (Penny), but too weak to do anything.  While the knowledge is fading, Penny remembers that they wanted to sell the page to pay off their debt to The Couple – bad people who have power and resources and have been looking for the page a long time.  Also, they won’t be the last to come after it.  They wonder – what was Quentin doing with it?

FILLORY – VITALITY CONDUIT

In Fillory, 6 children are abducted by the Takers.  Upon hearing the news, the group realizes The King purposely summons the Takers so he can fight them.  Reasoning that they can’t peacefully overthrow him – Centurion Guard, 300 years of propaganda, immortal magician who has survived 7 assassination attempts – there must be big magic keeping him alive.  They need to discover his weakness.  Margo thinks that Eliot is perfectly placed as a confidante but he has misgivings.  Charlton urges him to at least open up to Margo and he confesses he can’t hate the King and isn’t sure he can go through with an assassination.  Margo promises if he can find his weakness, she’ll be the one to kill him.

Finding the King drunk and upset, Eliot encourages him to think about stepping down.  But Seb shares that he made a choice a long time ago and it’s tied to a Conduit (he thought it was the only way to save Fillory).  When they start kissing, Eliot notices the tattoo on his chest of a tree and Seb pulls away, thinking they shouldn’t see each other anymore.  After telling the group, Josh says the connection is a Vitality Conduit – an old naturalist ritual that draws life force from nature.  His is a Blackwood Tree.  If they severed the conduit to the tree, he would become mortal.

As a worried Eliot pulls Margo aside, he hastily takes a swig of her flask, which turns out to be a Swap Potion – the best solution she could come up with.  It will switch their bodies but if they tell anyone, they will be permanently stuck that way.  It’s then that Margo realizes Charlton is living in Eliot’s mind.  Before splitting up, Eliot warns her to be subtle with Seb and she encourages him not to engage in a relationship talk with Josh.

JULIA & FEN – PREGNANCY

Julia confides to Fen that she might be pregnant and the bunny confirms this.  Not ready to tell Penny yet, Fen agrees to keep the secret.  But in a later discussion, she urges Julia to make a choice if this is what she wants.  Julia admits she was pregnant before and it was a bad situation – she was worried if the others knew they would get worried and overprotective.  She wanted time to process it first.  However, Fen tells her it’s Red Monkey Month in Fillory; everything goes faster during that time (healing, crop growth) – her pregnancy will be sped up as long as she stays in Fillory.

MARGO & JOSH – THE TREE

On a hike in the woods, Josh brings up the Fen situation, explaining it was a scary time when they thought they’d lost everyone and he was hurt that she abandoned him in the past.  He understands but needs to know if they’re broken up now.  She keeps trying to sidestep the questions, asking for time to forgive herself and can’t they keep its status quo?  But he finally confronts her that something is up and she isn’t acting like herself.  Until she explains, he’s not going to help.  In a wave of frustration, she says she’s not sorry and would make the same decision again.  Finally convinced it’s her, he accepts that and points her to the right tree.

ELIOT & SEB – ASSASSINATION

Eliot finds the Dark King in the Throne Room and the rest of the castle has been struck with a sleeping curse.  She agrees to teach him the cooperative spell and deflects questioning about his strange behavior.  At first, he comes on too strong (as Margo would), until Charlton explains they are close because they share losses and Seb likes Eliot’s vulnerability.  So she changes tactics and he opens up, saying he wishes he could give him more but has to put Fillory first.  Margo is confused because Seb seems kind and sad.  When he asks for a private conversation, and the signal light turns green, Eliot pulls the knife but Seb notices and stops him.  He demands an explanation but Julia sneaks in from behind and kills him.

Switched back to their bodies, Margo is upset that the relationship with Josh is ruined but admits she made those mistakes long ago.  She also encourages Eliot that while he has had shitty luck lately, he will find love.   Meanwhile, in the Throne Room, the King reawakens.

QUESTIONS

• What was Quentin doing with the drawing? Was the plant from Fillory?
• Who is the Couple and who will come after them now? What will they do?
• Will Julia tell Penny about the pregnancy now? Will she keep the baby?
• Why did the Dark King make the Conduit? What powerful magic is keeping him alive and does he need to be King?