As a long time an of the book series I can sometimes be heavily critical o the shows adaptation, and while I love when they stick to canon and even use lines from the novels, but the true magic in The Magician’s comes when the writers go off book and blaze their own trail (I used to call them filler episodes–like the magic djinn–but honestly they aren’t filler, they are what makes the show unique).
After a slightly dry episode 4 “Cheat Day” gave us the unexpected story lines and spell castings we’ve been waiting for
Source: The Magicians / SYFY
Refresh yourself on “Cheat Days” before the new episode “Cock Barrens” below! (BTW the trailer for Cock Barrens looks amazing. Watch it here)
Quentin’s story this season starts out similar enough to the books with him giving up magic for all of 5 minutes and taking an easy job setup for him by Brakebills. The twist comes in with his assignment lasting the whole episode and also the horrible planning of Dean Fogg of assigning him to work in the same building with Emily Greenstreet. If you don’t remember, she is the student that Alice’s brother went Niffin for.
Source: The Magicians / SYFY
The duo obviously meet up and instantly dive back into magic in the most unhealthy way possible with their smoking parlor tricks and weird emotionally damaging illusion magic where she makes him look like Mayakovsky and he has her turn into Alice.
Source: The Magicians / SYFY
The breathe of fresh air comes when Quentin finally shows some semblance of character development by realizing that was horrible idea and leaving her in the morning with a clear cut decision that it was wrong.
Cut to the only downside of the episode–not enough Margo and Eliot! There was an assassination attempt on Eliot and a reveal about Fen’s past, and Margo totally saved the day (Not that this is surprising anymore). There was one hilarious line from the magical floating sloth as to what to do with the captured assassin (death by centaur penis), and the attacker was from an anti-earth revolution group that call themselves the Foo Fighters.
Source: The Magicians / SYFY
[gif courtesy of @gingesbecray]
The real mvp of the episode was Julia, who is dealing with a supernatural demon god pregnancy resulting from Reynard’s assault. Opinions aside, Julia attempted to get an abortion, but either Reynard or the unborn thing is keeping any of that from happening. First mind control on the receptionist who deleted Julia’s appointment from the system and then more mind control to not only stop the doctor but also forcing her to stab herself in the eye.
Source: The Magicians / SYFY
So last week was crazy, but seeing how they roll out the Alice storyline in episode 6 is what we have all been waiting for since episode 3!
Oh P.S. Penny stole Quentin’s potential story line went to Mayakovsky for help and they have a nice bonding moment and possible some foreshadowing (the magical battery he was building) but….that’s all we have to say on that plot line.
