Starting off our episode we see NotEliot finds his way to Marina’s apartment and threatens to kill off the group one by one, until Margo offers to take him to Bacchis, one of the gods that he’s searching for, in order to exact retribution.
GIF by Mia for The Game of Nerds Via The Magicians on Syfy
Dean Fogg comes to briefly talk with Alice, telling her: “You know how the Library contains the books of everyone who ever lived. The ‘Great Blank Spot’ is over. The Library can update their books again. So if your friends were to get their memories back, the Library would know and they’d try to find them, to keep them ‘safe’ from the monster that you warned us about.” Though this sounds to some, non-important, he’s actually trying to convey a secret message to her. Telling her to get rid of the books of her and her friends, otherwise the Library will be able to track them and keep them captive. It seems Dean Fogg has some heart for his old students after all.
The gang finds out about Dooeys, schooled by Marina: “In the New World Order, there is just enough masses in the air to keep the boring masses fat and happy, if you want to do something bigger you’re going to have to file a request with the library. They decide if your trustworthy & give you a cute little battery in the shape of a coin.” Quentin in a very self-aware moment of confidence, says that they’ll pay the Doni themselves, that they’ll figure out a way….. they always do.
Back in Fillory, Margo, Josh and NotEliot are heading down to find Bacchis, Josh is enduring some warring emotions and an ethical conundrum when he’s asked to dose Bacchis, who’s his friend. In order to save the lives of the entire group. This knits the old philosophical adage of the The Trolley Problem into play. A question of ethics. It’s a thought-experiment first introduced by British philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967.you are driving a trolley when the breaks fail and, on the track, ahead of you are five workmen that you will run over. Now, you can steer to another track but on that track is one person you would kill instead of the five, what do you do? This is an ethical problem that philosophers have been struggling with for decades. Is trading one life for five ethically problematic?
Quentin is now entering into a very familiar, and well knitted-in part of the book, in the final book he enters into a magical card game, where the “real art of the game, is knowing how to cheat.” In order to make the Dooey that they require they need a real one to physically copy and perfect a fake one. Along with finding a black card to replicate.
We also see Kady and Penny dress up in order to impersonate one of the elite of the Magical society in order to withdraw the several Dooeys that they need. Penny ends up looking hilariously like a combination of Mario and Luigi.. Interestingly, when it comes to the ‘New World Order’ that Marina was mentioning, even though it was the group of Brakebills students that saved magic, it’s the bureaucrats, aristocrats and royalties that get to possess endless supplies of magic, whilst the rest have a very limited amount and on a timer. This commenting on, the cultural phenomenon in which the elite of a society (bourgeois) will take whatever they can and control its supply to the everyday people. This springs to mind the dictatorships and totalitarian societies, and also the deceptively seemingly-democratic states or countries that purport to be liberal and ethical in distribution of wealth and provisions but who hoard the supplies for those who need it the least.
NotEliot finally finds one of his targets, and guts him like a fish in order to get back what was taken. After this we see him remove what looks like a partly glowing organ that’s egg-shaped and deep red in colour. Interestingly, Margo immediately has to cover her fairy eyes, when josh asks “What the fuck did he just rip out of him?” Margo responds by remarking that “Whatever it is, to a fairy-eye it’s like staring straight into the sun.”
Kady takes things to a huge turn and leaves us with so many questions at the end of this episode…. Quentin asks if they should really be meeting at Marina’s place and Kady responds: (whilst looking very Dr. Evil in her swivel chair with puppy in tow..)
“Its not Marina’s, it’s mine. I handled the problem.”
Leaving us viewers at a loss as to what exactly Kady has done..
