Great Balls of Magic
Quentin, Julia, and the gang are running into a few hiccups as they attempt to join the big quest. They need magic to power the clock that will open a gateway to Fillory. Good thing, as Julia points out, there is nothing magical about Google. Thanks to YouTube, Josh spots a bear in a bar with qualities that are strikingly similar to Professor Mayakovsky. As we learned last season, Mayakovsky has been storing magic in batteries, just in time for magic to be wiped out.
It turns out Mayakovsky is caught in the middle of a love triangle. As soon as magic died, he tracked down his old student and lover, Emily (their affair got him bound to Brakebills South and led to the death of Alice’s brother). When he shows up with her to meet with Professor Lipson, who has been helping him make his magic balls, she is not too pleased. Although we find out she is not the one who turned him into a zoo animal, she did run around New York sprinkling happy magical gifts (and orgies) around town before searching for a place to jump. Quentin, who has some experience with suicidal thoughts of his own, intervenes. Great. So now they have their battery, right? Hold on to your exploding cats! Kady snatches it a runs to save super-cancer stricken Penny. We’ll have to wait until next week to see if Quentin and the New York magicians will make it back to Fillory. Although it looks like Quentin has been body-snatched, I suspect by whomever turned Mayakovsky into a bear.
First Family Vacation
A teary eyed Margo gives Eliot some moving words of advice as he boards the Muntjac with his dysfunctional family to find the seven keys collect taxes from the outer islands.
The fairy queen has sent an interesting spy along with Eliot and Fen on their journey. Their daughter, who the fairies call Frail Human (Fray for short), has grown into a teenager practically overnight, and is 100% devoted to her queen and has no emotional attachment to her parents whatsoever. Fen, who has been content to raise logs or bunnies while waiting for her daughter’s return, worships at Fray’s feet. Fen comments that she has Eliot’s eyes. “In that she has two, facing forward. Yes she has my eyes,” Eliot retorts. He remains unconvinced and prepared to do whatever it takes to prevent this girl from getting in the way of his quest. Eliot believes the mystery child actually BEING the child plot twist is played out. So she can’t possibly be his. That would be boring. I’m on the fence about this one. I do think that Fray is not as loyal to the Fairy Queen as she professes to be. The lady does protest too much, so to speak. Rebellious teen angst tends to overrule any pre-programming from parental figures, fairy or otherwise. If she in fact is Eliot’s, I don’t foresee her being easily controlled by either side.
Eliot and family arrive at their first island to discover it’s inhabitants living in fear of being eaten by some terrible monster. The only thing protecting them? The first key! Inspired by Margo’s speech, Eliot is able to catch the village hero making his one bad decision, making him a very dead idiot. Thus completing chapter 1 and uncovering the pages of chapter 2 in the book back in New York.
Who Wore It Better?
Can we take one more moment to appreciate High King Eliot doing the sexy, troubled king look? The last time I got this excited about a king was long before Jonathan Rhys Myers ran off to be a viking. Tudors anyone? Who wore it better?
Source (image 1), Source (image 2)
