The Magicians 307 – Poached Eggs

How do you like your eggs? I’m an over easy girl myself. The Magicians will take theirs with a side of the Fairy Queen’s head. Do Margo and Eliot finally have the leverage they need to take Fillory back from the pasty usurpers? While they try their hands at extortion, Quentin needs help from a few unlikely sources to get the next key, and Alice goes to extreme measures to keep Julia’s power.

Entitled Millennial Bullshit

We open the episode with Quentin and the gang crossing paths on the way back to Brakebills, where they make a grim discovery. Alice’s body is rejecting Julia’s magic like a transplanted organ. Julia needs to find another magical source to take it back. Dean Fogg is sick of these damn kids and their whining, but sets Julia up with another trip to see Irene MacAllister who is still using some magic her family somehow stored. Irene isn’t too pleased to see Julia since she lied about her power last time, but she is willing to help her since the fate of the only known source of real magic is in danger of dying. I’m sure Julia will regret owing Irene a favor in the future, but she gets what she needs to track down Alice.

Julia comments that this borrowed dose of magic feels different. During their previous visit to Irene’s, the key they stole revealed some pasty, fairy figures only visible to us viewers. I suspect Irene’s power source is not as innocent as she lets on.  Wherever the magic comes from, Julia finds Alice right before she takes extreme measures to keep her power. I’m sure everyone watching was as disappointed as me when the epic battle-magic showdown we’ve all been waiting for was cut short when Alice grew a conscience. That scene had so much potential!  Julia gets her magic back, and Alice admits that for whatever reason it belongs to Julia, and is not some piece of her attacker taking up residence. It is truly HER power.

Breakout

Quentin leaves Alice in Julia’s capable hands to continue the never ending key quest. He’ll have to put together quite the team of misfits and near-forgotten characters to get to it. Poppy is, again, all too eager to help, offering the tidbit that the library sends books to the underworld using an Albanian Pygmy Dragon. Good thing they know a guy who can inhabit random objects. The trouble is, Penny went to great lengths to stay out of the underworld by burning his body. Good thing when “the fate of the world is at stake” he is willing to set aside his dick-ish ways.

Penny’s journey to the underworld is likely a one-way trip, so how will he get the key back to Quentin? Remember Victoria (Hannah Levien, set to appear on two new series, Colony  and Siren) who spent season 1 locked up in Fillory, tortured by the beast and haunting Penny with her pleas? She owes Penny a favor, and could bring the key back. However, Victoria’s special talents are pre-occupied by another group. She is working with Harriet in her freedom of magical information efforts. Harriet may not willingly loan her out for this little key quest. Anyone remember Kady, or even care that they basically left her to rot in the psych ward for a few episodes? I know I didn’t miss her. Alas, she’s all buddy, buddy with Harriet. They waist precious minutes that could have been spent on literally any other story arc breaking her out. Kady and Harriet are able to come to an agreement. So it is bon voyage for Penny, as he is off to be swallowed by the bookworm. We’ll have to wait to see how this rather confusing plan plays out.

Let Them Eat Eggs

No shame in Margo’s game! She stole those fairy eggs last week, and she ain’t scared to use them. They meet with the Fairy Queen and offer to return the eggs if she will agree to give her bath to Fillory. Having an agreement with the Fillorians means they will be able to SEE the fairies. No more controlling things behind the scenes and making the high king and queen look cray-cray. Egg-cellent plan! Too bad Eliot’s daughter is still busy working out her loyalty issues. Fray finds the eggs and runs to the Fairy Queen, where the Fairy Queen repays her by threatening her life to play on Eliot’s emotions. This betrayal drives Fray to reveal that she is not actually Eliot’s and Fen’s daughter. The Fairy Queen is forced to admit that the baby was stillborn.

We get a heartbreaking scene between Eliot and Fen mourning the news. Fen remembers that she never heard the baby cry after she gave birth. The fairies took the child away before Fen even had a chance to see her (or him). I remain unconvinced that the baby actually died. I’ve read a few fan theories that believe the Fairy Queen could be their daughter, because of the way time moves in the fairy realm. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. This doesn’t work for me, but would explain why the fairy sometimes seems to be helping the humans. It doesn’t explain why the Fairy Queen is so very fairy-like, while Eliot and Fen are very much human. I’m not sure about this particular theory, but I’m not ready to consider the question of their child resolved.

Margo and Eliot take a carriage ride through Fillory with the Fairy Queen, boasting their win. Yolks on them! The Fairy Queen is noticeably unshaken. There has been some unrest in Fillory since Margo’s marriage and dead “floaters” have been found in the woods. The carriage comes upon an angry mob, and Margo and Eliot are force-ably taken from their carriage as the Fairy Queen vanishes, but not before she warns that she can no longer help them.

I am desperate to hear some theories about the Fairy Queen and her motivations! How was she “helping” them? What was her end game? How do the fairies in Fillory relate to the fairies trapped in Irene MacAllister’s house?

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