Warning: the following recap contains spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of The Magicians, “The Rattening.” It is a recap, after all! Don’t say we didn’t warn you …

Let’s hear it for the ladies this week on The Magicians! 

Both Julia and Margo stepped up to the plate to right their past wrongs, despite the sacrifices it meant they had to make. It was pretty impressive for both of them, since they’ve been looking out for No. 1 all season. Seeing them both put their friends ahead of their own lives was a major turning point for both characters. Now, there’s no telling if they actually succeeded in their respective gambles, but for the time being, they get brownie points for trying. Let’s get to recapping “The Rattening,” shall we?

Julia and Quentin ventured to the underworld to try and find her Shade, and as soon as they arrived, Julia ran into Richard … the real Richard, not the meat suit that Reynard currently wears. It was good to see that he found peace, somewhat (he’s still trying to locate his son in the underworld, but no one will help him since he was technically complicit in his death).

Richard helped Julia and Quentin get to Elysium, where all the disconnected Shades go to make little miracles happen in the real world for all of eternity. While they were there, Julia saw a portrait of Persephone, Hades’ wife, hanging on the wall, and realized that Persephone was actually Our Lady Underground … aka the benevolent god Julia, Kady, Richard and their hedge witch friends were trying to summon when Reynard hijacked their circle and got free. Apparently both Persephone and Hades have been AWOL for a long time, and I’m betting that this little tidbit of knowledge is going to come in play in the future. Will Julia end up on a quest to find and save Hades and Persephone? I’d be into that. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Julia finally reunited with her Shade, and Quentin ran into none other than Alice’s Shade. You guys, I think I teared up a little too much seeing Alice’s Shade and Quentin’s genuine happiness at seeing each other, and to hear Julia’s Shade tell Julia that Alice’s Shade talked about Quentin all the time. Too sweet. More tears came when Quentin realized the reason he couldn’t make a spell work to bring (the real) Alice back in the real world was because her Shade was trapped in Elysium. He was doomed to fail from the start.

Seeing Quentin’s heart break again while saying goodbye to Shade Alice, Julia made a decision that redeemed all her previous questionable actions (at least, in my book she did). Instead of taking her own Shade with her as she and Quentin made their escape from the underworld, she took Alice’s Shade instead. She gave up her own happiness to bring back the one piece of the puzzle he needed to bring the real Alice back. She’ll never get another chance to save her own Shade, dooming herself to an eternity without it. Whoa. I was not expecting that. And to think that Julia made that decision even without her Shade or her feelings or empathy! Doubly impressive.

Meanwhile, a ton of Fillorians and Lorians turned into rats on Eliot and King Idri’s wedding day, and the fairies claimed that they didn’t do it. But that didn’t stop Margo from confessing to Eliot about her deal with the fairies and how that led to pregnant Fen getting kidnapped when he put truth serum in everyone’s wine to find out their secrets. Poor Eliot. You could literally see his trust in Margo shatter in that moment. Tears in his eyes, he sent her to the dungeons for her betrayal. But she managed to get her hands on a potion while in her cell that would transport her to the fairy realm, although very few ever made it back alive. Putting her own life on the line, she drank the potion and vanished, hoping to bring Fen back to Eliot. Another selfless act from a usually selfish person! I can’t handle all this sacrificing.

And after rat Josh turned back into regular Josh, he gave Eliot the bright idea to bring Democracy to Fillory as a way to save the kingdom. Josh is just full of surprises this season. But Eliot somehow got kicked out of Fillory after that “bright idea” and ended up back in the Physical Kids’ cottage at Brakebills, so maybe it wasn’t meant to be? Is there some Fillorian rule that you can’t change the monarchy into a democracy? Or is something else more sinister happening here?

And as for Senator John Gaines, he let his father Reynard begin to teach him how to use his god-level powers of persuasion, giving him even more power in Washington, D.C. But when he used it on another politician to try and get a vote, he ended up giving the poor guy a heart attack. John started to finally realize that maybe Reynard and his god-level powers weren’t such a blessing after all, so he found his way back to Brakebills to team up with Kady to take down Reynard. Finally, a lucky break!

MAGICAL MUSINGS:

– The dragon guarding the gate to the underworld is this week’s Quality Quotes MVP. Hands. Down. I have never met a dragon in pop culture that I didn’t like, but this one might just take the cake. She was so sassy!

– Apparently “sphincter magic” is a valid alternative to hand magic. ~*The more you know.*~

– Thanks to a karmic circle in the underworld that resembled a rundown bowling alley, we learned that Quentin had an “incident” while bowling as a kid where his fingers got stuck in a bowling ball, and of course, being Quentin, he never recovered. Add bowling to the list of things that give Quentin anxiety!

– Twist! Reynard loved Persephone once upon a time, and now hates her for disappearing on him. That’s why he targets witches trying to summon her. If he can’t get revenge on Persephone, at least he can get revenge on her followers. The plot thickens.

– Penny tried to find the Head Librarian’s personal book to get access to the poison room so he and Kady could finally learn how to kill Reynard, but her book is also in the poison room. Another dead end.

QUALITY QUOTES:

Quentin, after Julia pulled out one of his teeth: This dragon better be f-king cool.

Julia: We seek passage to the underworld, oh ancient one.
Dragon guarding the passage to the underworld: Oh. You seek to die?
Quentin: Um, no. Actually we were hoping to come back after?
Dragon: Suit yourself.

Dragon: I eat you. I’m a f-king dragon, what did you expect?
Quentin: Good. Good to know.

Dragon: F-king millennials.

Eliot, sighing as King Idri walked into the room: My life is perfect.

Head Librarian: It’s an exceedingly difficult way to do magic, trying to isolate muscles not generally associated with —
Penny: Call it what it is. Sphincter magic. If it gets me there, no shame.
Head Librarian: And if it doesn’t, we all need a healthy pelvic floor.

Penny, after psychically sleeping with Kady: What do we call that? In-sex-tion?
Kady: Intersepta-course?
Penny: Incepta-sex.

Margo: You turned half my staff into snake food?
Fairy ambassador: That wasn’t the fairies.
Margo: Huh. Well it sure smells like their whimsical bulls-t.

Eliot: There’s truth serum in this wine. I’ve truth-ied you!

Eliot, ordering the guards to take Margo to the dungeon: Make sure that she gets the best room. [Whispers] And make sure that she gets her coconut oil.

What did you think of this week’s The Magicians? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Syfy

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.