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THE MAGICIANS Recap: Quentin Reaches His Breaking Point in ‘The Flying Forest’

THE MAGICIANS Recap: Quentin Reaches His Breaking Point in ‘The Flying Forest’

Warning: the following recap contains spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of The Magicians, “The Flying Forest.” Like major ones (it is a recap, after all!), especially after last week’s major dealings. You’ve been warned…

Ding dong, the Beast is dead! But so is Alice. Penny’s hands/powers are also royally screwed, …and Quentin’s half-wood now? Things are not great when The Magicians picked up in episode four, “The Flying Forest.”

But at least one thing is great: Kady’s back! Finally. I have truly been missing her sarcastic quips and take-no-prisoners attitude. But she has not been doing well on her own since Julia sacrificed herself to Reynard, allowing Kady to escape and disappear. Julia found her in a drug den, hooked on heroin, turning “tricks” a.k.a. trading miracles for a quick fix. After getting her clean, Julia enlisted her in her fight to take down Reynard, and she had a plan. They worked together to decode a message Marina left before Reynard killed her, which led them to a book in the Brakebills library. Kady helped point Julia to the right book with a psychic connection, but she had to copy all the pages since she couldn’t just steal the book. So Julia took cover in the Physical Kids’ cottage during a party where she wouldn’t be discovered—only to have Margo find her. After they traded some pretty heavy barbs (man I love seeing these two powerhouses go head-to-head in a war of the words), Margo helped her copy the book. Are these two ice queens finally going to stop being enemies?!

Apparently the spell Marina wanted Julia to find was a necromancy spell to bring her back to life. The spell was unstable, so it wouldn’t last forever, but it definitely worked: Marina woke up and from her traumatized state, it’s clear she was in some kind of witch hell afterlife. That’s definitely scary to think about. But she also helped Julia learn that a witch had banished Reynard a couple decades ago until Julia brought him back, so it was possible to defeat him again. Marina died again, and Julia and Kady had a new plan: find this woman.

Syfy

Meanwhile, after five surgeries over three weeks in Fillory with Centaurs rebuilding his arm out of wood, Quentin finally woke up and had to start mourning the loss of Alice. Margo sent Penny to the same place to get his hands checked out, and the two got into a fight about whose fault it was that Alice died. People deal with their grief in weird ways! Penny also learned that the dude who cursed his hands is like, super powerful, and he really screwed things up when he made the Riverwatcher mad. His hands literally tried to choke his own neck! So obviously the next logical step is to chop off his own hands, right? Well, not so much, but that didn’t stop him anyways.

While healing, Quentin caught a glimpse of the White Lady, and knowing that she was one of the seven questing creatures of Fillory, if he caught her then he’d get one wish. He enlisted Penny in his quest (after chopping off Penny’s cursed hands) to hunt the White Lady and get her to bring Alice back to life and fix Penny. But they had to cross through the Flying Forest to get to her …and they got super high from the fumes. They forgot everything about themselves and almost got lost, but they eventually broke out of their stupor and Quentin ended up shooting the White Lady. Ouch.

But much to Quentin’s dismay, the White Lady didn’t have the power to bring back someone from the dead (because of course). And she couldn’t make him happy either, because only losing his memories of Alice would soothe his shade. But he refused to erase his memories, a “wise” choice according to the Lady, and so instead, he asked her to send him “home.” As for Penny, she healed his hands. Finally! Let’s hope this solution sticks better than the bracelets did.

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MAGICAL MOMENTS:

– There’s a talking sloth named Abigail who’s some kind of royal advisor in Fillory. I need to know more about her.

– Eliot’s really starting to feel the weight of his crown as the only Fillorian royal who can’t leave Fillory, so Margo found a loophole: create an Eliot golem! His mind will go into the golem’s whenever he’s asleep, letting him escape to Brakebills – at least, psychically if not physically.

– Centaurs just poop whenever, wherever, even during a magical medical consult. Amazing.

– Eliot’s new crush Javier has a rule about long-distance relationships: if you’re on another continent, it doesn’t count as cheating. Since Eliot’s wife is on another planet, it definitely doesn’t count. Another loophole! Eliot’s golem slept with Javier at Brakebills while Eliot’s real body slept with Fen in Fillory. He truly is getting the best of both worlds.

– Quentin and Penny got so high they forgot they hate each other. I wish they could stay that high forever.

– Quentin’s heartbreaking speech to the White Lady was so gut wrenchingly sad. Everything Quentin dreamed about came true, but it all ended up so much worse than he thought. When he appeared back in NYC, he threw his bow and arrow in the garbage and just walked away. Is he going to give up on being a magician? Is losing Alice the last straw for him?

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QUALITY QUOTES:

Margo: I know we’re being serious right now, but that surgeon has the biggest d-k.

Margo, talking about the Magical Wellspring’s Ember poop problem: Okay, well, we talked about this. When someone drops a log at a public pool, you just send a kid with a net to fish it out.
Royal advisor: The … “befouling” … was substantial. Your majesty, we’ve employed several filtration systems but the Wellspring isn’t recovering fast enough.

Eliot, to Margo when she starts laying down the law: Since when are you Fillory Clinton?
Margo: Since I’m me.

Eliot: I want everyone to stop wanting things.
Fen: Bad time to ask for something?
Eliot: Your father makes knives for a living and knows where I sleep so, yeah, ask away!

Quentin to Penny: Could we just convalesce from our horrible injuries separately please?

Eliot, looking at his naked golem: Me likey.
Margo: You’re thinking about banging yourself, aren’t you?

Eliot: Why does everything smell so great?
Margo: Because your doppel-banger hasn’t met cocaine yet.

Penny: My hands tried to kill me so I broke my own arms. Look, forget all the mean s-t I said to you earlier. The bro-nies can’t fix me. I need your help.
Quentin: Okay, I guess.

Penny to Quentin: If I had middle fingers, you know what they’d be doing right now?

Penny: “Let’s go hunt the White Lady?” People like me get shot for saying s-t like that.

Syfy

Penny, while super stoned and noticing he had no hands: Where are my stuff-touchers?!

Dean Fog: The Beast s-t in the Wellspring?
Eliot’s golem: No, no. Ember! Ember shat in the Wellspring. I think he meant well, he probably didn’t know how hard it would be to clean out.
Dean Fog: And now magic is failing on Earth. Because of s-t. Proving once again that comedy and tragedy can coexist in the same goddamn sentence.

Dean Fog: A bunch of my students went and conquered another world.
Eliot, whispering: They more like gave it to us.
Dean Fog: Either way, it doesn’t look great for me. It reeks of Earth privilege.

Quentin: That’s my arrow, you have to give me what I ask.
The White Lady: Obviously, you turd.

Quentin: Everything I’ve ever wanted I’ve got. Magic is real and it can fix anything except what I need. I loved a girl. My entire life, I’ve dreamed of Fillory, that I would be like Martin Chatwin. I’d find a way to stay here forever. [Sigh] Send me home.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Magicians? Tweet me your thoughts and opinions at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Syfy

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

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