Synopsis of 2×06: Quentin comes to a painful epiphany at Alice’s memorial while Julia encounters Reynard’s least favorite witch. Our favorite Fillory royalty share a discordant rendezvous with emissaries from their neighbors to the north.
So Here’s the Skinny:
- Quentin attends Alice’s memorial in her childhood home and seeks her parents’ help, while navigating through difficult interactions with them.
- After several attempts, Quentin summons Alice’s niffin and she reveals that his cacodemon trapped her in his back tattoo, linking them together until further notice.
- Julia meets the woman who banished Reynard and discovers that her sole chance at defeating him is using the power available to her only when she gives birth to Reynard’s child.
- Eliot and Margo fall prey as Prince Ess of Loria tricks them into believing that they are being held hostage in another world. Once the trick comes undone, they declare war on Loria.
Quentin and cirque du soleil make the ill pair as he performs interpretive dance to summon Alice’s niffin, since the spell requires something that was once meaningful to the person in question. He delivers his own reimagining of cirque du soleil because it made Alice laugh when he would do it in the past.
Upon a promise to return and resume the throne, Margo gives Quentin the magical button to attend Alice’s memorial. In Alice’s childhood home, nothing seems to have changed other than the presently somber mood. Alice’s mother, Stephanie Quinn, is as vain and egotistical as ever. Quentin allows himself some emotional recuperation out of view and notices Alice’s niffin.
She leads Quentin to her father’s office, which requires a secret code. Quentin almost loses his composure. Instead, he reclaims his emotions and sees the secret code scratched into a painting’s frame a few feet away. Once he’s in the office, he hears a steady knock coming from a wardrobe cabinet in the corner.
A perfect moment to deliver a jump scare, but The Magicians avoids the urge. A screaming Quentin would’ve been perfect in this moment. He opens the door and nothing jumps out. Instead, a book with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs falls over. He pulls it out and Daniel Quinn catches him reading it. Immediately, Daniel’s demeanor is infinitely more welcoming than that of his wife.
Kady returns from a shopping trip and Julia briefs her on new revelations. By following a chain of extremely tragic natural events that occurred decades ago, Julia found the source of powerful magic in Hoboken, New Jersey. A bit of a shock since, as Kady says, nothing ever happens in Hoboken. I’ve spent most of my life in New York City, so I’d agree. Sorry “Jersey” readers.
Penny approaches Eliot in Castle Whitespire, searching for the moss that Mayakovsky sent him for at the end of the last episode. Eliot suggests the royal map maker.
Eliot and Margo meet a princess of Loria! Oh, excuse me, that’s actually Prince Ess of Loria. This is essentially how the play on words presents itself in the show. Prince Ess’s first order of business is reprimanding the high king and queen of Fillory for how their ruling so far, or lack of ruling, has ruined the wellspring. For a Prince from another land, he is especially “mouthy” and well versed in the vernacular of American language. He proposes a treaty between the two kingdoms, but they outright refuse it and he makes it an ultimatum for their freedom. The treaty calls for a split of the wellspring right down the middle along with a marriage between the “virgin” queen Margo and Prince Ess. Margo’s tenacity and strong will makes an appearance. She drops a stern barrage of livid disagreement on the prince.
Once they refuse, Ess gives the signal and one of his followers uses a wand to teleport Castle Whitespire to the Lorian home world, the cock barrens. Penny sees the castle disappear before his very eyes and the map maker scribbles furiously to update Fillory’s map. He takes his cartography very seriously.
Julia and Kady find the vigil that banished Reynard decades ago and use the blood remains to cast a homing spell for the magician who casted it.
The next day, Quentin and Daniel lug a ladder to the pyramid they built to for Alice’s niffin. Quentin starts to enlighten Daniel as to the cause of Alice’s death, but Daniel cuts him off and stammers through a poor attempt at redirection. He begins to explain the ceremony and brings out a mirror. As soon as he gazes at the hook hanging above the ladder, upon which he must hang the mirror, he wusses out and hands it to Quentin. He hands Quentin a paper with Egyptian Arabic written on it and expects Quentin to read it aloud. Daniel waves his concerns away and insists that he’ll be fine. Quentin argues, but Daniel protests and Quentin walks away to brush up on his Egyptian Arabic.
Julia’s homing spell reveals the woman she is looking for and Julia heads to New Jersey, where she comes face to face with Reynard’s old enemy. The woman is initially reluctant, but Julia convinces her to lend assistance.
Alice appears to Quentin again. She points out a picture of her, her father, and her favorite cat Alanis Morissette (no relation I promise you). When Quentin shows Daniel the picture, Daniel retells the story of how he allowed his fear of heights to keep him from saving Alice’s cat so long ago. The ploy works and Daniel performs the ceremony, but hurts himself when he falls off of the ladder.
Margo confronts Prince Ess while he’s with his “drinking buddies.” She tries to negotiate, but it fails. He describes his time spent in England when his mother sent him to Earth during his childhood. Prince Ess calls Margo a virgin, which is a serious accusation to her, so she seduces him effortlessly and makes him beg until she has mercy.
Fen tells Eliot about her past as a foo fighter. Eliot does not take the news lightly and loses his trust for her. She specifies that although she did have a past, she remains devoted to him and their future together. Eliot keeps his grudge.
Julia speaks with Reynard’s old victim. The woman refuses to banish Reynard again, but offers her help to instruct Julia. She leads Julia into a dark room, but not before Julia places a magical scent on the wall. As soon as Julia turns her back, the woman swings a bat to the back of her head.
Margo has a nightmare in which she shows a side of weakness we never thought could have existed. She walks into her old classroom unprepared for a test and her clothes disappear, like they always do in a nightmare of this fashion. Penny walks into her dream and catches her in her birthday suit. She describes the environment now surrounding the castle. It happens to be a rocky desert of variously sized penis-shaped formations.
Julia regains consciousness in a dimly lit room with only one window and a haxenpaxen, a hulking humanoid creature that stinks to high heavens. Reynard’s old victim tells Julia that she will give birth to the baby Reynard impregnated her with because it is the way the woman originally banished Reynard and it is the only source of power great enough.
An old contact of Kady’s mother provides her with a possible solution for Julia’s pregnancy.
The woman keeping Julia hostage tells Julia all about the haxenpaxen. It smells horribly, but the magic energy that it gives off can hide anyone. The child she had is a good, influential man who has no idea of who he truly is or who his mother is.
Kady shows up and frees Julia. Her magic loses power as soon as she steps into the room, but she knocks the woman to the floor with a balled fist. Foolish woman, this is the problem with using magic for everything. You forget the usefulness of a well placed punch. Kady’s a bad-ass, but that was never really a doubt.
Margo considers marrying Prince Ess. Eliot admits that he began to develop real feelings for his wife, as bizarre as it sounds. We see now why his wife’s perceived betrayal cuts him so deep.
Penny returns from the cock barrens and realizes that it must have been a trick all along. He pops into the castle per his traveling abilities.
Quentin starts round two of his plan to summon Alice’s niffin, this time with Stephanie’s help. She stands in front of the mirror and speaks her truth of her relationship with Alice. Of course, her truth is not the unbiased truth and when it fails, she puts herself in Alice’s shoes. She admits that she never understood Alice or tried to. Alice’s niffin watches from the shadows as Stephanie breaks into tears and runs off.
Alice’s niffin finally speaks to Quentin. She drops a bomb: that Quentin’s cacodemon did not have enough power to kill Alice and stuck her in his back tattoo instead.
The mapmaker casually presents Penny with a nicely decorated map of where he can find the moss he came looking for.
Prince Ess’s plan falls apart and Margo comes down on him. Margo declares war on Loria and Eliot agrees halfheartedly. In their relationship, Margo’s fury reigns supreme. Not a bad episode, better than the last one I’d say. Quite a lot happened in this episode and we were lucky enough to see Olivia Taylor Dudley reprise her role as Alice.
Do you have anything you’d like to add or say in general? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear it. Otherwise, let’s see the Fillorians go to war!
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