So far, The Magicians Season 3 has been an accomplished one. It’s been quick with the witty banter when necessary and capable of crass or obscene vernacular when the opportunity presented itself. Truly, it’s been a great season to watch and there’s still more to come.
Did you miss any of The Magicians so far? If so, read these tidbits of succulent info and join the rest of us. Then swear not to miss any more and all will be forgiven. Beware, there are spoilers for the first four episodes of the season ahead!
1. Seven Keys
This season is going to focus on the pursuit of the seven keys, keys of insane magical power, to restore magic to the multiverse. Eliot received the quest from the “Great Cock,” a magical creature capable of granting wishes. With hardly a clue to start the magicians off, this will surely be their hardest quest to decipher.
2. Secret Magic
Even though the old gods rid the whole world of magic, Julia mysteriously has some magical power that no one can understand. At first, it manifests as a small fizzle of energy. No one knows the source, but this can be a blessing or a curse based on how she uses it. Her biggest feat so far has been saving Kady from an overdose after she went off the deep end, which we’ll discuss further later.
3. Rabbit Texting
Without magic, inter-dimensional rabbits have become the next-best form of instant messaging. As far as cell phones go, they tend to get pretty shoddy service between worlds. Initially introduced as a message delivery system by the fairies, Eliot and Margo quickly learned that the magical creatures could deliver any provided message between worlds or dimensions. So if you see one of the magicians we all know and love whispering into a rabbit’s ear, it’s not as weird as you think. We swear it’s not furry love.
4. Good Old-Fashioned Extortion
With the end of the last season, we were given a hint as to how powerful the fairies were. This season though! The fairies have been straight running Fillory from behind the scenes unbeknownst to the Fillorian public.
Without magic, the high king and queen are literally nothing more than pawns, figureheads with absolutely no power. The fairy queen is especially ruthless, carrying Margo’s eye around like a luminous pearl necklace. The real kicker is how oblivious the rest of the kingdom is to fairies in their midst because the fairies can choose to be seen by whoever they wish.
The result is a neverending series of moments where the Fillorians watch their mighty rulers carry a one-sided conversation or stare off intently into blank spaces.
5. Adventures in Babysitting
Eliot and Fen have a daughter. I only mention this because, even with the big cliffhanger of the last season, I still forgot they even had a daughter. Only months after her disappearance, Eliot and Fen meet their daughter once again. The young teen, Fray, had a huge growth spurt in the fairy dimension, which she’s been raised in by the fairies since her disappearance at the end of season 2.
The Fairy Queen sends her along on this season’s journey as a spy, but of course, the Fairy Queen is such a boss, she tells them Fray’s purpose without a second’s hesitation. If you thought Eliot wasn’t ready for a baby, picture the frustrations of dealing with a teen whose first words to her parents were literally, “I think it’s best you both know, I serve and am devoted to my queen and I feel nothing for either of you.” Fen’s tendency to swoon over Fray and smother her with attention is just icing on the proverbial cake.
6. The Key of Illusion
On his first stretch of the journey, Eliot found the first key on one of the outer islands surrounding Fillory. While returning from the island, pirates attacked the Muntjac. Margo comes to the rescue after convincing the Fairy Queen to grant her fairy speed transportation.
However, rid yourself of all grisly preconceptions of the pirates you’re used to. We’re actually treated to a very suggestive back and forth between Margo and the Pirate King. The coolest element of this whole situation is the Pirate King, she’s a respectable woman!
Unfortunately, she and her crew still meet their deaths at the nails of the Fairy Queen. The key helped Eliot and his royal family escape first from the pirates, then from a duo of cannibalistic Neitherworld dwellers. Eventually, it brought him back to Brakebills with Fen and Fray. It actually led to a pretty heartwarming reunion between most of the crew. Again, more on that later.
7. The Key of Truth
Quentin and Julia found the second key with the help of Dean Fogg, though he might not be Dean of anything pretty soon, by stealing it from the house of one of the schools’ board members.
After accompanying Dean Fogg to one of the board members’ homes, Julia puts her sleuth hat on and searches the home for the key. It actually doesn’t take long to find it and there’s no unexpected horror unleashed either. So she fares pretty well and they leave with the key, completely unharmed. This key of truth leads the crew to some shocking revelations later on.
8. Penny the Friendly Ghost
So, Penny’s dead. Yep, dead as can be, in almost every sense of the word. Even with the aid of a powerful demon summoned with the use of one of Mayakovsky’s magic batteries, the only source of magic still around on Earth, Penny’s superstrong strain of cancer still brought about his death…or at least it did for his body.
But fear not! He’s still roaming around as an astral projection, only visible to whoever happens to have the key of truth in their grasp. His unanswered commentary that whole episode actually made it my favorite episode of the whole season so far, quite possibly the whole show.
In fact, it’s almost a little sad how bizarre and unsympathetic everyone’s reactions are to the news of his death. Another dead astral projection practitioner even teaches him how to inhabit physical objects, rather than push or pull them.
9. Sucky Role Models
Even professors are incapable of handling the major suckiness that is a world without magic. From becoming day drinkers on campus to attempting suicide from atop New York rooftops. I mean, I get it. You lived most of your adult life, if not all, practicing magic and teaching it to others. Now all of a sudden, your little blanket keeping you apart from the world has been ripped out from under you and you realize how much the world sucks without magic. Magic doesn’t even exist and I can’t help but sympathize.
Still, Brakebills’ faculty has some serious issues and if magic was the only thing keeping them functioning members of society, I can’t help but question the life lessons these students are learning.
10. The Lamprey That Time Forgot… Before it Returned and Laid Revenge Eggs
During Alice’s niffin phase, she burned a lot of bridges, bridges she wouldn’t even know to burn otherwise. One of the scorned victims was a Lamprey whose family Alice tortured without reason. Boi was she cold!
Since then, the Lamprey has been hot on Alice’s tail, consumed with vengeance. Alice managed to maintain her distance from the monster up to now, but her options have run out. Her only option left was an early alarm… a cat alarm. By that, I mean an alarm represented by any cat within a certain size and age range. When the cat goes boom, the Lamprey is close.
I know, why all the feline destruction? Nevertheless, Alice quarantined herself, her parents and Quentin in her home during an attack by the Lamprey. During the attack, she killed the Lamprey only after mortally wounding her father.
And that’s the gist so far. Overwhelmed yet? Of course, there are plenty details you missed besides the ones covered here. Feel free to catch the episodes and see them for yourself. I’m sure The Magicians Season 3 will continue to keep the hits coming. As a Fillorian, I’m definitely more than pleased with this season so far. Waiting in unbridled anticipation doesn’t even cut it.
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