The Magicians (S02E10) “The Girl Who Told Time”

Remember when Dean Fogg said that they tried to take down the Beast 39 times (40th time’s the charm I guess)? We open with one of the Alternate Universes where Julia attended Brakebills. Not only was Julia incredibly gifted but she was a favorite of Dean Fogg. Now in the current (terrible) universe Dean Fogg lets Julia go because he’s not running a prison (is there a prison for magicians?) and Fogg believes that Julia can save herself. Julia resolves that she should get her shade back. In Fillory, Eliot plans for his wedding to King Idri. Quentin mopes around, however, because he’s heart broken over losing Alice (again). So Margo and Eliot send Quentin to Earth to get our favorite drug dealer Josh to make the food for the wedding feast. Penny wants to help Kady take down Reynard but suddenly they are pulled to the Library where Penny has to start his new indentured servitude (since they promised to help him with his magic being on the fritz). Penny’s first task is to get back a 10 year overdue book. Kady searches the Library for any information on how to kill a god but the librarians come up with nothing. Suspicious for the place that supposedly has everything. Eliot decides to check on Balor and asks his advice on how he can get the people of Fillory to like him. I wouldn’t trust a guy who tried to kill me but apparently Balor likes Eliot now. Nachos fixes so many things. Quentin decides to do some cake tasting that lets him see into other dimensions. Just when Quentin thought he could just relax, Julia’s shade contacts him pleading for him to save her.


Eliot finds it weird that Fen is so cool with him adding a husband to their marriage but I guess they don’t have the same sexual hang ups in Fillory. Meanwhile Fen is seeing those creepy fairy dudes everywhere. Is she going crazy? Margo can answer that for her. Quentin tells Eliot that he’s going to help Julia get her shade back. Eliot disapproves (as do I) but wishes Quentin luck all the same just as long as he doesn’t miss his wedding. Penny and Kady go to an office called “Fuzz Beat”, a website for magicians to learn new spells (the spells are encoded in the funny videos). They retrieve the book but the head of the office tells Kady that there isn’t anything the Library doesn’t have. Ominous? Quentin tracks down Julia to her apartment and convinces her to let him help her get her shade back. When they do some research at Brakebills, Todd (drunkenly) stumbles in with some useful information. Dean Fogg happens to know someone who knows about shades. Back in Fillory, Margo is also seeing those creepy fairy dudes hanging around. Eliot asks her to check up on Fen because she’s been acting weird lately. But then Josh discovers that Balor has been sneaking messages to the FU Fighters and planning an assassination at the wedding. Margo and Eliot hatch a plan to hit those FU Fighters hard by using a tracking spell to find them then give them food laced with Eliot-Liking potion. At the Library, Penny returns the overdue book but it contained some hex that controlled one of the Librarians. The hex was trying to make one of the Librarians open a forbidden room but the Librarian manages to overcome the hex but gets himself killed. A Librarian reluctantly tells Penny that the room the hex attempted to open is the Poison Room where all forbidden knowledge is stored (world-ending kind of stuff).


Margo wants to renegotiate her deal with the fairies but they’re not interested. Instead Margo has to come clean to Fen when she finds out that they’re both seeing the same fairy. Fen is angry at Margo for tricking her and tells her to fix this pronto! She’s not giving up her baby. Dean Fogg tells Julia and Quentin about the other timelines. In one timeline only Alice survives the battle with the Beast and becomes obsessed with shades. Fogg pulls out the old Tesla Flexion machine that can pull other people from other AUs or dimensions but only for 2 minutes (because if anything goes wrong then they all die; is there a spell that doesn’t end in death???). Julia and Fogg perform the spell and pull Alice from another timeline. So many emotions to process in just 2 minutes but Quentin manages to keep it together long enough to get information. Shades go to the underworld. To go to the underworld you have to find an “ancient one”. In Fillory, Eliot, Margo, and Josh celebrate a successful mission against the FU Fighters. However, Fen is kidnapped by the fairies. Kady and Penny go back to “FuzzBeat” to find the office cleared out. The head of the office left Kady a card telling her that the information she needs to kill a god is in the Poison Room. Quentin is done crying over Alice but he doesn’t want to be shaken out of his heart break yet and instead dives head long into his “find Julia’s shade” mission. Julia manages to find an “ancient one”. We’re going dragon hunting, guys!


A+! This episode was an emotional gut punch for Quentin and Margo for different reasons. For Quentin he only had 2 minutes with the woman he loved and he couldn’t even touch her but at least he got to tell her he loved her. For Margo it was her deception being uncovered. It was a bit frustrating to see Margo try and turn her screw up on Fen. She asked Margo to do anything to help Eliot but not divulging the details is still a deception. It was interesting to see a “well adjusted” Julia in one of the Alternate Timelines. She was not only a brilliant, gifted student but Dean Fogg was her mentor as opposed to now where mostly he ignored her or just displayed indifference. Recently he’s been accommodating perhaps feeling bad that Julia stumbled onto this dark path because she didn’t get into Brakebills. I’m interested to see Eliot react to Margo’s deal with the fairies. He will definitely feel betrayed as he was warming up to the idea of being a parent. Then there’s Penny and Kady’s dilemma. Penny just started working for the Library and we all know Penny will stand by his girl so his new employers will be in for a nasty surprise which may end more badly for Penny than for them.