Alice’s loss hits the group hard. Eliot and Margo struggle to find a way to lead Fillory while they’re both preoccupied with other problems. Penny, who has been moving between worlds as he struggles to get a group on his magic, didn’t even know whether they had beat the beast. Quentin, after recovering from his own injuries, is determined to find a way to get Alice back. Meanwhile, Julia needs help now that the Beast is dead, and she finds an old friend to get it.
Margo’s crown is just as heavy as Eliot’s
Grieving the loss of Alice, Eliot wants to build a monument to their fallen friend.
That, of course, would bankrupt Fillory. Instead of letting Eliot wallow in his grief, Margo interrupts a meeting with advisors in Fillory to give Eliot a dressing down, reminding him that an entire world is depending on him and that they have bigger problems than just Alice’s death on their hands right now, like the Wellspring not allowing magic to be as free as it was anymore.
Margo does give Eliot something of an out, though, creating him a golem so that he can experience Brakebills vicariously through it. Of course, that doesn’t exactly make things easier on him as he is constantly in a state of near tears at the pressure he’s under. Lucky for Margo, Eliot actually does something smart and goes to the dean for help, who ends up agreeing to pull together some of the best minds around the world to help Eliot with his new thesis project: how to save a world.
Margo, meanwhile, comes face to face with Julia while she’s trying to copy a book that will help her take on Reynard. The two trade plenty of biting words that neither of them really deserve. Both women have a lot on their plates at the moment, with Julia not knowing that Margo is trying to save Fillory and Margot not understanding just how dangerous Reynard is.
I wish these two would team up at some point instead of remaining at one another’s throats.
Kady is back
Now that Julia has no Beast and no Marina to help her track down and eliminate Reynard, her options for magical help are a little limited. At the end of last season, she sent Kady, the only other person in her magical group to survive Reynard, away for her own safety.
Kady, as it turns out, has been performing miracles in exchange for drugs, living on the streets, and has had an all around rough time of it.
While I would have loved to see Marina, Kady, and Julia team up to take Reynard down as a group of hedge witches who are not to be trifled with, I can’t be too disappointed here since Marina managed to leave Julia a message before she died -- the call number for a book at Brakebills -- and it’s something Kady recognizes, finding a way to get Julia into the school and to the book, which does give us a few moments of Marina being brought back to life to boot with the reveal that Reynard can be banished, if only Julia can find the way to do it.
Quentin and Penny take on the Flying Forest
Quentin wants to find the White Lady once he’s recovered slightly from his injuries. If she’s caught, she can grant wishes. He plans on getting Alice back from the dead and having Penny’s hands fixed. Considering walking through the forest makes the two higher than kites, things don’t exactly go as planned, though it does get them to open up to one another with a little more emotion than they usually show each other. His wish for Alice doesn’t work out, but Penny does get his hands back and Quentin has one more wish -- he decides to go home. How he’ll be able to adjust to living without magic should be pretty entertaining next week.
The verdict and what’s next
No ill will toward Olivia Dudley, but I really didn’t miss Alice this week. I’m loving Fillory and Julia’s journey this season, though.
4 out of 5 stars.
In next week’s “Cheat Day,” Julia and Kady find another consequence from Reynard’s attack, while Eliot and Margot get used to ruling Fillory. Meanwhile, Penny seeks help for a problem.
