Coming off last week’s reveal that Quentin’s body can’t hold a niffin inside, he’s isolated at Brakebills while the professors try to find a way to help him. In Fillory, Eliot decides to go the hand to hand combat route instead of an all out war when the army deserts the Royals. Julia, Kady, and Penny continue their quest to get the power of Reynard’s son. A whole lot is going on in “Lesser Evils.”
Julia wants to kill the senator
Since Q can’t use the travel button while he’s isolated, Penny and Kady take it to break Julia out of the Fillory dungeon.
Julia is still as shade-less as ever, finding it amusing that she killed all the talking trees in Fillory, which means when they tell her they found Reynard’s son, she’s ready to take the most lethal step.
In a very entertaining sequence, Julia, Kady, and Penny decide to show the senator that is Reynard’s son that magic exists. He’s lived his whole life not knowing what kind of power is inside him. When Julia grows bored with their encounter, though, she decides it might be easiest just to kill him and use his energy. Penny and Kady are horrified, though Penny isn’t surprised when he realizes she’s had that plan from the start.
Now, this is a bit alarming since it shows us how far Julia has gone without her shade (and warns us that it’s only going to get worse since she’s willing to sacrifice her best friend later).
On the other hand, it’s hard to argue with Julia’s logic. This guy has the powers of an evil god in him, and there’s a good chance he won’t be a good man for long once he knows that. It would save them all a little time if they just used his energy after his death. It’s probably not a good sign that the audience is going to find it so easy to agree with Julia here.
The musical number
Over in Fillory, Eliot decides that without an army, he should just take on Prince Ess’s father himself in a duel. That all sounds well and good until you find out that the King has won 14 duels and Eliot doesn’t even know how to hold a sword. Lucky for him, he has Fen and Margo to get him prepared.
While Fen gives him a sword one of her family members made for a royal, she also gives him a swordsman’s spell along with it to help his skills.
And Margo? She gets him pumped up by magically enforcing a musical number. She chooses “One Day More” from “Les Mis” to get things going for the group, and it’s fantastic. This isn’t the first time the show has turned itself into a musical, but this is the best time. Here’s hoping the writings employ more numbers in the future!
Margo makes a deal
Up until now, we haven’t heard anything about fairies in Fillory. Apparently, there are some just outside, though, and they can fix the damage done to the Wellspring - for a price. What they want gives Margo pause though since it’s Eliot and Fen’s unborn child. Without telling Fen exactly what she has to do, Margo asks her if she would do anything in her power to make sure Eliot can use magic to survive his fight.
Fen agrees, not knowing anything about what she actually agrees to.
Kady, Q, and Eliot make choices
Kady is the one person who has been in denial about Julia not being Julia without her shade. It’s Julia being willing to toss Q to Reynard to use niffin-Alice that wakes her up. She locks Julia in a clean room (no magic) until a solution can be found.
Q decides to set niffin-Alice free instead of box her in. I think we can all imagine that’s going to go badly.
Eliot makes a deal with the king. Apparently, every monarch is entitled to a husband and a wife, which means they can unite their kingdoms instead of killing one another in a duel. Fen is not going to be happy about having to share with another person again.
The verdict and what’s next
There was so much going on this week that I wish there was another hour (and another musical number)!
4.5 out of 5 stars
In next week’s “The Girl Who Told Time,” the hunt is on to fix Julia’s shade.
