As Margo and Eliot prepare for Eliot’s second marriage in Fillory, Penny and Kady travel to the Library. Margo is feeling a little stressed with all of the wedding preparations while Eliot is worried that the people still don’t like him. After unsuccessfully trying to self-medicate through his grief over losing Alice, Quentin goes on the hunt for Julia’s shade in “The Girl Who Told Time.”
Julia at Brakebills
The end of the first season revealed that time had been messed with and that for 39-time loops, Julia had been a student at Brakebills. It was on the 40th loop that she didn’t attend the school and the group had a chance at taking on the Beast.
Of course, the trade-off was a miserable Julia, seeking out magic however she could get it.
“The Girl Who Told Time” gives the audience a glimpse of one of those 39 times, and the difference between Julia then and Julia now is striking. She was happy, eagerly doing magic and understanding spells well beyond her training. She was seeking out magical knowledge for the fun of learning. It was a stark difference compared to how Julia is now; her experiences, for better or worse, have certainly shaped her. It’s heartbreaking to see how happy Julia could have been, and I hope she at least gets the chance to be happy again.
The fairies come for Fen
Eliot notes that Fen seems distracted like she’s talking to someone that he never sees.
It looks though like the fairies are keeping a close watch on her, standing just out of her line of sight in the shadows, spooking her. Margo has been seeing them too, and she wants to fix her deal. How long before he finds out the truth about the deal Margo made? I can’t wait to see them try to get out of the deal for Fen and Eliot’s child.
Margo always has a plan
It turns out Eliot was right to worry that no one likes him in Fillory. The FU-Fighters are still planning his demise, as evidenced by a note hidden in nachos he had made for his prisoner. Luckily for Eliot, as usual, Margo has a plan that involves tracking that note and slipping the group a potion, so they’ll all like him.
It seems that Margo is always the only one with a plan, which is probably why she's such a fan favorite.
Trouble at the Library
When Kady and Penny set out to learn how to kill Reynard, the Library cashes in on the deal Penny made, which leaves Kady tagging along for his first assignment. She decides to search the Library for information, but she’s shut out by members of the Order. It’s the woman, played by Marlee Matlin that Penny is sent to collect a book from, who tells her that the Library has all knowledge and that they’re keeping the truth about how to kill a god from her. She’s not wrong. The Poison Room holds the key if only Kady can find a way to get to it.
Julia’s shade
After self-medicating with a pastry that allows him to see between worlds, Q finds himself face to face with Julia’s shadow, who doesn’t know where she is.
When Q tells Julia about it, they go to Fogg for more information, who reveals that the only person he knows who was interested in shades was Alice - in a different reality.
What this means is Fogg and Julia use some very dangerous magic to pull that reality’s Alice into theirs to get the lowdown on shades. While Q gets some valuable information (shades go to the underworld), what stands out here is that Julia, without Brakebills, is ten times the magician Q is - at the very least. Granted, Julia has had a lot more personal motivation than the Brakebills kids have, and she’s done most of it on her own, but I love that she’s got more knowledge than any of them.
The verdict and what’s next
Splitting the episode into three stories this week gives you a little bit of whiplash because there’s just so much going on, you want each story to get more in depth.
The good news? All of the stories are rapidly getting to the juicy parts: Fen was taken, Julia needs a dragon, and Kady knows where the answers are.
4 out of 5 stars
