We’ve got dragon pregnancies, magical sex voodoo dolls (or “marital aids”), and napsters (not the music-sharing app) all wrapped in one episode. What more can you ask for?
So this episode is pretty insane. Margo and Fen go on a quest to find the person giving Fen her prophetic dreams and run into a con artist. Alice has to perform a mother-daughter spell that turns into mother-daughter-Carol escaping from the librarian-version of the feds. And Quentin finds out that Poppy’s pregnant, then pregnant with his baby, then no, pregnant with a dragon’s baby, then no, pregnant from an unprotected Haitian ritual with a dragon baby on the side. Then a bunch of people lick the dragon baby egg and go crazy.
What The Magicians does really well is raising crazy stakes and creating convoluted, insane plot lines, then grounding it all in something more real. Margo and Fen’s adventure to find Napster (the questing creature messing with Fen’s dreams) turns into Fen questioning whether or not she values herself. Alice’s mother-daughter magical drama featuring fascist librarians and “fucking voodoo dolls” turns into regular mother-daughter drama featuring a real break-through. And the adventures of everyone else and the pregnancy mystery turns into Poppy and Quentin considering parenthood and Julia struggling with feeling alone (while Penny 23 tells her she isn’t, which was really sweet). And you feel it all. The hilarity, the confusion, the suspense and frustration. And the sorrow, relief, connectedness. The Magicians is first and foremost a show about humans, despite what the title might have you believe. And it really succeeds in that.
Another thing The Magicians does well is move the plot and characters forward, sometimes subtly and sometimes not-so-subtly. Kady’s encouraged to take charge by Pete (who I still think is a creep). And then she actually does take charge when everyone but her and Julia are driven crazy by egg fever. Julia finds out she doesn’t have to always be in her weird not-human not-goddess state, it would be bad for everyone if she stayed that way, and she needs to find the binder to change. We learn more about the library; it’s further invading privacy by installing magic-measuring meters into everyone’s houses and has now taken hold of Sheila. And, finally, we learn that Fen’s destiny is to steal the throne from Margo. And who knows what kind of destruction all of these developments will bring.
Bits and Pieces
-- Penny 23 also tells Kady that Penny 40 loves her. He adds that he’s okay, he’s proud of her, and he wants her to move on. It’s sad. And it’s sweet of Penny 23 to try so hard to make things easier for Kady. I’m starting to warm up to him.
-- Stephanie didn’t turn Alice; she turned in her friend Carol. Because “voodoo dolls for fucking are still fucking voodoo dolls”. She’s got a point.
-- Quentin wants to name the dragon baby Falcore. Poppy does not.
-- By the end, Poppy’s ready to keep her baby. At the very least, she says it’ll have an amazing immune system.
The Prophet: “She’s called the Napster”
Margo: “Napster?
Fen: “Like the music sharing site? I met Shaun Parker at an Arby’s.”
Margo: “...I hate Fillory for making me say this but we have to shut down the Napster.”
Napster: “Why aren’t you waking up?”
Fen: “Little trick from my friend Margo. A potion called Ambien. I may never wake up.”
Harold the dragon herald: “I’m Harold the herald of the east river dragon. I responded to a confusingly worded help-wanted ad.”
Poppy: “Said the world’s first true mama of dragons.”
Poppy, when Julia goes to lick the dragon egg: “Oh, four parents. I mean I guess it worked on Big Love.”
Four out of four dragon heralds named Harold.
I have to close the comments on this one because home improvement spammers keep spamming it. Sorry about that.
ReplyDelete