On last week’s episode of “The Magicians” Penny, Alice, Margo and Eliot and Josh went to Fillory while Quentin was forced to seek the help of Julia. This week, Team Quentin comes face to face with the Beast. Will Julia use her Goddess Card to save Team Quentin on the season finale?
Chapters
Quentin, who has dreamt of visiting Fillory finally gets his wish thanks to the Tardis…no not that one, but a less impressive magical British phone booth. After following the 1942 Jane Chatwin through the phone booth, Quentin and Julia are thrilled to be in Fillory, but young Martin has followed them. We know this because Quentin is writing book seven and the chapters have to do with his tracking down the Beast.
Julia and Quentin come across a young Jane Chatwin who is trapped in a snare and in Plover’s book, she is saved by the Witch and the Fool. Quentin is so excited to be part of the story, but Jane runs off and they bump into young Martin who refuses to stay around to help them find the Leo Blade because he is frightened of someone named the Watcherwoman.
I don’t understand why Martin was afraid of this woman because it turns out to be the older version of his sister. Before scurrying away, Martin sends Julia and Quentin to a Knifemaker and his son. To make the Leo Blade, the Knifemaker has to get the magical moonstones to mate to make the knife. Everything is about sex on this show. There is a price for the blade, but Quentin and Julia don’t bother to learn what it is.
Julia and Quentin finally meet the Watcherwoman and it’s an adult Jane Chatwin, who is upset that her power to manipulate time did nothing to protect her on Earth from the Beast. Before helping our duo reach present time Fillory, Jane senses that Julia’s mind has been tampered with. If Julia is happy with the power she’s gained from the goddess, what could she be blocking?
Martin
Each section of this episode is marked in chapters and when Julia and Quentin arrive in present day Fillory, they are shocked to find it a desolate world. The wickedness and anger of the Beast has changed the landscape. Is it possible? I’ve always believed that our thoughts, if powerful enough, can become a living entity. Surround yourself in happy thoughts and you create happiness. There is nothing happy about the Beast, who has been draining the life force of Fillory from the fantasy world’s Wellspring.
Eliot
Luckily, for the story that is being written by Quentin, the other members of the team are celebrating at a pub and now they can travel together. While Team Quentin goes searching for the Knifemaker to pick up the Leo Blade, Julia spots the tombstone with Martin’s name on it. Quentin is really upset that he could not save the boy.
I have been worried about Eliot for several episodes. This boy is willingly drinking and drugging himself to death. He isn’t happy although surrounded by magical powers and friends, he isn’t happy. We were never shown his backstory, but I have a feeling that it wasn’t a “Sunnybrook Farm” type of life. The Knifemaker is now the grown son of the one Julia and Quentin first met in 1942 and he has completed the job and now wants payment. In Fillory, humans are considered kings and queens. The Knifemaker has a daughter. She needs a royal husband.
Eliot happily volunteers for the job to marry the pretty Fin, even when Margo tells him that this marriage will prevent him from leaving Fillory. While on Earth, Eliot was bored and unhappy. He had no purpose and felt little joy except for the quick but temporary pleasures he received from alcohol and drugs, but everything changed when he knew his life did serve a purpose. He and Fin get married and Eliot no longer needs his dangerous crutches.
Ember
Team Quentin has the Leo Blade, but they can’t touch it. Only a Master Magician can touch the blade that scorches all our little Brakebills friends. While Quentin and Alice visit Ember, Penny makes plans to rescue Victoria… but first he has to find the castle. Ember has no powers.
The Beast has taken them, but Ember can give his power to another. Does everything in this story have to lead back to sex and bodily fluids? Quentin is given jar of Ember’s sperm to drink when he’s ready to battle the Beast. Julia is devastated when Ember unblocks a horrid memory of hers.
Conclusion
There are certain characters in this series that I really like. Penny is my favorite because he actually cares about other people. His biggest concern was to rescue Victoria, a girl he’d never met, from the Beast. He succeeds in this quest and learns how she was able to bring the entire third year class with her to Fillory. Eliot is another favorite on mine and I’m happy that he found something other than drugs and alcohol to be happy about. Quentin, who has been whiny this entire season, surprised me by admitting that maybe he wasn’t the chosen one. Quentin confesses his love, then gives the sperm and the job of savior over to Alice.
Team Quintin is still under the illusion that Christopher Plover is the Beast, but they find him trapped in the room next to Victoria. Like I said, many times, this show seems to revolve around sex, but tonight’s episode hit on two very important topics: rape and the lingering consequences of an abuser.
The young boy, Martin, had been sexually abused by Christopher Plover. This wicked man used his stories to entice the boy in order to take advantage of him. Years of abuse can cause some, not all, people to become abusers themselves. Plover is not the Beast. It is Martin… and that is why Fillory is such a desolate world because it mirrors Martin’s mind. A young boy grows up to be empty of joy. He becomes murderous because his worth was robbed from him.
Julia, played so beautifully this entire season by Stella Maeve, had blocked the memory of what really happened when she rang that bell. The goddess was evil and male. Reynard the Fox not only killed all her friends, except Kady, but he brutally raped Julia. Kady was able to escape because Julia saved her.
Rape is an ugly word that has nothing to do with sex. It is a despicable act committed by cowards. It has to do with power and control that the offender lacks and needs to steal from a victim. Martin was raped by the wicked Christopher Plover and in his madness, attacks Team Quintin, leaving Penny without hands and the others bleeding out their life force. He would have killed Quentin like he did all those other times thanks to Jane’s time loop, but he was stopped by Julia who had her own plans of revenge.
Rape is an ugly word that has nothing to do with sex. When Julia was left for dead by Reynard the Fox, she asked Marina for help. The Hedge Witch took mercy on her enemy because no one should be allowed to suffer the memories of this cowardly act. Julia is a powerful magician in her own right, but to kill a god, she needs Martin. We’ll need to wait until next year to find out how our magical friends get out of this mess, but maybe they’ll learn that magic will never replace the comfort of a good and loyal friend.
I’ll end this post with a message. If you are a victim of rape, get help: RAINN at 1-800-656-HOPE… then remember that you did not cause this to happen. You are the one who survived and I am cheering for you.
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