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butterflydm · 5 years

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The Magicians Revisited: 1x04 The World in the Walls

Significant moments: As part of Marina’s plan to steal from Brakebills, she’s done a cooperative spell with Julia to mess with Quentin’s mind in order to trick Dean Fogg into lowering the protective wards around the school. I’m assuming she picked Quentin because it’s a powerful cooperative spell so she needs a strong witch like Julia, and Julia’s mad enough at Quentin to be able to use him as a target. Julia might not be willing to trap just any random student into a hell-dream, but she’s pissed enough at Quentin to do it to him. The dream itself is a mishmash of the hospitals he’s spent time in with elements of Brakebills, and it preys on his own thoughts and twists them.

So, potentially, twisted reflections of what’s in Q’s mind — Dean Fogg becomes another authority figure, a doctor. Both Eliot and Alice are very sexually aggressive towards Quentin, and Q turns Penny into a janitor with a heavy accent (which real!Penny calls out as racist of Q’s subconscious).

Julia, otoh, is the actual Julia. Which… man, oh there is so much ugliness to unpack there. Actual, real Julia takes malicious joy at Quentin’s pain in her first scene, and only starts to be worried/concerned in her second, when Q has gone past being freaked out and is so mentally burnt out that he’s non-responsive.

As Julia is leaving from her second visit with Quentin, real!Penny walks into the dream/spell. He sees fake!Penny and is instantly offended which, you know, fair. Anyway, Q asks Penny to find him in the real world and wake him up, and that, at 23-24 minutes into the episode, is the first time we leave Quentin’s head.

On a more acting-based level, I feel like this kind of episode only works when the actor has a rock-solid understanding of who their character is and how their character sees themselves and isn’t afraid to embrace the uglier sides of their character, and I’m pretty impressed at how strong a grip Jason Ralph has on Quentin only four episodes into the show.

In the scene with Julia and Marina, Julia expresses concern over what the spell is doing to Q, and we see that Kady has been watching, too, and Marina is definitely aware of Kady’s relationship with Penny at this time. Kady is also concerned at the idea that the spell could potentially trap Q in his own mind forever. When the later attempt by the Dean and Penny to break Q out of the spell fails, Kady goes to Julia to tell her to reverse the spell because Q might never wake up otherwise. Julia goes to the Dean & Co. and confesses that she cast the spell.

One big thing that this episode does is soften the antagonism between Q and Penny — ironically, being a little inside Q’s head pissed Penny off, but when he was more deeply inside and exposed to more of the trauma Q was going through, he became angry at Julia on Q’s behalf for putting him through that. It did this to a certain extent with Kady and Q, too.

With Jane’s help, Quentin is able to pull himself out of the Web even when the Dean seems pretty certain he’s fucked. Jane looks damn proud of him for it, too. Eliot, the Dean, and Penny are all visibly relieved that he’s awake again. Julia is guilt-stricken as, you know, she should be. Looking forward, I’m relatively sure this is the ugliest thing that actual, shade-having Julia ever does to anyone. Anyway, not only has she set fire (for now) to her relationship with Quentin, she also gets kicked out of Marina’s hedge witch group for betraying Marina.

In Q’s last scene in his head, we get him quoting from the books, “Jane saw only one way out for him: stop playing, start living”, which ties into the “live your life here” throughline that’s been thrown at Q a few times over the course of the series. That’s also tied into the ‘stop overthinking’ theme that Q gets a lot, too. Q runs into issues when he lives inside his head instead of living his actual life in the real world, and this nightmare that Julia and Marina trapped him in is just an extreme manifestation of that tendency of his.

That’s actually also related to that flaw of his that I mentioned in the 1x03 post — where he holds other people accountable for his emotions. That’s him living like he’s in a Scarlatti Web all the time, where other people are just projections of his fears and desires rather than being, well, other people. And that’s the epiphany that he has during the endgame of the Beast arc when he gives the… god’s come… to Alice instead of drinking it himself (what is this show that I had to write out that sentence). That he is not the sole protagonist, that he is not the only person who has emotional importance. And that life is actually better when he embraces that truth, because it means that he can actually see other people for who they are and not as echoes of his own thoughts. It was really great character growth, until- well.

Magic: 1. Quentin "wakes up" trapped in a mental world created by a cooperative spell cast by Julia and Marina called a Scarlatti Web. 2. Quentin is able to cast a fireworks spell while in the Web. 3. Jane is able to penetrate the spell enough to send a vision of her younger self to Q to try to get him to work on breaking the spell by giving him hints about where to look. 4. There was a magician in Fillory named Ellesworth Downs, who was cursed by a witch to only be able to cast game magic. 5. Kady tries to cast healing magic on Q; it fails. 6. Marina uses a spell to light her cigarette. 7. The wards are lowered to allow the bug-spirit in to save Quentin. 8. Marina uses magic to get into the room where the stolen memories are kept. 9. Jane is able to get to Q again after the first part of the spell is broken, and she tries to let him know how to get out of the spell. 10. Marina pulls Julia to her side. 11. Marina crosses out Julia’s hedge witch stars and kicks her out of the bodega.

Relationships: Quentin & Julia: estranged friends Quentin & Eliot: friends, confidantes, romantic undertones Quentin & Penny: frenemies? I think they qualify as frenemies now Quentin & Alice: estranged friendship?, crush Penny & Kady: romantic & sexual relationship Kady->Penny: manipulative relationship Marina & Julia: burned bridges Marina -> Kady: blackmail/extortion Quentin->Kady: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kady->Quentin: friendly enough to be concerned about him & pissed at Julia for being willing to turn on him Jane&Fogg->Quentin&co: manipulative mentorship Eliot->Julia: contempt Kady->Julia: contempt/anger

Physical contact: Fake!Eliot searches through Q’s pockets for pills, grabs Q’s hand and presses it against his chest and pushes it down his body. He puts a finger on Q’s mouth and smacks him on the ass as he leaves. Fake!Alice grabs Q’s face and kisses him. Julia reaches out to touch Q’s hand during her visit to him. She brushes his hair out of his face. Fake!Penny grabs Q’s hand to show that Q was palming pills instead of swallowing them. Q grabs pages out of his fake roommate’s hands to keep him from destroying the books. Q touches several of the residents of his mind during his musical number. Q shares a hug with his fake father. Fake!Eliot and Fake!Alice do some very close sitting with Quentin during the montage after he’s been told that he tried to kill his father. Julia touches Q’s knee in her second visit with him. Penny shoves Quentin against the wall. Q shoves him back, Penny shoves him back harder (as requested). Marina smacks Kady’s ass. Q pickpockets one of the fake nurses for a key into the office to finally get some tape to fix the pages of the book. Penny shoulder-checks Eliot a bit (not too hard) as they’re looking for Q’s body. Penny slaps Q’s face to try to wake him up. Fake!Penny and another fake employee of the hospital haul Quentin off to get the lobotomy. Dean Fogg touches Q’s forehead after the attempt at breaking Q out of the spell. Eliot pets Q on the head after he’s woken up from the spell.

Character Notes: Quentin: he last saw his dad (Ted) a few months ago; they had dinner. Actual Alice, in real life, does not appear in this episode. Only the fake Alice in Q’s head. Margo does not appear in this episode.

Students: Marina used to attend Brakebills; she was kicked out three months before graduation.

Timeline Notes: Quentin fell asleep at a party on Tuesday and then went under the spell. Penny arrives in the dream on a Wednesday.

#TMRevisited #tmwk2 #the magicians #long post #text post #keeping track of things

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butterflydm · 5 years

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The Magicians Revisited: 1x03 Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting

Significant moments: Time has passed, as Julia is working on leveling up as a hedge witch and the Brakebills' first-years are testing to learn their disciplines after listening to Dean Fogg give a lecture about the dangers of learning magic too quickly and without proper training. Which is, of course, something that they deliberately dumped Julia into in this timeline in the hopes that it would give her… more power? A different perspective? Just to take her ‘off the garden path’, as Jane likes to say?

Both Quentin and Alice are assigned to the Physical Kids’ cottage - Alice because her discipline puts her there and Q because his magic is undetermined and “they have extra room”. Or, more likely, Fogg makes sure he ends up there specifically because Alice, Margo, and Eliot are there. Alice tells Q she wants to try the spell again so that she can contact her dead brother. Instead, Q suggests they try a locator spell first. Alice confides in Q more about her relationship with her brother - he’s the only one in her family that taught her magic.

Penny is unhappy about being put in with the psychics, and he and Q have a tense conversation about Q singing in his head and not having good enough wards around his thoughts.

Niffin!Charlie attacks some students; when Alice and Q are talking about it, Margo tries to join the conversation and Alice shuts her down hard, telling Q that she doesn’t trust Margo. Q tries to encourage her to talk to Margo, when Eliot shows up and takes Q off to talk in private. Eliot wants Q to help him with the missing book problem (the book that Kady stole) because the Physical Kids could get in trouble if it isn’t found before the faculty find out it’s missing.

Alice reluctantly asks Margo for help in finding out what happened to her brother and Margo points her in the direction of Emily Greenstreet, and doesn’t let Alice shake off her help. Again, this kinda adds weight to my suspicions that Margo actually was being genuine in her attempts to befriend Alice in the earlier episodes. She and Alice go to talk to Emily, who is reluctant to talk to them but tells them the story about her and Mayakovsky (not by name) and how Charlie tried to help her after her spell went wrong and she tried to kill herself at the fountain.

Meanwhile, Penny gets introduced to the Psychic house, meditates, connects with Victoria (not that he knows that yet), and travels for the first time. Hmm, I wonder if connecting mentally with Victoria, a practiced traveller, gave him a jumpstart on his traveling?

The book leads Q and Eliot to the bodega where Marina’s hedge witch group hangs out. Eliot has a low opinion of hedge witches that Q embraces readily; Q and Julia are very surprised to see each other again. Eliot recovers the book and Q and Julia have a nasty fight where Q shows an ugly trait that will show up again later in the season after the threesome — he basically acts Julia is to blame for him having feelings for her, much like how he later blames Margo and Eliot for ‘ruining his life’ by, essentially, being attractive enough to him that he cheats on his girlfriend with them. I don’t think this trait persists beyond that incident, if I recall correctly, so I think he learned his lesson at that point, but I will keep watch S2 and beyond to see.

Later Julia lies to James about what she’s been going through to try to put a patch over the damage in their relationship.

Dean Fogg and Sunderland tell Penny that he’s a traveler - he’s never heard of it. It’s the rarest of disciplines. Sunderland lets him know he can learn how to move between worlds.

Eliot and Q have a private talk about what happened with Julia, ignoring Kady banging on the door to the cottage until she busts it in.

Alice shows Q the niffin box but tells him she doesn’t want to use it. Q has been researching niffins and thinks there’s nothing they can do to help, but Alice has hope that they can reverse Charlie’s niffin state. They attempt the spell to help Charlie, it goes badly, and Q boxes him.

Alice leaves the school and Margo tries to stop her. So, yeah, on the whole, I’m gonna call it - Margo’s friendship overtures towards Alice were legit and Alice straight-up misjudged her.

Magic: 1. Julia learns hedge magic. 2. Quentin and Alice are tested for their disciplines. 3. Alice tries to unlock the Physical Kids’ cottage. 4. On Q’s suggestion, Alice bends light to blow open the door so they can get into the cottage. 5. Q uses a locator spell to try to locate Alice’s dead brother. 6. Woof fountain in Brakebills is enchanted; one of those enchantments is to make it bottomless. 7. A hand comes out of the fountain and flips off Alice and Q (they don’t see it). 8. Eliot taught Q a spell to shield his mind from psychics but it isn’t working well enough to keep his thoughts from bothering Penny. 9. Niffin!Charlie attempts to drown two kids in the fountain and leaves tons of the glass horses in Alice’s room. 10. Books are somewhat alive at Brakebills. 11. Julia works on a spell she’s learning from Marina. 12. Penny meditates and he hears Victoria’s voice for the first time, and travels. 13. Five years ago, Emily tried to use a spell to change her looks and it went horribly wrong. 14. Charlie used magic to try to fix her botched spell and niffined out from using too much magic. 15. Mayakovsky fixed her face after Charlie niffened out. 16. Eliot uses magic-sensing to see the wards on the hedge witch hideout. 17. It takes a month to enchant a niffin box. 18. Julia makes her key fob look like it’s from Narcotics Anonymous. 19. Alice tries to use magic to reverse Charlie’s niffin state. 20. Q boxes Charlie into the niffin box.

Relationships: Quentin & Julia: estranged friends Julia & James: established relationship -> going through a rough patch Quentin & James: estranged friends Quentin & Eliot: friends & confidantes Eliot->Quentin: crush (confirmed on E’s end) Quentin & Penny: antagonistic but not actively throwing punches Eliot & Margo: best friends Margo & Quentin: friendship; Q trusts her Quentin & Alice: early friendship Alice->Quentin: crush (heavily implied on A’s end) which likely amps up the anger at him for boxing Charlie Penny & Kady: romantic & sexual relationship Kady->Penny: manipulative relationship Margo & Alice: potential friendship; rejected by Alice Marina & Pete -> Julia: manipulative mentorship

Physical contact: Margo and Eliot snuggle at the party in the Physical Kids’ cottage. Penny uses a hand to press Quentin back against a tree while berating him for not having good wards. James reached around Julia to use the computer Julia is sitting at. Julia takes James’s hand and kisses him when she’s trying to convince him that everything is okay. Eliot grabs Q by the hand and shoulder to take him off to talk. One of the psychic kids touches Penny a couple of times on the arm as she shows him their dorms and guides him with a hand on his back until he tells her to stop touching him. Q touches Alice to get her attention while she’s singing to let her see he’s spotted Charlie. Alice holds Niffin!Charlie’s hands and it hurts her.

Character Notes: Alice Quinn: Physical kid: phosphormancy (bends light). Puts a fuckton of sugar in her coffee. Her favorite song is “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from The Breakfast Club. Quentin Coldwater: “undetermined” discipline. Sings Taylor Swift in his head. Penny: Psychic discipline at first, but then discovers that he’s a traveler. Kady: Physical kid.

Students: Fifteen students and one dean have reportedly killed themselves in Woof’s fountain. We see some more second-years but don’t get names.

Timeline Notes: ~undisclosed amount of time passes~ It has been at least ‘weeks’ since Julia’s birthday, as that’s how long it took Julia to realize Q didn’t tell anyone she’d remembered about Brakebills. In Alice and Q’s conversation, she states that it’s been three months since Q learned about magic/started at Brakebills.

Ways the Loop-aware Messed With Our Kids: Q is assigned to the Physical Kids’ Cottage

#TMRevisited #tmwk2 #the magicians #long post #text post #keeping track of things

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