WiC Watches: The Magicians season 4
Episode 401: “A Flock of Lost Birds”
Season 4 kicks off with a random woman receiving a letter congratulating her on her acceptance to take an entrance exam for Brakebills. The letter blows away, leading her down a dark alley and over a fence, where she ends up on the school grounds. It’s an almost-exact repeat of how Quentin found his way into Brakebills in season 1. Only in this version, Todd is there to greet this stranger, instead of Eliot meeting Quentin.
Inside, she sits down to take her test, and Dean Fogg instantly notices her. He uses a magical lens and looks at her, hoping to uncover her secrets. The lens cracks, but before it does, we see the stranger is actually Julia.
“A Flock of Lost Birds” pulls this trick a few times, whenever an old character is re-introduced. We see the faces Dean Fogg gave them, but before long we’re back to the faces we know.
Just like Quentin in season 1, Julia is accepted into Brakebills but can’t cast a spell to save her life, and the professors won’t give her a specific discipline. She approaches Dean Fogg to ask him why, and he recalls how he abandoned one student some years ago, and she ended up getting hurt because of it. He’s referring to season 1 when he denied Julia access to Brakebills, and she had to become a Hedge Witch and teach herself powerful magic that resulted in a trickster god killing her friends and raping her.
Next, we see that Alice is still imprisoned in the Library. She’s the only one who wasn’t mind-wiped and given a new face and identity. She’s angry and bored, and the guy in the next cell over keeps talking to her, which she does not like at all.
The other prisoner eventually reveals himself to be Santa Claus. That’s right, the Library imprisoned Santa for trying to find a book that would help him deliver toys to kids on Christmas. What a bunch of dicks. Also, it turns out that Santa is a smart-ass, foul-mouthed black guy and I am here for it.
Eventually, Alice and Santa become friends. He tells her how he once tried to commit suicide because he knew he’d never be allowed to leave (shit, y’all, Santa is in a dark place), and it gives Alice an idea. She attempts suicide as well, knowing the librarians are monitoring her and won’t let her die. And they don’t.
She’s taken to a medical ward where she sees a large cockroach crawling across the floor. She grabs it and puts it in her mouth (yuck) and brings it back to her room to study. My guess is that she knows creatures in the library have magical powers, and that she’ll somehow channel them to escape.
One final note about the Library: it’s now being called the Order, and the Head Librarian is in charge of everything. She has to approve all new Brakebills students, and she allots blocks of magic to the school as she sees fit. When the school uses up its monthly allotment, no magic can be done until the next month. No one on earth is happy with Magic Nazis running the Library.
Meanwhile, on Earth, we see Kady has been given the life of a police detective. She starts to notice odd things happening every time she gets close to uncovering who she really is, even if it’s by accident. Computers short out, items fall from the sky, glass breaks…it’s all part of a protection spell cast on each member of the group that is supposed to keep them from finding out who they really are.
Here’s the hitch: when Kady runs into a Hedge Witch, she starts digging into what that means. The guy is wearing a medallion that negates the protection spell on Kady, and he gives it to her. This allows her to find a book written by an author with the last name “R. Martin” (there are usually a few shoutouts to Game of Thrones every season), and she realizes there are others like her.
Using the book, Kady finds Margo, Penny and Josh and shows them they aren’t who they think they are. Everyone’s mind is blown just as head Hedge Witch Marina shows up to get her medallion back. She instantly realizes the group has some super-powerful magic that is being dampened by a protection spell and agrees to help them.
My theory is this: When the group turned magic back on in the season 3 finale, they were given super-magical powers as a reward for completing the Quest of the Seven Keys, but they didn’t have time to realize it before Fogg changed their identities and wiped their minds.
Finally, we see not-Eliot, brimming with Evil Spirit. He and Quentin are covered in blood, enjoying an ice cream. Not-Eliot knows exactly who Quentin is and tells him they need to find his friends so he can kill them. I guess the spirit inside Eliot is afraid of what will happen if the magicians realize who they are and break Fogg’s spell.
Before the episode ends, Margo is knocked unconscious while Marina attempts to break that spell. While she’s out, Ember appears before her and tells her she needs her to return to Fillory because there is a problem only the High King can solve (Margo was made High King in season 3). When she tells him she doesn’t know him and that she’s on Earth, he snaps his fingers and Margo wakes up in Fillory, alone and very confused.
This was a fun premiere. I love that none of the characters know who they are, and that they can’t just access magic to solve all their problems. But I’m also happy they know something is amiss and are trying to solve the problem right away. I was worried we’d have to deal with half a season of them figuring out the basics.