WiC Watches: The Magicians season 4

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Episode 404: “Marry, F**k, Kill”

Julia and Penny go to Fillory to find answers, Quentin deals with the death of his dad, Alice teams up with someone from the past, and Josh and Margo have sex. This was a good episode of The Magicians, but before we get to the good stuff, let’s talk about the disgusting elephant in the room: Christopher Plover.

If you’re unaware, Christopher Plover is the author who wrote the Fillory and Further books that inspire Quentin to become a Magician. They also inspire every Magician worth their salt to find the mythical world of Fillory and explore its many mysteries. As depicted on the show, the books follow the magical adventures of siblings Martin, Jane, and Rupert Chatwin in Fillory (yes, it’s a clear The Chronicles of Narnia tribute/reference/ripoff). Their caretaker Christopher Plover writes down their stories when they come back and tell him what they did.

Here’s the catch: in season 1, it’s revealed that Plover molested Martin Chatwin for years until Martin figured out a way to become a powerful Magician so that he could lure Plover into Fillory, trap him, and torture him for the rest of his life. In order to do this, Martin had to trade his soul for power, which turned him into the Beast.

We haven’t seen Plover since season 1, and the hope was that he was dead. This week, we find out that he’s alive and has been hiding in the library where time stands still, so he hasn’t aged a day. And now, he wants Alice’s help in casting a spell.

I had a major problem with The Magicians bringing back Plover this way. He was despicable in season 1, but we needed to see his actions to understand how Martin became the Beast. But bringing him back just to help Alice find the books she’s looking for ruins an otherwise good episode. Their scenes together are awkward, in writing and performance. Alice makes a few comments that in another context would read as witty, but because of Plover, they don’t land. And when Plover told Alice he had time to think about what he did to Martin and that he was a reformed man, it made me sick to my stomach. This character is irredeemable, and to pretend otherwise is a slap in the face to victims of sexual predators everywhere.

Oooookay, let’s get to the rest of the recap. Since we were talking about Alice in the library, she eventually does find her book, as well as those of the rest of the gang. She also finds that Quentin’s story ends in one week, which can’t be good. Now she’s gotta figure out how to escape the library and make it to Quentin in time before he kicks the bucket.

Evil Eliot may have a part to play in Quentin’s eventual death, but for now, he’s playing the part of the good pal, following Quentin home to help him deal with the death of his father. When the group was under Dean Fogg’s illusion spell, Quentin’s dad died and was buried, so now that he’s back to his old self, he’s returned home to clean out his father’s model airplane room.

Evil Eliot doesn’t get why Quentin is painstakingly (but lovingly) packing away each model airplane, and the two have a nice conversation about father-son bonding and keeping the memory of loved ones alive. But Evil Eliot doesn’t get it. He can see Quentin is kind of frustrated, so he begins smashing the model airplanes. At first, Quentin tells him to stop, but then he joins in. In the end, Quentin admits destroying everything was cathartic.

Elsewhere, Josh is about to go through “the quickening,” meaning he’s about to transform into a werewolf. Apparently, Josh contracted lycanthropy by having sex with a female werewolf. Yep, in this world lycanthropy is an incurable STD.

Margo agrees to help Josh find a magical cure, but they fail and Josh locks himself in a cell so he won’t hurt his friends. The only problem is that if he doesn’t have sex with someone and pass the werewolf disease along, then he’ll go crazy and die. Yep, in this world lycanthropy is the monster from It Follows.

With no other options and time running out, Margo agrees to have sex with Josh. So now Margo’s a werewolf and seems to have fallen in love with Josh in the process. Is this a good love story or extremely uncomfortable and inappropriate? Discuss.

In Fillory, Penny is helping Julia find a maenad to see if it can help figure out why Julia is immortal but can’t cast spells. The maenad says it’s because no one believes in her or worships her, so they need to perform a ritual to see if there’s a way to restore her powers.

In a lovely scene, Penny traces holy oils all over Julia’s body. You can tell he’s still in love with her. Once that’s done, the maenad casts a spell and the oils burn through some bright colors. This proves to the maenad that Julia is a powerful goddess, and she instantly becomes one of her followers. Julia’s getting her groove back, y’all.

Finally, after a night of packing and then smashing all of Quentin’s dead dad’s model airplanes, Evil Eliot and Quentin are enjoying a nice cup of coffee in a diner. Quentin wants to know if his friend Eliot is still alive somewhere, but Evil Eliot tells him the real Eliot died when he took over his body, and that he could feel his soul leave the body when it happened…

…or did it? In the final scene of the episode, the real Eliot is standing outside a weird-looking version of Brakebills, calling for help. Eliot is alive!

This was a good episode that suffered because of 15 minutes of screen time devoted to a pedophile claiming he was a reformed man. I don’t feel like the show wanted its viewers to feel bad for Christopher Plover, but the clunky writing almost made me think it did.

In season 1, Julia received her powers because she was raped by a trickster god, and now we’ve got another sexual predator helping Alice in the library. I hope we’ve seen the last of Plover, because if we haven’t, this show may lose the following it’s earned over the past three seasons.

Grade: C