WiC Watches: The Magicians season 4
Episode 406: “A Timeline and a Place”
“A Time and a Place” sees Penny and Marina from Timeline 23 jump around multiple timelines in order to get back to the ones they love in Timeline 40, despite the fact that their presence there is killing a very rare and highly skilled Magician.
Alice finds a purpose and teaches magic to a late bloomer, and along the way opens a stream of ambient magic that cannot be controlled by the library. Finally, Quentin and Julia help the monster inside Eliot’s body find the old gods who imprisoned him so he can steal their organs and create a body of his own, all in the hopes that they can eventually get their Eliot back.
Let’s start with Penny 23 and Marina 23, so named cause that’s the timeline they’re from. We finally find out who kidnapped the pair: the powerful Horomancer (a Magician that can control time) Stoppard is trying to return them to their original timeline because their being in Timeline 40 is literally killing his mother, another powerful Horomancer. It turns out Horomancy is a super-rare discipline.
Stoppard uses a wind-up box containing a substance deadly to Magicians to manipulate time. He succeeds in getting Penny and Marina back to Timeline 23, but there’s a catch: in that timeline, the old gods have turned off magic, so Penny can use his teleporting skills while Stoppard is rendered useless. Penny and Marina escape, steal the box, and try to return to Timeline 40…
…only they don’t know how to use the box and end up in a world where the Library has abolished all use of magic. They find a way to repair the box, but Penny feels bad about returning to Timeline 40 if them being there is going to kill Stoppard’s mother. Marina doesn’t care and tries to force Penny to make the jump, but he beats her to the box and uses it without knowing how to properly operate it, ending up in an in-between dimension.
There, Penny 40 (the original Penny who died and was forced to work the Library in his afterlife) confronts him, and they have a fun, weird back and forth about identity. Penny 40 tells Penny 23 to return to timeline 40 because he and Marina have a very important job to do and they will know what that is when the time is right. Way to be cryptic, Penny.
Penny 23 jumps back and picks up Marina. They return to Timeline 40 where Penny awaits Stoppard. Penny explains that he understands why Stoppard wanted them gone from Timeline 40, but that Stoppard’s mother was going to die in a month regardless, so he and Marina are staying.
Meanwhile, Quentin and Julia head to an ancient Egyptian exhibit at a museum to try and find the “god of yellow fruit.” Evil-Eliot shows up, resurrects a mummy and gets drunk, but at least the mummy tells them how to find what they’re looking for. Apparently that god is already dead and their tomb has been looted, so it’s a dead end. Eliot vanishes to get more drunk. Quentin and Julia say goodbye to the mummy, who just stands around looking for something to do. The Magicians does funny in a way that doesn’t interrupt the narrative. It’s neat.
Next we come to Alice, who uses a spell to find out where she’s supposed to be in life. It leads her to Modesto, California, where she meets a woman who just found out she could use magic. Alice realizes the spell led her there to teach the woman, who wants to use her newfound powers for good. This, of course, brings the library, who try and recruit the woman, but Alice convinces her not to go along with them.
Instead, the woman uses her powers to lead Alice to a magic leak. Alice breaks open the pipes and Modesto is suddenly flooded with ambient magic. This allows a couple of hedge witches to use their power to destroy the Library’s Modesto headquarters. It seems like we’re headed for war between Magicians and the Library (aka the Order) very soon.
Finally, in Fillory, High King Margo and Josh are trying to solve the talking-animals-who-can’t-talk-anymore problem. As it turns out, a neighboring country is planting a flower with pollen that renders the talking animals mute. However, there is an island with a queen of its own that has magical beets that can cure the animals. Margo tries to convince her to help them out.
Only that’s not who Margo is. She doesn’t like diplomacy, and instead uses threats to get what she wants. When Josh confronts her about her actions, she turns on him and hurts his feelings. I guess the werewolf sex they had didn’t mean they were automatically a couple, like Josh thought. Still, Margo feels guilty about how she talked to Josh and tries to apologize, but it’s apparent it will take more than words to fix this problem.
This was another great episode of The Magicians. We’re halfway through season 4 and all the storylines are starting to come together nicely. It looks like the gang will eventually be reunited to face Evil Eliot, but there seems to be a much larger problem in the Library. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.