On this week’s episode of The Magicians entitled “The Cock Barrens,” Eliot and Margo find themselves kidnapped by a neighboring land, Quentin tries to resurrect a funeral pyramid, and Julia finds herself one step closer to possibly banishing Reynard. Oh, and Penny is still on the quest to fix his hands.

The episode opens with Quentin doing some mystical tai chi cirque de soleil inspired dancing in the hopes of summoning Alice’s Niffin while Eliot and Margo don some regal capes and judge with witty commentary from the sidelines. Quentin tries to summon Terminator Alice as a means of coping with her impending funeral, which brings Quentin face to face with Alice’s parents and all his regrets surrounding her death.

While attending the funeral, he is haunted by a Sixth Sense-esque form of Alice, complete with shrouds of darkness and rings under her pale eyes. This ghost version of Alice brings Quentin to her father’s private study. Alice’s father finds Quentin in his private (and previously locked) study room only to tell Quentin that Alice had called a couple weeks before her death inquiring about book about ghosts and how to help them find peace. In the land of The Magicians this means that Quentin and Alice’s father decide to build an ancient Egyptian funeral pyre equipped with an enchanted mirror in the hopes of helping Alice move on from the mortal plane, once and for all.

Eventually Alice’s mom comes to the aide of Quentin and his paranormal goodbye party in the hopes of smoothing out the transition for Alice’s ghost. However, she is overcome by emotion, as any other grieving mother would, and excuses herself before her duties are completed. In this moment, Quentin comes face to face with Alice’s niffin self, complete with electrical blue scars along her face that would make Harry Potter proud. In her cold demeanor, Alice enlightens Quentin to the fact that the beast that was once in his tattoo that attacked Alice and effectively killed her failed in doing just that and the hauntings that Quentin has been experiencing are due to the fact that Alice is still alive and now lies beneath Quentin’s skin, literally etching herself in his back tattoo. 

While Quentin tends to his wounds, Julia and Kady come one step closer to finding a way to banish Reynard once and for all. They stumble upon an unexplained fire that occurred in Hoboken, New Jersey and upon a further investigation, find the very woman who banished the deviant demon the first time. The twist here is that she too was assaulted by Reynard and pregnant with his child. This sends Julia into a tail spin until it comes to light that the only way Julia can banish Reynard is to harness the energy of her little bun in the heaven effectively using Reynard’s unborn child against him. 

Back on Fillory, Eliot and Margo are accosted by a Prince from a neighboring land who comes to them angry over the treatment of the sacred fountain. Refusing to take no for an answer, he proposes a treaty but only if he can marry Margo. Margo vehemently denies marrying the Prince which leads to the Prince seemingly transporting the Fillory kingdom to a faraway land. Margo attempts to smooth over negotiations, but all that does is end with Margo sleeping in bed, the remnant from her sexual Tet-a-Tet with the prince. With no way out and a forced marriage on the horizon, Penny and his goofy hands come to save the day as he intercepts Margo’s dreamscape and vows to find them.  After trying to find the castle and only coming up short, Penny realizes that the castle was never transported, but just under an intense cloaking spell. Margo, riled up and angry as a bat out of hell, swears off the prince, effectively banishing him from the land, but not before she openly declares war on him, with Eliot supporting his Queens the whole time.  

Are you excited to see The Magicians wage a magical war?

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9 pm on Syfy. 

On Earth

The episode opens with Quentin doing some mystical tai chi Cirque Du Soleil-inspired dancing in the hopes of summoning Alice’s Niffin while Eliot and Margo don some regal capes and judge with witty commentary from the sidelines. Quentin tries to summon Terminator Alice as a means of coping with her impending funeral, which brings Quentin face to face with Alice’s parents and all his regrets surrounding her death.

While attending the funeral, he is haunted by a Sixth Sense-esque form of Alice, complete with shrouds of darkness and rings under her pale eyes. This ghost version of Alice brings Quentin to her father’s private study. Alice’s father finds Quentin in his private (and previously locked) study room only to tell Quentin that Alice had called a couple weeks before her death inquiring about book about ghosts and how to help them find peace. In the land of The Magicians this means that Quentin and Alice’s father decide to build an ancient Egyptian funeral pyre equipped with an enchanted mirror in the hopes of helping Alice move on from the mortal plane, once and for all.

Eventually, Alice’s mom comes to the aide of Quentin and his paranormal goodbye party in the hopes of smoothing out the transition for Alice’s ghost. However, she is overcome by emotion (as any other grieving mother would) and excuses herself before her duties are completed. In this moment, Quentin comes face to face with Alice’s niffin self, complete with electrical blue scars along her face that would make Harry Potter proud. In her cold demeanor, Alice enlightens Quentin to the fact that the beast that was once in his tattoo that attacked Alice and effectively killed her, failed in doing just that and the hauntings that Quentin has been experiencing are due to the fact that Alice is still alive and now lies beneath Quentin’s skin, literally etching herself in his back tattoo. 

While Quentin tends to his wounds, Julia and Kady come one step closer to finding a way to banish Reynard once and for all. They stumble upon an unexplained fire that occurred in Hoboken, New Jersey and upon a further investigation, find the very woman who banished the deviant demon the first time. The twist here is that she too was assaulted by Reynard and pregnant with his child. This sends Julia into a tail spin until it comes to light that the only way Julia can banish Reynard is to harness the energy of her little bun in the heaven effectively using Reynard’s unborn child against him. 

In Fillory

Eliot and Margo are accosted by a prince from a neighboring land who comes to them angry over the treatment of the sacred fountain. Refusing to take no for an answer, he proposes a treaty but only if he can marry Margo. Margo vehemently denies marrying the prince which leads to the Prince seemingly transporting the Fillory kingdom to a faraway land. Margo attempts to smooth over negotiations, but all that does is end with Margo sleeping in bed, the remnant from her sexual Tet-a-Tet with the prince. With no way out and a forced marriage on the horizon, Penny and his goofy hands come to save the day as he intercepts Margo’s dreamscape and vows to find them. After trying to find the castle and only coming up short, Penny realizes that the castle was never transported, but just under an intense cloaking spell. Margo, riled up and angry as a bat out of hell, swears off the prince, effectively banishing him from the land, but not before she openly declares war on him, with Eliot supporting his Queen the whole time.  

Are you excited to see The Magicians wage a magical war?

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy. 

(Image courtesy of Syfy)

Mike Rizzo

Contributing Writer, BuddyTV