Julia and Quinn are shade hunting – trying to get Julia
all put together again. And I do quite like how Julia keeps checking her
behaviour, clearly second guessing herself and lack of conscience a lot
So they find an Ancient One – a dragon. And she is kind
of awesome. She official does not deal with shit and is very snarky. Go snarky
dragons. She will send them to the underworld to get Julia’s shade but she
wants the button they use to travel to Fillory in exchange. Julia says no – but
Quentin caves
They now have 24 hours to explore the underworld:
Dragon: “you have 24 hours to come back”
Quentin: “or?”
Dragon: “I sit patiently for you to come back. No, I eat
you, I’m a fucking dragon what do you expect?!”
To the Underworld –which resembles a waiting room and a
hotel. And I kind of love the totally unexpected banality of it. The waiting room,
the numbers and the orientation video (and the leaflets – relax, you’re
probably not going to hell!) It’s all so… gloriously mundane. Of course this is
just a stepping stone into the real afterlife where everyone kind of gets comfortable
with death and then moves on. Also they cause paperwork because they’ve died 39
times each
Except the Shades are hidden – and people without Shades
are removed which is definitely worrisome.
Instead they manage to connect with Julia’s old friends –
the coven that Reynard slaughtered (including the actual Richard whose body
Renard is using which is kind of freaky). They’re spending the afterlife
bowling but they have info for Julia including there are definitely other gods:
though Hades and Persephone are AWOL. With their knowledge and help Julia and Quentin
get to Persephone’s house where the Shades hang out
There they see both a picture of Persephone which, to
Julia’s rage – turns out to be Our Lady Underground. The woman she and her
coven prayed to. The goddess whose identity Renard stole. The Goddess who
EXISTS but DIDN’T answer their prayers – instead allowed Renard to use her name
to rape and murder them. Julia is beyond furious
And
that’s a really fascinating element to bring up – if you have proof deity exists
and deity has ignored your prayers – or allowed abuse in deity’s name – how enraged
would you be?
They also see the Shades (all children) performing minor
miracles – each beautiful and meaningful while not making a huge difference in
the world.
The do find Julia’s shade – but they also find Alice’s
shade. The missing ingredient that meant Quentin could never bring Alice back
from being a Niffin. Quentin collapses into an emotional puddle around her. And
when they leave Julia insists they bring Alice’s shade with her… wait, they’re leaving
Julia’s behind? Oh I will have words about that if they have because that would
mean Julia is sacrifice for Quentin and being screwed again.
I also want to know how a Shade-less Julia is moved emotionally so much by Quentin’s emotion. Isn’t she supposed to be uncaring?
Over to Fillory and Elliot looks like he’s finally going
to get some with his new fiancé Idri who just wants him – none of all the pomp
and ceremony that Elliot has been stressed over. He also has some very fun
ideas to get around the enforce celibacy thing (I assume this goes away when
they actually marry) while Elliot seems to actually want to get to know his fiancé
this way – having been a complete stranger to Fenn before they got married.
And then Idri is turned into a rat. Fenn also vanishes.
This is just the beginning of a whole lot of magical
shenanigans that afflicts Fillory. Margot naturally suspects the fairies but
they say there’s something far more random force at hand though the ambassador
is pretty random. Elliot resorts to using truth potion on hjis inner council
revealing many secrets – including Margot’s deal with the fairies.
And Elliot is done. Margot has started a war, sold his
unborn child and now caused his fiancé, his wife and said unborn child to
vanish. He is so done and has her imprisoned in the dungeon
I hate this – while it’s interesting to finally see
Elliot try to be kingly – I am so tired of Margot being such an example of
Spunky Agency. She’s strong, she’s powerful – and she’s incompetent. She
endlessly creates problems. Remember when one of the issues raised in this season
was that the sexism of Fillory means the High King has more power than the High
Queen. Margot called it out – then spends the rest of the season being so inept
it feels almost like a loud “see, this is why she isn’t the main power in the
kingdom!”
What can redeem this is what Margot says on using mgic to enter the fairy realm – this is her mess to fix. I want to see her fix this. I want to see her not only make it right, I want to see her kill it and become awesome and gain so much for Fillory to make up for this ineptitude and make her an actual good character rather than a liability
Meanwhile, after some advice from Josh, Elliot decides to
introduce democracy to Fillory so he can delegate some authority – and is
zapped to Brakebills. Remember that Fillory must have rulers from Earth? That
may be magically enforced
Let’s check in on Penny who is studying a new form of
magic without hands. It uses sphincter muscles.
Fine, Magicians,
whatever. Y’know for a show that prides itself on being adult and edgy, it can
be awfully infantile.
Anyway, in between sex with Kady they continue to brain
storm ways to get in the hidden Library room. They hit on reading the magical
biography of the head librarian – which fails badly because 1) she’s all about
the rules and 2) she’s not into Penny and his emotional drama.
He has a new supervisor – a young woman working for the
Library to keep her safe from her father’s competitors. He’s a “legitimate
businessman”
She is snarky and fun and offers to help – even handing
over the Librarian’s name. But the biography has already been removed, the
Librarian isn’t a fool. Still, Sylvia wants to sign up for the fun here. Penny
protests this as far too dangerous for her – she shoots that down right away.
He’s not responsible for her. She’s happy to run with her free will.
And we go over to Senator John and his daddy Renard – and
Renard is teaching his son lots of nasty tricks. Including mind control which
John has been using accidentally all his career. John almost falls for the idea
of all the good things he could do using this power, passing powerful,
important bills
Except he nearly kills a senator with it. And when he
talks to his wife looking for support he realises he accidentally uses his mind
control on her. He realises that their whole relationship may be based on lies,
may be based on mind control. His wife could have been his slave
He’s horrified at this and confronts his father: only to
realise everything that Julia and Quentin said about his father is true. His
father even confesses, completely dismissing his victims because he’s angry.
Yes he’s angry and pouty about Persephone, who he loved – and has now
disappeared – so takes it out on the people who worship her
Do we really need to add a motive here? Do we really need
to add love and reasoning?
