The tip is nigh, and I’ve combined emotions about it.
With solely two episodes left of all the sequence, The Magicians Season 5 Episode 11 proved why a sixth season would not have been in useless.
On top-of-the-line episodes of The Magicians Season 5, this episode had every part — coronary heart, humor, and intrigue — whereas nonetheless managing to maneuver the plot alongside towards the sequence’ final endgame.
It was a spectacular hour to behold, so let’s dive in.
First off, the group’s plan on the right way to cease Rupert Chatwin — sure, I am calling him Rupert on this overview, since viewers by no means noticed the Darkish King onscreen — turned clearer.
They’ve a option to save the folks of Fillory earlier than destroying the world and a lead on the right way to construct a brand new Fillory.
The one query left is how the gang will go about ending Fillory.
They’re going to additionally need to take care of discovering a option to incapacitate Rupert and cease him from resurrecting Lance, however that is an issue for one more day.
Proper now, their plan of motion is slowly falling into place.
The one drawback is that they’re now not the nice guys, so to talk.
Sir Effingham: My imaginative and prescient of Fillory’s demise has grown clearer. I now see those that would convey the apocalypse to Fillory have visited it many instances earlier than. They enter from a distance realm by way of a tree.
Julia: Like a portal tree?
Sir Effingham: Certainly, these fiends plan to thieve away each soul within the land earlier than they destroy it outright.
Julia: Huh? How precisely do they try this?
Sir Effingham: My imaginative and prescient is hazy, however I do know that they may flip again the clock on Fillory, leading to spoil.
Julia: Um, does these fiends, do they achieve stealing the folks and constructing a brand new world for them?
Sir Effingham: That a lot I have no idea as a result of…wait, I made no point out of a brand new world. It’s you.
Julia: It’s for Fillory’s personal good. The lifeless will rise. That is the one manner we will save everybody.
Sir Effingham: No, hogwash. What darkish forces have corrupted your honest thoughts?
Julia: You’ve got. We wouldn’t be on this quest in case you hadn’t instructed us about it within the first place.
Sir Effingham: Are you now blaming me to your personal villainy? Oh, the methods of the sow are nastier than I assumed potential. However know this: The dying of Fillory can not come with out a value.
Julia: What do you imply?
Sir Effingham: Those that will destroy her will lose those they love.
Having posited it was potential our heroes would convey in regards to the finish of Fillory to cease Rupert, it wasn’t fully surprising to be taught they have been the topic of Sir Effingham’s prophecy on The Magicians Season 5 Episode 1.
It was nonetheless a shock to the system, although, as I by no means actually thought of them as potential villains till that time.
They have been extra the ‘doing the unsuitable factor for the better good’ characters; nonetheless heroes in their very own proper however compelled to do one thing dangerous — say, destroy a complete world — to make issues proper.
In broader phrases, there was no want to consider good or dangerous, proper or unsuitable as a result of these characters have at all times been the nice guys.
Nonetheless, now I am not so certain.
Each Sir Effingham and Hyman had good factors, and Fen made a stable level in regards to the gang working onerous to attempt to discover a answer if it have been earth on the road.
At this level within the sequence, it is fascinating that The Powers That Be would immediately introduce morality into the equation, although possibly it is at all times been there.
Like Alice mentioned to Eliot on The Magicians Season 5 Episode 3, she’s executed dangerous issues, however what comforts her is that she is aware of, deep down, she was attempting her finest.
Eliot: Will you please assist us select a globe? Margo is chopping on the bid, and Josh is holding her off for so long as he can.
Fen: I assumed I might take myself into this, however I simply hold considering if this was earth, you’ll attempt loads tougher to search out another manner.
Eliot: Yeah, in all probability.
Fen: So possibly it’s my job to characterize Fillory, however not simply the folks, the place, the historical past, the issues we will’t take with us. You need my permission to destroy it? I can’t give that to you.
Eliot: Properly, when you have every other concepts we’re all ears. Do you?
Fen: No.
Properly, these characters try their finest, and their finest is destroying Fillory to cease Rupert.
It is a powerful scenario to be in, however the backside line is Rupert must be stopped.
The one option to cease him is to destroy Fillory.
There may very well be one other reply they have not considered, however they do not have the time to determine it out.
Whereas it is unclear how lengthy it will be earlier than Rupert resurrects Lance, their deadline for locating the Couple and the world seed simply received moved up.
There’s loads to do in a restricted period of time to steal the world seed, particularly now that the Couple has the circumstances management panel, however the gang does have one ace up its sleeve: Marina.
Sure, our favourite villainess was again, however she was extra sugar and spice and every part good, which was extremely unsettling, however in the easiest way.
Seeing Kacey Rohl taking part in a pleasant model of Marina was simply so unusual.
Kady: So you could possibly assist us steal it.
Marina: No, no, no. I don’t do issues like that anymore. Stealing from the Couple, folks will get harm.
Alice: Far more folks will get harm in case you don’t assist us.
Marina: Alice, buddies don’t make buddies grapple with the trolley drawback.
If you consider Marina, baking cookies and serving to folks out of the selflessness of her personal coronary heart would not come to thoughts.
She’s extra of the grasp manipulator who at all times has her personal agenda and can screw you over in a heartbeat.
In truth, it is moderately troublesome to determine which Marina is scarier.
Followers weren’t left to ponder that conundrum for too lengthy because the outdated Marina rapidly returned.
Luckily, it looks as if she’ll be sticking round, because the gang’s plan to steal the world seed requires her experience.
She is, in any case, extremely aware of the heist, seeing as she wished to make use of the facility of the harmonic convergence to steal the world seed herself.
However extra importantly, it seems to be like The Magicians Season 5 Episode 12 will likely be one other heist episode, which would be the third one the present has tried.
If not for the truth that it additionally occurs to be the musical episode, I would be skeptical in regards to the penultimate episode topping sequence’ first, and finest, heist on The Magicians Season 2 Episode 7.
Marina: It is advisable let me do the speaking. That is delicate.
Kady: How’d you fuck over Anna, huh? Did she lose a limb or one thing?
Marina: Properly, I positively fucked her.
Regardless of the final result, it is certain to be craziness and hilarity throughout.
Additionally, if the gang is stealing from the Couple, there is a good likelihood followers can meet them or at the very least not-George’s different half.
There are many issues to stay up for.
And talking of issues that I used to be wanting ahead to — or moderately desperately wished to see — Fen lastly received her time to shine.
I have been clamoring for ‘justice for Fen’ for the whole thing of the season, so it was about time the “Fillory lady” was lastly entrance and heart.
Fen has lengthy been taken without any consideration by the present and the opposite characters, usually tossed apart and used solely as comedic aid or a Fillorian encyclopedia.
Nonetheless, as this season has proven, Fen deserves a lot extra.
She’s a talented knife fighter and dependable to a tee, though her so-called buddies take her without any consideration.
Now, although, Fen had the power to shed her position because the perpetual sidekick and, for as soon as, develop into a principal character.
Hyman: What’s received you grumpy?
Fen: I’m fantastic.
Hyman: As a seasoned viewer of individuals, I believe you’re upset as a result of their plan is zany, and in case you communicate up, you understand they gained’t hear.
Fen: What, no, their plan is nice. They usually do hearken to me.
Hyman: Didn’t Eliot say you have been a hayseed from a backwards prolapsed asshole of a planet? Or have been you not there? OK, outsider to outsider, doesn’t this really feel just like the half within the story the place the nice guys are simply unsuitable? Coronary heart’s in the proper place, however they haven’t realized the lesson of this little morality play they’re in but. So that they have this loopy plan that makes them virtually as dangerous because the villain.
Fen: Oh.
Hyman: Or possibly it’s simply me.
She had misgivings about destroying Fillory, but she stayed silent for concern of being ignored, and even worse, left behind.
It is at all times simpler to associate with the established order, however when it was one thing as close to and expensive to Fen’s coronary heart as Fillory, she might now not hold quiet.
Her speak with Eliot was fascinating, as he considerably acknowledged how badly he and the others had handled Fen.
Whereas he principally passed over the apology, Eliot lastly did what everybody ought to have been doing with Fen all alongside: together with her within the dialog.
Eliot was proper that there was no simple reply on the right way to save all of Fillory, however this time, as a substitute of steamrolling Fen, he listened to his spouse.
Their speak was a very long time coming, nevertheless it was good that Eliot lastly appeared to treat Fen as an equal.
Fen might not have been proud of the group’s remaining resolution, however at the very least she will be able to look again at it understanding her voice was heard.
Ultimately, she wasn’t simply part of the staff, however the MVP.
With out her, the group would not have been capable of acquire entry into Umber’s Canadian residence, not to mention determine which globe was the ark.
Fen: It didn’t explode. I did it. I selected properly. I’m sensible.
Josh: All of the folks of Fillory are going to suit right into a seahorse?
Eliot: How’d you understand that was the one?
Fen: As a result of that’s how Ember and Umber first introduced folks to Fillory. They chartered the Nice Seahorse to hold us in his pouch. What, how’d folks get to earth?
Josh: The identical. The identical.
She’s nonetheless slightly clueless and a bit on the market, however I hope the others bear in mind her worth within the remaining episodes, as time and time once more, she’s confirmed she’s greater than only a sidekick.
She’s a god rattling warrior hero.
Elsewhere, Julia and Penny sorted out what it means now that they are anticipating.
For now, it appears the pair are going to be sticking with platonic co-parenting.
There’s nonetheless clearly a whole lot of love there, however the causes they broke up have not modified.
Penny nonetheless needs to calm down sooner or later, whereas Julia continues to be able to dive headfirst into the following apocalypse.
At this level of their lives, they need various things.
That is to not say a reconciliation is not of their future, however any romance was briefly placed on the backburner.
Penny: Have you ever been to a health care provider?
Julia: They don’t precisely have ultrasounds in Fillory.
Penny: Have you considered what this implies for us?
Julia: What would you like it to imply?
Penny: We broke up for good causes. None of that has modified. My dad wasn’t round for lengthy, my mother. Look, I’m not doing that to our child. I need to be there for him. Her?
Julia: No clue but. I need you to be there too.
The Magicians Season 5 Episode 10 did an ideal job giving viewers a crash course in magical pregnancies, however apparently there’s extra to the story.
For Julia, it appears the psychic episodes she’s experiencing will solely worsen.
And it isn’t simply of the standard Traveler ‘listening to voices’ selection, however moderately the kind of madness that will get you locked up in a psychological asylum or lobotomized.
Each Penny’s and Hyman’s moms had psychological breakdowns shortly after giving beginning, so what’s to cease the identical factor from taking place to Julia?
The ex-lovers are in a precarious scenario and totally on their very own.
The remainder of their buddies are stopping — nicely, really inflicting — the apocalypse, so that they’re considerably busy in the mean time.
Although barely out of left discipline, this storyline does current the chance to additional discover Penny’s previous.
Of the primary characters, Penny’s upbringing is one viewers know the least about.
Penny: Your mother and father, have been they magicians?
Hyman: No, dad was a door-to-door snake salesman.
Penny: Snake oil?
Hyman: No, and my mother labored at a brothel, you understand simply mopping.
Penny: Did she, uh, did she undergo from any psychological issues, psychic stuff from being pregnant with you?
Hyman: Oh no, nothing like that. After the lobotomy, she principally simply sat on the porch and sucked at bits of hay. Apart from that, she was the proper mom.
Over the previous 4 seasons, the sequence has executed a good job fleshing out different characters’ backgrounds, however Penny has at all times been considerably of a thriller.
All I can recall is that Penny grew up in Florida and spent a good portion of his childhood in foster care, info that does not present a lot past a foundational foundation.
His confession to Julia about his mom was essentially the most viewers have heard about Penny’s life pre-Brakebills.
It appears as if the sequence plans to discover his previous additional in these subsequent two episodes, as Penny and Julia seek for solutions to stop the mother-to-be from going insane.
It is potential that this entire expertise might reunite the previous lovers, however for now, their principal precedence is stopping Julia from having psychic episodes.
After all of the shit they have been by way of, this looks as if a stroll within the park, magically talking, although it’d open up some outdated wounds for Penny.
It’s extremely ‘full circle-esque’ for the sequence to conclude with Penny coping with his childhood trauma as he will get able to develop into a father or mother.
Nonetheless, it does supply the opportunity of a cheerful ending, so viewers ought to take these after they can get them, because it’s potential that not everybody will reside fortunately ever after.
Julia: It’s simply terrifying, you understand? What’s Lipson does the checks, and it’s dangerous information? , proper now every part is sweet, and the considered shedding any of that’s simply…
Penny: Julia, it’s not the child I’m freaking out about it. Look, I instructed you the way my dad left, however what I didn’t inform you — what I haven’t instructed anybody — is round that point, my mother began having episodes, getting disoriented, listening to shit that wasn’t there. The docs thought it was the stress from my dad bailing on us, however…
Julia: You suppose it’s due to you.
Penny: What’s taking place to you seems to be similar to what’s taking place to my mother. The episodes didn’t cease once I was born; they received worse. When she burned down our house, it was the primary time I received thrown into foster care. She’d combat to get me again, after which she’d get sick once more. Finally, the state took me in for good, and I used to be scared, however I used to be extra terrified of my mother. I fucked her up for all times.
Julia: I’m so sorry.
Penny: I don’t need what occurred to her to occur to you.
Julia: OK, I get it. I’ll do it — the scans, the remedies — however it’s important to comprehend it gained’t be like what occurred to your mother. We learn about magic. We have now methods to take care of it.
Penny: And I gained’t put you in a cage.
This is not a fairytale in any case; it is a present about depressed 20somethings who’re stumbling their manner by way of life, and oh yeah, magic simply additionally occurs to exist.
Lastly, how nice was Hyman?
Who knew the Pervert Ghost of Brakebills may very well be so insightful and candy?
Positive, he nonetheless has loads to study social norms, however he was caught within the astral aircraft for a century, so he will get a go or two.
Hyman has at all times been consultant of the viewers, so having him being upset over not being aware of his buddies’ non-public moments was symbolic and well timed.
Like Hyman, followers are adjusting to what life after The Magicians will likely be, as we’ll now not be a part of these fictional characters’ lives.
For 5 years, followers have watched these characters and been with them by way of the highs and lows.
Penny: What are you doing?
Hyman: Simply stretching.
Penny: You’re attempting to place your self into stasis. What the hell man?
Hyman: To be trustworthy, I haven’t actually loved this episode of my life. What’s so nice about having a physique anyway? You’re hungry on a regular basis. The whole lot you do makes you sore. You’re pooping continually.
Penny: That hasn’t been my expertise, however your physique’s been in a bench for a century. Give it a minute man.
Hyman: And when dramatic issues are taking place to your pals you may’t even watch.
Penny: That is about me and Julia? You’re pissed as a result of you may’t eavesdrop on everybody’s private conversations? It’s none of your corporation.
Hyman: However it’s. I put you two collectively. I ‘shipped you earlier than you even ‘shipped yourselves. Earlier than, I used to be part of every part, and now, I’m, uh, a minor character in my very own story. God.
Penny: Properly, that’s the tradeoff. You don’t get to spy on folks’s intimate moments; you get to reside your individual.
Hyman: That’s alleged to be higher? If folks wished to speak to me, do you suppose I’d have executed this within the first place?
Penny: So spying on the showers was…
Hyman: Loneliness…and horniness.
Penny: You’re by no means going to make a connection by hiding, Hyman. You bought to place your self on the market, simply be trustworthy with folks. It could take a minute, however you’ll discover somebody who can stand you.
Hyman: Uh, are you doing that factor the place you’re giving me recommendation, nevertheless it’s only for you?
Penny: No, I’m attempting to…god rattling it, I received to search out Julia.
Now, we now have to say goodbye, and like Hyman, we’re not prepared to try this.
Sadly, we do not have a alternative, however we will take Penny’s phrases to coronary heart: We’ll by no means make connections by hiding behind screens, but when we put ourselves on the market, we could discover a group of individuals simply as nice.
Some stray ideas:
Their reconciliation was lower quick — in mid-bang no much less — however Margo and Josh are formally again collectively. With solely two episodes left, it appears as if Margosh is the one endgame couple viewers can guess on. Whereas I am glad these lovebirds reunited, I do want there had been extra to it.
I get that there is restricted time to dedicate to each single plot thread, however would it not have killed The Powers That Be to have one other scene or two? Then once more, Margo and Josh have by no means actually been the mushy, share your emotions form of couple, so possibly this was the proper ‘ending’ to their love story, so to talk.
I’d watch a prequel to the sequence in regards to the creation of Fillory starring Ember and Umber. I forgot how a lot I missed the twin ram gods, irrespective of how annoying they are often. There’s simply such levity and vitality there, and every part they are saying is completely outrageous.
The place, oh the place, is my beloved Charlton? I miss you dearly. Please come again. Whereas appearances by Marina and Hymen numb the ache, nobody can change you. Very dramatic, I do know.
So what do you suppose The Magicians Fanatics?
Are our heroes actually the nice guys or have they misplaced their manner?
What’s going to occur within the heist episode?
Did Fen lastly make her Fendom proud?
The place will Penny and Julia’s seek for reply lead them?
Do not forget to hit the feedback under to let me know your ideas. In case you occurred to overlook the most recent episode, bear in mind you may watch The Magicians online proper right here at TV Fanatic.
Jessica Lerner is a employees author for TV Fanatic. Observe her on Twitter.