The Magicians

Previously, on "The Magicians"...

You didn't just save their lives,

you changed their lives

as much as they changed yours.

You didn't want to leave all that.

Pardon me, sir. Fillory is still ruled

by Acting High King Fen, right?

The Dark King reins. Glory to his rule.

High King Fen and Josh the Fresh Prince

were overthrown 300 years ago.

We need you to go find someone and do your very best

to convince them to come and help us.

Alice Quinn.

Get a bloodworm and cast, you boil alive.

Reed's Mark would prevent them from triggering the parasite.

And once this Serpent group have been dealt with,

the mark is removed free of charge.

The one that I'm the most worried about is Julie.

Thank you for deciding that I'll never get to do magic again.

She's been in a weird place.

- And magic... - Comes from pain.

Did you... did you just see that?

Yeah.

So... what are you gonna do with it?

Okay.

Julia, you, uh, ready?

Wow. Wow.

- You look... - Overdressed.

Great.

I thought you said this was a date.

I said I was taking you out and to dress appropriately.

That means dress up.

You totally told me to dress up.

- I should've been more specific. - Good.

Glad to hear you accept the blame.

Only problem is, we gotta go now or we're gonna miss it.

Where's your coat?

But it's 75 degrees out.

Not where we're going.

Okay...

Here.

Do you consent to be traveled?

I consent to be...

traveled.

Where are we?

Other side of the planet. Look.

So my friend Seth is an artist,

but there hasn't been enough magic for him

to work with meteors until now.

It's incredible.

See, there are a lot of ways to use magic

to make the world a better place.

Wait, what?

Is that why you brought me here?

No, that's not really the...

I mean, you've been working so hard to try to figure this out.

I told you. It's my business.

And I'm just trying to help.

You know, to brainstorm.

I need to choose that.

You understand what that means, right?

You feel that?

It's another surge?

Shit.

Uh, Penny.

How does making pretty patterns in the sky

help the world when this type of a thing can happen?

No one knows when a magic surge is coming.

So what, we shouldn't try and make things nicer?

The surges are getting worse.

I'm just saying this is the type of thing

I should be using my magic to fix.

Julia, I-I just wanted you to have a break for one night.

Yeah, but this is why I'm working.

I mean...

I only have magic because I lost Q.

I-I just have to find something to do with it that...

That's worth that.

Julia, there's nothing that you will ever be able to do

that's worth losing him.

You know what kills me?

I just keep thinking, like...

"Oh, I should talk to Q.

He'd know what I should do."

And then I think, "Oh, right."

It's only been a month.

This kind of thing takes a while.

Ah, goddamn it. Shit.

- My apologies. - Dean Fogg?

I was waiting for the right moment to interject

and, well, that never came.

Are you drunk?

No, and I'm sorry about the scotch.

I was... smelling it.

You're not trying to get me to go

to Brakebills again, are you?

Hardly, dear.

I accepted your refusal

as any gentleman should.

Truth is, I'm actually here for Penny.

Jesus Christ, what happened here?

Everett drank a reservoir of magic and exploded.

It had to go somewhere.

Too much magic means too many people with potential

are discovering their gift.

Lately, more people have been able to pass

than we can handle.

And now look at this place.

Might as well be a goddamn state school;

overcrowded, discipline problems.

Did you know someone stole the school's supply of living clay?

- No. - Of course, thanks to the surges,

a few of them have blown themselves up,

which isn't very good for morale, but yes,

it helps with the goddamn over-enrollment.

With the rise in students has come a simultaneous rise

in some of the rarer disciplines...

like yours.

So who better to teach them than you?

Whoa, I... I'm no professor.

Penny, you're the only Brakebills-educated traveler

currently alive on this planet, which makes you far more qualified

to teach them than anyone else I have,

- including me. - Yeah, but what if one of them

gets killed because of me?

Excellent point.

This indemnifies you against any claims,

legal or magical that your students might make.

That doesn't actually solve my problem.

Penny, I can assure you that without your instruction,

one of them will absolutely get killed.

Fine.

To our pretty corpses.

Goddamn gorgeous corpses.

I'd fuck our corpses.

What are we doing here, Eliot?

We're despairing in style,

as befits two former High Kings of Fillory.

On that note, it's 3:00, when I usually ask you

if you'd like to talk about Quentin.

And I usually respond, "I'm fine."

With the help of some liberally applied libations.

I would prefer to focus on our current hopeless situation.

You know, I gotta give it to this Dark King.

All the patrols and heightened security

have made it impossible to get into his castle.

We tried for a week. That seems like enough.

Although Dark King is a little generic

as villain names go, wouldn't you say?

I have notes.

Like, we get it, you're a despot.

You're the fucking Dark King.

Although he is somewhat effective.

Everyone seems terrified of him, like the bunnies.

- They did seem unusually scared. - They did.

I hope they get our warning to 23.

You know I know we told him not to Travel here

because of time shit, but maybe we should just

take the Portal Tree back to Earth and regroup?

I think it's not safe to leave

until we figure out the time shit.

What if we go back and bam...

it's 300 years later on Earth?

If we could just figure out a way into his castle

and find out what happened to Josh and Fen,

we might be in a better position.

Bambi, we're 300 years in the future.

All signs point to not good.

Look, Josh is a fucking Magician.

Maybe he baked an immortality cake or something.

Plus, it's Fillory.

Weirdness abounds.

I guess these people didn't get the memo

they're living in a dystopia.

A fine Unshackling to you pilgrims.

- Hello. - I see you've gotten a head start

on today's festivities.

- Right... - I'm... I'm Pree.

And, uh, you two must be...

High King Margo and High King Eliot.

Um, what?

Now, guess who I am.

Come on.

High King Fen the Toeless.

Not bad, right?

- They're cosplaying as us. - Hey,

- so where's this big party? - Yeah.

You two really have been drinking.

There's only one place

to celebrate the Great Unshackling.

Castle Whitespire!

Castle Whitespire.

- Of course, where else? - We wanna get there

before all the good seats are gone,

so come with us.

- Come on. - Come on.

It can't be that easy, can it?

I guess so.

Good afternoon, Alice.

It is afternoon, you know.