The Magicians - Season 3

[Christopher]

I think a fairy deal has power based on the implied integrity of the fairies to honor them. It's not so much Dust himself making a deal but Dust making a deal based on his bond as a fairy. By knowingly breaking the deal the fairy queen hasn't made Dust personally culpable but impugned the integrity of fairies as a whole to honor their bonds.

Yeah, I get all that. As I've said, my problem is with the mechanics of how the deal was broken. Usually in fantasy stories, this show included, the nullification of a normally unbreakable magical contract or bond requires some major, dangerous ritual with incredibly rare ingredients or a blood sacrifice or a deadly quest or something of the sort. It's usually portrayed as very hard or costly to achieve, which is why it doesn't happen all the time. Just slicing her hand and drawing an unreadable symbol on the wall seems pretty banal for such a thing.

I mean, if it's that easy for a fairy to break their deal, then it goes against the idea of fairy deals being ironclad in the first place. Sure, the principle is that fairies choose not to break their deals because they know their power depends on keeping them, but they can't all march in lockstep all the time. Any random fairy could've potentially made a bad decision or gotten drunk or gotten greedy and decided to break a minor deal without realizing the consequences, and then that random act of stupidity would've destroyed all fairy deals everywhere forever. So it seems like the only way the integrity of fairy deals could've lasted this long was if breaking them was very hard, not just something any fairy could do at any time by writing a bit of blood grafitti. Perhaps the intent was that only the queen had the power to do it, but then they should've said so. They should've done more to sell the idea that this is an unprecedented, extraordinary act.

I mean, if breaking a fairy deal is something the fairies would never even contemplate, then why do they even have a symbol that allows breaking them just by writing it? It seems contradictory. This needed more explanation.

 

[Velocity]

Maybe the sigil that the queen drew in her blood was "undoing" the original agreement by tracing the original sigil backwards. Maybe the agreement could be considered breached when the fairies were being tortured and harvested. Surely that wasn't part of the agreement, so maybe the fairies won't be considered untrustworthy for ending an agreement like that.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I think that episode may have had the fewest fucks in recent memory.

I figured this would be an interesting one given the breadth of the "previously on" segment. I need to rewatch this series at some point, I've gotten a bit fuzzy on some of the storylines as they step all over each other. I'd rather have them overreach though than not, it's more fun for sure.

So there's another Penny and Marina now?

 

[Christopher]

So there's another Penny and Marina now?

That's a handy way to bring back both actors, although it'll be weird if Penny-40 is permanently replaced by Penny-23. Before that happened, I was thinking, "Hey, maybe they can somehow take this Penny's body back with them for our Penny to inhabit," but if Penny-23 is still using his body, that's not so easy to arrange.

And this is at least the second time that a recent Syfy show has used alternate-universe doppelgangers to bring back actors whose characters were killed off in the main timeline. Dark Matter did that as well. And on another network, the Arrowverse has done it with Laurel Lance, and after a fashion with Jay Garrick and various Harrison Wellseses.

 

[Velocity]

I think that episode may have had the fewest fucks in recent memory.

Probably because there was less Margo.

 

[FreezeC77]

That's a handy way to bring back both actors, although it'll be weird if Penny-40 is permanently replaced by Penny-23. Before that happened, I was thinking, "Hey, maybe they can somehow take this Penny's body back with them for our Penny to inhabit," but if Penny-23 is still using his body, that's not so easy to arrange.
.

I actually think that could happen if it is revealed the Underworld is for all timelines and Penny-40 discovers Julia-23 in it. So that could get Penny-23 to swap places so he goes to his soulmate and Penny-40 gets Penny-23's body.

 

[JD]

That was a pretty good alternate timeline story.
The reveal of Quentin Beast was a fun surprise.
Alice working for the rabbits was funny.
Poor Eliot and Margo.
It should be interesting to see what happens with Penny-23 and Marina-23. I'm thinking the fact that they're bringing him over must mean that we probably won't be seeing our Penny again.

 

[Christopher]

It should be interesting to see what happens with Penny-23 and Marina-23. I'm thinking the fact that they're bringing him over must mean that we probably won't be seeing our Penny again.

Maybe, but you can never be sure with this show.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Yeah, you never know though "our" Penny seemed to have resigned himself to his fate in the previous episode.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Eliot Trump's empty promises undone by calling Fillory a shithole, lol. If Margo is king, does that make him a queen? And through it all a bit redemptive for ol' PIck.

Kady's key is connecting to Penny 23, uh-oh. I wonder if Alice will get a moment before this is all over because her schtick is getting kind of tiresome.

The Dean and Margo both get their eyes back in the same episode! I wonder how Margo's fairy vision will work. Loved Fen asking if she could at least get some fairy toes or something.

The Josh recap was a lot of fun.

I've really come to enjoy this show especially this season and probably would be my choice if I was forced to pick only one show to watch right now.

 

[Christopher]

I'm a little concerned at how rapidly Julia's godlike powers are growing. We've seen before in fiction that that kind of thing doesn't end well. Will she go the Gary Mitchell/Jean Grey route and become a threat? Maybe that's the role the siphon will play -- Quentin will have to use it on her to stop her. Although she could end up going the Daniel Jackson route instead and ascend to a higher plane.

Speaking of changing planes, it looks like we're done with Penny-40's story after all and Penny-23 is here to stay. It was a brilliant idea to do the "previously on" recap as Josh literally doing a "previously on" recap to bring Penny-23 up to speed on his new timeline. (I read somewhere that one of the earlier season finales did a funny recap that Netflix unfortunately omitted, so I haven't seen it. Netflix had better not dare touch this one.)

 

[JD]

Josh's recap was hilarious.
Hmm, so I wonder if Penny-23 taking 40's place in the key connection can be taken as confirmation that he's permanently taken his place. I feel sorry for poor Kady, she's been put through an emotional roller coaster this season.
I agree with @Christopher about Julia, she us definitely starting to get scary powerful.
Seeing Reynard again was a big surprise.
The stuff with the election was fun, and the talking animals electing Margo was not the outcome I expected.

 

[Christopher]

The stuff with the election was fun, and the talking animals electing Margo was not the outcome I expected.

The thing I found unexpected was that Margo was so uncomfortable with the idea of bestiality. I mean, she professed to be okay with it in order to convince Fray to help, but her reaction on learning the election results showed that she was pretty squicked out by the idea. I guess there are limits to just how much kink she can handle. (Really, though, if the beasts in question are sapient and capable of consent, I see no grounds for a moral objection. It's not like there aren't plenty of interspecies romances in sci-fi and fantasy, though usually with more humanoid-looking species.)

I was also surprised that Eliot was willing to resort to such shallow and dishonest campaign tactics. I mean, I thought that being king had taught him a lot about responsibility and good government. So it's surprising to see him playing Penguin to Tick's Batman, as it were.

 

[Velocity]

Poor Fen didn't get her toes returned when Margo got an eye replacement. Fairies drive hard bargains. Bargaining with fairies never worked out well for Fen.
The slaver is still loose and will probably turn up to threaten Julia.
Will having Reynard's magic cause Julia to become an evil trickster like him, or is it just generic magic and depends on the character of the person? Time will probably tell. Julia will probably be reminded that magic can't fix everything...but maybe Julia could do something about Fen's bargained away toes.

 

[Christopher]

Will having Reynard's magic cause Julia to become an evil trickster like him, or is it just generic magic and depends on the character of the person? Time will probably tell.

I think it depends on their character. Power is neutral. It's a tool, and how it's used depends on the user.

Everyone knows the saying "Power corrupts," but I read somewhere that someone did a study, and they found evidence that it's the other way around -- the way people use power is a function of their pre-existing inclinations, and the people who use power corruptly are the ones already predisposed to corruption. Good people given power will tend to use it benevolently. Although of course that doesn't prevent them from making well-intentioned mistakes.

And remember, Julia's already made that choice. When she lost her shade, she became psychopathic for a while, devoid of innate empathy or concern for others, and she did some horrible things. But once she realized she was doing bad things and hurting others, she made a conscious effort to stop. She used her intellect and judgment to take the place of the compassion she'd lost -- doing it "from memory," as she said -- because she still wanted to do good even if she couldn't feel it anymore.

So I have no fear that the power will make her evil. Rather, she makes it good. My concern is that there can be too much of a good thing, that omnipotent benevolence without discipline or experience can be disruptive in its own way. Or that the power would simply overload her or ascend her out of our plane or something.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I figured the end of the quest couldn’t help but be a little anticlimactic but I thought there would be at least a bit of a phyrric victory. They really set up a nasty hole to dig out of next season. Didn’t expect Dean Fogg being the library’s bitch.

And man, Alice is a real bummer of a character.

 

[Christopher]

I was wondering why the Fairy Queen sacrificed herself to Irene instead of just killing her. But I guess she explained that -- she chose to make a deal that would protect all fairies forever. Still, it sucks that such a predatory, genocidal character as Irene got a big payoff instead of comeuppance.

Speaking of fairies, shouldn't Margo's fairy eye let her perceive the truth behind her new fake life, or something?

Really creepy seeing the new monster possessing Eliot. It seemed coincidental at first, but I guess it would've sought him out since Eliot was the one who shot his previous body. (I guess the god-killing bullet didn't work because the target wasn't a god, just an incorporeal monster possessing a human. So they pretty much wasted the bullet.)

Sometimes you can tell when the producers are trying to save money. Oh, so the castle they're searching for is an exact double of their main castle, so they can reuse the same sets! At least in the first-season finale, they lampshaded it, with the bit about the castle being invisible due to budget cuts. Also, having the new horrible monster be something that possesses normal-looking people is a budget-saver.

 

[JD]

Wow, that was not how I expected things to play out.
I find it a bit ironic, that Alice, the one who wanted to forget about magic, and her life, is the one main character who remembers it.
Definitely did not Dean Fogg to be cooperating with the Library.
The Fairy Queen sacrificing herself for the rest of her people was another big surprise.
So I wonder what happened to the knight's daughter now that the monster is in Eliot?
It looks like we'll be dealing with the Library a lot again next season, I wonder if that means we'll see Penny 40 again?
I did not expect Julia to lose her god powers so quickly, I figured we'd at least start the first few episodes of next season with her away doing god things.

 

[Christopher]

I find it a bit ironic, that Alice, the one who wanted to forget about magic, and her life, is the one main character who remembers it.

Alice seems to be the Chief O'Brien of the show, the one who's doomed to suffer the most. Then again, things tend to go pretty badly for most of the characters. Well, except Julia. Sure, she went through awful stuff in the first couple of seasons, but she's managed to consistently rise above it, becoming a better person and earning a better life through her acts of kindness. Even with her memory wiped, she seems to be the one who's in the best position in her new life (as an architect, echoing the "creator of worlds" gig she gave up).

Definitely did not Dean Fogg to be cooperating with the Library.

Unexpected, but understandable. Fogg has been in a terrible place all season, broken by the loss of magic and of Brakebills. That kind of desperation would leave him vulnerable to manipulation. He's willing to kowtow to the Library in exchange for some magic, rather than risk having them take it all away from him again.

 

[FreezeC77]

I actually expected Julia to die or sacrifice herself because she was too strong. She could solve anything better than the mortal magicians. This way works since it lets them keep the actress/character in the group.

Elliot better not be dead and just posessed.

Looks like Margo finally became Janet(her character in the books is Janet and the show changed it to Margo).

I think it will be interesting to see how Fenn evolves since she will be ruling Fillory with everyone gone. At lesst with magic capped by the Library I think that would prevent time from advancing more quickly in Fillory.