The Magicians - S1E3 - Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting

Previously on The Magicians, ‘The Source of Magic’

Deciding on a major can be rough. Picking a major in magic school can be deadly.

Dean Fogg returns to Brakebills to explain that each student will have to figure out their discipline, the one area of magic they were meant to perform and master.

Typical for Quentin, he doesn’t seem to do well in any one thing, and as such, the school isn’t really sure what to do with him. Alice masters the ability to bend light which means she can turn invisible and set fire to wooden doors simply by directing sunlight with her hand. But the coolest power of all goes to Penny, who is a Traveler and able to travel through worlds.

Quentin convinces a slightly buzzed Alice to try a deceased spirit locator spell to find her brother Charlie. It leads them to the Suicide Fountain, the scariest campus locale since the Whomping Willow. No Charlie to be found, but when they walk away, a hand rises from the water. Later, it attacks two students. I’m gonna need these two to stop experimenting with spells that bring forth scary shit.

Alice becomes convinced the spirit is Charlie and finding out how he died is the key to stopping him. Despite not trusting Margo, Alice has no choice but to accept her help when Quentin assists Eliot in retrieving a missing book. Margo just so happens to know about an ex-student thought to be connected to Charlie so they track her for a sit-down. She reveals how Charlie attempted to help her reverse a spell that left her face deformed. The magic consumed Charlie and he was never seen again. Lovely.

Another unauthorized spell to bring Charlie back has heartbreaking consequences for Alice.

Julia is going hard learning spells and practicing magic with the hedge witches. James notices something is going on, but believes Julia is cheating on him. Julia convinces him her strange behavior is due to a pill addiction. He is so supportive upon hearing this that I kinda hated Julia for lying.

Eliot and Quentin track the missing magic book to the hedge witches, which results in a confrontation between Quentin and Julia. She knows he never spoke to anyone at Brakebills on her behalf and he accuses her of being jealous. And then Quentin basically blames his behavior on the fact that he’s a nice guy who’s just paying her back for not getting with him when she knew how he felt about her.

Really, Quentin? That’s just gross.

I wasn’t thrilled with Julia’s earlier lie, or the fact that she felt entitled to Brakebills, but Quentin can pretty much go to hell for this.

P.S. I still don’t trust Margot.