The Magicians
Season 1, Episode 06
Episode Title: Impractical Applications
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
The sixth episode of the Magicians takes off where Mendings, Major and Minor left off, with Quentin tries to explain to Penny that he traveled to Filory. Penny doesn’t like when Quentin starts to mumble about the magical beings and object that can be in Filory, as the only thing Penny saw was the kidnapped student and the Beast torturing her. At the end, Penny believes that telling Quentin about his travel was a waste of time, and lives. Quentin is crushed with the knowledge that Filory is not what he always though it was. Once in Kady’s room, she tattoos the anchor spell on Penny’s arm because he doesn’t want to go back to that dungeon.
Julia goes back to the second Hedge witch’s bar, safe house, but the bartender that she talked with doesn’t want to talk with her and tries to ignore her. She snaps at him and vows to come back, and leaves. Once outside, he goes after her and gives her the address of an old safe house, and tells her that Marina threaten them and they can’t win a war against her. She is followed by a woman that was in the bar, and she tells her that she is just like Julia. The woman, Hannah, shows Julia her crossed stars like the ones that Julia has.
Back in Brakebills, Quentin and the other first-years are kidnapped by the upper-class students, as part of a traditional prank and test, called the Trials. In the first part, the first-years are divided into groups of three and have to decode an ancient spell. Quentin is placed with Penny and another student and have until dawn to decode the spell. Quentin and Penny come to the conclusion that they cannot solve the puzzle and decided to cheat, as they think that’s it’s the real test, but the third student doesn’t want to get disqualified and doesn’t help them. Penny astral projects and copies the answer from Alice’s test. The two of them pass the test, as cheating was the answer.
Hannah gives Julia a few spells that she has, and propose to make their own safe house. Not having knowledge and spells, they decide to steal Marina’s binder-spells. Julia has the idea of stealing the cabinets without breaking the wards around the warehouse. To do this, they will need to have an anchor in the inside, and Hannah knows somebody that can help them. That person is her daughter, Kady. Kady reveals that because of a mistake that Hannah did, she is now in debt to Marina and steal for her in Brakebills. Kady leaves and take a spell that Hannah gave her, as part her and Julia’s plan. Julia tells Hannah that she can’t trust her and will contact her when she gets the cabinets.
While celebrating for the first-years that passed the first test, Margo asks Quentin, why he’s alone in his room and not in the party. His reply is telling her about Penny’s travel to Filory, and Filory not been what he always dreams it was. Quentin is surprised to learn that Margo loves the Filory books and us to imagine herself been a diplomatic of the land. He takes a drink of champagne, but starts to pass out and ask her if she ruffy him. He wakes up in the middle of the forest with Eliot telling him to catch him a fish with a bow and arrow.
Penny is told to catch a horse with an ax, Alice to cut a tree with a rope, and Kady to catch a pheasant with a net. The four of them come to the conclusion that they need to exchange their tasks; Quentin goes for the horse, Penny for the fish, Alice for the pheasant, Kady cuts the tree. They pass the second test and Eliot and Margo release the illusion, revealing that they were actually near the Psychical cottage.
In her safe house, Julia tries to use the spell without Hannah, but she can’t seem to make it work. Hannah undoes Julia’s wards and get in time to help Julia with the spell. They both chant and make the spell work and the cabinets in Marina’s warehouse start to shake. Marina and a hedge witch see how the cabinets disappear without doing anything to stop it. The cabinets appear in the magic symbol where Julia and Hannah were chanting. Hannah goes to see the contents, only to find all the papers blank and one that said “Nice try”. Hannah starts to bleed from every pore in her body and tells Julia to run, that Marina is coming. Julia tries to help her, but at the end she can only watch her die and call the police from Hannah’s phone before leaving.
The last test is for two magicians to bare themselves and let the other know their hidden self. Penny and Kady go together and Alice goes with Quentin, both couples end up being naked as they start the spell that will undo a rope when it completed. When Penny tells Kady that he is in love with her his rope is undone, but his declaration makes her panic and she tells him that she has only been using him to steal things. He sees that her rope is undone, and looks heartbroken, but starts to feel pain. The scene changes and Quentin and Alice are in rooftop and get drunk to have courage to undress. Alice tells him that she fears her power and that she always is holding herself back, that she wishes to be normal. She notices that her rope undoes itself, as Quentin tells her that he is scared and always find ways to run and escape.
The episode ends with Quentin start to feel pain just like Penny and it sees that he falls off the roof, and a goose takes flight. The goose follows a flock of geese into the night.
I liked this episode, we were able to learn more about Kady and why she steals for Marian. We saw Julia meet more people and learn magic, and also see her scare the bartender. The “trials” were fun to watch and see Quentin, Alice, Penny, and Kady interact more. I’m curious to see where the writers take Penny’s tattoo story, as that wasn’t part of the books and how that changes things for him. Does this mean that we are not going to see the Netherlands this season? We were able to finally scene where Julia is doing magic with a witch that turned out to be Hannah, and it seems that the symbol Julia painted on the floor is also used in Penny’s tattoo; this could be because both are spells that have anchor properties. It’s easy to guess that geese were the students, those who read the books will have already seen it coming, only that the “trials” is something new that was added. I think that everyone is waiting for next Monday’s episode to see South Brakebills, I know I am. What did you think of this week’s episode? Tells us in the comments.
