The Magicians

Season 1, Episode 07

Episode Title: The Mayakovsky Circumstance

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

This episode of the Magicians starts with the geese arriving to the Antarctica, where a second Brakebills awaits them. The geese turn back into the students and are received by professor Mayakovsky, who is in charge of Brakebills South.

Back in New York, Julia is in a Police station after Hannah’s death, she is asked questions, but not charge with anything, and let go as her sister came to pick her up.

Now that they are turned back into humans and have clothes, Kady tries to talk to Penny, but he instead ignores her. Alice tells them that they are there to learn from Mayakovsky. The professor he tells them that he is a master magician, but they still believe he is just crazy. For his first lesson he takes their ability to speak and makes them perform the simple spell, the hammer charm of Legrand, without speaking.

Back in Brakebills, Margo and Eliot are getting ready for a weekend vacation that will involve a lot of alcohol, sex, and drugs, but first they need to make a present for their host. They decided to make magic gin, but Eliot doesn’t remember the end of the spell, and have to go look it up in the library. Another psychical kid, Todd, wants to go with them, but they just scare him away.

Julia’s sister decides to stay with her for a few days, as James called Julia’s house and told them about her addiction to Adderall. It appears that he did this when he found out, and not after he forgot Julia. Her sister tells her that their mother knows about Julia’s arrest and has made some arrangements to keep it out of the papers, as she just got elected to an executive board. She offers to take Julia to a clinic until she can sober up.

While the students practice the spell in their room, Kady visits Penny and give him a chocolate bar, as a peace offering. It takes the students’ time, but they’re able to make the spell work. Quentin’s room faces Alice and both of them watch as the other complete the spell. Mayakovsky pass by and sees them smiling at each other, and tells them to just have sex and get over it. When they complete it, Mayakovsky makes fun of them; this makes Quentin mad, taking all the nail he used he writes the word “dick” with them. Mayakovsky he is not impressed and slaps him, he tells them that the next part is to remove all the nails. Alice kisses Quentin and goes back to her room.

Margo and Eliot are having trouble translating some Arabic for the spell, but a guy in the library, Mike, overhears them and offers to help them. Eliot and Mike hit it off, making Margo jealous of the new arrival. Mike helps them set the spell, but he and Eliot don’t seem to pay much attention to it as they prefer to stare at each other, Margo tells them to just “bang” and get it over it so they can finish the magic gin.

For their next lesson there are able to talk again, but they now need to use mind control on insects. The students protest as they were told in Brakebills that mind control magic is forbidden. Mayakovsky notices the tattoo in Penny’s arm takes him to his office. He tells him that the person that told him to get the tattoo was an idiot, and he needs to learn to control his ability as a traveler. With a sharp tool, he takes the tattoo of Penny’s arm and makes him practice by traveling to different places.

 

Quentin and Alice are the only ones that are unable to control their insect, to make them pass the lesson, Mayakovsky attaches cables to their heads and makes them control flies without them touching electrical cords that with shock them. Quentin faints once, but there are able to control all of them and pass.

Back in Brakebills they finish the spell, but instead end up summing a djinn, as Eliot heard wrong gin instead of djinn. The djinn takes off with Mike, as Margo was the one that open the bottle, and she subconsciously wanted Mike gone. With the help of Todd, they find Mike back in the library sucking a door knob, but Margo seals the djinn back into the bottle, and he snaps out of the trance.

During his break, Penny goes to see Kady and asks her why she used him. She lowers her mental shield and lets him read her mind. He learns everything about Marina and they get back together. After having sex, Penny tells her that he is going to steal from Mayakovsky office and leave Brakebills with her. Mayakovsky also reads her mind, and he tells her about hearing about her mother dying. She is free form Marina, but it seems that Brakebills learn about her steal from them, and it’s waiting for her to get back to expel her. He lets her escape, but tells her that Penny need Brakebills to control his ability. At the end she leaves without him, only leaving a note telling Penny to forget her.

For his last lesson, Mayakovsky makes Quentin and Alice go naked outside, and transforms them into foxes. They get to back inside, but in flashback it sees the foxes play in the snow and it’s implied that they have sex outside.

The students go back to Brakebills trough out a portal in Mayakovsky office. Before leaving he tells Quentin that in his last lesson the idea was to drop their fears and inner visions. He continues drinking even after they leave.

Eliot decides to not go with Margo because he wants to stay with Mike instead. Margo accepts and they both agreed that they will have more things for themselves later. Margo takes Todd with her instead. Later that night in Mike’s apartment, he wakes up from his bed with Eliot and goes to get water. A blue moth appears in a mirror in his kitchen and stare at it. When Eliot calls him back to bed, Mike’s eyes shine blue and replies that he will be right there.

I liked the episode, but I was hoping to see the race that Quentin and Alice had to do in the book, I wanted to see them use magic to survive the cold and not only just transform into animals. While I think everyone was waiting to see the fox sex, it was well play how they blend the flashback to make them see their human form have sex. There was a lot of a sex in this episode, Margo is the only one that seems to not get on screen sex. I liked the character of Mayakovsky, those who have read the series most know why he’s bitter, but he was still a great teacher to them, even though he drank during his lectures. Poor Kady, I was hoping for her to stay more in Brakebills, again, I hope we see her more with Julia taking down Marina. It was well play how the writer got rid of Penny’s tattoo, it wouldn’t help the story otherwise. I hope the beast is just possessing Mike, not actually being him because that would hurt Eliot’s ego. I’m interested in seeing more of Kady and possess Mike in the upcoming episodes, or at least more of Filory. What did you think of Brakebills South and professor Mayakovsky? Tells us in the comments.