Welcome back to episode 2 of The Magicians: The Source of Magic. Let’s spoil like mohos after the break, shall we?

Last time, Quentin Coldwater went from depressed loser to up and coming magician at Brakebills University with loads of friends; his previous bestie Julia is mingling with the dark side after being rejected by Brakebills, the fictional characters in Quentin’s favourite books are haranguing him to step off the beaten path already, Robert Frost, and someone with a moth swarm for a head ripped out the eyes of the dean of the school after Q and some friends tried to raise the dead. Up to date? Good!

We left Quentin being frozen and addressed by The Beast..it’s a little bit later and someone is questioning him about what was said to him, but he can’t remember and we didn’t getta see.

Julia is being led astray by bar hawttie still, now we’ll find out who is on the other side. I am wondering two things about her and this group: 1) is it an evil group, and if so, 1a) associated with The Beast and 2) is that why Brakebills didn’t want her? They looked into her Little Miss Can’t Stop Asking Questions Heart and saw only darkness? IS THAT IT?? Whatever this group is, it’s not exactly as fancy as Brakebills. Julia and BarDude walk into a narrow little room crammed with 4 other people and what looks like a drive through window. One introduces herself as Marina (Kacey Rohl), she’s taking us on a tour!

BarDude is Pete (David Call)! and he locks Julia and Marina in the walk-in freezer.

Professor Pearl Sunderland (Anne Dudeck) is questioning everyone about the paralysis spell and how Quentin got away, what happened was that the Dean as able to get out that special pocket watch from Eliza in time, Quentin could see it out of the corner of his eye, so when The Beast clamped a hand over his mouth, he was able to materialise it into his hand and push the button on top: BAM, the Beast was thrown.

That released everyone from the freeze, they all ran but Kady stopped at the door to hold off ol’ MothHead in case he wanted another run at anyone.

The Beast was able to recover and knocked her out, and while Penny stared, Alice wrapped the Beast up with a winding spell and forced him back through the mirror. The pocketwatch dissolved and it was over.

The professors know something is up, though. Brakebills is protected by wards and shields specific to each person of authority, so for a breach like this…it’s almost as though four students got together and worked a spell for two hours in a lab by themselves. Alllllmooossttt

Quentin and Alice are freaking out on the steps, Eliot and Margo come scoop them up and hustle them away.

Julia is stomping around the freezer while Marina (what kind of name is Kacey Rohl anyway? Sounds like a junior exotic dancer who does pro-am on the side) whines, Julia thinks it’s a test and she’s gonna figure it out.

She literally trips over a body (medical specimen) and they both scream for a bit. Thanks for not conforming to stereotypes, ladies!

Eliot and Margo have whisked Alice and Quentin to the Physical Kids house for a party, Eliot pours up the signature cocktail while Margo takes Alice away for a TeenMovie makeover (tight clothes and contact lenses)

Eliot knows Quentin was at least partly responsible for what happened in the lab, he want to know what happened. Quentin tries to explain about his past struggle with depression and he can’t go back there, man! Eliot has a spell he can write down, it will protect Q’s mind from questioning, no worries. It’s bulletproof. Since Quentin started with the ShareTime, it’s Eliot’s turn. “Okay, I’m going to tell you something deep and dark and personal now. Ready? Good. I killed someone”

It was when he was 14, Eliot was a chubby teenager being bullied and when he saw Logan Kinnear crossing the street and a bus coming…and that’s how he found out that he was telekinetic. He says the essential lesson of this episode: magic doesn’t come from talent;

Meanwhile, Margo and Alice are swigging wine and the glasses still haven’t even come off! This TeenMovie makeover’s gonna take forever! Margo’s pumping Alice for information about the demon and how she found Brakebills anyway, Alice didn’t get an entrance exam invite like everyone else. Margo wants to know how she found her way into the Bermuda Triangle of Upstate New York and I gather Alice stole one of her parents’ alumni keys.

Julia and Marina are still dicking around in the freezer, Pete’s getting bored and decides to accelerate the timeline a little by waking up the dead guy laying next to them. First off; why in the motherfcuk would they be cuddled up to the dead guy they freaked out about, the freezer is massive. Also, all he does is snatch Julia’s toque? Zombie, please. And THEN she kills him by impaling him through the chest, bringing up two MOAR things: 1) headshot, BISH! and 2) blood? Why does he have blood all over the place, with a giant Y incision on his chest indicating he’s had all organs and fluids drained from his body? SOMEBODY GET CONTINUITY ON THE PHONE NOW!!!!!

Pete animates the body to talk to them; he confirms that this is a test, calm down and don’t be stupid! Did they check EVERYWHERE for magic?? Did they? And Julia wanders over and immediately finds a spell for temporary warmth.

Alice and Quentin are talking? I think? She feels bad for dragging him into her hunting expedition, she saw the sigil on his hand and thought she might have a shot at finding out what happened to her brother. He explains that it’s actually dream / Fillory related, she looks physically pained that he is choosing to read fantasy books at this time. The Chatwins actually existed though, he can’t BELIEVE she doesn’t know all this! There’s a video! And the Chatwin kids, at least two of the three actually did disappear, although nobody knows if it was clock-related or not.

Alice doesn’t have any time for that, though, they’ve got to hide evidence and get their stories straight, yo. Professor Sunderland doesn’t look that easily fooled, however.

Kady finds Penny bailing; he’s had enough of this and he’s really really disappointed that the voice that has been guiding him his whole life is attached to a guy with moths for a melon. Nobody knows yet, and that’s the way he wants to keep it. She talks him into a going away bounce first, jeez, with all his mind reading, you’d think he’s have seen right through that.

Back to the IcyPops discussing their personal issues and trying to execute the spell before they freeze their t+ts off, I think they’re gonna have to cut up zombie there.

Kady is rifling through drawers while Penny stands chickie; she grabs a crystal

and some booze and I love the fact that she has this tiny little belly! She’s super tiny looking, but there is this itty bitty bit of pudge around her belly button and I LOVE IT.

Oh sorry, sorry, they run into Alice and Quentin, AND Professor Sunderland, who wants them all to follow her. She’s found the most interesting thing buried in the woods! The crew are all interrogated separately, Quentin is the WORST! This book has residue alllll over it, AND a summoning and it looks like Penny decides to take the blame all himself. And maybe Quentin, given that he has to stay behind to talk to the Prof.

Ever conscientious, Quentin is bringing back all of his library books; he’s been told they’re bringing in a Specialist to fully wipe his melon and he knows his days at Brakebills are numbered. Eliot isn’t super helpful, making a weird face but I think offering him some sort of a consolation prize.

Julia has harvested the animal fat of the Zombie Doughboy there, a dying Marina waits with a bowl while Quentin leaves a TTM-style voice message for Julia about his expulsion and upcoming mind-wipe. Lots of mystical handwaving later: success?

Penny sees Quentin and flies into a rage; but since it was Penny who ratted out Q, that part confuses me a little. Quentin takes a couple of shots and gets MAD, he throws a spell

that Penny easily blocks, given that he has the crystal Kady “found”, the rebound sends him flying. Professor Pearl has HAD IT with the two of them, sends them both to the Infirmary, as Q has hurt his upper arm in the fall. No clue why perfectly fine (and I mean FIONE) Penny has to go too.

The door from the freezer falls open, out walk a triumphant Julia and Marina. Julia throws down a handful of the hingepins that kept the door in place, I’m guessing the spell didn’t work. Pete says that the point was to remind her that not everything can be solved by magic, but Julia says she’s DONE proving herself to him! DONE!

Oh but she wasn’t, she was there to prove herself to Marina, the Top Betch in New York, having achieved Level 50 in her star/keyhole tattoos.

Lots of unrealistic banter later (earnest freckle-faced Marina saying she has “connections” in lots of places, including Brakebills, of course, saying she has LOTS to teach people, etc etc), they go for a drink.

In the Infirmary, Quentin is being tended to by a nurse with hair that matches her scrubs, she tells him he is lucky she can fix this, and that he’s not being expelled. But…I thought he kinda was? Having another Potter flashback right now!!! Q screams while Penny laughs and ruminates on the mercurial nature of Instant Karma (Karma doesn’t mean what people think it means and that drives me CRAZY. Karma just means movement: it’s neither good or bad. ANYWAY)

Marina and Pete are waiting in a dark corner in their car, no doubt for a clandestine meeting; they say something interesting about Julia: that she “better” be ready. That sounds very much like what everyone keeps saying about Quentin. Anyway, in pops Marina’s connection from Brakebills: Kady. Huh. All that rifling through drawers while Penny stood watch was actually for these guys, they want the crystal she found, calling it something that sounded like “the Emerson’s Amurra Pendant” ( I dunno, man!), but she gave it to Penny and can’t give it to them. Marina says she’s being “generous” with Kady, “considering”, but that is not what Kady’s face is telling me. Marina hands over a list; she wants everything on it, and she wants it this week.

Penny is sleeping, and has said crystal pendant wrapped around his hot little fingers, ohhhhhh, that was what warded off Quentin’s attack! And maybe Q figured that out a little sooner than me, because he’s sneaking in to Penny’s room to steal it.

Quentin brings the pendant to the Professor and finds Eliza rifling through the drawers. He recognises her as Rosyln the paramedic from SantaBob’s death and explains that there’s a terrible Specialist coming to fully wipe his memory. Well, er, um, this is awkward, she’s the Specialist, shall we sit?

He asks why she gave him the sixth Fillory book; she says she thought he would appreciate it, which she takes back immediately when he says he lost it already. He wants to know if Fillory is real, she wants to know why he cares if he won’t remember it in 60 seconds? I guess I would still want to know.

She asks if she can level with him? “You’re not very remarkable. You’re smart, but *husky laugh* no genius. You can do magic, but nothing special. And the worst is that you’re so eager to belong, you forget why you’re here.” She says he dreamed of Fillory before the attack; he wants to know how she knows that and she replies that she’s dreamed of it too. She’s also looked into the eye of The Beast; there are no born heros, no destinies.

She calls herself just another inadequate magician, who’s lost people and he is too and blah get stronger and fast and blah and she wants to know why he’s sitting there all worried when he has a crystal in his pocket to repel any mind-wipe spell? Ah, so THAT’S why he wanted the crystal from Penny, I may be too stupid to recap this show. At any rate, she’s lifted it, and is planning to tell the school to give him one more chance, but he better not step back on that garden path like some little lemming. Everything is connected: don’t overthink it. Helpful!

Back at Marina’s Den of Iniquity, Julia is getting her first keyhole star tattoo, but I’m not sure she’s so much on the side of Marina, personally.

Eliza is visiting Dean Fogg, who survived the attack, I gather although sans hands or eyes. She apologizes, she didn’t think The Beast would come so soon, she wasn’t prepared. She asks what she can do to help; he says, about the kids “make them magicians” but they both know that isn’t enough.

Quentin is so excited, greasy and happy to be able to stay! He joins Eliot and Margo for a barbecue

I think this is the first time we see him smile!

And we oot: what didja think?