Three main storylines here – the first is Quentin. He has
returned from enforced normality, alas, to try and be relevant still.
He is convinced Alice’s Niffin (magical overload creature
thingy) is still out there and alive – or possibly her ghost is out there. He
decides to do some magical interpretive dance which doesn’t summon her so instead
he decides to go visit Alice’s parents and her memorial
Ok, this is supposed to be all about Quentin and Alice
and Quentin discovering her while her parents are just awful but, while that is
all true, there’s another element that isn’t touched on: how terrible Quentin
is. His guilt and grief means he decides to impose on Alice’s clearly deeply
hurting parents – he demands they do things they don’t want to, tries to make
them face things they’re not ready to. His grief, his pain, his need for absolution
or to wallow in his guilt overrules anything Alice’s parents want
When he visits the memorial he has apparent interactions
with Alice’s ghosts, a book (do we ever learn what is in that book? I don’t see
it) before Alice’s parents drag their eccentric selves around for a while.
After playing with pyramids with daddy and destroying mummy with her own
self-absorption, Quentin finally comes face to face with Niffin Alice
And she’s alive. The Cacodemon wasn’t strong enough to
destroy her so instead it imprisoned her: in the tattoo on his back. That’s
going to be messy.
In Fillory, Penny shows up looking for his moss with
Elliot flailing around trying to be comforting but basically being ineffectual.
They’re visited by the leader of another nation, Prince Ess (yes, so we can make
jokes about his name being “Princess”. No really. This is the level). He’s
pissed off that Fillory fails so badly (which they do) and he wants a treaty
which grants them equal access to the wellspring they all rely on
(understandable) and the marriage of Virgin Queen Margot to Prince Ess
Margot objects most strenuously to the virgin part.
So The Lorian’s respond by apparently teleporting the
whole castle to Loria (to the “Cockbarrens” because of penis shaped rock
formations. Yes. Really) and holds them hostage until they agree to his
demands.
Elliot does ask if Margot has considered marriage – after
all, he had to. Not only that, he, a gay man, married a woman and thank you
show for finally recognising a shred of how awful this is. A shred. Don’t worry
they walk it back later
Margot points out the whole awfulness of marrying am
entitled man with no respect for consent
Elliot also learns that Fenn once was part of the Foo –
the anti-Earthling activists – and knew the guy in prison. This is an excellent
part of Fenn’s characterisation pointing out she is Fillorian, she’s far more
invested in helping Fillory than Elliot has ever been and she wants to make
their kingdom work. Of course she was also part of a group she insists was non
violent yet just tried to strangle Elliot – which means he is now married to
someone he cannot trust who may murder him.
This means he realises how appalling it is for Margot to
have to do the same. Which is excellent. But then says how much he likes Fenn
despite the risk, the fear and the complete violation of his consent and
sexuality. This is so we can see Margot as managing to dodge his awful fate –
which is excellent – but still downplay his awful state so we don’t see the
terribleness of it.
Margot does confront Prince Ess and he wants a nice
submissive silent virginal woman and boasts about how awesome all the submissive
women he’s had sex with are. So she fights back by having awesome aggressive
sex with him.
Ooookay. Yes I get the idea that he’s proving that a
passionate, sexual, equal partner is far better than a silent submissive woman
on whom sex is imposed. But at the same time “I’ll prove the misogynist who is
demanding to have sex with me a lesson by having sex with him” seems more like
a straight male fantasy than a feminist statement.
Penny drops around and his ability to teleport everywhere
means, with the help of the cartographer (who I am beginning to kind of love,
to be honest) he quickly discovers that the Castle hasn’t gone anywhere –it’s
all a grand illusion
When revealed, Prince Ess and his party look ridiculous
and humiliated. Margot takes great pleasure in rubbing that in. Then declaring
war. Elliot is not thrilled
This is when Margot goes from being the harsh but tough
ruler to increasingly more unstable an unwise. Which is a special shame because
this was supposed to be Margot fighting back against misogyny, especially as
Fenn becomes more and more awesome.
Let’s address Loria here. We have POC in classic
barbarian clothing (or, non-ironic fur as Margot puts it) espousing extremely
misogynist beliefs and attitudes. Why not just call Loria “The Savage Lands”
and have done with it? This is one grand racist shit show of a trope. They even
end up being utterly ineffective relying on desperate trickery.
The cartographer is still awesome
Back in the real world, Julia and Kady use cunning and
research to track down Dana, the woman who banished Reynard before. Julia goes
in to visit her and everything goes wrong. They begin by bonding over similar experiences
and their wish to kill Renard and that they both became pregnant after being
raped – and both tried and failed to abort the foetus.
Then she hits Julia on the head
The key to banishing Reynard is to use a lot of power.
And where do you get that power? The birth of a demi-god. Yes, if Julia wants
to banish Renard, she can’t have an abortion or commit suicide. And, yes, Dana’s
baby is alive and well – and knows nothing about her or his heritage for her
safety so Renard can’t find any of them. She has also captured and kept a
human-like creature called a haxenpaxen which has a stealth power – Julia befriends
it. She’s kidnapped Julia because she wants to make sure Julia will definitely
give birth to the Renard banisher
Which is when Kady shows up, riding to the rescue. Dana’s
house is heavily warded against magic but not against Kady’s fist. Go Kady.
They leave, taking the haxenpaxen with them…
So Renard can find Dana
