Musical episode. Well
kind of. I mean it’s an episode with maybe one or two songs? I kind of feel if
you’re going to do a musical episode you should go for it.
And I know a lot of
people hate these things but I have to admit to a secret joy in them.
So last episode
things didn’t end well: Margot and Elliot are on trial, Penny is missing, stuck
in the underworld and no-one knows where he is: and Harriet and Victoria are
presumed dead via mirror bridge.
This is only
mentioned in passing before everyone is forced into the next stage of the
quest. But it’s important to remember because I think the characters,
especially Kady, do a really good job of maintaining the pain and grief of this
even as they are distracted by the singing.
Quentin and Kady are
also not thrilled with Alice as she was in the Library and they don’t know why
and haven’t ruled out that she’s working for the Library.
The book shoots out
the next clue for the next key - and it’s some code with Alice rightfully
identifies as Medieval sheet music. She is sure she’s playing it right but
thankfully Kady knows more about music than Alice does (because her mother was
a stripper, danced to music but also loved her work, loved music, gave Kady piano
lessons and no-one better judge her). She plays the music and everything
changes
Physical House is now
full of people partying led by Josh (supported by Todd) who joins the party
with a musical number and he’s pretty decent. Quentin is duly horrified. More
concerning is the paintings of various famous people through history repainted
as Josh - oh and there’s no door.
Josh and Todd arrive,
celebrating because magic is back! Yes, they can all use magic to perform
several really shiny party tricks which is a great fun and a massive relief to
the magicians who have been without magic for so long. And the only rule is
keep having fun
Which is a problem
because Alice, Kady and Quentin quickly realise that magic outside of party
tricks doesn’t work, they can’t leave and, Kady especially, is super on edge
and upset after the disasters that have afflicated them. She’s not in a
partying mood, but every time they stop partying the crowd of partiers all turn
on them and move like an ominous cloned army. Only by singing and partying can
they placate the crowd.
Josh and Todd are
unaffected.
They decide to
question Josh but first they need to distract the crowd - so it’s time for
Kady’s musical number along with a Burlesque strip show, a shadow performance
and using magic to keep it going while she joins the rest of them in
questioning Josh
Except first they
need to dredge through a lot of his complaints. The man who once abandoned them
in Fillory because of cowardice is super upset that they ditched him at Bacchus’s
party. He’s been texting and calling and they haven’t responded to him and he
feels super neglected and left out. He also pouts how none of them really know
anything about him. They try to point out to him the obvious flaws of his party
world - that other magic doesn’t work etc but he’s determined to recite his
whole history of being ditched and badly done to. He does reveal that it was
Todd who led him to the party - and he went along with it because they did the
same hostile clone army thing whenever he didn’t party. And then because he
loves to party and they sort of have magic back. Despite this wanting to keep
it going, he does admit there are flaws
He wants rid of them
and since the clone army has realised Kady’s trick, he agrees to distract
everyone with the music and partying while they figure out a way out. Of course
that’s to Alice using her massive brain to identify a German demon that creates
pocket party realms and then feeding on everyone’s joy - generally fairly
benign as far as demons go.
They do follow some
musical cues to find the next key and after much much much paranoia about
touching it, kady grabs it and a door appears: literally marked “questers
But we need to catch
up with everyone else before continuing this storyline:
Elliot and Margot
have been on trial and the wombat has found them guilty. Margot had wanted
trial by combat (and had a swordsman ready) but was misheard because trial by
combat isn’t actually a thing that Fillory has.
Trick grants them the
honour of choosing which of many really really terrible methods of execution
they want. They’re all horrific. But being cunning Margot and Elliot opt for
the method of execution that will take the longest - which involves falling
over an endless waterfall
That means a long sea
voyage in the sentient Muntjack ship during which Elliot and Margot try to get
Trick to free them - and he says no. Yes, loyal, subservient Trick hates them.
Not only does he hate them for all the things that have gone wrong (and he does
consider them to be the worst monarchs Fillory has ever had) but because before
they arrived, he ruled Fillory. And presumably didn’t do too bad a job. With
magic gone Fillory is finally free from the terrible Umber/Ember rules that
forced them to have Earth rulers and they can go back to ruling themselves.
Trick can be in charge again and no he didn’t say anything before because he
refused to beg them for what he could seize - his kingdom
They’re also pretty
universally hatred and even the Muntjack seems willing to kill them.
Elliot falls into a
depression, wondering if the Filorians are right - after all, what gave them
the right to rule? Margot is more positive and determined because she’s Margot
- and she points out they never made the rules just followed them and they did
make things better. For a minute. When Elliot made a deal with Idri seconds
before he was turned into a rat. So yeah, a minute
But to be fair to
them it does kind of emphasise that yes their reign has been a disaster: but
most of it has been not their doing. Ember was the one who turned Idri into a
rat, he was the one who destroyed the source of magic for so long; and when he
backed off the fairies came into make things far worse. Elliot and Margot,
Margot especially, truly tried to make Fillory a kingdom that worked.
They sail to the
falls and the Muntjack refuses to stop - so Trick and the crew abandons ship,
leaving Elliot and Margot to go over the falls in the ship alone…
Aaaaand over to Julia
and Fenn. Fenn absolutely refuses to co-operate in helping Sky the fairy free
herself from slavery and having bits of her chopped off and snorted as magical
coke fuel (ah, Magicians constantly making me type lines I never
imagined I ever would). But Julia realises she can use the key of truth to see
the fairy without needing Fenn as a go between.
She goes to Sky, now reliant on a prosthetic leg and tries to convince her she can be free from the Mcalisters, that she’s being abused and that fairies actually have magic - something Skye doesn’t believe. So Julia agrees to meet her later and try to teacher her magic
Which doesn’t work
too well as she keeps using magician skills but Fenn points out this isn’t how
fairies work. They don’t use hand gestures - they don’t need to access magic.
They ARE magic and just have to visualise things to make it so. And they do…
except then the necklace around her neck starts to kill her. The Mcallisters
are determined here to control their slaves
Then Julia’s eyes
shine gold and time… stops. This is not normal Magician magic, it looks like
god magic. Julia remarks that she has levelled up which pleases my geeky soul.
And this is where all
the storylines come together because Quentin and co have just picked up the key
- Unity. Which allows all 8 of them to speak to each other despite distance and
realms: Quentin, Alice, Kady, Julia, Josh, Elliot, Margot and Penny. And
Quentin decides, because the script tells him and now because of any kind of
logic, that they all need to stop what they’re doing and perform a musical
number to go forward. This will help Josh fend off the army of partiers now
attacking him for not being Jolly, but requires Penny to sing in a library,
Elliot and Margot to sing in a ship plunging over a waterfall and Julia to sing
in a time loop with a fairy bleeding from her eyes right in front of her.
So they sing. Under
Pressure
And Kady and Elliot
set it up most awesomely while simultaneously setting up everyone else to be
completely underwhelming after that performance. The song cures everything:
Josh is spared, the Muntjack can suddenly fly (magic of the ship or the keys or
the song or a god who even knows? Elliot puts it down to the ship loving
Margot) and the fairy is healed. It is a good song as well, of course
In the aftermath the
key’s communication stops working - and the crowd disappears to be replaced by
the Germany demon Alice mentioned. He alludes to the fact someone set him up to
do this (Our Lady of the Underground/Persephone, perhaps?) before kicking
everyone out to return to the actual Physical house.
Oh and Quentin
apologised to Josh. The book comes with the next clue but Quentin is still
leery of letting Alice near the book… and she’s miffed because of it. So unity
isn’t that unified.
I have a feeling I’m
supposed to feel sorry for Josh? I mean yes it’s kind of sad that all of these
people didn’t pay much attention to you and not responding to multiple texts
isn’t great. But hey, they had something going on here, it’s understandable
Also? They’re not
friends. Josh complains about their indifference towards him and… so? As he
said they know next to nothing about him BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT FRIENDS. It’s not
even like they were using or exploiting him - a common theme of “friendships”
in the genre - he just happened to be around sometime. The whole idea that Josh
is badly done to here kind of starts from the presumption that Quentin, Alice,
Kady, Julia et al owe him attention and a place in their friendship circle.
I’m not saying they
should be cruel, cold or unfriendly to him: but they haven’t been. But they’re
not his best buddies either. And this is a tricky balance to set: because
obviously social exclusion and ostracism are cruel and dangerous things but we
also can’t ignore that assuming or demanding a level of social intimacy you
simply don’t have is a level of entitlement which is not comfortable either.
There is a line between demanding basic respect, politeness etc and demanding
friendship and closeness.
Yes he’s been around
them and they’ve not been overly hostile to them (well, Margot may have been in
her hostile-to-everyone-thing) but that doesn’t make him best buds or their
priority.
The whole narrative
doesn’t really work for me - poor Josh, look what he did because they abandoned
him? Well the cast were dealing with Penny’s death and ghostliness, Alice was
falling apart and just lost her dad, Julia was falling apart and dealing with
PTSD flashbacks, Elliot and Margot are overwhelmed with issues in Fillory,
Quentin is midquest and juggling the key-of-suicidal-impulses, Kady collapsed
and was in a mental institution and Harriet and Victoria are both presumed dead
with everyone feeling that: so sorry Josh, sorry everyone has so much shit to
deal with right now and you fell off the radar. Deal with it.
Since it’s a musical
episode:
Elliot and Kady:
awesome voices. Honestly a little unfair on everyone els.e
Josh: surprisingly
not bad - but Under Pressure wasn’t his best moment… or maybe that’s just
following on from Elliot and Kady’s opening which is hard to follow
Julia… oh dear.
Penny: oh dear oh dear
Alice & Quentin:
probably a good thing they kept to backing music and Margot sang duet with
Elliot so he can drown her out
