The Magicians closes out season 4, with another blockbuster, episode 13: ‘No Better to Be Safe Than Sorry’. The following, contains SPOILERS, including one huge one!
After another fantastic season of The Magicians, we’ve sadly reached the finale, before the long wait until Season 5 next year. Sometimes I think it would be great to have 22 or 26 episode seasons like sci-fi series of the 90s, but would it be too much of a good thing? The Magicians is beyond a good thing though, as it is one of the finest scripted series around, and should be one of the biggest shows on TV. Regardless, there is a loyal following that, much like other shows, such as Community, will be clamouring for something along the lines of ‘Seven Seasons and a movie’. They, and I include myself in that group, would be justified.
As we have come to expect, this finale did not leave the viewer disappointed in terms of impact. It definitely left us all shocked though. At the end of the last episode, we had the tantalising shot of the Bert part of the ‘murderous Bert and Ernie’ duo in the body of Julia (Stella Maeve), facing off against Q (Jason Ralph) and Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley). This was no time for early twists though, and for once, in a TV show, the plan our heroes have devised works pretty well. They capture the monster in one of the bottles and cast the spell to keep her in there. The only crinkle is that Julia is severely injured in the process and some drastic steps need to be taken. Things seem to be going relatively well then, sort of, until they discover that Everett (Brian Markinson) has taken the entire reservoir of magic while they were gone.
This scuppers their plan somewhat, and they need to devise an alternative strategy to gain some power. This brings into play the hedgewitches, at Kady’s (Jade Tailor) suggestion, who could help boost power using cooperative magic. She is backed up in this idea by Alice, not a pair you normally see in agreement! It is interesting to note how the hedgewitches have made more of an impact this season, after being marginalised for so long. There are a lot of good story opportunities there I think, and it will be interesting to see if the show continues to explore this area.
With this is place, the team set up and capture the monster inside Eliot (Hale Appleman), in a fairly successful plan, but like Julia he’s injured in the process. Having used a lot of the magic left, Professor Lipton (Keegan Connor Tracy) has to save him using conventional trauma medicine, so it’s quite convenient that she used to be a trauma surgeon before being a magician. Both Eliot and Julia have severe injuries that will require some time to heal, but in Julia’s case it gets more complicated; the choice has to be made whether to make her human again, or send her on the arduous journey back to Goddess status. As she’s unconscious, Penny (Arjun Gupta) makes the call, which doesn’t go down well with Julia after she wakes up, especially as she has lost the ability to do magic. These two injuries are the first clue that this may not be a normal season finale, as it feels like the main characters are vulnerable to any outcome, and won’t be saved by TV convention to always protect the main cast. This proves to be true later, as their final plan unfolds.
This bit of the plan however is a little hazy, and none of the extra power they will get from the hedgewitches can be utilised until they figure out what to do with the monsters once they’re both caught. To figure this out, a newly ‘de-fished’ Josh (Trevor Einhorn) and Q travel to the realm of the old Gods in search of an answer. The answer they get though is that the monsters can’t be killed, so the next best thing is to throw them into ‘The Seam’. Unfortunately, this is located in the Mirrorworld, which raises some issues, due to the inherent danger there.
Cue what becomes a very shocking and then melancholic last third of the finale. Q, Alice and Penny enter the Mirrorworld, locate ‘The Seam’ and manage to throw the first bottle in before Everett shows up and halts their progress by breaking the mirror that is the conduit to ‘The Seam’. Unable to cast magic without severe consequences, they are at a bit of a stalemate. Indicating that Penny should get Alice out of there, Q sacrifices himself by casting a spell to fix the mirror, and throws in the second bottle. Unfortunately, as magic always goes awry in the Mirrorworld, while he is successful getting the second bottle into ‘The Seam’, his actions cause sparks to fly and he and Everett are engulfed, killing them both.
We then get a call-back to the end of episode 7, ‘The Side Effect’, as Q appears in the elevator in the Underworld and is greeted by Penny 40 in the ‘Secrets to the Grave’ department. Here, Penny gives him the ‘deluxe’ package and tries to help him work out if he took his final action as a way to finally commit suicide, or to help his friends. Through seeing how much he was loved and how he loved them back, he hopefully gets his answer. This whole section gets quite a lot of time given to it, as you would expect with the death of a principal character, and there are a lot of excellently placed nods and Easter eggs to previous story points. It also raises quite a few questions as to how the group will cope with his demise. If there is an upside for any of them, it’s that Julia regains her magic abilities, as “Magic doesn’t come from talent; it comes from pain.”
As far as we can tell, Quentin is not coming back, and Jason Ralph has left the show. This has been made explicitly clear in various interviews. This is The Magicians though, and I guess you can never say never. After all, they kept this plan secret from the rest of the cast for at least a year, so do they have a plan to bring him back in a potential Season 6? Who knows…
What we do know is that Season 5 will be a different beast. The short epilogue scenes that tee it up offer intriguing glimpses of what is to come. In Brakebills it seems that magic is fully restored, and maybe more powerful than before. Over in Fillory, Margo (summer Bishil) and Eliot discover that 300 years have passed, and Fen (Brittany Curran) and Josh are no longer on the throne; the Dark King now rules, and things have changed significantly.
As time passes, I am going to run out of ways to say how much I like The Magicians, and appreciate the careful, intelligent craft that goes into it. As ever, Sera Gamble and John McNamara, as well as all the cast and crew, should be congratulated on creating such a consistently excellent show. Long may it continue! (11 seasons and a movie!?) With longevity, there may even be a way to bring back Jason Ralph!
