The Magicians: The Tales of the Seven Keys | Season 3, Episode 1 | Rating: 9.2/11 |
That’s right, High Voltage is now bringing you weekly coverage of SyFy’s The Magicians to help you connect all the puzzle pieces you might not be thinking of. Get excited as Season Three is shaping up to the best season yet! Now, where to begin? Let’s start by reminding everyone of important things that previously occurred on The Magicians.
Exhibit A
We meet Mayakovsky in Season 1, ever so briefly, and quickly learn of his conspiracy theories about the future of magic. Our favorite students, for better or worse, kind of shrug Mayakovsky off as their crazy Russian professor. He may seem crazy, he may also be grumpy and his teaching style may border abuse, but the man is nothing short of a genius and possibility the strongest magician in existence. You may want to revisit this clip:
Exhibit B
Penny is dying from what we will call a very advanced cancer, or as the show calls it Cancer+. Persephone warned Julia there would be grave consequences for killing a god, and so Julia spared Reynard’s life. For sparing his life, Persephone gave Julia her shade back. Alice, no longer a Niffin, has also been reunited with her shade. Umber (a god) reunited with his brother after faking his own death is then killed by Ember (also, a god). The death of Umber allows Julia to create a sword that Quentin uses to kill Ember. Remember those consequences Persephone warned about? Well, killing Ember resulted in the loss of magic – everywhere. Earth, Fillory, Brakebills, everywhere. And now we can begin our Season Three quest.
The Tale of the Seven Keys
Our season opener starts off with a frustrated Julia and curious Quentin as they try to explore what Julia’s spark of magic she’s able to still produce means. They seek out Bacchus, the god of revelry, in hopes they can get some answers about the disappearance of magic and the sparks that still exist. Of course, Bacchus doesn’t want to party with any vibe-killers so Julia & Quentin have to “loosen up” a bit first.
In Fillory the Fairy Queen is ruling from behind-the-scenes, controlling Eliot and Margo’s actions. Eliot seeks out the White Lady but instead meets The Great Cock (fabulous innuendo in that name) who sets our heroes off on a quest. This quest will be the underlying current of Season Three. Meanwhile, Kady is trying to save Penny’s life and Alice is cautiously seeking out the lamprey, which is also after her. Got it?
Pop Culture Trivia FTW
Eliot is quick to realize that The Fairy Queen is able to stay two steps ahead of Margo and himself because of Margo’s eyeball she’s kept as an accessory. This means whatever Margo sees herself and any conversation she has the Fairy Queen is also privy to. Uh oh! So, Eliot takes Margo on a walk where they have one of the best pop culture driven conversations written into a series since The Gilmore Girls.
In a matter of minutes we counted 11 pop culture references, and 1 disguised reference to their own story. Everything from Game of Thrones, to Buffy, to Britney Spears is included. With a cheat sheet subtitled caption for those of us at home. Lorelai and Rory would be proud. And we can only hope John McNamara & Sera Gamble (creators, producers and writers of The Magicians) have built more gems like this into Season Three’s scripts.
What You Need To Remember
- Bunnies, like all creatures born with an ability, have not lost magic. Bunnies have the ability to easily travel between worlds and thus make great messengers. Side note: How cute were those talking bunny messengers?! And that overwhelming moment with the dozen bunnies all talking at once until Eliot hushes them and puts them in speaking order to decipher the messages, pure love.
- Pay attention to Kady’s interaction with Harriet. Rewatch that moment if you need to, and maybe reread this article. Hint hint.
- Just remember that the vampire has urged Alice to get some sort of early warning device to keep on her at all times. He doesn’t say out loud what the device is, he types it on his phone and shows the text to Alice only. So, she’s going to get something that will help her detect the lamprey. Remember that.
Episode 2 airs Wednesday, January 17th at 9/8c.
