The Magicians’s Season 2: Hello, Royals

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here: The Magicians is back for season 2! It has felt like the longest break between seasons (in reality: it’s normal), and I’ve pushed so many people to binge-watch the first season that I’ve lost count. I’ve re-watched the first season, and the Hall of Magic amped up the thrill of anticipation.

So, for those of you that have not watched The Magicians‘s season 2 premiere yet…**SPOILERS AHEAD**. For everyone else, let’s recap our favorite moments:

Alice’s (Swallowed) Powers Heal (Almost) Everything.
So, this was the most pressing question at the end of last season of The Magicians: how do they all survive? (Or, will they all survive?) To our delight, they all survive thanks to Alice…and the “seed” she swallowed (in the words of Margo, “Wow, swallowing has it’s privileges.”). Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is able to heal them with one touch; poor Penny (Arjun Gupta) has to go magically heal his hands in a river, though, so we get another hilarious line from Margo (Summer Bishil) as she accompanies him: “You’re wiping your own ass, so figure that out”.

The Coronation Knight Asks the Tough Questions.
Reminiscent of a Knight of the Round Table, or the Holy Grail, this once-dead Knight has a bevy of questions up his sleeve before handing over the coronation crowns to Eliot (Hale Appleman), the new High King of Fillory. The questions, it turns out, are all related to pop culture as the High King is always a child of Earth; however, the questions are a bit old (considering the Knight has been dead a while). The scene garnered a good chuckle:

Knight: “I will ask you a series of questions designed to root out all pretenders to the throne. Only a true high king will hold the answers.”
Eliot: “Come at me.”
Knight: “What popular American television program stars actor Tim Daly.”
Eliot: “What the fu-“

Two Words: Dirty Dancing.
Although this was part of the Knight’s scene, the sheer ridiculousness of Eliot reciting a scene from Dirty Dancing as Patrick Swayze to prove he is the High King makes this moment one to remember.

“Royalty Bitches!” 
The coronation of Eliot, Margo, Alice, and Quentin (Jason Ralph) as the Kings and Queens of Filory (another nod to The Chronicles of Narnia, obviously) was perhaps my favorite from this episode. Quentin insists they perform some sort of ceremony to mark the occasion, and, in true Quentin nature, tells Eliot that “For what it’s worth I think you’re going to be a really good king”.It was both funny and touching as each character had a brief heart-to-heart with the one they were crowning. Quentin crowns Eliot, Elliott the Spectacular (and, in true Eliot fashion, he quips, “This feels as natural as underwear.”). Eliot then crowns Margo as High Queen Margo, the Destroyer. Then, he crowns Alice as Queen Alice the Wise. Finally, Margo anoints Q as King Quentin the Moderately Socially Maladjusted.

The Temptation of Julia.
We left Julia (Stella Maeve) betraying the group and disappearing with the Beast (Charles Mesure) so she could exact revenge on the trickster god who raped her. In this episode, we saw the Beast try and use her continued struggle and pain to make her collaborate with him. His small moment of humanity emerged when he told Julia about his sexual abuse history and explained how he snuffed out his “shade” (aka his heart/humanity) so he wouldn’t feel pain anymore. While Julia stayed strong and resisted his offer of helping her get rid of her “shade”, we’re a little nervous about how strong her resolve really is…

 

Where will the rest of this season go for The Magicians? Will Penny get his hands truly fixed by the River Watcher? Will Q, Margo, and Alice get what they need from Breakbills? Will Eliot truly be a great King in Filory–and will he still be there when the gang gets back? Will Julia stay strong, or will she turn dark like the Beast? So many questions that we can’t wait to have answered!

 

Photo Credit: Jason Bell