**Season 3 spoilers!!**
Tonight will see the Season Four premiere of The Magicians on Syfy. We’ve covered what we loved and didn’t love about season three (and loved some more), which was generally great. After some stumbles in season two, season three really let these characters grow and took some wonderful creative risks. We’re hoping that wild, magical success continues in season four, where there are several specific questions we want to see answered.
Will we ever see original flavor Penny again?
Arjun Gupta as Penny in The Magicians. (image: Eric Milner/Syfy)
Last season saw Penny (Arjun Gupta) kinda … die, what with his body being killed by super cancer and his soul stuck on the astral plane. He ended up in the Underworld branch of the Library, and after a pep talk from Hades, seemed to give in to his role there. The last we saw of him, he was biting into a delicious cupcake, and as we all know, once you taste the food of the underworld, you’re stuck there.
On earth, we got to know a different Penny, who was in love with Julia(!), and whose very presence was a heartbreaking reminder to poor Kady (Jade Taylor). While it was very interesting to see the Penny from timeline 23 join the story, we can’t help but wonder if we’ll ever see our first and favorite surly traveler back onscreen.
For one, he wasn’t affected by that big memory rewrite whammy, so he knows who everyone is, or was, and since the Library is the force regulating all magic and knowledge now, it stands to reason he’ll have a part to play.
Will Margo’s fairy eye Save The Day?
Summer Bishil as Margo in The Magicians. (image: Eike Schroter/Syfy)
As mentioned, last seasoned ended on a huge twist: magic is back, but most of our heroes ended up with their memories wiped, no magic, and plopped into happy new mundane lives. Margo (Summer Bishil) was finally back in her glamorous Earth element, living as “Janet” in a nod to her character’s original name in The Magicians novels by Lev Grossman.
Aside from a killer attitude and fashion sense, Margo has one advantage the rest of her mind-wiped friends don’t: a fairy eye. After spending season three sporting the most fashionable eye patches and at war with the Fairy Queen, the two monarchs made peace, in a way, and the ruler of the Fae gave Margo a new, more magical eye to replace the one Margo bargained away, then destroyed.
The eye will let her see things unseen, which might translate into Margo being the first to get wise to what happened to the group. As some of the season’s trailers have hinted, Margo could be the first to try to save her friends—and especially her soulmate Eliot from his monstrous possession, which leads us to:
IS ELIOT OKAY???????
Hale Appleman as Eliot in The Magicians. (image: Eike Schroter/Syfy)
I don’t think I’m alone in my opinion that Hale Appleman’s Eliot is the best thing about The Magicians, because he embodies the entire show. He’s magical, sexually fluid and adventurous, surprisingly heroic, so funny, and generally fabulous, which made the fact that Eliot ended last season possessed by an ancient evil, feared even by the gods, extra upsetting.
We don’t know much about “The Monster” other than it’s very powerful, very scary, and is a creature of pure want that only wants to play. It could be the big bad this season, or that could be the fascist Library controlling magic, or they could work against each other, or with each other. We’re cool with any of those outcomes, as long as our beautiful former High King of Fillory makes it to snark, drink, and seduce another day.
Is Julia still a Goddess?
Stella Maeve as Julia in The Magicians. (image: Eric Milner/Syfy)
Speaking of gods, Julia’s (Stella Maeve) journey throughout the series—from rape victim, to survivor, to reluctant bearer of her rapist’s magic seed, to actual freaking goddess—has been one of the most compelling parts of The Magicians.
I loved seeing Julia heal herself and thrive last season through showing compassion to others. When she turned away from godhood to save her friends and magic, it was a true power move, but did that remove all of her power? Is the “seed” still in her, waiting to grow again and allow Julia to be a badass Magician no matter what the Library says?
Any heroics will mean Julia getting her memories back, and that’s honestly going to be so hard to watch. As much as I want the whole gang fighting evil together, it was nice to see how happy Julia seemed in her new life, without all that trauma weighing her down. However, if there’s a moral to The Magicians, it’s that the pain and suffering of our past can make us stronger and shouldn’t be ignored. In that way, Julia will always be a goddess.
Is Fen the King of Fillory now (and do we care)?
Brittany Curran as Fen, Trevor Einhorn as Josh Hoberman in The Magicians. (image: Eike Schroter/Syfy)
When last we saw the not!Narnia kingdom, Fen (Brittany Curran) was serving as regent for an absent High King Margo, and if said ruler is busy not remembering who she is and saving Eliot, it sounds like Fen is the only one in charge … which could be good for Filory.
It will hopefully mean less time spent there this season, or at least less weird politics and popular votes based on bestiality. I like Fen well enough, but she’s always been a bit boring compared to everyone else, so I hope we don’t spend too much time in the other world, or that she doesn’t show up until she’s needed to save the day.
Where is [insert name here]?
There are a lot of characters floating around in The Magicians world that we all want to see more of this season. The top of the list is the deliciously bitchy Marina (Kasey Rohl), who hopped over with Penny from timeline 23, but I also hope we see more of Poppy (Felicia Day) and Harriet (Marlee Matlin).
Poor Harriet was stuck in between worlds when last we saw her, but I refuse to believe that’s the last we’ll see of such an awesome character, especially given her connection to her mother, the head Librarian. If we have more time in the Underworld, maybe we’ll at least see her there.
One thing I hope is assured: more Josh (Trevor Einhorn), because I just can’t get enough of that guy, and we all want to know about the consequences of that sexually transmitted lycanthropy.
Will Quentin ever catch a damn break?
Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson, Jason Ralph as Quentin Coldwater in The Magicians. (image: Eric Milner/Syfy)
Poor Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph). He’s supposed to be the hero of this story, but he just can’t quite hold on to any lasting happiness, or even triumph. I loved how Quentin grew last season, how he finally started taking responsibility for his actions and making hard choices. I hope that when he does get his memory back, his failure isn’t too crushing and that he’s there to help save his one-time life partner, Eliot, and talk some sense into Alice (Olivia Taylor-Dudley) at last.
Since she was the only hero spared the mind wipe, I bet she’ll have a big role to play in saving her friends’ memories, and that sets her on the path to some sort of redemption … otherwise, she can stay locked in the library and sweet Quentin can pine over Eliot or Poppy or Julia or literally anyone else.
(featured image: Syfy)
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