AudienceofOne

A King outranks you by definition of being a King? Queens are Queens because women were deemed to be inherently lessor than men. That's why a King is married to a Queen but a Queen who rules is married to a Prince. Because if he was King, he'd be in charge.

God anyone would think I've stopped paying proper attention or something.

Re this and your spoiler: I had thought this episode was saying that Robert sent her to the Ninth Circle intentionally and so was surprised that nobody else saw it that way. She was delivering a package to him from Robert Queen, no? He sent here there to be trained deliberately. That was my reading anyway. That he had cut them all off and fed her to the Ninth Circle. I can see Robert doing that - essentially breeding a child for the Ninth Circle in lieu of one of his "real" children.

It was definitely the leprechaun. I went back and checked.

I got distracted during this because this was the most annoying God we've seen ever and I found his shtick grating and pointless. So reading your comment I realised I was confused by that scene as well. I thought he took the girl in the bar to be the body for his sister so I was really confused when he apparently killed her at the end. But now I realise he didn't kill her at all - he killed the also-blonde leprechaun and the sick bar girl is obviously stashed somewhere.

Unfortunately I didn't think the song choices and execution quite worked for this episode in the way it's worked for previous musical ones. It didn't feel as integrated as I would have liked. Which is a small gripe really because it was still a great episode. It continued the theme of fractured people putting themselves back together and found a way to put Elliot and Margot in a scene together, which is a good thing. The acting in this show remains a step above the average. Almost everyone's killing it at this stage.

The pacing of this season is terrible. With all the emphasis on the flash forwards, I had completely forgotten Emiko's existence but suddenly we have an episode crammed with her origin story - straight after an episode crammed with Mia's origin story. I said at the beginning of this season that Amell seems to be playing Green Arrow in his spare time and this has never been more clear. I hate to say it but if they announced that he wasn't coming back next season but that Felicity was I would believe it. Then they could have him disappear or go into hiding or die or whatever they're planning and concentrate on the Arrow: The Next Generation with the current timeline being flashbacks... .. And I think I will be grateful if that happens because it means I can finally quit this damn show.

On Alice's clothing choices - I really feel like the show is walking a fine line between characterisation and fan service. But while I think her clothing is universally awful, in this case it shows that she is at war with herself: The sexual repression caused by her awful childhood and her own adulthood as a grown woman. Alice has always been at war with herself and this episode really exemplified it.

It struck me during this episode that this is a season about putting yourself back together. Alice has been putting herself back together since she hit rock bottom - first with her Mum and then her being reconciled to parts of herself she hates, Julia is putting herself back together since she lost her Godhood, wizards and hedges are putting themselves back together after losing magic, Elliot is putting himself back together since he lost himself, and even the Elliot monster (may be) attempting to put himself back together too. I honestly found this episode extremely profound in every plot line.

My Lord Katherine McNamara is a terrible actor. She was bad in Shadowhunters but, oddly, because that show is so terrible it didn't bug me so much. It seemed weirdly apropos like it was a part of the ridiculous Shadowhunters package. Also, Mia has the worst origin story ever. Oh no, she had a perfect upper middle class childhood in an idyllic rural town, ran away from home in a pique because of thecrats and lieths and then got tattoos and did cage fights like some bad movie about rebellious teen lesbians. None of which detracts from what was a surprisingly-enjoyable episode that is clearly the producers' new attempt at Arrow: The Next Generation. Which is to say - this would have actually been an okay pilot for a new show of a rather lame superhero.

My favourite is his whimpering little 'Falcor' at the end of the scene.

Oh damn this episode was really good and now I've remembered there's only 6 more left and it's been cancelled. Why why why?

I've always found spy craft - real spy craft not silly action film spy craft - to be quite boring. Actually I find the other stuff uninteresting too but in a different way. Real TV spy craft is just people having serious, slightly enigmatic, conversations in darkened rooms. The other stuff - the parallel universe stuff: the stuff motivating the spy craft and the metaphorical and thematic basis of the show - is really interesting and I want the show to concentrate a bit more of that. This episode was far more interesting than episode 2 because Emily is a great character, well acted and her ongoing search for herself is so well done.

Oh yeah, I was never going to get that. It just shows how amazingly clever this show is. I laughed anyway, even if I didn't know what it was referencing. Now I think it's even wittier and will become my new favourite phrase.

That's what I think too. It's possible they were the original universe and it's not that Alpha and Prime are copies of each other but that they're BOTH copies of... Omega. I have to admit this show has finally lost me. I got really confused as to several parts of this episode, up to and including Emily Prime wanting Howard Alpha to believe that Emily Alpha was part of Indigo - why? And why think she was part of the plot when she was trying to stop it and Indigo went to such great lengths to try to stop her? I also got confused at the deal Emily Prime made with management. I thought it included Howard's freedom but instead he got transferred to ECHO.

I think the only reason for management to be so damn weird is if it's a joint management of both worlds. But some of the orders they gave at the end of season 1 suggest otherwise. It could be. But if they're not colluding with each other then I'm not sure why all the secrecy is involved - or why nobody questions that secrecy either. I can't say this was a great first episode. It seemed a bit like a continuation of the previous season, not a new one. That's not necessarily a bad thing for the overall narrative but it does mean that we haven't gotten a new story hook. I never found Cold War spy craft a particularly interesting genre and this is becoming more and more what the story is about. The performances are still excellent though. Really amazing.

This was just one-liner after one-liner. "Jesus based on the novel Christ by Sapphire" was my favourite even though I'm not entirely sure if it's a cultural reference I'm not getting. Frankly, this episode was everything I love about The Magicians. It was funny, it was true to its characters, it was fast-paced but took time to let moments breathe, it was surprising, it was a bit profound and it treated everyone - even minor parts and guest stars - with respect. I really like how everyone's being positioned leading up to the end of the season too.

For me it's just a case of the writers creating conflict when there is none to fill an episode. Frankly, there was no need for any of this and they could have just skipped to the formation of the unit. Apropos of nothing, though, is anyone keeping an episode by episode list of exactly which people, places and things Dinah seems to want to have sex with every time she delivers a line?

Hey, you remember how Oliver has been working perfectly happily within the confines of the SCPD for months now? No? Neither did the writers of this episode.

Thanks, I knew we would have been told but I couldn't remember it.

I'd like it to be explained but I can imagine that it's just the Underworld branch that's special. Penny seemed to be implying that they have some kind of master set that transcends space time and they can't even warn other library branch staff about certain things i.e. they can't warn that librarian that Harriet's mother (sorry I'm spacing on names today) is hallucinating and lying to him.

I'm squarely on Team 'This Flash Forward Has Destroyed The Show'. Which is odd, because I would have sworn last season it was NTA.

I don't know if they've ever spelled it out. But it seems obvious that that Underworld has access to a different set of books, since they were commenting on things that the other Library doesn't know because Alice ?hid? ?took? their books. Man, I can't even remember plot points from earlier in the season, no wonder I can't remember things from season 2.

Oh yes, this is a good point. I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean he hasn't drunk the Kool Aid - he's completely Team Library so his advice to Penny 23 is still suspect (although, if he's not interfering then why did he just interfere?)

Was this episode the same number in the season as that awesome one they did last season that got Harriet trapped in the first place? It had a similar feel to it and dealt with similar themes (although it couldn't top it - but then nothing could, that's one of my favourite episodes of television ever). Every time I think this show might be slipping, they pull out something truly epic like this. It's season 4 and the show's themes and characterisation are still on point. I'm reminded of their epic season 1 finale when they went "Oh, did you think Quentin was the hero of this story? Oh yeah, he's not." That was the episode that sold me on this show and I love it's never lost sight of that. And you could say that Quentin is, in fact, the emotional heart of the group but in the books this show is critiquing, the white cis male lead was the Great White Saviour not the emotional centre. It actually places Quentin in a position usually reserved for a female character. I really liked the way this episode explored the actions that led to the destruction of the Modesto Library. If I had any criticism of it though, it would be around the slightly heavy handed dealings of the protagonist issue - it's one thing it's managed to do throughout the show without spelling it out and so some of Penny's monologue felt a little clunky.