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S01.E04: The World In The Walls

ElectricBoogaloo

By ElectricBoogaloo
in The Magicians [V]

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wayne67

wayne67

Honestly, Julia's little ATM trick also was illustrative of another.  Someone mentioned that "Oh, those things are always under video surveillance" but if they've got something to manipulate a machine into spitting out cash, I have to imagine they've got something that can disrupt the video feed. 

 

Unfortunately it's unclear whether she was blocking video surveillance or not since we never saw her learn that spell. So it's unclear whether she was doing magic recklessly without considering consequences or whether she was doing so out of a lack of morality. We've never seen Julia have a job or working so it's unclear how she paid for things prior to learning ATM stealing magic.

 

Also if Hedge Witches fund their life via theft that could be another reason Brakebill students think less of them as a group. 

 

We don't really know what effect magic has on this universe. Does it poke holes in reality, is it consequence free, are there unforeseen supply chain issues eg people losing their jobs because of discrepancies in bank accounts and or an overflow of gold in the markets. 

 

At this point I don't even know if the spell Marina and Julia used on Quentin is black magic or whether they have such a concept in this universe. The Dean seemed kind of unruffled by a spell that essentially traps someone in a never ending nightmare. It would be good to have some indication of how difficult/complex that spell was. Could Julia have cast that spell on her lonesome ? Or did she need the magical power of a more experienced Hedge Witch. 

 

This stuff bugs me because it's hard to be invested if I don't really know what the stakes are for the characters most of the time. 

  • Love 1
WildPlum

WildPlum

Well, if we can believe the exposition we got from the Dean (and his attempt to help Quentin by dropping vital wards to help him at least somewhat demonstrates his goodwill), the way magic is taught matters - that being taught the wrong things in the wrong order leads to problems. I forget the exact quote, but it is along the lines that learning and using magic changes you and it needs to be done the "right" way. 

 

The exposition came in a montage feature of Julia learning spells out of a book the hedge witches had, presumably to demonstrate that Julia was learning the "wrong" way.

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wayne67

wayne67

(edited)

Well, if we can believe the exposition we got from the Dean (and his attempt to help Quentin by dropping vital wards to help him at least somewhat demonstrates his goodwill), the way magic is taught matters - that being taught the wrong things in the wrong order leads to problems. I forget the exact quote, but it is along the lines that learning and using magic changes you and it needs to be done the "right" way. 

 

The exposition came in a montage feature of Julia learning spells out of a book the hedge witches had, presumably to demonstrate that Julia was learning the "wrong" way.

 

I think the gist of it was supposed to be that having a power of a God without having the discipline and patience to use it properly can lead to bad things... like beckoning to otherworldly Beast or trying to provide a body for a homicidal spirit or trapping someone in a nightmare forever as a 'prank'. 

 

One of those "just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should."

 

For instance Marina boosting Julia's magic without providing her with any foundation on why she's learning it or what can go wrong or even providing a decent reason as to why she should be bothered learning that particular spell. 

 

Personally I'm not sure what an appropriate way of dealing with psychotics with magical powers is. I mean if mind wiping doesn't work and is morally questionable. What are the other options? Allow them to use magic unchecked ? Magical police ? Magical jail ? Executions ? 

 

In this episode alone Marina and Julia committed telepathic assault with indifference to whether it'd cause insanity or death and we have no indication that there will be any consequences or punishment for either. 

Edited by wayne67
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stillshimpy

stillshimpy

(edited)
Well, if we can believe the exposition we got from the Dean (and his attempt to help Quentin by dropping vital wards to help him at least somewhat demonstrates his goodwill), the way magic is taught matters - that being taught the wrong things in the wrong order leads to problems. I forget the exact quote, but it is along the lines that learning and using magic changes you and it needs to be done the "right" way.

 

Plus, we've already seen one Brakebills student killed by using magic he couldn't control (Alice's brother) and another who didn't heed warnings about what you aren't supposed to do (Emily) to terrifying result...and then The Beast appearing had something to do with the summoning spell that Alice and Quentin were performing to try and contact her brother, didn't it?  

 

So even in a stricter environment it seems pretty fraught with peril.  You would assume there has to be some magical sheriff's department, or something, because whereas Marina didn't do anything homicidal she did use magic to do something vengeful and apparently encouraged Julia to also use it for that purpose, which sounds like a freaking recipe for disaster.  

 

I mean, hell I wasn't all that comfortable with the concept of Marina getting any heavy-duty magical knowledge back.  She's already been willing to let Quentin more or less die with a complete disregard for his humanity.  So...that's scary.   

Edited by stillshimpy
Meredith Quill

Meredith Quill

Mod Note:

 

This is for discussion of the TV show only, no book talk allowed.

If your reply contains the words 'in the books' please post it elsewhere as it doesn't belong here.

 

From now on I will not spoiler tag posts that break this rule; I will simply move or even delete them (aka they'll disappear - as if by magic!), so please think carefully before posting as I would prefer to not have to do that.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

stillshimpy

stillshimpy

Between Quentin's (most likely intentionally terrible) singing, and then Penny showing up and calling him a racist motherfucker, I just about died.

 

Adding to the fun, for me, was the fact that Syfy's site automatically captions in Spanish (which I personally think is awesome) and to add that extra layer of fun, totally caption "you racist motherfucker" in Spanish.    It was like the giggle that kept on giving. 

 

I also get a good laugh out of Penny's wardrobe just because it makes so little actual sense and in the previous episode I'd commented that I loved that Kady and Penny wander around dressed like extras from some TOS ep of Star Trek, on the planet of the insanely hot, midriff-baring aliens and...then this week they actually mentioned one of the TOS episodes that inspired that remark.  So I had a lot of added fun in those scenes. 

 

Even Alice being there and just being batshit was kind of cracking me up.  There were a ton of fun details in that.  

 

Have we seen the actor who played the floor nurse before though?  The one who just enumerated the number of ways you can do something dangerous with tape in a fabulously deadpan, droning manner.   She was a lot of fun too, but I couldn't tell if she was from the reality of the school also, or just a gifted day-player they brought in.  

Terrafamilia

Terrafamilia

Was the dream nurse the same actress who played the healer who fixed Quentin's arm?

 

I was right there along with Quentin when he corrected dream dr/dean that Alice's alien mating delusion was from Star Trek rather than Lost in Space.

 

I'm willing to give Julia a little slack regarding the nature of Quentin's nightmare. Jane Chatwin kept telling Quentin that he was the author of everything that was in it so while Julia and Marina can be blamed for the fact that he was trapped in there, its particular content was the product of his own psyche and then the spell did the rest.

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queenanne

queenanne

Well this episode was the most I laughed. Surprisingly enough from Quentin. He got some really good moments this episode.

 

Yeah, I'm on board with the suggestion of Jason Ralph as MVP.  They already started to get me last week but I felt like I really "got" Quentin and the casting this episode, the actor kept tossing in all these little thoroughly appropriate, yet cute as hell little playing-against-situation touches, even outside of Taylor Swift.  Props to the casting director.  Equal amounts of madcap fun were had by Gupta's Penny and Appleman's Eliot, the latter making the full most of his 45 seconds.

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AudienceofOne

AudienceofOne

On 4/26/2016 at 1:35 AM, Ubiquitous said:

When I realized this was going to be a "protagonist is in an insane asylum" ep, I quickly lost interest and gave up, but being a completist, I made myself watch the rest of it and was pleasantly surprised.

I fast forwarded through all of that. So tired. So cliched. I pressed play when the real Penny showed up as I figured that was where the 'real' episode started.

As such, I watched this episode super quick.

Camera One

Camera One

(edited)

I've watched a couple of shows with a psych ward episode, but I didn't expect one so early in the series.  I think it was still reasonably interesting because we saw Quentin actively try to get out and it was clever of him to communicate with Penny using his thoughts.  That was really cruel of Julia of help to mess with Quentin's mind since she knew how fragile he was.  I'm glad she saw Marina's true colors in the end, though.  I was pretty tired of seeing Julia working with them.  It was nice to see Penny and Katie showing concern for Quentin.  The lax security of the school is hard to buy, though.  You'd think they would have other staff members monitoring the perimeter and the admin building while they did that procedure to wake Quentin.   I also liked that this episode had a bit more humor since the last two were rather bleak.

Edited by Camera One
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