S02.E01: Night of Crowns

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

In the aftermath of their clash with the Beast, Quentin and his friends scramble for a new plan. Meanwhile, Julia and the Beast strike a dangerous deal.

Promo:

 

Clip:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First of all, the cast members were not exaggerating at all when they talked about how gorgeous it was to shoot on location and how amazing the new sets are. The cliff where they got their crowns, the rainbow bridge (which is not where pets go after they die), even the little flower mandala Eliot made that turned into butterflies - everything was so beautiful in this episode!

Nice to see that Quentin and Penny are the same as ever. Of course Penny had to be a dick! I only wish Quentin had been there to see that whole conversation so that he would know Penny is a dick to EVERYONE. I am dreading when the blood that Quentin gave to the witch comes into play.

I read all three books after S1 finished airing so I knew that the S1 finale meant that S2 was going to have some major changes from the books. So far it looks like they're going to do a decent job of keeping the major plot points from the second book combined with the huge changes they made in the S1 finale.

My biggest disappointment is that I would rather see the cast interacting more and at least for now it looks like Julia is still going to be separated from everyone with her Beast storyline similar to the way she was separated last season with her Marina/Richard stuff. As much as I love Brakebills, I hope that Eliot isn't separated from everyone else's stories for too long.

And poor Eliot! Heavy is the head that wears the crown. He was so sad about not being able to go back to Brakebills with the others and worried that they might not come back in his lifetime. So sweet when he asked Quentin for a hug. Of course then he had to be cheeky and ask for a little ass squeeze too. I also loved the sincerity when he apologized to Alice and then Margo and Quentin tried to make amends too.

I was really disappointed when the Beast wasn't killed in the S1 finale, but I am now cautiously optimistic about him sticking around as a character. His delight with the modern human world should be fun (similar to Crane's reaction to cars and Starbucks in the first season of Sleepy Hollow - now I wish I'd seen Crane jumping in a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese!), and his ability to relate to what Julia suffered is giving her more to do than alternate between angry and sad. Even though I think his ulterior motive is exactly what he told her (she has potential and they could make an eeeeevil team), I think part of him still really feels for her, despite the fact that his spark is gone, and he truly thinks that he is helping her by telling her to rid herself of the pain.

Edited January 26, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[GaT]

I am amazed at how much I have no clue as to what's going on.

[kj4ever]

6 hours ago, GaT said:

I am amazed at how much I have no clue as to what's going on.

LOL!  I needed to seriously do a rewatch before this came on.  I felt the same way but then started remembering things.  Last season was a year ago and there was A LOT going on toward the end.  I think I'm going to watch the last few episodes of season one this weekend.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Loved that the knight of crowns had 90s trivia questions but even better were the responses. I was cracking up that both Alice and Margo knew the Wilson Phillips one and I was cracking up at Penny being a dick because Quentin knew about Wings. But Eliot doing Johnny's big speech was hilarious! I had to bite my tongue to keep from reciting it with him. Also hilarious: Penny rolling his eyes during the crown ceremony. 

[TiffanyNichelle]

I legit cheered when Elliot said word for word Swayze's speech from the end of Dirty Dancing. Just a little disappointed that he didn't then break into the final dance.

Loved that crowning ceremony. It was nice to see the four of them taking a moment to acknowledge the fucked up stuff that they've done to each other in the recent days. And of course Penny is in the background rolling his eyes over it. This is why the river dick dude cursed you. He was a dick but he was also right about Penny's habit of careless lashing out at people and not thinking about how that may come back on him some day.

The Q and Elliot hug made me very happy. I dig them as friends.

Seeing Julia back into the blue drenched "real world" storyline with The Beast was annoying. That blue wash over there scenes brings the mood down. Didn't like Julia last season, still don't like her now. Working with The Beast for a "good reason" while trying to work out loopholes to protect Q and the others doesn't work for me. She always thinks she's way more clever than she is. Yes, she's smart but she's not outsmarting The Beast who I can easily see turning the tables on her and working with Reynard.

[iMonrey]

I was surprised how much I missed this show - I was sort of on the fence about it through most of Season 1 right up until the last few episodes when they got into the Fillory stuff. Really enjoyed this one - such nice little moments. The crowning scene was really quite tender and I loved all the humor too, especially the Knight of the Crowns asking all those 90s trivia questions. Who else thought he might ask "What is your name? What is your quest? What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"

And, dare I say it - the goodbye scene between Quentin and Eliot was kind of  . . . profound? I mean, I don't think they ever established that time ran differently in Fillory the way it does in Narnia, which means Quentin, Alice, Margo and Penny might come back the very next day and find 1000 years have passed and Eliot is long dead and gone. 

I feel like The Beast is just playing Julia because it seems like he could have easily killed her while she slept (and while he was enjoying violent video games in the next room). I got a kick out of him putting ketchup on his Chuck E. Cheese Pizza.

If I had one complaint is that they pushed a pretty easy "reset" button considering the way the last season ended with most of them seemingly dead. I felt like that was a little bit of a cheat, but then again I guess I'd rather not lose half the cast.

What happened to Kady last season? I can't remember.

[kat165]

Yay! Our show is back!

I'm with you, EB. The locations were beautiful. I'd love to live there, without all
the strife and turmoil, of course.

Yeah, I'm dreading the blood coming into play too. Was that scene really fast, like
blink and you missed it? Cause I didn't recall seeing him give her the blood, they
were talking and next thing I knew he was with Alice, Elliot etc. And what was that
place/dwelling they all had come out of? The blood lady's shack? It seemed to go
by in a blur or was badly cut or I drifted off for a second.

I wasn't looking forward to being in Fillory, I liked the present day environment in
season 1 so much, but now I kind of never want to leave Fillory. And what did that
drifter do to Penny's hands? I kept expecting them to fall off again.

I too don't want Elliot to be missing for so long. He's one of my favorite characters.
He's so cute and his line readings are so well done. I don't really care much for
Stella Maeve, or maybe it's her character, but I was mostly bored during all her
scenes. I wonder if I'd like her better if her story was more incorporated with the
others?

I'm looking forward to Katie coming back.

And why isn't the girl that Elliot married (?) last season one of the queens rather than
Margo or Alice?

I'm glad the beast wasn't killed. I'm enjoying him too. If I was Julia I'd be very afraid.
He doesn't seem trustworthy at all. And that oath of protection to end as soon as she
gets Reynard seems rather stupid to have made on Julia's part. What sort of payment
besides the knife will the Beast extract?

The Knight of Crowns reminded me so much of the knight in Indiana Jones & the Holy
Grail, I almost thought it was the same actor/character. Elliot's Patrick Swayze was
hilarious.

Tiffany, yeah, he should have broken into the dance. That's why I thought he took Alice's
hand, that he was going to dance with her.

I don't mind the blue wash over Julia's scenes. She's kind of a mope so all the blue kind of
suits her!

[HunterHunted]

5 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Loved that the knight of crowns had 90s trivia questions but even better were the responses. I was cracking up that both Alice and Margo knew the Wilson Phillips one and I was cracking up at Penny being a dick because Quentin knew about Wings. But Eliot doing Johnny's big speech was hilarious! I had to bite my tongue to keep from reciting it with him. Also hilarious: Penny rolling his eyes during the crown ceremony. 

I was really hoping that there would be a Baywatch or Xena question.

[KaleyFirefly]

This is now a very big departure from the books, so it's like a different story, but I like it anyway. I do hope they make show Quentin more like book 2-3 Quentin though. Elliott is my favorite character, especially on the show. 

Julia is still WAY too trusting. She really doesn't think that the Beast is trying to find loopholes in their agreement? And the second he kills Reynard, he's going to kill her too.

I liked the crown ceremony and that Penny didn't care about being a king. I liked that Elliott apologized to Alice, but it would have been nice if Margo had apologized too.

[Philbert]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

 

What happened to Kady last season? I can't remember.

 

She ran away. Julia hoped she got away but didn't know for sure.

[Mya Stone]

I actually rewatch marathoned this show last week so it was really fresh in my mind. 

Call me crazy, but I get the feeling that the Beast gets Julia on the level of them both being sexual assault victims. I truly think that's the one thing that has him intrigued by her, and drawn to her - that she wants to hold onto the pain and work through it, whereas Martin did whatever he could to escape it, and eventually losing his humanity. He may even respect it. 

 

Or I'm expecting too much from him and projecting. At any rate, I actually respect that the show isn't shying away from the PTSD of it. Julia having bone chilling nightmares is a very real thing following an assault. 

 

Onto things not mentioned yet in Fillory. I loved Alice's quick "We're not getting back together" to Quentin before she kissed him. I loved Margo's crowning Q, and her stating she couldn't apologize for sex she didn't remember, as well as her king name for him. Eliot was back to being the character I loved. As stated before, his goodbye to Q was so poignant, I loved it. 

 Finally, thank you to Penny's jaunt in the river. Mmmm mmmmm mmmmmmmm. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

I'm dreading the blood coming into play too. Was that scene really fast, like
blink and you missed it? Cause I didn't recall seeing him give her the blood, they
were talking and next thing I knew he was with Alice, Elliot etc. And what was that
place/dwelling they all had come out of? The blood lady's shack? It seemed to go
by in a blur or was badly cut or I drifted off for a second.

The cottage witch told Quentin he could pay her in blood (but they didn't actually show him giving it to her, which is probably for the better because I wasn't sure if she was going to take him to an inexplicably state of the art blood bank type set up in the basement or if they were going to do the tv thing where someone slashes their hand with a knife and then squeezes blood into a jar). Then they cut to Quentin and the cottage witch walking away from her cottage and into the forest to go back to the house of horrors where Quentin thought everyone was dead or dying. Quentin and the cottage witch ran into Alice, Eliot, Margo, and Penny who were clearly alive, so Quentin asked the cottage witch if he could have his blood back since he didn't need her help anymore and she basically told him he was a dumbass and that she was keeping his blood.

[kat165]

Thanks, EB. I thought I missed something. Yeah, we didn't need the graphic of
the blood taking. I did catch the part about her not giving Q his blood back. But
when he met up with his friends, what place was that the friends were coming out of?

[iMonrey]

Quote

I actually rewatch marathoned this show last week so it was really fresh in my mind.

Good . . . can you fill me in a little bit more about what Kady's story was? I seem to recall she helped Julia break into Breakbills, for some spells? Is that right? She had to run away because she got caught? I'm honestly blanking on what happened to her after the whole trip to the north pole or wherever they were.

[tennisgurl]

This show is just so pretty to look at! Lets get back to Fillory ASAP and see more locations! And someone needs to hang out with Eliot, the poor guy. He needs more hugs, clearly. Or an ass grab, whatever works for him.

Really good introduction to the new season. Good mix of humor and actual emotions. This show has a rough start, mainly because I thought all the characters were assholes (which they still kind of are, but they're trying to do better!), but it really improved, and this seems like the start of an interesting season.

Oh Penny, your dick behavior has finally backfired. I did laugh at how pissed off he was at the river guy (are you even officially affiliated with this river?!?!) and how he was trying to scam them. Then, even after that, he spent the whole crowning ceremony rolling his eyes and looking bored. At least he got his hands back!

I also cracked up at Quentin insisting they do the whole crown ceremony "properly", even after finding out what a mess Fillory was. And I was so convinced that guardian guy was going to start asking them about the airspeed velocity of a swallow, but pulling out random 90s trivia was almost as good.

Julia really hasn't learned much has she? I like Julia, I really do, but she makes the WORST life choices. She needs Elliot to become her Sassy Gay Friend ASAP (Look at your life, look at your choices!) before she makes more sketchy deals with magical beings. I mean, I get that she probably isn't thinking super straight, being as she just got her memories back of a really awful thing that happened, but she needs to stop jumping into things without thinking them through. She jumped into the Hedge Witches, and that didn't end well, she jumped into summoning some god she didn't know much about, and that REALLY didn't end well, now she is making a deal with a magical fairy monster/angry wizard who she knows is a bad guy! That being said, I do think The Beast really does want to help her. I think he feels connected to her, being victims of sexual assaults, and wants her to embrace her power. However, Julia might not like where that takes her.  

[WildPlum]

Some points I liked, a bunch not so much.

The thing I liked the most was Julia talking to Martin about "her friends" and Martin's little quirky smile while he says something about them not seeing things quite her way. In Julia's mind they are all still buddies, even after making a pact with Martin after he kills everyone except Quentin and then abandoning them.

Typical Julia and underlines what my problem with this show is. They are ALL narcissistic jerks with only occasional flashes of humanity and I doubt, very much, that will change much. Same problem I have with the novels and the show Game of Thrones - gave up the books after Book 2, gave up the show after Episode 3. I'd hoped with a smaller ensemble cast, this show would flesh characters out a bit better. Not really.

[ketose]

On 1/26/2017 at 1:07 PM, kat165 said:

And why isn't the girl that Elliot married (?) last season one of the queens rather than
Margo or Alice?

They said that only people from Earth could be kings or queens. It's sort of like British royalty, where the Queen is from the blood line and her husband is only a prince.

 

On 1/26/2017 at 6:30 PM, KaleyFirefly said:

This is now a very big departure from the books, so it's like a different story, but I like it anyway. I do hope they make show Quentin more like book 2-3 Quentin though. Elliott is my favorite character, especially on the show. 

Julia is still WAY too trusting. She really doesn't think that the Beast is trying to find loopholes in their agreement? And the second he kills Reynard, he's going to kill her too.

I liked the crown ceremony and that Penny didn't care about being a king. I liked that Elliott apologized to Alice, but it would have been nice if Margo had apologized too.

In a way, I think the three-way meant more to Elliot, so he was apologizing to Alice for letting his attraction to Quentin lead to a dumb thing. Margo kind of just used Quentin because he was there, so she felt more like apologizing to him because she initiated something that messed up Q's relationship with Alice.

So far, I like where things are going. I just hope the Beast isn't going to make it to Season 3.

[Philbert]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Good . . . can you fill me in a little bit more about what Kady's story was? I seem to recall she helped Julia break into Breakbills, for some spells? Is that right? She had to run away because she got caught? I'm honestly blanking on what happened to her after the whole trip to the north pole or wherever they were.

 

Yes, she was helping Marina to steal supplies from Brakebills because her mother owed a debt to Marina. She was exposed while studying at the North Pole and fled rather be taken back to Brakebills and mind-wiped. She took off without Penny (breaking his heart) rather destroying his career as a magician. After returning to New York planning on getting revenge on Marina for her mother's death, she instead wound up in Richard's "magical therapy group" and becomes friends with Julia. We find out in the last episode that when Reynard the Fox killed the group, Julia allowed herself to be caught and raped, so Kady could escape. That's the last anybody saw of her.

[kat165]

Thank you, keytose, I hadn't caught that part.

Edited January 29, 2017 by kat165

[ElectricBoogaloo]

 Behind the scenes:

 

Clips on Syfy:

Crowning ceremony:

 

Throwing shade:

[Guest]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 3:01 AM, GaT said:

I am amazed at how much I have no clue as to what's going on.

You aren't the only one.

17 hours ago, ketose said:

In a way, I think the three-way meant more to Elliot,

This is the thing that totally escaped my memory.  I was seriously WTF on all the references to the cheating from Alice and Margo saying she'd slept with Quentin.  I literally didn't remember it until I read this.

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 0:02 PM, TiffanyNichelle said:

I legit cheered when Elliot said word for word Swayze's speech from the end of Dirty Dancing. Just a little disappointed that he didn't then break into the final dance.

That was the best thing I've seen on TV in a while.  I was hoping everyone would have to do a Swayze speech.

A little something from Road House or Red Dawn or Point Break.  Then when everyone else has gone, Penny's just says "Ditto"

Edited January 28, 2017 by ParadoxLost

[ketose]

I'd go with "Be nice, until it's time not to be nice."

I kind of want to read the books, but it's a $35 Kindle investment and a lot of reading time. I think I'll wait to see if there's a season 3.

[Hanahope]

On 1/28/2017 at 7:40 PM, ketose said:

I kind of want to read the books, but it's a $35 Kindle investment and a lot of reading time. I think I'll wait to see if there's a season 3

The books are good, just different (well S1 has some similarities, at least for Q, but Julia is pretty different till the end; and so far looks like S2 is going to be quite different from book 2).  I borrowed from the library.

So far, I'm liking the changes and new story line.  Julia does need to be careful around Beast Martin, since he is a true sociopath.  I suppose with him still alive, there's still the chance a future episode/season will follow the book's way of killing him and that fall out.

I hope we still get to see Elliot even when he's stuck in Fillory without the others.

Like others, the 90s trivia was hillarious.  gotta admit, Wings was my first 'go to' answer about Tim Daley.

I hope we see Kady/Asmo soon, and she's fox hunting as well.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside S2.E1:

[GenesisRed]

On 1/26/2017 at 11:07 AM, kat165 said:

And why isn't the girl that Elliot married (?) last season one of the queens rather than
Margo or Alice?

 

I remember in the episode that only Earth-born people are able to become high-king. I guess that rule applies to the other three kings and queens? Any book readers have insight on this?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Because it's Margo's jam:

 

Because Eliot loves Swayze (and it's the 30th anniversary!):

[Hanahope]

12 hours ago, GenesisRed said:

remember in the episode that only Earth-born people are able to become high-king. I guess that rule applies to the other three kings and queens? Any book readers have insight on this?

That is correct.

[theatremouse]

On 1/26/2017 at 9:42 AM, iMonrey said:

If I had one complaint is that they pushed a pretty easy "reset" button considering the way the last season ended with most of them seemingly dead. I felt like that was a little bit of a cheat, but then again I guess I'd rather not lose half the cast.

I see what you mean, and in general a reset like that would massively piss me off and feel a cheat, but unless I've forgotten the order of events last season, they established well before the moment of "most of them seemingly dead" that this involved a time loop and they'd all been there before, and been killed in doing so before, and getting slightly farther or not as far each attempt. So, to me, since they told us that BEFORE this instance of "everyone dead", their ending up not dead now wasn't the same as certain other shows doing a giant undo on an "everybody dead" moment. What was interesting to me was they became not dead here without resetting, since Alice had the extra power cuz of what she drank. So apparently some of the changes in the last run did matter. Because of that, it didn't feel the same to me as a full on reset (which, to me, would've also involved starting the loop again).  So the events of this episode, at least with regard to the undeadening, were more satisfying than your standard issue "we killed them all off! nevermind no we didn't because magic!" There was groundwork laid for this undo before it happened, rather than being an after-the-fact whoosh it's undone.

[Jynnan tonnix]

16 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I see what you mean, and in general a reset like that would massively piss me off and feel a cheat, but unless I've forgotten the order of events last season, they established well before the moment of "most of them seemingly dead" that this involved a time loop and they'd all been there before, and been killed in doing so before, and getting slightly farther or not as far each attempt. So, to me, since they told us that BEFORE this instance of "everyone dead", their ending up not dead now wasn't the same as certain other shows doing a giant undo on an "everybody dead" moment. What was interesting to me was they became not dead here without resetting, since Alice had the extra power cuz of what she drank. So apparently some of the changes in the last run did matter. Because of that, it didn't feel the same to me as a full on reset (which, to me, would've also involved starting the loop again).  So the events of this episode, at least with regard to the undeadening, were more satisfying than your standard issue "we killed them all off! nevermind no we didn't because magic!" There was groundwork laid for this undo before it happened, rather than being an after-the-fact whoosh it's undone.

That's pretty much the way I saw it as well, and since I was almost sure that the cast would remain intact, it was something I more or less expected. Therefore it didn't bother me.

[AudienceofOne]

Quote

If I had one complaint is that they pushed a pretty easy "reset" button considering the way the last season ended with most of them seemingly dead. I felt like that was a little bit of a cheat, but then again I guess I'd rather not lose half the cast.

This was my main problem  with the episode. I often feel like networks push for season cliffhangers - for reasons I fail to understand because it does not make more people tune in next season and only pisses everyone off when the show gets cancelled - and then the writers have to move past that quickly to keep telling the story. But this was extra ridiculous. I can only assume the writers weren't invested in it all.

They're all dead! It's ok, time will reset! Time didn't reset, they're just not dead anymore! 

Cliffhanger negated in literally one minute. I think it would have been better if Quentin had cured them through his deal with the witch. At least with the price of the blood it would have seemed less like a contrivance.

On 27/01/2017 at 2:24 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

But Eliot doing Johnny's big speech was hilarious! I had to bite my tongue to keep from reciting it with him. 

Hands down the best thing ever. That whole scene was everything I love about the show. Funny and dramatic and full of lovely character moments. 

On 27/01/2017 at 3:42 AM, iMonrey said:

I was surprised how much I missed this show - I was sort of on the fence about it through most of Season 1 right up until the last few episodes when they got into the Fillory stuff.

I was so excited when the show started again (although I saved up all the episodes before I started watching). I kept thinking 'yay, I love this show'. Then I remembered I actually disliked half of it. Hopefully it maintains the pace of the back half of Season 1 when things became much more coherent.

On 29/01/2017 at 3:31 AM, ParadoxLost said:

This is the thing that totally escaped my memory.  I was seriously WTF on all the references to the cheating from Alice and Margo saying she'd slept with Quentin.  I literally didn't remember it until I read this.

I had forgotten until Quentin started crowning Elliot. He gave him this look that was totally like, "yeah, I totally did the deed with you".  Those two sizzle.

[Camera One]

I finally got hold of the Season 2 DVDs.  This episode felt a little meandering but I liked spending another episode in Fillory.  For that, I didn't mind everyone getting quickly healed by Alice, but it did seem like they hardly put any thought into un-doing the dire climax from Season 1.  The Crowning ceremony was fun and I'm glad everyone is putting that contrived cheating episode behind them.

I was disappointed Julia was once again segregated to her own subplot by herself with the blue light.  I don't trust The Beast at all.  

[CigarDoug]

On 1/27/2017 at 5:32 PM, WildPlum said:

Typical Julia and underlines what my problem with this show is. They are ALL narcissistic jerks with only occasional flashes of humanity and I doubt, very much, that will change much. Same problem I have with the novels and the show Game of Thrones - gave up the books after Book 2, gave up the show after Episode 3. I'd hoped with a smaller ensemble cast, this show would flesh characters out a bit better. Not really.

Wait, so you can only watch a show where all the characters are positive and socially redeeming? That would leave out The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Godfather I and II and pretty much all of the decent TV shows and movies out there not made by Disney. Watching a character with serious flaws means drama and intensity. You don't have to root for the bad guys, but I think it would be pretty boring to watch a show with no bad people at all.