S02.E05: Cheat Day

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Quentin adjusts to his new life; Penny seeks help from an unexpected source; Eliot and Margo contend with the dangers of ruling; Julia and Kady discover another consequence of Reynard's attack.

Promo:

Sneak peek:

[kat165]

I hate being the first one to post especially since I have nothing insightful to say. Just want to comment to get the ball rolling. There's another show I watch that has at least 2 pages of comments by the time I log in to post & that's right after the show has aired. I don't like this other show even half as much as I like this one so it's always disappointing to wait for days for even just one other comment here. Sorry, had to get that off my chest! It's been one day and that other show already has 6 pages and I wish this show had 6 pages instead. :)

Elliot looked hot in that white gauze shirt. My shallow comment for the ep.

Alice: Since Alice had that god power when she fried up, even if it was waning, maybe that's why her body remained (as opposed to her brother's whose body disappeared) and maybe that's why she's able to haunt Q now, if in fact she is haunting him and is not just a hallucination on Q's part. I was so bummed that Alice died, especially so early in the season. I like Alice and don't like how the cast has been so separated since her demise. Although I am glad for those short trips back to Brakebill's and the head guy who I really like. Sorry, forget his name.

It looks like Q will continue to see Alice's apparition or whatever it is but there's something funky about her eyes, like she's a zombie now. I haven't read the books. Does anyone know if what happened to Alice here happened in the books? I don't mind spoilers as it will be ages when I can get my hands on the bks. Or maybe I should just check out the spoilers so if anyone answers my questions other won't be spoiled. Unless someone could pm me?

How awesome to see the Russian teacher again. Surprised he was what's her name's prof that she fell in love with. Q sitting in that office with his hair tied back and "working" at the pc and the coffee capsule question (does this taste like doughnuts?), etc. was hilarious. 

Foo Fighters!!

I was thinking that by the Russian teacher having Penny untie the ropes and shave off the wood (is that what he did? I didn't quite get what he was suppose to do with that wood and just saw shavings in a pile on the floor) that would enable his hands to do magic again. Sort of like working the kinks out. And even though his new hands were granted by magic, they did grow out of his wrists so I don't see how they are not "his" hands.

That's all for now. Hope I'm not alone in here for long. :)

Edited February 23, 2017 by kat165

[HunterHunted]

I'm irritated by the Fillorians United freedom fighters. By all appearances, they either couldn't or never tried to defeat The Beast as he decimated Fillory. They let him suck up all the magic. They lost any knowledge of how to grow crops. They talk about crippling taxes and rebellion, which is ridiculous because the Fillorian Council has been operating as the Regents for the 70 years since the Chatwins ruled. You can argue that the benign neglect of the children of earth has been detrimental because every 70 years or so they show up, rule for a couple of years and then abandon Fillory impairing the natives ability to set up their own stable form of government. However, Martin Chatwin didn't start out Beast level powerful. They could have stopped him. They didn't. They could have addressed the tax and rebellion issues on their own, but they didn't.

I'm glad that Quentin is much more bothered by casually using magic than whatsherface who niffined Charlie. The shit Quentin has gone through is far more traumatic with longer lasting effects.

I knew Julia was pregnant. Considering how quickly Alice seemed to lose her god power up and how little Julia's flagged, I knew that Julia was in the demigod way. The rape was bad enough, but being forced to carry this thing to term is body horror on a nightmarish scale. Knowing that it can influence others...revulsion.

[kat165]

I have the impression that before Elliot, Margo, Q & Alice showed up in their crowns there were no rulers at the castle. The Foo Fighters' time to implement their idea of government was then. So what happened? I can't see them being powerful enough to successful fight the beast, but they could have implemented other improvements. We also didn't get to see/hear what that rebell Foo Fighter had to say to Elliot when E asked him what he would have done. I wondered what he said. Next we see him E's wife is with him - she seemed to be thrown into the room (I'd have to rewatch to get a better impression) and I was confused as to how she came to be there. I'd thought that E had sent her but apparently not going by their conversation.

I was also confused by what happened with Julia at the clinic when she went in for the procedure. Why did the receptionist delete her appt? Out of protection or for some more devious/evil reason. Then the doc when she was attempting to the procedure. Eerily reminded me of scene in last season's Orphan Black ep when Sarah goes to have that implant/bug removed and the doc there turns the knife on herself. It was so eerily the same that I thought the doctors in both scenes were played by the same actress. So, is the fetus under some sort of protection spell?

Regarding my questions about Alice and her niffinness. Nevermind. Read the book vs show thread and summaries of the books at Wiki which answered my questions. I'm really looking forward to seeing where/how the rest of the season takes us.

Greenstreet is rather messed up. The less involvement Q has with her from now on the better for him. 

On 2nd thought, Hunter, are you implying that it was the fetus itself that prevented the doctor from performing the abortion? That's truly creepy. 

[GaT]

It's like Julia isn't even part of the same show as everyone else, are they ever going to have her reunite with the rest of the people?

[kat165]

I don't know the answer to that, GaT, but I think it would go a long way in making her more likable.

[FiveByFive]

2 hours ago, kat165 said:

I was also confused by what happened with Julia at the clinic when she went in for the procedure. Why did the receptionist delete her appt? Out of protection or for some more devious/evil reason. Then the doc when she was attempting to the procedure. Eerily reminded me of scene in last season's Orphan Black ep when Sarah goes to have that implant/bug removed and the doc there turns the knife on herself. It was so eerily the same that I thought the doctors in both scenes were played by the same actress. So, is the fetus under some sort of protection spell?

I think we've seen this trope a few times on shows like Charmed, Grim and Angel.  My guess is the baby is the one protecting itself. Originally it "influenced" the receptionist to delete the appointment.  That didn't work.  Then it made the Doctor drop the tube a couple of times.  That didn't work.  Finally it made the doctor kill herself because that was the only way she would have stopped. I guess we now know what special plans Reynard had in store for Julia. If he wanted her dead, he could have done it a long time ago.  Also, I mean, she's still hanging at her apartment so it's not like he has to go searching.

I kind of hate this plot only because when the baby is born they've always made it clear it can still choose either good or evil while it was operating with an undefined immeasurable power set in the womb and "seems" evil in the womb. (The truth is, the child always tries to protect itself and its mother.)

2 hours ago, GaT said:

It's like Julia isn't even part of the same show as everyone else, are they ever going to have her reunite with the rest of the people?

I feel like this happens in the second season of every show about a group of people with powers. They're all separated now into their little groups but they usually do come back together in clumps. It's likely whatever Julia is doing is going to collide with everyone else's goals at some point. Could the baby be the key to stopping the death of magic? That would be my guess. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[NorthstarATL]

I found the juxtaposition of the differing reactions to the products of rape to be interesting. Elliott embraced his and actually changed his mind about executing the FU Fighter (which will likely come back to bite him), while Julia tried to kill hers, and it defended itself.

[Philbert]

9 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

 

I knew Julia was pregnant. Considering how quickly Alice seemed to lose her god power up and how little Julia's flagged, I knew that Julia was in the demigod way. The rape was bad enough, but being forced to carry this thing to term is body horror on a nightmarish scale. Knowing that it can influence others...revulsion.

 

I know right? At this point in her life, Julia could be consumed by a nest of fire ants over the course of several weeks and it would still be less painful than what her life has become. I don't hate or dislike her the way other fans do but I'm still hoping for her death-just so she can stop suffering. Seriously, she just passed Angel on the "Martyrdom-o-meter."

[Hanahope]

9 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

They talk about crippling taxes and rebellion, which is ridiculous because the Fillorian Council has been operating as the Regents for the 70 years since the Chatwins ruled. You can argue that the benign neglect of the children of earth has been detrimental because every 70 years or so they show up, rule for a couple of years and then abandon Fillory impairing the natives ability to set up their own stable form of government. However, Martin Chatwin didn't start out Beast level powerful. They could have stopped him. They didn't. They could have addressed the tax and rebellion issues on their own, but they didn't.

So, based on what Martin/beast said, when he returned to Fillory (after he had spent his initial time there as a king) and began to use/drain the magic, the Fillorians wouldn't let him be king again, so he put the curse on thrones.  There were other "children of earth" that kept coming to Fillory, in a variety of ways I assume, and Martin's curse eventually caused them to kill each other/themselves.  Since the children of earth were the only ones who could be kings/queens, Fillory never had rulers for very long.  So how/why would the Foo Fighters even exist?  The children of earth kings/queens lasted, what, a month or two at a time before they died?  How on Fillory could they have messed up the land/taxes/etc.?  If anyone messed it up, its the Fillorian Council acting as regents.  And totally agree, if the Foo Fighters wanted to make things better, perhaps get a more stable government, take out the damn beast.  Elliot & Co. (at least Margo) are the best chance that Fillory has for a stable government.

So I'm not on board with this story line, which was not in the books, and obviously created solely for the show, and the worst, doesn't make sense.

I thought the whole body/appearance changing spells was squicky.  Not sure I'm all for the Greenstreet character story line they are creating, I guess it has to be seen.  Wouldn't we all love some job that we really didn't have do work at, but could just surf the net and post on forum boards all day. ;D

I don't know what it means that Alice is appearing to Q.  Is she still niffin?  did the Kako demon kill the body, but her spirit is still living as a niffin?  Or is that just Q's subconscious?

I too thought all the tasks the Russian teacher was having Penny do was to get his hands functioning again.  I also thought his hands just 'regrew' and thus needed another "20 years" or so of work.  

Finally, Julia's pregnancy, man poor girl.  Obviously she knows its Renard's baby now.  Will she be able to abort it, or will she have to come to term?

[iMonrey]

Gah, this show! One minute Margo is cracking wise about the Foo Fighters and in the next scene a doctor is stabbing herself in the eye. It's just so . . . bizarre. You know what this show is like? A dream. A dream where very little makes sense and everything keeps changing. It's just so odd.

I have to say, however, that the scene of what's-her-face changing into Alice was kind of profound in its sadness. Can you imagine, having just seen someone dear to you die in front of your eyes, and then to be able to make that person appear again so you could hold them one more time? There's something truly deep about the idea behind it and it really moved me. 

Overall the show feels very disjointed right now and I agree it seems like Julia and Kady are just in a different show altogether. I think if their storyline were eliminated altogether the show would be much more cohesive. 

And at what point do basic cable channels just give up and stop bleeping the F word? They're allowed to say "shit" now and "dick" and "jerk off" but not fuck? At one point they actually mis-timed the bleep and we heard the first four letters of "fucking" out of Penny's mouth so the only thing that got bleeped was "ing." Give it up already! We know what they're saying, it's not "shielding" anyone by bleeping it. If the language is too offensive, they won't watch.

[HunterHunted]

Technically they're allowed to say fuck on basic cable, but they FCC likes to use their authority over broadcast networks to bully cable networks to not use certain language or depict nudity. SyFy is an NBC Universal network. If SyFy lets the Magicians and the Expanse drop some f-bombs, the FCC might retaliate by fining NBC over everything. However, the real reason cable networks hold back is simply because of advertisers.

[kat165]

Thanks, 5x5. I never watched Charmed, Grim or Angel so my only reference is that OB ep. I didn't know it's
a trope. Good to know.

With the abortion interruption I thought it was perhaps something Reynard did and not the fetus itself. The
fetus having that power is all kinds of creepy. Curious to see where that goes though. I just realized that
I've been thinking of the fetus as being evil, like Reynard and hadn't considered that it may eventually have
a choice. I'm not a big fan of let's bring a baby into the story. Which also reminds me of Elliot's wife being
pregnant too. I hadn't connected the 2 pregnancies before. Blech. I hate babies being dragged into a good
story. I also think I hadn't connected the 2 pregnancies because it does seem like 2 different shows.

I'm not down with the Greenstreet storyline either. She seems unhinged. As she did when we first met up with
her last season. I too was squicked by the body changing.

A job where we played game and surfed the net would get boring after I awhile I think. But how nice to get
paid for something I do at home for free. :)

Re: Penny's hands - maybe the fact they they only grew back BY MAGIC is what is preventing them from 
functioning normally. As left as is the hands wouldn't have grown back.

So is it "Foo" Fighters or "FU" (which is also funny) Fighters?

Yes, iMonrey, it is odd. But I like it. It certainly keeps me awake and watching. Although I do sort of 
get distracted during the Julia scenes still.

 

[iMonrey]

Quote

With the abortion interruption I thought it was perhaps something Reynard did and not the fetus itself.

It may yet be Reynard, we don't actually know yet. At this point it's all speculation. I assumed it was Reynard as well. 

[Philbert]

55 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

It may yet be Reynard, we don't actually know yet. At this point it's all speculation. I assumed it was Reynard as well. 

 

I think the only thing we can safely assume right now is that the baby is Reynard's and not Richard's.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Philbert

[NorthstarATL]

3 hours ago, kat165 said:

So is it "Foo" Fighters or "FU" (which is also funny) Fighters?

My closed-captioning went with "FU", but CC isn't always correct. They did however use "Foo" when Margo made the joke IIRC.

[Poltargyst]

I knew the abortion wasn't going to happen, and I knew there was going to be bloodshed somehow.  Reynard's body count continues to rise.  That guy seriously needs his ass kicked.

[waving feather]

Q looked cute with his hair tied back. Can Fogg hook me up a job? Q just started his job and he already has a big office, and so does Greenstreet. It looks like it pays well too. 

It's icky that after losing a friend who basically died trying to fix your stupid image spell, Greenstreet is still playing around with illuision/ image spells fueled by her obsession. She's not right in the head. 

Poor Julia. No one deserves her life. 

Elliot annoyed me this episode because he's being such an idiot. Hasn't he learnt by now that Margo is always right and he should listen to her? It's amazing what a good friend Margo is because she put up with his many bad decisions. (Remember that time when he went into Fillory high and almost got them killed?) She's even spending most of her time in Fillory to help him out. Nothing is wrong with executing someone who tried to assassinate a high king in his position. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 2/22/2017 at 9:25 PM, kat165 said:

I haven't read the books. Does anyone know if what happened to Alice here happened in the books? I don't mind spoilers as it will be ages when I can get my hands on the bks. Or maybe I should just check out the spoilers so if anyone answers my questions other won't be spoiled. Unless someone could pm me?

FYI - you can always ask in this this thread which is specifically for non-book readers to ask questions about the books.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

11 hours ago, kat165 said:

So is it "Foo" Fighters or "FU" (which is also funny) Fighters?

Since the group is called Fillorians United, I'm assuming they are the FU fighters, but I agree that whether they're the Foo Fighters or the Eff You Fighters, it's still hilarious to this child of earth!

[wayne67]

Ever since the Beast died I've found Julia insufferable. Every time someone doesn't immediately complies with her she lashes out with vindictiveness, threats or magic. I wouldn't mind so much if she was simply a terrible person but she acts so incredibly entitled that I have no sympathy for anything that happens to her. 

While I thought Elliot made some good points about listening to complaints, it was also stupid to essentially ignore an assassination attempt. 

Oh well it seemed like one of those episodes where all the characters bugged me with their stupidity. Penny with his constant short temperedness about his hands that he got cursed because he didn't pay an unknown respect. Quentin with his bad decision making with a woman with obvious psychological issues and ... the FU fighters for trying to commit what amounts to genocide of Earth born people. 

It was nice to see Alice again though. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I wasn't a fan of Julia's story being separated from the others during S1, and this episode I didn't like that there are four storylines separated: there's Julia still on her own, Quentin is off at his new job, Penny is off at Brakebills South, and Eliot and Margo are in Fillory. Honestly, I understand why they are on their separate tracks right now, but I miss having more of them together so I hope that they aren't kept apart for too much longer.

Even though Julia isn't likable, I really felt for her. I was really hoping that the abortion would be a quick blip like it was on Jane the Virgin. Julia has suffered enough. She doesn't need to carry her rapist's child for the next nine months. 

Eliot chose Margo as high queen because she's his BFF but she is actually the person best suited to rule. She knows what to focus on (unlike Eliot who seems to only care about finding a way for the Fillorians to make champagne) and she has strategies for dealing with the problems they are facing (her list of insurrections was great). Eliot, on the other hand, seems too emotionally distracted, whether it's by Alice's death, Finn's pregnancy, or the lack of champagne (and now that we know Margo is popping back to Brakebills whenever she needs something, why hasn't either of them thought to have her bring back a case of champagne whenever she goes to earth?).

I get that killing the assassin would make him a martyr, but keeping him imprisoned (or letting him go free) would make him a folk hero as well. At least if he's dead, he can't try to kill you again. When he tried to kill Eliot, Fen went to a table or drawer to get something. Was she going to attack Bayler? Heh, as Margo said, shittiest security ever!

I understand Eliot wants a world for his kid where problems aren't solved by killing people, but does that mean he's not okay with killing the beast now? Isn't it better to kill a bad guy than to let a bad guy wreak havoc on the world that your kid will inhabit? The FU Fighters want to kill all humans from earth so that a Fillorian can take the throne. I'm going to assume that means they want to kill his kid too, so maybe something for him to consider before he gets all merciful on this rebellion.

Loved Eliot's sheer white shirt and Margo's sheer black pants. 

Mr. EB and I were already cracking up over Mayakovsky going all Mr. Miyagi on Penny, but at least his tasks ended up having a purpose. And I'm glad that Penny realized he doesn't want to give up magic.

I'm also glad that Quentin's little adventure with Emily made him realize that he doesn't want to use magic the way that she does and that pretending Alice is still alive isn't going to make him feel better. Love that Dean Fogg is sending his former students to the same companies. He must have a roladex called Places to Send Ex-Students Who Don't Want to Do Magic Anymore.

I'm irritated by the Fillorians United freedom fighters. By all appearances, they either couldn't or never tried to defeat The Beast as he decimated Fillory. They let him suck up all the magic. They lost any knowledge of how to grow crops. They talk about crippling taxes and rebellion, which is ridiculous because the Fillorian Council has been operating as the Regents for the 70 years since the Chatwins ruled. You can argue that the benign neglect of the children of earth has been detrimental because every 70 years or so they show up, rule for a couple of years and then abandon Fillory impairing the natives ability to set up their own stable form of government. However, Martin Chatwin didn't start out Beast level powerful. They could have stopped him. They didn't. They could have addressed the tax and rebellion issues on their own, but they didn't.

ITA - if they wanted to establish a Fillory for Fillorians, their major goal should have been to make themselves entirely self sufficient, which means figuring out how to solve their problems (like the crops) on their own so that they would not need the monarchs or the council. I mean, I get the basis of their rebellion. It seems fucked up that their land is destined to be ruled by outsiders, but if you don't want that to happen then you need to address all of the other problems in the country so that when the humans from earth swoop in every few decades, you can tell them, "Yeah, we're good so no thanks!"

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Making magic:

[generate789]

I think this is my favorite show that is currently on television. This last episode creeped me out (the doctor's expression right before stabbing herself in the eye was pretty ghastly, as was the eye-stabbing), made me laugh out loud several times, and actually got me a little teary (the Alice scene). This show may not be perfect, but the acting is excellent and it's incredibly entertaining and I wish I knew a single other person in real life who watched it. I tell everyone I know to check it out, but no one does! 

[Jynnan tonnix]

18 minutes ago, generate789 said:

I think this is my favorite show that is currently on television. This last episode creeped me out (the doctor's expression right before stabbing herself in the eye was pretty ghastly, as was the eye-stabbing), made me laugh out loud several times, and actually got me a little teary (the Alice scene). This show may not be perfect, but the acting is excellent and it's incredibly entertaining and I wish I knew a single other person in real life who watched it. I tell everyone I know to check it out, but no one does! 

It's probably my favorite as well, though, that being said, I really watch practically no TV to start with. My son introduced me to Supernatural a little overayear ago, and I've binge-watched that, then he happened to mention The Magicians a couple of months ago, then promptly had to go to boot camp (OCS Marines), so he hasn't had a chance to catch up on it, but luckily my daughter and son-in-law got hooked on it as well, so we watch, if not always together, at least in parallel. 

I really need to go back and watch some of last season where Reynard was introduced, but though I've rewatched about up to there, it becomes so dark for a while that I'm having trouble convincing myself to watch those episodes, and I'm still a bit confused as to whether the character (sorry, blanking out on his pre-Reynard name) was always evil, or whether he got "possessed" by Reynard somewhere along the line. I've always kind of liked MacKenzie Astin, so was rather enjoying the character until then, and now that I look back, I just can't quite remember how it all played out.

As far as Eliot deciding not to execute the FU fighter, maybe he got some information from him which we were not privy to, but which colored his decision. Not sure how much of a strategist Eliot is, but it seems to me that he does know something now that we don't yet. I do have to rewatch this one as well...most episodes seem to need at least two go-rounds in my brain before I quite get all the plot points. 

[Philbert]

10 hours ago, Jynnan tonnix said:

while that I'm having trouble convincing myself to watch those episodes, and I'm still a bit confused as to whether the character (sorry, blanking out on his pre-Reynard name) was always evil, or whether he got "possessed" by Reynard somewhere along the line. I've always kind of liked MacKenzie Astin, so was rather enjoying the character until then, and now that I look back, I just can't quite remember how it all played out.

 

There is no indication that Richard (who Reynard possessed after Julia summoned him) had any ulterior motives or was anything other than what he appeared to be. He seemed to genuinely care about Julia and part of what drove him to persuade her to summon "the Goddess" was his concern for members of the group, one of whom was dying of cancer. Julia mentions to Kady early in this episode that she wasn't sure who's baby it was-since she'd had sex with Richard shortly before her rape by Reynard. We're now positive that it's Reynards since either Reynard is protecting it (and why would he do that for Richard's kid) or it's protecting itself-which wouldn't happen if it was entirely human.

Edited February 25, 2017 by Philbert

[Jynnan tonnix]

2 minutes ago, Philbert said:

 

There is no indication that Richard (who Reynard possessed after Julia summoned him) had any ulterior motives or was anything other than what he appeared to be. He seemed to genuinely care about Julia and part of what drove him to persuade her to summon "the Goddess" was his concern for members of the group, one of whom was dying of cancer. Julia mentions to Kady early in this episode that she wasn't sure who's baby it was-since she'd had sex with Richard shortly before her rape by Reynard. We're now positive that it's Reynards since either Reynard is protecting it (and why would he do that for Richard's kid) or it's protecting itself-which wouldn't happy if it was entirely human.

OK, thanks...that's more or less the way I was remembering it, but  wasn't sure whether there were other things going on there that I had missed. I do tend to be pretty ADD, and do find myself frequently zoning out with some distraction or another no matter how interested I may be in whatever is going on .

[Jynnan tonnix]

By the way, it does crack me up (and take me out of the story a bit) when characters come out of one scene presumably naked right out of the shower, then wake up with shorts, bras, undies all intact the next morning. I think this was mentioned a couple of weeks ago in another thread, but it was especially jarring here. How hard is it to have characters roll out of bed wrapped in a sheet or pick a towel up off the floor to cover up with before standing up?

[Philbert]

4 hours ago, Jynnan tonnix said:

OK, thanks...that's more or less the way I was remembering it, but  wasn't sure whether there were other things going on there that I had missed. I do tend to be pretty ADD, and do find myself frequently zoning out with some distraction or another no matter how interested I may be in whatever is going on .

You're welcome. To be honest though, the main reason I remember what happened in S1 is that I rewatched the season on Netflix a few weeks ago, largely to remind myself what was going on before Season two started.

[kat165]

Thanks, Northstar & EB (good point!). And again, thank you, EB. I seemed to have missed that thread. Thank you 
for the link. Good to know!

Since I generally don't like Julia I'm becoming ok with her storyline being separate, but like you, EB, I prefer
to see Margo, Q, Elliot & Penny together. which reminds me: with Alice's demise don't they need a new 2nd queen
or can it be any gender combo and they could crown Penny?

Btw, Julia's story is heartbreaking even though I don't care for her and at this point I think that's mostly
down to not liking the actress. She seems so smug and entitled. And I don't think that's an acting choice.

And yeah, Margo does need to bring back some champagne so maybe Elliot can get his mind off that and on to
something more important/useful.

Generate, I head ya! I've raved about this show to everyone. Typical response, "oh I watch so many shows
already." Such a bummer.

Jynnan, I too wonder if Elliot got some info from the assasin that we weren't privy too also. It felt like
a scene got cut or it what we saw was rushed at the point when E's wife (what is her name?) seemed to be
pushed into the room with him. I want to rewatch this ep cause I think I missed a lot of what happened.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I think that whatever information Eliot got from Bayler will be revealed later. Maybe he struck a deal with him to become a double agent? Or at least revealed enough pertinent information that will allow Eliot to fight the FU fighters more effectively?

I understand the FU Fighters' desire to have Fillory ruled by Fillorians instead of humans from earth, but it seems that it's more than just earth vs. Fillory that's an issue. One guy on the council was very dismissive of commoners (of which Fen is one), so there is some classism at play here too. I'm pretty sure that if Eliot agreed to step down and let the upper class Fillorians on the council rule, the FU Fighters wouldn't be happy with that either. My guess is that one of the thigns that the FU Fighters really want is for their concerns to be addressed, so one first step that Eliot could make would be to have the council include commoners so that their voices will be heard. Other options: monthly town hall type meetings at the palace, Eliot could make regular visits to other parts of the kingdom to meet with commoners (I have no idea how big Fillory actually is so it might not be easy for commoners to travel to Whitespire).

[Isle Of Why]

On 2/23/2017 at 1:10 PM, iMonrey said:

And at what point do basic cable channels just give up and stop bleeping the F word? They're allowed to say "shit" now and "dick" and "jerk off" but not fuck?

They even bleep it when streamed at SyFy, for fuck's sake.

I guess I got used to Julia pretty much having a separate but parallel storyline last season. I wonder about Penny still being such an outsider, after all they've been though. It was interesting to hear Margo and Eliot gossip to each other about never really clicking with Alice: "She came with Quentin."

I get the most out of this show as a binge and just caught up on this season today; it's even better than season one I think.

[waving feather]

This show sneaks up on you. I started watching thinking it will be a fluffy young adult fantasy show and didn't have any expectation but I'm pleasantly surprised by how much the writers care about the characters and the storytelling. You can usually tell when the writers and showrunner are making an effort. It's one of my favorites on TV now. 

[Philbert]

With regard to SyFy bleeping "Fuck" out, you can see it uncensored on Netflix....season one anyway.

[ketose]

I binged Season 1 on Netflix, so I am only now experiencing the frustration of weirdly cut out vowel sounds of curse words. I'm kind of indifferent on the language thing. TV writers should be capable of writing dialogue without those words. Personally, I find they're more effective for extemporaneous expression anyway.

[tennisgurl]

Wow, seeing Alice made me a lot sadder than I expected. Poor Quentin. I really hope he gets back to magic soon though, this isn't healthy at all. And it seems like he sees that too. Man, I laughed really hard at Quentin's reaction to seeing how Emily made him look, and her reaction. "Maybe try a Russian accent?" Even Quentin was like "...ok this is getting weird".

Speaking of Mayakovsky, he is apparently the go to guy for Wax on Wax off style training. Really, I think he is a good teacher to work with Penny. He gives zero fucks about Penny's asshole tendencies, because he has plenty of his own.

I don't like Julia, but I do feel bad for her. Granted, a lot of stuff that's happened to her was started by her own bad choices, but she doesn't deserve everything that she's had to go through. And now she's stuck with a Reynard's demigod baby. It just better and better.

I enjoy how this show can flash back and forth from drama to comedy to horror so quickly. I think its works really well, and doesn't come off as jarring.

[Poltargyst]

People are down on Julia, but I keep in mind that Julia got totally screwed at the beginning of the series because she should have been accepted to Brakebills.  I understand it was the 40th or whatever time throught the time loop and that not accepting her was the variable they changed this time through.  And it worked!  The Beast is dead!  But, other than the fact that the Beast didn't kill her, Julia was screwed.

Now of course she has made bad decisions, but I don't blame her for wanting to learn magic since she is supposed to be learning at Brakebills, and what happened with Richard's group isn't her fault.

[ketose]

7 hours ago, Poltargyst said:

People are down on Julia, but I keep in mind that Julia got totally screwed at the beginning of the series because she should have been accepted to Brakebills.  I understand it was the 40th or whatever time throught the time loop and that not accepting her was the variable they changed this time through.  And it worked!  The Beast is dead!  But, other than the fact that the Beast didn't kill her, Julia was screwed.

Now of course she has made bad decisions, but I don't blame her for wanting to learn magic since she is supposed to be learning at Brakebills, and what happened with Richard's group isn't her fault.

Also, the murderous rapey fox god has been released because of the changes.

[AudienceofOne]

PREGNANT

Creepy gyno rabbit cracked me up. 

Tired of talking about why Julia is the worst. Julia remains the worst. The writers don't seem to know that Julia's the worst. That's one of the main reasons she's the worst.

Having said that, a pregnancy caused by rape is a pretty horrible thing. I find it bizarre that I have no sympathy for her even as I really felt it when she was begging the doctor for the abortion.

[Camera One]

I don't mind Julia's storyline as much this season now that Kady is in it.  I hate that the well-meaning doctor was forced to kill herself.  

This episode was a bit disjointed split 4 ways.  The Penny storyline was probably the slowest.  I wasn't too engaged by the Fillory subplot either.

Quentin's scene with the illusion of Alice in the shower was very sad, but well done.  

[CigarDoug]

Maybe it's me, but it feels like both the FU fighters and RecoveringMagicians.com both seem like they are tacked on to the story. Elliot needs to have more conflict in his role as High King, and he needs to have doubts about his new wife, so here is this resistance movement, how convenient. I am glad Elliot's time in corporate America is just one episode long, I am pretty sure we won't see Greenstreet again. Is it a total coincidence that Elliot meets another former magician who happens to be the same student that Mayakovsky slept with and got banished over, and we learn of both in the same episode? Did Fogg intentionally put Q on a collision course with Greenstreet so he can have closure over Alice? It's a little too pat for me, but that's just my take.

[CigarDoug]

Not really a spoiler from Season 3 Episode 1, but a member of the Board visits the Dean and it is established that there are companies that make money off of magic (like RecoveredMagicians.com), they form the Board of Trustees which funds the school (which probably means no tuition or low tuition?) and that is how the Dean can place students in jobs so easily. Glad they filled that in for us.