S02.E09: Lesser Evils

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Quentin nears what could be a dead end to his problem; Eliot risks his life for his kingdom, and Margo makes a costly bargain to protect him; Julia, Kady and Penny find a possible ally.

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Clip:

[grandemocha]

Damn Julia, just..what the fuck? Hoping that Quentin will buy a clue and stop making endless excuses for his "best friend" because tonight she really screwed him over hardcore. 

Penny was the voice of reason tonight and it was refreshing to see. I figured out that Chris Gorham's character was going to be Reynard's son a few weeks ago so that was a cool reveal :)

[Poltargyst]

Julia is a beee-yatch but I still like her better this way.

A musical number!  And such nice voices.  Did they know they were going to make the actors sing and audition them musically as well?

Oh, Margo.  Oh no no no no no.  Penny last week, Margo this week.  What is it with people and these insane deals?  And the further agony of knowing it wasn't necessary.

We found Reynard's kid.  How interesting.  Seems like a good guy.  Maybe he'll help stop his dad.

This show never leaves me bored.

[NorthstarATL]

Everything IS coming up Elliott! So Fillory has ACTUAL Marriage Equality and not our watered-down version! New husband is hot! (I know I know the actor from somewhere, so time to go to imdb!) Things don't look so good on the baby front though. Fairies are notorious that way. Loved the musical bits as well.

  I know Julia is now evil, but I hope if they return her shade, it's not so shady as before. Just could not with the moping. Nice to see the guy from Covert Affairs as Junior Reynard. Hopefully he'll commit patricide before long.

[grandemocha]

2 minutes ago, NorthstarATL said:

Everything IS coming up Elliott! So Fillory has ACTUAL Marriage Equality and not our watered-down version! New husband is hot! (I know I know the actor from somewhere, so time to go to imdb!) Things don't look so good on the baby front though. Fairies are notorious that way. Loved the musical bits as well.

  I know Julia is now evil, but I hope if they return her shade, it's not so shady as before. Just could not with the moping. Nice to see the guy from Covert Affairs as Junior Reynard. Hopefully he'll commit patricide before long.

The new husband was on HEROES on NBC a few years ago. I can't quite remember his character name, but he did good work. Yes, Chris Gorham I remember from his days on Popular (Ryan Murphy's first show I believe) on The WB. Love the addition of these actors to the show!

[Hanahope]

Oh it's going to fly when Elliott and wife find out about Margo's deal.  But that's what happens when all  the rules are not provided.  M is right, she's a "c", but she did believe E's life was at stake.  I still wonder why E couldn't stab the other king when he had him unarmed? That doesn't take much skill.

I guess even niffin  Alice has some speck of feeling for Q, more than Julia. She should have known Q would sacrifice himself for A. 

Lets hope the Scooby gang doesn't have 2 gods to kill now.  The senator/son seems like a decent sort, for now at least.

Brakebills really needs to get better teachers/magicians to set their wards.  Took Reynard no time at all to breach.  And the Scooby gang didn't think about security cameras for the senator running for president  right after they took out cameras to rob a bank????  Sloppy.

[bowlwoman]

1 hour ago, grandemocha said:

The new husband was on HEROES on NBC a few years ago. I can't quite remember his character name, but he did good work. Yes, Chris Gorham I remember from his days on Popular (Ryan Murphy's first show I believe) on The WB. Love the addition of these actors to the show!

Leonard Roberts (actor) played DL on Heroes and he was also on American Crime Story: People vs OJ. And I remember Chris Gorham from Ugly Betty. :D

59 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

Brakebills really needs to get better teachers/magicians to set their wards.  Took Reynard no time at all to breach.  And the Scooby gang didn't think about security cameras for the senator running for president  right after they took out cameras to rob a bank????  Sloppy.

He got in when the Wellspring finally died and all the magic went away. The wards dropped and he was able to get in. And obviously, without Margo there to run the show, they were in trouble. :D

[owenthurman]

4 hours ago, NorthstarATL said:

New husband is hot! (I know I know the actor from somewhere, so time to go to imdb!)

I know him as Forrest, Riley's friend in season 4 of Buffy.

[GaT]

So, Julia is just a straight out bitch, am I reading that right?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[wayne67]

So what terrible thing did Julia do this episode ? 

[Hanahope]

9 hours ago, bowlwoman said:

He got in when the Wellspring finally died and all the magic went away. The wards dropped and he was able to get in. And obviously, without Margo there to run the show, they were in trouble. :D

Oh, I didn't put 2 and 2 together.  Of course, that's right.  For some reason, Fillory's wellspring controls all of magic (except Brakebills 'new/backup wards' - see below).  

56 minutes ago, wayne67 said:

So what terrible thing did Julia do this episode ?

She pushed Q outside the 'new/back-up wards' (which apparently work without the magic wellspring?) right into Reynard thinking that Q would "self preserve" and release Aliciffin to attack/kill Reynard (or at least the host body).  But instead Q just sat there, ready to be killed by Reynard, and nearly was except for the appearance of Senator-son.  

Edited March 23, 2017 by Hanahope

[racked]

9 hours ago, GaT said:

So, Julia is just a straight out bitch, am I reading that right?

She's definitely lost all morality, though I saw a flicker of caring when Q was hurt. She was also about to jump through the ward to save him at that last minute before Demi-God Son showed up.  I'm enjoying her bitchiness because it's a nice change from the gloomy Julia we've seen up until now, but I don't want it to last forever. 

I enjoy that Elliott gets to take a husband if he wants, but it seems like the kind of thing you should have to check with your current wife about? Poor Fen, she's going to have to give up her baby too. 

[iMonrey]

I don't know, I was kind of on Julia's side in this one. Quentin ended up releasing Alice anyway - he could have done it and killed Reynard. Two birds with one stone. Now thanks to Quentin we have to suffer through more of this Reynard bullshit.

This show is so crazy. That Les Mis number was just insane and awesome all at once.

Speaking of crazy, there was a really strange edit after the first commercial break, which showed Penny, Cady and Julia looking at the Senator on the laptop, and then suddenly the scene cut away to another. If SyFy isn't making cuts to this show, then the editing on this show is embarrassingly abysmal. And did I miss how Cady and Penny found out who Reynard's son was?

Crazy #2: this show bleeps out the f-word but not the c-word. Seriously? IMO the c-word is ten times more offensive than the f-word. I don't get it. It's like the show gets run through some kind of automatic censoring app that only screens out the f-word and everything else gets through. Even weirder, when someone says "fucking" they often only bleep the "ing" and you still hear the "fuck." Talk about random and pointless.

[Hanahope]

4 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

And did I miss how Cady and Penny found out who Reynard's son was?

Last episode (I think it was), Penny showed Kady a photocopy of a book, which he said was from Dana's life storybook, which he copied in the library (which apparently now Kady knows all about even though she's never been there or to Fillory).  When Kady asked him how he got it, he said that he signed the crazy libary service agreement for 1 million years.  The page Penny showed Kady had the name of her son.  I think it went so fast so we didn't actually see the name, nor would it have meant anything to us last episode, since we had never heard about him beforehand.

I did love the Les Mis number.  It was insane and awesome.  I wonder if they hired the actors anticipating that they may have to sing, so voices were checked.  Or possibly, that's just a thing most actors try to develope these days because you never know when it may come up.  Always possible some were dubbed in too.  I can totally see Elliott as Jean Valjean and a drama kid in high school.  And I laughed when the king's right hand man said he played Javert.  Of course he did.

[iMonrey]

Thanks Hanahope. I remember that scene now. I guess I was confused because initially Penny went to the library to get a book for Mayakovsky that would fix his hands so he could do magic with them again. The fact that he ended up finding a book that told where Reynard's son was seems very random. 

[ketose]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I don't know, I was kind of on Julia's side in this one. Quentin ended up releasing Alice anyway - he could have done it and killed Reynard. Two birds with one stone. Now thanks to Quentin we have to suffer through more of this Reynard bullshit.

This show is so crazy. That Les Mis number was just insane and awesome all at once.

The show manufactures bad timing. If Penny had traveled Martin Chatwin 20 minutes later, Reynard would be dead, Julia wouldn't have gotten in the way and Alice would be alive.

The musical number was far better than the crap on The Flash this week.

Dammit! We were so close to a Jake 2.0 reunion.

[grandemocha]

I understand why Quentin didn't let (niffin) Alice out to kill Reynard, he's still in love with Alice and even though its not really Alice anymore.he still is holding on to a little bit of hope that she'll come back somehow. Julia doesn't really feel love or many emotions at the moment so she had no problem tossing Q to the wolves so to speak. It was harsh but nothing will come of it.

One thing I didn't understand now that I've thought about it is how was Margo possibly allowed to make a deal to give Fen's baby to the fairies. It's not her child in any way, how can she promise it to someone? Fen is technically married to Elliot, doesn't that make her a queen too?

[call me ishmael]

22 minutes ago, grandemocha said:

I understand why Quentin didn't let (niffin) Alice out to kill Reynard, he's still in love with Alice and even though its not really Alice anymore.he still is holding on to a little bit of hope that she'll come back somehow. Julia doesn't really feel love or many emotions at the moment so she had no problem tossing Q to the wolves so to speak. It was harsh but nothing will come of it.

One thing I didn't understand now that I've thought about it is how was Margo possibly allowed to make a deal to give Fen's baby to the fairies. It's not her child in any way, how can she promise it to someone? Fen is technically married to Elliot, doesn't that make her a queen too?

I think the High Kings and Queens have to be from Earth.  Fen has no royal status in that way.

[Jynnan tonnix]

The musical number made me insanely happy! So random! Between Martin's character and this, someone on the staff must be a Broadway geek :)

When the magic fizzled out and Eliot fled, I couldn't help but think of "The Court Jester", where Danny Kaye's character is hypnotized to be the greatest swordsman ever, but keeps getting "snapped" in and out of the trance LOL. Yeah, musicals and swordplay are a winning combination in my book!

Oh, but poor Margo- and Fen, and Eliot, of course!...Making that promise was pretty much unforgivable, even if she felt she had no other choice. And especially as it turned out to be unnecessary. I guess that will provide all the Filorian drama for the immediate future, as all appears to be well there otherwise with peace, magic, and the wellspring restored. Not entirely sure how I feel about all those loose ends being wrapped up in one fell swoop, but will see how everything else ties into it.

Agreeing with iMonrey upthread, that it was a bit bothersome that Q would not let Alice free when it could have killed Reynard in the process only to do it only hours later  just because he was worn out. But I guess they still need him in the plot. 

I'm really hoping this show does not jump the shark anytime soon, because I'm loving it, and have not really been disappointed with any directions the plot has taken overall, even when it feels as tough they are really stretching limits, but between the bank heist episode (which I hated), and this one (which I loved), I'm worrying a bit that "borrowing" from other genres may lead to some lazy, gimmicky writing. Though that being said, I'd watch the heck out of "The Magicians - The Musical" if it ever became a thing!

[FiveByFive]

Everyone has come such a long way since season one and not in a good way.

Quentin: fell in love with Alice, lost her after she became a niffin, found out she bonded with him, lied to his friends about it and then set her free rather than box her which will allow her to possibly cause more damage.

Alice: died / became a niffin and now she's off to learn new magic in order to possibly cause more havoc.

Julia: was raped by a god after it killed all her friends, became pregnant, lost her "shade" in the process of getting rid of the child, wanted for kidnapping on Earth & is supposed to be in jail in Fillory (after murdering a ton of trees) & she nearly got Quentin killed. While at least Kady knows it's not entirely Julia's fault since she no longer has a "soul" (because of something she had no control over) there's currently no way to fix things

Eliot: trapped in marriage and in a world he doesn't even want to be on and now he's going to lose his child

Margo: brokered a deal to lose said child

Penny: lost his magic then signed a lifetime+ contract as a librarian's assistant to get it back

and then there's Kady who lost her mother but ... she's still doing better than her other classmates. 

I was never the biggest Quentin fan because he has always come off as a bit awkward and weak unlike someone like Margo who is strong willed and has no problem making hard decisions. However, both of their positions have or will land them in hot water with everyone else. 

Also I totally called Reynard's son as probably growing up to be a decent guy. Hopefully he won't be corrupted by Reynard but I'm hoping the little bit of "good" in him will prevail and he'll turn against him once he learns how evil he is. 

[grandemocha]

1 hour ago, call me ishmael said:

I think the High Kings and Queens have to be from Earth.  Fen has no royal status in that way.

Ah yes, I do remember that being mentioned on the show. But how can Margo possibly be allowed to give away Fen's baby without any input from Fen? Don't magical deals in fairy-tales usually require the permission of the person who is directly involved (Fen or Eliot)?

[Philbert]

18 hours ago, GaT said:

So, Julia is just a straight out bitch, am I reading that right?

Without her shade, yes. But from what I'm able to glean what the show has said about it, everybody is. Somebody's shade seem to be equivalent to what many people would call a 'soul.' It's like the vampires on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Without a human soul, the can kill without any remorse-at least that was the case before the writers started fiddling around with the Spike character. The implication is that any of the Brakebills group would end up like Julia if the same thing happened to them. Kady pretty much says that when she tells Julia that it's not her fault.

But she's still really dangerous so they had to lock her up.

[diebartdie]

1 hour ago, grandemocha said:

Ah yes, I do remember that being mentioned on the show. But how can Margo possibly be allowed to give away Fen's baby without any input from Fen? Don't magical deals in fairy-tales usually require the permission of the person who is directly involved (Fen or Eliot)?

Watch the scene closely; Margo made Fen agree to do anything Margo asked of her, Margo did not say what she was going to ask, just that whatever she asked would have to be obeyed and Fen agreed. Fen pretty much signed the contract without reading it or even seeing it.

[MeloraH]

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Speaking of crazy, there was a really strange edit after the first commercial break, which showed Penny, Cady and Julia looking at the Senator on the laptop, and then suddenly the scene cut away to another. If SyFy isn't making cuts to this show, then the editing on this show is embarrassingly abysmal.

I noticed the weird editing too. I kept rewinding thinking I just hadn't been paying attention but they jumped around a lot. I still don't really get how the Reynard/everyone standoff at Brakebills ended...I guess he crossed back over the wards then magic came back?

[KaleyFirefly]

I really hate Margo and Julia. Julia at least has the excuse of losing her "shade"...what's Margo's excuse? In season 1 her character was snarky sometimes, but now she's just a bitch who is mean to everyone, including her own people in the castle. She has no real friends other than Eliot. 

Could Niffin Alice have killed Reynard? How powerful are niffins? Quentin should have set her free to kill Reynard, since he was going to do it anyway. Sure, Julia shouldn't have thrown him out there, but once she did, he might as well have released Alice at that time.

I enjoyed the musical number. That was definitely Eliot's real voice, and he can sing. Margo, on other hand...not so much.

Interested to see the plot line with the fairies.

On 3/22/2017 at 10:15 PM, grandemocha said:

The new husband was on HEROES on NBC a few years ago. I can't quite remember his character name, but he did good work. Yes, Chris Gorham I remember from his days on Popular (Ryan Murphy's first show I believe) on The WB. Love the addition of these actors to the show!

Chris Gorham was in a show called Jake 2.0, along with the lady who was talking to Penny in the library.

[Spaceman Spiff]

This episode felt disjointed to me. I actually had to stop and check to see if I missed one. Q being caged and Penny finding Reynard's son seemed like huge leaps in the story. I didn't like the resolution to everyone's story either. Eliot avoids a war because hey us kings can also have a husband and this guy is willing. I would have preferred Eliot to win the duel the old fashioned way. Margo gives up Eliot's baby to the fairies to fix the well, which damn girl, talk about cold. Q refuses to release Alice when Reynard has him dead in his sights, but at the end does so because the "if you set something free and it comes back to you" adage?

If he was that willing to free Alice then let her face down Reynard. (Only draw back was Reynard seemed to think she was nothing to fear). Kady expresses what everyone here has been saying. Julia is all about Julia.

The only fun was the musical number.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I still don't really get how the Reynard/everyone standoff at Brakebills ended...I guess he crossed back over the wards then magic came back?

I think what happened is 1. Magic went down, Dean Fogg and the students hid behind wards activated by some kind of emergency generator that Reynard wasn't able to penetrate; 2. Julia threw Quentin through the wards at Reynard so he could let Alice loose; 3. Reynard's son showed up and walked through the wards to his father then both Reynard and his son vanished.

[tennisgurl]

Every show should add in a random musical number before a fight scene from now on. That was so awesome and weird, it was like watching a fantasy version of Legion for a minute there. Kind of like how more sword fights should end with the people involved just deciding to get married.

Oh Margo. I'm excited for the fairy story, even though it looks like even more trouble will come with them. Selling the baby is a really awful thing to do, not sure how Elliot will forgive her after this. Yeah she was trying to help, but there had to be SOME other plan. It did lead to a great scene the most competent member of the Fillory counsel, the Sloth! More sloth!

Speaking of being awful, looks like Julia has gone fully off the deep end, even if its probably not her fault. Its her obsession with stopping Renard, but without any feelings or morality. She had no idea if Niffin Alice would have even gotten rid of Renard, and no idea if Quentin would get rid of her, and she just handed him over to Renard without a second thought. He would have killed him (possibly among other very bad things) and it would have been on her. Locking her up until maybe they can fix her is the right call.

[Hanahope]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Oh Margo. I'm excited for the fairy story, even though it looks like even more trouble will come with them. Selling the baby is a really awful thing to do, not sure how Elliot will forgive her after this. Yeah she was trying to help, but there had to be SOME other plan.

Margo has really got to learn to watch her mouth.  It was her mouth that caused the war with Lorien, it was her mouth that antagonized the trees (more so than they were), and it was her mouth that caused the fairies to refuse to negotiate/turned it into a take it or leave it policy.  Margo is the one that keeps causing all the problems.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love Les Mis so I LOOOOOOOOOVED "One Day More" way more than I should have. I had to laugh when Margo said she had them skip the verses that didn't apply to their situation. Loved that the other king and Prince S had total WTF expressions when Eliot et al marched into the field singing.

Poor Fen though. She has known from the beginning that she is a very distant second to Margo in Eliot's affections, and I think that she accepted it partly because his relationship with Margo was pre-existing and partly because she knows that his love for Margo is platonic/non-sexual. But now she has another rival for Eliot's attention and it's someone who he is attracted to. Hopefully her jealousy combined with the deal Margo made with the fairies won't drive her to align herself with the FU Fighters. I know that Margo was trying to save Eliot, but if she had told Fen the fairies' conditions, I think there's a good chance that Fen would have agreed to their terms in order to keep Eliot from dying.

Juliet is officially THE WORST. She is so selfish. As Kady pointed out, the "choice" that Julia gave to Quentin was to do what she wanted or die. Great that when Reynard had Quentin in noogie position, Julia finally had a twinge of OH SHIT, but should it take THAT much for her to get her head out of her ass for a millisecond? She deliberately put his life in danger in order to force him to let Alice out to help her. I agree with the BtVS/vampire analogy, but it's still hard for me to agree with Kady that this isn't Julia's fault because she showed that she was pretty selfish before her shade was removed. To me, it looks like she's just doing more of the same.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Making magic: the musical number

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Music hath charms aka One Day More:

[ketose]

I think Margo didn't tell Fen the terms 1) because Fen would have to make the specific choice to give up her child and 2) Fen might have said no. I can't see how this ends with Fen not going back to the FU fighters.

 Jules lost her shade which means that instead of destroying everyone's lives because she feels sorry for herself, she now ruins people's lives because they are merely means to and end. Not a big difference.

Who knew about the husband thing? Elliot has already explained his situation to Fen and there was that attempt to have a bunch of naked guys in the bedroom. You would think someone in Fillory would have mentioned it. I also have to wonder if Elliot is going to be happy with semi-monogamy.

[Jynnan tonnix]

15 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I love Les Mis so I LOOOOOOOOOVED "One Day More" way more than I should have. I had to laugh when Margo said she had them skip the verses that didn't apply to their situation. Loved that the other king and Prince S had total WTF expressions when Eliot et al marched into the field singing.

Poor Fen though. She has known from the beginning that she is a very distant second to Margo in Eliot's affections, and I think that she accepted it partly because his relationship with Margo was pre-existing and partly because she knows that his love for Margo is platonic/non-sexual. But now she has another rival for Eliot's attention and it's someone who he is attracted to. Hopefully her jealousy combined with the deal Margo made with the fairies won't drive her to align herself with the FU Fighters. I know that Margo was trying to save Eliot, but if she had told Fen the fairies' conditions, I think there's a good chance that Fen would have agreed to their terms in order to keep Eliot from dying.

Juliet is officially THE WORST. She is so selfish. As Kady pointed out, the "choice" that Julia gave to Quentin was to do what she wanted or die. Great that when Reynard had Quentin in noogie position, Julia finally had a twinge of OH SHIT, but should it take THAT much for her to get her head out of her ass for a millisecond? She deliberately put his life in danger in order to force him to let Alice out to help her. I agree with the BtVS/vampire analogy, but it's still hard for me to agree with Kady that this isn't Julia's fault because she showed that she was pretty selfish before her shade was removed. To me, it looks like she's just doing more of the same.

Agreed on most of this. Julia doesn't really bug me as much as seems to be the consensus here, but largely because I just tend to tune out much of what is going on when the focus is on her.

On the other hand, I'd hate to admit how may times I've replayed "One Day More". Just at random, I'll find myself neeeeeding to watch it again! LOL. And I've never even actually seen Les Mis  (I'm a big fan of old school musicals, and got the DVD for Christmas a few years ago, but kept waiting until I was in the mood for something really depressing, which just never seemed to happen). I did look up the same number from the movie on you tube, though, and just watching  that almost had me in tears, so while I'm tempted to watch the whole thing now, I still don't feel like crying that much. Because musicals always make me cry. Even happy ones.

But I digress....

Suffice it to say I completely agree with your love of that number!

And agree with your impressions re Eliot/Margo/Fen, though I don't really see any scenario where Fen would agree to giving up the baby...As much as she seems to love Eliot, she knows he'd never be "hers" in the same way their baby would be...

It does bother me a bit the way they suddenly remembered the convenient loophole of kings (was it just kings, or other people as well? I don't remember) being able to take both a wife and a husband. As I said before, it makes of too tidy a way to deal with the intricacies of impending war, but more than that, smacks of writers who made up something on the fly that they found hilarious and running with it. I have not read any of the books, so have no idea whether this might be part of the canon, but I get nervous when it seems s though writers seem as though they are making things up as they go along because it just ends up snowballing to where they lose control of the plot, with way more storylines than can ever be tied up (like "LOST", for example).

Also,I feel it will really mess up the tight and interesting Eliot/Margo/Fen relationship, and even Eliot's unsought but committed reign by throwing in someone who will likely distract and obsess him to where his kingdom is completely secondary. It just seems as though it will throw off this precarious balance that he seems to have created, and I'll be sad to see that go.

[Zanne]

19 hours ago, Jynnan tonnix said:

And agree with your impressions re Eliot/Margo/Fen, though I don't really see any scenario where Fen would agree to giving up the baby...As much as she seems to love Eliot, she knows he'd never be "hers" in the same way their baby would be...

Didn't FU guy in the dungeon imply that the baby might be his? Maybe the fairies will give it back when they find out it doesn't have king's blood, which means a whole new mess with Fen and the FUs, as well as some really pissed off fairies.

[Jynnan tonnix]

4 hours ago, Zanne said:

Didn't FU guy in the dungeon imply that the baby might be his? Maybe the fairies will give it back when they find out it doesn't have king's blood, which means a whole new mess with Fen and the FUs, as well as some really pissed off fairies.

Hmmm...from what I recall, he implied that he and Fen had been together, but it didn't strike me that it had been during, or even immediately before Eliot and Fen's marriage. I think I believe that Fen has been completely loyal to Eliot since the wedding, but, yeah, that did seem to take place very quickly, so it's possible, I guess. It certainly would be one potential loophole... Though, if the contract stands, wouldn't any subsequent baby with actual royal blood be next on the list?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One thing I loved about the musical number is how they kept the original lyrics but changed who was singing them to each other (the unrequited love lyrics are now from a wife to her husband, the true love lyrics are between two best friends, etc). Sometimes I forget that not everyone is obsessed with musicals the way I am, so for people like @Jynnan tonnix I am providing this Les Mis to Magicians guide to One Day More!

Les Mis characters pertinent to this song:

Jean Valjean - stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving kids, got sent to prison, couldn't get a job afterward so he broke his parole, became a good citizen but is still pursued by a police inspector who wants to put him back in prison for breaking his parole, adopted a little girl named Cosette when her mother died and raised her as his own

Cosette - Jean Valjean's daughter

Marius - a student revolutionary who just met Cosette and fell in love with her

Eponine - a street urchin in love with Marius, permanently friend zoned by Marius who treats her like one of the guys

Enjolras - leader of the student revolution

Lyrics used on the show with characters from Les Mis vs characters on The Magicians:

Valjean/Eliot: One day more, another day another destiny, this neverending road to calvary. These men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time, one day more

Marius to Cosette/Fen to Eliot: I did not live until today. How can I live when we are parted?

Marius & Cosette to each other/Fen & Margo to Eliot: Tomorrow you'll be worlds away, and yet with you my world has started.

Marius & Cosette/Eliot & Margo: Will we ever meet again? I was born to be with you. And I swear I will be true.

Eponine about Marius/Fen about Eliot: One more day all on my own, one more day with him not caring. What a life I might have known but he never saw me there.

Enjolras/Tick: One more day before the storm at the barricades of freedom. When our ranks begin to form, will you take your place with me?

Marius:/Rafe Do I follow where she goes? Do I join my brothers there? Do I stay and do I dare?

All: The time is now, the day is here! One day to a new beginning. Raise the flag of freedom high. Every man will be a king. There's a new world for the winning. Do you hear the people sing?

Marius/Margo: My place is here. I fight with you!

All: Tomorrow we'll be far away, tomorrow is the judgment day, tomorrow we'll discover what our God in heaven has in store. One more dawn, one more day, one day more!

 

[Jynnan tonnix]

4 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

One thing I loved about the musical number is how they kept the original lyrics but changed who was singing them to each other (the unrequited love lyrics are now from a wife to her husband, the true love lyrics are between two best friends, etc). Sometimes I forget that not everyone is obsessed with musicals the way I am, so for people like @Jynnan tonnix I am providing this Les Mis to Magicians guide to One Day More!

Les Mis characters pertinent to this song:

 

Thanks...I actually did watch that number from the movie after seeing this version,  noticed what they did there, and thought it was a clever twist, but having it written out helps sort it out in my head a bit better. I really do need to watch the real Les Mis one of these days...As I said, I've always been a a big fan of musicals, but somehow never really progressed to the more contemporary ones (as in anything written this side of 40 years ago- I'm 58, but always leaned toward older music even in my youth). I realize I'm missing out on a huge amount of amazing work, but I really prefer to be able to share experiences like that with other people, and don't really have much opportunity or know other people who would be interested (my family really doesn't care for them), so it's all rather gone by the wayside.

[Percysowner]

3 hours ago, Jynnan tonnix said:

Hmmm...from what I recall, he implied that he and Fen had been together, but it didn't strike me that it had been during, or even immediately before Eliot and Fen's marriage. I think I believe that Fen has been completely loyal to Eliot since the wedding, but, yeah, that did seem to take place very quickly, so it's possible, I guess. It certainly would be one potential loophole... Though, if the contract stands, wouldn't any subsequent baby with actual royal blood be next on the list?

Well, Margo did offer to get pregnant and give up that child to seal the deal, but the fairies said they wanted Fen's child. So, I suspect that the Fairies want that child, even if it's not Elliot's OR if they really want a royal child, they may make Margot fulfill her original offer.

[Jynnan tonnix]

My first impulse would be to say that, given the misogyny which seems rampant in Fillory, it would be specifically the high King's baby they were after...but the fairies are not part of Fillory itself (and fairy tales in general seem to focus a lot on the Fairy Queen, for whatever that's worth). But still, it makes most sense to the story and the complications it would cause to make the royal baby requested specifically the one Fen is carrying right now. The only loophole I see is, as Zanne speculated, that the baby is not, in fact Eliot's...but even if that were the case I don't see Fen easily giving it up, or Eliot forgiving Margo. And the fairies would no doubt realize they'd been duped, which would not end well.

[kj4ever]

So how are we supposed to tell the difference between Julia and Non-Shade Julia?  The awful fake laughing?  Seems to me like her character has always been a selfish bitch.

[Pixel]

Non-shade Julia doesn't apologize for sacrificing Quentin. Shade Julia does. ;)

[LocimusPrime]

So who's stronger. Please rank them for me : gods (Reynard), gods ( umber and ember), the fairies, niffens, and those demon things on the students backs. 

[WildPlum]

Just caught up on all the episodes - can't say I am loving this season. The musical number fell pretty flat for me and it seems like trying a bit too hard to out-Buffy BTVS (I say that as someone who was NOT the world's biggest Buffy fan). I see by the trailers that one of the next subplots looks to be reintroducing Julia's shade. So it looks like we will be in for a double dose of Julia-as-Beast AND "Julia suffering over all the harm she's caused." Even Niffen Alice has more heart and more affection for Quentin (even when she's berating him for being useless) than either form of Julia. I'd much rather have Alice back and send Julia off into the beyond.

The other irritating thing is Margo lecturing Elliot on being an adult and then being so wrapped up in herself that she pretty much causes the majority of Fillory's problems.  Pretty tired of the Fillory scenes, but Julia-as-Beast is not wonderful, either. Since I am 9 episodes in, I will probably watch the end of the season, but at this point I am hoping the Fillorians DO kill off all the Earthers and go their own merry way into starving to death as the magic dies - although, by the little glimpses of the pocket universe that Fillory inhabits on a slice of land floating in the vastness, I expect Fillory will vanish when the magic does.

[qtpye]

The show is very unique and every episode has a wtf moment for me, which is impressive, since shows like Game of Thrones no longer shock me.  I just feel like something is off about this season and it is not coming together.  It is almost the opposite of last season, where the characters weaved together fairly impressively into a narrative by the end of the season.

I do think we need to get rid of the Julia characters and then give the main five a chance to bond (including Niffen Alice).  I also think it has to be less centered around mopey Quentin.  After, Julia, he is the least interesting.  Penny was almost becoming the show's butt monkey and Kady balances him out a bit.  Eliot is awesome as a character, but he has not been one hundred percent himself since he was forced to kill his lover last season (though I never saw what was so special about the guy...did not seem good enough for my Elliot).

I think some hetero females and gay males have the equivalent of two hetero male's bromance on other shows.  Unfortunately, like Will and Grace, it often stems from unrequited love on the hetero female's part.  I get that Elliot is awesome, but Margo should have her own thing going on.  I never believed that Margo was attracted to Prince Ess, that guy was fug.  Luckily, his father is much better looking.

I fear that the show is not getting as much buzz as the first season and might not have a third.  Does anyone know how well it is doing in the ratings?

Edited March 28, 2017 by qtpye

[theatremouse]

On 3/23/2017 at 7:52 PM, diebartdie said:

Watch the scene closely; Margo made Fen agree to do anything Margo asked of her, Margo did not say what she was going to ask, just that whatever she asked would have to be obeyed and Fen agreed. Fen pretty much signed the contract without reading it or even seeing it.

That exchange convinced me that Margo belongs in Fillory. Even though she does keep putting her foot in it with blurting out things causing wars, she was very carefully calculating in that discussion. She knew her options were save Eliot...or not. For all the "watch out for fairies they'll trick you with their deals", that's exactly what she did to Fen, and she knew it. She's getting used to how to deal with this magical world. Margo's quick to temper, but she's also quick on the uptake.

[AudienceofOne]

On 24/03/2017 at 3:40 AM, iMonrey said:

I don't know, I was kind of on Julia's side in this one. Quentin ended up releasing Alice anyway - he could have done it and killed Reynard. Two birds with one stone.

While this is true, she didn't get Quentin's agreement. She just threw him to the wolves so he'd be forced to do what she wanted him to do. Basically, this is my regular 'Fuck Julia' post.

On 28/03/2017 at 10:36 AM, Pixel said:

Non-shade Julia doesn't apologize for sacrificing Quentin. Shade Julia does. ;)

Actually, non-shade Julia doesn't apologise for sacrificing Quentin. Shade Julia demands that Quentin apologises to her for not taking out Reynard.  It's possible non-shade Julia is a better person.

On 25/03/2017 at 6:23 AM, Hanahope said:

Margo has really got to learn to watch her mouth.  It was her mouth that caused the war with Lorien, it was her mouth that antagonized the trees (more so than they were), and it was her mouth that caused the fairies to refuse to negotiate/turned it into a take it or leave it policy.  Margo is the one that keeps causing all the problems.

I don't think Margo is taking it seriously. On some level, I think she believes this is all some fantasy land; that the people aren't real. Like it's all some exotic form of LARPing. So she acts aggressively to protect Elliott - he's real - but has 'you've got to be fucking kidding me' moments with everybody else. Make a deal with the fairies to restore the source of magic by bartering Elliot's future child? Sure, whatever. It's not as if that statement isn't ridiculous so it's not 'real'. I think she'll change her mind when Elliott finds out about the deal.

[daisycat]

Fen is just the cutest. I loved her singing voice and she seems to genuinely love Eliot. Love her.

[Enginerd]

Fen is great. She should become a more regular part of the crew. It would be fun if someone took her to Earth sometime.