S02.E13: We Have Brought You Little Cakes

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SEASON FINALE!

Quote

Quentin, Eliot, Julia and Margo enact a risky plan to protect Fillory; Penny questions fate, and Kady makes a deal to help him.

Promo:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sneak peek:

[ketose]

Crap. I have to wait 8 months now?

I guess we can assume that if Reynard caught a bullet, the powers that be would have shut off the magic plumbing even earlier. There are quite a few questions in this episode, like how Julia has magic. Does it have to do with Reynard? I hope they find magic again pretty quick, or it will really detract from the show.

Also, what's "magic" and not in Fillory? Do the animals still talk? 

[Poltargyst]

"It's not how I wanted it .  It's not enough"  --Kady, referring to what happened to Reynard.  I agree, Kady, I agree.  That guy needed to suffer.

I really liked Eliot.  He's become so wise, and his compassion really comes through when talking with Julia and Quentin.

When the cable networks found that they could get away with saying sh*t, it seemed that shows were going out of their way to have characters say sh*t every other word.  Like more often than anyone would actually say it in real life.  Now this show is flirting with saying f*ck (they might as well just say it as if we didn't know what they were saying), and it seems like characters are saying that every other word.  Like more often than they would in real life.  Now I really don't mind the word, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how often it's coming up as if they're artificially saying it just to say it.

It was a clever plot to get the brothers together.  Why was Ember so much more powerful than Umber?  What did Julia do with the sword?  Why could Q kill a god with it?

Alice said something like "no matter how good something is, it's always married to something gross."  I noticed that.

Okay those faeries are freakin scary--and they take body parts!!!!! Yikes!

Can Julia respark magic?  We have to wait until 2018 to find out.  :(

[Hanahope]

My dvr cut the last minute or two.  What did Julia say about her hands sparking?

more later.

[ketose]

42 minutes ago, Poltargyst said:

When the cable networks found that they could get away with saying sh*t, it seemed that shows were going out of their way to have characters say sh*t every other word.  Like more often than anyone would actually say it in real life.  Now this show is flirting with saying f*ck (they might as well just say it as if we didn't know what they were saying), and it seems like characters are saying that every other word.  Like more often than they would in real life.  Now I really don't mind the word, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how often it's coming up as if they're artificially saying it just to say it.

It was a clever plot to get the brothers together.  Why was Ember so much more powerful than Umber?  What did Julia do with the sword?  Why could Q kill a god with it?

Alice said something like "no matter how good something is, it's always married to something gross."  I noticed that.

The weird thing for me is that I watched S1 on Netflix, where the F word is in all its glory, so it's even more jarring to hear it blanked out.

I assume Julia moved the magic from the bullet to the sword or something.

Even funnier with Alice is that she went from good things being gross to having sex with Q.

[WildPlum]

Apparently the producers/writers didn't have faith that we lowly humans had been following the plot (or they realized they'd run out of episodes and didn;t feel that they'd quite gotten everything across) and required Ember to serve as Exposition Fairy, which was kind of annoying.

Interesting that magic has breaker boxes at Brakebills, Fillory and the Library (and maybe Brakebills South). Of course I suppose there could be more but we didn't have characters to see it impact.

Q asked Julia how she was doing piddly little magic and she shrugged, implying that she didn't know. She must have a spark of god-level magic in her, either remnant from the rape by Reynard or the touch/blessing of OLOTU. OLOTU and Reynard are still god-level so their source of magic is one panel above the human magic, it's just the humans and magic-sustained creatures (niffins like the Bloody Friar or whatever his name is) that have been cut off.

[JonasArm]

I wonder if OLU didn't bless Julia when she touched her cheek and Julia showed faith in her. Essentially giving Julia what she wanted after she was no longer interested. It's like when Quentin managed to cast the storm to win a game (back in season 1) when he didn't care anymore.

 

2 hours ago, Poltargyst said:

It was a clever plot to get the brothers together.  Why was Ember so much more powerful than Umber?  What did Julia do with the sword?  Why could Q kill a god with it?

I don't think Ember was more powerful than Umber but rather they are not about the same thing: Ember (chaosà is about destruction while Umber (Order & Law) is about creation. Umber likes the peace and quit while Ember likes wars.

Julia has learnt two particular spells : one to extract divine essence (escaping through Umber's breath) and the other one to turn said essence into a weapon or place it into one (from the Ars Deicidium). Which is why she had to be the one to do it. Quentin merely grabbed the now god slayer sword and pierced Ember with it.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I'm so glad this show was renewed. How mad would I have been if this was the series finale. Old's warning to Julia about killing gods came true after all. I wonder if the reason Julia can still do magic is because of OLU. 

As annoyed as I could get with Penny, I really hope they can save him next season.

I liked Ember's two season long recap. It felt like the show put it in there when they weren't sure if the show was going to get picked up. It felt like a goodbye to the series. 

Edited April 20, 2017 by TiffanyNichelle

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

Making magic:

[GaT]

I do not understand anything that is happening except that magic is gone

Quote

My dvr cut the last minumore later.te or two.  What did Julia say about her hands sparking?

Mine too, what happened?

Edited April 20, 2017 by GaT

[JonasArm]

43 minutes ago, GaT said:

Quote

My dvr cut the last minumore later.te or two.  What did Julia say about her hands sparking?

Mine too, what happened?

Julia told Q she had left law school because... and then she shows Q she can still do magic though she has no idea why. Leaving her the only known mortal in the universe that can still do some magic. End of the season.

Edited April 20, 2017 by JonasArm

[Hanahope]

So Julia somehow managed to get into lawschool, start it, and then leave it in 2 months?  And without magic?  Uh, yeah, bullshit.  Why couldn't she join the Brakebills group, especially since the Dean knew she had been a student in 39 other timelines.

I supposed Julia should have realized U&E had parents, since she just found out Reynard did and was told that killing gods have consequences.  Still, when one is debating a god's life or their own, one generally chooses their own and will deal with the consequences later.  But it also looked like that was their plan, to kill both gods, so maybe they should have left U&E to have a sibling quarrel.

Does this mean Penny's dead?  Or does he get healed because his 'injury/disease' was magical?  I don't recall if we saw him in the classroom at the end.  And I thought Fillory went completely away when magic ceased, so it was interesting to find it still existing, though obviously in a worse way.  Yikes those fairies were scary.  But maybe they have the answer.    And Margo, martial law has rarely worked out well in history.

So Margo lost an eye and Fen lost her toes.  What did Josh lose?  Was the loss of body part random?

It would be interesting if Julia still has some magic because of OLU, in some way.  Can''t wait to see if they can get it back next season, and how they do it.

I like that they are bringing back some consequences to Alice during her niffin time too.  Looks like a lot will be going on next season.

9 hours ago, JonasArm said:

Julia has learnt two particular spells : one to extract divine essence (escaping through Umber's breath) and the other one to turn said essence into a weapon or place it into one (from the Ars Deicidium). Which is why she had to be the one to do it. Quentin merely grabbed the now god slayer sword and pierced Ember with it.

whats interesting is that there was no scene where Julia told either Elliot or Q that she could do that.  As far as we saw, only Kady new about these spells and we only ever saw her with Penny (and Marlee Matlin's character - whose name I can't recall).  So wow, characters actually sharing information.  How refreshing.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

8 hours ago, JonasArm said:

she can still do magic though she has no idea why. Leaving her the only known mortal in the universe that can still do some magic.

Because OF COURSE Julia is that special.

[iMonrey]

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I do not understand anything that is happening except that magic is gone

I think I understood about half of it. As usual, it felt like big chunks were missing. How did Eliot get back to Fillory? He didn't use the clock. How did the King of Loria get de-ratted? The pacing on this show is terrible and so is the editing. 

I don't understand why Alice is so pissed off at Quentin - seems to me he was damned if he did, and damned if he didn't. If he hadn't killed Ember, Ember would have destroyed Fillory and all magic would be gone. Yet killing Ember made "the plumber" turn off all magic anyway. At least this way there's a chance of turning it back on right? And I didn't get that whole plumber thing either. I think sometimes the writers just go for funny visuals even when it doesn't make any sense. The faeries apparently still have magic. 

I don't know what the priest guy was warning Alice about - it was apparently something she did off-screen while she was a Niffin so the emotional impact of it was missing - or else once again I missed something. This show really loves to jump from Point A to Point F while skipping Points B, C, D and E.

I hope poor Summer Bishil doesn't have to wear an eye patch for the rest of the series. That would drive me crazy.

Since 2 months have passed and Penny was only supposed to live another 2 or 3 weeks either he's dead or they found a cure. I felt the show was remiss to leave us hanging.

Overall a stronger season than Season 1 but still a bit of a mixed bag. The show needs to learn how to be about 25% less ambitious. There are enough ideas in it to fill two or three series and as a result no one idea gets the proper attention. 

Edited April 20, 2017 by iMonrey

[WildPlum]

I think Eliot DID use the clock, as that was what the dragon said was "the original way" into Fillory - they just didn't show it.

Killing Ember does seem to have prevented the 20 blank pages, but brought up a whole new problem. I think we just saw the equivalent of Hephaestus/Vulcan, the "handyman" of the gods going around and flipping the magic breakers (think of it as the source that magic flows out of) with a real glee - he seemed to really enjoy it. Although why they cared that a mortal killed Ember, when faced with the fratricide of Ember killing Umber, I have no idea. Maybe it was the gall of the mortals using the essence of one dead god to kill another god. I suspect we see a lot more of the gods next season. Also that something that can be flipped off can probably be flipped on.

If magic is gone, the deal Kady made is sort of pointless and a waste of plot resource, hence it is a pretty good bet that magic gets reset somehow very early on next season (or that there is a work-around) and also that Penny isn't dead, though it is irritating to do the "several months later" jump without a character recap.

The point of the Bloody Monk (or whatever his name was) was, I think, two-fold - one to set the stage for Alice to be pursued by the Lamprey for something awful she did to it and one to explain that the source of magic that some beings (humans, niffins) draw on is gone but that beings of pure magic - unicorns, apparently the fairys, dragons, and sparkly vampires - are still around.

[Hanahope]

53 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think I understood about half of it. As usual, it felt like big chunks were missing. How did Eliot get back to Fillory? He didn't use the clock. How did the King of Loria get de-ratted?

Yes, they did use the clock.  In the prior episode, Umber let them have the clock.  the King got de-ratted by Elliot, who learned how to do it, but it took a lot of energy and thus he could only do one at a time.  He first did it on Josh.

 

54 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I don't know what the priest guy was warning Alice about - it was apparently something she did off-screen while she was a Niffin so the emotional impact of it was missing - or else once again I missed something. This show really loves to jump from Point A to Point F while skipping Points B, C, D and E

so when Alice was a niffin living in Q's back (episode 8), she had access to his body for one hour a day.  One day, she tracked down what looked like a little girl, which was some sort of beast (research says "angler" beast, but it also had a long body).   We did not see the entirety of her conversation with it, but it provided her with some info to track down Friar Joseph (the niffin that can't be boxed) and then Alice killed it.  She gave Q's body back to Q immediately afterwards and Q saw the girl's body, and Alice told him to leave quickly before he was found by it.  I think at the time, the impression was police/other humans seeing him over the body of a child.  But now we know that the Lamprey has parents too, just like gods, and they're now after Alice because they know she killed the Lamprey, so I think that "the lamprey" is the 'angler-beast thing' that Alice killed in this scene.

[KaleyFirefly]

Well, I guess now we know what Lady Underground meant when she told Julia "There are consequences to killing gods."  But I also feel for Julia and Kady, knowing they were robbed of their revenge.

What do the Fairies want? Just to take over Fillory? Couldn't they have done that before, since they seem way more powerful than anyone else in Fillory (except for Ember/Umber).  I'm glad Ember is dead but poor Umber, now he can't fix Fillory and bring back order.

It's funny how Quentin got Alice back to herself with bacon and sex.

I presume that since Penny's ailment was magic-based, the progress of it stopped when magic was cut off, so Penny is OK for now. They have time to find a cure for him before magic comes back.

[JonasArm]

5 minutes ago, KaleyFirefly said:

What do the Fairies want? Just to take over Fillory? Couldn't they have done that before, since they seem way more powerful than anyone else in Fillory (except for Ember/Umber)

I think they could not have taken over Fillory because of the two gods. Fillory is supposed to be reality TV type of entertainment but those fairies seem rather stern. Also, as decided by Ember, Fillory is to be ruled by Earthlings. So the fairies little cue would have most likely been perceived as rebellion against the will of the gods. That's why they plotted to get Ember assassinated.

[refugee]

WOW, that was a very busy cliffhanger...

...thanks Syfy for the series and the beginning catch up with all that's happened so far. I really needed that.

[Enginerd]

They can't kill Penny. He's my favorite eye candy. I assume the hiatus in his magical ailment will give them time to find a solution. How does magic work when it's turned off and then back on? Does everything reset and have to be restarted, i.e. would old spells be null and void? Or is it like how everything is still on your DVR after a power outage?
 

I assume Julia still has traces of pure magic from Reynard's sperm and/or having carried a demigod embryo, so isn't totally dependent on wellspring magic.

 

This episode was too short. It needed to be a double episode to not skip so many steps, or else I'm just not quick enough to catch everything and need to watch it all again. Or maybe they just left a million loose ends so I will go crazy waiting so long for the next season. Did we find out whether Elliot's limitations on philandering were still in place? Where the heck is Penny? Is Mayakovsky going to die at Brakebills South without the usual magical supply chain? Is there any fallout to the disappearance of a prominent senator? Is Quentin's dad near death? Why were there so many breaker boxes for the magic? Does that mean that potentially there are other magical circuits out there, and if they traveled to other locations, they could still access magic?

[Enginerd]

On 4/19/2017 at 7:29 PM, Poltargyst said:

When the cable networks found that they could get away with saying sh*t, it seemed that shows were going out of their way to have characters say sh*t every other word.  Like more often than anyone would actually say it in real life.  Now this show is flirting with saying f*ck (they might as well just say it as if we didn't know what they were saying), and it seems like characters are saying that every other word.  Like more often than they would in real life.  Now I really don't mind the word, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how often it's coming up as if they're artificially saying it just to say it.
 

I've only watched on Netflix and Amazon, so I hear it all uncensored and it's less noticeable than constant censoring (which just draws more attention to it, especially when you can totally tell what they're saying, so I don't know what the network is hoping to achieve), and I too have noticed that they are cursing A LOT to the point it seems like they're forcing in way more than would be natural, like you said. I have no problem with language as long as it isn't bigoted slurs, so I don't care, but it does come off rather like kids who have just discovered naughtiness and are trying to make a show of their  rather than just talking and using words naturally. On the other hand, these characters are college-age and I don't think that's entirely unusual for people that age, in my anecdatal experience.

Are we supposed to be into Elliott's pending marriage to the King of Loria, or think Elliott at least is into it? Because they have these sort-of romance scenes, but they're tepid, and Elliott generally oozes appeal. To me it seems like merely another politically strategic marriage that's only slightly better for him in that this one is a dude. But they don't seem like a great match personality-wise, nor do they really seem that into each other. The split second of Elliott and Quentin kissing was more passionate. Although we barely know Mr. Lorian King, so maybe he's got great attributes we just haven't seen yet.

[tennisgurl]

I cant be expected to wait until freaking 2018 to find out what's going on! I need Julia to use her magic to speed the production schedule up damn it! I thought this was a pretty good way to end the season, but I'm really glad this wont be how the series closes out. There are a million questions now that need answers.

First of all, tell us if Penny's alright! I love Penny, in all in asshole glory, and I will be royally pissed off if he got killed off screen. How long did they jump in time? I found that a bit confusing. And I like it was the right call to just turn off magic, instead of getting rid of it. Neither of them were good options, but it was the least crappy option available.

This was a really good season for Quentin. He was much less mopey, and more proactive, and the death of Alice gave him more drive then last year when he was just our everyman narrator.

Those fairies are so creepy! I shouldn't have watched this episode in the dark, I had to turn lights back on. They're creepy and they steal body parts! They're like bitchy magic aliens.

I'm thinking about reading the books during the hiatus, are they worth getting into? I've read mixed things online, and I know a lot of things have been changed for the show, and I really like the show, so not sure how I`ll feel about that. Should I give them a try?

Edited April 22, 2017 by tennisgurl

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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I'm thinking about reading the books during the hiatus, are they worth getting into? I've read mixed things online, and I know a lot of things have been changed for the show, and I really like the show, so not sure how I`ll feel about that. Should I give them a try?

S1 follows the first book very closely until the very end so that may end up being a lot of review for you. There are several things they added which weren't in the books as well as some things from the books that they didn't include in S1, so it's not like reading a word for word transcript of what you watched. There are several elements of books 2 and 3 in S2 but there are MAJOR changes, so from that point of view, you might find it more interesting than reading the first book. It really depends on if you're a book purist though. I find that it's much easier for me to watch a show and then read the books because then it's like getting more insight into the characters. If I read the book first, I usually end up nitpicking everything that got changed. I'd say give the first one a try and see what you think. 

I'm really curious as to what the fairies do with the body parts they take as payment. Like did they make Fen toe stew? Or does the fairy queen have a little glass display cabinet with various human pieces she has collected over the years? Or is she trying to Frankenstein a whole human together out of cobbled together body parts one day? Or does she look at it as a long term jigsaw puzzle?

Love that even when Penny is dying, they still find a reason for him to take his shirt off.

[Spaceman Spiff]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 10:09 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Because OF COURSE Julia is that special.

But weren't we shown that Julia is that special? In that one episode (a timeline of what could have been) she was shown to be like the Dean, a seeker of all magical knowledge.

So next year we will have to deal with the fall out of killing a god and the loss of magic (except for Julia), the Fairy rebellion, the Lamprey after Alice, Penny (dead or alive), Kady and her deal with Marley, and Quentin and the Witch who stole his blood (it was mentioned in Ember's exposition that it would still come back to haunt him, and it didn't in this episode...so)

[AudienceofOne]

On 20/04/2017 at 1:15 PM, ketose said:

I assume Julia moved the magic from the bullet to the sword or something.

Julia extracted the power of Umber's death into the sword. The bullet is still there, unfired. It's the anti-Chekhov's bullet. It has yet to go off.

On 22/04/2017 at 7:18 AM, Enginerd said:

Are we supposed to be into Elliott's pending marriage to the King of Loria, or think Elliott at least is into it? Because they have these sort-of romance scenes, but they're tepid, and Elliott generally oozes appeal. To me it seems like merely another politically strategic marriage that's only slightly better for him in that this one is a dude. But they don't seem like a great match personality-wise, nor do they really seem that into each other. The split second of Elliott and Quentin kissing was more passionate. Although we barely know Mr. Lorian King, so maybe he's got great attributes we just haven't seen yet.

I think we're supposed to believe the strategic aspect of their political marriage is secondary to the fact that Elliot really wants to bone him. I don't see it either. The actor who plays Elliot is trying very hard to make it work but I don't see any chemistry. As much as I love Quentin and Alice, I too secretly yearn for another Elliot/Q hookup.

On 21/04/2017 at 1:09 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Because OF COURSE Julia is that special.

In terms of the writers, I agree. It's why Julia is so horrible to watch. But in this case, it's her reward from Persephone for not killing her son. At least this time she wasn't rewarded for being a narcissistic entitled brat so that's progress.

I enjoyed this episode right up until the end. Suddenly, it felt like I was right the first time and this whole season was prologue. As much as I like them together, Alice and Quentin's hookup seemed odd. I'll definitely tune in next year though.

[Terrafamilia]

With magic shut off for mortal magicians but that not affecting magical creatures like dragons and vampires et al. where do magical or enchanted items fall? What happened to Alice's parent's house which had more space inside than could be accounted for on the outside? Does it stay as is because its dimensionally transcendental state is now just the way it is or was it the result of an ongoing active spell effect that has gone kaput and all the stuff that was inside is now suddenly jammed into a smaller space? Oh, and Chekhov's bullet?

[Hanahope]

Oh interesting point about the bullet, since Dean Fogg can't see at all now (no magic eye helper).  

[Philbert]

On 4/20/2017 at 11:09 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Because OF COURSE Julia is that special.

 

Apparently "God-rape" is the gift that just keeps on giving...

[ketose]

On 4/24/2017 at 6:10 AM, AudienceofOne said:

Julia extracted the power of Umber's death into the sword. The bullet is still there, unfired. It's the anti-Chekhov's bullet. It has yet to go off.

Wouldn't the bullet be like a magic battery? Supposedly, gods and demi-gods are little independent generators of magic.

[festivus]

On 4/24/2017 at 5:10 AM, AudienceofOne said:

I think we're supposed to believe the strategic aspect of their political marriage is secondary to the fact that Elliot really wants to bone him. I don't see it either. The actor who plays Elliot is trying very hard to make it work but I don't see any chemistry. As much as I love Quentin and Alice, I too secretly yearn for another Elliot/Q hookup.

Yeah, I want to see it but I don't. But yeah forgive me, I would like to see E/Q hook up again. The way that the actor that plays Elliot looks at him you can just tell that in spite of himself he loves the mopey dope. I love that actor, he's just so good with showing everything he's feeling on his face. The guy that plays Quentin is great too he makes him much more likable than book Quentin. In fact I love all the actors, I think they were well cast and yes I include Julia in that. I like her character and I like that in the end she was the one with the spark of magic. 

To the person upthread that asked about the books, I read them a few years ago and I enjoyed them. Quentin is not very likable in the books (but I think he gets better as they go on) they did a better job on the show with him. For myself though, I don't need every character to be likable. So, I would say yes read them, the show ended up going in a completely different direction. 

[Darian]

2 hours ago, festivus said:

 I like her character and I like that in the end she was the one with the spark of magic. 

I do, too (and agree with the rest of your post). I especially liked that moment, when she showed Quentin what in season one he essentially dismissed as a "party trick" but is now possibly the only magic in the world. Nice callback. 

[Terrafamilia]

Regarding the persistence of magical items - Quentin's wooden shoulder didn't seem to be bothering from what we saw. But that could be because it was made by a centaur. If centaurs still have their mojo then maybe Fen could get some wooden toes.

[KaleyFirefly]

On 4/21/2017 at 8:28 PM, tennisgurl said:

I'm thinking about reading the books during the hiatus, are they worth getting into? I've read mixed things online, and I know a lot of things have been changed for the show, and I really like the show, so not sure how I`ll feel about that. Should I give them a try?

I definitely recommend the books! I can't talk about them too much on this TV thread, but I will say that, even though the books are very different from the show, they are very enjoyable. I'm hoping the author writes more books. So far it's only three.

On 4/22/2017 at 6:21 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Love that even when Penny is dying, they still find a reason for him to take his shirt off.

Penny is my favorite eye candy, too.

[qtpye]

Not only is Penny good eye candy, he deserves a good death scene and not to go out off screen like a punk.  That being said, I am hoping he is alive.

[Enginerd]

On 4/24/2017 at 3:10 AM, AudienceofOne said:

I think we're supposed to believe the strategic aspect of their political marriage is secondary to the fact that Elliot really wants to bone him. I don't see it either. The actor who plays Elliot is trying very hard to make it work but I don't see any chemistry. As much as I love Quentin and Alice, I too secretly yearn for another Elliot/Q hookup.

I've been rewatching the whole series, and as much as I like Quentin and Alice together and don't want them split again, Eliot and Quentin really do have a great bond and chemistry on many levels. Just last night I watched the episode where they've just been crowned and they're in the bare room with the hooks and marks on the wall where swords were once hanging (symbolism?) just talking, then Eliot asks Quentin to hug him and he does, then he cheekily suggests an ass squeeze would make him feel better...it's a lovely scene where you really see how close they've become and how comfortable they are together and how much they genuinely like each other. And even if Quentin is not particularly sexually interested in Eliot/men in general, he was definitely more upset about having hurt Alice than about having been with Eliot.

And in a later episode where Quentin is leaving Fillory, Eliot clutches him to his bosom (I could say hugs, but it's definitely a clutching-to-the-bosom vibe) and strokes his hair and threatens him if he doesn't come back, and Quentin patiently tolerates this with a look on his face like "okay, you weirdo...but I'll miss you, too"...I think they have the most functional and sweet relationship of any of the romances and friendships on the show.

I don't know...I just don't see ANY of that affection or attraction between Eliot and the King of Loria. Not even much physical attraction, though Hale does seem to be trying. They're more like moderately friendly business associates.

[Jynnan tonnix]

15 hours ago, Enginerd said:

I've been rewatching the whole series, and as much as I like Quentin and Alice together and don't want them split again, Eliot and Quentin really do have a great bond and chemistry on many levels. Just last night I watched the episode where they've just been crowned and they're in the bare room with the hooks and marks on the wall where swords were once hanging (symbolism?) just talking, then Eliot asks Quentin to hug him and he does, then he cheekily suggests an ass squeeze would make him feel better...it's a lovely scene where you really see how close they've become and how comfortable they are together and how much they genuinely like each other. And even if Quentin is not particularly sexually interested in Eliot/men in general, he was definitely more upset about having hurt Alice than about having been with Eliot.

And in a later episode where Quentin is leaving Fillory, Eliot clutches him to his bosom (I could say hugs, but it's definitely a clutching-to-the-bosom vibe) and strokes his hair and threatens him if he doesn't come back, and Quentin patiently tolerates this with a look on his face like "okay, you weirdo...but I'll miss you, too"...I think they have the most functional and sweet relationship of any of the romances and friendships on the show.

I don't know...I just don't see ANY of that affection or attraction between Eliot and the King of Loria. Not even much physical attraction, though Hale does seem to be trying. They're more like moderately friendly business associates.

Agreed with all this. I've never been one for slash fanfic or anything like that (never got the whole Destiel thing on Supernatural, for instance), but the chemistry between Quentin and Eliot really does sizzle to my eye. I am assuming that Hale is gay IRL? 

[grandemocha]

Overall, I really enjoyed the hell out of Season 2 but I did dislike a few things. I kind of hope the show cools it with the extended music/singing sequences, it bored me when they did Les Mis.

I consider myself a positive viewer just because I so badly want the show to succeed, but even I can admit I didn't fully buy Quentin and Alice's relationship until this season. Jason Ralph & OTD sold the fuck out of it: his loss, sadness, heartbreak, misery, love..just all of it. It was like they didn't truly appreciate what they had until it was gone. The scenes with Quentin & alternate reality Alice made me so sad for them. OTD is a good actress but I enjoy her more as regular Alice than I did as niffin!Alice trapped in Quentin's tattoo. I think I'll be a bit disappointed if the writers continue to keep Q & Alice apart for ridiculous reasons.

I too think that Eliot doesn't exactly have the best chemistry with his new to-be husband but maybe that will improve in Season 3? Or maybe the writers will do the fun/smart thing and just have all of our main characters together going on a quest! Not too sure. I am interested in Fen now that she seems a little darker after experiencing the loss of her daughter. I know that the point of the story is more Fillory than Brakebills but damn if I didn't LOVE the scenes with Dean Fogg this season. He's just a great character I wish we could see more of on the show.  I wish Margo was given more to do on the show. I've said this before, but I feel like the Fillory stuff is all Eliot's and Margo is just being wasted.

[Enginerd]

I hope they get back to Fillory quickly in the next season. I want Fen to become more a part of the main group. They should include her more! She's smart, she's nice, she seems resourceful, she certainly knows more about Fillory than the rest of them. She also seems like she'd be up for a quest at any time, but to recover her baby, she's certainly the most motivated. Plus it would be nice for her and Eliot to become more of a solid team, and for Margo to have to learn to coexist with her. I also want Margo to have more of a story. We don't know much about her life before Brakebills. Or Penny's, for that matter. There's lots of ground to explore there.

I've also been wondering why, if Dean Fogg and Jane had been through this time loop 39 times before, they were more or less sitting back and waiting for these inexperienced hotheaded magical newbies to figure out how to save multiple worlds from The Beast. Why not clue them in from the beginning and try to help them out and give them a head start with what had been learned in previous loops? I know we need it to happen that way for the story, but I also like for things to make sense. Like Dean Fogg could have eventually told Quentin or discussed with Jane that they had tried to take the expedient approach in other loops and it had made things worse for whatever reasons.

[ketose]

22 hours ago, Enginerd said:

I hope they get back to Fillory quickly in the next season. I want Fen to become more a part of the main group. They should include her more! She's smart, she's nice, she seems resourceful, she certainly knows more about Fillory than the rest of them. She also seems like she'd be up for a quest at any time, but to recover her baby, she's certainly the most motivated. Plus it would be nice for her and Eliot to become more of a solid team, and for Margo to have to learn to coexist with her. I also want Margo to have more of a story. We don't know much about her life before Brakebills. Or Penny's, for that matter. There's lots of ground to explore there.

I've also been wondering why, if Dean Fogg and Jane had been through this time loop 39 times before, they were more or less sitting back and waiting for these inexperienced hotheaded magical newbies to figure out how to save multiple worlds from The Beast. Why not clue them in from the beginning and try to help them out and give them a head start with what had been learned in previous loops? I know we need it to happen that way for the story, but I also like for things to make sense. Like Dean Fogg could have eventually told Quentin or discussed with Jane that they had tried to take the expedient approach in other loops and it had made things worse for whatever reasons.

I think Dean Fogg has said they are not the magic police. Plus, he may have done what he thought he could, like teach Julia how to use her talent. The problem was that Julia being there seems to be the thing that got them killed the other 38 times.

[Enginerd]

17 minutes ago, ketose said:

I think Dean Fogg has said they are not the magic police. Plus, he may have done what he thought he could, like teach Julia how to use her talent. The problem was that Julia being there seems to be the thing that got them killed the other 38 times.

GEE; I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW. Even in this iteration she's getting people killed and causing myriad other problems right and left. But it's one thing for Dean Fogg not to feel it's his place or desire to go out into the world and police what other witches are doing, and another not to warn his students of what is coming FOR THEM and try to prepare them. I'd like to hear about what they've tried in the other loops and how it went wrong.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clips:

Face to face:

Post coitus conference:

[racked]

On 5/3/2017 at 6:57 PM, grandemocha said:

 

I consider myself a positive viewer just because I so badly want the show to succeed, but even I can admit I didn't fully buy Quentin and Alice's relationship until this season. Jason Ralph & OTD sold the fuck out of it: his loss, sadness, heartbreak, misery, love..just all of it. It was like they didn't truly appreciate what they had until it was gone. The scenes with Quentin & alternate reality Alice made me so sad for them. OTD is a good actress but I enjoy her more as regular Alice than I did as niffin!Alice trapped in Quentin's tattoo. I think I'll be a bit disappointed if the writers continue to keep Q & Alice apart for ridiculous reasons.

 

I completely agree - I never cared about or for Q & Alice before this season, but the heartbreak and longing this season have really sold me on them. I think Jason Ralph has amazing chemistry with almost everyone. Even the woman he worked with (forget her name) who was there was Alice's brother became a niffin, the night they were drunk and almost hooked up, it was kind of hot! And he's always had chemistry with Julia. But Q & Alice this season worked really well for me. 

[ursula]

Does anyone know when Season 2 will be out on Netflix? I just binge-watched season 1 for maybe the sixth time. Let's just say that I really love this show.

Although I feel that season 1 was far more streamlined with its end goals and even the side-stories tended to dovetail into the main. This season was more scattered. It's too late now, but they really should have played Niffin-Alice as a Bigger Bad than she actually was. 

[Elle Driver]

On 4/19/2017 at 10:29 PM, Poltargyst said:

"It's not how I wanted it .  It's not enough"  --Kady, referring to what happened to Reynard.  I agree, Kady, I agree.  That guy needed to suffer.

I really liked Eliot.  He's become so wise, and his compassion really comes through when talking with Julia and Quentin.

When the cable networks found that they could get away with saying sh*t, it seemed that shows were going out of their way to have characters say sh*t every other word.  Like more often than anyone would actually say it in real life.  Now this show is flirting with saying f*ck (they might as well just say it as if we didn't know what they were saying), and it seems like characters are saying that every other word.  Like more often than they would in real life.  Now I really don't mind the word, but I'm starting to get annoyed with how often it's coming up as if they're artificially saying it just to say it.

It was a clever plot to get the brothers together.  Why was Ember so much more powerful than Umber?  What did Julia do with the sword?  Why could Q kill a god with it?

Alice said something like "no matter how good something is, it's always married to something gross."  I noticed that.

Okay those faeries are freakin scary--and they take body parts!!!!! Yikes!

Can Julia respark magic?  We have to wait until 2018 to find out.  :(

I agree, I swear quite frequently myself but by episode 4 I was like enough already jeez! It probably dosen't help that I binge watched season 2. I'm wondering how Chekhov's gun is gonna come into play (should have been fired by now, tisk tisk).  I was wondering why Julia didn't use her god killing gun, especially after all the trouble they went through to get that bullet. I'm assuming its gonna be a major part of season 3, I cant wait! I really also enjoyed Ember's narration, to bad hes's dead I'd have loved to hear it before every episode.

I think I'll give the books a go.

[jbrecken]

I just binged the last season to get ready for the next one.  How come Quentin's wooden shoulder still works without magic?

[festivus]

Don't know the answer to that but it made me think about Fen's wooden toes. I just finished binge watching this season and I still don't know what body part Josh lost.

On 5/25/2017 at 12:56 PM, racked said:

I completely agree - I never cared about or for Q & Alice before this season, but the heartbreak and longing this season have really sold me on them. I think Jason Ralph has amazing chemistry with almost everyone. Even the woman he worked with (forget her name) who was there was Alice's brother became a niffin, the night they were drunk and almost hooked up, it was kind of hot! And he's always had chemistry with Julia. But Q & Alice this season worked really well for me. 

He really does have amazing chemistry with everyone and I noticed it even more watching these first two seasons again. That's a rare quality in an actor.

[Camera One]

Finally, we got a nice climatic scene, with a villain (Ember) being defeated.  I liked Elliot getting everyone to help with saving Fillory. 

Other than that, like the rest of the season, the episode was all over the place.  Overall, I have mixed feelings about Season 2.  There were too many disparate subplots which were rather hit and miss.  I loved seeing Fillory in the Season 1 finale, but this season, I found most of the Fillory subplots annoying and sometimes irrelevant.  The characters seemed to be creating their own problems, like the war, and Margot became really unlikeable.  

I can't say any of the cliffhangers are too intriguing.  I'm not sure why the 2 month jump was necessary.  It would have been interesting to see the immediate aftermath of losing all magic.  How did people react to Brakebills suddenly appearing?  I suppose they might fill in the blanks next season.

[Laina]

Later today, I'm gonna start watching this episode. I skipped over all the comments as I don't want to be spoiled. I started watching this show like, 3 days ago or so, and am already almost caught up. Just have to watch this ep and S3.

[bloodstar]

On 8/2/2017 at 5:42 PM, Elle Driver said:

I agree, I swear quite frequently myself but by episode 4 I was like enough already jeez! It probably dosen't help that I binge watched season 2. I'm wondering how Chekhov's gun is gonna come into play (should have been fired by now, tisk tisk).  I was wondering why Julia didn't use her god killing gun, especially after all the trouble they went through to get that bullet. I'm assuming its gonna be a major part of season 3, I cant wait! I really also enjoyed Ember's narration, to bad hes's dead I'd have loved to hear it before every episode.

I think I'll give the books a go.

Maybe I have odd friends, but we all drop F bombs, S bombs. etc. The dialogue seems pretty 'real' as far as the rate of number of curse words per non curse words to me.

*laughs* But maybe me and my friends are all weird.