S03.E10: The Art of the Deal

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Quentin and Alice search the castle for an important object while Julia and Fen work with an enemy.

Promo:

Edited March 8, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clip:

[festivus]

Love Margo. "Get ready to tuck and roll bitches."

[tennisgurl]

Our gang are making Friends and influencing people all over the place, with sex, threats, and bloody uprisings! Oh you guys. 

I love how committed Elliot and Margo are to Fillory at this point. Even when they tried to kill them in a full on revolution, they still want to help and are refusing to abandon them. Tick better watch his ass. It takes more than an eternal waterfall, a bloody coup, and a full on invasion to keep them down. 

I never thought I would cheer for the Fairy Queen, but its hard not to be on her side just a teeny bit when she Red Weddinged those assholes who were enslaving the poor Earth fairies. This might actually be a good thing in the long term, if the Fairy Queen owes the gang a favor, and they can even maybe make an alliance with them. Granted, that shop might have sailed several abductions of innocent humans ago, and horribly screwing over Fen and Elliot several times and taking Margo's eye and all that, but desperate times. It was certainly interested to get some depth for her and the fairies. Glad the poor enslaved fairies got away. And it was an awesome story for Fen and Julia, especially Fen. She really is a good person, putting aside her hatred of Filory faeries after everything they did to her so she could help the innocent fairies. And Julia gets to use her powers she got from something so evil and awful for good. Really, its a pretty emotional story about raising above trauma and using what you learned to help others. 

Also, Fen discovering emojis is basically my mom, and its hilarious. Also, the Floating Kingdom queen and her creepy little son are apparently the Lucille and Buster Bluth of the fantasy world. 

"We shackle people of all races and colors!"

"Not better, Howard!" 

Penny's level of saltiness are just getting higher the longer he spends trapped in the library, and its both sad and hilarious. But he still helped out the girl who screwed him over, because Penny is a big softie under all his snark and belligerence. Hence why he just wants to get back to his people on Earth and to help their loser selves out. But now, Penny ate a cupcake, and you know what happens when you eat something in the underworld, especially when Hades shows up and points you in the direction of said food. I wonder if the cupcake was pomegranate flavored...
 

Edited March 15, 2018 by tennisgurl

[wayne67]

Did Julia make a friend of the Fairy Queen?

I still don't get why the Fairy Queen collects body parts or why she's so hung up about the value of their deals. Oh well, maybe next episode will clear up one of those questions.

If the Fairies have a Fairy Realm, why did they stage a hostile takeover of Fillory? 

This episode was less fun than the last one. 

[JonasArm]

7 hours ago, wayne67 said:

If the Fairies have a Fairy Realm, why did they stage a hostile takeover of Fillory? 

I think it's due to the fragile nature of their realm. If someone sneaks in and removes the key, their realm disappears.

Edited March 15, 2018 by JonasArm

[daisycat]

I hate this show so fucking much, because at the end of each episode, I yell, "Noooooooo!!!" at my TV, because I want to know NOW.

And I hate that we'll have to wait a year for the next season (if it gets picked up again), because now we're sliding towards the end of the season.

I hate watching shows contemporaneously. Why couldn't I have waited and binged it like a normal impatient person? Huh? Why?

I love this show. And this season is soooooo good.

Sorry for not really adding to the conversation. Topic? Alice is shady (ha! See what I did there?).

I'll show myself out...

[festivus]

1 hour ago, daisycat said:

And I hate that we'll have to wait a year for the next season (if it gets picked up again), because now we're sliding towards the end of the season.

I know it's going to totally suck to have to wait a year. I'm obsessed with this show. The good news is that it's been renewed for season four!

[tennisgurl]

14 minutes ago, festivus said:

The good news is that it's been renewed for season four!

I was just about to say this! The long wait between seasons is brutal, but at least we know we have at least one more season to look forward to, and probably another after that. The show has consistently good ratings, especially for SyFy, and has been getting a lot of critical acclaim this season, so hopefully the channel does the smart thing and keeps it going. I figured we would get another season, but after Dark Matter (RIP) got canned, Ive been on edge, so I was very happy when I heard about the renewal. 

I thought the scene where Julia magically cured Qs headache after Alice yelled at him was really sweet. 

[treasaigh]

9 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Penny's level of saltiness are just getting higher the longer he spends trapped in the library, and its both sad and hilarious. But he still helped out the girl who screwed him over, because Penny is a big softie under all his snark and belligerence. Hence why he just wants to get back to his people on Earth and to help their loser selves out. But now, Penny ate a cupcake, and you know what happens when you eat something in the underworld, especially when Hades shows up and points you in the direction of said food. I wonder if the cupcake was pomegranate flavored...
 

 

I saw all that as Penny deciding he *didn't* need to get back to his friends by giving the metro card to... what's her name.   That he bought whatever line Hades was giving him about his amazing future if he stays in the library.  I'm actually not all that thrilled he gave up going back to help the gang.  Katy is not going to be happy.  That being said, I fully expect to find out it's going to be important that Penny is in the library at some point.

Also, yeah, Alice is so not telling Quintin everything.  Am I supposed to like her?  I don't hate her, but I can't quite warm up to her.  Weirdly Julia is being pretty awesome this season.  After the first season that's saying a lot!

[ElleMo]

2 hours ago, daisycat said:

I hate this show so fucking much, because at the end of each episode, I yell, "Noooooooo!!!" at my TV, because I want to know NOW.

And I hate that we'll have to wait a year for the next season (if it gets picked up again), because now we're sliding towards the end of the season.

I hate watching shows contemporaneously. Why couldn't I have waited and binged it like a normal impatient person? Huh? Why?

I love this show. And this season is soooooo good.

Sorry for not really adding to the conversation. Topic? Alice is shady (ha! See what I did there?).

I'll show myself out...

I can relate.  This episode was the first episode I watched real time.  I watched the first two seasons and all the other episodes from this season On Netflix and On Demand in two weeks.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I wonder if the cupcake was pomegranate flavored...

That's the first thing I thought of too. Except . . . if they actually eat in the Underworld, wouldn't he have already eaten something by now? 

I did not understand how Quentin, Alice and Josh got on the flying Muntjac. I get that they can go through the clock to get to Fillory (although - wouldn't they worry they'd be transported back in time again like Quentin and Eliot were??) - and Quentin mentioned something about them walking through town in Fillory. But how did they contact Eliot and Julia and arrange to be picked up? Especially if the boat doesn't stop??

This is the kind of problem I typically had with the show during the first two seasons - they have a tendency to jump from point A to point E without explanation. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a show that doesn't feel the need to spell everything out for me but it didn't really make any sense for Q, A and J to be on the boat without some kind of explanation.

Edited March 15, 2018 by iMonrey

[festivus]

53 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I did not understand how Quentin, Alice and Josh got on the flying Muntjac. I get that they can go through the clock to get to Fillory (although - wouldn't they worry they'd be transported back in time again like Quentin and Eliot were??) - and Quentin mentioned something about them walking through town in Fillory. But how did they contact Eliot and Julia and arrange to be picked up? Especially if the boat doesn't stop??

This is the kind of problem I typically had with the show during the first two seasons - they have a tendency to jump from point A to point E without explanation. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a show that doesn't feel the need to spell everything out for me but it didn't really make any sense for Q, A and J to be on the boat without some kind of explanation.

This is the kind of thing where this show reminds me of Farscpe. You'd start watching an episode and it would feel like they dropped you in the middle and it was up to you to figure out what was going one. The boat thing doesn't make much sense. I would go with they could go through the clock and land on the boat because Alice is really good at calculations but that doesn't explain how they knew the boat was flying around. Or if they did go through town(I missed Q saying that) then how did they get on the boat. Tucking and rolling wouldn't work for that. Sometimes this show is good about tying things together later that initially didn't seem to make sense but I think how they got on the boat or even knew it was flying will be one of those dropped threads.

 

ETA: Maybe the library helped Alice with it. We still don't know the full extent of her deal with them.

Edited March 15, 2018 by festivus

[Enginerd]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I did not understand how Quentin, Alice and Josh got on the flying Muntjac. I get that they can go through the clock to get to Fillory (although - wouldn't they worry they'd be transported back in time again like Quentin and Eliot were??) - and Quentin mentioned something about them walking through town in Fillory. But how did they contact Eliot and Julia and arrange to be picked up? Especially if the boat doesn't stop??

This is the kind of problem I typically had with the show during the first two seasons - they have a tendency to jump from point A to point E without explanation. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a show that doesn't feel the need to spell everything out for me but it didn't really make any sense for Q, A and J to be on the boat without some kind of explanation.

Didn't they only go back in time when they used the particular key in the clock? So maybe they don't worry about that if they go through the clock without using the key. Also, one of the keys seems to open up portals to different places as needed, which is how Eliot, Fen, and Fray got out of the Neitherlands, among other things (though not really within their control as to where the portal goes); maybe they used that and got onto the boat.

[KaleyFirefly]

16 hours ago, treasaigh said:

I saw all that as Penny deciding he *didn't* need to get back to his friends by giving the metro card to... what's her name.   That he bought whatever line Hades was giving him about his amazing future if he stays in the library.  I'm actually not all that thrilled he gave up going back to help the gang.  Katy is not going to be happy.  That being said, I fully expect to find out it's going to be important that Penny is in the library at some point.

Also, yeah, Alice is so not telling Quintin everything.  Am I supposed to like her?  I don't hate her, but I can't quite warm up to her.  Weirdly Julia is being pretty awesome this season.  After the first season that's saying a lot!

I miss Penny being with the rest of the group. I like his character a lot, but I haven't liked that he is so cut off from every other main character. I am still hoping he gets back somehow. 

I agree about Alice. I almost wish they hadn't brought her back from the dead/niffinhood, because she is honestly really irritating. I think the actress is overplaying her a bit too -- with every line she says, she sounds anxious to the point of panic. Calm down Alice! 

I also agree about Julia. What was once one of my most disliked characters is now...not too bad. She and Fen make a good team. 

I'm glad that Margo and Elliot are not going to give up Fillory. They are also such a great and funny team together.

I wonder how they will get the key from the fairy realm. And how did they get all those necklaces off of all the fairies including the Queen, if the "machine" removed their heads along with the necklace? Did Julia somehow remove them?

Edited March 16, 2018 by KaleyFirefly

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

 

Clip: liberation nation

Edited March 17, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[AngelKitty]

2 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

 And how did they get all those necklaces off of all the fairies including the Queen, if the "machine" removed their heads along with the necklace? Did Julia somehow remove them?

The Queen reneged on the deal that was made, which caused the collars to fall off and them to become invisible to their oppressors.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Didn't they only go back in time when they used the particular key in the clock? So maybe they don't worry about that if they go through the clock without using the key.

They can't make the clock work without a key because they don't have magic anymore. That was the whole point of needing a key in A Life in the Day. And I would assume only one of those keys will fit into the keyhole. 

(There was a confusing scene back in A Life in the Day when Eliot and Quentin were examining the clock because at first Quentin pointed out that there was no keyhole with which to wind the clock, and then in the next moment, there was suddenly a keyhole. I wasn't sure what to make of that.)

At any rate, I would fully expect someone - Quentin and Eliot in particular - to point out that going through the clock could potentially send them back in time.

[tennisgurl]

So, true story. I was having lunch with some of my friends today, and this conversation happened:

Friend: "I was watching SyFy the other day, and that stupid Magicians thing came on, and some girl was texting emojis in a life or death situation, like so fucking stupid and some guy was at a fucking book club and it was the dumbest shit ever." 

Me: "Well, I quite like that show, and...shesfromamagicallandandshejustdiscoveredtextingandthinkingsitstheuniversallanguageandtheyweretryingtobesneakytofreeoppressedfairiesandthebookclubisintheafterlifeandhemightbetrappedtheirbecauseofamagicalcupcakeandITMAKESSENSEINCONTEXT!" *takes a sip of flavored water*. "So, yeah, it makes more sense when you've seen the show." And she didn't even see the messenger bunnies. 

I guess this show has officially become a I Will Fight You show now. 

[festivus]

38 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I guess this show has officially become a I Will Fight You show now. 

Damn Skippy. My hubs wandered in the other night right when they started doing Under Pressure. He's never seen a single second of this show but he thought it was good. I was like, you'd really love it if you knew what the song meant for all the characters. I want to try to get more people I know to watch it but I'm not exactly sure how to sell this show. It's a mishmash of other stuff, but it's somehow its own unique thing.

[AudienceofOne]

On 15/03/2018 at 5:58 PM, tennisgurl said:

I love how committed Elliot and Margo are to Fillory at this point. Even when they tried to kill them in a full on revolution, they still want to help and are refusing to abandon them. Tick better watch his ass. It takes more than an eternal waterfall, a bloody coup, and a full on invasion to keep them down. 
 

I really loved that Margo in particular - who has been treating this whole Fillory business as some kind of cosplay - was basically like, "This is our kingdom, these are our people, this is our responsibility". Such awesome character development for them to take this often silly magical world seriously and to not run just because their "Magic Rulers" fantasy came to an end. If you want a metaphor for over-privileged children who never had to grow up in a magical land, actually growing up, this is it. It's awesome.

On 16/03/2018 at 1:01 AM, daisycat said:

I hate this show so fucking much, because at the end of each episode, I yell, "Noooooooo!!!" at my TV, because I want to know NOW.

This was me when I had a few episodes saved up and then went "No, I want to live watch it with my fellow Previouslies" and got to the end of the episodes I had and went NOOOOOO!!!! WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

On 16/03/2018 at 3:43 AM, treasaigh said:

I saw all that as Penny deciding he *didn't* need to get back to his friends by giving the metro card to... what's her name.   That he bought whatever line Hades was giving him about his amazing future if he stays in the library. 

 

Sure but then his decision to stay is made under a giant sign that says "History's Most Egregious Errors" and he eats a cupcake given to him ominously by somebody who says "NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN IF YOU EAT THIS CUPCAKE".

[Christi]

5 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

So, true story. I was having lunch with some of my friends today, and this conversation happened:

Friend: "I was watching SyFy the other day, and that stupid Magicians thing came on, and some girl was texting emojis in a life or death situation, like so fucking stupid and some guy was at a fucking book club and it was the dumbest shit ever." 

Me: "Well, I quite like that show, and...shesfromamagicallandandshejustdiscoveredtextingandthinkingsitstheuniversallanguageandtheyweretryingtobesneakytofreeoppressedfairiesandthebookclubisintheafterlifeandhemightbetrappedtheirbecauseofamagicalcupcakeandITMAKESSENSEINCONTEXT!" *takes a sip of flavored water*. "So, yeah, it makes more sense when you've seen the show." And she didn't even see the messenger bunnies. 

I guess this show has officially become a I Will Fight You show now. 

For me too...I was telling a guy at work he really should watch this with his 16 year old daughter (they watch American Horror Story together...helloooo).

He said Hell No, and so did someone else, who said its too bizarre or creepy etc..

because of the sex maybe?

Idiots...I didnt say anything further but Im still pissed.

This show embodies love, commitment and friendship to me.

I mean, if the kid can watch AHS? Oh whatever...losers ?

Thought this epi was boring tho

[ElleMo]

On 3/15/2018 at 1:11 PM, iMonrey said:

That's the first thing I thought of too. Except . . . if they actually eat in the Underworld, wouldn't he have already eaten something by now? 

I did not understand how Quentin, Alice and Josh got on the flying Muntjac. I get that they can go through the clock to get to Fillory (although - wouldn't they worry they'd be transported back in time again like Quentin and Eliot were??) - and Quentin mentioned something about them walking through town in Fillory. But how did they contact Eliot and Julia and arrange to be picked up? Especially if the boat doesn't stop??

This is the kind of problem I typically had with the show during the first two seasons - they have a tendency to jump from point A to point E without explanation. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a show that doesn't feel the need to spell everything out for me but it didn't really make any sense for Q, A and J to be on the boat without some kind of explanation.

I think the key takes then to where/when they need to be. When they needed the time loop key, they went back in time to find it.  When they needed to see Margot and Elliott, they were transported to the boat.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Making magic:

 

Clip: down under

[ElectricBoogaloo]

OMG, MICHAEL LUWOYE IS HADES!!!!! For those of you who aren't Broadway fans, he is the current Hamilton on Broadway. I saw him when the tour was in San Francisco last year (when his tour contract was up earlier this year, he was moved to the Broadway cast).

I liked that this episode addressed some of the blatant racism we've seen on the show. Fen hates ALL fairies because of what the Fairy Queen did to her as a result of the deal Margo made. The actions of one fairy have made her hate an entire race. The Fairy Queen hates ALL humans because magicians (and it's worth remembering that not all humans are magicians) tried to wipe them out hundreds of years ago. When she told Julia that oppressors have short memories, I was like no, that's not Julia having a short memory. That's you somehow blaming Julia for something that she had nothing to do with because she clearly wasn't even born when all that happened. It's fine to hate someone who has done you wrong. McAllister's entire family deserved to die for enslaving the earth fairies and grinding them to powder. But Julia? She's never done anything to the fairies, so hating her just because she's human is a bit extreme.

The Stone Queen aka creepy mom continues to crack me up, partly because I always remember her as Lucinda, the professor's wife who Brandon had an affair with on 90210, and Kate, the actress who Joey slept with on Friends (who then watched as Vic got on that spaceship).

For someone so smart, Penny can be really dumb. He played right into what Hades wanted him to do. And giving his pig metro card to Sylvia was doing exactly what Hades said Penny likes to do: sacrifice himself for others so that he can feel like he's still important. Eating that cupcake was a brand new level of stupid. If it wasn't pomegranate flavored, then at the very least I'll expect him to change size like Alice in Wonderland. No good will come of this! But hey, who can resist a cupcake?

I don't know why Sylvia wants to go chase after a family that ditched her without a second thought.

Re: the unexplained travel. We saw in one episode that Fen came through the clock from Fillory to Brakebills without a key. Since there's a door in the ship, I'm just assuming that they used it get the others onboard before going to Fillory.

Edited March 17, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[AudienceofOne]

18 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

For someone so smart, Penny can be really dumb. He played right into what Hades wanted him to do.

Remember last season when he signed a billion year contract with the Library? And that was for reasons I still struggle to fathom but are around the same theme.

20 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

And giving his pig metro card to Sylvia was doing exactly what Hades said Penny likes to do: sacrifice himself for others so that he can feel like he's still important.

Which is this.

[jaigurudeva]

The Fairy Queen was lamenting over how humans won't want to make deals with fairies now that she's broken this deal with the McAllisters, but were humans all clamoring to make Fairy deals in the first place? Have we even seen a single good thing come from a Fairy deal? Maybe the Fairy Queen should rethink her prices and not literally charge an arm or a leg if she cares so much about the business.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The other thing I was wondering was if anyone could realistically think, "Oh, the Fairy Queen broke her word to save the lives of her people. What an untrustworthy liar!" When it's life and death, a lot of principles go out the window. I don't think a normal logical person would think that she should have let them all die just to keep her precious integrity intact.

And who's going to tell other beings that she broke her word? The only ones who really know what happened are Julia, Fen, the Fairy Queen, and the fairies she rescued. Everyone else who was in the house is dead. And based on the fact that no one else outside of that family seemed to know that there were slave fairies in the McAllister family (or anywhere else on earth), there's no one to know that there were enslaved earth fairies to be rescued, let alone that the Fairy Queen had to break her word in order to save them.

So who were the McAllisters about to sell all of their fairy dust to? I'm sure that's going to come back and bite Julia in the ass sooner or later.

[diebartdie]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The other thing I was wondering was if anyone could realistically think, "Oh, the Fairy Queen broke her word to save the lives of her people. What an untrustworthy liar!" When it's life and death, a lot of principles go out the window. I don't think a normal logical person would think that she should have let them all die just to keep her precious integrity intact.

And who's going to tell other beings that she broke her word? The only ones who really know what happened are Julia, Fen, the Fairy Queen, and the fairies she rescued.

 

Maybe the Fairy Queen was thinking of her people moving forward, thinking if any if them started going back on deals, that could expose the fairies, she has stated over and over how vulnerable they are. I guess even though they are pure magic, they can't do battle magic? Also, the McAllisters were not a small family, they were pretty far flung, maybe the core was at that dinner but not every one, there might be a cousin here or there who know and were not at the dinner so have survived. Maybe the fairy race makes deals with all others, so they have deals with other magical creatures. Now it gets out that their word is no good, all sorts of baddies could be coming for them now. So the Fairy Queen not only sacrificed the good of the many (all fairies in Fillory) for the good of the few (Earth faries), she further exposed her people to great danger by telling Julia about the 7th key. That was kind of a weird turn about, maybe she hopes Julia will somehow be able to continue to protect the fairies.

[call me ishmael]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

So who were the McAllisters about to sell all of their fairy dust to? I'm sure that's going to come back and bite Julia in the ass sooner or later.

I thought they were selling it to the Library.

[Delphi]

If the fairy realm is all that important to the queen and she can't give the key,  why the fuck did she invade Fillory.   Like,  I'm so sorry hundreds of years ago magicians enslaved you,  all rooting from the same people,  I'd assume,  but you aren't a very sympathetic character lady,  considering there are members of the team missing toes and eyes. 

[daisycat]

So, regarding the travel to and fro Fillory, would it be because of Josh’s magic weed that lets you see into other realms? So they’re not THERE there, but just holograms?

i just picked that up from the “Previously...” on “Art of the Deal”. If so, they should maybe reference it in the eps, e.g. “Who’s got the weed?” or something.

I mean, it’s a thought. I’d been wondering about that all season.

 

ETA: Nope. Never mind. They’re actually there (paying attention now!). Damn. I really, really want that to be explained!

As you were...

Edited March 18, 2018 by daisycat
Cause I’m a herp-derp who wasn’t actually watching undistracted, like now.

[Terrafamilia]

I thought it was hilarious that after Penny tells the guy in the fox shirt about some made-up gal with a wandering eye, Hades shows up and he has a wandering eye.

[Shenanigan]

Quote

I would go with they could go through the clock and land on the boat because Alice is really good at calculations but that doesn't explain how they knew the boat was flying around.

Maybe Eliot and Margo sent a messenger bunny. They were about to do that at one point in the ep, so I assume they have some on the boat.

[festivus]

I've actually given it some more thought and I've concluded that I don't need to give it anymore thought. Someone is behind this quest, the ToddDemon said something about it, so I feel like this person/whatever they are, will also make sure that the key and the clock take them where and when they need to go. The only thing I'm not sure of is where the portal comes through in Fillory like when Fen left and came back through the clock. They haven't shown it from that side that I can remember so I'm just going to assume it's always in the same place. I'm sure it will all make sense in the end, this show is pretty good with that. I think we'll also find out why the fairy queen invaded Fillory in the first place. I do think someone is behind it pulling all the strings.

[The Companion]

On 3/15/2018 at 1:58 AM, tennisgurl said:

I never thought I would cheer for the Fairy Queen, but its hard not to be on her side just a teeny bit when she Red Weddinged those assholes who were enslaving the poor Earth fairies. This might actually be a good thing in the long term, if the Fairy Queen owes the gang a favor, and they can even maybe make an alliance with them. Granted, that shop might have sailed several abductions of innocent humans ago, and horribly screwing over Fen and Elliot several times and taking Margo's eye and all that, but desperate times. It was certainly interested to get some depth for her and the fairies. Glad the poor enslaved fairies got away. And it was an awesome story for Fen and Julia, especially Fen. She really is a good person, putting aside her hatred of Filory faeries after everything they did to her so she could help the innocent fairies. And Julia gets to use her powers she got from something so evil and awful for good. Really, its a pretty emotional story about raising above trauma and using what you learned to help others. 

 

First of all, I love that you turned Red Wedding into a verb. It was surprisingly satisfying. It was impossible not to feel for the Fairy Queen when she saw what had become of her people and realized it was in service to her ancestors. 

On 3/15/2018 at 6:53 AM, wayne67 said:

I still don't get why the Fairy Queen collects body parts or why she's so hung up about the value of their deals. Oh well, maybe next episode will clear up one of those questions.

If the Fairies have a Fairy Realm, why did they stage a hostile takeover of Fillory? 

This episode was less fun than the last one. 

I suspect there will be more to the story. After all, the Fairy Queen implied she had knowledge of what would happen to Margo, didn't she? Certainly, I don't think we have a good handle on what her motivation was, and I would be surprised if we don't get more than we have. I did think there might be some link between taking a body part from humans and humans taking body parts from fairies, but it wasn't expressly addressed.

On 3/15/2018 at 12:00 PM, ElleMo said:

I can relate.  This episode was the first episode I watched real time.  I watched the first two seasons and all the other episodes from this season On Netflix and On Demand in two weeks.

I am so mad I caught up on this show! 

On 3/16/2018 at 3:42 AM, KaleyFirefly said:

I miss Penny being with the rest of the group. I like his character a lot, but I haven't liked that he is so cut off from every other main character. I am still hoping he gets back somehow. 

This is my complaint as well. I like the way they have the characters interact with each other. I don't love watching Penny interact with a bunch of random new characters. I did love how he got the card though. That was pretty amazing. 

On 3/16/2018 at 8:21 PM, AudienceofOne said:

I really loved that Margo in particular - who has been treating this whole Fillory business as some kind of cosplay - was basically like, "This is our kingdom, these are our people, this is our responsibility". Such awesome character development for them to take this often silly magical world seriously and to not run just because their "Magic Rulers" fantasy came to an end. If you want a metaphor for over-privileged children who never had to grow up in a magical land, actually growing up, this is it. It's awesome.

 . . . 

Sure but then his decision to stay is made under a giant sign that says "History's Most Egregious Errors" and he eats a cupcake given to him ominously by somebody who says "NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN IF YOU EAT THIS CUPCAKE".

I am treating Margo as my personal dream cosplay, but agreed that it is fun to watch them go from fairly uninvolved to truly caring about their people and kingdom.

The cupcake was ominous, no? I screamed THE CUPCAKE IS A LIE! because I am a huge nerd. I don't know that I buy that Penny isn't skeptical of everyone up to and including Hades, but I guess we will see.

[Hanahope]

31 minutes ago, The Companion said:

I did think there might be some link between taking a body part from humans and humans taking body parts from fairies, but it wasn't expressly addressed.

That's a good point.  The Fairy Queen has no compunction about taking body parts from humans, but was taken aback seeing something similar happen to the Earth fairies.

[paramitch]

This season is so amazing. Each episode, I'm more impressed with how all of the character arcs tie in together. Like many, I loved how truly committed Elliot and Margo are now to Fillory. I think Elliot always has been, but now Margo is too, and it's wonderful to see. 

I like Fen so much more this season -- they've finally made her a character who isn't just a dupe or an airhead (I was very uncomfortable with Elliot's marriage for a number of reasons). She's a strong, loyal and loving person, and I was really moved by how quickly she wanted to help the poor captive fairies, even given what the Queen had done to her in Fillory.

And the Queen! Such a badass! I really liked that she was willing to risk herself for her people, and the scene in the jail cell was so powerful. See, little moments like this are why I can't quite hate her. I know she's awful, but's like she has a bigger view of the chessboard than everyone else and it's fascinating. Also, her actress, Candis Cayne, is wonderful (I had no idea until it was mentioned here that she's trans -- she's fantastic in the role)! I loved the moment when she made that decision to break the deal, and just went nuclear on the McAllisters (who richly deserved it). I was just sorry what's-her-name got away.

On 3/14/2018 at 11:58 PM, tennisgurl said:

I never thought I would cheer for the Fairy Queen, but its hard not to be on her side just a teeny bit when she Red Weddinged those assholes who were enslaving the poor Earth fairies. This might actually be a good thing in the long term, if the Fairy Queen owes the gang a favor, and they can even maybe make an alliance with them. Granted, that shop might have sailed several abductions of innocent humans ago, and horribly screwing over Fen and Elliot several times and taking Margo's eye and all that, but desperate times. It was certainly interested to get some depth for her and the fairies. Glad the poor enslaved fairies got away. And it was an awesome story for Fen and Julia, especially Fen. She really is a good person, putting aside her hatred of Filory faeries after everything they did to her so she could help the innocent fairies. And Julia gets to use her powers she got from something so evil and awful for good. Really, its a pretty emotional story about raising above trauma and using what you learned to help others. 

Also, Fen discovering emojis is basically my mom, and its hilarious. Also, the Floating Kingdom queen and her creepy little son are apparently the Lucille and Buster Bluth of the fantasy world. 

"We shackle people of all races and colors!"

"Not better, Howard!" 

Penny's level of saltiness are just getting higher the longer he spends trapped in the library, and its both sad and hilarious. But he still helped out the girl who screwed him over, because Penny is a big softie under all his snark and belligerence. Hence why he just wants to get back to his people on Earth and to help their loser selves out. But now, Penny ate a cupcake, and you know what happens when you eat something in the underworld, especially when Hades shows up and points you in the direction of said food. I wonder if the cupcake was pomegranate flavored...
 

Such a terrific post! I completely agree on all these fronts (and to echo others, I love that you used "Red Wedding" as a verb!). Fen with the emojis was everything, and so cute. All her scenes with the Queen were so powerful here. 

I didn't even think about the fact that Penny ate food in the Underworld until you mentioned it! I guess I'd assumed, because he's still alive, that he would somehow still have to eat... but I think you're right. That bite into the cupcake was pretty portentous. Although I can't blame him -- his choices seem to be (1) steal another ticket and end up in another unknown eternal destination that very well might be Hell itself, (2) stay shackled and miserable, or (3) join the book club, lose the shackles, and eat delicious CALORIE FREE afterlife cupcakes!

I mean, I probably would've gone with option 3 too. I did love that he gave up his ticket so that snarky girl could find her family. That's Penny all right -- hard outer shell, soft sweet center.

On 3/16/2018 at 6:21 PM, AudienceofOne said:

I really loved that Margo in particular - who has been treating this whole Fillory business as some kind of cosplay - was basically like, "This is our kingdom, these are our people, this is our responsibility". Such awesome character development for them to take this often silly magical world seriously and to not run just because their "Magic Rulers" fantasy came to an end. If you want a metaphor for over-privileged children who never had to grow up in a magical land, actually growing up, this is it. It's awesome.

That's beautifully and poetically said. I love the Narnia books but always, always resented Lewis for...

Spoiler

yanking the kids out at a certain point (or, worst of all, as in "Wardrobe"), letting them spend decades there, then sending them back to the hell of their earth childhoods. 

I mean, that right there is guaranteed to screw you up. Forever.

And honestly, for me as a writer myself, it's so much more interesting and complex to have them actually have to live and grown in their magical land, and to have their choices matter. It's why I will always love episode 5 of this season, where Elliot and Quentin lived their entire lives together. And the thing is -- it could have been a hell for them. There they were, recreating tile patterns every day (something that would drive plenty mad), but instead they made it part of their everyday lives, and managed to live and love and flourish every day in a quiet kind of paradise. That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in.

On 3/16/2018 at 9:48 PM, ElleMo said:

I think the key takes then to where/when they need to be. When they needed the time loop key, they went back in time to find it.  When they needed to see Margot and Elliott, they were transported to the boat.

Great explanation. For me, the show has two choices: It can go into massive detail about every single portal trip (and we'd lose a lot of other lovely moments), or it can handwave that we're in season 3, they know that we'll figure it out. My own take was that we know of at least two regularly used portals (on the Muntjac and in the clock), and that Fen didn't need a key to leave, so I'm assuming the portals are pretty cool about our gang just coming and going as needed.

On 3/20/2018 at 10:10 AM, The Companion said:

First of all, I love that you turned Red Wedding into a verb. It was surprisingly satisfying. It was impossible not to feel for the Fairy Queen when she saw what had become of her people and realized it was in service to her ancestors. 

I suspect there will be more to the story. After all, the Fairy Queen implied she had knowledge of what would happen to Margo, didn't she? Certainly, I don't think we have a good handle on what her motivation was, and I would be surprised if we don't get more than we have. I did think there might be some link between taking a body part from humans and humans taking body parts from fairies, but it wasn't expressly addressed.

The cupcake was ominous, no? I screamed THE CUPCAKE IS A LIE! because I am a huge nerd. I don't know that I buy that Penny isn't skeptical of everyone up to and including Hades, but I guess we will see.

Great point -- I definitely agree that the Fairy Queen has some sort of nonlinear view of the world(s) and of time and space. 

Also -- +1000 points for "The Cupcake is a lie!" (For me, it's a "Dragon Age: Origins" reference, but I know it's a meme across gaming now ever since Portal.)

On 3/20/2018 at 10:42 AM, Hanahope said:

That's a good point.  The Fairy Queen has no compunction about taking body parts from humans, but was taken aback seeing something similar happen to the Earth fairies.

Yeah, but I would argue it's not quite the same. While the Fairy Queen is awful and scary and it's not cool that she does that stuff, when she takes an eye or toe, etc., it is painless and magical and seems to be able to be at least potentially reversed. She also does seem to treat those around her like actual people, albeit as inferior people.

Whereas, the McAllisters simply openly enslaved their fairies, treated them like things, and while they were at it, occasionally violently amputated pieces off of them to use for their own selfish purposes (permanent injuries), and ultimately beheading them. I mean, at least the Fairy Queen isn't openly eating or sniffing human remains.

[CigarDoug]

On 3/15/2018 at 7:53 AM, wayne67 said:

If the Fairies have a Fairy Realm, why did they stage a hostile takeover of Fillory?  

Because the fairy land was dying.

On 3/15/2018 at 7:53 AM, wayne67 said:

This episode was less fun than the last one. 

But it advances the story line. They all move the story along in small ways and large.

Edited January 9, 2019 by CigarDoug

[CigarDoug]

On 3/16/2018 at 4:47 PM, iMonrey said:

(There was a confusing scene back in A Life in the Day when Eliot and Quentin were examining the clock because at first Quentin pointed out that there was no keyhole with which to wind the clock, and then in the next moment, there was suddenly a keyhole. I wasn't sure what to make of that.)

At any rate, I would fully expect someone - Quentin and Eliot in particular - to point out that going through the clock could potentially send them back in time.

 

The magic of the keys (as part of the quest, or maybe on their own when the quest is finished) is that they CREATE doors, and send you where you need to go.

The clock sends people to all kinds of places.