The Magicians: Consequences of Advanced Spellcasting Books Included

February 3, 2016 10:48 AM - Season 1, Episode 3

Quentin and Julia have an unexpected - and volatile - reunion. Penny is overwhelmed by the power of his own psychic abilities and Alice is determined to find out what happened to her missing brother - at any cost.
posted by aabbbiee (12 comments total)

I loved a lot of what happened in this episode (the mating books, the blowing the door down, the traveling stuff with Penny, the Julia life dilemmas) but man Quentin was an asshole. And they did not hesitate to show it.
posted by immlass at 8:09 PM on February 3, 2016

Quentin being an asshole is kind of the most important thing about the books. I like how they're developing the love/hate relationship with Q and Alice. Having him save her from niffinizing herself was a great touch. But give us more Elliot, please!
posted by rikschell at 9:03 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh absolutely agreed (a point I think a lot of people who didn't like the books missed). But watching him in the confrontation with Julia was just painful.

Always more Elliot. He is my not-so-secret favorite to watch.
posted by immlass at 9:27 PM on February 3, 2016

Come on, get on with mocking Quidditch, show. I am really waiting for the Quidditch mocking.
posted by Justinian at 1:22 AM on February 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am delighted that all the basic world-building and characterization is happening just as it should, but in a drastically different order, so I'm not sure what's going to happen next.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:26 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a lot of sympathy for Quentin about Julia. He just had to spend high school (or college in the show?) watching her be with James. But yeah, he didn't come out of that confrontation looking particularly noble.

Of course, in the books he was really a dick with Alice, which will be pretty uncomfortable to watch.

I am very impressed with the casting. In my mind Quentin was taller and thinner, but man, Eliot is spot on. And Alice, Margo/Janet, and Julia are all pretty close to how I imagined them. The only thing I'm confused about is, is Kady supposed to be a stand-in for Josh?
posted by A dead Quaker at 8:43 PM on February 5, 2016

So now that I have read and devoured the books in one sitting - I'm kind of wondering about this episode a lot more. Like, he saves Alice from niffinizing herself, he captures Charlie-the-niffen...this all makes me wonder how the hell they're going to get to Book 3, where he's like "I must save/catch Alice-The-Niffen, I don't know how I'm going to do it, I'm going to engage in Magic Ocean's Eleven to get enough money to find out."
posted by corb at 12:12 PM on February 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well, he only saves her from Niffinizing herself by keeping her from getting too deep into a too difficult spell. He's going to need something different if he wants to deniffinize Alice without Niffinizing himself.
posted by rikschell at 4:02 AM on February 8, 2016

Elementary Penguin: I am delighted that all the basic world-building and characterization is happening just as it should, but in a drastically different order, so I'm not sure what's going to happen next.

And that's what I like about this - straight parallels are fun to see, but I like seeing the alternate universes of these characters and stories because it's still fresh and interesting. I can guess what'll happen next, but that's just my guess. Kind of like Game of Thrones going off-plot from the books - it's a more exciting sort of anticipation for me.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:22 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

OH MY GOD THERE'S A TV SERIES

It was such a good book.
posted by GuyZero at 1:56 PM on November 15, 2016

Psst, there were two more books.

Or are you joking, like one does about the Dune sequels not by Frank?
posted by filthy light thief at 3:08 PM on February 27, 2017

At the time I posted the comment I may have not been aware of the sequels.
posted by GuyZero at 3:23 PM on February 27, 2017 [1 favorite]