The Magicians: The Strangled Heart Show Only

March 8, 2016 7:45 AM - Season 1, Episode 8

Eliot and Mike grow closer while Quentin and Alice spend time apart (somewhat), and Penny saves the day.
posted by filthy light thief (10 comments total)

Also, Dean Fogg gets his ability to cast magic back, gets his ass kicked, and tells Quentin that they're all doomed to a gory death when The Beast returns for realsies.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:58 AM on March 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't watch "The 100", but I've been reading a lot of things this week via Tumblrs of people reacting to that show's recent egregious use of the "Bury Your Gays" trope. So it's pretty damned disappointing that Eliot's love story has ended with a dead boyfriend. I'm debating whether or not to head over to the 'Books Included' thread to ask if Eliot will (a) survive the series and (b) ever get a relationship again. Ugh.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:27 PM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure that Mike was a gay man who could be buried in the first place, though. I think it was implied that he was blacked out for the duration of his relationship with Elliott. The last thing that he could remember was being in Brooklyn.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:01 PM on March 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, Mike is just an unfortunate magic-war casualty of indeterminate sexual orientation--but Eliot is a gay man who shortly after baring his feelings to his new love has to see that man die. If this is going to be the only significant love story Eliot gets in the run of the series, it's fulfilling the all-gay-love-stories-end-tragically trope.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:18 PM on March 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

What happened with the bunny is NOT OK.
posted by Bunny Boneyology at 5:55 PM on March 9, 2016

"Hey there, welcome to Brakebills! Just a little housekeeping before we get started- um...so, we're at war with some sort of demonic force or being that we really have no way of stopping, and that may have killed most of the class of '17, and probably has the rest under its thrall, and can really get in here any time it feels like, and that's when random hedge witches aren't breaking in and stealing stuff...but we're not actually going to tell you about any of this. Instead, we're just going to keep pretending that this is some sort of Ivy League Hogwarts, and keep giving you messed-up tests that we never explain, and really just serve to undermine your confidence in your own powers, when they're not giving you weird class anxiety and making you hate the people who should be your allies. Oh, and fucking Narnia is real, but it doesn't really matter, because we fucked up, and we're all going to die, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Anyway, burgers on the quad at 3."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:31 AM on March 10, 2016 [15 favorites]

Brakebills: Making Hogwarts Look Safe Since 1830.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:09 PM on March 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

"How are we going to defeat the beast?"
"I haven't the foggiest."
Looks meaningfully at camera.
posted by ODiV at 5:26 PM on March 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

"As self-appointed gatekeepers to the world of magic, we're actually pretty shit."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:44 PM on March 11, 2016

I FULLY DO NOT ENJOY THE FACT THAT WE LEARNED THAT ELIZA IS JANE CHATWIN AND THEN SHE PROMPTLY DIES. THAT IS NOT OK, SHOW.

(working through season 1 on netflix, and while I'm enjoying it, this is some sort of bleak af version of hogwarts and I'm already pretty full of bleak quota from The 100)
posted by numaner at 4:06 PM on March 29, 2017