‘The Magicians’ Season Four, Episode Two Recap: “Lost, Found, and F*cked”

An episode perhaps more aptly named than any before, the second episode of season four features Margo lost, a fireplace found, and pretty much everybody f*cked.

Spoilers ahead for season four, episode two of The Magicians. You have been warned.

Image courtesy of SYFY.

Unlike last week’s season premiere where The Monster/Eliot and Brian/Quentin did not show up until almost two-thirds of the way through, this episode starts with them in Greece, of all places. The Monster is determined to summon Enyalius, the Greek god of war, but needs Brian/Quentin to fetch and kill a pig to do so. His motivations are unclear, but they reveal themselves in time.

Meanwhile in Fillory, Janet/Margo continues to run around the woods, lost and scared. She bends down to sip some water from a pond, and a large, amphibious creature pulls her in. She ends up in an underwater cave with a slimy, webbed, anthropomorphic frog-fish named Lord Fresh. He knows who she truly is and has something for her called her “Birthright Box,” which predicted her arrival but also predicted that she would live and rule alone, whatever that means. However, in her current Janet state, she is unable to touch it, so Lord Fresh sends her on her way to meet another day. Once back on land, she is about to kill a fish to eat before being captured by royal guards.

Speaking of royal guards, acting High King Fen graces our presence for the first time this season! She is alerted that someone is claiming to be High King and visits her in the dungeon. She has the same style, same sass, and same eyepatch as Margo, so they trust her… somewhat. Also, she mentions Ember, who they have been trying to reach as Fillory’s air has become too potent with opium, causing drowsiness, dancing, and death, and they think he is behind it. Since maybe-Margo has a connection to Ember, Fen lets her out of the dungeon. They look at Ember’s past appearances and track him to a tavern called “The Hare on the Ass.”

Back on Earth, Marina, Sam/Kady, DJ Hansel/Penny, and Isaac/Josh are recovering from Marina’s spell. She receives an automated voice message from Dean Fogg telling her to stop meddling with his spell, which leads her to make a trip to Brakebills using a recently re-traveling DJ Hansel/Penny. While there, Marina finds the spell potion that was used on everyone and cleverly injects it into Dean Fogg, who now has to either accept his fate or reverse the spell. After several hilarious encounters and some deep revelations (“Fate’s a f*cker who always wins,” he explains), he finds himself disguised as a homeless man, whom Marina calls “Dad.”

Image courtesy of SYFY.

Oh yeah, Alice is still in prison with Santa. (And that is a sentence you can only find in a recap of The Magicians.) With some advice from St. Nick himself, Alice breaks a tube at the top of her room filled with magical current and sticks her hand inside. She is able to cast, and she uses it to see through the eyes of the cockroach she caught in the previous episode. The cockroach makes its way to the Head Librarian’s office, and before the bug is stepped on, she notices a fireplace. Lucky for her, she has a fireplace expert in the cell next door, which gives her an idea for escape.

Back in Greece, Brian/Quentin has caught a pig, and The Monster/Eliot requests he slaughter it. When Brian/Q refuses, The Monster/El breaks his arm in probably the most gruesome shot of the episode. Brian/Q complies once The Monster/El fixes his arm, and they summon someone who claims to be Enyalius. However, after The Monster/El pokes around his insides for a while, he discovers the “god” is an imposter and he does not have what The Monster/El is looking for.

Fen and Margo arrive at the tavern to find not Ember, but rather Bacchus, the party god last seen in the season three premiere wearing goat horns. But before they can confront him, Kim/Julia and Todd are getting  into some trouble of their own.

Image courtesy of SYFY.

Back at the Physical Kid’s Cottage, Todd realizes that the spell is still fully intact despite magical outages, courtesy of The Library. This leads him to question whether Dean Fogg ever successfully completed his perpetual magic battery, and he and Kim/Julia search for it. They find it in the lab, but when Kim/Julia tries to touch it, it sends her flying into a wall… and she dies.

Cut back from commercial to a freaked out Todd who calls for a medic before Kim/Julia gasps and sits up, perfectly fine. She realizes the battery can only have a certain amount of juice to do this to her, so Todd sits there as she touches it, gets blasted, dies, and wakes up, at least 50 times. Finally, the battery dies, and with it, the spell. Margo, Quentin, Kady, Penny, Josh, Julia, and Dean Fogg’s faces flash and shake, and suddenly they are themselves again. For Margo, this means Fen gives her her crown, but before she can be king again, Bacchus teleports her back to earth.

For Quentin… he seems remarkably calm. They sit, talking about the murder he just witnessed and about what The Monster is looking for, which is knowledge he claims has been stolen from him. Finally, he asks if once The Monster finds it, he can see Eliot again. This angers The Monster, who questions if Quentin likes Eliot better than him, and if he would rather be with his other friends. Q tries to stop him, but before he can, they appear in Marina’s apartment, and The Monster tells Kady, Penny, and Josh, “I’m not here to play.”

Considering his promise to Brian/Q in the premiere that his plan was to kill all of them, this does not look good.

Tune in for season four, episode three, “The Bad News Bear,” on Wednesday, February 6 at 9/8c on SYFY.

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