‘The Magicians’ Season Four Episode Three Recap: “The Bad News Bear”

Photo Credit: Image courtesy of SyFy

Well, it was inevitable that we would have to witness the tearful, and potentially terrifying, reunion of Margo and the Eliot monster. And this week’s episode, “The Bad News Bear”, definitely delivered on both of those fronts.

Our gang finally has their memories (and bodies) back, the Eliot Monster has them cornered and is ready to start killing them off (after deciding the correct order of their deaths, of course). Margo finds them, after being warned and prepared by Marina (who leaves, deciding a breakfast burrito sounds much more appetizing than being tortured and killed by the Eliot Monster) and instead of subduing him with the “god meth” that Marina provides her, is able to convince the Eliot Monster that he should go to Fillory and kill Bacchus instead of them. Josh has qualms about this because Bacchus and he are friends. Of course, this means that the Eliot Monster, ever the pragmatic sadist, takes Josh with him and Margo to Fillory. They put the “god meth” into a margarita for Josh to give to Bacchus, knowing that Bacchus would only accept a drink from his good friend.

Photo Credit: Image courtesy of SyFy

Back on Earth, Marina enlists the rest of the group (Quentin, Penny, Kady, and later Julia) in a heist to get her “Deweys” – the new magical batteries dispensed by the Library that have become the magical world’s form of currency, or she will turn them over to the McAllisters, who want them dead. She also warns them that she has placed trackers on all of them, so running is pointless. They decide the best way to get these “Deweys” is by nabbing a “Black Card,” the magical credit cards given to the McCallister family by the Library as a ‘thank you’ for helping to restore magic. In order to use a Black Card without being caught, they seek out Penny’s friend Frankie (played by You’s Zach Cherry) who is a master counterfeiter. He also requires some “Deweys” as payment and also “seed magic” and so they enlist Quentin into a “Push” tournament (basically magical underground poker).

Meanwhile, after being chewed out by Julia, Dean Fogg visits Alice in Library jail and tells her that Library has continued writer her and her friends books now that the ominous blank pages have been solved by the return of magic. He warns her that because of this, if they were to regain their memories (and in turn, if she tried to escape) the Library, and thusly the McAllisters, would know immediately where they were. This changes Alice and Santa’s plans for escape, because now they must steal their books (and her friends’) before using his chimney powers to escape. Santa is able to find his book, but Alice discovers a placeholder stating that her and the groups’ books have been taken for “revisions.” Alice tells Santa to escape, but she remains behind in order to track down the books. Santa’s escape in his sleigh is witnessed by a smoking librarian (played by Firefly darling Jewel Staite, and who will probably have a much larger role to play.)

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On Earth, after winning the Push tournament and securing some sweet “Deweys” for Frankie, Frankie explains that his counterfeiting works off of “luck magic” which means that the more luck is needed to accomplish the task, the more bad luck gets channeled into an object that must be held by someone staying behind, in this case a little grey teddy bear in the arms of Quentin. Kady and Penny, in some hilarious disguises, head to the magical bank run by the Library to use the “Black Card” to withdraw their required amount of “Deweys.” The bad luck back at Marina’s loft continues to worsen for Quentin, going from a small paper cut courtesy of a paper towel – to a python coming out of the toilet. It culminates in a phone call from Quentin’s mom, potentially about the death of his dad (now that magic is back, potentially his dad’s cancer is too), but Julia convinces him not to take the call while he’s still holding the bad luck bear. Kady and Penny retrieve the “Deweys” and return the loft. They pay Frankie and Marina (who admits she lied about the trackers), and Kady takes the bad luck bear to dispose of it, but instead, uses it to finally take her revenge on Marina for murdering her mother. The result is that Kady ends up with a free, adorable puppy, and ownership of Marina’s place.

Back in Fillory, Josh struggles to gives Bacchus the poisoned margarita. He knocks the first one out of Bacchus’ hand, panicking and claiming “I peed in it!” But Margo tells him not to “nutsack out” but instead to “pussy up” and sends him back in. Josh tells Margo that she is both “a good friend and a bad friend all at the same time.” When he goes back in, the Eliot Monster tells Margo that he is drawn to her because he feels that he is also both “a good friend and a bad friend” because of his need to be around people but also his tendency to murder them. He wants to be friends with Margo, because he can sense her deep love and friendship with Eliot. But she rebuffs him, telling him that she would do anything for Eliot, including die or kill for him, but she will never be friends with the monster inside him. Unless the monster allows her to speak with Eliot, that is. The Eliot Monster denies her request, and also tells her that he will never leave Eliot’s body because Eliot is so loved by his friends. Meanwhile, Josh gives Bacchus the margarita, Bacchus drinks it, and is instantly knocked out.

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He wakes up pinned to the base of a tree by the Eliot Monster. The Eliot Monster interrogates Bacchus, revealing that he has no memory of his name or who he is, that his last memory is of the gods, including Bacchus, trapping him in the tower at the end of the world. Bacchus calls him a monster, and the Eliot Monster responds with “but we are of the same family. Why am I monster, but you’re a god?” He then claims that there is something inside Bacchus that belongs to him and he needs to retrieve. He pulls out a knife and guts Bacchus, killing him, and pulls out a glowing organ (that to Margo’s fairy eye is like “staring into the sun”).

Who is the Eliot Monster? What crime did he commit that was worth such punishment by the gods? Why did they wipe his memory? And, finally, what is the magical, glowing organ that he now possesses?