The Magicians
Season 2 Episode 12: “Ramifications”
Created by Sera Gamble & John McNamara
Based on the novel by Lev Grossman
Starring Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Arjun Gupta, Summer Bishil, Rick Worthy, Jade Tailor
Syfy
Air Date: Wednesday, April 12th, 2017, 9:00pm

Last time on The Magicians, Julia and Quentin (Stella Maeve, Jason Ralph) made it to the Underworld via dragon, and spent some time with the real Richard (Mackenzie Astin) and the dead hedge witches to find where the shades were kept. They found Julia’s shade… and Alice’s too. They escaped taking the Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) shade also. Penny (Arjun Gupta) teamed up with his teen supervisor, Sylvia (Roan Curtis), to get into the Poison room. Senator Gaines (Christopher Gorham), horrified by his father, teamed up with Kady (Jade Tailor). After King Idri (Leonard Roberts) and others were turned into rats, Eliot threw Margo (Hale Appleman, Summer Bishil) in the dungeon because of the fairy deal, then got kicked out of Fillory for introducing democracy. Margo went to fairy land to rescue Fen (Brittany Curran).

Spoilers below.

The Magicians 2.12 “Ramifications” review: Julia and Q go to Mayakovsky (Brían F. O’Byrne) for help, but he says it’s hopeless, and refuses. Quentin mans up and gives him hell – “help Alice!” And so he does. One cage plus one shade plus 4 magic batteries, and Niffin Alice comes bursting back, and meshes with her shade. Poof! Life! But resurrected Alice is not happy with Q, “Fuck you.”

Sylvia tells Penny the poison room is in another realm, to find the right fountain and they’re in. Penny travels around to find it. He does and Sylvia cracks the wards. Everyone’s book is missing 20 pages. Sounds like the setup for season 3’s big bad.

Without any other children of Earth, it looks like Josh (Trevor Einhorn) is now “high” king, and his philosophy is Hakuna Matata (it means no worries, if you didn’t know). They get high and destroy the cursed chairs. Margo appears to him and says to get her back.

Julia goes to Kady and says she needs her. She lost her shade forever (for a good cause), and needs Kady to “slam on the brakes” when she goes too far. Kady needs her too. They are going to teach John magic so they can fight Reynard. He ripped apart John’s wife so he has reason. They also want to trick him into thinking Our Lady Underground (aka Persephone) is back.

Eliot goes to see Quentin, trying to figure out why he was banished. He and Eliot figure they need to find the clock from Yale because that’s a Fillory portal. They go to the guy that owns it now, and have to come clean by quoting Fillory.

Eliot: “Holy shit. There are 2 of you,” as they walk into a Fillory museum. The guy is a total geek… and a god, Umber “in the flesh.” He made a deal with Martin Chatwin, and “faked his own death and moved to Vancouver.” He explains the Fillory problem with complete sense – Ember is chaos and he is structure, and Fillory is unbalanced and f****d.

Eliot: “If you can’t fix it and won’t save it, let us try.”

John forces Julia to go get a pizza, and then makes Kady do the ritual. Kady is now all sorts of messed up. Julia takes care of the cleanup, and uses the energy to create a magic bullet.

Alice is trying to write down all of the spells because it’s fading. She hates being in her body. Mayakovsky offers Adderall and a lecture about the strength of shitty humans.

Penny finds the book, but something is wrong. Sylvia read her book. She’s not supposed to make it back. If Penny tries to save her, neither does he. Penny appears with the book to Kady and passes out – radiation poisoning.

King Idri’s son shows up and demands to see his father. Josh’s answer makes him kill 4 people. After drugging them and himself, Josh sees Fen in a vision and takes the drink to send him to the fairy realm.

Julia and Kady lure Reynard with a light storm. But the real Lady Underground shows up and begs her to spare Reynard. She does and they both disappear, but Kady is furious. Julia’s shade is returned. Even with Reynard humbled by his mommy, he is still one of the scariest villains ever – a million times worse than the Beast.

Eliot’s plan… is exactly like the Beast’s.

This episode was like 3 in one. Just completely understanding what the hell was wrong with Fillory, made the storyline move leaps and bounds. It’s pretty awesome to see Eliot so passionate about Fillory, when before it was just Quentin.

“Ramifications” was delicious. I was captivated the whole time. The action does not stop. The Alice part was the weak spot in it, but the rest was so good, it doesn’t matter. The other versions of Alice we got this season was better. Her purpose will probably come next week.

The season 2 finale of The Magicians airs next Wednesday at 9:00pm ET on Syfy.

Video

THE MAGICIANS | Season 2, Episode 12: Sneak Peek | Syfy

Quentin gives Mayakovsky a talking to in a language Mayakovsky can understand, “Get off your ass!”

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