The Magicians 2X11 “The Rattening” Review

Love is a battlefield, and it turns out no one can win without losing in The Magicians 2X11 “The Rattening”

As promised, our dynamic duo of Q and J go in search of the Ancient One in a dark alley.  After donating his baby molar to the cause, Queen Dragon (who apparently has a bit of a hoarding problem) grants them passage for the cost of Quentin’s button.  He has no choice but to give her what she wants, and then the Ancient One kills them with her breath to send them on.  The two meet up with Julia’s old friends, including the real Richard, before concocting a plan to find her Shade in Elysium, the house of Hades and Persephone.  They sneak in and the two Julias are reunited, while Alice’s Shade surprises Quentin as well.  With time running out and a decision to make, Julia finally does something that that gives us hope for her – she chooses to bring Shade Alice with them for Quentin instead of her own.

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In Fillory, King Idri makes his first trip to visit Eliot since their engagement, and our High King pulls out all the stops.  Surprisingly, his fiance prefers a more intimate session and they get a little steamy.  Unfortunately, Idri and many other members of the Fillorian court then inexplicably turn into rats.  After several other strange happenings and Fen’s disappearance, Eliot decides to get to the bottom of things. He calls a council meeting and uses a truth serum on everyone, forcing Margo to spill the beans on her shameful secret.  He is devastated and sends her to the dungeon while he tries to reverse what happened to everyone.  Desperate to earn Eliot’s forgiveness, Margo takes a potion that transports her to the fairy realm, knowing she might not make it back.  Meanwhile, just after Eliot returns Josh to his human state, he’s kicked out of Fillory and shows up at Brakebills.

Penny continues to work on fixing his hands during his indentured servitude to the Order.  His assigned supervisor is Sylvia, a teenager in a magical witness protection program of sorts whose sharp tongue rivals his.  He has also been secretly plotting to get Kady into the Poison Room, and they believe the key is kept in the head Librarian’s book.  Penny tries to seduce his way into learning her name, but she seems immune to his charms.  Sylvia ends up taking a shine to her supervisee’s surly attitude and offers to help him, revealing the Librarian’s name is Zelda.  Unfortunately, when he goes looking for Zelda’s book it is relocated.  When he visits with Kady in her dreams, Sylvia enters Penny’s mind and offers to help the two of them break into the Poison Room so she can get some answers of her own.

Senator John Gaines has returned to Earth with Reynard now accompanying him.  His father informs him that being a demigod, John has the capacity to influence others the way he can.  He teaches him the technique and John uses it against an opponent of his most recent bill, only to nearly kill him accidentally.  He later reveals the truth of his identity to his wife, and is devastated to realize that he has influenced her their entire courtship.  He confronts Reynard, who is less than understanding, but gets his trickster father to admit that the reason for his bad behavior is that he was scorned by Our Lady Underground.  Furious, John finds his way back to Brakebills and tells Kady that he’s ready to help them against Reynard.

After “The Rattening,” there are only two episodes left before this season of The Magicians is over.  How about we savor these last few moments by looking at some of the highlights of this week’s episode?

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Persephone is Our Lady Underground, and she’s running a miracle sweat shop…

Once the Ancient One, aka Queen of the Great Worms, has granted them permission to travel to the Underworld, Julia is quickly reunited with her Freetrader friends, including the real Richard.  They reveal what they’ve learned about their temporary stop so far, but when asked about where the Shades are, however, no one knows.  However, Richard tells Julia that reception should have a record of their location, so they devise a distraction to search the files.  They find out Elysium, the home of Hades and Persephone, is where they are, and Julia and Quentin make their way over there.  Once inside, one of the Shades reveals they are all creating little miracles for people on Earth.  After spotting a painting on the wall in Persephone’s room, Julia realizes that she is Our Lady Underground, but also hears that she has not been back at the home for some time.

Quentin: “It’s like a Shade orphanage.”

Julia: “We should hurry. We’re running out of time. We should split up.”

Quentin: “I kind of have a thing about splitting up in houses full of creepy kids.”

Julia: “Hey, can we ask you a question?”

Eugene: “Sure.”

Julia: “What was that? That you just did with the money?”

Eugene: “For the little boy?”

Julia: “What little boy?”

Eugene: “The little boy with the shitty dad. He ran away. And now he’s cold and hungry. He’ll find it on the sidewalk any minute.”

Quentin: “And that -”

Eugene: “She’s in a hospital room. She’s making them bloom. It’s a really obvious miracle, but that’s okay. The girl in the room is gonna die anyways.”

Julia: “So you’re all making miracles.”

Eugene: “Just little tiny ones, though.”

Although it seems like the disconnected Shades are in no obvious distress, it is still odd that Persephone and Hades left them in the house alone to perform miracles unsupervised.  Julia comes to the realization that Our Lady Underground may not have taken any part in performing the miracles herself, and she is understandably furious.  After suffering so much at the hands of Reynard only to find out the goddess you prayed to is a fraud, we would be pretty upset too!  We later discover that the trickster god himself suffered a broken heart at her hands, and it appears that his murderous rage comes from a desire to exact revenge on her through her worshippers.  Will Julia renew her search for the goddess just to give her a piece of her mind?  Will we find out where Hades and Persephone have gone to and why they’re missing?  Could they be with Ember?

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John may be a powerful ally in defeating Reynard, but is he trustworthy?

While it seemed to be good news that Senator Gaines (Christopher Gorham) had reappeared on Earth, both Kady and Penny express concerns about Reynard now becoming one of his advisors.  After making the mistake of following Reynard’s advice on influencing an opponent of his bill, John nearly kills the man in the process.  Distraught, he tries to come clean to his wife about his true identity, but discovers that she has been under his control since the day they met.  John confronts his father about the situation, only to be dismissed and told he should to be glad he’s able to compel others.  Angered by Reynard’s nonchalance, John then accuses him of preying on innocent women, at which point the trickster god blows up and shockingly reveals the motivation behind all of his recent misdeeds.  He was in love with Persephone and she scorned him, so now he kills anyone who dares to worship her.

John: “Julia and Kady, they said you did terrible things. I should’ve looked you up on the spot.”

Reynard: “You didn’t because I gently suggested you don’t. It’s for your own good, kid.” John: “So it’s all true.  Those poor women…”

Reynard: “Those women were hardly victims.”

John: “They said they were just trying to summon a little help from some kind of goddess–”

Reynard: “They were summoning an evil bitch! You looked me up, says trickster. See, that’s honest. Yes, I fuck with the weak. You know what that does? Improves the herd. I help the same little creatures you want to help. It’s not surprising, you’re my son, how else could it be but her? The benevolent ‘Our Lady Underground.’ It is all about her. Power, attention, grinding men and gods into the fucking dirt and then she leaves!”

John: “You loved her. Guess there’s some things you can’t control, after all.”

Reynard: “I can see you’re upset. But I need you to move past that. Stop worrying about humans. They’re beneath you. This is your birthright, son. We’re gonna do so much together.”

How stunned were we when we found out Reynard (Makenzie Astin) not only has a heart, but someone broke it?!  We finally saw the tightly reined god lose control, and the results were spectacular.  Despite all his posturing over being superior over humans and performing a service, he’s really just another scorned (would-be?) lover.  Astin has always played the trickster so self-assured that it was startling to see him emote the bitterness and hurt beneath Reynard’s exterior.  When John goes to Brakebills and promises to help Kady, it sounds like our gang has gotten their big break.  The more we think about it, though, we had a tiny reservation.  After all, he has been influenced by his own father before (see above), and it’s a revelation we doubt writer Mike Moore put in as an afterthought.  So, what makes us believe John there on his own accord?  Not a whole lot.  

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Near, far, wherever Alice is, Quentin’s heart will go on

We’ve always know that the romance between Quentin and Alice is more doomed than happily ever after, but we were thrown a bone this week.  After arriving in Elysium, Quentin and Julia go in search of her Shade.  While he does indeed find her, his best friend makes a stunning discovery of her own.  Alice’s Shade is there as well, and this is the final piece of the puzzle for Quentin as to why he could never save her.  While we don’t quite know why the two blondes were separated, but the reunion is obviously bittersweet.  He spends time with Shade Alice while the two Julias reunite.  Before long, their time is up, and Shade Alice (Ava Telek) urges them to leave before the portal closes.  Quentin bids another tearful goodbye, but as they enter the elevator to get to the surface, he is shocked to see Julia has brought Shade Alice along instead.  

Julia: “Q, it’s time.”

Quentin: “This is it. It’s who I couldn’t make the math work.”

Julia: “What math?”

Quentin: “Uh, the spell to bring Alice back. I knew something was missing, I just didn’t know -”

Shade Alice: “It was me. You have to go now. There’s a portal in there, back to reception. And I’m glad we got to say good-bye.”

Quentin: “Um, I’m gonna be back here for good one day, and I am going to find you.”

Shade Alice: “Okay.”

Julia: “You first.”

Quentin: “Jules, what the hell? This isn’t up for debate. We came here so that you could -”

Julia: “Yeah? So? Things change.”

Quentin: “If you do this…”

Julia: “I know. This is my one shot. And this is what I want to do with it.”

There was so much we loved about the time Julia (Stella Maeve) and Quentin (Jason Ralph) spend in Elysium, not the least of which is the reunions themselves.  Nonetheless, they are not the most striking moments in this episode – it’s Julia sacrificing her chance at being whole to help make Quentin happy.  This is the Julia we have been missing all season, and it’s almost as if the temporary reunion with her Shade and hearing Quentin speak of her to Eugene was enough to heal her.  Julia’s playful joy came back, something Maeve portrays exceptionally well, and we did a little happy dance.  She still has the spunk, clearly, but it’s now tempered with a maturity and empathy we didn’t see before.  With two episodes left, we’re holding out hope that the gang will find a way to bring her back together, because damn it, we think she’s earned it!

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Final Verdict: Love makes people do crazy things, and The Magicians 2X11 “The Rattening” has us begging for more (episodes)

While the as-promised Queen of the Great Worms as indeed a sight to behold, there were many other things that delighted us about “The Rattening.”  Love was the theme this week, whether it be the renewal, maintenance, or loss of of it.  We saw yet another heartwarming mini-reunion between Shade Alice and Quentin, as well as the two parts of Julia (albeit briefly).  Kady and Penny resumed their flirtation, and for the time being they’re happy.  We discovered that Reynard is a god in pain that wants everyone around him to feel the same.  Finally, we also saw a huge crack in the friendship between Eliot and Margo.  So, in spite of all the mythology, magic, and drama, it comes down to this one basic need we have within us to love and be loved.  Is it cliche?  Maybe a little, but we still love it nonetheless!

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It’s not hard to guess that we’re wondering what will happen to Julia without her Shade, but we’re also wondering how Shade Alice will help Quentin bring all of her back.  Besides that, what’s in the Poison Room?  What is Sylvia looking for in there?  Is John really sincere in his desire to help Kady and Julia, or has he been given a suggestion by Reynard?  Back in Fillory, what force is causing all the disruptions and why did Eliot get kicked out?  Was in the FU fighters or one of their allies?  What’s going to happen with Margo?

We only had a couple of tiny problems with the episode this week.  First, it seems that Kady and Penny are inconsistent with one another from week to week.  They’ve gone hot and cold so many times we’ve lost count, and there doesn’t seem to be any further discussion of his declaration of love.  The second thing was what was happening in Fillory.  After watching it, we feel as though some parts are missing (perhaps on the editing room floor), which sort of undercut the emotional impact at times.

Okay, so maybe we are being a little picky with things, but we’re not going to deny that this week’s episode was amazing.  The special effects team with CVD VFX did a stunning job on the Ancient One, and we were tickled pink by Mike Moore’s take on the Underworld as an eternal reception area complete with ambivalent staff.  We applaud Mackenzie Astin’s fantastic turn as Reynard this week and giving us a peek into the inner workings of someone we assumed just enjoyed the act of killing (which he may).

One of the main themes running throughout this season was personal growth, and some of our favorite magic wielders did so in rather unexpected ways.  It’ll be interesting to see if something will unite them all together again, and whether the events that unfold will change their friendships forever.

There’s only two episodes worth of shock and awe left for this season of The Magicians, and we know it’s going to be a crazy ride.  Our gang still has to confront Reynard, deal with the fairies, help Julia and Alice, all while making sure they all make it out alive.   We have a feeling we’ll be doing a lot of shouting, popcorn throwing, and cheering to look forward to in the next couple of weeks!

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We’re at a bigger loss than Eliot!  Just look at our list of questions…

• What is Quentin planning on doing with Shade Alice?
• Who or what is behind the crazy happenings in Fillory?
• With no one left on the throne in Fillory, who will take over?
• What kind of answers are Sylvia looking for?  Could she be working for her father?
• Speaking of which, who is her father, anyway?  It sounds suspicious to us…
• Where did Hades and Persephone go?  Are they missing, dead, or purposely hiding?
• Will we get to see more of Queen of the Great Worms (aka Dragon aka Ancient One)?
• Just who is Zelda’s type, if not Penny?  We thought he was everyone’s type…
• Can we have a spin off episode that just has Penny and Sylvia bickering back and forth?
• Where the hell is Ember?!

The Magicians returns next Wednesday April 12th, 2017 at 9/8C on Syfy.