The Magicians - S3E03 "The Losses of Magic" Review

SPOILER WARNING – Season 3

Season three of The Magicians has kicked off with our favorite magicians divided, both in location and in their interests. Magic is gone in the world and while everyone wants it back, they all have different motivations. Eliot, Margo and Josh are stuck in Fillory, dealing with a potential civil uprising and need magic to save their kingdom. Alice apparently got up to some trouble as a niffin and pissed off the Lamprey, which as of the last episode is now occupying Quentin’s body. Meanwhile, Kady and Penny are frantically looking for any way to cure Penny’s rapidly spreading cancer. And at the current moment, Julia is their only hope, seeming to have some sparks of her magic left.

Ever since Eliot was warned about the Muntjac, I’ve been impatiently waiting for someone to get thrown overboard. Muntjac antics are put on hold for now though, with some pirates on the horizon for Eliot to deal with. Julia finds Kady and asks for a truce, to which Kady seems to agree to given she has bigger things to worry about – such as a dying Penny in her bed. Kady tells Julia she can fuck off, or help with a ritual she’s about to perform to try to save him. What’s the ritual you ask? Summoning a demon. It feels like deja vu, and I can’t help but wonder if Julia is really in a healthy enough mental place to summon another demon at this point.

Eliot sees a keyhole in the Muntjac’s lower decks while hiding from pirates, and the key he retrieved in last week’s episode fits – what a coincidence! Will this unlock some magic in Fillory? Alice heads back to visit her parents, with her new kitten hostage. The amount of animals blown to bits or ripped apart in this show is mind-boggling.

While Eliot is off adventuring, Margo is taking control of the kingdom and having a pseudo breakdown over all the crazy tasks being given to her by the fairies. Margo convinces the Fairy Queen to take her to the pirates and Eliot so she can come to his aid. Margo meets with Pirate “King” who ends up being very female; and some flirty banter ensues. I can dig it. It looks like Eliot has escaped the Muntjac with the help of his key, so maybe not all hope is lost for magic.

The Lamprey has left Quentin and after skirting around the question the last few episodes, Alice finally fesses up to why the Lamprey is pissed at her. As a niffin, she murdered its family and experimented on it to see what magic it had. Yikes! Alice manages to kill the Lamprey after finally figuring it out was hiding in her dad, but she may be dealing with repercussions of everything she did as a niffin for years to come. Defeating the Lamprey came at a cost, as her dad ends up dying of a weak heart and not being able to make it through the electrocution that got rid of the Lamprey.

Kady and Julia begin summoning the demon, and I can’t help but think this is a bad idea. Esteroth, Duke of the Inferno, appears and so far seems to be less murderous than the last demon these two summoned. Esteroth rips what I’m calling a big “cancer ball” out of Penny and says he should heal up in time. Except, moments later it looks like Penny has died. He’s still in the room though in an astral projection, so maybe Julia can magic up a way to shock him back into his body? We’ll have to wait and see!