The Magicians Review: Impractical Applications (Season 1 Episode 6)

In “Impractical Applications,” this week’s episode of The Magicians, it’s the Triwizard Tournament.

Okay not exactly, but it is The Trials, which are supposedly meant to test the freshman to see if they can think and act like magicians. People will get sent home, and it’s starting to feel like an episode of my new favorite reality show “America’s Next Top Sorcerer.” (Alternate title: “So You Think Yer a Wizard.”)

It’s actually more like an excuse for some upperclassman hazing and Eliot and Margo to throw the middle-of-the-woods dinner party of their dreams. (Have I mentioned the fabulousness of Eliot and Margo? Give them their own spin-off where all they do is gossip and get drunk. I’d watch it.)

With a little bit of teamwork, cheating, and Quentin’s junior cowboy camp skills, the gang makes it through the first two tasks with relative ease. These tests force the characters into situations where they must work together, but it doesn’t get really serious until the third task.

At night they must pair off and perform secrets magic, so Penny and Kady, and Quentin and Alice, respectively, get completely naked, cover each other in body paint, and tie the other up with rope. Kinky stuff, right? In one of the worst games of truth or dare ever, to magically escape their bonds requires them to reveal their innermost truth.

Penny, who’s just a big softie, admits he’s falling in love with Kady. Which is awkward, since Kady’s truth is that she has been lying the whole time and is simply using Penny to steal more stuff. Alice confesses she’s even more of a badass than everyone thinks, but she holds back because all she really wants is for people to like her. Q admits he’s full of self-loathing and still trying to run from himself. This second emotional reveal is a tender moment for the pair, at least until they transform into geese and fly off into the night.

What’s interesting is that the trial doesn’t reveal shocking secrets to create an OMG moment. And the show could have, but it didn’t. Instead, it chooses to do something that could lead to much more interesting and nuanced storytelling: it just makes the characters acknowledge the things we already thought we knew about them. Seeing them look their own stories in the face made each of the four became more relatable and more real.

Bonus Round: Are We Getting Too Meta Yet?

Quentin: You ever want something so badly and then realize that it’s nothing like what you thought and, maybe that you are stupid for ever actually even wanting it?

Margo: Every guy I’ve ever slept with.

First, let’s just appreciate Margo for the beauty of that one-liner.

Now let’s talk about Q’s latest depressing statement about being a grownup. At this point, it’s pretty obvious that the show is just as much about grappling with adulthood as it is about magic. Quentin’s real journey, one that’s infinitely more relatable, isn’t about becoming a magician, but learning who he is. And part of that is realizing not everything is the way you always thought it would be. Things change and people change and you change, and they were rarely ever that simple in the first place.

The coming-of-age story isn’t new. It has been told over and over again, in every possible way. But The Magicians is using Fillory as a unique device to tell it. Within the story, it’s a literal way to compare the differences between fiction and reality, naivety and understanding, being a child and getting older.

Quentin discovers that Fillory, the fictional world from his favorite book series, is real. It’s also where the evil, suit-wearing moth man lives and people get tortured in dungeons. It’s not as pretty or as perfect as his childhood dreams would have him believe. And for Q, it’s an abrupt awakening that becoming a magician, and even growing up, isn’t either.

Outside of the story, it’s an eerie parallel to the viewer’s own experience with the transition from Hogwarts and Narnia to Brakebills. It’s strange, and even a little unsettling, to see that once you remove the literal magic, Quentin is just a mirror reflecting our real lives.

Margo: Jesus, that is not totally consistent with the books.

Quentin: No! It’s not. And I just — I find that devastating.

I feel you, Quentin. This is just like when I turned 12 and still hadn’t received my Hogwarts letter.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Magicians? Tell us in the comments!

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The Magicians airs Mondays at 9/8c on SyFy.