The Magicians Review: The Bad News Bear (Season 4 Episode 3)

Quentin gets a chance to refresh his poker skills, Margo helps the beast in hopes of seeing Eliot again, and Kady uses good luck to her advantage on The Magicians Season 4 Episode 3, “The Bad News Bear.”

I knew that Margo would not give in easily and take a chance at destroying the beast without first seeing if Eliot was okay, or even still alive. She may not have any indication that Eliot is still alive, but her gut isn’t going to let her give up on him without doing everything she can to make sure.

I don’t think that Josh understands just how hard it is for Margo to see Eliot in this position. Eliot is the one person in her life that she will never give up on, no matter what. He is her ride or die and to be called a bad friend for trying to help him is devastating, you can tell through her face that Josh saying that hurt.

I get that Josh is friends with Bachas and he doesn’t want to betray him, or might be scared to do so, but the monster is more powerful than Bachas, so he needs to get his head right. Also, Josh has already almost been killed with the flick of a finger by the monster once, so you’d think he wouldn’t hesitate too much when Margo tells him to do it.

I still can’t believe that Josh slaps the drink out of Bachas’ hand. That one screw up could have thrown the whole plan, and he could have run or attacked Josh himself.

I love that Quentin gets to play poker again, even if it is a high stakes poker game that could end with Penny being forced to use his traveler abilities against his will. But, Quentin is that good, and he knows that he’s not going to lose. From day one cards has always been Quentin’s thing and it will always be his thing.

Quentin has been through enough, not that everyone else hasn’t, and needs to know that his father is okay. But, based on the phone call at the end of the episode I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I hope that it doesn’t send him spiraling while Irene and the library are trying to find them because that could be a bad situation.

I know that Penny 23 isn’t all for double-crossing, but I’m glad that Kady used the good luck card to her advantage while she still can to get Marina’s apartment. I’m very curious to learn how Kady pulled off getting Marina’s apartment in her name.

Now that they have a place to stay and high-grade magic I foresee our favorite magicians hopefully getting a leg up and fixing one of the million problems they have.

Everyone may think that Alice hates them because she betrayed them, but she willingly gives up her chance to escape with Santa to find their books. Her love for them hasn’t changed, and now that the great blank spot is over she can help by figuring out what happens before it actually does.

I hope that when they’re all back together they can see where Alice was coming from and forgive her.

I like the pace this season is moving at, so far, even though I do still think that we should have had the fake personas for at least one more episode. Speaking of fake personas, I wonder who the beast is because it has to be horrific for Bachas to choose death over giving back what he stole from him.

I think that what the monster rips out of Bachas is pure god magic and that’s why Margo’s fairy eye can’t directly look at it. But, knowing this show, there are a million other things that it could be.

Other Thoughts:

• It’s nice to see that Dean Fogg finally visits Alice and tries to help her, even though he should have been seeing her.
• Kady should be ready for Marina to come at her once she realizes what Kady did with the coins.
• It’s nice to see that even in all of the fallout Julia is still secure in her decision to return magic at the expense of hers because she still loves magic, and you never know; there’s no telling what a god can do.

Favorite Quotes:

• “I’ll do it unless you start acting like a real pussy and take one for the fucking team.” – Margo
• “I can’t log in. It wants to send a text message to my old phone to confirm, but if I had my old phone why the hell would I be doing this?” – Quentin
• “To be clear, you betrayed us.” – Julia
• “No, I love Eliot. I would do anything for him, even help you, but you and I, we will never be friends.” – Margo

What did you think of this episode of The Magicians? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Syfy.

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