The Magicians Review: The Serpent (Season 4 Episode 9)
Margo accepts defeat and sacrifices the crown for the greater good, Alice has some self-realization while bringing Harriet back, and Penny 23 sees the real Eliot while helping the monster on The Magicians Season 4 Episode 9, “The Serpent.”
Kady’s story arc this season is pretty fantastic. She’s always been a boss bitch, but being recognized by the library as a legit threat and calling her the new Marina is quite the compliment.
Going up against the library is a tough feat, but it’s even tougher when blood worms are being injected into people to keep them dormant. I think that Kady can do some damage to the library with her skills and tactics. But, if anything is going to change for real, it’s going to have to come from the inside.
Everett may be the one who believed in Zelda and helped her become the woman she is today, but he stands for everything she’s against. You can tell in the way she acts, and her attitude changes when she has to speak about the library’s involvement of magic.
Zelda doesn’t agree with everything the library is doing, but it’s all she knows. She can’t go against everything good in her life and lose her position because she wouldn’t know what to do. I hope that Zelda decides to believe Harriet and confront Everett because if not things are going to get crazy, and Harriet’s already proven she’s down to get crazy.
At her core, I think Alice’s problem is that she’s not okay with herself because she blames the niffin, magic crazed, bitchy side of her for ruining everything in her life. She’s afraid of that side coming out again because last time she couldn’t control it once it did.
Zelda may have needed Alice’s help, but Alice needed this more because the side that she doesn’t like about herself gets the chance to voice her own opinions about how she’s acting. It’s a deep cut to Alice that her bad side isn’t the one who destroyed the keys; it was the fear in her that made her do it.
I don’t agree with Fen taking the crown because at this point it’s so fast and forced that it feels like it could be a trick, not her real destiny. Margo realizing that the only thing she can do is accept defeat is gut-wrenching because you can tell from the tears and lip quivers that it’s the last thing she wants to do.
Knowing that Eliot is alive has given Margo a boost of life and hope that I think she desperately needed. Her and Josh’s relationship is pretty adorable. They’ve been up and down, like anyone else, but I think Margo has real feelings for Josh. In the beginning, I didn’t see it lasting long because it’s an unlikely pairing, but I’m happy for what’s blossomed out of their interactions.
I feel the same way about Penny and Julia as well. Julia deserves someone genuinely lovely and caring, and that’s something that Penny 23 keeps showing her by consistently being there to help her through her struggles. He may have fallen in love with the 23rd timeline Julia, but that doesn’t mean he can’t see our Julia for how special and rare she is.
Penny seeing the real Eliot feels like a beacon of hope that they’re getting close to figuring something out and freeing him. But, if Quentin and Julia continue to help the monster, they’re going to do something way worse than what the monster said his intentions were.
With only two more episodes this season I’m getting super nervous about the fate of Eliot’s life. If they don’t figure something out, quick things might begin to be too late because the monster is making a ton of progress now that Penny has helped him relive some of his memories.
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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Cade Taylor
Cade Taylor is a television and film critic living in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a Senior Writer for Tell-Tale TV. His love for television developed at a young age, with a concentration on queer stories, sitcoms, teen dramas, and science fiction thrillers. In addition, he works full-time as a news producer, telling the stories of Missourians and helming "Produced in the Bi-State," a segment spotlighting actors, musicians, and entertainers from the St. Louis area. He can be reached by email at cade@telltaletv.com.