The Magicians Review: Do Something Crazy (Season 5 Episode 1)

It’s been a month since the death of Quentin Coldwater, and nobody has been the same since. Julia is struggling to figure out how to use her powers for the greater good, Alice’s depression has forced her to live with her mom, and Penny is forced into being a professor at Brakebills on The Magicians Season 5 Episode 1, “Do Something Crazy.”

Times are hard for everyone; Alice has lost her will to do anything that involves leaving the house or even picking up a phone. Kady is trying to save hedge witches from dying due to the power surge, Penny must now deal with having to teach a whole class on how to be a traveler, and Julia must come to terms with what she wants to do to feel full.

Meanwhile, Margo and Eliot are stuck in Fillory three hundred years in the future. Navigating Fillory under the dark king is rough, especially when Josh and Fen are nowhere to be found. I love Margo’s can-do attitude even though everything in her and Eliot’s life is on fire because she can still see what she wants to achieve. Eliot, on the other hand, seems to have given all his cares away and thrown them into the wind.

It’s not shocking that Eliot can’t see a bright light to continue chasing or have any motivation to continue trying to fix Fillory when he’s broken and can’t properly fix himself. I wish that he could stop drinking and see that Margo is so driven to try and find a way to fix everything because she’s broken, too. She lost Quentin as well, but she also lost Josh so she’s spiraling and the best thing is for her to focus on how she perceives she can fix things.

Hopefully, Eliot can get through the drunk phase of his grieving quick because now Margo is being held captive in a cell, stuck seeing visions of Josh while he was locked up.

Alice, besides Julia, is taking Quentin’s death the hardest and is finding a new way to spend her time instead of laying around after having a quick chat with Julia. Out of everyone Alice has always been the one to have the craziest plans no matter the outcome, so why change now?

Her tricking the library into thinking that she’s helping is only so she can steal Quentin’s book. It’s not enough that she could just steal the book and keep it for comfort, but now she’s attempting to make a golem with the mind of Quentin. At least that’s what it looks like.

Her plan is nuts, but it’s a different thing when your own mother tells you to do something crazy. Alice and her mother’s relationship is strained as can be, but in this trying time, it’s obvious she only wants what’s best for Alice and is trying to get her back to who she is.

I hope that Alice’s mother makes a few more appearances this season because it would be nice to see her and Alice form a new connection. Alice is a phenomenal magician so I want to see her and her mother perform some spells together and work on their relationship.

Julia and Penny are a cute couple, but I see some pretty hard times coming for both of them with Julia making her mission to prevent the apocalypse and Penny having to take in a bunch of kids under his wing. But besides the hardship, I think Penny becoming a teacher is a great thing.

There have never been enough travelers in the world to have something in common with someone else’s power and now he has a whole class to teach. After all the near-death decisions and mistakes with his power, he’s the perfect one to teach them how to survive and not die an early death. But, I will agree that Dean Fogg is shady for tricking him into signing employment contracts.

As for Julia, it’s her time to shine. This is her season to show everyone just how powerful she is by preventing the apocalypse and reclaiming the goddess inside herself. She doesn’t need help from some pig-like creature from Fillory because she has the resources to figure it out on her own and has all the backup that she needs.

Overall I think the premiere is fabulous and does its job of setting the tone for the entire season while tying things together from last season. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. 

Other Thoughts:

• I think that the Dark King set up Fillory by planting the attackers and swooped in for show just to take over the castle and get rid of Josh and Fen.
• Margo’s comebacks this season are already fire.
• I wish that Alice would work with the library because she could do so much good with all of that power.
• The cosplaying in this episode is grade A comedy.

Favorite Quotes:

• “I only have magic because I lost Q. I just have to find something to do with it, that’s worth that.” – Julia
• “Thanks to the surges a few of them have blown themselves up. Which isn’t very good for morale, but it helps with the goddamn over-enrollment.” – Dean Fogg
• “We’re gonna endgame this shit.” – 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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