The Magicians Review: Be the Hyman (Season 5 Episode 11)
Eliot, Margo, Josh, and Fen are drawn to Fillory and warned of its impending doom, Julia tries to work things out with Penny, and Kady and Alice give Marina a visit on The Magicians Season 5 Episode 11, “Be the Hyman.”
With the series coming to an end in just a few weeks, it’s bittersweet to think about how far our favorite characters have come since Season 1. It’s weird to think that Julia’s about to pop with Penny’s child, but adorable at the same time.
It makes sense that with the story coming to an end so soon, we’d get to see Marina again, and it couldn’t come at a better time. As a top tier hedge witch in her past time, Marina has the connections that nobody else in the world has, which is why she’s needed to help save the world.
It’s bizarre to see Marina speaking humanely and being apologetic to Kady and Alice after all the other interactions they’ve shared. But, if anyone’s proven to have real character progression, it’s her. Even as the evil Marina, who did whatever she wanted when she wanted, she still saw the bad in herself and wanted to get rid of it.
Marina used to love how she acted because she didn’t have to rely on anyone but herself, and that’s how she liked it. When you’re the one in charge of your whole life, there’s nobody else to blame but yourself when things go wrong, and that’s what happened.
Along the way, Marina started to see that a lot of her problems came from herself, and sending her men on a suicide mission is what finally broke the straw. Without the harmonic convergence, the plan was never going to work, but she still sent them in to try. When things went south, she then placed wards on her mind to alter her moods and how she acts.
It does suck for Marina that after trying to become a better person, even if under a spell, she has it taken away from her to help Alice and Kady. Saving Fillory is a monumental task that’s going to take help from everyone, but at the same time, it sucks to interrupt her life and mess it up again. They could at least reattach the spell after she leaves Anna’s house, but I doubt it’ll happen.
Eliot, Fen, Margo, and Josh are all summoned by the lifelike hologram of Ember to try and prevent the end of the world, but when Ember suggests blowing Fillory up, that’s when Umber’s hologram barges in to make his input known.
With the ark that Umber built, they could save every Fillorian if it came down to having to blow Fillory up, but for everything to work out correctly, Alice and they need to steal the seed back. Only with the seed, to grow a brand new world, will all of this work. Without the seed, the Fillorians will be stuck in the pocket world Umber created.
In the end, I hope that Alice can use the seed to build a new world because it would be abysmal to end the series with Fillory and everyone in it dying.
Penny and Julia are forever connected now that they’re going to have a child together, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing in the tiniest bit because it’s evident that Penny cares for her and Julia cares for him. They called things off for good reasons, but I think in the very end, it’ll end with them together and happy.
Penny’s overprotectiveness stemming from his childhood trauma is emotional and, overall, a sad time. The only thing I want to do is give Penny a hug because he needs it. He thinks that he killed his mother because, as a traveler in a human body, his mother began to suffer psychic breakdowns, which is along the lines of what Julia is having right now.
Watching Julia go through her psychic episodes is déjà vu for Penny and only reminds himself of what happened to his mother. That’s why he’s so adamant about making sure that Julia stays safe, healthy, and does all the tests she’s supposed to. He doesn’t want to be the reason that another person close to him dies, and if something happens to Julia, I think it would literally break his heart.
I want everyone to come out alive after the next two episodes, but part of me feels like we may end up saying goodbye to another character as well, and it continues to bug me.
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.