As justice gets served in episode 3×12 of The Magicians, a larger statement about our own reality is made.
If you paid close attention, you may have noticed a recurring theme during episode 3×12 of The Magicians. ‘The Fillorian Candidate’ repeatedly asked us what it would be like if women were to be given the power they’ve been denied for so long.
For obvious reasons, that question in and of itself is a pretty powerful one these days. As difficult and complicated this question can be though, we shouldn’t be surprised that The Magicians is challenging us to think about these things.
This isn’t the first time The Magicians has coped with the real world by infusing politics into its narrative. Which ultimately is the purpose of fiction. It allows us an opportunity to rearrange narratives and give us new insights.
‘Roxane Gay, Bell Hooks, feminist lit… What are you saving these for a rapist book burning party?’
In this episode Kady and Julia are backed into reuniting with Reynard. They suspect he has information on what’s inside the castle at the end of the world — and since he’s essentially been magically castrated — he should be safe enough to approach.
Although I was completely fine with never having to lay my eyes on Reynard ever again, his presence in this episode was actually quite provocative. We see him being shunned and on the outer fringes of society. A former God now reduced to a whiny deadbeat, who works a crappy minimum wage job, and frankly looks like shit. Does that remind you of some of the other male higher ups that have fallen from grace recently? Good. It’s supposed to.
It’s infuriating seeing this creep use the works of true feminist pioneers to pacify his former crimes; but it‘s real. We’ve been seeing men pull this very exact same move in our own magic-less world. Reynard’s self pity, humiliation, and anger he wallows in so closely resembles the men we encounter in everyday life we can practically see his Reddit username rightist_trickster_god floating over his head.
Then of course the second Reynard has to turn on Julia and Kady, he does. But we knew what was coming. We’ve all seen this act time and time again. Because Reynard is every entitled white man who has screwed up more times than can be counted. Using an elite ideal system to hide behind while soothing his own ego. Completely disinterested in making any real change.
It’s also interesting that ’slaying the beast’ in The Magicians so closely resembles the way we’ve chosen to deal with our real world predators. It’s an imperfect method, but it’s not without value. And hopefully Kady seeing how far her God has fallen will give her some sense of peace or closure. It’s time she truly moved on, and in this episode we can begin to see a path forward.
‘Our new High King is Margo.’
We don’t spend a lot of time talking about how humble Margo can be. She doesn’t spend a lot of time basking in humility but her kind heart has always been there. In understated ways plenty were either unwilling to recognize or socialized to ignore.
For the record, I’m never going to get past Margo’s initial reaction to her win. After complete disbelief, her first action is to apologize to Eliot. It’s… Maybe one of the most heartbreaking scenes this show has made me sit through; and we’ve seen some shit.
What made is so heart wrenching was the fact that this woman, a woman who finally got the thing she’s been working toward all her life, feels the need to apologize for her success. A success that wasn’t born out of collusion, lies, or mind games… The people just loved her because she listened and accepted them.
Why in the world would apologies ever be needed? Because women are conditioned to ’read the room’. To stifle their own internal drives for the ‘greater good’. But that’s a lie we’ve all bought into. Even Eliot, Margo’s biggest champion, didn’t truly believe in her own power to win. So he asked her directly to take a back seat so he could set out to win the election.
The balm in this scenario is a group of voters – previously uncounted – rising up to change the nation in a fundamental way. But there is another kind of balm that is also applied as events unfold. After one beat of grief, Eliot chooses to humble himself and pledges his allegiance to his queen. If only every other man would be so willing.
‘If I’m hearing prayers I’m supposed to do something about them. Why give me this otherwise?’
The grace that Julia has been exhibiting this season is breathtaking. Even though she’s at the height of her power – without a single magician standing in her way – every choice she makes is focused on serving others. She has no alternative motive or self interest. She’s simply trying to walk a honorable and worthy path. Using her gifts to purge the world of a little bit of darkness.
Just to recap. Not only did Quentin turn his back on Julia once he got into Brakebills and she didn’t – Julia’s mind, body, and spirit was used by Reynard to further his own plans. She was raped, she saw her friends murdered, and for a short time had The Beast breathing down her neck pushing along her rage till she reached a combustible level. She even had her own ’shade’ torn from her body. Yet somehow she managed to climb her way back and find peace.
Inevitably Julia found healing in her pain. No one should ever go through an ounce of what Julia has had to go through. But if you’re going to be subjected to pain and suffering, then the best case scenario is to use every ounce of that horror to drive out other evil in the world. And that’s exactly what Julia has set out to do.
She’s been incredibly successful as well. It almost seems as though The Lady Underground tied Julia’s power to her morality. With every good deed she partakes in, it’s as if Reynard’s hold on her lessons a little bit and her inner light shines brighter. It’s not like she’s excited to see Reynard again, but she takes a breath and steps up to the challenge.
When she looks in her abusers eyes, you can see more pity residing in her eyes than anger or pain. We know she carries scars and she knows it as well. But like she told Alice in episode 3×07, “When things happen they leave a mark. Figuring out how to deal with it takes time.” If that isn’t such a beautiful display of the power of women, I don’t know what is.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.