Julia made one of the biggest decisions of her life on this week’s The Magicians. Tell us what you think.
When this season began, Julia was the only human on any known planet or realm with magical ability left inside her. But last week she learned the source of that power and instantly recoiled at the revelation.
As it turns out, her spark of magic is tied up with Reynard, the trickster god that murdered her friends and sexually assaulted her. The specifics are a little fuzzy, but from what we understand, Reynard‘s mother – The Lady Underground – claims that she planted a seed of his magic inside Julia.
Throughout the years Julia has been down a long complicated road. She hasn’t always made the wisest or most virtuous decisions, and she often takes big swings that have a habit of backfiring on her.
That being said, we can’t judge her decision to give up the magic inside her too harshly. Her story has once again essentially been hijacked by trauma and horror. She’s dealing with a gift from a monster. How is she supposed to react?
Instead of nurturing this unwanted seed of magic, Julia works to devise a plan that will allow her to hand over the spark to Alice. Someone who has been searching wildly for magic since the beginning of the season.
It doesn’t matter if this seed was given with good intentions. Julia, once again, had something thrust upon her by an external force. And for someone who has barely begun their journey of recovery, this is an unspeakable burden.
We can talk all day about heroes rising to meet what’s put before them or about how you can find healing through a traumatic experience, but ultimately that is a personal choice and needs to come from an internal place. Otherwise it’s just another form of sick, manipulative abuse.
It’s no wonder Julia decided to pass up this tainted ‘gift,’ but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have any concerns regarding the decision. For instance, what if she’s handing over some sort of protection she didn’t know she had. What if this seed of magic is actually keeping her afloat and protected in ways she’s unaware of?
It’s a hard, uncomfortable thing to think about honesty, on both literal and metaphorical levels. What if her predictor actually gave her the tool that could defeat him once and for good?
Or you know, maybe not. We don’t know what kind of new and terrible thing The Magicians will cook up for their characters. But they also love a good redemption story as well. So we’re going to have to wait and see.
Hopefully Julia will feel a sense of empowerment knowing that she was able to make her own decision regarding what lived inside her. At least we hope so. Because right now it still feels like a monster is sitting right over her shoulder…