The Magicians laid to rest a central character, forever changing the course of the show.
After an episode that initially started out as a silly little game of cursed objects between friends, things took a sharp turn as The Magicians went to a startling place it’s never been before. For this show especially, that’s saying something.
Beware major spoilers for episode 2×03 of The Magicians, ‘Divine Elimination’.
We knew it was coming. The showdown between the Beast and the Brakebills gang has been building for a long time now.
Did I expect for them to achieve their mission so early in the season though? Not particularly.
But perhaps that’s for the best. Because if our characters are anything like me, they’re going to need to time to process and grieve Alice’s death.
That’s right everyone. Queen Alice the Wise has fallen.
During a chaotic encounter with the Beast, Alice misses her first shot at taking him down. Instead of letting the fear or stress overwhelm her, Alice regroups, rallies her friends, and they quickly put together a plan C.
It’s so clear that she’s barely hanging onto her courage at this point, but she leans into her resourcefulness and intelligence to help pull her through in the end.
And it works! The Beast is dead! Unfortunately, however, Alice herself was lost in the process.
‘Not everything that hurts is bad.’
Last week’s little remark from Alice takes on a completely different connotation knowing what we know now. Looking back it cuts deeper and hits harder. It even suggests that maybe Alice knew what was coming all along.
Perhaps not in a definitive or magical sort of way. But maybe she suspected that everything was building to some sort of sacrifice. And if she needed to take that final step for the greater good, then she was prepared to.