WARNING: If you don't want to know what happens in this episode, don't read this photo recap!
Before we get too far into episode two, can we talk about these? Because while they seem to be floating in space, are these…is this space cereal? What’s the relevance? What are we looking at? The intrigue!
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So, the gang has headed back to Brakebills. They found a workbook of spells in Fillory (from 1893) and while that’s mostly helpful, the actual spells are what they need to find and kill The Beast. And they have to. Because if The Beast gets to the wellspring in Fillory – magic dies. Not just there – but everywhere.
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So, Martin Chatwin. Well, The Beast. This guy. A pretty great voice, actually. And is about to drive Julia half-crazy. They have to work together to find and kill Reynard the Fox, but these are not people who get along well.
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It turns out that The Beast has put a spell of some kind on Castle Whitespire, and while it’s hard to figure out exactly what it is – it definitely involves a good deal of death and mayhem because there are decaying bodies everywhere.
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Our traveling band of heroes return to their cottage. Margo demands drinks, and the team is about ready to learn some battle magic. Also, word is starting to spread that Fillory is real.
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After Julia and The Beast kidnap Marina and tell her she’s going to be the bait for trapping Reynard, she convinces Julia to let her go. Not without realizing that it’s going to be a problem. She decides to start uniting the hedge-witches to deal with the threat.
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Eliot learns that the main problem currently plaguing Fillory is an agricultural one. Where magic used to grow all the crops, the Fillorians don’t know the first thing about farming. And Eliot, sigh, is going to have to teach them. Also? His new wife is super into having sex with him.
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With a temporary solution in place for Penny’s hands, the team head to the library to find a text on battle magic. It was left there ages ago by a pixie professor who loves riddles. So…this is going to take a while.
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Ultimately, it’s Professer Sunderland who is able to figure out the solution – an anagram for the book! (Which is awesome, because we love her and her overt sexual tension wih Penny.) Sadly, as they find the book, they realize the spell they need is missing. The Pixie Professor has it.
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Also. Marina’s West Coast hedge-witch counterpart has turned up dead. This is not going to be easy.
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Meanwhile, back in Fillory, Eliot has come up with an ingenious solution to his “having sex with this new wife” problem. He’s enlisted a lot of Fillorian townspeople! Who maybe aren’t all on board – though…some might be (looking at you, dude on the left!). Ultimately, Eliot feels bad and sends them all home.
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Marina, scared for her safety, heads back to Brakebills to ask Dean Fogg for sanctuary. He turns her down, saying she can keep her memories, but Brakebills won’t allow her to take sanctuary there. She’s too dangerous.
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Dean Fogg brings Quentin and Alice to find Professor Bigsby, a pixie and the former teacher of Battle Magic. After a quick make out with the Dean, Bigsby tells Alice she’s incredibly powerful and that she will cast the spell to kill The Beast.
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Meanwhile, Eliot, in his official capacity as High King of Fillory, tells the farmers that the key to their problem is fertilizer. It’s a simple solution, but one he’s sort of shocked they haven’t figured out.
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But these two…like they really are kind of cute together. As she fixes Penny’s hands with a spell that takes all night, Professor Sunderland tells him she might sleep with him, once he graduates from Brakebills.
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Quentin comes to warn Julia. Professor Bigby has given them a spell to kill The Beast, but when Alice uses it, she can’t be within 20 feet of him, or she’ll be killed as well. Julia says they can’t kill him until she and The Beast kill Reynard. Left unsettled, she also warns Quentin that The Beast has cast a spell on Castle Whitespire.
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Back at Brakebills, Dean Fogg is preparing the team for battle. (Book fans! Alert!) One of the best weapons they’ll be employing, in an emergency, is a cacodemon. It lives IN YOUR BACK TATTOO until you need it. Yeesh.
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Our heroes return to Fillory, to find that Eliot has solved the agriculture problem. There’s more work to be done: The Beast still needs killing, the Fillorians have dubbed him an unsavory name based on poop, and Eliot really needs to get laid.
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As The Beast continues singing, Marina turns up on Julia’s doorstep. She has nowhere else to go, so she’s come to help with the plan to kill Reynard. And The Beast … Just. Keeps. Singing.
