Episode Recap: The Writing Room

Let's start off the episode with all the feels! Julia reaches out to Quentin and apologizes for entering his mind and making him think he's nuts. Quentin replies that he's also sorry. As we wonder, when can these two be friends again? Julia's busy though, still looking for a way to forgive herself  for all she's done when Richard the Chaplain convinces her to use the spell that got her inside Quentin's head for good and not evil. All she has to do is enter the mind of Kira, a magician who may hold a powerful spell but her body has given up leaving her untouchable by the outside world. So Julia casts the spell to talk with Kira but ends up stuck in a box. And there's only one way out of a box: to light it on fire. But it turns out it was all a test! Julia now finds herself on a park bench with Kira who shows Julia a very elaborate spell she needs to learn here and take into the outside world.

At Brakebills, Quentin is urged by Alice to find the missing 6th Fillory book, and is lead right to Penny. Penny confesses to stealing the book, reading it, and throwing it away, but tells Quentin and Alice what he remembers from the missing book. Turns out, it was JANE CHATWIN, not Plover, who wrote book 6, which is the story of how Jane went to Fillory by herself to catch one of 7 Questing Creatures (who if captured, must grant you a wish). Upon catching one of these creatures Jane wishes for a key that would let the beholder into Fillory whenever they wanted. So the creature gave her a magic button.  Quentin, Penny, and Alice decide they need to get to Christopher Plover's house in England to find that magic button, which is where Eliot comes in. Turns out, he and Margo built a magic door into their favorite pub in London. He'll show them where it is… if he can come along for the ride.

So, after a brief tour of the Plover House, where Q schools the guide on some mad Plover knowledge yo - the gang returns to break in and find the button. Instead they find that Plover did not actually die of a heart attack like everyone was lead to believe: it was all a cover up of the fact that he actually went missing! Even more shocking… Plover was studying MAGIC! Just as they're starting to get some answers, the group is busted by the tour guide from earlier. After some prodding and some scary fire magic from Eliot, the guide confides that Plover was into some dark stuff. Speaking of dark stuff, the tour guide then disappears only to reappear with his THROAT SLIT AND LIPS SEWN SHUT! Run quickly away!

As with any good haunted house, the gang gets split up and find little ghost boys who wanna play hide and seek with Q and Penny, then Alice and Eliot partake in a very disturbing tea party with a little ghost girl. And who may you ask is serving said tea? It's the ghost of Prudence Plover. Christopher Plover's creepy mean sister. She insists that the ghost girl, Alice, and Eliot drink the tea but only ghost girl drinks it all, with some dire consequences. Once Prudence leaves, Eliot loosens his bonds and he and Alice escape.

Back in Kira's mind, Julia is learning the spell she was sent there for and everyone gets a case of feelings. Kira tells Julia about her favorite memory, a day in the park making magic rainbows with her girlfriend. Then Julia shows Kira her favorite place, under the dining room table that she and Q used to snuggle up under as kids and imagine what it would be like to go to Fillory, complete with some very detailed maps. Julia learns the spell and Kira has one last request: Kill her. We knew there had to be a catch.

Back at the Ghost House, Penny and Quentin watch Christopher Plover and Martin and Jane Chatwin interact, which causes the realization that the ghosts are showing them things that actually happened in the house. Martin is bummed out after being turned away from Fillory (again!) but no matter: scary-as-hell Prudence comes out of nowhere and attacks Quentin and Penny! Quentin is saved by the little ghost boy, but Penny ends up in what Prudence calls, The Quiet Place. Don't worry though because before Pru can do too much harm to Penny, he uses his traveler abilities to get the hell out of there.

The little ghost boy and Quentin hide and watch as Jane returns from Fillory having successfully found the magical button. Now Martin can come and go as he pleases! Martin gives the button to the ghost boy, (named George, the son of Plover's housekeeper, btw) and tells him to hide it somewhere in the house.  And also, uhm, turns out Christopher Plover drugged, took dirty pics of, and did God knows what else to Martin. And! Sister Prudence helped him cover it all up. Bleh.

Before Quentin can compute all this new info, the whole squad is discovered by Prudence, who kills George and takes him to The Quiet Place. After that, the gang put it all together: Plover was obsessed with getting to Fillory, talked about growing an extra finger in order to cast very intricate spells… Could he be The Beast? Also, if this is where George is buried, could this also be where the magic button is? Only one way to find out! To The Quiet Place, they go.

Quentin hatches a plan to get past Prudence and the team finds George's body and … the button! Unfortunately, they couldn't save the ghost children from repeating their nightmarish death over and over, which gives Alice and Eliot severe agita (again). But here it is! Access to Fillory! Quentin warns Penny not to touch the key until they can figure out how to use it. Penny assures everyone he was trained by the best and won't go anywhere until HE says so, and then reaches down, grabs the button and disappears completely. So much for that.