Episode Recap: Heroes and Morons

And so, the gang starts their Quest for the Seven Keys. There will be a lot of steps and the team from Brakebills will have to work together both on Earth and in Fillory to get this done. While Quentin and Julia have gotten the book that details the quest, they’re having trouble figuring out what to do next because the pages haven’t all yet revealed themselves. What they need is magic, and in order to find that, they’ll need one of Mayakovsky’s batteries. Remember those? He collected a bunch of magic current and stuffed them into a few small orbs? Well, looking for one of those is gonna take some doing. And so, Julia, Josh, and Quentin enlist the help of an old friend, Kady.

Back in Fillory, it turns out that despite the country going broke, Eliot's about to purchase a very old boat. The Fairy Queen is amused by their interest in the quest, and tries to see how she can use it to her advantage. She’s a sneaky one. And so, as Eliot goes to see his boat - the Muntjac, he learns that it’s made of sentient trees. Thus, the boat has a mind of its own and a well-seasoned crew. Eliot is excited for the journey, and grows worried when he finds out the Fairy Queen has constructed a terrifying plan. You see, the Fairy Queen is sending along both Eliot's wife Fen and a new person to keep an eye on things: Fray. And who’s she? Only Fen and Eliot’s grown up daughter. Turns out in the Fairy world, people grow up faster. Eliot is freaked out but Fen is thrilled. The whole family is going on a quest together!

After the team investigates a magical scene in a bar where someone was turned into a bear, they figure out who might have made this happen. Since the bear was clearly Mayakovsky, they figure it was the person he’s closest to: his old student, Emily Greenstreet. Thinking she’ll have one of the magic batteries, Quentin goes to visit her. Emily, who's now married to Mayakovsky says that there’s actually some other woman performing spells. That news coincides with the news that across the city, magical things are happening. An elementary school conjured a dinosaur, and at a local university orgies keep magically breaking out. As the team investigates, Julia and Quentin learn that Alice (who's now carrying a kitten everywhere) is also hot on the trail of a magic battery. When they hear a scream, Quentin finds that Professor Lipton was the one who helped Mayakovsky make his magic batteries and they were also lovers so seeing him with Emily made things...um awkward. And also, now that magic is gone, she's furious and has stolen one to do some magic across the city. Suicidal, she drops the battery off the top of the building and it shatters.

So now the team has no access to magic. AND, Alice's kitten exploded. Because the Lamprey was near. That's her insurance policy. Problem is, the gang is out of options magic-wise. But you know who else might have one? Emily Greenstreet. When they return to Emily’s place, they find themselves too late. Kady has already been there and stolen the battery – all so she can help Penny, who’s still dying of that aggressive magic cancer.

Meanwhile, on their quest for the keys, Eliot and Fen and Fray come across an island that's being terrorized by a flying monster. The priest who lives there uses a magic key to protect the people. Or does he? Fray tells her father that it's clear the priest is a liar and Fen backs that plan up as the daughter of a blade-maker. And so Eliot uses his wits to stage another attack and prove to the villagers that the priest is actually slaughtering members of the community to retain his position of authority. Eliot takes the key and ruins the priest’s reputation. The first key is gotten, six more to go!

As Quentin gets to read another chapter in his book detailing the keys quest, the Lamprey attacks him and quite literally gets under Quentin’s skin.