Episode Recap: The Losses of Magic

Still pursued by The Lamprey, Alice returns to her parent’s house to see if she can get some help. She’s been using the early warning sign of keeping a kitten handy. It turns out cats REALLY hate Lampreys and the last one exploded, so she’s taking no chances. The problem is, she hasn’t been home to visit since she came back to life and her boozy mother is still pretty self-absorbed and dramatic about it. Alice is introduced to her mother’s friend Carol, whom the kitten immediately runs from. After Alice ties her up - thinking incorrectly that Carol is The Lamprey- Carol leaves, furious. When Quentin turns up to help Alice, it turns out that The Lamprey is inside of him (remember that? From the previous episode?) And so, the family goes on a hunt for Quentin.

Meanwhile, in Fillory, Eliot and family are still on their quest. When the Muntjac is boarded by pirates, Eliot and his family use the key they have to escape through a magic door. As soon as Margo learns of the piracy, she asks the Fairy Queen for help. This is the first time the servants have seen the Fairy Queen, and Tick offers his help at pickpocketing Margo’s eye back during the mission. When Margo finally meets the Pirate King (who is a woman…), she learns that the pirate ship wants to have sex with their boat. It’s a fairly common thing in Fillory, but the Muntjac would never really recover.

As all of that is happening, Kady and Julia conjure a demon to come and take Penny’s tumor away. They use a pretty elaborate spell and the magic battery that Mayakovsky made but Professor Lipton salvaged. And it works! Turns out, tumors are super delicious to demons, and he goes to town on Penny to get the thing out.

Alice finds Quentin and is about to shock him with the cattle prod that can eject The Lamprey from a human body, but he tells her The Lamprey has already left his body. While the family tries to figure out where it could be, Quentin is forced to comfort Alice’s mother. When she kisses Quentin, Alice punches her out, partially because she thinks The Lamprey is in her mom and partially because her mom kissed her ex-boyfriend. With both Quentin - he shocked himself to prove The Lamprey wasn't in him - and Alice's mom out cold that leaves only person left: Alice’s father. Alice has a showdown with The Lamprey and as it leaves her father’s body, Alice is bereft. It kills him on the way out, see. Alice's dad has a weak heart so she made the call to shock The Lamprey out of him. Tough call.

Meanwhile, back on the Muntjac, the Fairy Queen takes pity on Margo and solves the piracy problem by killing all the pirates herself. When she demands that Margo give back the eye that Tick stole from her, Margo makes a decision and crushes the eyeball. She’s permanently blind in that eye now. It’s a big deal.

Finally, there’s good news when the demon is successful in removing Penny’s tumor. The bad news is: it KILLS Penny. His "ghost" (he astrally projected to get away from the pain) sees all of this happen. So, now what?