Episode Recap: Escape From the Happy Place

Eliot is living through an amazing loop of mellow fun back on campus at Brakebills. But
that persistent knocking at the door reveals that someone is trying to get in. That
someone turns out to be Charlton, the man that The Monster had possessed before he
was inside of Eliot. He tells Eliot that he can communicate with his friends if he can find
a door in his own worst memories. He tasks Eliot with figuring: what does he not want to think about? He needs to find it in order to find the door.

Evil Eliot shows Quentin the rock he pulled out of Bacchus and is looking for hints on
what it is. Quentin suggests it may have come from Mesopotamia, so E.E. zaps himself
there.

Alice has escaped from the Library with Christopher Plover. She tricks him into the
fountain that goes to the poison room world, then throws away the rope so he has no
way back. Alrighty, then. That’s probably the last of Mr. Plover….

Margo, back in Fillory, is searching for her birthright box. But first she has to tell Fen
about Eliot. Who then sobs for hours.

Penny goes to see Julia to help with whatever goddess stuff she is working on.
However, Shoshana seems to have taken his spot as devotee. Shoshana accidentally
does an uncloaking and the goddess Iris appears. She’s pretty pissed that Julia let The
Monster out of the castle and wants her to help the gods kill it. She gives her a stone to pull blood out of so that The Monster can’t travel and then she can then take him back to the castle.

Evil Eliot comes back to the apartment and finds Quentin and Julia trying to get blood
from the stone. The magic is working, but slowly. Suddenly Alice shows up and wants to help. From her book theft in the library, she knows what Quentin is working on and that he is going to die. He is reluctant, but eventually lets Alice help him bleed the stone in order to work faster and possibly avoid his death.

Eliot spends time with Charlton searching for his worst memories. It’s a medley of
badness. He brings versions of Quentin, Margo and Fen from the past to help him travel into bad memories and then fight the baddies that appear in his past.

Alice helps Quentin and he asks her to leave. They are way over, though she is trying to apologize. So she tells him that she killed Christopher Plover. Which isn’t maybe the
best apology – admitting to murdering his favorite childhood book’s author. She begs to help defeat The Monster and promises that after that she will go away and stay there.

Quentin agrees. 

In Fillory all of the talking animals have gone silent. Margo wanted to learn the story of
her birthright from a magical talking lizard, and it’s not talking. So begins a new task for
her….

Eliot finally finds his most traumatic memory. It’s a new one, and it’s very repressed. He
goes right to it, and we see Eliot and Quentin talking after their Life in a Day. Building
the mosaic for one of the magical keys, they lived a life together. It was 50 years, and
they were in love and had a family. Quentin tells Eliot that they might work together – and he wants to give it a shot. Eliot rebuffs him and blows it off, saying it wouldn’t work.

Current day Eliot, in his head, knows now that this is his most painful moment. He admits that he brushed off Quentin’s heartfelt, vulnerable and loving outreach because he was scared. A door appears, and he walks through it.

In the park, the plan to kill The Monster that is Evil Eliot is taking off. Alice is with Quinn and she has the stone blood to pour on E.E. Then, Julia and Shoshana walk up with E.E. right as he approaches Quentin the true Eliot emerges and Quentin realizes that it’s him. He blocks the stone-blood from landing on Eliot.

Iris appears and she’s pissed at Julia. She tries to kill her, but Shoshana jumps in the
way. Then Evil Eliot kills Iris, and pulls one of the magical stones from her body. Alice, Quentin and Julia think fast and tell EE that their great plan worked: They lured Iris there to help him kill another goddess and get his revenge. And Julia found a key to help him – the stones are building blocks to put a body back together.

So, Eliot’s definitely alive. Shoshana is dead. Evil Eliot is somewhere. Julia is pissed.
Quentin is resolutely saying goodbye to Alice, and she is leaving.