Episode Recap: Fillory & Further

Santa's Surprise Christmas

Santa surprises the gang with presents for everyone. He magically knows what to give people, and apparently, he already gave Alice her gift. He says it was in a locked drawer in Quentin's desk: the page about the World Seed. That quest and search was a gift for Alice. Santa leaves as the Penthouse creatures begin to stir and everyone opens their gifts. Baby stuff for Penny and Julia. A micro-plane for Josh; knife sharpener for Fen. Margo gets a necklace and Eliot, a bracelet. Then a bunny arrives: They are needed in Fillory.

The Plan to Save Fillory 

The team of Eliot, Margo and Josh plans to use Umber's ark to rescue Fillorians and then turn back the clockwork heart in order to bring about the end of the world. They need a traveler to get off-planet, and don't currently have one. And on Earth, Alice, Kady, Fen, and Zelda will work on blooming the world seed in the Neitherlands because magic is more stable there. Oh, and New Fillory needs a wellspring so they don't permanently lose magic. Plum arrives and has questions, but the gang shuts her down. Then Julia's water breaks.

Baby Time 

Julia is rushed to the Brakebills hospital ward. Fogg is also rushed in by Kady, speaking gibberish. She tells them she rescued him after he returned from the Etheric Realm, and he can't talk. Lipson tells Julia and Penny she has to sever the energetic umbilical after the birth. The baby is born — a girl.

Team World Seed

Alice, Fen, Zelda and Kady are working on blooming the World Seed in the Neitherlands. An insane Fogg shows up and steals the seed. Kady chases after him.

Team Rapture Fillory

Margo and Eliot ask Hyman to help them by traveling. He is risk averse and feels frail in his human body. He won't do it. Then Charlton suggests that he take over his body and lets Hyman go back to the astral plane. Hyman goes for it. They do some magic and Charlton is now in Hyman's body while he's in the astral plane. Charlton tries to learn traveling but can't pull it off in time — they have to dash. Thanks for trying, Charlton. Josh, Margo and Eliot head through the clock to Fillory.

Josh shows Margo and Eliot the real-time royal census scroll. That will show them when everyone is off-planet. They press a button on the ark, and it starts pulling people into the seahorse globe. Then Eliot disappears. The Dark King — who is busy working on his creepy underworld plan in the Taker realm — used magic to pull Eliot to him. He needs Eliot to seal the door to the underworld after his lost love, Lance, makes it through. The spell works and Seb is happy to see Lance. Then Lance morphs into The Beast. It's evil Martin Chatwin, tormenting his brother. Turns out he was pretending to be Lance all along. Martin freezes Seb and Eliot, then breaks Eliot's hands. He says he knew what Seb/Rupert was up to and decided to use this to finally get Fillory to be his, once and for all. Oh, and to release the undead into the world to kill all the living. The Beast is about to kill Eliot, but Seb is able to save him and himself by using magic to take them to Fillory.

Post-Partum Weirdness

In the Brakebills hospital, Fogg mutters nonsense having just stolen the World Seed. Kady is chasing him. He dashes into the room where Lipson is about to work on severing the energetic umbilical and he slashes through it. Julia passes out. Kady punches Fogg.

Worlds Collide

Alice, Fen and Zelda are waiting for Kady to come back with the World Seed. She chased Fogg back to the Brakebills hospital. But she's not showing up. Instead, The Beast does. The dead have risen, and The Beast / Martin Chatwin finds them. Zelda wards the room and tells Fen and Alice to make a run for the portal to Brakebills while she stays back to close all fountain portals so the dead can't get through them. Alice hugs her goodbye and runs off with Fen. Then Martin gets through her wards as Zelda engages the permafrost spell to close all portals. Martin angrily kills her.

Fillory Countdown

The Dark King heals Eliot's hands. He just wanted to use magic to bring back Lance. He says Eliot wouldn't understand. Seb regrets what he did and wants to help Eliot, so Eliot fills him in on the plan. They have to rapture the place. Seb goes to cut off the door to the Underworld and hold off the dead. Eliot doesn't want Seb to die. They part ways. 

Unexpected News

At the Brakebills hospital, Lipson tells Penny that the baby is healthy, but Julia has not regained consciousness. Then Plum appears and brings Penny food. He tells her that they need to travel in order to stop Julia from dying. Plum then tells him that they already did. This is try number two on their Save Fillory Action Plan. And it's not going great, but better than last time. Turns out they talked to Jane Chatwin and did a time loop. And Plum only had enough time to do one do-over. In an earlier attempt, only Josh escaped Fillory. The rest didn't know if the ark worked so they got stuck waiting. Talking to Jane, Plum and Penny realized it was the right thing to try and do one timeloop. And Jane reassured them that she would still be there in the clock barrens, even if Fillory was destroyed. Then Plum tells Penny that Fogg didn't attack last time. Penny realizes that Fogg remembers time loops and that he must know something. He's trying to change this loop.

Lipson says that Fogg is in there somewhere and she uses banned magic to have a cat hold his crazy while he touches it. That will mean that Fogg can talk to them. The cat trick works. Fogg then says he tried to get the group out of the Netherlands in time and to tell Kady that the World Seed is in the lab. And that he attacked Julia because a quick-cut surgery is the best chance for survival when severing the magic umbilical. So … crazy Fogg was actually helping! The severed umbilical needs to attach to someone else. Penny is the ideal candidate for that.

Team Rapture Fillory, Part 2

Josh, Margo and Eliot head to the slide to turn back the clockwork heart. Josh asks Margo where the shortcut back to the portal tree is from there. There isn't one. She lied. Margo is going to sacrifice herself in order to destroy Fillory. Josh and Eliot want to go with her. She wants to go solo in order for them both to live. Josh gives her a gourmet ham sandwich to bribe the clock dwarf, if needed. She pops her Fairy Eye into her necklace from Santa and gives it to Josh so she will know when they are safe. Then she jumps down the slide without saying goodbye. Eliot and Josh run to the portal tree.

Margo makes it to the clockwork heart. The dwarf is not there. They show her that Fillorians were all raptured by looking at the census. Then they go through the portal tree together so that Margo can see. She pulls the lever and Fillory begins to implode. Explode? Crumble and crater and all kinds of badness with lava and explosions.

Seb is near his throne and Martin Chatwin appears. Seb tells him it is the end of Fillory and the castle crumbles around them. Martin dies. 

Port-Partum Healing

Julia wakes up. She is feeling OK and asks about the baby. She says she can no longer hear her; Julia has been healed. Penny holds the baby and he can hear Julia's thoughts. His powers are back whenever he holds the baby. He can read Julia's mind — she wants to name the baby Hope Quentin. Then Julia asks: What other powers are back while he holds her?
Penny travels to the clockwork heart of Fillory. He's got the baby strapped to him and he grabs Margo's hand. They make it out before the planet entirely explodes and begins to disintegrate.

Team World Seed, Part 2

Kady, Fen and Julia decide to bloom the World Seed in the Brakebills lab. They are joined by Josh, Margo and Eliot. Margo, Alice and Josh cast the spell to create the World Seed and they ask for input from Fen so she can describe Fillory in order to recreate it. She ends up describing her version of Fillory — the good and the bad — to the seed in order to make it bloom. It takes time, but when she is honest about everything and also imbues it with her own memories, the seed begins to sprout. Light emanates from the seed and then Fen, Alice, Margo and Josh disappear with the seed. Kady and Eliot stand alone in the room.

What Comes Next? 

Fogg now gets to hold a cat in his lap all of the time, like a Bond villain, and he and Lipson discuss the whereabouts of everyone. 
Magic hasn't vanished. Hedge houses are keeping moon-brained lunatics on retainer to advise on lunar circumstances. Kady is running a Hedge group with Pete out of the NYC penthouse.

Seb is in the Clock Barrens with Jane Chatwin. Wherever that is now.
Eliot is on the Brakebills faculty and living at the Cottage. He misses his friends. Charlton is there, in Hyman's body. He then puts on a bracelet (the one Santa gave Eliot) in order to look like himself. Eliot is happy to see him. Charlton asks if Eliot would ever be interested in him. Eliot leads him to his room to explore the idea and they kiss on the stairs. Astral Hyman dashes after them to watch.

Penny and Julia have Hope in a baby carrier as they dash across the worlds, looking for the missing students. They quest around looking for their friends.

And where are those missing students? On a new planet somewhere Fen, Alice, Margo and Josh are finding food. A tree that has pizzas, a field of bacon, and opium is in the air. They decide to activate the globe ark in order to release the people they saved into New Fillory. Fen dubs Margo "High King Margo, the Creator." They are ready. Margo presses the button.