The true story behind the final scene of The Magicians

What is easier… starting something or finishing it? I don't think one can truly ever know. But those who get to do both should feel lucky. We sure do.

We started out on this journey that is The Magicians five years ago. And spoiler alert: every journey comes to an end. This particular journey involved heroes and villains, highs and lows, loss and love. These characters became part of us and we were honored to aid their growth over the course of five seasons of television. And isn't that what a journey is all about? Growth.

One of our writers, Hillary Benefiel, was on set while filming the final episode and got to witness that growth firsthand in a rather peculiar way. The last scene ever shot on The Magicians was actually the scene from Episode 510 where Eliot and Margo are in sex education class with Dean Fogg. We had to save that scene to shoot last because we needed to shave off Eliot's beard and cut his hair so he looked like Eliot from the early Brakebills days. Hillary felt as if the moment he emerged looking like young Eliot really showed just how much he changed over the years. And he did change. Quite a lot. As did all of our characters.

Change is inevitable. And it's a necessary ingredient for human growth. If you think about all the changes our characters dealt with over the course of five seasons, each change played a pivotal role in their growth and led them to where they wind up in the series finale. In the end, our heroes literally made a new world. One they hope to be better than the one they knew before in Fillory. And that, taking what you've learned from your life and using it to try to better the world around you, is growing up in a nutshell.

One thing that always remains constant in life is family. And The Magicians is a family through and through. The characters became family on screen and the cast & crew became one off screen. Anyone who works in television will likely tell you: some shows feel like family behind the scenes and some just feel like work. I'm confident in saying The Magicians is and always will be a family. One example from shooting the series finale is when cast & crew had already wrapped for the season, so many of them stuck around just to hang out on set during those last few days of shooting. The atmosphere felt like a big, nostalgic family trying to spend as much time together as we could. And that pretty much sums up what it was like to work on The Magicians.

While we've been telling other people's stories for the past five years, now that's part of all of our stories too. That includes those of you reading, who have followed along for five seasons with us. Let's make sure The Magicians continues to live on. Just like our heroes we've all grown to love will. So, cheers to Fillory. Thanks for the memories. And here's to Further.