Warning, contains spoilers. The episode opening recap shows us Penny’s damaged hands, Ember (the goat man) passing on his magic to Alice, Fogg giving them the Keiko Demon tattoo beasts, the warning that too much magic can kill you, Julia trying to get Miranda to help against Reynard and The Beast (Martin Chatwin) cursing the castle in Fillory.

Onto the new episode – Season 2 episode 3, “The Divine Elimination”. The new royalty of Eliot, Margo, Alice and Quetin walk through the castle. Penny is there too, now with cool circa-1985 wrist chains that stop him killing himself, but nobody really cares about Penny.  “The spell that won World War II is called the Rynaman Ultra?” asks Eliot. “Sounds like a not so great beer.” Eliot learns that Dean Fogg has given the others matching “tramp stamps” which contain the Keiko Demons. The sad Eliot feels like he’s missed out on a great party, but he has been busy himself. He’s made a throne room because he missed them all, and he was bored. Penny is the only one concerned that some ceremony might not be the best use of their time. Eliot thinks the Beast (Martin Chatwin) can wait a few minutes as they’re all royalty of Fillory now. Well, almost all of them. Poor Penny.

Divine Elimination

Eliot tastes some wine and has a strange vision where Alice and Q are whispering about him, and Margo is calling him stupid and says she’s going to kill him. Then Eliot is back with the world, somewhat confused. Eliot wants to talk strategy, but the others have made a plan without him. The paranoia kicks in again. He can see it all now – they have matching tattoos, it’s three against one. Margo tells him he’s being insane. Eliot storms off but not before telling the usurpers (he has two attempts at saying it because he’s not sure how it should be said) that he won’t go down without a fight. Margo goes to talk to Eliot, leaving Q, Alice and Penny wondering just what happened. Q remembers a conversation with Julia where the beast cursed the castle. Alice suspects it’s Eliot’s wine goblet but as soon as she and Q sit in a throne they start acting strangely too. They conclude that the only logical conclusion is to kill the cursed King Eliot. Penny is unaffected as he’s not a royal so doesn’t have a throne. Alice confides in Penny that she’s going to have to kill Quentin too, right after she kills Margo. Penny rushes to find Margo to tell her about the curse and to not sit on her throne as she’s the only other non-cursed one. Margo is already cursed and is planning to poison Eliot, Alice and Q.  “It’s not the thrones that are cursed,” Margo says. “I sat on mine and I’m totally fine.”

Julia and Miranda visit the “Fox trap” where they plan to catch Reynard. Miranda suspects The Beast can not be trusted but Julia is confident their agreement will stand. The Beast sings “A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, we’ll catch a fox and put him in a box, and then we’ll let him go” before explaining that those are just the lyrics. Miranda and Julia exchange looks as they appreciate how fragile this agreement with The Beast is.

Cut back to Eliot, who is plotting a scheme to kill the other monarchs as Penny searches for a cure, then to Miranda, who sarcastically attempts to summon Reynard the Fox before a talk from Julia gets her to properly try. The Beast teleports himself and Julia away mid-spell, explaining that the Fox will smell Julia and not come. Julia races back to help Miranda but the spell apparently fails.

Back in Fillory, the paranoia grows. Margo taunts Q as he walks around with a crossbow. He tries to kill her but she’s enchanted herself and the crossbow bolt misses. She releases the Keiko Demon from her tattoo to kill Q, but Penny turns up just in time and uses his demon to protect Q before shooting Margo with the crossbow in her…ahem, upper thigh area…so he can get her to a safe place. The cursed Q is genuinely disappointed that Penny didn’t shoot her in the neck and kill her.

Julia and the Beast arrive back to find the building empty with Miranda gone. Julia thinks they have to start the spell again but The Beast knows the Fox may have followed Marina home. They go to Miranda’s apartment but the wards protecting the door are strong. They try to break the wards to get inside.

Penny explains his scheme to lift the curse as he holds Q, Alice, Margo and Eliot hostage with a crossbow. Eliot hopes this plan involves beheading Penny. Margo seconds this view as her “ass still hurts”. Penny’s plan is to kill them all which will lift the curse. If he injects them with potassium chloride they will die, the curse will end, then he can revive them with adrenaline. As Eliot’s hands fail him the crossbow goes off and nearly hits Q. As Penny tries to maintain some order, Margo injects Q with the potassium chloride with no thoughts of reviving him. Penny’s plan starts to take shape as Alice, Margo and Eliot all try to kill each other with potassium chloride.

Reynard the Fox is impressed with the wards at Marina’s apartment, which she is now a captive inside. The Fox drags out Miranda’s demise. Miranda taunts him, saying that a god who preys on women is compensating for something. He attempts to scare then hurt her with his words. This fails, but then he spots her cat and realises there’s something she does care about. He turns the cat inside out and places it on her lap. Miranda tries to cast a spell and The Fox eats her finger.

Back in Fillory, Margo wins the regicide contest before the curse makes her inject herself. The dead monarchs are revived, Pulp Fiction overdose style with a needle to the chest. Penny doesn’t want to remove his cuffs as he can’t control his magic, and Margo and Penny no longer have their demon tattoo protectors. Alice says she released hers as she could feel it under her skin. Alice remembers a shield spell from the first year at Brakebills, which only she and Q thinks will work. Eliot uses a complicated analogy about dicks – if you have one it’s just jerking yourself off but if you have 3 that means it’s 6 people having sex. This distracts Margo and the others long enough for Alice to power up a shield charm spell, which is all they need to do. This convinces them the spell could be of some use. They head to the forest and start casting in preparation to kill The Beast.

Miranda pretends she drifted off and didn’t care about the cat as Reynard continues to keep her captive. The Fox puts Miranda’s toe in her mouth as he looks to eat more of her, but Julia and The Beast finally make it through Miranda’s wards and into her apartment. After they overpower him, Miranda spits in the Fox’s face.

The two main plots of this episode collide when The Beast is about to kill The Fox with the powerful magic knife, but Penny teleports in and takes The Beast back to Fillory to be killed. Julia grabs Penny to try to stop him and is teleported too, leaving Miranda and The Fox to fight over the knife. Alice misses with her magic blast and manages only to remove his arm and The Beast escapes. Penny takes an angry Julia back before trying to leave. She accidentally removes one of his chains and his magic is out of control. She deliberately removes the second one, and things are really out of control.

Knowing The Beast is weakened, Q Alice, Eliot and Margo pursue him. The Beast will need magic. They separate into two pairs. Q and Alice get into a carriage where they have an awkward silence, partly from nerves and partly from their recent breakup. Q tries to distract her with small talk about what she’ll do once The Beast is dead. She talks about her favourite ice cream sundae. Q blurts out that he would try to win her back if The Beast were dead. He gives an impassioned speech explaining how much she’s grown and how much he can grow too. Alice is conflicted, but when Q leans in to kiss her she lets him. They stop fighting and hold hands.

Margo and Eliot try to summon the “god in exile” Ember using a blood stone. The Beast is trying to get to the magic well spring but the “stinking man sheep” Ember has soiled it with a godly floater – he pooped in it if he wasn’t making it very clear. Alice and Q arrive and watch on as The Beast rages. He detects Q and Alice are there and summons them with magic. It’s hard to cast with one hand but the Beast launches an attack at Alice. Q dives in the way to protect her and gets a bad cut to the shoulder. Alice and The Beast battle. She’s strong and launches several blasts that hurt him.

Ember arrives to Margo and Eliot but tells them, in a very vague way, about Alice and Q’s fight. He transports them there and they watch the battle. Eliot remarks that “Alice has gone full Harry Potter part 7 slash 8 over there”. The magic starts to consume Alice as the others realise she’s in trouble. She bursts into flames and vanishes. The wounded Beast laughs before approaching Q, saying he’s going to finish it. Alice reappears behind The Beast – her flames were deliberate and she now is much more powerful than The Beast. She pulls open his shirt and chest. He collapses as his moths escape. Now out of control, Alice says it’s Q’s turn. Margo and Q unsuccessfully try to talk her back into her humanity before Q releases his tattoo Keiko Demon to attack.

Julia returns to find Miranda dead. She kneels before Miranda – her face a mix of emotions that Miranda is dead and Reynard the Fox has escaped.

In Fillory, Alice is also dead. The wounded Q goes to her as Eliot and Margo try to comfort him. “You have to stop,” Eliot says as we go to the silent credits.

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