The Magicians S02E05 “Cheat Day” (Recap, Spoilers)

Things are becoming more complicated in The Magicians, as we look back at episode 5 of Season 2, ‘Cheat Day’.

With the beast (Charles Mesure) now dead, at the expense of Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) becoming a Niffin, and with Reynard (Mackenzie Astin) having killed Marina (Kacey Rohl), things are moving into a new arena for our protagonists.  Their worlds are shifting and they are having to either find new solutions to their core problems, or re-adjust to lives they weren’t expecting.

The episode opens with Penny (Arjun Gupta) coming to terms with his newly regrown hands not being able to conjure magic, but he initially turns down a chance to go to see Professor Mayakovsky (Brían F. O’Byrne), despite it being his best option, as Professor Lipson (Keegan Connor Tracy) is at a loss.

Quentin (Jason Ralph) is equally in limbo, working a Brakebills placed office job at ‘Plaxco’, ostensibly away from all magic.  Q is having a hard time adjusting and is finding the work and environment extremely dull.  Frustrated he can’t open a jam jar, he uses a spell, and is spotted by someone similarly placed, Emily Greenstreet (Abby Miller), who asks him to lunch.

Succumbing to the realisation he has to go and see the “nutjob job in the igloo”, Penny travels to Brakebills South in Antartica in search of answers.  Caught in Mayakovsky’s trap when he arrives, Penny agrees to a deal to help Mayakovsky with an experiment, in exchange for the professor trying to fix his hands.

Having found out that Reynard was previously banished by a girl 40 years before, Julia (Stella Maeve) and Kady (Jade Tailor) start researching who it could be and how to find her, as they need to find out how it was done.  Rooting through old newspapers from 1976, they hunt for weird occurrences that may indicate a huge amount of magical power being used.  While they’re working, Julia throws up, and suspicious, Kady and Julia discover she is pregnant with Reynard’s child.

In Fillory, Eliot (Hale Appleman) continues his acclimatisation to being a king (including reading books on political magic!), whilst also trying to find his own way reconciling how to live.  The experiments with making champagne continue, albeit badly, yet he chokes a glass down when he discovers that Fen (Brittany Curran) is also pregnant.  A talking rabbit is a slightly different way to find out, compared to Julia’s pregnancy test stick though!  Eliot reacts poorly to the pregnancy news and then tries to explain to Fen that he is reticent due to his Father being a bad example.  As he is talking to her, a servant makes an attempt on Eliot’s life, which is thwarted by Margo (Summer Bishil).  When it is revealed that the attacker is a Fillorian, Eliot’s advisors recommend a public execution, although Eliot resists this course of action.

At lunch with Emily, Q and Emily discuss the dullness of the outside world and how much booze it takes to stay sane.  They bond over the perceived futility of casting spells to fix problems caused by other spells.  Unspoken is the reason for Q’s escape from the magical world and the connection with Alice’s brother, Charlie (Ben Esler), who had tried to help Emily, but failed and turned into a Niffin.

During the lunch, Q instinctively uses magic to fix a stain on Emily’s blouse, which annoys her, and despite him apologising, she is holding a grudge, suggesting he should get Fogg to send him to another company.

Back in Brakebills South, Mayakovsky examines Penny’s hands and agrees they are useless for magic.  Before he does anything to help though, he insists that Penny keep his end of the bargain, and instructs him to remove all the knots from a huge pile of ropes.  Once he has completed that arduous task, Mayakovsky tells him to turn a massive table into sawdust, using only a small file.

At the Gynaecologist (Michelle Harrison), the pregnancy is confirmed and Julia arranges for an abortion.

In the Fillory dungeon, Eliot and Margo meet with the attacker, Bayler (Rhys Ward), a proud soldier of ‘Fillorians United’, also known as ‘FU Fighters’, a name that Margo can barely stop herself laughing at.  The ‘FU Fighters’ plan to kill every child of Earth that travels to Fillory, so Eliot and Margo start to research how to deal with ‘political insurgencies’.

At Plaxco, Emily drunkenly visits Q in his office and drags him out on the town.  They wander around town playing truth or dare, and Emily and Q bond over their respective issues.  During a smoking session in the park, Emily says it’s ‘Cheat Day’ and she casts a spell to create smoke shapes, as she and Q become closer.

Back at Julia’s, Kady and Julia debate how they got to this point, with Julia being very angry with herself, while Kady counsels her.  Kady reveals that she has previously had an abortion and that she is there for Julia no matter what.

With Mayakovsky, Penny is counselled to leave magic, as something is happening to the energy and magic may disappear; this is presumed to be due to the problems at the wellspring.  During the discussion, it comes out that Mayakovsky is trapped at Brakebills South because of past indiscretions.

Troubled by the likelihood that he will have to execute Bayler, Eliot visits him in the dungeon and gives him a chance to save his life by explaining what he would do to fix Fillory.  Driven by his need to be a good father, Eliot decides not to execute Bayler, although this does not go down well with Margo.

In Emily’s loft apartment, she casts an illusion spell, that turns Q into her lover – Mayakovsky!  Afterwards, they reverse the spell and Emily becomes Alice, and they make love again.  In the morning, cut up by the emotions he’s feeling, Q leaves Emily’s stating that he “doesn’t want to use magic like that”.

Kady and Julia turn up for her appointment at the Gynaecologist, only for something to happen to the receptionist, who mysteriously deletes Julia’s appointment from the schedule and appears not to know her.  Despite this, the doctor sees her and preps for the procedure.  Like the receptionist, the doctor appears to be ‘whammied’ and kills herself.

In Brakebills South, Mayakovsky wakes up in the pile of sawdust, and reveals to Penny that he has been storing magic in a ‘battery’ in case all the natural magic disappears.  As part of their deal, he then sends Penny back to Fillory to get a moss that he needs.

Fen visits Bayler in the dungeon, and it turns out they are old lovers and that Fen used to be a FU fighter, although she now seems committed to Eliot and her new role.

Back in New York, Q is wandering the streets lost in a daze when he sees Alice across the street.  Astonished and frozen for a moment, he sees Alice mouth the words ‘Help Me’, before she disappears…