Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this episode review. Please read with caution.

I am on board with The Magicians’ fourth season! The entire time I was watching this episode, I was feeling with such joy and nostalgia of the first season. Brakebills University is relevant again with the familiar intro scene. Kimber D’Antoni is drawn to Brakebills like Quentin and Julia back in the series premiere, except the rules are different with The Library having absolute control of magic.

If you need a refresher on what happened last season, my review on the third season is here.

Let’s carry on.

Kim is revealed to be Julia in her new identity. The new identities opens up a whole narrative for all the characters, and the rules behind the glamour spell is annoying, logical, and dangerous all wrapped into one… this is a whole lot of fun for the former students whenever they attempt to “poke” the new identities in any way. How the characters are brought together also stems from an unexpected twist.

Turns out Kady is not a drug dealer in this new life. She’s an undercover police officer who looks into Hedge Witches, which leads her to finding “Janet” (Margo) and consequently to the rest of her friends, who discover their identities are based on a comic book. Penny 23’s new identity as a DJ mellowed him out. Josh is still kind of Josh… they didn’t really work on him beside dick joke and limo driver.

Quentin, known as Brian, is moving along with Monster Elliot. The dynamic makes it appear that they’ve been traveling together for quite some time. Brian is terrified getting ice cream and well aware of the violence Elliot is capable of… So far, I’m loving it.

Margo is officially my favorite character. She is a hard-core woman who takes bullshit from no one, no matter what timeline or alter ego she is in. Her dialogue is incredibly sassy and well-delivered, plus her interactions with Ember in this episode were top-notch.

Sticking Alice with “Santa Claus” was strangely reassuring. Nick, his preferred name, promised Alice that she was a good person, and it prompted her to slit her wrists. Yes, Alice even disappoints Santa Claus, but she manages to grab a cockroach from the infirmary. My guess is that the bug has magic inside, and Alice has to find a way to extract it. Of course, there are probably more possibilities the show can go with this concept.

Overall, I was entertained by new identities, questioning the direction of the show, and jumped right to the next episode because I am hooked again. My episode review on the second episode can be found here.

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