The Magicians recap: Season 3, episode 2 Heroes and Morons

THE MAGICIANS — Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy. Acquired from NBC Media Village/Syfy /

The thrust of Heroes and Morons exists almost solely to set the stage for what is to come for the rest of the season.

After Quentin and Julia acquired the Tales of the Seven Keys, they should be on their way to questing with Eliot, who has taken the Muntjac, a ship made from a sentient tree (now it’s tree-ship), to make this a very Voyage of the Dawn Treader-esque quest.

The only snag is the Earth-dwelling characters have to find one of Mayakovsky’s magical batteries to power up the Fillory clock to allow them to join Eliot on his ship. No one has seen Mayakovsky and so a side-quest is born.

Following different leads, Julia and Quentin head off in one direction as Kadi and Josh head off in another.

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Quentin and Julia track down Mayakovsky’s now wife Emily, who had an affair with him at Brakebills when they were student and teacher, and she relays how a woman at a bar turned him into a bear. After that, they follow another lead that brings them to an exceptionally tame, bisexual orgy at a park.

They’re not able to get any information from the crowd without getting drawn into it themselves. As Quentin is avoiding becoming a third to a lot of different groups, he spots Alice across the way, who is now holding a cat in a carrier, designed to warn her when the Lamprey is coming for her.

She reveals that she’s after the same thing they are: one of the magical batteries.

After talking with Julia when she comes back, Quentin realizes that whoever cast the spell is looking to jump off a roof and knows just where someone would try it. He runs to the top of the Post Office building nearby and finds Professor Lipson there.

She reveals that she’d been helping Mayakovsky with the batteries, but now that he’s married and magic is dead, she doesn’t see much use in going on anymore.

Quentin asks why she turned Mayakovsky into a bear, but she denies any knowledge of that. Ultimately, Quentin saves her just as she tries to jump and she’s sent to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Kadi and Josh interview a child who claims to have seen some kind of a dinosaur. As the kid is describing it and showing a drawing he made of it, something large rushes past the building and the duo chases after it.

They meet up with Quentin, Julia, and Alice later and tell them about the “dinosaur” and that they lost it near a falafel restaurant. In kind, Quentin relays his exchange with Lipson and how she said she didn’t turn Mayakovsky into a bear. They realize then that it was Emily who did it.

Alice’s cat starts growling and suddenly explodes. Alice runs away and a man runs after her, presumably the Lamprey. In the excitement, Kadi had slipped away and attacked Emily and took her battery, most likely in an attempt to save Penny.

THE MAGICIANS Photo by: Eike Schroter/Syfy. Acquired by NBC Media Village/Syfy /

In Fillory, Eliot and Fen sail away in the Muntjac, leaving Margo in charge. The Fairies have left them a spy in the form of Eliot and Fen’s fully grown daughter, Fray, who Eliot doesn’t believe is actually his daughter.

They land at the island the book Quentin has told about, but they have a slight monster problem. The island is run a priest named Father Poe, who wears the First Key around his neck that keeps the monster somewhat at bay.

As Eliot is trying to negotiate getting the key from him, the monster attacks. All but a few hide in a hut as the monster attacks. In the aftermath, they find one of the villagers has been killed.

As they’re lighting his pyre, Fray and Fen realize that it wasn’t the monster that killed him, but instead it was the priest, who used the key’s magic to fake a monster attack. Eliot calls him out in front of the village, takes the key from him, and leaves him to the villagers to do what they will with him. Spoiler alert: they kill him.

“Heroes and Morons” ends with Quentin finding the next chapter of the Tales of the Seven Keys reveal and, with his guard down, is jumped by the Lamprey and is now possessed.

What did you think of the episodes? Be sure to tune in to Syfy every Thursday night for an all-new episode of The Magicians!

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