The Source of Magic

**"The Source of Magic"** is the second episode of Season 1 of SyFy's *The Magicians*. It was written by Sera Gamble and directed by Scott Smith. It is the second episode of the series overall, and premiered on January 25, 2016.

## Synopsis

Quentin is distraught as he faces expulsion for his involvement in an otherworldly attack on Brakebills, while Julia delves deeper into underground magic and takes a test to prove herself to the Hedge Witches.

## Recap

*This section is a detailed recap of this episode. **There are major spoilers.** Click to expand.*

Overturned desks, a broken mirror, people nursing various wounds while one body gets wheeled away. That visit from The Beast was SERIOUS. Turns out Alice, Penny and Kady defeated The Beast with some battle magic. Now the school is trying to find who cast the spell that allowed The Beast in in the first place, so that they can punish them.

Meanwhile, Pete (the magician who found/aggressed her in the bathroom) has invited Julia to meet his group of hedge witches, which are basically magicians who are finding magic on their own, outside the Brakebills University system. While getting a tour, Julia finds herself stuck in a meat locker with another newbie, Marina. They are being forced to prove their magic skills by making it out. Obstacle 1: A dead guy who comes back to life that they are forced to kill again.

The gang decides to have some feelings as Quentin tells Eliot about the spell they used that conjured The Beast. Feels. Eliot then tells Quentin about how when first discovering he could do magic, he also was responsible for someone's death. Feels. Meanwhile, Margo takes Alice to her room for some lady bonding. Feels. Alice reveals to Margo that she wasn't invited to the entrance exam for Brakebills, but instead found the school on her own. Super feels.

Later, working on a hunch that The Beast is from Fillory, Quentin shows Alice a documentary on Christopher Plover (the Fillory and Further author). Turns out the Chatwins were real! And seem to go missing an awful lot. Alice and Quentin run off to hide the evidence of the spell they cast while Kady tries to convince Penny not to leave and to do something stupid with her: steal a crystal and a book from Eliot's party lair cottage. In the end though, everyone gets busted. Professor Sunderland found the evidence and it's time to answer some questions. When Penny rats Quentin out, Quentin confronts him with illegal battle magic and is blown backwards.

Back in New York, Julia and Marina re-kill the dead guy, take some of his body fat and discover a spell to keep warm. Julia has feelings about being a magician and ultimately proves herself to be a determined, bad-ass hedge witch to Pete, and as it turns out, to Marina, who turns out to be a level 50 hedge witch and all around HBIC. Also of note, Kady seems to be working for Marina, stealing stuff from the school for the hedge witches. SCANDAL.

Quentin is expelled, because Penny tattled on him, and sent to a specialist in order to erase his memories, BUT the specialist is revealed to be the lady from the bench/paramedic! Her name is Eliza and she seems to have a connection to Fillory and The Beast, heeds Quentin to learn magic faster, by any means necessary and let's him off the hook. So, Quentin is safe… for now. He's moving in with Margo and Eliot in the physical kid's cottage (they mainly do physical magic there… and drink a lot. But more on that next time).

Finally, having proven herself to the hedge witches, Julia gets her first tattoo denoting her leveling up. Also, Dean Fogg is alive! And nursing his broken hands. Eliza asks what she can do to help to which the dean replies, "Make them magicians."

## Cast

* Stella Maeve as Julia Wicker
* Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice Quinn
* Hale Appleman as Eliot Waugh
* Arjun Gupta as William 'Penny' Adiyodi
* Summer Bishil as Margo Hanson
* Rick Worthy as Dean Henry Fogg
* Kacey Rohl as Marina Andrieski
* Michael Cassidy as James
* David Call as Pete
* Esmé Bianco as Eliza
* Anne Dudek as Prof. Pearl Sunderland

Co-Starring* Charles Mesure as The Beast *(voice)*
* Edwin Perez as Eugenio
* Anthony Marble as The Beast
* Oliver Mahoro Smith as Ralphie

## Multimedia

### Videos

THE MAGICIANS Inside The Magicians Episode 2 Syfy
## References

1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4976372/?ref\_=tt\_ep\_nx
2. ↑ http://www.syfy.com/themagicians/episodes/season/1/episode/2/the-source-of-magic