Titled: “Knight of Crowns”
Previously on The Magicians: Quentin, Eliot, Alice, Margo, and Penny’s battle with The Beast, a.k.a. Martin Chatwin, failed because Julia stole their god-killing knife and asked Martin to “f—k up [a god’s] s—t.” Julia and Martin apparated out of there, leaving most of the Brakebills gang near death or severely maimed. And the throat-clearing season 2 premiere picks up right where the show left off, with Quentin, the sole survivor of the confrontation, running through the woods looking for help, which ends up being somewhat unnecessary because Alice uses her god powers to revive all of their friends without much problem. Unfortunately, they’ve now lost the knife, which means they need to find a new weapon to kill The Beast. Thus, The Magicians season 2 begins.
The Syfy drama remains as glib and irreverent as ever in its second season premiere, which doesn’t put too much effort into concealing the fact that it’s mainly concerned with moving the story pieces around for the upcoming season. “Knight of Cups,” the premiere, features both the things that made the show fun in season 1 — clever pop culture references, Margo and Eliot’s great one-liners — and the things that made it hard to get through at times — uneven plotting, gratuitous snark and deconstruction — dialed to 11. That being said, there are times in the premiere when the show regains its chill and takes a break from all of the snark to make you feel; this mostly occurs in Julia’s material, but this also applies to a couple of moments involving Quentin and the gang.
For the most part, the premiere is focused on the powerless seeking, well, power. As I mentioned, the Brakebills gang is still in Fillory, and they begin searching for a way to defeat Martin since Julia has the knife. Quentin suggests they search Castle Whitespire’s Armory — a.k.a. the library — for a powerful spell that Rupert Chatwin used at the Battle of the Bulge (jokes!). The gang’s mission in the premiere has a stop-and-start feel to it. To enter the castle, they need to be crowned, and to be crowned they need to visit the titular Knight of Crowns, which means crossing the Rainbow Bridge to get to the “coronation spot.” Yes, this leads to some fun moments, but it’s clear the show is stalling, and the story loses momentum in the process.
They eventually make it to the Knight of Crowns, who confirms they are truly Children of Earth by administering a ’90s pop culture test, which is superfluous to the plot but still funny — especially when Eliot breaks out a hilarious Patrick Swayze-in-Dirty Dancing impression to pass the test. Satisfied, the Knight of Crowns gives the gang the crowns, and they proceed to crown each other. “It’s important. We should honor it,” says Quentin, making a case for taking this moment seriously. And that’s what the show does. The scene plays out with way more sincerity than we’re used to on this show. Quentin, Eliot, Alice, and Margo use this as opportunity to clear the air on their issues, specifically the threesome that broke up Quentin and Alice.
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