The Magicians
Season 1 Episode 4: “The World In The Walls”
Directed by James L. Conway
Written by John McNamara
Created by Sera Gamble & John McNamara
Based on the novel by Lev Grossman
Starring Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Arjun Gupta, Summer Bishil, Rick Worthy, Jade Tailor
Syfy
Air Date: Monday, February 8th, 2016, 9:00pm

Last week on The Magicians, Quentin (Jason Ralph) spent most of the episode pissing off the women in his life. First, he told Julia (Stella Maeve) she wasn’t good enough to get into Brakebills (ouch!). Then, by trapping Alice’s (Olivia Taylor Dudley) brother Charlie in a niffin-box (because he’s a niffin), thereby preventing her from ever getting him back. Alice leaves the school. But before all that, The Sorting Hat aka the magic specialty examination, labels the kids – Penny (Arjun Gupta) is a Traveler, Alice can bend light, and Quentin can do nothing… for now. They go live with Eliot (Hale Appleman) in the physical cottage (Alice for all of one day).

Spoilers below.

The Magicians 1.4 “The World In The Walls” review: Oh boy! This is my favorite episode thus far, and it might just be because I love the “is this real or am I just crazy” in shows. One of my favorite Buffy episodes was Season 6’s “Normal Again,” where her mom was alive and vampires were just a sick figment of her mind. “The World In The Walls” has that same thread. Poor Quentin wakes up in an asylum, and “you were there, and you and you…” This is actually believable, as… we are only 4 episodes in, this magic school (and especially the evil magic moth monster) is pretty unbelievable, and Quentin was actually in an institution when we first met him way back in episode 1.

They run with the fun: Eliot is walking around in his robe and pajamas and is a lunatic. His behemoth of a roommate hugs a stuffed pink bunny. His doctor is his same doctor, not believing in his magic, and they sit in a Brakebills office, with moths flying around.

Worst dream ever. My personal nightmare is moths.

Penny has an Indian accent, is a hospital worker, and snitched on him AGAIN! This time about pills. Alice is a patient, thinking that Quentin was here to save her, and she wants to mate with him. Dean Fogg (Rick Worthy) is a doctor. Julia is an engaged Yale student in this “spell.”

“This can’t be my life.”

He’s right though. And he catches fake-spell Julia in a lie. Her smile was quite scary.

They sing Taylor Swift. And there’s so much dancing. Quentin has a terrible voice but shimmies with conviction. Fantastic scene. Eliot leaps by. It is all to get into the real Penny’s head. That’s the key.

His dad visits in spell world. And Quentin watches himself (not himself) act nuts about how his dad was the beast. That pretty much turns him into rocking mute.

Real Penny shows up (because of the stupid song) and hears Fake Penny talking, “You racist motherf****.” Quentin begs him to wake up and find him.

Turns out the whole spell is Julia and Marina’s (Kacey Rohl) doing, with Kady’s (Jade Tailor) help. She runs into Penny and Eliot looking for him and can’t hold back. They bring him to the Dean who lowers the wards, so a metal scorpion and Penny can get him out. Penny manages to tell him he has the control before everything goes black, and he gets kicked out of Q’s head.

Marina and Julia can now enter the school. Marina is after her lost memories – she used to be a student. But Kady tells Julia of the real danger, so she goes to Dean Fogg. It’s too late. But Q is stronger than he looks. He decides not to play the Fillory game (Jane came back to riddle him again).

Quentin asks Dean Fogg to really be taught magic.

Julia is kicked out of her hedge witch club. This girl can’t catch a break!

This was the episode I have been waiting for. The show is coming together quite nicely.

The Magicians airs Monday nights at 9pm ET on Syfy.

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THE MAGICIANS | Next Episode – ‘The World in the Walls’ | Syfy

Quentin finds himself in a dangerous and dark world, while Julia crosses a line she might not be able to come back from. The Magicians airs Mondays at 9/8c on Syfy.