#tmwk1

All four of our main first years contribute to the fight - Q materializes the watch that first pushes The Beast away, Kady and Alice both use spells to hurt him, and Penny destroys the mirror that he used to enter and leave.

Q tries to talk to Alice about the summoning spell, but Eliot and Margo find Q and Alice in the aftermath of the attack and are affectionate and coddling, cutting the conversation short. Margo takes Alice off to talk in her room, while Eliot and Quentin talk outside. Margo asks Alice about what happened and about her family; Alice does not tell her about the summoning. Margo tells Alice that she wants to be her friend; Alice does not believe her. Quentin does tell Eliot about the summoning, and he and Eliot also share their respective traumas of depression and telekinetic manslaughter.

So, a thought that I’m going to look at further: did Margo genuinely want to try to be friends with Alice but her manner and general personality combined with Alice’s own biases misled Alice into believing Margo’s actions were not sincere OR is Alice right that Margo does not actually want to be friends but is pretending to want to be for ulterior motives? Because Margo does invite Alice to join them and hang out in 1x01 too, and Alice dismisses that as insincere as well. However, if Margo was being sincere here, she might decide at a certain point that she doesn’t want to put up with having her motives constantly questioned, and so stops trying. I’m going to be watching future Margo-Alice scenes with a careful eye, I think, because it’s possible that Alice’s opinion is being colored by how incredibly selfish her parents are and she mistook a genuine attempt at friendship for something else.

Eliot is obviously, painfully, sincere and genuine with Quentin and Quentin, just as obviously, doesn’t doubt that Eliot’s intentions are good. This episode lays a very strong foundation for their future friendship (… and romance) by having Quentin confide readily in Eliot and Eliot deciding to share just as deeply so that he can have a real emotional connection with Quentin. And this kind of impulse in Eliot is, I think, what Martin takes advantage of when he’s possessing/controlling Mike later on this season. I’ll watch out for that when I get there.

Q and Alice then talk and he tells her about Fillory and that he thinks Fillory is real. The real Chatwins lived next to the author of the Fillory books, and Martin Chatwin went missing in real life and Jane disappeared the year after.

Ah-ha, yes. Penny confirms in his scene with Kady that he went to the lab because the voice that has been talking to him told him to — the voice that he now knows is the Beast. That voice taught him magic before he came to Brakebills. It talked to him all while he was growing up and he considered it his only friend. Ouch. Though, actually, that makes me wonder exactly how early in their lives the timeline loops over, if the Beast was already talking to Penny when he was a kid. Hmm.

Penny wants to leave Brakebills, Kady wants to convince him to stay. At this point, she does convince him to cover for her while she steals from the Physical Kids’ cottage, which… yeah, so Kady is definitely playing him at this point, since she’s actively using him now... which means that’s she’s doing the same thing to him right now that the Beast did to him all his life, tricking him into thinking she’s a source of support when she’s actually using him to advance her own agenda. …ouch again. She’s got some strong mitigating factors on her side but… still, ouch.

Sunderland confronts the group, she questions them individually, Penny throws Q under the bus regarding the spell, and both Kady and Alice let him do it. Eliot finds Q afterwards and tries to make him feel better. Q almost leaves a message on Julia’s voicemail apologizing to her for their conversation in 1x01 and asking her to remind him about magic when he forgets, but deletes it before he hangs up. Q then picks a fight with Penny, and he ends up getting punched and having his battle magic bounce back on him and throw him back several feet.

I had not recalled exactly how brutal the fallout was between Penny and Q in the aftermath of the summoning. And Q’s desperation in general was very apparent, kinda illustrating that if his and Julia’s positions had been reversed in this timeline, he probably would have been willing to go just as far as she was in trying to get magic back into his life.

Meanwhile, Julia meets the hedge witches and Marina (head witch) is pretending to be another beginner like Julia so that she can evaluate her. I mean, it takes up a lot of screentime and I enjoy the scenes but that’s… basically all that happens. We also find out in a scene with Pete and Marina that Kady is under Marina’s thumb, and that’s who she was stealing for.

Q steals the Emerson’s Alloy from Penny to keep his mind from being wiped, but Jane (calling herself “Eliza” to Quentin) is there and she, of course, has no plans to wipe his mind right now. Their conversation is very interesting. She’s evaluating him, testing him to see if she thinks this version of him is up to the task. She tells him not to overthink things, and I’m thinking about 3x05 — also, in 1x01, Julia told Q to “live his life”, which is used in 3x05 as well. “You’re late”, “don’t overthink things”, “live your life here”. I’m going to see if those pop up other places, too. Jane wants Q to think outside the box, to break out of what he might normally do, because she knows he’ll get involved — she’s not sure why it’s Quentin, but he’s inevitable. Jane does take the Emerson’s away from Q, so none of the main group have it now.

Jane talks to Fogg and he is not happy with how things are going. He tells her that she should be the one fixing things in Fillory and killing the Beast, not Penny and Quentin. We do end on a cheerful note, with Margo and Eliot happily welcoming Quentin back.

Magic: 1. Pete locks the door of the meat locker for Julia’s test with Marina. 2. Q “materializes” the watch from Dean Fogg’s hand into his own and uses it against the Beast to push him away. 3. Kady uses battle magic against the Beast. 4. The Beast knocks Kady’s head against a desk. 5. Alice uses a spell against the Beast that drives him back into the mirror. 6. Pete ‘wakes up’ the corpse in the meat locker to try to get Julia looking in the right direction. 7. Magic-sensing map that Sunderland uses. 8. Julia creates the temporary warming spell in the meat locker. 9. Quentin uses battle magic against Penny, but Penny has the Emerson’s Alloy that Kady stole from the Physical Kids’ cottage, so it bounces back on Quentin. 10. Healing magic for Q’s arm in the infirmary. 11. Healing magic is being used on Dean Fogg’s injuries. 12. Eliot uses magic to increase the fire in the BBQ.

Relationships: Dean Fogg & Jane Chatwin: slightly shaky allies Quentin & Julia: estranged friends Julia & James: established relationship -> becoming estranged Quentin & James: estranged friends Quentin & Eliot: friends & confidantes Quentin & Penny: antagonistic & hostile Eliot & Margo: best friends Margo & Quentin: friendship Quentin & Alice: temporary allies Penny & Kady: romantic & sexual relationship Kady->Penny: manipulative relationship Margo & Alice: potentially aborted friendship Penny & the Beast|Martin: manipulative mentorship -> betrayal Marina & Pete -> Julia: manipulative mentorship Marina -> Kady: blackmail/extortion Eliot & Alice: No interaction; Eliot was focused completely on Quentin in the aftermath of the attack Quentin->Kady: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kady->Alice & Quentin: “losers" Alice->Kady & Penny: temporary allies Penny->Alice: seems okay with her Jane&Fogg->Quentin&co: manipulative mentorship

Physical contact: The Beast covered Q’s mouth with his hand during the attack (to suffocate him, looks like) and left blood on his face. Right before that, he also touches Q’s cheek (somewhat similarly to how Pete touches Julia in 1x01, actually). Penny holds Kady after the Beast attacks her. Eliot puts his arm around Q’s shoulders; Margo puts her arm around Alice’s shoulders and holds her hand. When they get to the Physical Kids’ cottage, Margo takes Alice by the arm and leads her off. Kady grabs Penny by the wrist while she’s trying to talk him out of leaving. I also think she touches his stomach, but it’s below the camera. Eliot and Margo snuggle on the couch in the Physical Kids' cottage. Penny touches a random Physical Kid student while distracting him from Kady stealing things from the cottage. Kady grabs Penny by the arm again after she steals from the cottage and they’re outside. She grabs his chin to get him to look her in the eye. Penny takes Kady by the hand after he leaves Sunderland’s office. Quentin pushes Penny, Penny pushes him back and punches him, then holds him down with his arm behind his back. Sunderland pushes Penny back slightly to keep him from approaching Quentin again. Marina puts her arm around Julia’s shoulder after the test is done. Jane rests a hand on Fogg’s knee as he’s in the hospital bed.

Character Notes: Alice Quinn: unaware of Fillory, never read the books and did not know the main character’s name. Not a fan of fantasy books in general. Marina: level 50 hedge witch; self-proclaimed ‘top witch in New York’.

Students: No new info.

Timeline Notes: Picks up in the aftermath of the Beast attack. We find out that it’s a Monday (classes are cancelled ‘tomorrow’ but pick up again ‘Wednesday’). The last scene of the episode is the next day (Tuesday).

Significant moments: The first character we meet is Dean Fogg, who comes onto a NYC street through a portal from a more wooded area (I think it’s the area outside Brakebills). The door closes behind him without him needing to physically shut it. He meets up with “Eliza” (making Jane Chatwin the second major character we meet) and says, “You’re late”, which is going to echo in the later first meeting of Eliot and Quentin (and which was itself mirrored in the first meeting between “Kim” and Todd in 4x01). Being that time loops and timelines are such an important part of the show, it’s interesting to me that the importance of timing is set up so soon. And… it’s also possibly a nod to The Lord of the Rings.

Jane’s brought Fogg evidence that the Beast is already active in this timeline (a huge-ass moth). The NYPost that he’s reading looks to be dated October 18, 2015, which tracks with when the first episodes came out. Part of the implication in this conversation is that Jane wants Fogg to rush our group into Brakebills even though they aren’t in place to have it handled yet.

Jane shows particular concern over ‘our boy’, which I think we can take as read is Quentin, given how Jane directs her attention to Quentin fairly pointedly and given that we’re going to cut to him after this scene. Looking back, it’s interesting to think about how this relationship may have evolved from Jane’s PoV. She must have recognized Julia and Quentin as the Witch and the Fool as soon as they were old enough and got involved in the very first timeline, plus it’s possible she figured out somewhere along the way that Quentin was also the old man who gave her the Time Key in the first place. There are four major characters who remember the time loops, after all - Jane, Fogg, Martin, and Ember - so I’ll be paying particular attention during their scenes to see what they may drop as a hint to what happened in previous timelines.

This scene also mirrors, to a certain extent, the introductory McGonagall & Dumbledore scene at the beginning of Harry Potter. I suspect that’s intentional, given the series’s future interest in deconstructing various fantasy storylines and tropes. So, we have two authority figures who understand what’s to come and they have been deliberately attempting to shape this younger generation into a weapon to wield against the enemy that threatens them (and that comes from their own generation).

Quentin is the next major character introduced to us - he is in the Midtown Mental Health Clinic, which has a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. He’s thoughtlessly doing magic tricks with a coin. The show then cuts between him checking himself out of the clinic with a scene of him at a party at his apartment. Julia is introduced by noticing Q looking out of place at the party, and then he bails to go hang out alone in a bedroom and read which… yeah, same, Q, same. We see his pills, a comic book, some other books: bunch of books on stage magic like card and coin tricks, and Plover’s books (at least two editions of the Fillory and Further series). As Q reads the first book (Fillory and Further: The World in the Walls), we get a visualization of them onscreen.

Julia and Quentin talk a little (and I’m going to note that she explicitly calls the Fillory books ‘obscure fantasy’, so not actually in the realm of Narnia or LotR) - she gives him a friendly kiss, and then Julia’s boyfriend James comes in and jokes about them having a threeway, which I did not expect to be foreshadowing and yet… Quentin will definitely have a threesome before the end of the season so, I guess it was. Unexpected foreshadowing!

The (dead) Yale interviewer had the clock from the Fillory books (or a replica? I don’t recall from further episodes if this is the real deal or not) in the place he was planning to interview Quentin. Huh, one of the dead interviewer’s eyes looks kinda like a fairy eye. We do find out later from Dean Fogg that the interviewer was a magician, so… hmm. This scene is very suspicious to me in many ways, in retrospect.

The manuscript that Jane gives Quentin is, officially, Fillory and Further; Book Six: the Magicians and it is dated Feb 1952. We learn that Julia is the one who got Quentin into the Fillory books in the first place and that’s why he learned magic tricks. They were both very into the books all through high school, but then Julia met James and she pulled away from them.

Next, it’s Julia and Quentin’s introduction to Brakebills! So, in most (though I suspect Jane tried cutting Q out of the equation at some point early on) of the previous loops, both Quentin and Julia would have gotten into Brakebills at this point, so after this is where we split from the general timeline to the differences in TL40 (for the students! Martin/the Beast is probably doing his own set of experiments each time he gets snapped back into a new timeline; especially different ways of approaching his ability to talk to Penny, I suspect).

When Q arrives, Eliot is, of course, posing in a gorgeous outfit. He was given a card with Quentin’s name and is waiting for him.

So, timeline thoughts: obviously, Fogg decides to set up Eliot and Quentin’s friendship early on, based on previous timeline experiences and whatnot. Given Jane’s worries about Quentin not being prepared enough, it does seem likely that Fogg decided to set up a mentorship-ish situation, since Eliot and Margo appear to get involved anyway in other timelines and since Margo’s a big Fillory fan, too. I’m going to see how Fogg reacts to them in later episodes to see if it confirms or counters my suspicions here.

When Eliot brings Quentin to the exam room, Penny is in the foreground of the shot and Quentin ends up sitting next to him. Julia is more in the middle of the room and (hilariously, from a P23-P40 perspective), I think I see Kady at a table in between Julia and Penny. Quentin sees Julia and they hug. I did not see Alice in the exam room, but there were several tables that had blonde girls at them, so maybe I just missed her.

Julia is told that she failed the test and will be sent home. “I can’t just go to Yale if this place exists” and she deliberately scratches herself before the memory spell is placed on her. Meanwhile, Q is given a deck of cards and told to do magic. He fumbles for a while, Dean Fogg puts some heavy pressure on him, and Q’s magic bursts out and then he collapses.

Q has a dream of talking to Jane in Fillory. Dream!Jane (real!Jane using a spell of some kind, I assume) name-drops the Beast and tells Q to “get off the garden path”. She wants him to try something new, because she knows that the previous tries have all failed spectacularly. He needs to do something different this time.

Q wakes up at Brakebills and Julia wakes up in her apartment in NYC, remembering everything and researching right away. Q talks to Dean Fogg. We learn that Brakebills is a three-year graduate-level program. So. Dean Fogg here is… hmm. He encourages Q to give up his meds. In the earlier scene, he deliberately preyed on Q’s fears (which he would know well from 39 previous timelines of experience) in order to provoke him into displaying a forceful burst of magic. We know that Jane is particularly worried about how much Q, specifically, needs to learn. Adding that together, and it does feel very deliberate that Fogg leads Q to believe that magic — that this school — will eliminate the need for his meds & etc., when we know from future episodes that this is very much not something that magic actually “fixes”. But he’s setting up Brakebills as the place that makes everything better because he wants Q to believe it. It’s also possible that he’s discouraging Q’s meds to create a certain level of emotional pain in Q to power his magic? Wow. That’s a dark thought.

Q and Penny are roommates. Q notices his F&F Book 6 is missing and is accusatory towards Penny, but before it can go further, Eliot comes to introduce Quentin to Margo. He’s told her that Q is cute and her opinion is “not that cute” but she’s friendly to him. We learn that first years stay in the dorms, and then once you know your ‘talent’, you get put into a house. The ones that Eliot lists out are: Physical Kids (where he and Margo are), Illusions, Healing, Nature, Knowledge (where Julia would have gone), Psychics. We also learn that there are only four students currently remaining of the third-year class, sixteen of them having disappeared along the way.

So, after all that, we go to Q’s first class and we see Alice for the first time (at least, that I could spot). She gets singled out to do a demonstration for the class and turns a glass ball into a glass horse. Also in this class, Kady meets Penny. They have an instant sexual connection and hook up right away. This is a definite deviation from timeline-23, at least, and if Kady only got into Brakebills because Julia was kept out, then that could potentially make Kady an overall wildcard. We know that the Great Cock in S3 knows about her, but I wonder if she was on anyone’s radar before timeline-40 happened. I’ll keep an eye out!

When Q finds out a little bit more about Alice from Margo and Eliot, he’s intrigued because he was very impressed by her spellwork. Margo and Eliot do not seem particularly interested in Alice one way or the other - when Alice leaves after Margo’s (debatably sincere) invite, they basically roll their eyes and shrug. Q tries to talk to Alice again later and she is definitely not interested in making friends.

Some time has passed, because James has sent Q several emails that he hasn’t answered. Julia hasn’t been eating or acting like herself, so James asks Q to come to her birthday party. Margo and Eliot overhear and immediately invite themselves along, because they have 100% adopted Q into their friendship already like damn. I’m kinda stunned over exactly how quickly Eliot and Margo decided that Quentin is One of Us. Eliot takes one look and is basically like ‘you’re cute, we’re keeping you’ and Margo goes with it in a way that she absolutely does not do with “Mike” later on. Eliot and Margo are the two people who are welcoming and encouraging to Q basically from day one and it just really stands out even more in a rewatch. Like Q has to go through some traumatizing shit with Alice, Penny, and Kady to start to develop any kind of bond, but with Eliot and Margo, he basically just has to show up and... be himself. And - this is jumping forward a bit but - they both mention later on that they genuinely like Q for his personality and his interests. Margo & El are stealth nerds and Eliot finds nerds charming in general, so they both just... like Q for who he is. It’s just so sweet and very adorable to see it already present in the first episode. They just like him. For the person that he is.

We meet future reoccurring hedge witch Pete at the party, briefly, as Julia goes ‘ugh no’ at first sight. Julia talks to Q in private and reveals that she remembers about Brakebills. The conversation goes badly, Q is not willing to help her with magic stuff, and he leaves with Ellot and Margo. Pete is a creep and scares Julia until she magics her way out of the trap and he invites her to join a non-Brakebills method of learning magic.

The next dream Q has about Jane Chatwin appears to take place at Rupert Chatwin’s grave (or just a monument to him? But I’m guessing grave). She warns him again not to just stick to the “garden path”. She shows him the symbol that he saw in Alice’s book and burns it into his hand, giving him a new reason to seek out Alice. Alice tells Q to meet her that night to do a summoning to contact the other side. Penny is drawn to go help Alice and Q, and Kady volunteers to join him. They do the spell and after they all leave the room, a smiley face is drawn on the mirror, ominously.

The Beast freezes everyone’s actions except their eyes, enters through the mirror. He kills a professor, is attacked by the Dean, defeats him but doesn’t kill him, and then spots Quentin. He calls Quentin out by name and starts to reach towards him and we cut to credits. That’s the scene that really made me go “woah, shit, this show commits” in my first watch-through. Specifically, it was the smiley-face that the Beast makes during that scene. I was like “did I just watch that happen?”, which a thought I have now had many many times over the course of future episodes as well. Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad, I suppose.

Magic: 1. Location portal (Dean Fogg travels through) 2. Portal to Fillory (described in F&F: the World in the Walls) 3. Clock in tree (spotted by Jane; placed by “the watcherwoman”) 4. Julia and Quentin getting into Brakebills (bushes vs elevator) and traveling to upstate New York 5. Magic exam test 6. (attempted) memory spell on Julia 7. Quentin makes the cards fly around the room after his exam and then builds them into a card castle before collapsing 8. Jane talks to Q in his dreams 9. The globes in Dean Fogg’s office sense magic, though they aren’t always right 10. Illusion work is used to keep friends and families of magic students from finding out they attend Brakebills 11. Lots of random practice magic from the students as Eliot and Margo give Q a tour 12. Kady floats during sex and make other things float too (including Penny) 13. Julia makes sparks happen at her birthday party 14. Pete uses magic to tie Julia up and scare her into showing her magic Julia breaks out of Pete’s trap 15. Q has another dream of Fillory and Jane Chatwin 16. Summoning spell with Q, Alice, Penny, and Kady 17. time freeze by the Beast, travels via mirror, magically kills a professor, takes Dean Fogg’s eyes

Relationships: Dean Fogg & Jane Chatwin: firm allies Quentin & Julia: best friends -> becoming estranged friends Julia & James: established relationship Quentin & James: friends -> becoming estranged friends Quentin & Eliot: early friendship/crush Quentin & Penny: bad first impression on both sides Eliot & Margo: best friends Margo & Quentin: early friendship Quentin->Alice: admires her talent Alice->Quentin: hostile -> becoming temporary allies Penny & Kady: immediate sexual/romantic relationship Margo & Alice: mutually unimpressed Eliot & Alice: mutually unimpressed Quentin->Kady: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kady->Alice & Quentin: “losers" Alice->Kady & Penny: temporary allies Penny->Alice: admires her talent Jane&Fogg->Quentin&co: manipulative mentorship Pete->Julia: impressed with her talent Julia->Pete: creeped out

Obviously a certain amount of subjectivity in this but I call ‘em like I see ‘em.

Physical contact: Jane places the magic watch in Dean Fogg’s coat pocket and then smooths his clothes out afterwards. Julia sits in her boyfriend’s lap at the party. Julia touches Q’s leg, takes his book out of his hands, snuggles up to him, and kisses him on the corner of his mouth. James jumps on top of Q and Julia in Q’s bed when he’s joking about the threeway. Other people join in. Julia and Q press up against each as they walk to Q’s Yale interview, and she touches him on the back and then brushes his hair out of his eyes. Julia and Q sit pressed up together after finding the dead body of the interviewer and she’s somewhat loosely hugging him from behind. Eliot escorts Q into the exam room with a touch on the shoulder and back. Julia and Q hug in the exam room after the test. Margo pulls out Q’s tie when they’re introduced. Margo touches Eliot’s arm when talking about the third-year class and they stayed mostly pressed up arm-to-arm for much of the later conversation. Kady and Penny have sex, and then touch casually and flirtatiously in the walking scene afterward. Margo and Eliot hold hands as they run up to talk to Q when he’s on the phone with James. Eliot leads her by the hand at Julia’s birthday party. When leaving, they hug and spin around together. James hugs Q, and then Q hugs Julia. Pete touches Julia’s face when she’s trapped by his spell. dream!Jane grabs Q’s wrist and presses his hand against the summoning symbol. Q touches Alice’s shoulder when he’s trying to tell her about the symbol burned into his hand. Alice holds his wrist to look at the symbol and then pulls him along by the wrist so they can talk more privately. Penny takes Kady by the hand when they leave. Penny and Kady are playing around/holding hands in class when the Beast arrives. The Beast pulls out Dean Fogg’s eyes and bites him? headbutts him? so that he falls. Bites him, I think. WTF, Martin?

Character Notes: Dean Fogg: mint green shoes Jane Chatwin: Martin was her twin; Rupert was her older brother. She was ‘the family skeptic’. Described by Fogg as a ‘scout; freelance, sort of’. Quentin Coldwater: Checked himself into Midtown Mental Health because he “couldn’t concentrate, eat, or get out of bed” and the “feeling of not belonging anywhere was overwhelming” and being “the most useless person who ever lived”. He was planning on selling his Fillory first editions on Ebay. His father lives in Jersey. Martin Chatwin: “gloomy nature” (as claimed by Plover) Rupert Chatwin: wounded in “the war” (WWII) Charlie Quinn: Died five years ago at Brakebills, so 2010 Julia Wicker: Was going to go to Yale for a business degree.

Students: “Missing 3rd year class” students: there are only four students in the current third year class, with sixteen having gone missing. I’m not certain exactly how many we end up accounting for over the course of the season (at least Victoria and Josh but there might be more), so I will keep track of that, too. But, for now, we have the nameless four remaining. Known 1st year students: Q, Alice, Penny, Kady. Dean Fogg mentions “I’ve got another twenty-four of you today”, which sets the class size at 25 minimum (if Q is the first new student he talked to) Known 2nd year students: Margo, Eliot

Timeline Notes: Oct. 2015: Dean Fogg meets with Jane Chatwin to discuss this current time loop. “Not Tuesday”: Quentin is checking himself out of Midtown Mental Health and mentions he has a Yale grad school interview on “Tuesday”. Tuesday: Julia goes with Quentin to his Yale interview, but the interviewer is dead. Jane is posing as an EMT and gives Quentin the unpublished Fillory and Further sixth book. Quentin starts some new meds. Tuesday Night: Quentin and Julia are pulled into Brakebills for their exam (and it is day in Brakebills) Wednesday: Q is at Brakebills; Julia is back in NYC. Q gives his new meds up to Dean Fogg. ~undisclosed amount of time passes~ Julia’s birthday: Q, Eliot, and Margo attend ~undisclosed amount of time passes~