If you didn’t know Jason Ralph exited the show, you are pretty far behind, but there will be more spoilers specific to The Magicians’ Season 5 opener “Do Something Crazy” in this article.
Syfy’s popular series The Magicians just returned for Season 5 and given the fact the show killed off a major character in Season 4 due to actor Jason Ralph wanting to leave the show, it was a big part of the new episode. Unsurprisingly, given the way last season ended and this one started, the fans have a lot of thoughts about the episode in general, along with the characters moving on after Quentin’s sacrifice to save the world, save Eliot and save magic.
If you watched the episode, most of it was about the cast dealing or not dealing with their grief, although there was a lot going on too, which I suppose should be expected for a series that really works hard to advance the plot each week. So, we also saw the gang talk start to deal with the magic surge that was taking down magicians. Obviously, this is a frustrating development given that all of last season was devoted to making sure that magic was readily available and not horded by the library. But I digress.
The grief shown during the episode meant different things to different fans. I liked the episode, but it’s clear that some were in addition really emotionally affected by the start of Season 5.
Many people admitted they were mad when Jason Ralph left The Magicians, but felt this return episode gave them faith in the show without the major character.
And just to clear things up, Quentin was not the only thing talked about…
Meanwhile, for the characters, Eliot was dealing poorly with Quentin and with being in the future in Fillory and saying things like “I don’t want to talk about it.” (At least he can talk--Josh was apparently executed 300 years ago, which feels less longterm than Quentin's demise.) Alice was fairly listless, at least until the end of the episode when it seemed like she unleashed some dark magic to somehow bring back Quentin through a creepy dummy. That got some notable comments online as well, like this theory…
It’s also worth pointing out The Magicians already did try to give closure to the fans at the end of Season 4 on Syfy, when Alice and the gang sat around a bonfire and mourned Quentin’s death with one another. Due to the way the world of The Magicians works, the original Penny was able to let Quentin surveil the scene and say goodbye from a distance as well.
They then sang Aha’s “Take on Me,” which reminded me a little of when Bones killed off a major character and that show’s cast sang Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut.”
The good news, Eliot and Margo are still just being one of the best duos on TV, so even if there’s more Quentin mourning to get through, at least we’ll always have Fillory.
Episodes sent to critics reveal Quentin’s death will be a key component to at least the first few episodes of Season 5, which should also help The Magicians expand beyond Lev Grossman’s book series and into new material. Tune in for more on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET, only on Syfy or see what else is coming with CinemaBlend's full schedule.
