Season 1, Episode 4
The World In The Walls
Quentin wakes up in the mental hospital he admitted himself to in the first episode, where he is told that his memories of Brakebills and magic are delusions. It is revealed that Julia and Marina made Quentin's elaborate hallucination, and the only way to get him out involves summoning a demon bug. Dean Fogg lowers the Brakebills school's security spell, allowing Marina and Julia to sneak in, where they steal Marina's memories of her time at Brakebills before she was expelled. Quentin, with the help of Penny and his visions of Jane Chatwin, is able to escape the hallucination. Marina, after being reunited with her memories, cuts off Julia from her hedge witch safe house because Julia tried to help Dean Fogg save Quentin.
Tropes Present In This Episode:
- Batman Gambit: Marina helped Julia get revenge on Quentin in a way that would require Brakebills to use a very specific ritual to cure, one which would necessitate dropping the wards around the campus so she could steal back her memories.
- Call-Back: Quentin gets Penny's attention with a Taylor Swift song.
- Cuckoo Nest: Quentin is told that he's in the mental hospital and that Brakebills was all a delusion.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Marina tricks Julia into using an overpowered spell to punish Quentin for yelling at her the previous episode. Julia wanted to just give him a taste of a life without magic, but he would have been trapped in the hallucination forever if she hadn't acted. Then Marina kicks Julia out for "betraying" her by helping save Quentin, even though Marina still got everything she wanted.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: After his I Never Said It Was Poison moment with Julia, Quentin briefly sees her face shift into laughing at him before shifting back into the concerned appearance she was holding up.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Julia comes around, Quentin assumes she's part of this spell as he tries to prove magic works by making a blast of fireworks. Everyone else appears to have not seen it and Julia appears the same.Julia: I wanted to see the fireworks. I really did.
Quentin: Wait. How did you know they were fireworks?
