Season 3, Episode 3
Losses of Magic
Eliot's boat is attacked by pirates, and Margo has to deal with the Faerie Queen to save him. Meanwhile, the lamprey catches up to Alice, who is at her parents' house.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Astral Projection: Penny jumps out of his body to avoid the extremely painful surgery. This appears to have complicated the procedure somehow, as his body seemingly dies without him.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: It seems that allowing him to eat the cancer he extracts is the price for summoning Asteroth. He treats it like a tasty snack, with it tasting better the further its developed, rather like cheese.
- Butch Lesbian: The Pirate King is a tough lady who shows sexual interest in Margo.
- Call-Back: Niffin!Alice liked pretty lights. Way back in season 1, Brakebills said Alice's discipline is light magic.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Alice tortured the lamprey's children to death. While she initially claims she was trying to learn about their magic, she later admits that they just made pretty lights when they died, and the slower they died the prettier the lights.
- Cruel Mercy: The lamprey spares Alice's mother, as it knows Alice hates her and figured leaving just her alive would rub salt in the wound.
- Ear Worm: Invoked by the Faerie Queen, who punishes Gillan by sticking a song he hates in his head, which he will never be able to get out. Eventually, it will drive him mad.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Well, maybe. The Faerie Queen claims to have been moved by Margo's speech to the Muntjac, so she killed all the pirates so that the Muntjac wouldn't have to be raped by the pirate boat. Of course, she didn't raise a finger to help before Margo's speech.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: The lamprey isn't trying to kill Alice. It just wants to kill her family and friends by impregnating them with its children.
- Forceful Kiss: Quentin is comforting Alice's mother when she suddenly starts trying to make out with him. This makes Alice suspicious that she had the Lamprey and might have put it back into him.
- Foreshadowing: Alice's kitten wigs out when it sees Carol, but it doesn't explode.
- Glamour Failure:
- When Alice enters her parents' home, she's thrown by the horrible decor, like huge clocks and ugly statues. Her mother explains they've been using magic to cast the illusion of an upscale place for visitors.
- When Alice sees an overweight woman drinking, she's stunned to find it's their long-time neighbor Carol. It turns out she's been using magic to appearing younger and thinner all this time but now is exposed in her true appearance.
- Hollywood Heart Attack: Shocking a man in his 60s with a makeshift cattle prod (especially one who has a heart condition) can prove to be fatal.
- Hopeless with Tech: Alice's father isn't even sure that cars have batteries.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Pegasi are created by birds fucking horses, apparently.
- I Am a Monster: Alice eventually snaps and tells her mother how she tortured the lamprey's children to death, and that she's far more monstrous than it is.
- I See Them, Too: Since most pirates have made a fairy deal of one sort or another, the Fairy Queen isn't invisible to them, to Margo's surprise.
- It Amused Me: The whole reason for Alice killing the Lamprey's family was that she enjoyed watching the "pretty little lights" when they died.
- It's All About Me: Alice's mother, as always. She spends the entire episode completely ignoring the threat of the lamprey in order to complain about Alice disrupting her life and not coming to see them first when she came back to life. On the other hand, Alice's father forgives her and is happy she took the time she needed.
- Make an Example of Them: The Faerie Queen uses her massacre of the pirates as a warning to Margo of what might happen if Margo continues to defy her.
- Nice Guy: The demon Asteroth seems like a genuinely friendly, chill person. He even apologizes when Penny's body dies in spite of his extraction of the cancer.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: When the Faerie Queen demands Margo's eye back, Margo crushes it first, making it impossible to restore but also making sure the Faerie Queen can no longer use it to spy on her.
- Pet the Dog: The Faerie Queen kills the pirates because the alternative is letting a sentient tree-boat get raped. This doesn't stop her from being a sadist for the rest of the episode.
- Portal Door: Eliot's key creates a door in the Muntjac which takes him, Fen, and Frey to parts unknown.
- Prophet Eyes: The old lady on the street that grabs Julia has milky white eyes for the duration of her possession.
- She Is the King: The pirate king is a woman. She's in charge, so she gets to be called whatever she wants.
- Take That!: Margo says that she used to think pirates were cute, like Johnny Depp. Now she understands they're dirty and kind of fucked up... like Johnny Depp.
- Taking the Heat: Pick pickpockets Margo's stolen eye from the Fairy Queen, planning to blame it on one pirate or another. The Queen knows Margo's responsible, but since she refuses to say who's responsible for actually taking the eyes (and Pick ain't talking) the queen randomly chooses to punish Gillan.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Kady puts out M&Ms in the hopes that the demon will be more interested in eating them than the humans. The demon she summons actually seems to think of cancer as a delicacy.
- Undead Tax Exemption: Alice's mother mentions that they were using magic to keep their house, and now that it's gone the IRS is looking for 30 years of missed payments.
- Vagueness Is Coming: The possessed woman who grabs Julia expresses annoyance at Julia's slow progress in her quest, and warns that "they" are going to be more proactive in getting her to see the signs.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Margo quickly realizes pirates are not charming rogues but absolute murderous scumbags with no scruples or honor to deal with.
- You Are Too Late: The demon cures Penny's cancer, but he dies during the operation. His spirit is still around and kicking, though, so it may not be permanent.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: The lamprey tells Alice that her father has a heart condition, betting she won't risk shocking him to force it out. She would.
