Season 3, Episode 7
Poached Eggs
Margo and Eliot cut a deal with the Fairy Queen; Quentin and Penny try to retrieve the lost key.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- All There in the Manual: According to the credits, the vampire's name is Vince.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Quentin and Penny pose as psychiatrists in an effort to get Kady out of the mental hospital. That plan falls through when Quentin fails to slip her a security badge.
- Blackmail Backfire: The Fairy Queen demands the eggs be returned or she kills Fray. Eliott and Fen are ready to give in but seeing how much they care for her causes Fray to reveal she's not really their daughter but a random human the Queen used to take the place of their actual daughter, who died in childbirth. Lampshaded by Margo:Margo: And that is the sound of your leverage dying.
- Brutal Honesty: Dean Fogg sees no need to be tactful, since the gang is going to do whatever they want regardless of his input.
- Dead Guy on Display: Numerous Floaters are left stabbed on pikes in public to scare them into leaving, as retaliation for their pillaging of the kingdom.
- Deal with the Devil: Julia reluctantly makes a deal with Irene for access to a temporary source of magic in exchange for an unspecified favor later.
- Emergency Transformation: In a desperate attempt to keep the divine seed without it killing her, Alice tries to become a vampire by paying one to turn her. Julia steps in before he can do so.
- Failsafe Failure: When Kady escapes her room, the hospital goes into lockdown. Poppy starts a small fire, automatically ending the lockdown.Poppy: Works every time.
Quentin: How many times have you done this? - Fantastic Drug: Irene gives Julia what is essentially magic cocaine, an excretion of a magical creature which grants magic when snorted.
- Honor Before Reason: Eliot points out that, in the absence of magic, he and Margo have very little leverage over the Fairy Queen and their cause might be better served if they concentrated on restoring magic first, even though that would leave the kingdom at her mercy. Margo doesn't disagree with the logic, but is unwilling to just give in to a usurper after all the effort they put in, convincing Eliot that it's better to fight for what is rightfully theirs.
- Hypocrite: Back in "Be the Penny", Alice suggested to Quentin that the world might be better off without magic, since his father's cancer, assumed to be magical in origin, had gone into remission at the same time magic disappeared. Here, Alice is so desperate to hang onto magic now that she personally has it that she's willing to become a vampire if it means keeping it, and it takes nearly killing Julia in a moment of rage to snap her out of it.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: When the Fairy Queen tries to threaten Fray's life in exchange for the eggs Margo stole, Fray reveals she's not actually Eliot's daughter, forcing the Fairy Queen to accept the original deal.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After lashing out at Julia and nearly killing her, Alice transfers the divine seed back to her out of shame.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Todd is told to keep the fairy eggs secret from Fray. He botches this immediately by telling her not to look in the exact place they're being kept.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Fen talks with Fray about how knows that Fray is truly her and Eliot's daughter and how family is all about trust.
- Out-Gambitted: Margo and Eliot think they've finally got the Fairy Queen beaten, forcing her to give up her tub to the entire kingdom, which means everyone can see her and thus expose how she's been manipulating things. It's only when they're delivered to an angry mob that the two realize the Queen has been using being seen to convince the people of Fillory that "the children of Earth" are to blame for everything that's happened, her previous demands having served to make them look crazy/incompetent to their subjects.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Floaters are doing the second one to the kingdom, feeling entitled to do so now that Margo and Fomarr have officially consummated their marriage.
- The Reveal: Fray is not actually Eliot and Fen's daughter, just a random human the Fairy Queen was using against them. Their actual baby died.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Julia uses magic on the vampire, he returns Alice's money because he isn't being paid enough to deal with an angry hedge witch.
- Shout-Out: The vampire refers to Julia as "hedge witch Buffy".
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Subverted as it turns out Fray didn't "grow up fast in a magical realm" but is really a perfectly normal human girl who was substituted for Eliot and Fen's real baby, who died.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The Fairy Queen tricks Margo and Eliot into delivering themselves to a mob of angry Fillorians, whom she has convinced should blame them for their problems.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Professor Lipson mentions that she thought giving a werewolf a blowjob might let her use magic when Alice is trying to find a way to keep the divine seed from killing her. This gives Alice the idea to become a vampire.
- Vampire Wannabe: The vampire whom Alice pays to turn her references this, saying she seems smarter than the "fangirls" who usually come to him.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The vampire asks Alice if she's sure she really wants to be turned, because it's not actually all that fun to watch everyone you know die.
