Season 3, Episode 10
The Art of the Deal
Alice, Josh, and Quentin search for the sixth key; Eliot and Margo try to save Fillory; and Julia and Fen try to rescue the fairies on Earth.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Blatant Lies: At first, Alice tries to claim her previous disinterest in the quest was merely her dealing with the loss of her father, and her suspiciously-timed trip to the Library was for research material. Quentin doesn't believe her, and only seems to acquiesce to her demand for the key book just to get her to stop annoying him about not trusting her.
- Cassandra Truth: The Fairy Queen isn't willing to believe Julia and Fen at first, since she has no reason to trust them and Fen has every reason to hate her. Fen manages to convince her by pointing out she has nothing to gain, then appealing to her desire to protect her people.
- Cosmic Keystone: The sixth key is in the fairy realm, having been used to create it. However, despite being grateful to Julia for freeing her people, the Fairy Queen can't give it up because removing it would destroy their realm.
- Crazy-Prepared: Josh hid high-end party treats/drugs all over Whitespire Castle while he was High King. Well, he considers it important.
- Curse Escape Clause: Fairy deals are binding, but fairies can break them if they choose. However, deal-making is so integral to fairy culture that they refuse to do so. The Fairy Queen does so quite reluctantly to save her cousins on Earth, and indicates that it will cost their people dearly for revealing it's even possible.
- Dare to Be Badass: Hades convinces Penny that he has a great destiny waiting for him, but only if he accepts that mortal life is fleeting and the quest isn't worth pursuing in the grand scheme of things.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: When Penny points out that it looks bad for the library to have a brown guy literally in chains and doing forced labour, Howard is flustered.Howard: Oh, no. We're not... We shackle people of all races and colours here!Penny: Not better, Howard!
- The Dog Bites Back: Once the Earth-bound fairies are free from their binding collars, they mercilessly slaughter Irene's family. Irene manages to escape.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: In their negotiations with the rulers of Loria and the Floating Mountain, Eliot and Margo are the good cop and bad cop, respectively. Eliot tells King Idri that his people could be taught to be magicians, while Margo uses the threat of magic returning to make the queen of the Floating Mountain back off.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When the fairies first evacuated Earth, a small group stayed behind and sealed their magic to ensure the queen and the rest of their race would escape.
- Hypocrite: Alice goes off on Quentin for not trusting her with either the keys or the accompanying book, even though he's willing to let Kady take the unity key despite her having betrayed him once before. Quentin counters that he at least knows Kady's motives, while Alice seems to have cut a deal with the Library that she isn't even willing to admit to, much less reveal.
- I Choose to Stay: Penny is convinced by Hades that it's worth staying in the Underworld rather than trying to get back to Earth.
- Internal Reveal:
- Lady Agate reveals that she's aware that Margo got Fomar's junk bitten by a toad and told him they'd had sex...because she checked.
- Margo and Eliot reveal to Idris and Agate that they're trying to bring back magic.
- Invisible to Normals: When the Fairy Queen breaks the deal binding her cousins, the fairies instantly become invisible to Irene's family, since the deal was what made the fairies visible to them. This gets most of them killed since they literally don't see their deaths coming.
- Light and Mirrors Puzzle: The sixth key is hidden in the throne room in Whitespire, and can only be revealed by shining the light from two half-moons on six gems in the room. It's only when Josh smokes one of his perception-altering joints that they realize it's in the fairy realm, where they can't see it.
- The Magic Comes Back: Hades insists to Penny that magic will come back with or without the quest. It will just take a whole lot longer. The gods use magic as a carrot to keep humans in line.
- Mama Bear: The Fairy Queen initially balks at breaking a fairy deal because it's their primary means of protecting themselves, but when Irene's uncle tries to drag one of the fairies off to be slaughtered, she gives in to save the fairy's life.
- Off with His Head!: The only way to remove the fairy collars is to behead them, as Fen discovers when she sees Irene's uncle do so.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Once freed, the fairies brutally torture and murder Irene's family, who enslaved, abused, and cannibalized them for centuries.
- Pet the Dog: After being convinced by Hades that he has a great destiny if he stays in the Underworld, Penny gives up his stolen metro card to Sylvia so she can reunite with her family.
- The Reveal:
- Sylvia betrayed Penny because the Library put a bounty on him and catching him took a million years off her contract.
- Though it's hard to say if she's being honest about it, Alice claims to be working with the Library for the benefit of the quest, as they have a vested interest in seeing magic return.
- The fairies were originally from Earth, but fled after humans hunted them nearly to extinction. A small group was left behind to ensure the escape of the others, their magic bound by a deal. These fairies were enslaved and their descendants are the ones kept prisoner by Irene's family.
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Unfortunate Implications: The Mc Allisters have kept fairies as slaves for over 400 years. They're also one of the most influential families in the United States due to their ownership of one of its only magical schools, which allows graduates to secretly rule the banks. This implies that they are responsible for America's over-reliance on black slavery and outright sponsored the persecution of racial heritage, all to turn their slave driving sadism into standard behavior for their neighbors. One has wonder, if this is all true, how much Dean Fogg knows and/or tolerates their history. - Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Irene manages to get away while the rest of her family is being slaughtered in the dining room.
- We Are as Mayflies: Hades considers humans as such, telling Penny that in a thousand years he'll remember as much about his life as a mortal as he does his own infancy.
