'The Magicians' recap episode 204: 'The Flying Forest'

Last time on The Magicians, we lost two beloved characters. Find out how the rest of our heroes are faring without them by catching up before this week’s episode.

A centaur surgeon stitches Quentin’s shoulder back together. Eliot and Margo hear the pleas of their citizens. The magical well isn’t recovering fast enough and people are starting to rebel.

Eliot tells Margo he doesn’t want to stay in Fillory. Margo says she has an idea to save him. She uses the button to leave the magical land. Is there really a loophole?

Julia finds Katie in a drug den. She picks her up and says she needs her help. She’s obviously still proceeding with a plan to kill Reynard. Or will she take revenge on our Brakebills crew first?

Dean Henry is having issues with his casting, but it’s not related to his hands.

Penny finally lands on Earth with Margo. His hands have been throwing off his traveling. Margo tells him the sad news about Alice. He’s visibly shaken.

Margo enters Eliot’s bedroom to his wife’s dismay. She has stolen a batch of living clay. She wants to make a golem of Eliot and send it to Brakebills. Will it work?

Katie asks Julia how she found her. Julia caught wind of a girl performing miracles for a drug fix. Katie thanks her for saving her life. Julia shows her Marina’s corpse. Marina left a locater number on her arm for a book at the Brakebills library. What was she trying to tell them?

Quentin wakes. His shoulder was rebuilt with wood by the centaurs. A friendly nurse points him to a letter left by Eliot and Margo. They left him a box of Alice’s things after burying her. Penny finds Quentin in tears. He’s there to get his hands checked. They argue about their love for Alice.

The surgeon refuses to fix Penny’s hands. He says the River Watcher is too dangerous to mess with. What will Penny do now?

Julia and Katie perform magic on a two-piece necklace that will help Julia find what she’s looking for at Brakebills without Katie. As an expelled student, the alarm would sound immediately if Katie were to step foot on campus. Julia wears her half while Katie directs her through a mirror. The book is armed with an alarm as well. Julia will have to copy it instead of taking it from the library. Katie points her to the best spot to hide.

The golem makes it back to the Brakebills dorm where Todd has become the new party master. Margo has to talk the new Eliot out of killing Todd for taking his place.

Quentin goes through Alice’s belongings while the nurse paints skin over his new wooden shoulder. He sees the White Lady. Who is she?

Penny wakes to his hands choking him. He breaks his own arms to stop them, then gets drunk and asks Quentin to get an axe. Can he really cut them off? Penny insults him until he uses the axe.

Golem Eliot makes a drink for a man named Javier. Javier hits on him and they head for Eliot’s bedroom. Suddenly Eliot’s mind is split between himself and his golem. He tries to handle two conversations at once – with his wife and Javier, but it’s not working. He ends up having sex with both of them at the same time.

The nurse tells Quentin that despite his loss of blood, Penny will live. She wants to start physical therapy. He requests archery, but has trouble with his aim. Penny finds him and teaches him a spell to let his arrow fly straight. Quentin tells him if they catch the White Lady in the Flying Forest, she has to give them whatever they want. Penny can get his hands back and Quentin can ask for Alice. Will the plan work?

Our guys search the forest and get a contact high from something in the woods. They become too stoned to function. Will they forget their quest?

Eliot tells the Dean that he’s in over his head. Henry tells him that he has to pick one life and live it. Eliot says he’s ill equipped to be a king. Henry offers to help him. He tells Eliot his thesis will be on how to save a world.

Margo confronts Julia about getting her friends killed. She tells Julia that she deserves to have no one. Julia tells her the book is her last shot at keeping Reynard from killing more women. Margo gives her a box that will copy her book automatically.

Quentin and Penny walk in circles completely confused until Quentin notices Alice’s necklace in his hand. It makes him turn another direction and they exit the forest, coming down from their high. Quentin remembers Alice and falls to his knees. Penny convinces him to keep going.

Julia talks Katie into bringing Marina back to life briefly to question her. Katie is wary, but agrees. The spell requires burning the book. Marina tells Julia that a girl banished Reynard from Earth 40 years ago. She needs to send him back. Can she do it?

Penny and Quentin split up when they hear a noise. Quentin does a spell and pulls an arrow. Something in the forest falls. It’s the White Lady. She touches his shoulder and then asks him what he wants. He tells her he wants Alice, but she says she can’t pierce the veil.

Penny asks for his hands and he complies. He screams in pain as they regrow. The White Lady offers to take Quentin’s memories of Alice to remove his pain, but he refuses. He wants her to send him home. Soon, ends up on a city street with his bow and arrow. He places them in a trash can and walks away. Will Quentin’s heart heal? Maybe on the next episode.