Season 2, Episode 3
Divine Elimination
Eliot, Quentin, Alice, Margo, and Penny prepare for the final confrontation with the Beast, but are stymied by the curse he placed on the Filloran thrones. While Penny is trying to keep his friends from killing each other, Julia, Marina, and the Beast set their trap for Reynard. It seems not to have worked, until Marina puts up her wards and Reynard reveals he has followed her home.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When the Beast gets a chance to speak, he offers Alice a deal if she'll spare him. She ignores him.
- Attack Its Weak Point: During the climactic final battle, Alice's first few magic blasts hit the Beast right in his damaged arm and shoulder.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Niffin Alice destroys the Beast with contemptuous ease, first freezing him in place, unfreezing him just long enough for him to beg for his life, and then ripping open his jacket to release a swarm of moths, killing him.Alice: So disappointing.
- Curse: The Beast's curse on the thrones is revealed: Any ruler who sits on them becomes paranoid and convinced that they have to kill the others to secure the High Throne for themselves, and the winner is forced to kill themselves. Fen suggests that the only way to defeat the curse is to let it run its course, so Penny comes up with a way to stop their hearts with drugs, then revive them with adrenaline. It works, albeit by the four royals going crazy and stabbing each other with the drug syringes.Fen: I suppose this is one way to get the killing bit over with.
Penny: Yeah. This is what I was planning. - Familiar: Reynard identifies Marina's cat as one of these. Poor, poor Cupcake.
- Fingore: Reynard binds Marina's hands to stop her doing magic. Once she gets out of that, he bites some fingers off.
- Genre Savvy: Martin recognizes that Reynard the Trickster might pull a trick on them when summoned, and takes appropriate actions.
- Heroic RRoD: When her god-power wears off, Alice overdoes her magic and becomes a niffin before disappearing. The Beast is laughing at his victory... until Alice returns.
- Humanoid Abomination:
- Alice overdoes her magic and goes full niffin. She retains enough of her mind to kill the Beast, but not enough to spare her friends.
- The Beast is implied to be one as well. When Alice rips open his jacket, a swarm of moths flies out and he dies, implying that he had changed himself in some bizarre and fundamental way.
- Kick the Dog: Reynard brutally mutilates Marina's cat when he realizes she's fond of it. The key word being "mutilates"; he manages to turn the cat inside-out without killing it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thanks to their conflicting plans, Penny grabbing the Beast before Julia's gotten what she needed screws over everyone. Julia tags along and botches the plan to kill the Beast with the Rhinemann Ultra, forcing Alice to go niffin to stop him. Grabbing the Beast releases Reynard and allows him to take the moonstone knife and kill Marina. Finally, Quentin has to kill Alice because as a niffin she thinks nothing of killing him or his friends. The only consolation is that the Beast is finally dead.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The spell that makes royals want to kill royals still works when there's only one left.
- Revival Loophole: The curse on the thrones lasts until those cursed are all dead. So Penny runs off and grabs some potassium chloride (to stop everybody's hearts) and adrenaline (to revive them all after the curse goes away).
- Shot to the Heart: Quentin wakes up after being uncursed with a needle sticking out of his chest.
- Volleying Insults: True to their personalities, Reynard and Marina engage in this with each other.
- Wham Line: Alice seemingly loses control of her magic and burns up, screaming...and then just as the Beast is about to attack Quentin, Niffin Alice appears.Alice: I did it on purpose.
- Worf Had the Flu: Getting his left arm fried reduces Martin/The Beast to six fingers and takes him down to the level of a very powerful magician, thus putting Alice on a more even keel with him. Beating him is another matter.
