Season 3, Episode 13
Will You Play With Me?
Having obtained the seven keys, the group embarks to the Castle at the End of the World to restore magic.Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Julia briefly ascends to true godhood, but gives it up to help restore magic.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Library gets what they want and the entity escapes, while Alice gets locked up and the rest of the group has their minds wiped.
- Brought Down to Normal: In the past, Prometheus used all his power to forge the keys. He was killed by his enemies when they realized he was powerless. In the present, Julia does the same after Alice destroys the keys, severing her connection to the gods completely.
- Continuity Nod: On their way to the Castle at the End of the World, the group has tacos for dinner, which Josh brought supplies for in the last episode.
- Death World: The underside of Fillory is nothing but volcanoes and lava, with Castle Blackspire located near the center.
- Deliberately Distressed Damsel: The knight allowed himself to be imprisoned in the castle so his daughter (Ora) would try to rescue him, thus becoming strong enough to serve as a guard for the entity.
- Demonic Possession: The entity sealed in the Castle at the End of the World is able to leap between bodies. Even the gods can't stop it. When Eliot kills its original host, it possesses Ora, then jumps to Eliot sometime during the time skip.
- Downer Ending:
- The Library succeeds in their gambit to take control of magic, the group save Alice have had their personalities changed, Alice is being held prisoner at the Library, and the entity has escaped from the castle and taken Eliot as a host so he can play with Quentin.
- Also, the ending of The Tale of the Seven Keys itself: the knight wasn't really in any danger. The whole quest was meant to mold his daughter into a proper guardian for the entity in the castle. And then Eliot shot it anyway and she got possessed.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Alice betrays the group and tries to destroy the keys so magic can never be restored. Julia foils that plan.
- Dean Fogg cut a deal with the Library to see their plan succeed, in exchange for keeping the group safe with no memory of magic.
- Gilded Cage: Castle Blackspire is a prison for the most dangerous entity in creation. It also happens to be a lavish castle that Castle Whitespire in Fillory was based on.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- The Fairy Queen offers herself as a power source for the siphon in exchange for humans being eternally forbidden from ever harming another fairy. She hints this will go badly for Irene.
- Quentin offers to trade places with Ora in exchange for her letting them into the castle, but Eliot screws up that plan by shooting the entity's host body.
- After Alice destroys the keys, Julia sacrifices her godhood to reforge them.
- Hope Spot: After going through the rest of the main characters post-mind wipe, it cuts to Quentin as Brian coming out of a bookstore and getting accosted by Eliot, who calls him Quentin and tries to get him to do a card trick. Unfortunately, it's just the monster possessing Eliot.
- It's All About Me: Alice is so concerned that she might lose control again that she's willing to deny everyone magic just to keep herself from having it, on top of planning to wipe her own memory after the fact. She rationalizes it as protecting everyone from themselves, but Eliot doesn't buy it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Dean Fogg has a potion which completely erases a person's memories and alters their personality, creating a new persona. Alice tries to use one, but never gets the chance. The rest of the group are forced to take it as part of Dean Fogg's deal with the Library.
- The Magic Comes Back: The group succeed in restoring magic, but the Library succeeds in using the siphon to divert and control it, rationing it out as they see fit.
- Mythology Gag: Margo's new persona is named Janet, which was her character's name in the book trilogy.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Eliot saving Quentin from a life of eternal guard duty ends up releasing the entity into the world.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Alice says this as she's destroying the keys, claiming magic only makes people different shades of bad and no one can handle it. Eliot is quick to shoot back that she can't handle it. Julia flat-out tells her she's wrong on that count.
- Plot Hole: In-universe, The Tale of the Seven Keys describes how the knight's daughter, Ora, inserts the seven keys into mouth-shaped keyholes which then swallow the keys, only to suddenly have them again so she can unlock the knight's chains. Eliot derides it as poor plotting, while Josh suggests it may be an intentional paradox that serves as a clue. Quentin sidesteps the issue by using a spell to contact Ora so she'll open a secret passage for them from the inside.
- Purpose-Driven Immortality: Ora is immortal as long as she is tasked with guarding the entity. Quentin would have become immortal himself had he taken the job off her hands.
- Red Baron: Julia is dubbed "Our Lady of the Tree" by people praying to her for help, for restoring the sentient forest she burned down.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The entity's eyes usually glow gold, but they glow red when he confronts Quentin in Eliot's body.
- Sequel Hook: The Fairy Queen hints that Irene's deal with her will backfire in a big way, and the entity has caught up to Quentin.
- Time Skip: Once the Library succeeds in their plan to co-opt the source of magic, there's a time skip to them having implemented a strict ration system. Meanwhile, the group save Alice have had their memories wiped and are living their lives as normal people, while Alice is being held prisoner by the Library for breaking her deal with them.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Prometheus foresaw that there would be a threat in the future that would require the help of magicians to stop, so he set up the quest so humans could restore magic and be ready to stop it.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The last we see of Ora is her being possessed by the entity. It has since jumped to Eliot after the time skip and her fate is unknown. This is resolved several episodes later when it turns out the souls of people The Monster ate/absorbed remain alive in him. She was overwhelmed when she tried to confront the experiments The Monster had eaten.
- You Have to Believe Me!: After the time skip, Alice is imprisoned by the Library, trying to convince anyone that will listen that the entity has escaped the castle and will go after the group. Dean Fogg seems willing to believe her.
