Season 4, Episode 10
All That Hard, Glossy Armor
Kady, Alice, and Zelda continue to investigate the Library's shady activities; Quentin, Penny, and Julia try to keep the Monster from finding the final piece; and Margo hallucinates some backup singers as she searches for a way to free Eliot.Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Abusive Parents: Lizard-Eliot implies that Margo's father only loved her while he could control her.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: The snakeskin coat and empty lizard bag imply that the "Eliot" who shows up after licks her Birthright Lizard is actually the Lizard taking on his form to communicate with her.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The Monster's sister. As Penny points out, if a being as powerful as the Monster was just locked up for eternity, how bad must she have been to warrant being dismembered and sealed in four stones?
- Always Someone Better: Kady represents this for Margo, at least when it comes to singing, although see YMMV.
- Cutting the Knot: When the trapped claw machine gives the crew trouble as they try to get to Aengus, Julia just reaches up the chute to grab the component they need from it, as she's indestructible.
- Daddy's Girl: Margo was one, as a child. Their relationship grew more distant and difficult as she got older, but this episode shows that she's still nostalgic for those times. By the end of the episode, she seems to have accepted both the good and bad aspects of their relationship.
- Deadly Game: The leprechaun has an escape room set up to prove visitors are worth Aengus's time. In addition to the puzzles, it has several lethal traps.
- Ear Worm: Sort of. Whenever Margo's "working" a guy, Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" plays in her head since it played on the radio when she was giving her first handjob (in exchange for a Porsche ride). It's unclear if "working" in this context refers to sex, or just manipulating a guy with sex.
- Heroic Willpower: After Margo collapses of exhaustion and thirst, she licks the lizard, and the vision of Eliot she causes her to keep walking forward in order to pursue it/him.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: The Library is hoarding magic for an unknown reason, vastly underreporting the levels of ambient magic being released into the world.
- Internal Reveal: When the Monster seeks out a sacrifice for Enyalius, he meets a terminally ill woman, and their interactions accidentally trigger his full memory of his sister's murder.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: During Margo's hallucination, she questions why Kady's there. The answer? Vocal range.
- Leprechaun: Leprechauns are servants of Aengus. They look perfectly human, and are fond of puzzles and tricks.
- Monogender Monsters: The sand spirits are all female, which may be why they only help women.
- Morality Chain: As Julia contemplates getting her god powers back, she tells Quentin she needs him to make sure she still cares about people, rather than becoming detached as other gods do.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The sand spirits aren't actually hostile. They only want to help the women of the tribe by possessing those causing them distress.
- Off with His Head!: The Monster rips off the head of the leprechaun.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The twin axes are allegedly able to be used only by the person who forged them out of black sand—but this is a ruse.
- Poor Communication Kills: The sand spirits want to help out women in need, but because they can't talk their actions are misinterpreted as attacks. Thankfully, Margo's Fairy Eye lets them communicate with her telepathically.
- The Prankster: Aengus loves pranks enough to risk his own life and safety for them.
- The Reveal:
- The stones that the Monster is gathering hold his sister's body.
- Enyalius wasn't part of the ritual that sealed the Monster's sister. The Celtic god Aengus impersonated him, if Enyalius even exists at all.
- Smells of Death: The Monster says that the bar he teleports into smells like this. The woman he's talking to explains that it's located next to a hospital and frequented by doctors.
- Snipe Hunt: Margo is sent to gather a bag full of black sand, which she is told can be used to forge a weapon that will free Eliot. She was just being sent off to die, but thanks to her fairy eye is able to uncover the ruse and turn the tables. She takes the weapons they already have and reveals the truth to the rest of the tribe.
- Telepathy: The sand spirits are able to read other peoples' thoughts.
- Title Drop: Margo's hallucination of Eliot describes her outward self as "all that hard, glossy armor".
- Too Dumb to Live: Aengus knows the Monster will eventually come for him and even set up a safe room that would completely protect him. He only decides to actually use it after being badgered by Quentin with the urgency of the situation, then can't get into his own safe room in time because he forgot his password. Before this, the leprechaun gleefully wastes everyone's time making them win the keys to Aengus's office even though the heroes told her there's a monster coming to murder her boss. The Monster shows up and kills both of them.
- Too Much Information: Margo does this to her own subconscious when Eliot recalls how she gave a handjob to a boy so he'd give her a ride in his Porsche. She chose to do this in her driveway and her father left the house while she was in the middle of doing so. Margo immediately puts the kibosh on that trip down memory lane.
- Underestimating Badassery: The leaders of the tribe intend to kill Margo for discovering the secret of the spirits, thinking she is powerless against them. Margo reminds them that they're trying to cheat a magician before using magic to knock both out, then frees the trapped spirits and breaks the masquerade to the people of the tribe.
- Vision Quest: After licking her Birthright Lizard, Margo starts seeing visions of her friends representing aspects of herself which communicate with her. Played with in that she's also interacting with the real world at the same time.
- Wham Shot: As the cast poses at the end of "Here I Go Again", we see the telltale red smoke of a sand spirit forming behind Margo.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: As a child Margo's father told her she could do anything, and she believed him, but when she started growing up her father became disappointed with the independent young lady he'd raised.
- Your Days Are Numbered: The Monster meets up with a terminally-ill woman while looking for a sacrifice.
