Season 2, Episode 1
Knight Of Crowns
In the aftermath of their clash with The Beast, Quentin and his friends scramble for a new plan; Julia and The Beast strike a dangerous deal.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- All for Nothing: Quentin gives a vial of his blood to a witch to get her to help his friends, who are all dying because of the confrontation with the Beast. When they get there, it turns out that Alice was able to heal herself and everybody else with the power she received from drinking the semen of Ember. Quentin attempts to get his blood back on the grounds that his friends are okay and he doesn't need her help anymore, but she says she's keeping it for making her walk the distance.
- An Arm and a Leg: Alice is unable to reattach Penny's hands that were severed by the Beast. Penny has to carry his hands in a box until he finds a healing spring that reattaches them.
- Dismemberment Is Cheap: After The Beast severs Penny's hands, he's able to get them reattached by sewing them to the stumps and bathing in Chatwin's Torrent.
- The Dreaded: Later episodes show that the keeper of the river has enough of a reputation to frighten people away from curing Penny's hands of the curse he puts on them.
- Exact Words: Julia chooses the specifications of her deal with the Beast very carefully. She includes the stipulation that he can not harm her in any way, and she only states that she will put the knife down when their deal is done, not give it to him. The Beast notices these loopholes, and finds them amusing.
- Good Is Not Nice:
- The healing witch is frank about her expectation of payment from Quentin in advance and while she refuses to give the vial of blood he paid her with back when it turns out to have been All for Nothing, she does give a bit of advice for future dealings with the people of Fillory, who only seem whimsical.
- Inverted with The keeper of the Chatwin's Torrent, who is superficially kind and helpful, but turns out to have been a Con Man—the self-appointed guardian of a publicly available resource who doesn't mention he'll be expecting payment until after Penny's healed and puts a curse on Penny when he calls him out.
- Healing Spring: Chatwin's Torrent, a healing river.
- Jerkass Has a Point: If not for the keeper of the river pointing out that he needed to sew his hands back on, Penny might have come out of Chatwin's Torrent with a pair of healed stumps at the end of his wrists. The keeper even sews them back on for them. As such, some compensation—or a modicum of politeness—isn't an unreasonable request.
- Magically-Binding Contract: Julia and Martin/The Beast form a contract. He will help her kill Reynard and not attempt to harm her in any way. In exchange, Julia will put down the knife that can kill him.
- No Name Given: Neither the healing witch nor the keeper of Chatwin's Torrent are given names.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Martin/The Beast realizes that Julia has been through a similar experience to himself and notes that he sees potential within her to become a worthy collaborator.
- Only the Knowledgable May Pass: The test to see if Eliot is truly the High King. Since his eligibility to be High King is the result of him being from Earth, it consists entirely of Earth pop-culture. Since time passes differently in Fillory, it consists entirely of Earth pop-culture that's twenty years out of date.
- The Power of Blood: The healing witch is willing to accept a vial of Quentin's blood in lieu of the gold he lacks.
- The Soulless: Martin suggests that Julia sever her Shade in order to escape her pain and reach her full potential. He even pulls it out for her for a bit, but she tells him to put it back in.
- Waiting Corpse: The titular knight waited so long for a new High King to show up that he died. This doesn't stop him from re-animating and crowning Eliot, though.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Margo offers the Keeper of the Chatwin's Torrent a diamond earring as payment for healing Penny, but the Keeper has no idea what a diamond is.
