The Magicians Episode 3: Consequences Of Advanced Spellcasting Recap With Spoilers

Julia walks through the city into the hedge witches' hideout. She's ready to learn some new magic, but Pete tells her to take it slow. She uses a spell to take money from an ATM. Quentin sits next to Alice in class, where Dean Fogg is lecturing about power with sunglasses covering his eyes. He warns about the dangers of learning spells outside of the specific order set out in the Brakebills curriculum, while Julia ignores a call from James and learns to levitate a stack of coins. Fogg takes off his sunglasses with his prosthetic hands, revealing the scars on his eyes, as he finishes his speech.

Fogg tells the students they are going to begin testing to find each student's discipline. Each student has a time and location for their test inside their bag.

Julia calls back James and apologizes for missing his call. Pete follows outside to smoke, and starts talking about how great it is to have a secret. Pete says Julia is doing great with the magic, but need to make sure she manages her real life as well.

Fogg is telling Professor March that his prosthetic eyes seem promising when Alice walks in. Fogg tells Alice to show March what she can do. Meanwhile, Quentin and Professor Sunderland struggle to figure out his specialty. March sorts Alice easily into physical magic, specifically phosphomancy, but Sunderland leaves Quentin "undetermined." He's still assigned to the Physical Kids Cottage, simply because they have extra space.

Alice and Quentin head back to the college, but there's a note that says "let yourself in" and no key to unlock the door. Alice realizes it's a test. Quentin suggests Alice uses her phosphomancy to magnify the sunlight and burn her way through the door. Elliot and Margo welcome them in as a party rages.

Off in a corner, Margo wonders what Elliot's obsession with first year boys like Quentin is. Alice, who isn't used to drinking, tells Quentin that the spell to find her brother should have worked. Quentin worries that Alice wants to try again, but Alice says she just wants to know the truth and find Charlie. Quentin says he wants to help, but he's concerned. He shows her a book with a locator spell to find dead spirits. Alice drunkenly flirts a bit, then Quentin uses a match to cast the spell.

The spell leads Quentin and Alice to a fountain. Alice says she never liked it. Elliot told Quentin it's enchanted and bottomless and supposedly used for suicides. Alice says Charlie taught her the glass horse spell she cast on the first day. They wait a few moments, then leave when nothing happens. As they walk away, a hand reaches up from the water and flips them off.

Penny tells Kady how angry he is that Sunderland sorted him as a psychic. He stops when he senses and then spots Quentin. He pins Quentin against a tree and demands he learn to shield his mind. Quentin worms away.

James shows Julia a place online that's near Yale. She's seems absent from the conversation, and James calls her on it, wanting to know if she's seeing someone else. She tries to reassure him.

Back at Brakebills, one student is telling another that 15 students and a dean killed themselves in the fountain, named the Van Pelt Fountain after said dean. March tells a class that the fountain is now off limits due to an incursion, a garden variety haunting that pulled those two students inside the fountain. He tells them that both students involved are recuperating.

Alice and Quentin return to Alice's room, which is now full of glass horses. They try to figure out how to contact Charlie without him trying to drown them both. Elliot pulls Quentin away, but Quentin tells Alice she should try asking Margo for more information.

Elliot brings Quentin into another room, where a box is shaking on its own. He says Sunderland came looking for a book from the Cottage library, but its missing. Elliot explains that books are special at Brakebills, and if they don't find the book then the faculty will start investigating the cottage parties more closely. Elliot opens the box and a book flies out. Elliot explains that the book is volume 2, and will lead them to the missing volume 1.

Julia practices a spell to unlock a padlock. Marina tells Julia it should be easy if she wasn't so distracted. Julia wonders how Marina manages it all, but Marina explains there's no distinction for her any longer. She suggests that Julia is keeping James on standby in case she realizes she can't cut it in the magic world, but that kind of safety net will only hold her back.

Alice finally manages to ask Margo for help. Alice tells Margo about Charlie, a physical kid from five years ago who died. Margo tells her about a girl named Emily from Charlie's class who may know more. Margo says Emily took Charlie's death hard and gave up magic. Fogg set Emily up with a job in the city, which suggests they're hiding something big.

Penny enters the psychic house, with areas set off for meditation and crying. Penny doesn't love the situation, but he's advised to let his pride go if he wants to control his gifts. Penny hears a cry for help, and then finds himself standing on a billboard in a city.

Alice and Margo find Emily. She tries to walk away, but they stop her. She knows they're from Brakebills and tries to leave again, but Alice tells her Charlie is her brother. Emily tells them that Charlie saved her life. Emily says she fell for a professor, but the professor was married. She thought she could make the professor love her by making herself prettier. Such a spell is dangerous, and backfired, disfiguring her face. She was going to kill herself by throwing herself in the fountain, but Charlie found her. Charlie used a combination of magics, including some untested, to try to fix Emily's face, but he lost control. The magic burned through him until he wasn't there anymore, and he transformed into a niffin, a creature of pure magic. Emily never saw him again. Her professor was the one who fixed her face.

Quentin and Elliot follow Volume 2 to Volume 1. It leads them to a bodega marked for hedge witches. They're let inside, where Pete greets them. Julia spots Quentin. Elliot asks about the book. Pete claims they don't have it, but the book flies out of an upstairs room to mate with its other volume.

Quentin and Elliot leave, but Julia chases him out. Quentin can't believe she's training with the hedge witches, but she says she doesn't have a choice. She's angry that Quentin didn't even tell anyone at Brakebills about her. Quentin says her powers aren't more than a party trick compared to what the students at Brakebills can do. They argue about their relationship. He warns her to grow up and let go of magic, but she's undeterred.

Penny wanders through a crowd until he's picked up by Sunderland and Fogg. Sunderland says she made the mistake of thinking he was just psychic. Fogg says he's a traveler, the rarest and most difficult discipline. Sunderland tells him that he can actually move across space and even between worlds with the right training. Penny agrees to focus on the training, and Sunderland points out that they're already back at Brakebills without him even realizing it. Sunderland says she and Penny will start training in one-on-one sessions.

Back at the cottage, Quentin shares his regrets about Julia with Elliot. Elliot pours Quentin more wine and Kady blows down the door. He pours her a glass as well, and tells her she's with her people now.

Alice shows Quentin a niffin box used for binding, but Alice says they're not going to use it. She wants to bring Charlie back. Quentin says he's been doing research. He says niffins aren't alive. She shows him a spell used to transmute energy, but he tells her this is major arcana and not a good idea. She's going to do the spell with or without Quentin's help. Quentin pockets the niffin box.

Julia meets with James. She tells him she got involved with something that made her want to give up everything. She tells him it's Adderall, but that she's been going to meetings. They hug. That night, Julia wakes up when Marina texts her to meet in 20 minutes. She leaves James asleep and bed when she goes.

Quentin and Alice go to the fountain and begin the ritual. They see a smoking figure on the other side of the fountain. Charlie's eyes are pale blue, and his skin glows with magical energy and his voice sounds hollow. He touches her hands and it burns. He laughs and moves with incredible speed and taunts her. Quentin reaches for the niffin box, but Charlie knocks it away and begins telekinetically strangling him. Alice starts the transmutation spell, but Charlie keeps moving, practically teleporting about. Quentin tells Alice to stop, but she ignores him. Charlie sends Quentin flying through the air with a flick of his wrist. Quentin gets up and casts the binding spell with the box, sealing Charlie inside. Alice is furious, saying she was so close to saving Charlie.

Alice goes back to her room and starts packing her bag. She heads to leave, but Margo cuts her off. Despite what Margo says to her, Alice leaves the cottage.