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Timey Wimey, The Magicians Style

Here's a look at all the times the show gets timey wimey.

By Beth Johnson
TheMagicians_blog_Travel

In The Magicians, time travel and twists are so much fun, and come into play quite a bit. Hello, 40 (or 41?) timelines! Here's a look at all the times the show gets timey wimey.

How to Watch

Catch up on The Magicians on the SYFY app.

Season 1

Episode 9: The Writing Room
Quentin, Eliot, Penny and Alice head to the old Plover estate. They get trapped in a ghost loop and see young versions of Jane and Martin Chatwin, Christopher Plover, and two scary and dead ghost kids.

Episode 12: Thirty-Nine Graves
1.   Quentin truthies Dean Fogg and learns that Eliza is actually Jane Chatwin. And, most importantly, that this is the 40th Timeline they are experiencing, thanks to Jane's ability to create time loops. Also, he has died 39 times before.

2.    Julia and Quentin are trying to get to Fillory. They use time magic to go back to the UK in 1942 via a time bridge and then follow in Jane Chatwin's footsteps from the books. They head to the UK, and then activate their time magic device. Landing in WW2-era UK, they spot Jane using a magical phone booth portal, and then follow her and head into Fillory. No sweat.

Season 2

Episode 7: Plan B
When the team is working on a bank heist, Julia is able to push the time back four times so they can retry to escape the vault.

Episode 10: The Girl Who Told Time
In order to learn about Shades, Quentin, Dean Fogg and Julia use a Tesla Flexion machine to talk to Alice of the 23rd Timeline.

Season 3

Episode 4: Be the Penny
On the Key Quest, Julia and Quentin are searching for the Truth key. Thanks to their observation of a ghost loop, along with astral plane Penny, they learn that Rupert Chatwin gave it to his beloved, Lance Morrison. Lance was then killed by his evil father, a McAllistair, who kept the key.

Episode 5: A Life in the Day
This one is the ultimate in timey wimey episodes. Quentin and Eliot follow the key quest into a Fillory of the past. They spend a lifetime of 50 years working on a magical mosaic in order to get one of the Quest keys, and then solve it as old men when Eliot dies. Quentin works some time magic getting a letter to Margo so she can go back in time, dig up Jane Chatwin and get the keys, then return to them before they start the Quest — keys in hand. This time, Eliot and Quentin retain their memories from this magical lifetime.

Episode 8: Six Short Stories About Magic
In this episode, we learn a lot about different characters. In the fascinating stories about librarian Hazel and her daughter, Harriet, due to the way time works we see Harriet go from childhood to adulthood, and ultimately she and her mom are seemingly about the same age. Trippy.

Episode 11: Twenty-Three
Julia and Josh are working on the time Quest. They get pulled into a Tesla Flexion by the Josh of the 23rd Timeline. And going through the portal clock they quickly enter that Timeline, where they meet an alive Marina, a messed-up Alice, and a Penny who is obsessed with Julia. Oh, and evil Beast Quentin. Upon escape, Julia and Josh return home with the only survivors: Marina 23 and Penny 23.

Season 4

Episode 5: Escape From the Happy Place
Eliot is possessed by the Monster and trapped in his mind palace, the "Happy Place." He has to comb through his memories to find a door to get out and reach his body, so he can take control again and speak to his friends. A lot of the past is revealed, with Eliot observing his younger self and his most painful memories — from bad haircuts and high school trauma up through him rejecting Quentin when they came back from Fillory during the Key Quest.

Episode 6: A Timeline and Place
Marina 23 and Penny 23 are kidnapped by a Horomancer named Stoppard. He believes that their being in the 40th Timeline is messing with his mother's health, and wants to banish them back to Timeline 23. They flip through multiple Timelines and end up back in 40 — when Penny tells Stoppard he blew dandelion seeds from another Timeline around 40 and there is now no way to clear them out — Stoppard has no choice but to let Marina and Penny stay.

Episode 11: The 4-1-1
Quentin and Alice are on a mission to retrieve the incorporate bond spell from Mayakovsky of the past. Quentin has to interact with Alice of the past during their time at Brakebills South, and in the present, Alice connects with Past Quentin.

Episode 13: No Better to Be Safe Than Sorry
After Eliot is saved from The Monster and Quentin dies, Margo and Eliot go back to Fillory and find themselves 300 years in the future.

Season 5

Episode 1: Do Something Crazy
Margo and Eliot seek out the Clock Dwarf in the center of Fillory. He maintains the Clockwork Heart in Fillory's center that was created by the dwarves who taught Jane Chatwin to do time magic. But turns out, he can only move time forward and not back.

Episode 2: The Wrath of the Time Bees
There is a lot of fiddling with time — both on Earth and on Fillory. Alice has animated a golem with the memories of Quentin and brought a 12-year-old Baby Q into the present. And in Fillory, Eliot stumbles into Jane Chatwin's cottage. After a chat where Jane says they can't mess with time, Eliot steals all of her timey wimey gizmos and runs away. Then he and Margo work with the items to try and retroactively save Josh and Fen. Oh, and there are magical stamps that can go through space and time to arrive anywhere (they find three and use two).


Will there be more timey wimey moments to come this season? Stay tuned to The Magicians every Wednesday at 10/9c to find out!