A Flock of Lost Birds: Season 4, Episode 1

WARNING: If you don't want to know what happened in this episode, don't read this photo recap! 

A woman named Kimber receives a congratulatory letter that blows away and lures her to this spot -- the Brakebills campus. She's there to take an entrance exam. It's all quite shocking.

As the prospective students take their test, Dean Fogg looks through a lens at Kimber. Turns out, that's Julia under there. And even she doesn't know it.

Alice is in space jail, being held by the Head Librarian. She broke her deal and is being punished. It's pretty grim.

And the Head Librarian, Zelda, chats about the current situation with Dean Fogg. The Order is protecting the heroes that saved magic. They are all on Earth under disguises that they aren't even aware of.

Kady is a cop named Sam. She's unwittingly stumbled across some magic and working to investigate it. And that's how she finds a comic book that knows all about her life.

She tracks down Margo, a fashion editor named Janet who is rocking an eye patch and very skeptical about all of this. But when Kady/Sam shows her the comic, and the world around them goes haywire, she starts to believe. They make a plan to find the other people/characters in the comic book where their lives interesect.

Alice attempts suicide in order to see more of her prison and find a way out. When she spots a roach on the floor, she jumps up and hides it in her mouth when no one is looking. Yep, her mouth.

When she is released back to her cell, Alice frees the roach from her mouth and studies it.

Julia/Kim tells Fogg she's worried that she isn't progressing as fast as the other students. He tells her that she reminds him of another student he once rejected, and that he doesn't want to make that mistake again. He advises patience.

Kady/Sam and Margo/Janet find Penny/DJ Hansel and Josh/Isaac. It's not everyone from the comic book, but they are making progress.

Meanwhile, evil not-Eliot is splashed with the blood of not-enemies. Really, just an ice cream man who he thought got his order wrong. He's that evil.

And Quentin/Brian is at his side. Under duress, and accompanying him as not-Eliot says to him that he is going to kill his friends. And calls him Brian-not-Brian.

Marina attempts a spell on the group to uncover whatever magic they are under. She almost glimpses their real identities, and then they all collapse.

Unconscious, Margo/Janet is greeted by Ember. He tells her she needs to stop whatever is going wrong in Fillory. And when she tells him that she's not even in Fillory ...

... he tosses her there. So now she is alone, in a forest in Fillory, and kind of freaking out.