The Strangled Heart: Season 1, Episode 8

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

Eliot's got it bad and that's not good. Because Mike is adorable and his eyes keep turning blue and there are moths around (which is never good). Meanwhile, Alice and Quentin return from Brakebills South and are busted for having done sex to each other. Also, should they keep doing that? They’re not sure.

Meanwhile Penny and Professor Sunderland have the hots for one another. Penny knows this because he can read her mind. He suggests that maybe they should start traveling together from now on.

And meanwhile back in New York, some very disturbing business: Mike wakes up (Shirtless!) from one of his amorous tryst with Eliot, finds a bunny in the hallway, tears its head off, and pulls a knife from inside the rabbit.

Marina stops by the rehab place where Julia is convalescing. Julia is cagey, Marina is mean, and then the threats start. If Julia comes after her or gets in her way, Marina will kill her and everyone she loves.

Everyone’s course load doubles and study groups become mandatory: yep, Penny, Alice and Quentin – all grouped together. Sigh. The squad can’t seem to not squad. Also, everyone’s got love dramz. Quentin is super into Alice, and Eliot is crazy about Mike.

As mentioned, Eliot is REALLY crazy about Mike. Enough to confess that he’s from Indiana and not a fancy “summering with the Kennedys” type. It turns out Mike feels the same way, but he’s from Texas. It’s actually really sweet.

But then, out of NOWHERE, Mike is a man possessed. Or just evil, it’s hard to tell. He turns up at Quentin and Penny’s study group with his bunny-knife and tries to stab Quentin, who dodges – so the knife gets Penny.

As Penny is rushed to the infirmary – the school leaps into action to figure out what’s happening with Mike. And the stab wound, though? It’s getting ugly – with black veins growing out of it. Uhm. What’s happening?

Professor Sunderland does a favor for Eliot and lets him speak to Mike in the magic room where magic can’t be done. Mike is a wreck, doesn’t remember any of it, and it turns out – might have been blacked out when he and Eliot started dating. Uhm. Mike has been possessed this whole time?

The chaplain at Julia’s rehab, meanwhile, turns out to have gone to Brakebills and calls her out on her hedge witch star tattoos. He hands her a piece of paper with a spell on it that allows her to call a local field spirit.

Quentin and Alice realize that what’s happening to Penny is familiar – something they’ve seen before – in a Fillory book. The answer is that in the books they burned a doll that belonged to Jane Chatwin so the vines would transfer to the doll. So they make a Penny doll and…it doesn’t work.

Eliza returns and Dean Fogg tells her that this whole thing - Mike, Mike being evil and Mike stabbing Penny - is her problem. That whatever has been visited upon the campus is something she’s responsible for fixing. Eliza, in turn, tells Quentin the story about Fillory – that the doll wasn’t so much a surrogate version of Jane but rather, it was her most prized possession.

Alice and Quentin search Penny’s room for the possession he prizes most and find the candy wrapper that he shared with Kady. Turns out, Penny’s just a big softy. It works and breaks the spell!

After Julia casts the spell the chaplain gave her, a local field spirit lifts her off the ground. She says it’s like touching the main power source to magic and the chaplain tells her that in order to receive absolution for messing with Quentin’s mind, she has to do penance. She agrees.

Uhm. Then… It turns out that Mike is actually possessed by The Beast. And when Eliza confronts him, he reveals HER true identity – she’s actually Jane Chatwin and she’s been looking for The Beast for a long time. We didn’t see this coming! But even more, we didn’t see the part where Mike/The Beast kills her.

As Mike escapes and starts to try and murder Dean Fogg, (who’s still having trouble casting spells with his newly regrown hands)  Eliot turns up and uses a spell to snap Mike’s neck. We were SO INTO this relationship! Nooo!!!

Finally, after Dean Fogg tells Quentin that the next step seems to be that everyone dies. And he doesn’t know how to fix or stop it. Especially now since Eliza’s dead. Which mainly drives him back to Alice. Who is more than willing to kiss him again. So, at least THIS relationship seems to be working out, yeah?