'The Magicians' Episode 7 'Acting Dean' sees apocalypse-fatigued Penny take charge of Brakebills University
In any fantasy show, the "Apocalypse! Now!" card gets pulled pretty frequently and then we are treated to yet another way for the world to end. 'The Magicians' is no different but it is probably the first show which depicts apocalypse-fatigue and the toll it takes on relationships.
The last apocalyptic scare around the Harmonic Convergence involved moving the moon, breaking the moon and then restoring the moon to its original state, thanks to the convenient time loop magic of the talking whales.
But this doesn't mean the moon isn't pissed about being shoved around and broken up. Since it has been back, it has been shifting around constantly, making magical spells behave erratically. Brakebills security system (set up by Dean Fogg) puts the interim "acting Dean" into a coma and the rest of the staff maliciously put Penny Adiyodi in-charge when he is late for the emergency staff meeting.
As "Dean Adiyodi", Penny is subjected to a litany of frivolous student problems even as he tries to figure out how to get the Brakebills' security system to stop killing its students and teachers.
He is also officially apocalypse-fatigued. He asks Julia (who is all gung-ho about averting another apocalypse in Fillory) when they get to "go to the beach and enjoy" after being on the doomsday time clock so many times. As a Penny from a different timeline, he also has PTSD from remembering how in his timeline Julia didn't come back from a quest in Fillory.
In their magicians' gang, he is the only one who remembers the horrors of another timeline. He has company though in this episode when "psycho Dean Fogg", who blew up Brakebills in timeline 17, shows up in response to an emergency button signal. This unhinged Dean Fogg wants to do time magic and shift the university (including students and teachers) to his timeline that has almost no magical resources because he blew up Brakebills University.
Penny resolves the situation pretty quickly with the help of both Alice and Julia and locks the rogue Dean Fogg in a clean room where he cannot cast spells. We see him up for dealing with small crises like this in the entire episode.
But as Julia prepares for battle in Fillory, he tells her he can't come. He has had enough of apocalyptic scenarios for now and would rather concentrate on getting Brakebills up and running. Julia too wants a break from the relationship because there are too many fires to put out to figure out the bumps in their coupledom.
Both decide it is best to end their relationship for now. So we might not see Penny actively take part in defeating the Dark King, who seems to be the villain, using gold to create more of the Takers in the woods. His actions are prophesized to bring "Death to Everyone" as Todd's song so helpfully tells Julia.
'The Magicians' Episode 7 airs on February 19 at 10/9c on Syfy.