'The Magicians' Season 5 Episode 7 Review: 'Acting Dean' focuses on the consequences of saving the world
Spoiler alert for 'The Magicians' Season 4 Episode 7 'Acting Dean'
It was surprising, at first, to see the apocalypse come and go so quickly in last week's two-episode midseason special. In the aftermath, it makes complete sense — 'The Magicians' has never been just about saving the world, but about dealing with the consequences that come afterward. The show's protagonists have almost never had an entirely clean victory.
With the world now saved, "We try to live with what we did," as Alice puts it. In a completely different way from what the term usually means, 'Acting Dean' is very much a post-apocalyptic episode.
Some, like Margo Hanson (Summer Bishil) and Eliot Waugh (Hale Appleman), have some pressing concerns to take care of, and a Dark King (Sean Maguire) to deal with. Julia Wicker (Stella Maeve) is trying to stop the next apocalypse, Penny-23 (Arjun Gupta) is just trying to deal with what life throws at him, and amidst it all, the Dean Fogg (Rick Worthy) of timeline 17 shows up to remind everyone that they're not the only ones dealing with a post-apocalyptic world.
'The Magicians' does not seem to know what to do with Penny, either of them. Whatever story arc Penny-40 could have had was sidelined by a random curse that ultimately ended his life and consigned his soul to the Library's service, where he still remains, though he seems to have really come into his own there, off-camera.
Penny-23, meanwhile, has condensed the entirety of his life's goals into one narrow path — a life with Julia. His tunnel vision in regards to that goal has seen him thrown about by circumstance, giving him very little agency in his own arc. With Dean Fogg lost in the Etheric Realm, and no one else wanting to take the job, Penny-23's got a promotion to Acting Dean by a faculty "who gave him no choice in the matter".
It's a small wonder that the one aspect of his life he thought was going well — his future with Julia — is under threat by yet another apocalypse. He's so focused on the relationship that the only aspect of an apocalypse that he can see is how much it's taking Julia away from him. He believes that Julia's need to save the world is nothing but her trying to make up somehow for Quentin Coldwater's (Jason Ralph) death.
Penny-23 brings up an interesting point in the worst way, danger of all relationships that are starting to sour. Penny's a partner with unique insight into Julia's mind and heart, and he's using it to try and get across a very selfish point. The breakup might be the best thing for the two, at this point, especially if it means giving him space to take control of his life.
There were some excellent villain performances in this episode. Rick Worthy, whose Dean Fogg is always a delightful performance of a bitter, intelligent man on the verge of breaking down, gets to ramp it up a notch and go full "Psycho Fogg." The effect is terrifying. Worthy excels as portraying the madness in a reasonable man's eyes. Bick Pickwick (Luke Camilleri) plays an excellently repulsive sexist and xenophobe, and really get to shine here.
What's interesting is Sebastian's reveal at the end of the episode. It's always been a little too convenient that he was the only one with the power to drive the Takers away, conveniently enough to take control of Fillory. While his role in their creation was definitely a big reveal, it's played less as a shock and more as a disappointing confirmation.
After all, finding out that the villain is a man known as the Dark King isn't much of a twist. With the reveal out of the way, the show can move forward with answering some major questions, the most pressing of which being how the Fillorian apocalypse comes into play.
That's not to forget the larger question the show's been asking, however. It's been one apocalypse after another, and though he asked it selfishly, Penny-23 does bring up a valid question — when does everyone get to stop having to save the world?
The next episode of 'The Magicians' airs on February 26 on Syfy.