The Magicians 4×09 “The Serpent” promised to be a political thriller with contrasts between an Anonymous-like terror campaign on Earth and a good old-fashioned coup d’etat in Fillory, and it sure was that. Unexpectedly, the episode also contained a quiet, frantic, and heartbreaking essay on self-acceptance with some powerful insight into the complexity of Alice Quinn’s character as whole.
As Alice took on the task of rescuing the divided parts of Harriet Schiff that were lost in the mirror world and bringing them back as a single complete badass, it was hard to miss the metaphor of a trapped woman split into different augmented versions of herself. But just because The Magicians loves to drive the point home, the prism crucial to the task of rescuing Harriet breaks, fragmenting Alice into two selves.
The first fragment was Alice’s frightened heart. Alice is no stranger to the kind of power she’s capable of and the fact that her decisions can have a catastrophic effect. We have seen Alice sacrifice herself for the greater good, and we’ve also seen Alice make terrible, world-altering decisions. With Alice’s frightened side, we saw a woman who felt so strongly that the power she has could wreck everything that she was too petrified to act, even though she had the ability to do what was necessary to save Harriet. The second fragment was Alice’s raging intellect, an Alice who wasn’t afraid of her power or knowledge or of anything really. This Alice was ready to act without fear of consequence or concern for others. She was sure of herself in the extreme and she thought the other Alice – full of emotion and the caution that comes with caring – was useless to the task at hand.
Harriet Schiff and Alice Quinn working together in 4×09. (SYFY/Eike Schroter)
It probably isn’t an exaggeration to say that Alice has had one of the most traumatic identity struggles on The Magicians as she is constantly put to war with herself, either by her own actions or by force – like when she became a niffin (a barely-alive being of raw, untethered magic) to defeat the Beast. Up until then, we had seen Alice mostly as a caring, shy girl who was unused to having friends and nervous about the strength of her own magic. Niffin!Alice was remorseless, callous, unafraid, and unapologetically powerful. Becoming a niffin also meant almost losing her ‘Shade’ (the part of oneself that processes the complexity of emotions and bonds with others, sort of like a soul). It was Quentin Coldwater, not Alice herself, who forced the fractured parts of Alice back together, restoring her humanity. It might well be that the external push was what made it so difficult for Alice to settle back into being human again; indeed, we see Alice struggling for a long time with her feelings of anger and resentment towards Quentin for saving her.
What’s special about the way 4×09 displayed Alice’s fragmented nature is that Alice herself had to accept both of her fragmented sides in order to save Harriet. This time, Alice had to realize for herself that both parts of her are what make Alice the brilliant and caring Magician that she is. Alice’s more compassionate self had to physically free her cold and calculating counterpart in order to work as one entire complicated person to get the job done, and bring Harriet home safe.
But there was also, we think, a third fragment of Alice that was also represented not only in this episode but throughout Alice’s journey as a whole; although, it gets a bit more meta. What makes Alice a compelling and sometimes controversial character is how viscerally she represents the constant struggle of figuring out who you are versus who you think you’re supposed to be. You could say that the third (and final) reflection of Alice is her complete, actualized self – her two warring sides finally united. This is actually a side of Alice that us, and Alice, have spent very little time with because she is very rarely whole; whether it is metaphorically from holding herself back from her full potential out of fear, or very literally when she was ripped apart as a niffin. It’s a fascinating and, at times, uncomfortable thing to watch; a consistently epic performance that Olivia Taylor Dudley can never get enough praise for. Over and over again on The Magicians, Alice is forced to come face-to-face with the broken down components of who she is, which might be one of the most terrifying experiences a young adult can contemplate. Alice’s struggle is a beautiful metaphor for coming into your own, and we definitely think Alice deserves a little slack – and a lot of love.
The Magicians is currently in its fourth season and airs Wednesdays on SyFy. Seasons 1-3 are available for streaming on Netflix now.
