‘The Magicians’ Finally Gave Quentin and Eliot Closure, Even If They Deserved More

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Magicians Season 5, Episode 3.

The Magicians finally offered closure for heartbroken Queliot shippers, and while it likely won’t heal the gaping wound that the Season 4 finale inflicted, it might act as a band-aid. (But, like, one of those really tiny ones reserved for treating paper cuts.)

If you’ll recall, former main character Quentin Coldwater sacrificed his life to save the universe in the Season 4 finale. According to showrunners Sera Gamble and John McNamara, star Jason Ralph was leaving the show for good, and Quentin wasn’t coming back. But that didn’t stop The Magicians from teasing Quentin’s return in the first two episodes of Season 5. In Season 5, Episode 3, “The Mountain of Ghosts,” those rumors are finally put to rest, and Queliot shippers are finally thrown a bone re: Eliot and Quentin’s canon romance.

In the last episode, Alice (Olivia Dudley) brought Q back in the sense that she created a golem of 12-year-old Quentin. Eliot (Hale Appleman) intercepts Alice on her way to return Quentin’s essence to Fillory via “the mountain of ghosts,” and insists on coming with her. What follows is a long-overdue interaction between the two people who loved Quentin most.

At first, they bicker. Alice tells Eliot this journey is “not your pilgrimage. I’m here putting my boyfriend to rest, and you tagged along.” Eliot points out, harshly and correctly, that if Alice hadn’t betrayed her friends Quentin would still be alive.

Then Eliot is attacked by a vampire-type-thing, and saved by a dashing British Indiana-Jones-silver-fox-type-guy, played by Sean Maguire, aka Robin Hood from Once Upon a Time. If this is a new love interest for Eliot, I’ll be honest: I’m not ready for that. Everyone gets drunk (this is still The Magicians!), and after Alice goes to bed, Eliot finally, finally admits that he loved Q. The Dashing Brit tells Eliot he has to tell Alice the truth, and Eliot does. He tells Alice everything—not just that he was in love with Quentin, but that the two of them spent decades at the mosaic in love with each other. I admit it: I cheered when Eliot said, “He wasn’t just my friend.” Finally!

Then I sobbed when I heard this one: “We loved each other for a really, really long time.” Please, by all means, stab me directly in the heart.

Alice might be surprised to learn about the mosaic, but she’s not surprised by the love confession. “You really think I didn’t know there was more? I knew Q really well, and if anyone was messy, it was him. He was pretty in love with you.”

It’s a beautiful moment, but it almost feels cruel to give Queliot shippers this now that Q is never coming back. Still, at least we finally have confirmation that their love really was real.  If you’re a Queliot shipper, this episode is certainly worth watching. It may not be the closure we want, but it is closure nonetheless.

With that emotional bombshell, it’s hard to pay attention to much else but here’s a quick rundown of other things that happened: Margo and Fen enter a Centurian tournament in Fillory. Unfortunately, it’s a full moon, and when Margo realizes that Fen, too, is a werewolf, Fen confesses she and Josh slept together “less than a dozen times.” They battle it out—literally—and Margo, hyped up on werewolf hormones, straight-up stabs Fen. Thankfully, it’s a child’s play knife, and Fen is fine. But Margo admits she thought it was real.

Julia and Penny take a trip to London in search of someone named Zoe (Yetide Badaki) who can predict “a major event” that is coming, thanks to Q’s sacrifice and the return of magic. Zoe refuses to help, but her sister predicts the “major event” is coming in two weeks. In other words: Apocalypse incoming! Again!

Oh, and by the way, Eliot’s possible new boyfriend is The Dark King, aka the new ruler of Fillory that Margo wants to overthrow. Fun!

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on SYFY.

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