The Fool among the Questers of the Seven Keys in Syfy's The Magicians

SPOILER ALERT: Don't read if you haven't finished Season 3.

I am a huge fan of SyFy’s The Magicians.  There is nothing I don’t love about it, and yes, that includes the finale of Season 4.  As much as I miss and will continue to miss Quentin Coldwater, the character with whom I identified more than any other, I get why the creative staff made that decision (with lengthy discussions including Jason Ralph and Lev Grossman) to have our beloved Q do a Penny.

But I’m not here to write about the finale.  I’m here to write about the list of the eight adventurers on the Quest of the Seven Keys to restore magic to the Universe.  And rather than go directly into that discussion, there are a couple of things in previous episodes that bear on the information.

“Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?” (S01E13)

In the Season 1 finale, Quentin and Julia discover they were unnamed characters in one of the Fillory and Further books, these being The Witch and The Fool who freed Jane Chatwin from the trap she was caught in.  As circumstances worked out, Q and J agreed that she was The Witch and Q was The Fool.

Q discovered that he was in the Fillory and Further novels not once but twice, the second time with Eliot as solvers of the mosaic puzzle in Season 3’s “A Life in the Day” (S03E05).

“We Have Brought You Little Cakes” (S02E13)

The episode opens with the god Ember recounting the intrepid team of adventurers accompanying Quentin Coldwater in his attempt to defeat The Beast (Martin Chatwin) and rescue Fillory.  As he names them by epithet, pictures of them show, so there is no doubt which epithet refers to which magician or witch.  The Addict is Eliot; The Victim is Julia; The Bitch is Margo; The Scowl is Penny 40; and The Martyr is Alice.

“The Tale of the Seven Keys” (S03E01)

Distraught over the absence of magic, High King Eliot the Spectacular travels to the Darkling Woods to seek out The Great Cock (played by Faran Tahir).  The Great Cock gives High King Eliot a quest by which he and his friends may restore magic, a quest which ends at the Castle at the End of the World, which is nothing at all like the Restaurant at the End of the World.

Since quests are better done with friends, the Great Cock lists people El should take along with him, by epithet rather than name.

First is The One-eyed Conquerer, who can only be Margo.

Second is The Traveler, who is Penny; Penny 40 at first, then Penny 23.

Third is The Warrior, who has to be Kady, the badass master of battle magic.

Fourth is The Fool.  About this one, most who have commented have assigned this epithet to Quentin, though some have suggested Josh and a few even name Fen.  I earlier expressed the idea that The Fool was Eliot himself, but given that he is the one whose friends are being listed, and now rewatching the series yet again, I believe that it must be Fen (who in this episode was nursing a log).

Fifth is The God-touched, who is Julia.

Sixth is The Lover of Tomatoes, who can only be Josh, who in addition to being the only gardener has mentioned his love of tomatoes.

Seventh is The Torture Artist, an epithet referring to Alice in her times as a niffin when she was separated from her shade.

Eighth in the list is The Brother of the Heart with the Foppy Hair, which El himself identifes as Q, as if we didn’t know.

So, the Great Cock actually lists nine Questers, including Eliot.

The Seven Golden Keys

Created by the god Prometheus, the original Seven Golden Keys were destroyed by Alice Quinn in Castle Blackspire (aka the Castle at the End of the World).  In their place, then goddess Julia created a new set of keys, effectively horacruxing herself like Prometheus before her.

The Key of Illusion (found by Eliot on After Island)

The Key of Truth (found by Julia in the McAllisters’ home)

The Key of Time (retrieved by Margo from Jane Chatwin’s grave)

The Key of Melancholy (found by Poppy Kline in the Abyss)

The Key of Unity (found by Q, Alice, and Kady in the fake cottage)

The Key of Vision (retrieved by Julia from Timeline 23)

The Key of Realm (traded to Margo by the Fairies)

The eight (major) Questers