Warning: This post contains spoilers from the season 3 finale ofThe Magicians.
Read at your own risk.
The Magicianspulled off several twists in its genuinely surprising season 3 finale.
Credit: Eric Milner/Syfy
But, obviously, more hurdles awaited them inside.
Alas, theyre not out of danger.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The theme of sacrifice was really big in the finale.
We always start with, What would happen in the real world without magic?
What if this show was just a drama about college kids?
What if these college kids were in an extremely high-stakes situation?
With this finale, what did you want to say about the world?JOHN MCNAMARA:Its weird.
Thats how it feels to be stepping out in the real and adult world.
The tension between those two, I think, is actually part of what defines feeling like an adult.
Thats something that tends to organically enter into their stories.
The biggest twist of the finale was that this monster has taken over Eliots body.
We learned that when we cast Mackenzie Astin to play Richard.
It was hard to imagine someone doing more with the role.
At the risk of patting ourselves on our backs, we were right.
That was really the inspiration.
It really changes their whole approach.
Theres also the equally important question: How do we save Eliot, if he can still be saved?
One of the late-season twists was the Penny from our timeline being replaced by a Penny from another timeline.
We assumed that the audience would expect us to save Penny.
Weve saved him from certain doom several times over the last few years.
What are you most proud of from this season?MCNAMARA:The musical episode.
It was so goddamn hard.
Theres sort of a joke to be made about the inevitability of the apocalypse on fantasy shows.
On the one hand, thats fun.
Thats the thing we would fear.
The thing that I was proud of was that everyone works really hard to keep things grounded and personal.
It wasnt a coincidence that this season ended with Alice alone with her bacon.
It looked like one thing, but in about half of the cases, its something completely different.
Weve only shown you a sliver of who or what they are, and that sliver is misleading.
