'The Magicians's' Season 4 Sneak Peek Is Here, And It's Amazing

The Magicians follows a group of young magicians, at the fictional Brakebills University, as they learn to develop their magical powers and thwart the attacks of various magical entities who want them dead. Season 3 sent the students, led by Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph), on a quest to have magic turned back on.

SYFY just released the first official trailer for Season 4, and it picks up right after we left off.

Aside from establishing that viewers may not have to wait several episodes for everyone’s favorite Brakebills favorite students to realize they’re under a glamour spell, which has rid them of their true identities, we also see that monster-possessed Elliot is a lot less childlike now — downright scary, even.

“I’m not here to play,” he says, with glowing orange eyes, when Quentin Coldwater wrongfully identifies him as Elliot (Hale Appleman.) That aside, Quentin’s blip suggests that by the time monster-Elliot enters the room, the gang has broken curse placed on them at the close of Season 3.

To recap: A season-long quest to return magic to Earth brought the core group to the end of the world at Castle Blackspire in The Magicians’s Season 3 finale. Despite Alice Quinn’s (Olivia Taylor Dudley) attempt to destroy magic forever, Quintin and Co. managed to get magic up and running again, due in part to Julia’s sacrifice of her newly-acquired goddess status. Soon after, Irene McAlistair (Jaime Ray Newman) swooped in and took ownership of the magic, and siphoned it back to the Neitherworld Library with the aid of an unlikely accomplice: Dean Fogg (Rick Worth).

Viewers were understandably shocked by Fogg’s betrayal, but I understood his position. As the Dean of a Magical University, he needed magic in order to operate his institution. Not to mention, Quentin's killing of Ember, a god, is what angered the old gods and caused them to cut off magic. His deal with the library was an attempt to right the wrongs of his student. Besides, it was Fogg who reminded Irene McAllistair that her deal with the library was contingent on her not hurting his students. He wasn’t out for blood — just order.

Wiping his students’ memories (outside of Alice and Elliot) though, was fair game. The Library forced Alice to honor the billion year deal she signed with them, which means they basically own her until it’s up. And Elliot, well, he was possessed by the childlike monster that was being held at Castle Blackspire, which was created by the gods during the early stages of construction of the universe.

Not even they could kill it, and since it was fueled by its desire to want and would become violent if its needs weren't met, the only option was to imprison it. Otherwise, it could prove fatal for mankind.

That didn’t stop Elliot from attempting to kill it with his god-killing bullet (it worked for Ember, after all). At first, all seemed to be well, but after Alice betrayed everyone, he and Margo (Summer Bishil) went running after her. Before they caught up with Alice, she had run into the Ora, the woman who’d been tasked with watching the monster and feeding its desire to be entertained. Her eyes glowed like the monster’s had, implying that his soul had left its original body, and was now possessing hers.

So far, no one knows what happened to Ora but we do know that between that scene and the ending montage which showed us the group’s new alter egos, the monster’s spirit took over Elliot’s body. Once free from the castle, Monster-Elliot then went looking for Quentin (who thinks his name is actually Bryan) and asked him to play, in an eerily childlike manner.

Only thing, he’s done playing.

Jason Ralph revealed during The Magicians' cast recent Facebook Live event, hosted on October 18, that monster-Elliot has taken a liking to Quentin — at least for a time. The ending scene from Season 3 suggested that the monster had plans to wreak havoc on the world, and wanted to use Quentin to help him do it. It's unclear if he feels he needs Quentin, or if he just wants to destroy the world with a friend in tow.

The trailer also gives us a further glimpse into the gang’s alter egos. Kady is now an undercover cop, Margo is a fashion editor, while Todd (Adam DiMarco) is her Uber driver — how fitting. Our Penny (Arjun Gupta) might be dead and in the Underworld Library, but Penny from the 23rd timeline is now a DJ. Marina (Kacey Rohl), who also came from the 23rd timeline, is present and doesn’t appear to have been mind-wiped since didn’t accompany the group on their quest. Quentin, well, he’s not all that different than before. He’s still an awkward, coffee-loving bookworm. Only thing, now his name is Brian.

The trailer suggests that they start seeing through the facade, early on. “Something was done to us,” Kady says to Margo, who’s going by Janet (a nod to her character in the novels of which the series is based). Let’s hope that we get to, at least, see Margo…I mean, Janet reaches her true form as a young, Anna Wintour before everything goes back to normal.

Season 4 of The Magicians premieres on Jan. 23, 2019, only on SYFY.