Magma and Mingle is the second episode of season 23, Misfits and Magic Season 2.
Recap[]
"Last episode saw our sort of triumphant return to a world greatly changed by the doings of our beloved Pilot Program. Three years has seen the global adoption of magic and even though it's in its current sort of chaotic and unstable form, time and tide have pulled you four across the world to your own lives. But a perfectly timed little origami storm bird has brought you all back together at the request of one Dr. Norman Boodle, your former teacher, interim headmaster at Gowpenny, and quest giver now. So you all met in Suðuroy, the southernmost tip of the Faroe Islands and then set forth into a storm. You all piloted a magical vehicle, a sort of pedal pub with a motley assortment of magical and mundane ephemera, chief amongst which are a very colorful, medieval-looking orrery and set of stones, impossibly old, that were referred to as Tabby. You all took off, you went into the storm and came out the other side and landed somewhere that sort of defies imagination. As you disembark from your vehicle, you stand on the shores of an island covered in haze. It's humid, it's warm. You see pools of lava and in physics-defying, rocks and chunks of island floating in the sky with waterfalls and lava falls and strange things groaning in silhouette against an orange horizon."
Synopsis[]
On the fiery, hazy island, the Misfits get their bearings. Evan taps his shoes, making sure that they are still enchanted after going through the storm, and confirms that everything feels as it should. He hops off of the hoopty, proving to the others that it is possible to stand on the ground. He also posits that if this is the remainder of Gowpenny, that their mission has already failed. K tries to look around, but visibility is poor.
Jammer wonders if they should explore, and Sam talks to Tabby, who responds that they are on Galamanis, which means “the making of what is not yet, to create, invoke, summon,” and his second rock displays a symbol, proving that they are the same organism. Evan inspects the hoopty, realizing that it activates by siphoning their magic. The group suggests that they use GPS to figure out where they are, and notice that they have perfect cell reception, which reveals they are somewhere in the ocean, near the northern edge of Scotland. The Misfits discuss taking Tabby with them, as he is the most important object in their mission, and Jammer states he doesn’t trust it with their secrets, and Evan blindfolds Tabby. They agree to take Tabby with them, and Evan pries the rocks out of the hoopty, placing them in his backpack. In doing so, Evan gets a sense of a shadow connecting Tabby to the orrery.
The Salamanders[]
The group investigates the hoopty, and K finds a glove compartment, containing a Band-Aid and a blue lighter, and a very old registration that disintegrates when they touch it. As the group moves away, heading towards the island, they hear sounds of life, following it, finding themselves at a river of lava. With the heat and lava, K instructs Teddy to put on his Stillsuit in his bubble backpack they carry him around in. K explains that the suit is fully functional, and Evan and Sam express concern over this, while Teddy recites the Litany Against Fear. The group feels the magical potential of the location, and Evan and Jammer see something beginning to emerge from the lava. Evan notes that while there are creatures that can survive extreme heat, there are no natural organisms that can survive a lava flow, and K points out that they are in the magical world, and Evan confirms that is what he was hinting at. A salamander breaks through the surface of the lava, and as it approaches, it becomes clear that it is giant, eight feet long, and three feet tall, appearing as though made of lava. Jammer attempts to get its attention, and it approaches them, followed by two more salamanders. The salamander shows off several rows of obsidian teeth, and lunges at him.
Jammer jumps out of the way, and pulls out his wand, attempting to cool the ground beneath the creatures, but magic is still very difficult, and cannot do so, suddenly aware of the complexity of the spell. The salamander changes its shape to move, and the other two advance on the group. Evan, trying to restrain his violent urges, worried that the others would draw conclusions from it, doesn’t immediately move to hurt them, until Jammer, in a panic, requests it. Evan jumps into action, awakening the demons inside of him, but knowing that magic is difficult, enhances the magic on his shoes, which already resist environmental factors, and kicks a salamander, although it proves difficult to harm them meaningfully. The third salamander launches at K, and they attempt to summon an asbestos blanket, but again, the magic is too difficult, and the salamander lands a bite on their chest, now latched to them. Sam sees this, wanting to help, but watches as magic repeatedly fails her friends, and Evan warns them all to “dream small.” She tries to talk to the salamander on K’s chest, trying to get it to open its mouth to release them, but she realizes that it doesn’t seem to have eyes, or seem to have the ability to engage with her. She realizes that the salamander does react to her talking, and reaches into her pocket and starts jingling her keys to distract it. Her attempt to imbue it with magic fails, but she intuits that the salamander isn’t hungry, but it is meant to attack, and the remaining salamanders are drawn by her keys.
Evan continues trying to kick one of the salamanders to death, and Jammer, heeding Evan’s advice, sends a jet of water out of his wand, hardening the salamander that was going after Sam, eventually freezing it in place. K, on their back under the salamander attacking them, activates their broom, and Teddy disengages their backpack, making it easier for them to fly away. They fly into the air, doing rolls, which disengages the salamander, who takes a piece of their shirt with them, but explodes on impact with the ground. The explosion sends pieces of it through the air, Sam dodges, and Jammer grabs Evan, saving them both. K feels magic gathering inside of them, and clocks that the magical affinity of the place is creating something that did not exist before. Evan continues kicking his salamander to death, but feels glee in the destruction, eyes going dark, and realizes that the monster exists to be fought. Sam, noticing this happening, worries for Evan, and ends it by spraying water on the salamander. Jammer notes that Evan’s shadow is there, reacting as a shadow would, where he usually doesn’t have one. Jammer attempts to touch his shadow with his toe, and feels it physically. Evan, looking down, recalls that he’s never seen his shadow acting normally, save for when it would mock him. He recognizes it to be his cursed shadow, and he takes it up to a wall, and grabs it by the throat, and threatens it. In response, it points away from him, and Evan returns to the group, relaying this information. Looking in the direction, the group sees four people approaching, three strangers, and Tallulah Jillymont.
The Residents of Galamanis[]
Evan looks to the Misfits for information, as the last time they all saw Tallulah, she tried to kill him, and with that in mind, he has no reason not to immediately attack her. Jammer puts his hand on Evan’s chest, centering him, and K initiates contact. Tallulah greets them all, and they notice that she’s aged a lot in the three years since they saw her. Jammer asks her if they are going to have a problem, and asks if those were her salamanders that attacked them. She denies this, telling them those are called Hellbenders, and that they won’t have a problem, the salamanders are a creation of the island itself, and asks if they dealt with them. Evan notes that K is injured, and Tallulah asks if they are going to have a problem. Jammer explains their mission, and Tallulah tells them that Philtrum isn’t on this island. K introduces them to the larger group, and Victor Paddlebusk introduces himself. Evan confirms with him that Philtrum is not here on Galamanis, and Victor seems confused, as he didn’t know what the island was called. Jammer gives Victor the nickname “Marley,” and endears himself to Jammer by saying, “m*ggle.” Sam joins in the conversation, and Victor invites them all to stay with them, on the condition that Jammer gives the island a name of his own devising, which he dubs, “Fire Island 2,” and everyone accepts. They join the group, and notice they have a magical sled that creates a small path of ice around it, enabling movement along the lava rivers for Rev, who rides it.
Evan introduces himself to Rev, and notes that it takes incredible magic to live there. Rev confirms this, and that is why they like it, and that there are hundreds of practicing wizards living around it. They also warn Evan that it’s impossible to live on the island very long without doing magic, but that they do not possess a wand. K explains that they had heard this island was good for creating things that did not exist before, and if that’s why they can do magic without a wand. Rev, who didn’t previously know this to be the case, but understands the rule implicitly, says that they were called there, despite not being a wizard before, and are unclear if they were drawn here because that is what the magic is, or if it was the magic that they had a natural affinity for, and brought with them. Rev then tells K that their top is open, revealing more than they would like. Evan asks Victor and Rev if there was a warning that they arrived here on the island, or if this was some kind of patrol, which it does seem to be, as they look for monsters to fight to kill the boredom. Evan attempts to eavesdrop on Tallulah, who has been having a conversation with another woman in the group, but cannot hear it unaided, and intentionally crosses his shadow over Tallulah and her companion, to absorb their conversation. Jammer takes stock of the terrain, focusing on how to get back. K explains to Rev some of the puzzles they created on the internet, to help people do magic, since Rev wasn’t formally trained in magic. Rev then confesses that Itsy Bitsy community helped them get to where they are in their magical journey. K is touched to see the fruits of their labor, and Sam mentions that K is a “big fan” of Itsy Bitsy, and explains that the name comes from nursery rhymes, because of their whimsical nature.
Rev calls over to Rhonda, the last member of the group, who has been talking to Tallulah, asking if she knew about the nursery rhyme themes of Itsy Bitsy’s puzzles. Rhonda, also a fan, breaks from conversation, amazed by this, and asks K to explain further. Rhonda also turns to Sam and says she is a huge fan, and had been trying not to be weird about it. They make conversation, and Rhonda reveals she is from Arizona, and that Tallulah has mentioned the group, but not in a positive light, although Rhonda seems to have warmed up to them. She mentions that Tallulah has lasting issues from the way things were left off, although the Misfits brush it off as in the past. The group rounds a corner, and find themselves at a series of floating islands with greenery on them, connected by rope bridges, with waterfalls and lavafalls, and while they are still a ways away, they can hear people up there. Evan notes that the islands and the storm might be connected to other places in the world, considering Rhonda is from Arizona, and likely would not have come all the way to the Faroe Islands. He also urges caution to the group, as they don’t actually know these people, nor do they know how they will react to their mission. Jammer asks Victor how they’re supposed to get up to the floating rocks, and he advises them to use magic, but that they have to figure out the “how” for themselves, and tells them to watch the others. Rev creates an icy ramp up to an island, which quickly dissipates behind them. Rhonda jumps up fifty feet with magic, and Tallulah seems to disappear intentionally. Victor tells them that surviving on this island is about being strong enough to do so, and asks if they need help.
Jammer declines help for the group, and uses his wand to create a column of water to propel him up, as Victor yells, “my geyser,” impressed by the feat. Victor states he is staying behind to make sure everyone can get up alright, and that while he did graduate from Gowpenny before them, everyone knows about the Pilot Program because Tallulah talks about them constantly. Sam, inspired by Jammer’s spell, casts a spell to get the ground to push her up, but cannot control it, as it violently rockets her through the air. Evan, seeing this, looks over at K and repeats the mantra of “dream small,” opting to ride his broom, and races up to catch Sam. He reaches out with magic, using the threads of connection between them to pinpoint her. In doing the spell, he can see that their tethers have faded and weakened, but they are still connected, and in that, feels a strong sense of belonging. Evan manages to catch Sam, having hooked himself to his broom, and bridal-style carries her the rest of the way to the island. He explains to her that he has this harness for when he needs to work on things upside-down in the air, and Sam requests that they catch up, as there is much he hasn’t told her about. In her phrasing, Evan suddenly remembers the deep pain that he feels in their separation, and tells her that they can talk whenever she wants, and that he is always there for her. Sam says she knows this, but that she’s been busy, not that he has been a bad friend, and that she’s been appreciating the time together. She confesses that she was worried about how impassioned he was in killing the salamanders, and they say they’ve missed each other.
The Aerie[]
K, on Evan’s heels, uses their broom as well, and to show off a little, creates a rainbow trail of light behind their broom as they move. As they move, they see that the orange band of their trail eats the other colors of their rainbow, and K points it out to the others. Victor gets up to the island by punching the ground, and as they all crest high enough to get a view of the island, they see an encampment, with lush trees and other flora, where people have set up tents and enclosures. There appear to be about two hundred people on the main island, and a few dozen on the ones connected by bridges. They are also amazed that everyone on the island seems to be attractive, and they discuss renaming it “Rizz Island,” but Jammer says the name is locked in. Evan asks Jammer the nature of how his nicknames work, although they both get distracted by their hunger, noting that they didn’t eat when they got to the Faroe Islands. K, who has been denying their bodily needs for a while, doesn’t remember how often people need to eat or drink, and Evan points out that they are still bleeding. Jammer decides to show off the skill of the Pilot Program, to announce themselves properly, and everyone that is there watches and acknowledges his prowess. Tallulah attempts to keep the silence, but Victor celebrates him. K lands with a rainbow arch over Jammer, and Evan sets Sam down gently and slings his broom over his back, fastening a bayonet to one end of it. Victor starts to introduce the Pilot Program to more people, welcoming them to “The Aerie.” The group notices that the magic being done is focused on creating things, less precise, more general, or in increasing one’s own skills, such as jumping higher or moving faster.
Sam asks K if they’re in Dauntless, since everyone is hot and adventurous, and then wonders if she should change her name again. K agrees that she should, and Sam suggests they make content. K then asks Sam more about her life as a celebrity, and the celebrities that she hangs out with, and implies that she dated Timothee Chalamet, but that things didn’t work out, as when he found out she could do magic, he tried to cast a spell, but ended up giving her food poisoning. K asks if that means that she’s looking to date anyone, and Sam says that she is single, and “could” mingle. Jammer overhears this, suggesting that they do the mission first before they mingle, and K says that it’s possible to do both. Evan interrupts, saying that his priority is K’s wound, and then the mission to find Philtrum, but that afterwards they can make friends, and do some snooping, and then goes to find some private space to get information from his shadow. Other people go up to the group and offer food, and notice K’s wound. Jammer agrees that K needs to be treated, and an older woman named Alyta says that they may need to fully immerse themselves in the hot springs, which have curative properties, and informs them that food is being made. She also knows who Sam is, noting that she is very cool. The four agree to go to the hot springs together, as they don’t want to be separated.
The Hot Springs[]
Arriving at the water, Jammer sets his feet in the pool, and Sam asks T2 if she brought a swimsuit. T2, unable to find anything, sets off on his own to look for something, and Sam says he’ll be back eventually. She takes off her wig and gets in the water, and K joins her. Evan takes K’s top, since he has an emergency sewing kit to fix it, but realizes that despite having the kit, he does not know how to sew, especially not the complicated cyberpunk clothing that K was wearing.
In over his head, Evan attempts to cast a spell to assist in fixing the top, which goes horribly wrong. In the hot tub, K and Sam talk about romance, and what Sam is looking for in a partner, and Sam says she’d been looking for someone who would be cool with her taking vacations to save the Earth, and that could possibly help out. K asks if it would be weird to date someone not-famous, and Sam says it’d be fine as long as they didn’t know too much about her. They ask Jammer about his love life, and he says he doesn’t date during the sports season, as he worries it’ll distract him. While this conversation is happening, Evan struggles with fixing the top, and eventually his magical attempts to fix it, turn it into a bird, which makes noise, and alerts the group to his ministrations. Evan says that a bird stole K’s top, and K says it’s fine, although Jammer says they should warn the populace that there’s a bird stealing clothing. K thanks Evan for trying, and T2 returns with a mesh bag full of towels for them, embroidered with the initials, “L.O.” Evan and T2 look at each other, and T2 seems to have seen what Evan did to K’s top, hearing his lie, but winks at him, implying he won’t rat him out. Evan expresses gratitude, and T2 heads off to work on something else. Evan offers his shirt to K, as he has other shirts in his bag. The healing powers of the hot springs begin to work on K, and Jammer asks if one of them should punch him so he can experience the sensation. The group convinces Evan to join them in the water, and he strips down to his boxer briefs and slides in. Mostly naked, the group can see a lot of scars and injuries on his body, including new ones, as his fighting days were not over when he got to Gowpenny.
Jammer asks if anyone has tattoos, and Sam replies that she has a stick-and-poke heart, with her own name in it, on her hip. Jammer says he was wondering if a tattoo counts as a wound for the hot springs, but also that he was just curious since it had been years since they’ve all seen each other. K has a digital, pixelated spider on the small of their back, and Jammer has a dragon that goes from his back onto his arm. Evan has a tattoo from where he was stabbed with a pen multiple times on his back, when he was fighting someone on a bus. Sam expresses concern over this, and asks if it was after the demon exorcism, and Evan states that it was ten months ago. Sam asks why he was fighting people on a bus so recently, and Evan relays that Dr. Boodle had been trying to figure out what was going wrong with magic, and he was helping him find an artifact. The talisman had been associated with Aqrabus, and was stolen, and Evan had been trailing the person that stole it, eventually getting on the same bus with him. Since the bus was uninhabited, the man realized Evan was following him, and came at him with a knife. T2 returns with a bunch of containers, and food, and Jammer realizes that he’s gesturing to them, indicating that there’s someone coming. Jammer passes this along to the group, Evan asks how much time they have, prompting T2 to run off to distract the person. K asks Teddy if he’s able to help, and sends him off with T2, with Teddy hooking onto T2 to ride him.
K asks Evan if they can fix his wounds, and Evan says that he’s been going to the doctor, and that his scars are evidence of successfully treated wounds. K points out his damaged elbow, which had broken and healed weirdly, but Evan insists that keeping the arm, rather than losing it from that break, also counts as success. K offers to cast a spell to fix it, but Evan declines, and communicates with his shadow, which shares a perfect recollection of Tallulah and Rhonda’s conversation, where Rhonda said that the Misfits seem fine, despite Tallulah's protests. Tallulah complained about Fergus’ broken heart, although it seems like she is just looking for something to be bitter and spiteful about. It's also clear that in her version of the story, she had left out what actually happened at the tournament, and why Evan had taken her wand in the first place. Processing this, Even turns to Sam, putting his poorly healed arm on her shoulder, informing her that her ex is the present on the island.
At this moment, K decides, against Evan’s wishes, to cast a spell to fix his arm anyway, despite it being complicated magic, not suited to the natural affinity of the place. Casting the spell, K has a moment where they understand their feelings: they wanted to create connections in the world that weren’t there before, as they had all opened a Pandora’s box, to terrible consequences. Their hope was that with effort, there could be hope, but they feel a great amount of guilt and responsibility, despite having the best of intentions.
K feels the weight of the spell as it fails, that once more, they have done something large without thinking of the possible repercussions, as Evan’s arm explodes. Sam and Evan scream, and Jammer is stunned. Evan tries to cast a spell to kill whomever attacked him, and slides into the water as he passes out. At the same time, Fergus, T2, and Teddy walk up, Fergus utterly confused by what he’s just intruded on, and K shouts that the bird did it.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Magical Misfits[]
New[]
- Victor Paddlebusk
- Rev
- Rhonda