While I did sign the petition to support Jason Ralph's return as Quentin Coldwater, I also got the feeling he wasn't interested in returning. Instead, he wanted to move on to different things:
Ralph: "I'm happy with the story that we told, and I'm ready to move on and to try on some new characters." TV Insider 20190417
I'll respect his decision and wish him well on his new projects. I don't know Jason, personally, but he seems like a good guy.
This next part is a sensitive area to bring up for some and I understand... the need to protect a beautiful image. I wish I didn't have any doubts but we are, at least, in agreement that Jason filmed all of S4, without telling his co-stars that he was leaving the series. This was all under an NDA contract.
"At what stage did you decide to kill Quentin?
Gamble: We started talking about it at the end of season three with Jason Ralph." THR 20190417
At the end of season three can be defined as before 2018's SDCC and all the positive 3x05 SDCC comments from Jason then becomes a little less happy-inducing because writing and filming for season four would've started by July. We can agree that Jason knew, at the start of S4. I *really* wish Sera hadn't clouded things by saying this.
I was so upset with the S4 finale of The Magicians that I didn't read most of the interviews, at the time. Really, what could anyone say to make what was aired any less painful?
"Obviously, the most exciting part of this [4x05] episode was that it revisits the relationship between Quentin and Eliot that was established last season. Did you know that this is something that the writers were planning to return to?
Appleman: Not at all." Out 20190221
"Were you surprised when the show decided to revisit that [3x05] moment right after they return to the timeline in episode?
Ralph: I was surprised that we were returning to it." EW 20190417
Fans complained about Q's lack of bringing up the Mosaic...
"Do you think Eliot turning Quentin down after they returned from the “A Life in the Day” timeline, which was revealed in episode 5, played into any of Quentin’s anger toward Fillory?
Ralph: A little bit. [...] I know that for Hale and I, and when we discussed it with the showrunners, it wasn’t necessarily something that they remembered every moment of. [...] It was more of an emotional memory. [...] I think the actual memories began to very quickly disappear. I don’t know if it’s something they’re constantly living with."
Reading Hale and Jason's surprise at the 3x05 revisit and the general impression Queliot was a vague "emotional memory" makes the purpose of 4x05 all the more gut-wrenching in... why did the showrunners even bother? Did they not expect Queliot to be so popular? Was it to add to the cruelty of watching Q die, with Eliot's unresolved feelings?
All this beautiful *potential* and I *wish* things could've been different.
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