Half a season ago we were give the episode “Escape from the Happy Place” which essentially told everyone that Eliot and Quentin well and truly loved each other. That episode showed us how scared Eliot was about loving Quentin, and how Quentin in remembering their 50 years of life together in the “pocket world” and wanted to do it all over again. He wanted to be with Eliot. It was that love that brought Eliot out for a few moments, just long enough to reach Quentin to tell him he was still in there.
Quentin even tells Alice that he’s done with her, and that he doesn’t love her anymore.
In “The 4-1-1″ Quentin is so uncomfortable when presented with Alice past self when he has to go back in time to get the incorporate bond from Mayakovsky at Brakebills South.
Not one episode later he’s telling Alice he wants to be trusting her, wants to be in her life, and then jumps to “trying again” as a ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP. As if none of the events of “Escape from the Happy Place” even happened.
I feel like the writing for the last three episodes was rushed and sloppy in terms of the Alice/Quentin narrative and absolutely could have remained incredibly emotional and poignant without putting Alice and Quentin back together.
I would have been wholly in support of them reconstructing their friendship and trust, it is obvious that they care about each other, but I don’t think jumping right back into being TOGETHER is remotely appropriate for either of their journeys as characters.
In “The Secret Sea” Quentin is the one to speak to the garden, out of love for Fillory, to break the curse over the reservoir of magic water. I felt that his monologue was very emotional and strong, and was some amazing acting on Jason’s part, but some of it fell very flat to me. It could have been a lot stronger if Quentin had been able to bring up the love he felt for those 50 years in the “pocket universe” with Eliot during the quest, and how he was still holding onto that despite so much else about Fillory has been destroyed for him.
The build up to the mirror world venture in the finale didn’t feel very strong to me, because it was all about Alice and Quentin again. He didn’t even get to see Eliot again after being freed from the monster, whom he had been fighting for so hard the entire time, until he had died.
The only thing that got me was how they serenade Quentin at the end.
But I’m stuck wondering, did it need to be this way? I don’t know the logistics of Jason’s contract, but was this the story they were going for from the get go? Why did they rush Alice and Quentin back together? Why couldn’t they fulfil the Quentin/Eliot romance?
