Feb 7

Feb 7 [AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan] Episode 2.11 "The Tale of the Magician's Assistant"

dreadful, Gayly, Gayly dreadful, LGBTQ, recap, Review, TV

RECAP

Half the gang learn that one of their stuffy teachers is a magician in his spare time, and Gary weaves a tale about how some people aren’t always what they seem.

After his dad dies, Todd decides to get a job to help his overworked mom out. He finds a gig as the assistant to Shandu, a rather gruff magician. Shandu teaches Todd three rules—“Never touch another magician’s wand unless he hands it to you,” “Only let them see what you want them to see,” and “Never get caught in your own reflection.” Because rules are meant to be broken—at least on TV—Todd grabs the wand and discovers it can perform real magic! Todd is also charmed by the beautiful spirit of the wand, but Shandu warns him that Nazrak is actually a shapeshifting demon trapped in the wand. Nazrak inevitably tricks Todd into releasing him. With Shandu now trapped in the wand in Nazrak’s place, Todd is on his own and uses Shandu’s three rules to defeat the demon.

In the ’90s TV equivalent of a mic drop, Gary just extinguishes the fire instead of making his usual declaration to close the meeting.

REVIEW

T: Gary’s up this week and everyone is actually on time!

E: I love that you are even more obsessed than Gary with everyone’s punctuality. Were you a hall monitor in another life?

T: It turns out that Frank and Betty Ann go to the same school, a callback to the pilot when they established members go to different schools and don’t all know each other outside of the Midnight Society, at least initially.

E: It’s a nice detail. I love that the writers continually found little, relatable ways to remind us that the members of the Midnight Society have actual lives outside of their secret club.

T: What are the odds that Frank would bring up Mr. Drego so Gary could launch into his spiel? Very high, because I bet Gary used a force on him to get him to bring him up! For those non-magician enthusiasts in the audience, a force is when a magician subtly gets someone to pick a card or choose a word or action without the subject knowing they’re being influenced.

E: For those non-Troy enthusiasts in the audience who haven’t been closely following our recaps, Troy is a giant stage magic nerd who will one day marry a magician. Any stage magicians out there? Time to shoot your shot.

T: Thanks for outing me as a magic fanboy :) But on a serious note, it doesn’t have to be stage magic, close-up magicians and street magicians are encouraged to apply.

E: *passes out from overexposure to magic fanboy-ing*

T: David isn’t the only one who went through puberty between seasons, so did Dougie from “The Tale of the Twisted Claw!” This is actor Noah Plener who co-starred in the first episode filmed. A lot of actors have returned, but he’s the first to play a main role in multiple episodes.

E: Oh snap! I knew he looked familiar-ish but more awkward.

T: There’s a lot to like in this one. The whole idea of a real magician making a living as a stage magician is just plain cool. And production doesn’t cheat and use movie magic (like the Now You See Me series). Every stage trick is legitimate.

E: Impressive! And this one must’ve made an impression on pre-teen us because real magicians making a living as stage magicians was a major element of our first collaborative writing project.

T: The magic wand is sick. I love that it’s not a simple stick.

E: For realz! Once again, the art direction is on point. And the little side-plot of Todd’s mom thinking the wand is her ficus tree is hilarious.

T: Todd is one of my favorite protagonists this season. I can’t get over his blase reactions that don’t come off as bad acting, just somehow lowkey. He realizes magic is real with a half-enthused shrug. He sees a blue woman floating through the air and says, “Very weird.”

E: The “very weird” line is so classic. I think I’m just going to start using that in totally commonplace situations to see how people react. Like, “Oh, there’s soap coming out of this soap dispenser. Very weird.”

T: Shandu is a lot of fun. Actor James Bradford brings a great comic levity to the character while still retaining gravitas. I sure hope we’ll see the actor again playing a pivotal character to the Midnight Society. *spoiler for season seven* We will!

E: Huzzah! I also love that Shandu confesses he’s such a dick all the time because he resents being a has-been. Not a great excuse for acting like a jerk, but very relatable.

T: During the training montage, I got really sad that there was no Todd and Shandu spin-off.

E: LOL. If only.

T: Todd’s mom is actually pretty decent. It’s rare on this series that a parent has any sort of presence and is a good person. Todd lucked out.

E: I see your point but she’s not the only example, and the flamingo-obsessed retro mom from “Full Moon” is still my fave.

T: Shandu’s magical explanation includes “Deadite sorcerers.” I did not expect this series to reference The Evil Dead franchise! To further the point, the Nazrak version of Todd’s mom is a dead ringer for an Evil Dead Deadite.

E: This is such a killer reference and I love it to death, but should we be surprised given the obvious coolness of the people behind the show?

T: The more I think about it, the more Nazrak feels like a riff on the classic Emperor from Star Wars. There’s several movie references in this one that dance between cliché and cool.

E: Really? I don’t think I’m well-versed enough in Star Wars to agree or disagree with this parallel, so I’ll just take this opportunity to tell our readers that I’m on vaycay and just rode Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge and holy cannoli.

T: I appreciate that “the Vortex” is never explained. It’s almost as casual as Todd’s whole demeanor. Any description would probably be lame so just leave it at “the Vortex” and move on.

E: This seems like a classic Gary move. He obviously has piles of notes on “the Vortex” but he’s not going to share them with the Midnight Society. Except maybe Frank when they have Grank time.

T: I absolutely hate so much that Gary wraps up the story by saying Todd never saw Shandu again. I don’t consider it canon. Why bother to limit the viewer’s imagination?

E: Seems like more classic Gary to me. Totally the kind of neat little bow he would want to tack on at the end.

QUEER OR NOT?

T: Not a lot here, but there’s always something a little queer about male tricksters masquerading as beautiful women, and in this case it’s a creepy old man catfishing a teen boy. Reminds me of the two times Freddy Krueger turned himself into a big-breasted blonde to screw with Joey in Nightmare on Elm Streets 3 and 4.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

T: Noah Plener’s brother, Benjamin Plener, starred in “Jake and the Leprechaun,” which mirrors this episode. Each is about a boy who befriends a gruff, yet friendly on the inside, magic-user to defeat a campy immortal baddie thanks to certain magic rules.

E: Ooooooh! Look at you, makin’ all these literary connections. It’s like you’ve got an English degree or some shit.

T: This is obviously based off Fantasia/The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (which they used the title of in season one) with an apprentice getting into shenanigans thanks to his master’s magic wand.

E: The wand accomplishing insta-cleaning immediately made me think of both Fantasia and The Sword in the Stone.

T: Bela Lugosi made a 1930s movie called Chandu the Magician that has to be an inspiration for the title/character.

E: Another solid reference.

T: Director Ron Oliver (we’ll get more into him in upcoming articles) worked as a stage magician in his teens/twenties.

E: That’s totally not foreshadowing or anything. *wink wink*

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: Stage magic is immortal and always timely! Of course, I happen to be a magic fanboy, but it’s valid.

E: The old-school stage magic has a nostalgia factor that will never die. But how much easier would if have been if Todd could’ve just called his mom from his cell to warn her about Nazrak instead of running all the way home?