‘The Magicians’ Postmortem: Hale Appleman on Eliot’s Big News and ‘Big Boy Boots’
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the “Cheat Day” episode of The Magicians.
It was another eventful hour for Eliot (Hale Appleman) on The Magicians as he learned that he’s going to be a father from a talking rabbit and survived an assassination attempt by a rebel Foo Fighter.
“I loved how kind of funny and off-the-cuff the first half of the episode was, at least for Eliot’s story. I loved the scene with the rabbit and Fen (Brittany Curran) — I thought the writing was particularly funny in that scene. Then, when the assassination attempt happened, it got real, but it still has an element of whimsy — Eliot throwing one-liners around,” Appleman says.
But it was an important moment for the character. “It was one of the first hero moments for Eliot. I think that that was significant in laying the foundation for him to step into his big boy boots and go to battle later on down the line,” he says. “I like the idea that Eliot can sort of vacillate between being this incredible aesthetic dandy and feel like a delicate flower who’s sort of just placed delicately on a lounge, and then at the same time he can have a moment where he can really, when provoked, throw a mean punch and kill you. There’s not really one way for him. He can play with his own softness and strength, his own fluidity, in terms of how he wants people to see him. I love that there’s a sort of conscious vacillation that can evolve in either direction when Eliot chooses. I love that freedom that he has, and that the writers are so open to giving me that.”
Related: The Magicians Postmortem: Hale Appleman Talks Eliot’s ‘Turning Point’ (and That Sex Scene)
Viewers also saw growing tension between Eliot and Margo (Summer Bishil) after Eliot called an audible and decided not to execute his would-be assassin (whose history with Fen he doesn’t yet know). “When Eliot defies Margo in his decision — that was sort of a surprising moment for both Summer and I,” he says. “It’s not that we didn’t read it as a serious moment, it’s just that when we actually played that scene on the day, there was something that landed about that betrayal and that friendship beginning to crack that we didn’t necessarily pick up just from reading the script.”
Will that crack widen next week?
The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.
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