Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell Face Off In A War Of Magic...For The War

After pulling off his greatest spell ever at the end of the series premiere and actually bringing a dead woman back to life, Mr Norrell starts the show's second episode exactly where he wants to be: using real magic in service of the British war effort to defeat Napoleon. It's just too bad his fame and success have found him just in time for there to be another practitioner of magic also drawing notice from the London glitterati, and also that the forces Mr Norrell called upon to bring back Lady Pole are pretty obviously beyond his comprehension. Other than that, things are going great? Assuming there's nothing else dangerous in that library he just bought, that is!

The series premiere having established that magic is definitely real, Episode 2 lets both our titular sorcerers really get their spell on. But how do all their tricks compare to one another? Let's rank them from first to worst.

1. Sand Horses

   When a British ship ends up stranded on a shoal (possibly due to Mr Norrell's invisible sea beacons, which we'll get to), a bunch of blah blah about weather spells is cut short by Jonathan taking control of the situation. The vessel's run aground on Horse Shoal, you say? Got it.

   

   Jonathan jams his hands into the sand on the beach and conjures these horses out of sand, who gallop to the shoal and solve the problem.

   

   Mr Norrell not only didn't have this idea himself...

   

   ...but looks terrified of Jonathan's skills. All this AND, unlike Mr Norrell, Jonathan's willing to travel to the front to do his magic on site? The pilot's identification of Mr Norrell as Jonathan's greatest enemy seems about to be proven true.

2. Rain Ships

   When the French are confronted by an armada made up of more warships than there are on earth, they are, understandably, alarmed. However, even from a distance, they can tell there's something weird about them -- is it...glass? -- and when they row up close enough to investigate, they see what that is.

   

   Right up until the illusion is punctured, though: pretty cool.

   

   And if nothing else, it strikes fear into the enemy as to what other supernatural offensives might await them.

3. Dreaming Miss Absalom

   Even if she doesn't really do anything, the fact that Jonathan can pick his spot and intentionally summon her to his dream is pretty cool.

   

   And if Segundus can just help himself to a piece of that dream too, does it suggest he might also have magical talent?

4. Livestreaming British Generals

   After the triumph of his rain armada, Mr Norrell is called to show off more of his tricks to a bunch of Sir Walter's colleagues. Asked to show the gathered MPs what Wellington is up to now, Mr Norrell easily produces an image of him in his enchanted soup tureen.

   

   So Mr Norrell got Periscope like two hundred years before the rest of us. BFD.

5. Invisible Sea Beacons

   Setting up beacons that would prevent the British Isles from ever being attacked by sea again is an excellent idea.

   

   Too bad Mr Norrell doesn't even seem to have convinced himself that he can produce them, and since a ship runs aground the very next day, if they even exist they don't seem to work so great.

6. Resurrecting Lady Pole

   Reviving a completely dead woman was an extremely effective way to end Mr Norrell's plotline back in the pilot; back then, it seemed like the loss of some of her pinky finger was a pretty small price for Lady Pole to have to pay for to come back to life. But now not only is she experiencing something like aphasia with every new visitor to the house, but The Gentleman has put dibs on her and enlisted Stephen's aid in pursuing her and started showing up to torture Mr Norrell...

   

   ...so Mr Norrell's intervention is starting to seem like less of a boon than before.