Margo’s ambition to invest herself in ruling Fillory earned her a cute little nickname from the writers in Season 2: “Fillory Clinton.” Eliot teased her with it once onscreen—but after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, The Magicians writers, unsure whether it would be in good taste, were forced to edit out mentions of the nickname for the rest of the season. But they weren’t done with Margo and the Clinton parallels.

In this week’s episode titled, cutely, “The Fillorian Candidate,” Eliot attempts to win back the throne he lost earlier in the season by declaring an election for ruler of Fillory. The parallels to real-world American politics are not at all subtle—Eliot says his campaign promises don’t have to be realistic or true, he just has to say them. But the most gut-wrenching moment comes when Eliot betrays three seasons of close friendship to tell Margo he doesn’t want her on his election ticket. Fillory, he explains, is not ready for a female candidate or ruler. That’s a beat that would have stood out on its own merits, but lands with even more devastation for how both Appleman and Bishil play it out. As Bishil explains, when Margo “realizes her best friend isn’t willing to go to bat for her as a woman, her best friend has betrayed her in the way that the world betrays her outside of Fillory.”

And here’s where clever parallels to Clinton fall away, allowing Bishil to dive into the parallels between Margo as a character and her own experience as a woman of color in Hollywood. Bishil is of Mexican and Indian descent—an aspect she brings to Margo, who occasionally and casually laces conversation with Spanish phrases—and is very aware of her character’s struggles as a woman of color. “She wants to attain power, and that’s a hard, almost impossible road sometimes. I think of the ways we’re all seen, and we’re all finally talking about.”

It’s fitting, then, that Margo should finally earn the recognition and power she craves all on her own, and without Eliot’s support, by giving voice to another even more marginalized population of Fillory. In a seemingly throwaway comedic bit earlier in the episode, Margo encounters a favorite character from the Magicians novels: Humbledrum the Bear. In the books, Humbledrum can speak for himself; the TV show’s writers originally planned to include him way back in the Season 1 finale. But in the version that finally appeared in Season 3, it’s Margo who has to speak on the bear’s behalf and explain the nature of his relationship with Eliot’s (fake) daughter. That Humbledrum winds up being a very important member of a non-vocal majority, in addition to that moment of kindness from Margo, is what ultimately wins her the vote.

That is exactly the kind of silly-yet-profound move The Magicians would pull: bury a story about a disenfranchised majority into a little subplot about magical bestiality. It’s very on brand for Margo, too, to support the bear (and, eventually, Abigail the Sloth and Sergio Osuna’s Rafe) without giving it a second thought. “Margo is a tolerant, open human being,” Bishil says, with evident affection for her fictional counterpart. “Ultimately, that served her in the best way possible when she wasn’t looking and she wasn’t really expecting it.” Perhaps potential U.S. candidates for the 2020 election can take note.

The Magicians pays off three seasons of Margo being underestimated when, in a twist no one saw coming, Margo wins a write-in campaign to be High King (not token Queen) of Fillory. Even Eliot, acknowledging his earlier mistake in not including her without overplaying it, bows down. “It’s almost more important than magic,” Bishil says of Margo’s new role. “I think she understands that magic is a currency that she needs to have power and retain power, and that’s what really means something to her, and is interesting to Margo as a young woman in politics. The politics of Fillory are very similar to a lot of third-world countries.”