Opening prologue: a
boy abandoned and alone in the woods happen to find a fairy which he frees…
Now to the Library -
and Cassandra having a terrible nightmare/memory of a recent mission in Ecuador
which nearly went badly because everyone was relying in Cassandra and she
panicked and had a meltdown.
More terrifying -
Jenkins is losing his vision and reminding us of his mortality...
Jenkins encourages her to talk because Jenkins is made of awesome. She faced death and panicked - and though she has faced death before it was the certainty of it. She was terminally ill, she knew she was going to die soon. Knowing that she could die on missions meant less to her when she didn’t have much life left, when the possibility of a long, normal life was completely out of the question… now it’s possible to have that long life she’s afraid to risk that. And that fear stops her thinking
Jenkins sympathises,
as a man who has had his own life so tragically shortened (nooooooooo!!!!!) has
spent time reflecting on his own life, what his purpose is and what he wants to
do and what he wants to be. He doesn’t share his own answers (immortal and
around forever as a pillar of endless awesomeness) but suggests Cassandra do
the same.
She does - and decides to take a sabbatical to the normal world. As we’ve seen in previous episodes, Cassandra doesn’t know what this means. She’s never had a normal life - she needs to experience this if she wants to make an informed decision.
Eve freaks out. And
it’s perfect. From seeing her team dissolve, to the abandonment she already
feels after Flynn to a HUGE dollop of mother-figure-empty-nest-syndrome, Eve is
not remotely happy with this. But Jake and Ezekiel are much more supportive
So she chooses a town
that is the safest in America. There she finds… an improbably nice and peaceful
with dubious barbershop and creepily friendly town. I would be running but
Cassandra fits right in. She rents a room from Karla (who has a son called
Freddie who is far far more sensible than anyone else in the town). She gets a
job improbably easily as a librarian and quickly fits in in this impossibly
perfect town, taking up baking, public events, quilting and all to a superior
degree because she’s a Librarian and awesome. It’s in the job description.
Honestly she’d be
supremely annoying by being such an ultimate busy-body and ridiculously perfect
at everything
But the town becomes
more and more obviously wrong. They have a record of 10,000 days without an
accident. The town has no traffic signs or fire departments because everyone is
so very very very safe. Cassandra is nearly hit by a car and manages to avoid
it improbably. It’s just such an improbably perfect town.
 |
| if you don't get this reference, your life is bleak and lacking joy and happiness |
(We also have a beautifully cute scene where Eve tries to check up on her)
She also does an
amazing job of introducing Freddie to the joy of reading but Freddie is playing
the role of the only sensible person here and repeatedly tries to get Cassandra
to see how very very very very very weird this town is. Much to his mother’s
annoyance because she wants him to stop asking questions - she lived in such
constant fear before she was desperate to move somewhere where she can feel
safe
Cassandra tries to
back off on him, but Freddie shows her his impressive array of research. She
desperately clings to her denial but his research is thorough and her Librarian
brain can’t ignore the obvious. Especially when he puts his arm in a bunsen
burner and isn’t hurt…
He points out
everyone is ignoring it - including Cassandra - because they so want it to be
true. But it hasn’t calmed everyone’s fears - just moved them. His mother is so
terrified of the outside world she won’t even let her son go one town over.
This becomes
abundantly clear when the magic cracks and there’s an accident in town. An
accident in which a man breaks his leg (causing some trouble as they’d closed
the emergency room). The town goes into uproar, utter panic at this relatively
minor accident. Panicking further over the benign activities they do every day
- like sewing with oh-so-dangerous needles
Living so long
without any kind of risk at all has left them unable to properly evaluate risk
or deal with fear or tragedy or worry. Even the slight possibility of minor
injury is met with utter panic.
And what do panicking humans do? They find a scapegoat to attack. And the person who most recently arrived is Cassandra - who promptly finds herself running with an angry mob behind her.
She tries to reach
the Library but the barrier around town makes it hard to get any contact out.
She begins to worry about doing things alone - but Freddie steps in with more
research and confidence that she can. She examines his evidence and photographs
and realises there’s a fairy around.
Fairies aren’t her
specialty - so it’s research time before they run into Councilman Weeks. The
sappy but kind of nice guy who is the kid from the beginning all grown up. The
fairy offered him a wish for freeing it and he wished for his dad - who just
died in a car accident. But fairies can’t restore life to the dead. So instead
he asks for no-one else to get hurt. And the fairy has been zooming around
saving everyone since then. Until now
Because Cassandra
arriving through the magical gate from the library which damaged the fairy’s
presence. It technically is her fault and councilman Weeks pushes the mob to
blame Cassandra. But Freddie protests, epicly blames everything on him and
proves it by breaking the fairies’ prison. Which does indeed free the fairy and
prooves that Wilks is to blame
Except said fairy has
been imprisoned for the last 20+ years, enslaved and forced to protect humanity
from their own stupidity (and in a town where everyone assumed safety that
would have taken a lot of work) and she is SUPER ANGRY. She decides to kill
everyone, most inefficiently so everyone has chance to run and hide in the
Library and blame Weeks. But Freddie speaks up about how they’re all
responsible. Everyone knew something was up, everyone knew this wasn’t real,
wasn’t possible - but they all ignored it all because it was convenient to
them.
So they all turn and
rely on Cassandra to save them all. She has another panic moment - everyone
relying on her, everyone afraid. But she works through her melt down with a
plan
It works, drawing on
her fairy lore and research and using the towns people to lock up the fairy
with iron long enough to reason with her. She doesn’t really want to listen to
reason given she’s full of rage and vengeance. But Cassandra points out that
she owes Freddie a wish since he rescued her - and he wishes that she know fear.
Experiencing fear for
the first time she realises how terrible it is to be human and why humans do
foolish and even evil things and decides to forgo her vengeful rage.
That leaves the town
to choose a new mayor - they choose the Librarian - who sets out to make safety
of the town a priority. A simple realistic look at safety. Like having road
signs and fire departments
And Cassandra returns
to the library, welcomed home and sure of what she wants to be. Screw you
Derrington Dare
So we have Cassandra
truly affirming what she wants to do and what she wants to be. We have lots of
technically-good-but-not-exactly-novel messages: fear cannot be eliminated, a
safe sanctuary can become a prison if you can’t bring yourself to leave it,
risk can be sensibly managed but it cannot be removed, and if something looks
too good to be true it probably is. Oh and fear turns humans into very very
very very silly creatures. I think the really good one came from Freddie - that
if you don’t question things you are responsible for the result. That ignoring
inconvenient truths for your own comfort makes you definitely culpable in the
result. You can’t let others do evil on your behalf and not be responsible for
what is done for you.
I do hope Freddie,
Librarian in waiting, shows up in the future. He would be an excellent choice
(and some nifty none-troped diversity)
