Well, things really
came to a head this episode, with the villain finally revealing herself,
everyone rising up and everything kind of falling apart - in other words, a
perfect pentultimate episode
The deadline for
tethering has arrived. They have only 24 hours to tether someone to the Library
or it uncouples from reality. Jenkins even resorts to using the very first
scroll in the Library to create a temporary tether. If it isn’t tethered to a
Librarian soon not only will it uncouple but it will revert to its basic
purpose: protecting the artefacts within the Library. Not aiding, helping or
protecting humanity - just the artefacts within its halls. Eve needs to pick
someone. And it can’t be Jenkins
Damn it
But none of the
Librarians are especially eager to become immortal - and they think they find a
way out when Cassandra (against Jenkins orders) opens the scroll and finds a
spell of picking the one true Librarian - just what they need
Of course they cast
it
Of course it has
unforeseen consequences
Because that “test”
for the one true librarian is more a trial and by trial we mean fight to the
death between the candidates - officiated by Jenkins who is possessed by the
Library itself
And the untethered
Library is a bastard. While Eve and the Librarians all protest that they don’t
believe that the Library can be so cruel or uncaring the Library is completely
dismissive of them. When Eve appeals about the Librarians, the library makes it
clear it only cares about Artefacts. And Librarians are not artefacts. The
Library doesn’t care about people, it’s custodian or librarians - it isn’t
nice, it isn’t kind.
They are magically
transported to the testing zone and Library Jenkins is wearing a magical
suicide vest - they obey or Jenkins dies. Everyone is forced to go along but
they still insist they’re far too loyal to each other to ever hurt each other
The Library admires
loyalty. To the Library. Not to people. Because the Library is an arsehole.
Each librarian is
forced to put on a ring which forces them to confront their greatest fear
(Cassandra’s fear is bullies? Really? C’mon, she’s had 4 seasons of facing the
worst supernatural monsters she could vanquish, she was literally terminally
ill - but her fear is bullies? Can we stop infantilising her like this?). In
their fears they face enemies trying to torture them - enemies that resemble
the other two Librarians. They’re each set up to fight the others to escape
their fears - and the only way they can do this is tom press a button which
makes them forget who the other two are
Each presses a button
and move to the final arena where the disembodied voice of Jenkins appeals to
them to press the final button - and stop the other two. The other two
Librarians who they can’t remember: and who they will kill if it means saving
Jenkins
All this time Eve has
been desperately trying to appeal to the Library - and each time it’s clearer
and clearer that the Library is The Worst and Eve is doomed to helplessly watch
the Librarians struggle and fight without being able to help them… and she
realises this is her worst fear. And proving the Guardian can be as smart as a
Librarian, she figures out she has been made to put on a nightmare ring as well
and uses the artefacts in the library to show the truth and remove it from her
finger
Now free of her
nightmare, she can intervene with the Librarians who have been outbraining each
other in the field. She steps in, makes them remember each other and ensures
there are no Librarian deaths.
But there’s still an
issue - only one Librarian can leave. And now all the Librarians volunteer to
be the ones to die, each holds up the others, each is willing to sacrifice. The
Librarian won’t hear it: he needs one.
Eve pulls out another
Librarian-level plan and plants an artefact on Jenkins - one that should hold
his suicide vest in place. They all return to the Library, apparently
victorious
It looks like a win…
and then the Library stabs Jenkins anyway. It’s not to be stopped by even Eve’s
excellent cunning. The Librarians work together as an excellent team,
desperately trying to heal him. But it’s not enough - they can only delay the
inevitable and give him chance to make a beautiful, excellent, powerful goodbye.
And it is goodbye…
Jenkins dies. We even see his urn when they have a funeral for him… Jenkins is
dead.
This. Better. Be.
Reversable.
In the aftermath they
look at who to anchor to the Library -and all the Librarians opt out. The
Library killed Jenkins. The Library showed no care or compassion for any of
them. They have lost utter faith in the Library and can no longer be tethered
to it. In another powerful, painful scene, each Librarian writes their
resignation and leaves, leaving Eve alone
It’s devastating and
cruel and painful and everyone is gone and Jenkins is dead and Eve throws a
Truth amulet at the magic mirror in rage and despair… and Nicole steps out
Because Jenkins was
right about her. She’s evil, she’s been gunning for the Library from day one.
And this is all her plan - from engineering her own capture by the Library in
order to set doubt in Flynn’s mind, to driving him to resign, to tricking
Jenkins into giving up his immortality: it was all her, all of it. And now the
Library is dying, not by the simple ploys before, but by all humans losing
faith in it and in doing so they all forget it - dooming it to disappear. Now
only one person remembers the Library - Eve - and it’s too much. She drops to
her knees as the tethering window closes
She falls to the
floor, the Library vanished - and presumably forgotten
I’m not quite sure
why the Library dies if it’s forgotten or if it cannot tap new Librarians but
ok, so be it. Let’s run with it.
What I’m curious
about is how much is Nicole’s doing and how much she facilitated. Like she
engineered her own imprisonment which caused Flynn to doubt the Library - but
while she set herself up, she didn’t make the choice to keep herself imprisoned
for a century or so? Or like Jenkings being possessed by the Library - she may
have set things in motion to have the Library take over Jenkins, but was she
the one directly having the Library kill Jenkins and demand one Librarian and
generally declare its complete indifference to human kind? Unless she arranged
for Jenkins to be possessed by a demon, he was possessed by the Library. She
didn’t create this evil - she merely exposed it
For that matter, was
she the one who convinced Dare that there could only be one librarian? I mean,
has Nicole caused all this directly - or caused it by exposing the flaws and
troubles with the Library? (And points to the excellent depiction of the
Library here - harsh, unyielding, utterly focused and lacking even the
slightest shreds of compassion)
Defeating Nicole doesn’t
mean these flaws go away or are resolved or there isn’t an issue.
And she killed
Jenkins. There better be a resurrection in the near future.
