The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 12: Echoes of Memory

Eve is the last person who remembers the Library and desperately she constructs a memory palace in her own mind - to desperately hold on to it a long as possible.

She is the only one who remembers and she is in a whole new world - a world where the Library never existed. A world where people don’t know curiosity or imagination (yet still manage to invent cars and televisions so… yeah it’s not perfect). Everything is grey. Everyone wears white. Cafes serve fat and flour (which is bland and tasteless but would also kill everyone pretty damn quickly). Everything is dull and bland and boring and mundane. We also have lots of ominous posters about the Company which is all about thought policing, and encouraging people not to think or question: be complacent, content and obedient. It’s very 1984 but more boring.

She has her tethering ring from Flynn which prompts her to go to one of the bland televisions which is quickly possessed by Flynn: who quickly tells her to make a memory palace (and acknowledges that she’s smart enough to already have figured this out). He also reveals that he never left the Library - when Nicole came to him to ask him to run away with her, he told her no. He told her that hearing she was a prisoner of the Library reminded him that he wasn’t - that he could leave - that he stayed with the Library because he wanted to, because he loved it, because it meant everything to him (which was kind of my point about Flynn’s motivations as well, the Library is his dream always was) AND because he loves Eve.

So Nicole kidnapped him.

I have to say this makes far far far more sense with his character and motivation.

Watching the television, Eve also sees an advert with Jake on it - selling average cars known for their averageness. She, goes to him and… rather easily convinces him to join her (he doesn’t remember her to the Library but has dreamed about it). The same applies to Cassandra. I’d say it’s more than a little simple to convince them both - but they are creative geniuses living in ridiculously dull, unstimulating lives. I can see them leaping on any opportunity to get away. Especially with Eve praising their specialties.

They do raise the suspicions of the Thought Police who catch up with them when trying to recruit Ezekiel. Since Ezekiel is a television celebrity of the most boring show ever (sadly, I do remember and abysmal home video show which seemed to consist of an interminable number of people falling over to a terrible canned laughter track. Alas, I had a grandparent who unreasonably loved this appalling show). Living a life of relative luxury, Ezekiel is less willing to join (and informs us that dreams are illegal) and the Thought Police capture Eve.

They take her to an asylum where the inmates are gathered and trained to suppress imagination, wonder and curiosity. Aided by medication

Naturally the person running the Company is Nicole, who is also using an artefact to prevent her losing her memory - as such giving her the intelligence and knowledge to rule the world easily. Eve defies her… but she loses the last few crumbs of memory left to her. She loses the Library and herself.

You’d think that Nicole would be intelligent enough not to lock Eve up in the same building as Flynn (or intelligent enough to just kill Eve).

But apparently not - and Flynn, babbling, semi-coherent (more so than usual) and talking randomly talks to Eve, noticing her high levels of colour next to the monochrome of everyone else. He recognises her as coming from another world and he has a fascinating idea about how worlds are defined by their words and names because this is what we call and define everyone around us with (which is, of course, very Librarian-y). The guards take him into confinement again but not before he has an almost dance number battle with them - again, very Flynn. He remembers everything because, ultimately, he is the Librarian and his memory does not fuzz easily

The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 9: A Town Called Feud

This week we have American civil war re-enactors and a pesky case of haunting.

This naturally pings the Library’s radar - and in part it’s well timed because the librarians are at each other’s throats: Cassandra is very much in favour of multiple Librarians (supported by Jenkins - who is still heartbreakingly dealing with creeping mortality, bodily function, food etc. And even talking retirement! NOOOOOOO. Stop this! stop)

The tethering ceremony is coming soon and Eve needs a Librarian to tether with, just one (JENKINS! CHOOSE JENKINS! PLEASE GODS CHOOSE JENKINS! We know he can handle immortality, he’s an incredible asset! JENKINGS!)

This is why Jenkins and Cassandra stay back in the Library for an awesome high tea and looking for the Librarian’s correspondence so they can see why the two warring Librarians actually attacked each other. Which means a scavenger hunt because some previous Librarians decided to move them and leave a series of cryptic clues

Look, I’m no fan of the Dewey Decimal system either - but this is ludicrous

The civil war re-enactment takes place in a town called Feud which is right on the Mason-Dixie line and is all about the civil war, museums and turning it into a vast tourist attraction

Jake doesn’t approve of this because he’s a historian and all the fudging of facts for the sake of entertainment Does Not Amuse Him.

Eve is also not best pleased because, as a soldier who has actually been in combat, she is also Not Amused by turning it into entertainment.

Both of them are a little hostile when it comes to questioning the museum director about ghosts etc. It doesn’t help that they all kind of assume she should accept the reality of ghosts which just kind of feels so very very weird. I mean, I think we’re expected to see her as unreasonable or evil or… something? For not just believing these three random people telling her to shut down her big money making event because ghosts? And she does mean things like call the police on her when they break into her office and safe… so she’s definitely bad apparently?

The story is that during the war two brothers fought for separate sides and were not super happy with each other. Their dear mother wasn’t thrilled by her little boys trying to shoot each other in the face so left them a locket - broken in half in the hope they would reconcile and reunite the rocket. The museum had one locket for a while and now has found the second locket. Apparently separately so the assumption is these brothers didn’t make up at all.

The town was renamed “Feud” and this whole town built itself around this story. And the curator, Janet Hedge, is very invested in it

Through this we have plenty of ghostly visitations - including a woman in widow-weeds and a small child who has lost things. And we have lots of snarking between Ezekiel Jake, each showing off their skills to prove who is the greatest Librarian of them all, much to Eve’s annoyance.

The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 8 and the Hidden Sanctuary

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.

The Librarians: Season 4, Episode 7: And the Disenchanted Forest

It falls to Eve to tell the rest of the Librarians that Flynn has gone - and not on a temporary jaunt as is his habit: he’s actually resigned. There’s lots of theories as to why - what the Library did to Nicole. Nicole herself but Eve thinks it’s because of Dare’s notes about more than one librarian being a disaster. They interpret this the most impossibly noble way - rather than ask one of them to resign, Flynn has resigned to lead the others by example

I think they’ve rather put Flynn on a pedestal here.

Of course they begin arguing over who should resign - Jake and Cassandra musing that they have considered normal lives while Ezekiel isn’t playing this game and he definitely wants to be a Librarian.

Eve steps in she’s clear: Flynn is wrong. Dare is wrong. The Library invited them all and didn’t revoke any of those invitations: They are a team and will definitely continue as one

Go Eve - just because there was a war before doesn’t mean these Librarians - who have always been an excellent team together.

More tragically, the immortal Jenkins is ill. Jenkins!

And to prove it she decides to find a mission - and they find one at a camp - a corporate team building camp. Eve leaps on this with a ridiculous amount of enthusiasm, pushing the Librarians to join in, to work together to work as a team and listen to all the nonsense claptrap these places like to spout.

At the same time Cassandra dives in with an adorable hyper-enthusiastic love for camp and pranks and fun and generally just loves every second of it while driving everyone up the wall

As Ezekiel comments - he seems to be the only adult left. I assume Ezekiel doesn’t camp because he’s Australian and camping in the Australian wilderness sounds like an especially unpleasant way to commit suicide. He keeps trying to get the guys back on topic; finding something supernatural that the Library has sent them to.

We have some good character confrontations: Ezekiel, sick of Cassandra’s pranks demands to know why she’s doing it. Her ideas of camp have all been from television - which sums up Cassandra entirely. As Ezekiel, perhaps cruelly, tells her - she has no idea how real people live, how real people have fun. It’s harsh - but not inaccurate: Cassandra hasn’t seen to real world except through the media (and lots of terrible teen camp movies)

The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 6: And the Graves of Time

The sinister group this episode are creepy Russian grave robbers robbing graves around the world belonging to Nicole Noon; yes the ex-guardian with dubious motives

While at the Library Flynn and Jenkins are arguing. Flynn has taking Dare’s warnings to heart while Jenkins vehemently declares “screw Mr. Dare” which is surprisingly crude for Galahad. He thinks Dare’s fears are ridiculous, antiquated and paranoid and it’s ludicrous that Flynn should be dodging the tethering ceremony because of it, especially with time running out. He thinks Flynn’s real doubts come down to Nicole - and the doubts she seeded in the first episode. And hey he’s willing to debate Nicole’s guilt (which he still thinks is set) but the Library needs tethering now.

Mid argument, they realise that Eve is missing.

Eve has managed to catch up with Nicole who is trying to stop the Russians from raiding all of her graves. I think if she wanted to keep secret sites with artefacts hidden she maybe shouldn’t put her name on them all.

Eve and Nicole meet with Eve assuring Nicole she just wants to bring Nicole back to the Library, she doesn’t like leaving people behind and she wants her to be part of the team again. While Nicole is also very aware that Eve does not 100% trust Nicole and also wants to keep an eye on her. And she doesn’t need the Library to be a Guardian, she will still be a Guardian working alone. There’s a lot of competition and snark including lots of critique of each others’ fighting styles which ends up with the Russians escaping despite being thoroughly beaten. They are most snarky and I like it.

Nicole tries to run off alone but Eve makes it clear: she accepts Eve and Eve doesn’t call the team. Otherwise she gets 4 Librarians and a Custodian following her around. So it’s Eve and Nicole, not trusting but opening up a little. As Eve sees many graves of Nicole she also sees the memories and photos she stored - including all the people she left behind. It brings home to Eve just how hard being an immortal is, especially without a person to ground them. Nicole touches on her fears but Eve is clear: she IS afraid - but not necessarily of immortality but being alone. Of turning into Nicole, basically. Of course that also raises the fear that maybe the others may leave the Library and leave her

Nicole does try to leave Eve behind but it doesn’t go well

Their actual quest is to find Koshi’s needle, an artefact capable of various terribad awfulness.

At the Library everyone’s tracking Eve and Nicole - and by everyone I mean Jenkins (who doesn’t trust Flynn to be objective) and Flynn, after Ezekiel uses some computer hacking to find them. Being Librarians they quickly catch up on the trail, following them through England...

Ok, can we stop saying “just outside of Lancashire” or “she’s gone to Lancashire” because that is a completely useless direction. Lancashire isn’t a town or city. It’s a county - a region, 3,000+ square kilometers.

Also I am deeply amused that anyone thinks a beverage of choice in Lancashire is “cucumber water”.

...through to Rome and then Ukraine outside of Chechnya - so as Eve and Nicole climb a cliff they find Flynn and Jenkins already there (the riddle closely following the legend of Koschie)

The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 3: And the Christmas Thief

Time for a cute Christmas episode

And normally I hate Christmas episodes. I hate any holiday themed episode. They’re all so gimmicky, unnecessarily cutesey and usually jar weirdly with the established canon.

Thankfully Librarians is quirky enough it works - and it helps more that this episode served a bit more of a purpose: the Backstory of Ezekiel Jones

This is needed for any central character and we’ve had it with Jenkins, certainly, we definitely had it with Flynn and we’ve had strong beginnings with Cassandra and Jake so seeing Ezekiel as well definitely fleshes up the main cast

So we begin with that convenient story hook I mentioned last week - a story reason to get Flynn out of the way (and, in this case, Jenkins and Eve. This episode is all about the “kids”). They’ve all been invited by Santa Claus to a holiday party (with Eve playing worried mother concerned about leaving the kids alone. Yes the dynamic is really strong here).

That leaves Jake, Ezekiel and Cassandra with Santa’s sleigh (which they’re under strict orders not to touch) and to celebrate Christmas together. Which Cassandra loves with ugly sweaters and decorations and brimming enthusiasm

Ezekiel, not so much.

He decides to take time out to… go home. Specifically to his mother’s, Lenore Jones, who is celebrating with his three sisters: Hope, Charity and Mercy. Except they’re not celebrating Christmas, but Thankstaking. A holiday in the name of the Patron Saint of Thieves where Lenore’s children give her expensive gifts they’ve stolen and they then anoint the altar with the price tags

It’s corny and weird and Librarians so run with it.

Lenore and the family greet Ezekiel warmly but are not impressed with his gift - because he bought it which is completely against the whole point of the holiday. Also it helps Lenore to know how much the loot is worth if the price tags are on.

It’s evident that the family doesn’t have a lot of respect for Ezekiel’s skills, convinced he cannot steal not that he chooses not to. But it’s also pretty clear that we’re not dealing with thieving masterminds here give them repeatedly mocking Ezekiel for giving Lenore a faberge egg while obviously not having a clue what one is. The mockery - especially asking what Ezekiel is doing with his life, snaps Ezekiel’s temper (ah holidays with family!) and he rants about how he saves all their lives and the lives of everyone in the world as a Librarian

Which causes more mockery

The Librarians, Season 4, Episode 2: The Steal of Fortune

This season seems to be aimed, based on these 2 episodes, on what it means to be a Librarian - we had some shaky moral worrying about the nature of the Library last episode and here we have a look at what the commitment to being a Librarian means

For Flynn, now dedicated to tethering himself to the Library, this means studying it and learning a lot of the tricks that Jenkins knows. The motive for this is easily skewered by Jenkins - Flynn is having the iciest of cold feet and is actually afraid of leaving the Library in case he doesn’t come back.

For a practical stand point this means Flynn is a support figure for this episode rather than a main character. And I approve. As the most experienced and the Original Librarian as well as having a larger-than-life personality, Flynn just eats every scene he is part of. Which works as a solo character but not as an ensemble cast. But I will say, Librarians does an excellent job of keeping him both part of the show and making sure he is put in supporting roles for most episodes so he doesn’t take over. If this show has a protagonist rather than 4 co-protagonists, it’s Eve, not Flynn.

The rest of the gang are facing the truth that being a Librarian means you can’t have a normal life - no friends, no relationships. As Flynn points out, you have to be like celibate monks (Ezekiel protests that Flynn and Eve are together which Flynn declares doesn’t count - as she’s Library attached though Eve doesn’t hear “doesn’t count” well, obviously).

Cassandra is especially unhappy about this because she’s just learned she can have a life after living so long with the understanding she would die young and now having a reprieve. Jake is also really not willing to give up the friends he’s already made and to prove it he takes Ezekiel to meet one of his friends who is breeding and racing horses

Even from the beginning it’s clear that things are awkward - there’s just so much about Jake’s life he can’t share with his friends (also Ezekiel not a fan of horses; though not afraid being Australian and used to everything that breathes being terribly lethal). But they all become far more concerned by this friend being struck with a bizarre chain of extreme bad luck that ends up with him being in the hospital from a million-to-one accident

And in the hospital they find dozens of examples of similar people having million to one accidents and naturally suspect woo-woo

So the team, sans Flynn, arrive a the Casino race course to investigate and find a major weirdness: no-one is winning. Entire horse races are run without a single winner over and over. Cassandra bets over and over at Roulette and doesn’t win, Ezekiel can’t get a single slot machine to pay out

The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase by Greg Cox

A hundred years ago a treaty was signed to prevent three factions of an ancient magical dynasty going to war over the spell book that was their legacy

This spell book contained the power to literally end and remake the world – only after long deliberations was the book split in three for safety

But now, someone claiming the legacy of that ancient sorceress is back and determined to reunite this tome

Mother Goose has risen again

I’m always a little wary of TV series to book conversions because they very rarely work. The problem is that so much of a TV series is left to interpretation: we’re not in the character’s heads, we don’t know how they think and seeing someone else’s take on these characters can be really jarring (just look at the Grimm book adaptations).

Even without that, just the tone set by books can be very different from TV – like the very act of describing characters: this book opened with Eve and Jake. Eve was described as a “statuesque blonde” and Jake “ruggedly handsome”. Don’t get me wrong, no-one looking at Eve on the show can argue that she is, indeed, a statuesque blonde and no-one will disagree that Jake is ruggedly handsome. But to open with these descriptions ironically makes the appearance of these characters more important than it would be on television

I think this happens a lot with tv-to-book adaptations. Because TV is such a visual medium, descriptions and appearance are automatic but, conversely, are not always relevant (beyond the constant drive to use pretty actors). Eve’s statuesque blondeness is rarely relevant in the TV series, it just is. But book adaptations feel the need to include the same level of description as they have in television – but Chekhov’s’ gun applies. If you mention appearance in a book we assume this is somewhat relevant: by trying to imitate the visual aspect of television, this book managed to create the impression in the first few chapters we were looking at an Eve/Jake romance: because when your book opens with two characters fighting for their lives against a mystical boar, the only reason “statuesque blonde” and “ruggedly handsome” would appear in the text is to establish a romance subplot

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 10: And the Wrath of Chaos

It’s season finale time – so time to put all these plot lines to bed

First of all, Eve is meeting with the General from DOSA and agrees to hand over the Library so long as the Libarians are spared

Naturally I assume this is a plot, especially when she tells the others she’s working with DOSA – and then she arranges a fake mission to get all the Librarians but Flynn out of the Library before having DOSA move in. DOSA start taking artefacts but I’m giving Eve the benefit of the doubt because she has a plan – she uses medusa’s head on Jenkins

EVE YOU ARE DEAD TO ME

Of course, as an immortal and made of awesome, Jenkins would be a major obstacle for DOSA. They also tend to keep him as an artefact.

Jenkins has some stern words for Eve. And no sword is so sharp as Jenkins’s scorn.

Flynn is running around the Library trying to keep Artefacts out of DOSA hands and manages to get in touch with the other Librarians who quickly figure out they’re being manipulated. He tells them to infiltrate DOSA’s library and free Jenkins because he, as the last of the three immortals, has the power to lock down the Library

They free Jenkins from his prison where he has been craftily locked in a box sealed with 3 very stupid locks to fool the Librarians who need to reverse and slow down their brains (or, actually, need to be so arrogant as to assume that DOSA wouldn’t even try to outsmart them). Which is a nice idea except if they really wanted to secure Jenkins they could have 3 password locks actually activated by… passwords? Real passwords? Actual secure, 16-random-digit-changed-every-month passwords? Passwords that you couldn’t break because you solved the puzzle written on the ACTUAL BOX. Or a key?! Y’know anything would be more secure than that. Who are these people on TV and in games who lock things up with puzzles? “I want to keep my shit safe but if a really clever person breaks in they deserve my stuff!”

Eve meanwhile starts to redeem my faith in her by asking the General about Apep’s casket – which DOSA has. Eve asks if it’s safe. Really safe? Really really? Just because it’s scientifically protected against all “known” magic- that kind of relies on DOSA knowing all magic. I mean really? General brings the Casket to show Eve who continues to pour doubt and talks about the magical artefact that the Library would use to contain it. She leaves and the General gets kind of doubtful… so she opens the Casket and is possessed by Apep.

Something Eve realises when she’s thrown across the room when the General and her minions bring a big bomb into the Library

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 9: And the Fatal Seperation

This episode returns us to the lost city of Shangri-la; and people who watched the films that preceded this series will know Flynn severely damaged it in one of his adventures back then.

It has since been repaired by the Monkey King who now runs the place and the vast well of white magic there by merit of the special magic stick he has. Sadly this being with huge roots in Chinese mythology, is pretty much reduced to an old stereotype of the old Asian man who teaches martial arts and quotes fortune cookies and passes the trite sayings off as wisdom. It’s a depiction that was pretty done 20 years ago.

And who is the mentee to this old mentor? (C’mon, you have an elderly Asia martial arts expert who dispenses wisdom you KNOW his only reason for being is to be a mentor). That would be Jake who is now a complete master martial artist to the extent that the Monkey King declares he has nothing else to teach Jake except magic (which Jake, in common with the ongoing debate, vehemently rejects). After 2 months

2 months

2 months is literally all it took before the Monkey King declared he had nothing more to teach? 2 months is all it took to make Jake a master martial artist. 2 months is all it took for this immortal being to convey all of his technique and skill. 2 months is all it took the Monkey King to train Jake to be able to beat him

Wow, bad enough you turn him into a basic mentor character but most of those mentor characters remained better than their students with their lifetime of dedicated focus and everything.

At the Library we have Cassandra dealing with her new gift and Eve’s excellent advice and reassurance around it: Eve has spent a long time helping Ezekiel and Jake become the people she saw in her visions last season – but not Cassandra; she’s just too different from Eve’s experiences and knowledge. Cassandra is concerned that her gift is open to abuse and out of control since it now has a mind control element

While Jenkins has found an old room in the Library – it’s a room of candles, each candle representing a person connected to the library. If it’s lit, they’re still alive – and Charlene’s is still lit. Of course, have some hope! More ominously, Flynn’s is burned down to a stub.

The Librarians, Season 3 Episode 8: And the Eternal Question

We see evidence of perhaps the most dangerous, most powerful, most evil dark magic we’ve ever seen on this show.

People excited over golf. Golf people! Human sacrifice must be involved!

Until the main golfer who is doing so well suddenly spontaneously combusts. He is also disqualified because he did something interesting in a golf match. Totally against the rules.

Of course spontaneous combustion is definitely a Librarian thing. Kind of. Jenkins and Flynn are both clear they’ve never come across magical spontaneous combustion before. But, hey, there’s a first time for everything.

More investigating leads to the golfer’s wife who informs them that her husband was dying of cancer before he went to a spa and totally got better.

Uh-huh

Then they open some curtains and she burns to ash when exposed to sunlight.

Time to go visit this spa. There they the owner and her son Tomas and daughter Estrella who runs the place. It’s a beautiful, amazing place all organic and shiny and with special shiny rocks in the soil.

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 7: And the Curse of Cindy

Hippies! We got hippies! Time to get the dragons!

A woman is trying to get her daughter out of the adoring cult of Cindy worshippers- only to become a Cindy worshipper herself. Yes, magic is afoot.

The Librarians naturally show up, gaining access to the compound by using Flynn’s patented “We’re the Librarians” charm to open up the doors

And, yes, it’s magic. Of course it’s magic. Jake is quite shocked by this which is a little naive but it further shows again how the debate about whether or not magic is safe to use is a bit less binary than they like to present it – with them constantly using magic every day in every mission.

They quickly realise that Cindy is using some kind of artefact or magic to make herself the target of obsession and run around chasing the traditional red herring. They also run across some Dosa elements, but they’ve also already fallen prey to Cindy’s obsession powers.

As do Jake and Flynn

A quick return to the Library for Jenkins to do some tests concludes they’re dealing with a love potion. Well, an Obsession potion which is what love potions really are without the good press. While he works on a cure for that (and the others take vids of Jake and Flynn for future embarrassment) they discover that the love potion is perfume based and discuss why Ezekiel is magically immune

Because he loves himself too much. Uh-huh.

Back into the fray, while we see lots of a woman making the potion for Cindy and Cindy repeatedly crying over a video of her in a reality television show – being voted off.

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 6: And the Trial of the Triangle

This episode is several kinds of awesome – because it takes the whole separate storylines between Flynn and the other Librarians and mushes them together in a way that is finally drawing out the relationship between them and calling out the problems there

Namely Flynn. The Flynn the absent leader who doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of respect for his fellow librarians and has worked alone for so long that he far too often fails to take the others into account

The episode begins with Eve and the Librarians kidnapping Flynn so they can have an intervention. And this is so often clichéd and cheesey – and, yes, it’s Librarians so it’s going to be a bit of cheesey anyway because yes it is – but this is really well done and awesomely pulls out issues that have always been there and we’ve all been expected to just accept.

Ezekiel calls him out on expecting everyone to think and process just like him – to be his kind of Librarian. But an ongoing theme of Ezekiel’s story has been that he is also a Librarian, very different from the more academic Flynn and his fellows – but that doesn’t make Ezekiel a lesser Librarian.

While Cassandra calls him out on how intimidating he is, how much he insists on doing things his way. How he’s so very good at being a Librarian he has forgotten that other people can be good as well – how she’s left feeling she can’t offer a solution and they all have to wait around awkwardly until Flynn has an idea. He’s a gifted leader but he’s not the only gifted person there

And Jake calls him out for being such a poor friend – how he has raised so many barriers between him and the others that he feels like he’s constantly having to build a new relationship with Flynn.

Of course, Eve, who loves Flynn has a very palpable hit – how much Flynn’s self-destructive impulses is hurting them. His moods, his secrecy, his pride is so destructive. This is something they come back to awesomely (and cheesily) later.

Flynn is, naturally, completely unwilling to confront this and instead focuses on the war they’re facing. And he’s not entirely wrong – friendship and even love have to take a back step to literally saving the world from ultimate evil. And he’s not wrong but he’s also throwing away assets as well as relationships.

His current focus is the Eye of Ra, a super magical item that can completely help them against Apep and that’s what he has been looking for. But, again, this emphasises how he hasn’t been helping himself by not telling anyone – not even Eve – about this.

We have one of those excellent moments of collaboration where every member of the team brings out their speciality to help fund out where the Eye is – it’s a typical zany Librarian’s storyline involving the Bermuda Triangle, Venezuelan aircraft and Lewis Carol because Librarians is fun like that. On the way we have a moment of Eve and Flynn in an airport having a loud argument as a destruction which quickly turns into a powerful, emotional fight about their relationship and what they want from each other as well as basically referring to themselves as mum and dad to the child Librarians. There’s a lot of back and forth about responsibilities, entanglements and what Eve wants from Flynn and what he wants from her but underlying is the declaration that they do both very much love each other.

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 5: And the Tears of a Clown

I’m not a fan of this episode. It had a rather heavy handed, trite message and not a great deal of character development. Oh we have some useful moments – a reminder that DOSA still exists (remember them?). And the concept that new Artefacts are being created and they have to build a whole new wing of the Library to house them. After all the ancient Artefacts are ancient because magic hasn’t been in the world for a gazillion years. Now magic is back – so new Artefacts can join the fun. This makes a lot of sense and also adds a whole new dimension of stories to open up.

We also have a really wonderful moment where Eve tries to keep Jenkins out of trouble because with the big bad darkness coming (which we seem to have lost for a few episodes) if the Librarians are taken out she can think of no better person to save the world than him – which I definitely agree to. But he also says there’s no way he would ever not come from her

Because he’s awesome, she’s awesome and they're so very awesome together

Ezekiel’s abs are also awesome which is pretty much the last awesome thing about this episode

They are amazingly awesome though

Anyway, we have a guy who has got his hands on one of these shiny new Artefacts and he promptly uses it to magically create a carnival. Anyone who objects to sudden carnivalness is brainwashed to become clown minions, fanpoodles or jugglers all declaring it to be the best thing in the world as well as causing themselves severe injury through over juggling.

You already know you’re dealing with a disturbing personality who wants to live in an eternal carnival and doesn’t think he’s in a lower circle of hell. And there’s some powerful magic at work that can have you live off carnie food for more than a month and not just die from horrendous health complications.

So, beyond a disturbing love of clowns and candy floss, why does this magically powerful man decide to spend his life in a carnival?

Because when he was an awkward teenaged boy he had a crush on a teenaged girl who liked carnivals so clearly creating an awesome carnival will make her love him forever.

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 4: And the Self Fulfilling Prophecy

This episode is in one of my most hated formats – the broken time line. The characters are running around with random, poorly-explained amnesia with occasional flashes of memory to try and piece the story together

So Eve, and the Librarians were celebrating in Las Vegas and we have a nice touching scene where everyone is super kind to Eve because they all recognise she’s probably not feeling great since Flynn has deserted her. Again. Alas we don’t get to stay on this excellent scene of bonding to join his slighting weird story

And I think I could actually really like this whole plot of prophecy fencing and second guessing prophecy if it weren’t for the broken time line

Basically there’s this unstoppable magical assassin focusing on Eve. He also drops a prophecy cube – a kind of stored prophecy – which reveals that the assassin will kill Eve in the Library

Jenkins is firmly of the opinion she should stay in the Library and be safe because it’s the Library. In a glorious moment of self-mockery, Eve lists the 8 gajillion people who have easily infiltrated the secure Library. I always appreciate a lovely chunk of self-awareness.

Instead they follow up a random library mission to a school with lots of random luck, including the swim team passing several tests after ridiculous improvement, winning the lottery and the captain winning a trip to train in an Olympic pool in Greece – which then dumps Ezekiel, Jake and Evem, via school pool, into a strange world with odd amnesia. They’re joined by several people from the school, including the captain of the swim team, the headmaster (who has a little power play with Eve before Eve effortlessly takes control because she’s Eve) and the cleaning lady, Nina

And they have several swimming goggles which, revealed through flashbacks, are the key behind all the luck of the school swim team: they help you see a bit of the future

The gang uses these goggles to navigate past a series of traps with fun little moments – like knowing they can use a coin to find the trapped areas of the floor because they’ve seen a future of Ezekiel giving that coin to a museum – so it can’t be destroyed.

At the same time, at the Library, Cassandra and Jenkins return with a second prophecy cube and tell us the rules of prophecy (very important since Eve is prophesised to die). You can’t just run from prophecy – you either defeat it with a larger prophecy (the example given is an Oracle, who seeing that she would be murdered by one of her priestesses, made several other prophecies that each of her priestesses would be murdered by her wife – and promptly married and murdered each of them. Breaking the prophecy with more prophecy. So, yes same-sex relationship, no lots of murdering) or have someone outside the prophecy break it.

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 3: The Reunion of Evil

This episode gets a big doubtful hmmmm from me. It gets a hmmmm because it’s primarily addressing two issues and one of those issues it annoyingly fails to address while addressing it.

Yes I’m feeling eloquent today

Cassandra and Jake are off on a zaney adventure trying to get a magical artefact. Side note here, we have a brief snark from Jake about Flynn running off again which gets another hmmmm from me – because this is a point. Jake et al has a right to be annoyed – especially since their team work is so well emphasised – by Flynn unilaterally deciding he’s going to up and run off to parts unknown. I think this is definitely something to develop – the whole emphasis on the librarians being a team would find Flynn’s impetuous lone-rangerness annoying

Anyway, the magical artefact is the Crystal of Angraboda (in norse mythology, the mother of monsters who had several children by Loki – including Fenrir and Jormungandr) and along with the crystal we have a lot of frost giants and a huge, terrible storm

There follows a full episode of Cassandra and Jake pretending to be frost giants who love plagues and chaos and drinking and bar games which is fun and all. But kind of misses what the actual debate of this magic-of-the-week is supposed to be

Magic

Whether you can use magic safely – something Cassandra has repeatedly advocated. Magic can be good. Magic can be powerful. Magic can be useful. While Jake argues over and over that magic is too dangerous and too unpredictable. They make many good arguments

Cassandra points out that many things are dangerous – science and technology is very dangerous before you understand it. Jake has the very reasonable counter that Cassandra doesn’t understand it and she’s brilliant and intelligent – far too much so to be this reckless. I think this is a key because his distrust of magic is clearly a distrust of MAGIC – not HER using magic. There’s even a point where he encourages her to use magic since it seems to be the only way out of a tricky situation

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 2: And the Fangs of Death

Damn I forgot how cheap the CGI was on this series.

But we’re definitely building up a whole lot of epic confrontation with Apep still running around. Which is why, with the help of an apocalyptic dream, Flynn decides they have to find Charlene

Remember Charlene? She was there right from the beginning of the series, from the films itself.  The accountant and secretary of the library. Yes that seems a little odd that she would be the key to saving the world

Well, when they find Charlene – aside here. Can we not play “girl power” because Charlene has used some artefact to mind control several hot men of colour into becoming her objectified meat puppets. Swapping the gender on the rapeyness doesn’t make rapeyness good – can we not. Apep shows up to murder everyone and run off with Charlene

This freaks out Flynn and Jenkins and everyone asks, again, why Charlene is so important… well it turns out the accountant is a Guardian. Not a Guardian – she’s the Guardian. The First Guardian alongside the now gone Judd, the first Librarian. This is pretty epic in the first place, but later Jenkins reveals an extra reason why Charlene is essential. Way back centuries ago when Apep was first on his evil rampage (so presumably back in Ancient Egypt) he did manage to unleash the ultimate evil of badness.. This was bad

But Charlene and Judd managed to put all the evil back. But they forget to leave notes on how to do this. Librarians didn’t leave notes. Seriously Librarians. Seriously, you didn’t think to catalogue or this or something?

Since Judd is missing that means The Guardian is only one who knows this information

So there follows lots of risky meddling with Jenkin’s inventions (he disapproves) to try and track down Gloria. They get separated with Jenkins and Eve walking through the woods in Canada and being totally taken in by Apep pretending to be a super nice security guard (they live because Jenkins is immortal and that’s super useful).

The Librarians, Season 3, Episode 1: And the Rise of Chaos

Librarians is back! Awesome news for anyone who doesn’t hate joy and have no soul *ahem*

And so begins the cheese. Perhaps too much cheese. I mean this whole series is devoted to the glory of cheese but by the time we get to the harmonious singing even my cheese quota has been exceeded.

We’re reintroduced to the gang in the best way, we get to see each of their talents with none of them really eclipsing any of the others, really showing what a team they are and how they work best as that team

This is why I don’t particularly like Flyn around. I mean, I like him but I think he messes with the balance and why the series did such a great job of ensuring he was separate from them. Without him we have Eve and the four librarians working together – if there’s any leader it’s Eve. With him it’s hard for the show not to become The Librarian + sidekicks. We didn’t quite reach that here, but the threat is always there with him around. Which is an issue because the focus is TEAM. The team working together. The team being so much greater than the sum of its parts

Especially with Eve’s ominous but excellently referential (I hate it when shows ignore previous seasons) to how she has seen how awesome each of the Librarians could be and she’s desperate for them to reach their potential for the ominous trouble incoming.  (This includes a nice poking at Jake and his own acknowledgement of his sexist bias).

And Jenkins continues to be awesome, dishing out sass and awesomeness. Because Jenkins

They do need to be ready because the clipping book bursts into flame, bad stuff is happening

The bad stuff is a released Egyptian force possessing a man. He’s Apep, the ancient Egyptian god of chaos. He wanders around causing just that since he has the power to cause everyone to attack each other in a glut of chaos.

To get his full power he intends to open a vault full of Pure Evil. Which is, as is expected, pretty bad if rather clichéd.