The Librarians... - '...and what Lies Beneath the Stones'

In my head, Jake's Grandpappy is Sam Elliot.

The Junior Librarians are summoned to a construction site where a trickster spirit has been released and is intent on causing chaos. Unfortunately it feeds on lies, and lies abound, especially in the shady dealings of construction manager Isaac Stone and his relationship with his estranged son Jake (yep, our Jake.)

While Jake plays deliberate third fiddle to Cassandra and Ezekiel (introducing the latter under one of the pseudonyms he himself uses for publishing articles on native American anthropology,) the trickster thrives on the conflict between Isaac and protestors who believe he is violating a sacred site. Ultimately, Jake recognises the nature of the shapeshifter and the Librarians attack it with truths, most tellingly Jake's confession (to the shapeshifter itself) of the fears that led him to hide his genius from his father, who now blames Jake's bookkeeping for the family firm's decline. Armed with truth, he forces the trickster back into its prison and the three Librarians seal it in with truths that affirm their bond as a team.

In the end, Jake never makes his peace with his father, even recognising the shapeshifter because his father would never say that he loved him, but it doesn't matter. As he says: "The truth is, I don't need your approval anymore."

And of course I love that the title of the episode is a pun.

MVL of the Week

This is the first strong team episode of the season, but with all his daddy issues, Jake is far and away the MVL. Aside form the character development, it is his area of expertise that makes all the difference here.

Honourable mention to Cassandra, however, both for her outpouring of truths to keep the door open, and for her adorkable TV habits:

"You know that thing where you're watching TV and you subconsciously compute the size of the set based on the height of the actor and the number of steps it takes them to walk the width of them? Like how Nathan Fillion is six foot two and it takes him 43 steps to walk across Serenity so you know the spaceship is 204 feet across?"

"No. No-one knows that thing."

Also, a shout out to Ezekiel's truth, that he once stole things on Her Majesty's Secret Service.