The Librarians... - '... and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy'

"Am I Abraham Lincoln?"

It's deadly danger and amnesia for Eve Baird this week, as someone summons a deadly Reaper to kill her in accordance with a prophecy locked in a glass box. Not that we know that to begin with, as the episode begins in media res with Eve, Jake and Ezekiel trapped in a labyrinth with a mysterious hourglass and no idea how they got there. As they piece together their memories in morning after style, they remember the threat of the Reaper and leaving the library to escape the terms of the prophecy. They find that they are also trapped with the principal, swim captain and cleaning woman of a high school, who were apparently transported to the labyrinth with them via a swimming pool dosed with magical waters from Mount Parnassus.

While they struggle to both make use of and escape the prophecy, Cassie and Jenkins are looking for an out from the outside. The only ways are, apparently, 1) outside intervention, and 2) get a bigger prophecy. Option 2 turns out to be a no-no, as the prophesied death of Eve outranks that of several Librarians(1), and in fact has already been invoked by the Oracle of Delphi to escape her own foretold demise. Things come to a head when the Oracle reveals that they are inside the prophecy cube, which is inside the library, prompting Baird to signal Jenkins to throw the cube outside, thus breaking her own prophecy (option 1) and invalidating the Oracle's option 2.

'...and the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy' plays cleverly with the tropes of prescience and destiny, and is one of the best episodes yet this season, not least because the show has built up to it with Eve training the Librarians to manage without her, meaning that there is a very real sense that she could die. There is also a pretty moving scene where the Librarians admit that they are worried that she may be feeling lonely, what with her SO vanishing once more.

MVL of the Week
You know what, the former Librarians in Training have all become good enough that I feel able to throw everyone into the hat for this award now, so this week I'm giving the title Most Valuable Librarian to Jenkins. Not only does he give Eve the (unfollowed) best advice of the episode - not to leave the Library - but knows Morse code and, when Eve wonders where the pocket mirror she signaled with came from, explains in his Jenkinsy way that the Guardian protects the Librarians, but the Library protects the Guardian.

(1) I guess Jenkins might be a bigger deal, but he can't die so...