The Librarians - '...and the Point of Salvation', '...and the Happily Ever Afters' and '...and the Final Curtain'

Serious Ezekiel

A triple bill of The Librarians to close out Season 2, and oh my it is glorious.

'..and the Point of Salvation' takes the team to a quantum computing research facility on the verge of disaster. Faced with a series of almost nonsensical trials, Librarians die again and again, only to return to the back door, and only Ezekiel remembers. At first assuming a time loop, he comes to realise that they are actually trapped in a computer game thanks to an overload in a quantum computer driven by a nugget of scary Atlantis quartz.

"I can't watch you die anymore."

As he struggles to get the whole team through the 'level' safely, Ezekiel begins to be worn down by seeing his friends die, over and over again, even as he draws on all of their abilities to help him overcome each of the game's challenges. Eventually, he just takes to locking them in while he chases the answer.

MVL of the Week

Hands down, this is Ezekiel's show. I'm so torn on his reversion to original Ezekiel after he sacrifices himself at the last hurdle. On the one hand, I hate to see character development undone; on the other, I can see that this was a lot of development to drop on other writers through one episode. For myself, I choose to believe that Ezekiel retains some subconscious knowledge of what happened, influencing his role in the coming episodes.

Honorable mention to Jake for commiserating with Ezekiel when he realises that the rest of the team have become Ezekiel's escort mission.

Also, I love the title, referring both to Ezekiel saving the team and to the literal save point at which they constantly respawn.

Meet the new team, same as the old team. Almost.

At the close of the episode, Jenkins learns that Prospero's plan is starting now, and runs to warn the Librarians - just too late - that they are walking into a trap. Then something goes wibbly and Jenkins acts as if all were normal.

In '...and the Happily Ever Afters', Flynn Carson returns to the Library to find that the team are gone and Jenkins doesn't remember them. He tracks his friends to Cicely, Washington, where Eve is apparently the Sheriff, working with ladies' man, saviour of world heritage and polymath professor Jake, astronaut, science teacher and barista Cassandra and Special Agent Ezekiel Stone, head of the FBI field office on an island of 2000 people which has its own university to safeguard their home. Also on the team is Mayor James Moriarty, Eve's perfect boyfriend.

"And this guy! Special agent? He's like fifteen! And Australian! How could he be FBI?"

Flynn and Jenkins deduce that the team are under a spell which creates a perfect life for each of them; an ideal happy ever after. They then run into Ariel, currently on the run and appearing not as a tiny sprite but an adorable bovver booted Scots pixie, who explains that she isn't fictional (although she seems to struggle to remember that the Librarians aren't just characters in some story*) but is a real fairy who was ensnared by Prospero.

With the team deciding that Flynn and Ariel have stolen Cicely's beloved totem pole, Flynn lures them back to the Library and confronts them with their real lives, but to break the spell for good they have to formally reject the new stories. Once this is done, however, they find themselves locked out of the Library itself, until Eve cracks the last piece of the puzzle: She has rejected her new story, as have the other Librarians, but Flynn is still under the spell, which has given him his happy ever after: Being the Librarian, faced by a life of adventure and puzzles that no-one else can solve.

MVL of the Week

This is another Flynn week, not only cracking the main mystery, but beginning to repair his relationship with Eve. We're also saved from an overly indulgent big name star love in as the denouement rebalances the entire episode to show Eve and Flynn in particular as equals, and for her to save him with a 'true love's' kiss. Also, each of the main team is a delight in their new role, especially Ezekiel Jones, FBI, who introduces himself by swaggering into the room and announcing straight-faced: "I'm a rule-breaking maverick, but I get results."

Time travel has its own special embarrassments.

'...and the Final Curtain' wraps up the season with a bit of time travel, as Eve identifies a note found in place of Prospero's broken staff as being written in Flynn's left-handed handwriting and they determine that they have to use one of the Library's many confiscated time machines to snag the staff and undo the spell which Prospero has cast to return the world to primordial forest.

Things go awry when the time machine implodes, trapping Eve and Flynn in the past, and the remaining Librarians begin to follow a trail of clues embedded in the original note by Flynn to seek a means to defeat Prospero in the present. In the past, Flynn and Eve encounter Moriarty, now apparently turned on his master, and Shakespeare, who is composing his final play: The Triumph of Prospero using a pen carved form the wood of the Tree of Knowledge and given to him by John Dee.

Shakespeare's bitterness at his impending enforced retirement allows the spirit of Prospero to inhabit his form, meshing the wizard's fictional power with the author's imagination and ambition. With Moriarty's help, Flynn and Baird steal and drown Prospero's book, and when the Wizard in turn tries to drown Baird she is rescued by the Lady of the Lake, who gives her Excalibur to give to Flynn to break the staff. I will not lie; I squeed a bit when Cal came back and knew his old buddy Flynn, even more than when Moriarty comes good at the last and sacrifices himself for Eve.

In the present day, Jenkins uses the clues from the past to set up an exorcism, and the Librarians use Shakespeare's words to force Prospero from his creator's body, each choosing a quotation which encompasses their greatest lesson. Temporal inertia then draws Shakespeare back to the past, but Eve and Flynn are trapped; at least until a locked door in the Library yields to Eve's name and reveals a statue of Eve and Flynn, which comes to life.

Oh, gosh; I enjoyed this. '...and the Final Curtain' is so dense and full of call backs, but still manages to be a pacy adventure. Seriously, Doctor Who could learn from this series when it comes to mixing episodic and arc stories in a 45 minute format.

MVL of the Week

This week, it's everyone, as the show once more delivers a proper ensemble mystery. Flynn gets more solo time, but the three in the present work together to solve the puzzles left behind, and deliver their knockout punches with not-so-subtle reference to their own growth as characters (Caesar's rejection of death's power, Kent's self-knowledge in Lear, and Prince Hal putting on the character of the fool to wow people when he becomes Henry V.)

The Librarians has been renewed for Season 3, and I for one say huzzah and don't much care who hears me do it.

* A twisty bit of metafiction that is thankfully managed without a single comedy turn to camera.