The Librarians - '... and the Reunion of Evil'

Ezekiel is left holding the baby...

I'm now two episodes behind on watching The Librarians and three on reviews, so let's fix the latter at least.

In The Librarians '...and the Reunion of Evil', Jake and Cassie are on a mission to retrieve a powerful mystical gem from a glacier. They get into fight with an unidentified rival collector, and when Cassie busts out the magic to help with the extraction, the Gem of Angrboda becomes lodged in her chest, which surely can't be good. Meanwhile, back at the Library, Eve and Jenkins entrust Ezekiel with caring for the Loch Ness Monster's egg, as part of Eve's drive to push the Librarians to be more than they are in case she isn't around some day.

Grounded by a blizzard, Jake and Cassie head for shelter in a mountain hotel and are obliged to pretend to be part of a convention, which turns out to be a reunion of disaster-causing, body-snatching Frost Giants. Jake has fun blending in during the drinking and boasting parts of the act, but when it becomes apparent that a) they are here for the Gem and b) that Cassandra glows when the Gem is named, they try to book, only for the rival collector to appear and turn out to be the Frost Giant that Jake is impersonating.

...while Jake and Cassie get the cold shoulder.

Bound for human sacrifice, Jake - who has been arguing against the use of magic all episode - uses his allowed final words to urge Cassie to go for it. They break loose, and despite some trouble focusing the doors make a spectacular escape with the Gem, presumably dealing a serious blow to the Giants ability to cause chaos in the world.

Baby Nessie hatches and is adorable, and the question of whether magic is good or bad is left up in the air. I like that the show is remaining ambiguous about the use of magic, with neither side clearly wrong or right. Magic is useful, but it is dangerous; Cassie is somewhat shooting in the dark, but that's in part because Jenkins won't let her access any resources to guide her learning. Otherwise, this is a fun episode which continues to foreshadow some manner of major upset in the series.

MVL of the Week

It's a tough call this week, with both Jake and Cassie getting their share of good moments. Ultimately, I'm calling this one for Jake, both for recognising the value of Cassie's magic in a pinch, and for sticking to his concerns after the fact: "It's the 'not bad' parts that make people think the 'bad' parts really aren't that bad. It's dangerous. Yeah, magic got us out of trouble today. But it's also what put is in it, too."