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.
Begin the shenanigans as the team rush to try and stop
him, involving the antikythera mechanism (which is awesome), submarines,
everyone’s excellent expertise and a huge amount of geeky enthusiasm and almost
silly childishness
And yes, it’s silly and yes all the Librarians are pretty
much overgrown children – but that’s what being a Librarian means. Not just
being intelligent and knowledgeable, but bubbling with such a vast enthusiasm
that is, yes, childlike. Which is why Eve is there, the parent – and yes she is
a parent. She’s the grounded one. She keeps them focused, she tells them “no”
when they want to play submarines, she keeps them on track; but, and this is
the key element which makes her character more interesting, she isn’t just the
parent/nag/scold. She has her own skills and her own place
I think this is the gem of this episode, it kind of sums
up everything the Librarians are about in one nifty re-introduction.
The power of chaos does nearly cause the gang to fight
each other and let Apep win, but it is fought by the Power of Cheese. Such
terrible cheese. So much cheese.
It’s cringeworthy, it involves close harmony singing and
a totally-over-the-top-declaration of family and friendship and unity that it
was just awful. Do you know what it missed? Jenkins. If you’re going to throw
this much cheese around you need Jenkins in a corner rolling his eyes and
making a quiet quip at the ridiculousness of it all. Jenkins was the cracker to
go with this cheese and without him it was just a goey mess
Apep duly nauseated we get an introduction to the second
antagonist of the season: DOSA
The Department of Statistical Anomalies. A new government
department created to, well, do what the Library is doing. The problem is they
know enough to do be dangerous… but not enough not to make things worse (among
the statistical anomalies they’ve analysed is the presence of the Librarians
everywhere there are shenanigans). Not least of which an organisation which
knows pretty little about magic starting to horde magical artefacts.
By crafty use of Apep the Librarians escape to worry
about both of these and Apep leaves his human host in the not-so-tender mercies
of DOSA and an interrogator who knows her Greek history but not much else
And lo, we have a glorious reintroduction and a nice set
up for the season of the two main antagonists as well as a reminder of ongoing
conflict: whether magic can ever be used safely. And far far far far too much
cheese
