This episode is several kinds of awesome – because it
takes the whole separate storylines between Flynn and the other Librarians and
mushes them together in a way that is finally drawing out the relationship
between them and calling out the problems there
Namely Flynn. The Flynn the absent leader who doesn’t
seem to have a whole lot of respect for his fellow librarians and has worked
alone for so long that he far too often fails to take the others into account
The episode begins with Eve and the Librarians kidnapping
Flynn so they can have an intervention. And this is so often clichéd and
cheesey – and, yes, it’s Librarians so it’s going to be a bit of cheesey anyway
because yes it is – but this is really well done and awesomely pulls out issues
that have always been there and we’ve all been expected to just accept.
Ezekiel calls him out on expecting everyone to think and process
just like him – to be his kind of Librarian. But an ongoing theme of Ezekiel’s
story has been that he is also a Librarian, very different from the more
academic Flynn and his fellows – but that doesn’t make Ezekiel a lesser
Librarian.
While Cassandra calls him out on how intimidating he is,
how much he insists on doing things his way. How he’s so very good at being a
Librarian he has forgotten that other people can be good as well – how she’s
left feeling she can’t offer a solution and they all have to wait around
awkwardly until Flynn has an idea. He’s a gifted leader but he’s not the only
gifted person there
And Jake calls him out for being such a poor friend – how
he has raised so many barriers between him and the others that he feels like he’s
constantly having to build a new relationship with Flynn.
Of course, Eve, who loves Flynn has a very palpable hit –
how much Flynn’s self-destructive impulses is hurting them. His moods, his
secrecy, his pride is so destructive. This is something they come back to
awesomely (and cheesily) later.
Flynn is, naturally, completely unwilling to confront
this and instead focuses on the war they’re facing. And he’s not entirely wrong
– friendship and even love have to take a back step to literally saving the
world from ultimate evil. And he’s not wrong but he’s also throwing away assets
as well as relationships.
His current focus is the Eye of Ra, a super magical item
that can completely help them against Apep and that’s what he has been looking
for. But, again, this emphasises how he hasn’t been helping himself by not
telling anyone – not even Eve – about this.
We have one of those excellent moments of collaboration where
every member of the team brings out their speciality to help fund out where the
Eye is – it’s a typical zany Librarian’s storyline involving the Bermuda
Triangle, Venezuelan aircraft and Lewis Carol because Librarians is fun like that. On the way we have a moment of Eve and
Flynn in an airport having a loud argument as a destruction which quickly turns
into a powerful, emotional fight about their relationship and what they want
from each other as well as basically referring to themselves as mum and dad to
the child Librarians. There’s a lot of back and forth about responsibilities,
entanglements and what Eve wants from Flynn and what he wants from her but
underlying is the declaration that they do both very much love each other.
While on the plane we also have a new conflict introduced
– related to the whole horror that Apep represents: an ends justifies the means
debate. Flynn lays it out with a stark “there are no happy endings”
pronouncement. There’s no good answer here, no nice way out – only choices of
less bad. And that may include sacrificing innocents along the way
Being Librarians
this debate also happens along side the entire plane thinking Eve and Flynn
just joined a very noisy mile high club because Librarians is so very good at keeping the zany always present even
when delving into hard decisions. But also then dodging the hard decisions
because, ultimately, they are Librarians which means they’re brilliant. And if
there are only bad choices then it’s the Librarians who find yet another way –
because they’re Librarians and that’s what they do.
And I like that. This isn’t a grim and gritty series of
terrible choices people have to make for the sake of the greater good. This is
a show of brilliance and awesomeness and silliness. We’re not going to spend
several episodes all sad and angry because they’ve had to kill a plane full of
people in order to save the world – they’re going to save the world and the
people. Because this is Librarians
not Game of Thrones and not even Doctor Who and that’s fine. So many
shows feel that they have to go dark and gritty if they’re going to be a “serious”
show – well not everything has to be serious and good and meaningful doesn’t
mean dark and grim. So, yes, let’s do this. Let’s save the world without dark
epic sacrifices and antiheroes et al.
By a series of classic Librarians events (which is so much fun), Flynn ends up alone in a
Lewis Carol world having to confront some serious questions about himself.
Including all of those points the Librarians brought up against him: how he
keeps expecting people to reflect himself, how he doesn’t respect other people’s
opinions – and how his own insecurities leads him to put up this huge façade of
overconfidence which is both intimidating and makes him very hard to approach. I
like this whole scene even if it is a little contrived and dubiously
coincidental because it pokes a lot at Flynn’s character. Would Flynn
necessarily accept the views of his fellows that he has flaws? Probably not.
Would he accept a magical test that forces him to admit the truth? Probably; it’s
something more objectively true, something he can’t just dismiss as lesser
minds being less.
It’s also useful because of, ultimately, what the whole
test is about: who is worthy to take the Eye of Ra, a vital, powerful artefact
that is essential in the last battle. They don’t need to test knowledge or
skill, because any Librarian would have that- but self-awareness? Ability to
see one’s own flaws and past one’s own ego? Now that I can see as a major issue
for Librarians and something that would need to be tested before giving them
this artefact.
Flynn ends up with the Eye of Ra and some important life
lessons – though part of his running off alone also comes down to him wanting
to protect Eve: both because she is the only Guardian and because of his love
for her.
There’s another revelation as well – the Eye of Ra
requires the sacrifice of a life. Now, despite all of Flynn’s
dark-times-need-extreme-measures talk this is a line that he won’t cross.
Except in one occasion. It’s not spelled out but I’m pretty certain this one
exception will be self-sacrifice
Which leaves us in an interesting place at the end of
this episode. From the very beginning of Librarians
I’ve always said that the worst episodes generally came when Flynn was with the
group. Flynn tended to take over, Flynn tended to make everyone, except maybe
Eve, into his sidekicks. And the show seemed to recognise this by repeatedly
finding reasons why Flynn would separate from the group.
This episode presents us with 2 alternatives to this for
the future. Either a future where Flynn learns more and more how to play well
with others, how he learns to become one of a team rather than a leader and
sidekicks which would create a whole new dynamic. Or he will sacrifice himself
to use the Eye of Ra and remove himself from the equation entirely. Both are
definite ways forwards which could lead to very different dynamics from the
whole show.
Continuing elements also has DOSA still involved and
aware of the Librarians which is definitely going to come to a head soon
We also have the ongoing debate of whether they can use
magic or not. Jenkins I still leery of using magic – but Cassandra and Ezekiel
both point out that they use magic all the time. But Jenkins draws a difference
between magic that has been tried and tested repeatedly and brand new magic –
but isn’t that a complete argument against progress and all new things? I like
that this debate isn’t just going away and is still underpinning the season as
an ongoing theme.
I normally don’t enjoy episodes with Flynn but I liked
this- because it directly addressed why I don’t enjoy the episodes that focus
on him and are paving the path to him being a Librarian rather than THE
Librarian.
