Hippies! We got hippies! Time to get the dragons!
A woman is trying to get her daughter out of the adoring
cult of Cindy worshippers- only to become a Cindy worshipper herself. Yes,
magic is afoot.
The Librarians naturally show up, gaining access to the
compound by using Flynn’s patented “We’re the Librarians” charm to open up the
doors
And, yes, it’s magic. Of course it’s magic. Jake is quite
shocked by this which is a little naive but it further shows again how the
debate about whether or not magic is safe to use is a bit less binary than they
like to present it – with them constantly using magic every day in every
mission.
They quickly realise that Cindy is using some kind of
artefact or magic to make herself the target of obsession and run around
chasing the traditional red herring. They also run across some Dosa elements,
but they’ve also already fallen prey to Cindy’s obsession powers.
As do Jake and Flynn
A quick return to the Library for Jenkins to do some
tests concludes they’re dealing with a love potion. Well, an Obsession potion
which is what love potions really are without the good press. While he works on
a cure for that (and the others take vids of Jake and Flynn for future embarrassment)
they discover that the love potion is perfume based and discuss why Ezekiel is
magically immune
Because he loves himself too much. Uh-huh.
Back into the fray, while we see lots of a woman making
the potion for Cindy and Cindy repeatedly crying over a video of her in a
reality television show – being voted off.
The tears are an essential part of the potion as Eve and Cassandra
find out when questioning the witch making the potion – who is totally onside
without being enchanted – and they find that the ultimate plan is to gas the
entire east coast with this potion. This is a bad bad bad bad idea. It would
explain some presidential elections though
While Ezekiel finds Cindy and talks to her – and puts a much
better spin on the whole “he loves himself” immunity. Ezekiel is clear: it’s
not that he loves himself, it’s that he doesn’t look to anyone but himself for
approval. He doesn’t need adoration, he doesn’t need approval, he likes and
respects himself and isn’t vulnerable to the potion because of this. He also
sympathises with her, drawing commonalities with their own experience, how he
tried to fill the void in his own life with theft and acquisition but
ultimately there’s no way to just grab more to fill this hole in your life.
No that’s not an innuendo, behave.
It’s a really nice moment touching a little on Ezekiel
but more having an excellent message about how toxic Cindy’s desire to be loved
to find worth after being so publically humiliated. Ezekiel proves his point by
having her adoring masses overdose on the potion which turns them into terrifying,
raging, violent obsessed people and clearly unnatural and wrong.
Newly awakened they try to intercept the witch before she
unleashes the love rocket (behave) and take her down with another potion
overdose – forcing Apep to leave her body
Yes, the chaos demon is behind it all – because let’s
face it, a large chunk of the US adoring a completely inappropriate leader who
makes no sense causes a great deal of chaos. Yes, yes it does.
In the aftermath, Ezekiel and Cindy have a moment: and
Jake believe Ezekiel was immune to the love potion because he already loves
Cindy. Maybe and it could be nice but, honestly, I really liked Ezekiel’s
message of self-confidence, strength and self-reliance making him immune to
desperate obsession. I love the message that self love isn’t a bad thing,
liking yourself can be empowering
