We see evidence of perhaps the most dangerous, most powerful, most evil dark magic we’ve ever seen on this show.
People excited over golf. Golf people! Human sacrifice must be involved!
Until the main golfer who is doing so well suddenly
spontaneously combusts. He is also disqualified because he did something
interesting in a golf match. Totally against the rules.
Of course spontaneous combustion is definitely a Librarian
thing. Kind of. Jenkins and Flynn are both clear they’ve never come across
magical spontaneous combustion before. But, hey, there’s a first time for
everything.
More investigating leads to the golfer’s wife who informs
them that her husband was dying of cancer before he went to a spa and totally
got better.
Uh-huh
Then they open some curtains and she burns to ash when
exposed to sunlight.
Time to go visit this spa. There they the owner and her
son Tomas and daughter Estrella who runs the place. It’s a beautiful, amazing
place all organic and shiny and with special shiny rocks in the soil.
There’s also very clear chemistry between Estrella and
Cassandra. And normally I’m the first to frown at subtext but this is not
subtle.
Everything seems on the level but Cassandra is troubled.
She’s just come back from her brain surgeon: the tumour has grown to a level
where he’s shocked she’s still mobile. He doesn’t have a prognosis for how long
she has to live, because she has no time left. Needless to say that a spa that
promises miracle cures and only offers false hope (and “peace of mind” touches
some very raw nerves with her)
While Jake and Ezekiel discover some of the staff don’t have reflections! Vampires!
Back to the Library and I’ll get back to the whole
vampire thing but there is something far more amazing in this episode
Cassandra asks Jenkins on a date. Did not see that
coming. Did not see that coming at all
He protests their age gap – and she points out he’s a
damn immortal there’s a vast age gap between him and EVERYTHING. Though he does
make a point that he’s so old he’s virtually a different species from normal
humans; which he has a point. She, angrily and with visible pain, points to
what he’s truly afraid of: losing someone, loving and then them dying and him
hurting. She is also deeply frustrated by him having all this life he doesn’t
use… when she has so little
Ouch…. So much ouch. Librarians who knew you had this in
you?
He falls back on him once being in love. He loved a woman
and though he chose someone else he swore to love her. And as a knight h won’t
put that aside: oh what tragic courtly love.
Remember he’s a knight this will be relevant.
Cassandra and Jenkins… I can see it.
Everything else is completely anticlimactic after that –
vampires cannot compete.
Ezekiel and Jake are all up for stabbing some vampires
but Jenkins and Cassandra object to murdering people for what they are. Or, as
Jenkins points out, killing people who are “trapped in this existence” ouch…
look at that Freudian. Instead they have to go back to investigating
They do – and the vampires running the place are happy to
admit they’re vampires- but deny doing anything to kill people. Yes they can
walking in the sunlight – but only in their little paradise spa. Turns out
there’s super special meteor diamonds in the soil that protect vampires from
sunlight. They will co-operate and let them snoop everywhere
Ezekiel and Jake do this to find some of the vampire
employees are, indeed, performing experiments on the guests to see how long
they can live with various rock-based products to see whether they can walk in
the sunlight and leave their beautiful garden. They’re making progress but
leaving piles of dead ashy people in their investigative wake.
They try to bring this evidence to the owner of the spa –
who is dead. Someone has ashed her. This doesn’t make Tomas and Estrealla very
happy and things get tense. Jake and Ezekiel end up confronting a pack of
vampires who are all for human testing. How can they fight a horde of vampires?
Well, Jenkins has discovered that Cassandra has visited a
surgeon – and because that surgeon knows nothing of professional ethics, he
learns Cassandra is dying right now unless she has surgery. He surges into
action – and when he runs into that pack of vampires, with his sword, we’re
powerfully reminded that Jenkins is Sir Galahad, thousand year old knight of
the round table. And that he’s made of awesome and not to be trifled with.
While Cassandra tries to talk to Estrella, reveals she
has figured out how the rocks really make people sun-proof and Tomas let’s it slip
that he is behind it all. Estrella is horrified, rejects the idea of becoming a
sun-walking vampire if it costs this much evil. She and her brother fight – and
when he goes for Cassandra she hands a stake Estrella and she stakes her
brother to save Cassandra.
This could be dramatic but Cassandra faints and falls not
into Estrella’s arms – but Jenkins.
He hurries her to hospital and Cassandra frets: without her
tumour will she lose her excellent ability to visualise equations and do genius
stuff. Of course the gang is quick to assure her she’s a Librarian because of
who she is – not because of her tumour. I’m almost a little disappointed that
this hasn’t been expanded: with Cassandra having to chose between a cure and
thinking she may lose her gift: may lose being a Librarian, something which
means so very much to her. It would have really developed this beautiful
conflict.
She goes into surgery, surrounded by her loving Librarian
family and wakes up to find her gift has gone into utter overdrive. Can she see
through walls and manipulated minds now? Wait, what what what what?!
From surgery she goes to see Estrella, acknowledges their
connection, talks about how Estrella inspired her by choosing her own life.
Estrella makes another offer to become a vampire which Cassandra turns down:
but leaves it open. And they seal it with a kiss
Actual LGBT representation in Librarians! It’s taken 3
seasons but we’ve got there – and we’re now seeing one of the main characters
as a bisexual woman. This is definitely an excellent thing. I have one concern
though:
Santuary, Van
Helsing, Witches of East End, Almighty Johnsons we have a pattern of shows
revealing a major female character as bisexual in one episode – then make sure
they’re heavily invested in an opposite sex relationship or that their
bisexuality is never mentioned again. I said 3 seasons there – Cassandra has
been here since the beginning but her bisexuality is only revealed AFTER we
firmly step on her (awesome) romance plot line with Jenkins? And
this tends to happen when we see an LGBT character who is prominent, especially
protagonist or co-protagonist.
It’s still awesome. Definitely awesome. But how it’s
handled from here determines how awesome
And Jenkins? Of course Jenkins is awesome.
