The Librarians 1.05: "And the Apple of Discord"

“Over the years I chose again and again. Each time, a little bit of hope. Lots of blood but nothing really changed.”
- Jenkins

As you may have noticed, our ragtag bunch of heroes has been finding their feet and working together now for a bit without any assistance from the Head Librarian. That all changes after we see a couple in Japan get attacked by what looks like a sort of geyser. Or it might be an earthquake. It seems both are going on right now and just as Eve and Jenkins are trying to delegate some tasks, Flynn shows up and announces that dragons are awakening. He starts giving orders for what needs to happen without a second thought. Eve isn’t particularly happy about this and she makes it known that he’s messing with their system. Unfortunately, he’s from very briefly in the future (weird) and the representative of the Eastern Dragons (yes there are Eastern and Western and they’ve been feuding for three millennia) shows up and Zeke answers the door. So now Zeke speaks for the Library. They’re only mildly screwed (he was answering the door expecting pizza).

After some pantomime that was rather painful, Zeke chooses Jenkins as his counsel and they wait for the Eastern Dragon rep (who is in the guise of a man) to list out his grievances. And since there hasn’t been an intersession between the dragon clans since 1906, the list is quite lengthy. Flynn, Eve, Cassie ad Jake go in search of the sacred Pearl that the Western gang supposedly stole. According to Flynn, the last known hide out was in Rome, just off the Vatican. So they take the Back Door to Rome, only to realize as the Pope (maybe) walks by that they are actually in the Vatican. So they hightail it out of there and thanks to a combo of Cassie and Jake, they figure out the puzzle into the entrance. Flynn is kind of impressed that they managed to get in without Cassie going bonkers. As much as I adore Noah Wylie (I’m getting to like him even more as I binge watch Falling Skies), he’s kind of messing with the team dynamic and it’s a little annoying. As they are heading down into the hang out, Flynn admits he isn’t really any closer to finding the Library. But at least they avoid being impaled by lots of flying arrows when they find three pearls just sitting out in the open.

Flynn figures out that the arrows are triggered by sound and so he goes running around with basically a table on his head while Jake determines which pearl is the correct one. As soon as he does, he starts acting really aggressive and leaves the rest of the team behind. He heads off to a museum while Flynn, Eve and Cassie run into a dragon (or at least its eye) and learn that the Western Dragons didn’t take the pearl. Oh boy. The drama gets even more intense when Jake starts trying to steal paintings. Luckily, Eve stops him and after he drops the pearl (and it shatters), he’s fine. But Cassie picks it up and she realizes that she’s dangerous and she kind of likes it.

Meanwhile, back at the library, the intersession turns into a Conclave where other supernatural factions show up. Jenkins thinks Zeke can’t handle it but Zeke proves him wrong which was rather cool, at least until the head of the Serpent Brotherhood shows up eating Zeke’s pizza. The bastard! Jenkins just flat out gets up and leaves the table. And Lamia corners a rather scantily clad Cassie in the museum. Evil Cassie takes out Lamia with some pressure points thanks to her brain grape and then heads off to figure out what she can do with a power plant. Yeah that’s going to be horrible. Once Eve, Flynn and Jake get past the Italian authorities (and determine that what Jake and Cassie actually had was the apple of discord which presents the worst version of a person), they have to go find Cassie before she blows up half of Europe.

Back at the Annex, Zeke tries to protect the Library when the Serpent Brotherhood guy starts planting seeds of doubt in the Library’s function and effectiveness but he’s not having much luck. It seems the Brotherhood would rather have itself in charge (no surprise there). Zeke finds Jenkins packing up his car and running and when Zeke calls him on it, Jenkins tries to justify it by saying that he mad choices again and again and nothing changed and bad things happened. Zeke is determined to keep the Library safe and bring the Brotherhood down a peg or two while he’s at it. I like that we are getting to see a little more from Zeke rather than the slightly dorky thief. I like that he’s finding some heart and some conviction for what he believes in. This episode doesn’t really inspire much faith in Jenkins (and I still think he’s a somewhat poor substitute for Judson). And all it took was a commercial break for Jenkins to get his wits back and bail Zeke out of trouble. He pulls out some archaic regs that require reading the last conclave’s minutes are super long. Unfortunately, the head of the Brotherhood gets fed up and angrily calls for a vote of no confidence in Zeke and to eliminate the Library.

Out in Rome, Cassie is quite happily putting her theories into motion when the rest of the gang shows up and eventually talks her down (apparently the number 6 shuts her off). Unfortunately Flynn and Eve grab the apple at the same time and do a little angry flirty dance until she punches him. Flynn manages to nab the apple back just as Lamia shows up and gets foiled again. Flynn is on a power trip all his own with the weight of ten years as the solo Librarian and the losses he’s suffered. They need to get the apple back before shit really hits the fan.

Things actually work out in the end even though Flynn goes back to the Library and ranting about wanting to give up the Library but it’s some quick work by Zeke and Jenkins that saves the day. Zeke is apparently the worst version of himself every day so the apple doesn’t affect him. And Zeke calls out the Eastern Dragon representative for nabbing the pearl in the first placed to kick this whole thing off. But really it was the head of the Brotherhood, whom Jenkins confronts outside the Annex. They’ve got 1,000 years of shared history and I have a feeling it might be as brothers. We’ll have to see how long we get these characters for to learn just how deep their connection goes. And Flynn gives Eve the choice to stay or go and she stays but insists he needs to go continue his search for the Library. Overall it wasn’t my favorite episode but it did have some good character moments for a few of our team members.