The Librarians and the Horns of a Dilemma – Director: Marc Roskin/Writer: Jeremy Bernstein
This one starts with a guy running through the halls of an office building, being chased by … something. He begs a couple of robed figures for help but they just watch as he’s dragged off to his death. The robed figures turn out to be two executives, who take the murder in stride as they discuss where to have lunch.
In Washington State, we see Eve stalking and defeating Jacob, Ezekiel, and Cassandra in record time. They’re eager to start investigating some of the
mysteries that appear every day in the Clippings Book, but Eve says they’re nowhere near ready. Jenkins reminds her that previous Librarians had no training at all and when they point out what seems to be a simple case of eight people missing from around the country (including Henry Birch, the guy we saw die in the teaser), Eve 
decides to let them look into it. Turns out all the missing people had internships at Golden Axe Foods, based in Boston. Jenkins shows them the Back Door, a portal he’s rigged up to use symbolic resonance so that it can lead to any other door anywhere on Earth (although he warns it may not be 100% reliable, so I guess it’ll work whenever the plot needs it to). They use the door (which Cassandra explains as a type of wormhole) to go to Boston.
They talk to Golden Axe’s CEO Karen Willis (played by Tricia Helfer), who seems shocked that so many interns have disappeared, although Eve
obviously thinks she’s hiding something. When Eve mentions her counter-terrorism credentials, Willis tells her assistant (Franklin) to show them to Human Resources so they can look at the missing interns’ files. Eve tells the others to go to HR while she checks out the server room to see if there’s any info on the 
missing interns. Franklin puts the others on an elevator to HR, then follows Eve. The Librarians get off the elevator and start looking for HR, not noticing the elevator door disappearing behind them. Eve knocks Franklin out and steals his keycard, getting into the server room but instead of computers, it’s full of Minoan artifacts. The others find themselves lost in a sub-basement and when they finally find HR, it’s full of human skulls.
When Eve sends Jacob photos of the artifacts, he soon realizes they’re Minoan and that he and the others are trapped in the Labyrinth. Eve calls
Jenkins and tells him what’s going on, urging him to find a way to open a portal through the Back Door into the Labyrinth, even though he says that could be dangerous since the Labyrinth itself is multi-dimensional. Eve makes her way into the Labyrinth to find the others, who are hopelessly lost and worried they might run into the Minotaur at any time. Jacob still doesn’t trust Cassandra, who reminds 
him she only betrayed them to try to save herself from the tumour in her head. Cassandra uses her mathematical talents to map out the Labyrinth, leading them to Eve … just in time for the Minotaur to show up. They barricade themselves in a room where Jenkins manages to open a door (upside-down) into the Annex, allowing them to escape the Minotaur just in time.
Willis isn’t happy that Eve got into the artifact room and tells Franklin to find out everything he can about her. She’s less worried about the others,
since she believes the Labyrinth to be unescapable. Jenkins tells the Librarians that the Labyrinth is powered by magic focused through the Minoan artifacts and controlled by the original ball of thread that was in the “server room”. If they can remove the thread, the whole maze will collapse in on itself. Eve worries about not being able to kill the Minotaur, but Jenkins says the Library didn’t choose her as Guardian because she’s good at killing. They discuss the original myth and realize Golden Axe is sacrificing young people to insure their own 
prosperity, which means there will be at least six more murders very soon. When they head back to Boston, Cassandra soon realizes they’re actually back in the Labyrinth, being stalked by the Minotaur (who has now taken human form). Jenkins speculates that the Labyrinth might have gotten a mystical hold on them and doesn’t want to let go. He says he’ll try to buy them a little time by placing a dimensional bubble around them that even the Minotaur can’t see through. But it’ll only last five minutes … if that.
Eve figures out that Franklin’s keycard kept her from getting lost earlier, so they decide to go the artifact room and shut the Labyrinth down from there.
Cassandra maps the Labyrinth out for them and says she and Ezekiel will find the centre and get the thread, which leaves Eve and Jacob to draw the Minotaur away. Cassandra is overwhelmed trying to map out all the twists of the maze (which looks like an Escher drawing), but Ezekiel helps her focus and offers to be her eyes as she calls out directions. They find the artifact room, but Willis is waiting for them. 
She’s curious why there’s so much magic in the air lately, making the usual sacrifice even more powerful. She’s about to kill Ezekiel when Cassandra jumps on her. Meanwhile, Eve and Jacob get back to the Annex, pursued by the Minotaur. Ezekiel gets the thread and throws it into the Labyrinth, which collapses the maze and makes the Minotaur vanish. The thread reaches the Annex, where Eve, Jacob, and Jenkins pull the others in, leaving Willis and Franklin to be stalked by the pissed-off Minotaur. Later, Cassandra tries to clear things up with Jacob
and he admits that he hasn’t told any of his friends or family about being a genius because he doesn’t trust them enough. But he did trust Cassandra and the others at the Library (since they’re also geniuses), so when she betrayed that trust he figured it was better to keep her at arm’s length, even though he does actually like her. Eve tells them she’ll try to stop treating them like soldiers and more like partners.
This is a really good episode that gives us a good dose of Greek myth and 
lets us see how the Librarians are learning to work together. Eve has to change her mindset and remember that the Librarians aren’t soldiers and were chosen for their intellectual gifts. It was interesting to hear Jacob’s explanation as to why he’s so standoffish with Cassandra, although I assume he’ll get more friendly to her as the series goes on. It was cool to see Cassandra getting physical, and we got some inside references to Nicolas Flamel, the Wandering Jew, and the Black Mask.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I am here to do science and math … and occasionally hallucinate.” Cassandra defining her role on the team.
- “So, annoying or cryptic, those are your two speeds, huh?” Eve summing up Jenkins in a few words.
- “Back off … I’m doing math.” Cassandra giving Ezekiel shit for getting impatient with her.