The Librarians and the Fables of Doom – Director: Jonathan Frakes/Writer: Kate Rorick
If you’re wondering why Episode 6 is here instead of Episode 4, it’s because I’m mostly following the production order instead of the airing order for the episodes. I think it works better for the overall season arc and especially for the development of the characters and their relationships to each other. This one starts with three vehicles crossing a bridge. Just as the biggest one crosses, it’s grabbed and tossed in the river by what looks like a giant hand.
Eve, Cassandra, Ezekiel, and Jacob show up (with the magic portal depositing them in a public bathroom) in Bremen, Washington to check out
the truck “accident”. The local sheriff (Heyer) doesn’t seem curious about why librarians are investigating a crash site. When they look a little closer, Cassandra notices a pattern on the truck window that turns out to be a giant fingerprint. When they tell Jenkins about it, he suggests it might be a troll and asks them to get a photo (or better yet, a sample) so he can identify it. When Eve wonders how they can defeat a troll, Jenkins reminds her that trolls are inert during daylight 
hours. Eve and Ezekiel find the troll under the bridge and are glad to see it’s been turned to stone. Jacob and Cassandra look at surveillance footage and Jacob thinks the three vehicles (one small, one medium, and one large) crossing the bridge sounds familiar. They’re interrupted by the mayor jogging by completely naked … although he doesn’t seem to realize he has no clothes on.
Sheriff Heyer mentions some other strange occurrences around town: voices from a barn full of animals, a missing girl, and an old woman stuck in an oven. When they meet to compare notes, they’re interrupted by a giant
wolf (wearing an old lady’s nightcap) threatening a young woman. Jacob kills it with a fireman’s axe and they realize that fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Emperor’s New Clothes, Three Billy Goats Gruff) are coming to life. Back at the Annex, Jenkins lists all the possible artifacts and curses (57 of them!) that could cause fairy tales to manifest. He eliminates quite a few, narrowing it down to the Mother Goose Treaty of 1918, or Aesop’s Lyre. He asks them to bring 
the dead wolf back so he can examine it. The wolf is being kept at the local bar (since it’s the only place with a big enough freezer), so Eve and Cassandra distract the owner while Jacob and Ezekiel steal the wolf carcass. Every woman in the bar seems fascinated by Cassandra for some reason, while Eve has let her hair down (literally). Jacob and Ezekiel get lucky when they find an unlocked truck with the keys in it right outside the bar.
At the annex, Jenkins says if the wolf is stuffed with feathers, then the Mother Goose Treaty is causing the trouble. Jacob deftly guts the wolf and
pulls out … a girl dressed in red. Jenkins realizes it’s the Libris Fabula that’s making fairy tales come true, which worries him since using the book takes a heavy toll. We see an old man (Maguire) reading the Libris Fabula to a girl (Jamie) in hospital, and he seems to be getting some kind of energy from the book even as the girl gets weaker. At the hospital, Red Riding Hood (or whatever her real name is) seems to be enamoured of Cassandra, even though Jacob is the one who saved her. She says she skipped out of work early to attend a concert and 
doesn’t remember what happened afterwards. Jenkins warns them that the Libris will eventually end up rewriting reality, but says it has to feed off people to power it. Eve suggests he and Cassandra check hospital records for unexplained deaths, while she and Jacob check out the local library to see who might’ve found the Libris. Ezekiel (who the sheriff suspects of … something) gets lucky again, with a bunch of change falling out of a vending machine. One particular coin rolls away and he chases it.
Jenkins and Cassandra find some weird medical cases, but nothing about anyone whose illness might be powering the book. Jenkins mentions that some of the cases around town are filling various archetypes and there are plenty more that haven’t been encountered yet. Eve (whose shoe keeps
falling off) and Jacob go to the library and meet Maguire, who just happens to be the librarian. (as opposed to a Librarian). He tells them he got a bunch of antique books from a bequest by a guy named Thompson Dieter, a name Jacob recognizes. Unfortunately, Maguire won’t let them near the collection. Ezekiel follows the coin to Jamie’s room and when she says she’s dying, he figures she should have some fun before the end. He teaches her to pick locks and she mentions she first got sick at the library, but says she doesn’t have any books in her room except on reading day. Ezekiel leaves her the coin before taking off.
At the bar (where Cassandra is really leaning into being a chick magnet), 
Eve and Jacob tell her about the old books. Ezekiel shows up and tries to tell them about Jamie, but they won’t listen. Things get complicated when Sheriff Heyer (who’s Jamie’s dad) tries to arrest Ezekiel. When Ezekiel resists, he starts huffing and puffing and blows out the windows in the bar. The Librarians get away, but Heyer deputizes the local football team (the Wolves) to hunt them down. As they’re hiding the Librarians realize they’ve turned into archetypes themselves: Cassandra is Prince Charming, Jacob is the Huntsman (complete with owl), and Eve 
is a princess. Jenkins reminds them that even heroes can have grisly ends in fairy tales, except the Jack, the lovable rogue who has more than his fair share of luck. Guess who that is. They run into Bo Peep, Pinocchio, and a giant beanstalk, so they figure they’d better get the civilians to safety. That’s easy thanks to Cassandra charming all the women into following her, although they do end up being chased by the wolves.
Ezekiel goes to the hospital and finds Maguire reading a new story (reflecting what’s happening with the others) to Jamie. Turns out Maguire
knows exactly what he’s doing, stealing Jamie’s life force to rejuvenate himself. Eve and the others lead the civilians to the library, but Maguire’s story brings the wolves straight to them. Eve warns Ezekiel that he has to save them (since the story works for him instead of against him), and Cassandra gives a rousing speech about defeating their enemies, which gets all the watching women (including Eve) pretty worked up. As the trio fight the wolves (with Eve losing her combat skills and Cassandra gaining some), Ezekiel fights Maguire for control of 
the book, telling his own narrative that helps his teammates, but Maguire’s tale seems to kill them. Ezekiel uses the coin he gave Jamie to freeze Maguire and has Jamie give the story a happy ending, which lets the others defeat the wolves and banishes Maguire into the book. Everyone in town (including Jamie) is fine and the Librarians bring the Libris Fabula back to the Annex (and Jenkins takes all the other antique books from the library).
This is a really good episode, that lets us get to know the characters a bit
more and puts them into a situation where they don’t really have control over what’s happening. It was cool to see them turning into archetypes and I like how their roles weren’t the obvious ones (except maybe for Ezekiel), with Cassandra being Prince Charming and Eve turning into an insipid Princess. Having Maguire aware of what he’s doing makes him much more of a true villain than if he’d been hurting people accidentally. He says that he gave his life to the town
and ended up being overlooked, so he wanted to take their life force in exchange. It was cool to see Ezekiel as the rogue being the one to save the day, although he ended up being insufferable about it afterwards. I liked the list of artifacts and curses that Jenkins made; I wonder if we’ll see more of those in future episodes?
Favourite Quotes:
- “But it’s so much fun.” Ezekiel telling Eve why he likes antagonizing local law enforcement.
- “Cryptic and annoying … a twofer.” Eve commenting on Jenkins’s vague advice about the troll.
- “You don’t get out much, do you?” Eve commenting on Jenkins’s fascination with a vending machine.