Librarians Reviews: Season 2, Episode 5

The Librarians and the Hollow Men – Director: Noah Wyle/Writer: Geoffrey Thorne

This one starts with Eve, Ezekiel, and Jacob breaking into a museum to retrieve the Eye of Zarathustra, one of the artifacts that have mysteriously disappeared from the Library. This particular artifact is the first to re-appear in public, donated to the collection by an anonymous benefactor (according to the emails Ezekiel hacked). Flynn shows up at the museum too, thinking Prospero might want the Eye to lead him to the Staff of Zarathustra as a replacement for his own staff. Ezekiel gets the Eye and immediately drops it and while he and Jacob chase it, Eve and Flynn argue about teamwork and communication. They realize someone used the Eye to lure them all into a trap but it’s too late; someone uses the Flutes of Pan to put them to sleep. Back in the Annex, Cassandra and Jenkins have been listening through a magic communication pendant, but they soon have bigger problems when the Library goes wild and starts shaking like it’s in the middle of an earthquake.

When Eve, Ezekiel, and Jacob wake up, both Flynn and the Eye are gone. Because of the instability in the Library, the Back Door isn’t completely reliable, but they do manage to get back to the Annex. Luckily, Flynn took the crystal from Eve, so they can communicate with him. He’s in a metal room with the missing artifacts (including the Eye) and it looks like someone’s been studying the Librarians very closely. A big guy with a booming voice (Ray Glazny) comes in and takes the Eye, forcing Flynn to sit down. Flynn uses Chinese Telegraph Code to send a message through the pendant, but Ray finds out and smashes it. Ray seems kinda out of it and wants Flynn’s help to find the Staff of Zarathustra. But since he caught Flynn in a lie, he knocks him out again. The others track the magical energy from the artifacts to a shipyard in Maryland, but when they open a shipping container with a powerful magical signal, Flynn isn’t there (though the artifacts are). Turns out he and Ray are in a Bookmobile somewhere out in the country.

Flynn and Ray go to a diner and Flynn admits he can’t read Ray at all, which makes sense since Ray has no idea who he is and wants Flynn to help restore his memories. Ray does know about magic and believes it should be kept somewhere safe instead of being out in the world, a sentiment Flynn agrees with. At the shipyards, Eve and the others are gathering the artifacts when Moriarty shows up with some thugs. They take off with the artifacts and the thugs chase them, leaving Moriarty to marvel at Ray’s collection of Librarian material. Eve stops to slow the thugs down, so she isn’t able to follow the others through the unstable portal back to the Annex. At the diner, Ray is sucking back the milkshakes and has some kind of painful attack like his head is about to split open. No, it’s not brain freeze from the milkshakes; Ray says he’s been having the attacks for about four months and can’t remember anything before that. Since the Library has been acting up for four months, and since Ray can apparently produce artifacts from the Library at random, Flynn figures Ray is the Library, at least its consciousness. He realizes that if Ray can’t get his memory back the Library might cease to exist, so he promises to help find the Staff of Zarathustra.

At the Annex, Jenkins has figured out that the Library is missing its consciousness (or spirit, if you prefer) and tells the others it will die if it doesn’t get that missing part back. Things get darker as the Library feeds on itself, but Jenkins figures they can stave off the end (for a while) by using Ghost Lights, which absorb life energy from theatres all over the world. At the shipyard, Moriarty proposes an alliance between himself and Eve, pointing out that he can use Ariel to track Ray very quickly, but needs Eve to drive since he’s never learned that skill. He reminds her that he serves Prospero unwillingly and Eve figures she can trust him to betray the magician as long as it benefits Moriarty in the end. He says that the two of them are planners or builders, while people like Flynn (and Sherlock Holmes) are runners, never settling down and always looking for another problem to solve. Flynn and Ray end up out in the Pennsylvania woods looking for the Staff, drawn by some power Ray says emanates from the Eye. Flynn has a million questions but naturally Ray can’t answer any of them. When they have trouble finding the temple, Ray gets despondent but Flynn figures out the riddle and uncovers the entrance.

They head inside and run into some Sumerian traps, but Flynn is up to the challenge, getting them past the flying arrows of the first trap. They work together to get through a fire trap and find the Staff, but Flynn is shocked when Eve and Moriarty show up too. While they’re discussing things, Ray grabs the Staff and is engulfed by magical energy. His memory starts coming back but he’s overwhelmed by all the knowledge flooding back into him. He refuses to let go of the Staff though, saying it’s too powerful. In the Annex, the last lights are going out and Jenkins tells the others to leave, saying he’ll stay behind to let the Library feed off him. He figures since he’s an immortal, it will take longer, but the others refuse to leave him there alone. In the temple, both Flynn and Eve volunteer to take the Staff from Ray, but he says it’ll kill them. Moriarty points out the obvious: since he’s technically not a real person, the Staff can’t hurt him. Eve isn’t happy about it, but Moriarty takes the Staff, restoring Ray to normal. His memories come back but they still have to get him reintegrated with the Library. It works and the Library is restored, although the mess still needs to be cleaned up.

This was a pretty good episode, giving us a reason for the weird stuff happening in the Library this season and coming up with a solution for it as well. Moriarty’s offer to ally with them temporarily makes sense; I always figured he’d betray Prospero sooner or later. His hints to Eve about them being more alike than her and Flynn seem calculated to drive a wedge between those two, even though Moriarty’s technically right. His ploy might have worked, since it kinda seems like Eve and Flynn broke up at the end of the episode, with him heading off again to look for Prospero and her staying behind to help the team. Having the Library’s spirit manifest as a person was interesting (and it figures he’d be driving a Bookmobile), but I wish we’d gotten a bit more from him in the end. He could’ve at least told Flynn (and us) what was in the permanently locked room in the sub-sub-basement.

Favourite Quotes:

• “Cassandra, please do not fangirl over the arch-villain.” Eve dampening Cassandra’s excitement over Moriarty agreeing with her scientific theory of magic.
• “Again with the Q.E.D.” Eve getting upset with Moriarty’s pretentious turn of phrase.