The Librarians and the Point of Salvation – Director: Jonathan Frakes/Writer: Jeremy Bernstein
This one starts at a top secret DARPA research lab where a team (one of whom is playing a first-person shooter video game when he’s supposed to be working) has put together a computer using an unknown material that lets the computer work faster than any before it … basically a shortcut to quantum computing. During a demonstration for a bigwig general, the core overloads and everyone tries to evacuate.
At the Annex, Jenkins summons the sprite called Puck to ask for information about Prospero and what he’s planning. Despite Puck tempting
him with answers about his own fate, Jenkins sticks to the formula (three answers freely given), but Puck says he will need to go out for a while to discover Prospero’s intentions. Meanwhile, Cassandra and Jenkins figure out that DARPA was using Atlantean Thaumatite in their quantum computer, which explains why things went so catastrophic since misuse of Thaumatite was responsible to the destruction 
of Atlantis. They head to the research lab, where the team are wiping the servers and taking off before setting a self-destruct. Eve realizes the place is going to blow up, so she tries to get everyone back through the door to the Annex, but they just end up right back into the lab again … except this time it’s empty and eerily quiet.
The connection to the Annex is severed, so they have to get out the old-fashioned way. But they run into the general, who has turned into some
kind of rage-zombie and attacks them. Eve’s gun doesn’t work, but Jacob uses a crowbar to better effect. Cassandra discovers some corrupted code in the computer program and figures the magic from the Thaumatite could have affected people’s higher brain function. She says if they shut down the main computer and remove the Thaumatite, that should get things back to normal. Ezekiel spots some taser 
plates in the floor but when he tries to hack the electronic lock to the computer core, he sets off an alarm, which surprises him since he’s opened many locks like that before without a problem. They’re overwhelmed and killed by rage-zombies, but end up coming through the door into the lab again. Ezekiel realizes they’re in a time loop like the movie Groundhog Day (or the Xena episode Been There Done That), but he’s the only one aware of it.
He manages to convince the others, but Eve gets killed by the rage-zombie general because Ezekiel forgot to make sure Jacob picked up the crowbar.
They start another time loop and this time Jacob kills the zombie-general. Ezekiel has trouble with the computer lab lock again but figures he can just keep trying different wires until he gets the right one, since they’re in a time loop anyway. But none of the wires work and Cassandra ends up opening the lock by rewiring it to match some kind of musical frequencies, which Ezekiel says makes no sense. They take the Thaumtite from the core, but that just sets off an alarm and brings a horde of rage-zombies to kill them again. On the next loop, Cassandra theorizes that the computer glitch 
and the magical element is causing them to jump back in time whenever one of them dies, so if they can get outside the area that should put them outside the effect. But they have to get through a room with a coolant leak, so Jacob takes a wrench to shut it down. He can’t do it alone and Ezekiel burns his hands on a super-heated pipe, but that gets them outside. Before they can get through the gate, they’re caught and killed by rage-zombies.
They keep trying but can’t make it past the gate and after a few dozen attempts, Ezekiel is getting traumatized by watching his friends die
horribly over and over. Ezekiel goes nuts and starts smashing stuff with the crowbar, which reveals a health pack and a grenade. He realizes they’re not in a time loop, they’re in a video game. The lab is the save point where they respawn after one of them dies and they have to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles to get through, with rewards along the way like the health pack. Once he convinces the others (by shooting Jacob and healing him), Cassandra figures the 
corrupted code in the computer could have come from a video game (obviously the one the lab guy was playing earlier) that got mixed with reality because of the Thaumatite. Ezekiel is the “player” and the others are his sidekicks and he figures out that the gate is a ruse to trick the player, so thee must be another way out. Ezekiel is still tired of seeing his friends die, so he locks them in a room and goes off to beat the game alone.
He finds a new path to the next save point, but has to use Jacob, Cassandra, and Eve to help at various points, learning enough about engineering, physics, and fighting to get through. But he and Eve just can’t make it past
the horde of rage-zombies to the save point, so he decides to cheat a bit, climbing up to the roof to bypass the final challenge completely. That gets him to the save point, but it also seems to crash the game. Because the game is glitching, Ezekiel can’t spawn the health pack or kill the rage-general to prove he’s telling the truth, so he gives a heartfelt speech begging his friends to trust him and follow him without question … which they do. They make it through but naturally there’s one final challenge … the path to the end point collapses before they can get across. Ezekiel uses grenades to rocket jump the others across the 
gap. It works but Ezekiel runs out of grenades and ends up jumping into the gap to end the game. The system crashes and the others respawn in the lab, but they reset the system to bring Ezekiel back to life (along with all the zombified personnel). Unfortunately, Ezekiel doesn’t remember all his heroic and selfless acts no matter how many times the others describe them … at least, he says he doesn’t. Puck returns to tell Jenkins of Prospero’s plan to get rid of the Librarians, which he says is happening immediately. Jenkins tries to warn them but he’s too late, watching them go through the Back Door but apparently forgetting their very existence a moment later as a wave of magic sweeps through the Annex.
This is a pretty good episode, with Ezekiel getting a chance to shine and show that he’s more than just flash and ego. He realizes he actually does
care about the others like family (although there is a funny scene where he gets tired of Jacob insulting him and lets him get zapped by the floor taser trap), just as he realizes he needs their skills to augment his own. I’m not sure if he really does remember what happened in the end and is just bullshitting the others when he claims to have forgotten, or if he really did forget everything because he never technically made it to the save point. Either way, he 
certainly knows how he feels about his friends, even if he covers it up with bluster. The magical wave of forgetfulness that hit Jenkins is interesting; is it something Prospero did, or a result of the Librarians’ actions? Jenkins was surprised at the destination they were headed for before his amnesia kicked in, so I guess we’ll have to wait until next episode to see where they went and what they did to alter reality.
Favourite Quotes:
- “DARPA does terrifying enough things with science alone: stealth bombers, drones, internet comment sections.” Jenkins expressing his disdain for military intelligence.
- “That is not how grenades work!” Eve expressing skepticism at the rocket jump idea.
- “Crazy? So on a scale of running from minotaurs to Santa Claus is now our best mate, where would time loops fall?” Ezekiel pointing out that Jacob not believing n the time loop doesn’t make much sense.