The Librarians and the Happily Ever Afters – Director: Rod Hardy/Writers: Geoffrey Thorne, Jeremy Bernstein
This one starts with Flynn running from ninjas in Japan, summoned when he grabbed the sacred Oni Bell. Jenkins opens the Back Door for him and Flynn delivers the Bell, saying it’s the last of the artifacts they have to keep away from Prospero. Flynn is feeling pretty good, but he soon figures out something’s wrong when Jenkins doesn’t remember the other Librarians or Eve.
Flynn tests Jenkins for various magical forms of amnesia but comes up empty. Just as he’s about to try trepanation, the Clippings Book goes nuts
and Flynn sees that a sacred Salish totem pole has gone missing from Cicely Island in Puget Sound. He figures the others went there to solve the mystery and heads to Cicely himself. He soon runs into Eve, who’s the Sheriff of Cicely and (naturally) doesn’t remember him at all. The usual Library magic works and she thinks he’s there to investigate the missing totem. She introduces him to he rest of the team: Jacob, who teaches eleven subjects at the local university (even though 
Cicely only has a population of 2000); Cassandra, a physicist/astronaut, who’s been to the moon in between hosting TV shows and raising ponies; and Ezekiel, an FBI agent with the local branch. None of them remember Flynn, nor do they see the obvious inconsistencies in their lives. Things get interesting when Moriarty shows up, and get really interesting when he starts making out with Eve, his girlfriend.
Flynn pops back to the Annex to consult Jenkins, who says the others (who he still can’t remember) may be suffering from a self-reinforcing delusion,
which Jenkins may be under as well. He suggests finding the missing totem to break the spell, which means Flynn will have to play along with the others’ new lives as if they’re normal. Flynn goes back and joins the investigation, going out with Ezekiel to search for clues. Eve and Moriarty head to the docks, where they find out the ferry is broken down, which means not only could the totem not 
have left the island, but Flynn had no way of getting there. I’m not sure if Moriarty is under the same delusion as the others: he was asking Eve questions about Flynn, but we also see Eve’s badge and Moriarty’s pin glow when they start to question things too closely, and they quickly go back to their delusions. Flynn and Ezekiel get into a couple of bad guy chases (because that’s what FBI agents do), but don’t find any leads on the totem.
Flynn almost convinces the others that magic could exist, but Eve shows up to accuse him of being the one who took the totem. She points out that he’s
been lying about how he got to the island and that he’s the only stranger in town. Cassandra mentions another stranger and Ariel pops up to introduce herself, in the guise of a cute Celtic girl. She knows who Flynn is but Eve just assumes that Ariel and Flynn stole the totem together and tries to arrest them. Ariel freaks out about the handcuffs (no cold iron for a Fae) and she and Flynn head through the Back Door into the Annex, where Flynn and Jenkins quickly confine her inside a 
magic circle so she can’t take off. They quickly determine that Prospero is using Narrative Magic to give the others life stories that they would choose for themselves … happily ever after endings, in a manner of speaking. Ariel says the delusion is a mercy since it’ll protect them from whatever destruction Prospero wreaks on the world, but Flynn says they’re prisoners and wants to let them out. Ariel says he’ll have to get them to reject their fairytale lives, which no mortal has ever been able to do.
Eve and Moriarty organize the townspeople into a mob to hunt the fugitives, so Flynn decides to divide and conquer. He lures Ezekiel into an
alley and drags him through the Back Door to the Annex and into a magic circle. They soon grab the other three and confine them as well, giving Flynn the chance to tell them who they really are. He seems to get through to them, although it takes a kiss to break the spell on Eve (which delights Ariel to no end). Ariel reminds Flynn that 
they’ll all have to reject their happy ending lives and destroy the talismans holding them in thrall or they just go right back to their delusions. Ariel says the totem is still where it always was, it’s just invisible now, so they head back to Cicely to use it to destroy their delusions. Moriarty tries to stop them but Ariel knocks him out and they all head for the totem site, avoiding the mobs in the streets.
But Prospero knows they’re close to breaking the delusions, so he tempts them with various enticements. For Jacob it’s an invitation to lecture at the
Louvre from a very attractive French woman. Ezekiel gets an offer to join Interpol and Cassandra has the chance to be the first person on Mars. They all reject the offers because of something Prospero couldn’t possibly comprehend … none of them wants to abandon their friends. Eve’s temptation is a bit different; Moriarty (who has come to his senses because of the loosening of the spell) 
tells Eve that Cicely is a sanctuary from Prospero’s plans and that he asked Prospero to make it so Eve and the others could have a happy ending. Eve tells him that it isn’t real, just like their love (and Moriarty himself), before heading out to find the others. They congregate in the park and Ariel reveals the invisible totem. They all place their talismans in front of it and tell their real stories as Librarians to break the spell.
It works but Moriarty has roused the mob against them, so they have to flee through the Back Door. They end up outside the Annex instead of inside and
Ezekiel leads Cassandra and Jacob to look for another way in. Flynn tries to figure out what happened, but when Flynn can’t remember Jenkins Eve figures out hat he’s under Prospero’s spell and that his happily ever after is an endless series of puzzles that only he can solve. She uses a kiss to bring him out of it and he puts his talisman by the 
totem and asserts his true self. The totem vanishes and Jenkins emerges from the Annex with the others, with everyone’s memories back to normal. Jenkins tells them they were under the spell for three weeks, which gave Prospero time to supercharge Earth’s ley lines, which are now visible in the sky and probably herald the end of the world.
This is a pretty good episode that shows us what the characters’ lives might have been like if they’d been able to have their hearts’ desires. Except I
think their real happy endings are with each other as Librarians, which is why they were able to throw off Prospero’s spells. Their feelings for each other and their sense of belonging in the Library was stronger than any fairytale life they might have imagined before. Apparently, Prospero used them to power up his ley line spell, so it’ll 
be interesting to see how they defeat him in the season finale. Ariel was cute and I liked how she flitted around babbling and ruminating on things, just like a real sprite would. Hayley McLaughlin (who’s apparently Scottish, although she sounded Irish here to me) did a really good job and I hope we see Ariel again.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I also have ponies.” Cassandra living the dream.
- “I still remember walking on the moon … well, bouncing, really.” Cassandra having trouble throwing off the delusion.
- “Stop, Office of Tourism!” Flynn laying his role while helping FBI Agent Jones.