The Librarians and the Eternal Question – Director: Noah Wyle/Writers: Kate Rorick, Nicole Ranadive
This one starts with a guy named Seth in a golf tournament in South Carolina. He’s doing really well but his wife (Cece) is worried about him. Apparently Seth was sick with something serious but he got better. He does seem to be sweating a lot and when he goes to tee off on the next hole, he suddenly bursts into flames and burns up.
At the Library, Jacob and Ezekiel argue whether spontaneous human combustion is possible or not as they prepare to head to South Carolina.
Cassandra says she’s heading to New York to consult an old professor about the subject, but doesn’t want any company because he’s kinda touchy. Flynn tells Eve hat Charlene left a message for her encoded in the ledgers that points to Alaska, near the military base where Eve lived as a child. So they all go their separate ways, with Jacob and Ezekiel going to South Carolina to talk to Seth’s widow, Cece. She tells them Seth had terminal cancer until they stumbled 
on a cure at some kind of wellness retreat. She starts looking for the brochure but when Ezekiel opens the curtains and the sun hits her, Cece bursts into flames and disappears just like Seth. In New York, we see Cassandra was lying about where she was going. She’s at a hospital where the doctor tells her they need to operate immediately to keep her tumour from killing her. But she refuses the surgery and leaves.
Back at the Library, Cassandra doesn’t mention her diagnosis but she does ask Jenkins out on a date. He tells her he’s way too old for her (WAY too old), but she isn’t deterred. The discussion is tabled as she has to join the
others in checking out the retreat where Seth was supposedly cured of his cancer, Vida de la Luz. The retreat seems idyllic, with plenty of people meditating, doing tai chi, painting, gardening, and generally relaxing. The owner Sophia and her two kids (Tomas and Estrella) explain that the resort is self-sufficient and most people don’t want to leave once they arrive. Cassandra figures the cause of Seth and Cece’s deaths cold be environmental (something they ingested at the retreat) or someone there could’ve done it to them on purpose. Estrella and 
Cassandra hit it off right away and Estrella shows her a strange mineral that occurs all over the area and is mixed into the soil. Cassandra asks about people with terminal conditions coming there, but gets upset because she thinks they’re leaving with the false hope that they were cured. Meanwhile, Jacob and Ezekiel notice that one of the other workers doesn’t cast a reflection and figure out he’s a vampire, which would explain why Seth and Cece burnt up in the sun.
Jacob and Ezekiel are ready to start wasting vampires until Cassandra and Jenkins advise gathering more info. Jenkins mentions Flynn being in love with a vampire and Cassandra uses that to prod him about starting a
relationship with her. He tells her he pledged his heart to someone a long time ago and can’t go back on that, but says she’ll find someone else to love some day. Meanwhile, Flynn and Eve’s Alaska trip turns out to have nothing to do with Charlene, it was just Flynn wanting to provide a little romantic getaway for the two of them. The others head back to the retreat, where Sophia has figured out who they are and freely admits that she and her kids are vampires. She says 
they moved there a long time ago, ready to die but when they found out something there allowed them to exist in sunlight, they decided to turn the place into a wellness retreat (and not just for vampires, although the entire staff is comprised of undead). Sophia says they don’t turn the guests into vampires and she doesn’t know what happened to Seth and Cece, but tells the Librarians to investigate.
Estrella tells Cassandra she doesn’t know who could be doing anything shady. She recognizes that Cassandra is terminal, since she’s seen so many
people like her. Jacob and Ezekiel get Seth’s regimen from Tomas, but end up following a couple of other workers to a hidden bunker in the hills that’s full of various samples from all over the retreat. Ezekiel identifies the mysterious mineral that’s everywhere in the soil as moissanite, probably from a meteorite that crashed there years ago. They overhear a worker (Marco) talking to someone about shutting down 
an experiment that lets the vampires exist in sunlight outside the retreat. Apparently, they plan to go out and destroy civilization, or at least fuck it up pretty bad. Estrella tells Cassandra she doesn’t have to die; she can let Estrella turn her into a vampire and live there forever (and the way Estrella says it, she obviously has feelings for Cassandra that go beyond friendship). Meanwhile at the Annex, Jenkins finds a card from Cassandra’s neurosurgeon and realizes she was bullshitting about her trip to New York.
Jacob and Ezekiel tell Cassandra what they overheard and she asks Estrella about the moissanite and mentions Marco and some others have been
experimenting on guests to find a way for the vampires to leave the retreat safely. Estrella admits she guessed the moissanite was responsible for the vampires’ sun tolerance and that she shared her theory with her mom. But when they go to see Sophia, they find Jacob and Ezekiel standing over a pile of ash. Tomas and some other vampires come in and grab Jacob and Ezekiel, accusing them of killing Sophia (which seems plausible since Ezekiel is carrying an anti-vampire arsenal). Cassandra offers to prove their innocence by showing Estrella and 
Tomas the secret lab, but as he’s leaving Tomas tells the other vampires to kill Jacob and Ezekiel. They bust loose and start kicking the vampires’ asses. Cassandra tells Estrella and Tomas that the moissanite in the soil isn’t enough to let the vampires leave the retreat, the water is the key. Tomas gets excited and Estrella realizes he’s the one who’s been experimenting on gests and the one who killed their mother.
Jacob and Ezekiel are close to being overwhelmed when Jenkins shows up with Excalibur and starts wasting the vampires. Estrella and Tomas fight
and she kills him, with a little help from Cassandra. Jenkins arrives to grab Cassandra just as she passes out from the strain and he and the others whisk her off to the hospital, calling Eve and Flynn to meet them there. After a difficult operation, Cassandra is okay but she’s afraid she may have lost her mathemagic gift … especially when she can’t conjure it right away. But it does come back spontaneously and it even 
seems like she can project things into other people’s brains now. She goes back to the retreat to thank Estrella for giving her hope and showing her that choices matter more than destiny. Estrella reiterates her offer for Cassandra to stay and lays a big smooch on her, but Cassandra decides to go back to the Library and her friends.
This was a really good episode that dealt with vampires in a different way; it almost has the feel of a telenovela, with the Spanish-speaking guest cast. It
was cool to see some non-traditional vampires like Sophia and Estella, who just wanted to live in peace and help people. Too bad Tomas and his friends had to fuck it all up. Cassandra’s crush (or whatever it is) on Jenkins seems a bit abrupt, but I suppose it fits since he’s the one she has the most in common with. The relationship between her and Estrella made sense and it definitely wasn’t one-sided, so I guess Cassandra is bisexual (or very open-
minded). At the end, Estrella says she’d like to see Cassandra again and I can’t help wondering if she actually does pop back to visit the retreat from time to time. It would be cool if she and Estella had a real relationship, since I can’t imagine Jenkins changing his mind about her. I’m curious to see exactly how Cassandra’s gift has been enhanced and what she can do with it now. It was also cool to see Jenkins as a man of action for once; he was a Knight of the Round Table after all.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Did someone give you caffeine?” Ezekiel’s question when Cassandra is bouncing around in an unusually upbeat mood.
- “Stands for ‘Better not ask if you like your face the way it is’.” Eve’s answer when Ezekiel asks what her middle initial (B) stands for.