Librarians Reviews: Season 4, Episode 7

The Librarians and the Disenchanted Forest – Director: Dean Devlin/Writers: Nicole Ranadive, Gary Rosen

This one starts with Eve letting the others know that Flynn has resigned and probably isn’t coming back. She tells them about Dare’s warning about multiple Librarians leading to infighting and chaos and they realize that to avoid that fate, two of them would have to resign as well.

They start arguing over who should stay but Eve puts a stop to it, reminding them that the Library chose all of them and it must’ve had a reason. Eve is pretending that Flynn’s leaving hasn’t hurt her on a personal level and finds something in the Clippings Book that she figures will distract her and build up some team spirit with the others. They head to a retreat (though it sounds a lot like a summer camp, which gets Cassandra quite excited) that specializes in team-building exercises. The retreat manager (Robbie Bender) has a high success rate, mostly with corporate executives, but Eve figures something weird must be going on for the Book to send them there. After the first team-building exercise (which establishes a weird rivalry with the neighbouring Green team), the Librarians listen to Bender’s opening speech. He tells them he chose this spot because it’s surrounded by aspen trees whose roots grow together (which certainly fits his theme) and that he plans to expand the camp soon. When the staff is introduced, Jacob is immediately struck by the Creativity Director, Sarina.

At the marshmallow roast that night, Ezekiel overhears Sarina and the assistant director talking about strange disappearances of the campers … at least a dozen in the last little while. The next day, they lose a team race to the Greens, which makes Eve want to check them out. Jacob volunteers to talk to Sarina about the missing people, but of course he just wants to get closer to her. Cassandra and Ezekiel miss another disappearance, but Bender certainly seems aware of it. Sarina lies to Jacob about her plans and he finds her sneaking around the woods with a camera. Eve sees the Green team with a bunch of scientific equipment and breaks into their cabin, finding even more high-tech gear. She realizes they must be with DOSA, but their intruder alarms alert them to her presence and they show up to surround her. In the spirit of the location, Eve suggests they work together to find out what’s going on, but the DOSA team leader (Tannen) doesn’t trust her and says no.

Sarina tells Jacob she’s a reporter who believes magic actually exists (and got fired for trying to write about the Library). She also knows about DOSA and knows they’re at the retreat, but thinks they’re working with the Library. Her knowledge freaks Jacob out and she misinterprets his silence and takes off. Jacob gets a splinter from a tree that makes him feel a bit weird. Cassandra has been pranking Ezekiel like crazy and admits she got the idea from movies about camp. Ezekiel tells her she doesn’t know anything about how real people act because all her knowledge comes from movies and TV. While arguing, they find someone’s suitcase in the lake. In the woods, Jacob finds a helmet-cam left by the last vanished camper. It shows him being mugged by a tree. When they all compare notes, Bender is the obvious suspect for who’s making people disappear.

Cassandra and Ezekiel distract Bender so Eve and Jacob can search his office. They find a file with the names of all the missing campers, which increases their suspicions about Bender. Jacob decides to tell Sarina the truth about himself, but before he can he gets grabbed by a tree. Sarina gets the others and they contact Jenkins, who lets them know they’re in the Devil’s Forest, a place where people have been disappearing all the way back to Lewis and Clark’s time. They still think Bender is involved but when they confront him, he says he doesn’t know what’s going on with the trees, he was just trying to cover his own ass when the vanishings started. With a little help from DOSA, they pinpoint the original Devil’s Forest and find Jacob there … inside a tree. But not just any tree, the so-called Grandfather Tree, that needed Jacob’s linguistic skills to communicate. DOSA tries to cut the tree down, but Eve listens to it and learns that if this forest is cut down (like to expand Bender’s camp), every forest in the world will die. When DOSA promises to protect the area from intruders, the trees release Jacob (and all the other people they’ve taken over the centuries). The tree gives Eve its Zero Seed, saying it can restore the forest if it’s ever destroyed. Later, Jacob takes Sarina to the Library to let her know he’s not crazy, but akes her promise not to write about anything she’s learned.

This was a pretty good episode, with teamwork being the main theme, but also delving into Eve’s feelings a bit. It was obvious Flynn’s leaving hurt her and she was trying to be stoic, but Jacob gets her to admit that she blamed herself for Flynn’s decision, which is why she was pushing the whole “teamwork” thing so much. We also got a glimpse into Cassandra’s psyche and how she’s only really experienced “life” through fiction, so she doesn’t know how real people deal with everyday stuff. I did like some of her pranks though, especially the shaving cream facial. Also, Jenkins gets his first taste of how bad mortality can be when he gets a cold. Sarina was cool and would make a good love interest for Jacob. The whole thing about not forming attachments is starting to get old. I choose to believe that Jacob will keep seeing Sarina, just as I believe Cassandra is still seeing Estrella and Ezekiel still sees Cindy.

Favourite Quotes:

• “When did I become the adult?” Ezekiel after having to remind the others why they actually came to the camp in the first place.