The Librarians and What Lies Beneath the Stones – Director: Marc Roskin/Writers: Alexa Alemanni, Joe Boothe
This one starts with a pipeline crew working on Choctaw land, which has brought out plenty of protesters. The boss tells his foreman (Andy) that he has the permits for the last section to go up, but it’s pretty obvious he’s lying. Andy falls into a hole that opens up rather quickly under his feet and lands
in a cave with a lot of old paintings on the walls. Some kind of dust cloud appears and blows up out of the hole right before Andy is pulled back up. We see the dust cloud take on Andy’s form, except with a really evil grin. Oh, and the name of the pipeline company is Stone Family Rigging and Pipeline … as in Jacob Stone.
Speaking of Jacob, he’s writing an academic paper (“Huguenots in the 
Hudson Valley”) but under the name Dr. Oliver Thompson. Cassandra points out that he could publish under his own name now, but he gets all weird and says he prefers to use his pseudonyms. Eve and Jenkins discuss the Library’s strange behaviour, but they’re interrupted by the others letting them know there’s a mysterious rift that just appeared near Wagner, Oklahoma. Eve suggests they all go check it out, since they’ve had trouble working together lately, while she and Jenkins try to figure out what’s up with the Library. Cassandra, Ezekiel (who’s sure the rift is caused by poltergeists), and Jacob
go to Oklahoma and are taken for archaeological specialists there to evaluate the caves. Jacob quickly realizes his father’s company is in charge of the work and heads to the nearest bar to find his dad (Isaac). They obviously don’t get along too well and when Isaac hears that Jacob is with the experts that are going to determine if the dig is on a historical site, he figures Jacob must just be there as dumb muscle.
Jacob plays along, introducing Ezekiel as Oliver Thompson, an expert on 
local history. Jacob tells his dad they have to go down and look in the hole for themselves. Isaac’s not too happy, but hasn’t got much choice. One of the Choctaw protesters (Lyle) wants to come along and Jacob talks Isaac into letting him. When they get to the site, loaders are filling in the hole, supposedly on orders from Andy, who claims he got the order straight from Isaac. Isaac, Ezekiel, and Lyle head into the hole, but Jacob has a camera and earpiece hooked up so he can tell
Ezekiel (the “history expert”) what to say. They find some symbols painted on the walls that predate the Choctaw, including one of a giant snake. Cassandra thinks the tunnels are a bit off somehow, but she’s not sure why. Another doppelganger (of Isaac this time) forms in the cave and knocks out Lyle before vanishing. Isaac insists he didn’t hit Lyle and Jacob believes him, but the other two don’t.
Cassandra and Ezekiel call Jenkins to let him know what’s up and he tells 
them to check the cave again. Jacob tries to connect with his dad, but Isaac blames him for ruining the family business. Jacob points out that Isaac screwed things up on his own with all his boozing and gambling. A double of Cassandra sows discord with Ezekiel and Jacob, giving Jacob shit for lying so much. Ezekiel and Cassandra quickly figure out that she has a doppelganger and head back to the Annex to tell Jenkins, but the fake Cassandra gets her hands on some explosives. Jenkins explains that they’re dealing with a shapeshifter,
probably one whose only goal is to cause chaos and mistrust between people, feeding off the lies people tell every day. Jenkins figures this shapeshifter was just released from the caves and hasn’t absorbed enough power to leave the area yet, but they have to stop it before it does. He says it’s easier to trap a shapeshifter than to kill one and speculates that it could be a Native American trickster god they’re dealing with.
Cassandra and Ezekiel let Jacob know what they’re dealing with and he 
realizes that the snake drawing in the cave represents Hoklonote, a Native American trickster god that feeds on lies and mistrust. But Hoklonote has already escalated things by blowing up the sheriff’s car and Lyle’s, making everyone suspicious of everyone else. They head back to the hole and see the fake Cassandra disappearing inside it. The real Cassandra finds a hidden room in the caves that must’ve been where Hoklonote was trapped. The trickster shows up and traps them in the room, but they open the door by admitting some hard truths to each
other. Jacob admits he didn’t completely trust his father and didn’t want to look like a failure to him, Ezekiel confesses that used to work for MI-6, and Cassandra says that when she found out about her tumour, she picked a date to kill herself instead of waiting for the tumour to do it. Their honesty opens the door, but Ezekiel and Cassandra have to stay there and keep telling the truth to keep the door open.
Jacob finds his father about to blast the hole and finally tells him the truth 
about being a genius and a history expert. Jacob admits that he didn’t tell Isaac the truth because he knew he’d be disappointed in anything other than him joining the family business. Isaac tells Jacob he loves him and Jacob immediately knows it’s really Hoklonote, so he drags the trickster down into the hole. Jacob and Hoklonote start beating the shit out of each other, which gets interesting when the trickster takes on Jacob’s appearance. Jacob weakens Hoklonote by admitting the truth to himself: he doesn’t publish under his own name
because he’s afraid of failure, especially since he became a Librarian. Jacob brings Hoklonote back to the chamber where it was trapped and they leave it there, bound up by a snake that comes out of the cave painting. Jacob says goodbye to his father, but doesn’t tell him the truth about being a genius because he no longer cares about his approval. Later, Jacob decides to publish his Huguenot article under his real name.
This is a pretty good episode, with the whole truth theme giving us a chance to get to know the characters better. Jacob is the main focus, along with his 
father (and maybe their names are significant, since Isaac and Jacob were biblical characters), and in the end he did get enough confidence to start showing his true self in his articles. Ezekiel didn’t have much to say because he apparently doesn’t lie all that much. Cassandra was the big revelation as we learn that she has an irrational fear of ravioli, wishes she were Vietnamese, really hates babies, and has apparently killed someone (or thought about it in detail). There was one more revelation she made that could be interpreted in various ways, but I’m choosing to look at it through the lens of a die-hard Xena fan. We also
learn a couple of interesting factoids, like Jacob has published work under seven different pseudonyms, and that some shapeshifter once tried to remove the letter “R” from the English language. We also get a very interesting shot of Jenkins that looks like some kind of John Larroquette mug shot, but may be from the time he put his head through a glass door while filming Stripes.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Actually, I’m his expert in P-wave ultrasonic imaging for geographical tomography.” Cassandra letting Isaac know she’s not a secretary.
- “So why hang around this small town? Why not head for Washington, D.C., home of lies?” Ezekiel stating the obvious.
- “ … and any woman who says she hasn’t is lying!” Cassandra being honest about her possible lesbian tendencies (at least that’s my interpretation … like I said, I’m a huge Xena fan).