The Librarians and the Curse of Cindy – Director: Nina Lopez-Corrado/Writer: Gareth Roberts
This one starts with a woman sneaking into an estate full of weirded-out young people. She’s looking for her daughter (Lindsay)who disappeared a few days ago. She finds Lindsay but she’s just as whacked-out as everyone else, going on and on about someone named Cyndi who needs her to stay there. The crowd gets excited as Cyndi decides to make an appearance, although we can only see a vague glowing shape.
The Librarians (including Flynn) show up at the estate in response to a notice in the Clippings Book about a celebrity chef suddenly giving his
mansion to a cult leader. They get in thanks to Flynn’s use of the stock phrase “We’re the Librarians”, which he admits to Jacob is actually a magic spell. They run into Lindsay’s mom (who’s now fully converted to the worship of Cyndi), who tells them Cyndi picks a few people to help her inside the mansion every day. Cyndi appears at the door and we finally get a good look at her. She’s … pretty 
normal actually; basically a cute young girl who looks somewhat overwhelmed by all the adulation. They figure they need to get inside the mansion, which isn’t a problem since Flynn immediately falls under Cyndi’s spell and goes inside with her. The others figure an artifact must be involved and Eve thinks it might be the statue of Cyndi that everyone venerates each day.
Eve and Cassandra sneak into the mansion by delivering flowers and find
Flynn in a kind of confessional booth, making a video proclaiming his adoration of Cyndi. Meanwhile, we see Cyndi watching a video of herself talking about how she’s glad to have made friends and how she’s so happy. It kinda looks like one of those one-on-one videos they have on reality shows like Survivor or Big 
Brother, except Cyndi’s crying as she watches it. Afterwards, she meets someone named Agnes and gives her a vial, telling her to speed up production of … something. Jacob and Ezekiel check the statue, but it doesn’t radiate any magic. Ezekiel is going nuts because he thinks he knows Cyndi from somewhere. They notice some military trucks heading into a barn and sneak in but are instantly caught … by DOSA.
Cyndi is watching her depressing video again (which is from a reality
program called The Life Show) and crying her eyes out. I think her tears must be the secret ingredient because Agnes calls to ask for more and Cyndi says she’s working on it. She gets a call about Jacob and Ezekiel and orders them brought to her at once. Eve and Cassandra run into Pierre, the celebrity chef who gave Cyndi this mansion. He’s not happy that she doesn’t 
want any of his fancy stuff and prefers mac& cheese from the box. They figure whatever’s enthralling people must be something Cyndi has with her. They hide when a DOSA agent comes in and they overhear him talking about Jacob and Ezekiel’s capture. Speaking of Jacob and Ezekiel, they’re taken to see Cyndi and Jacob immediately falls under her spell.
Ezekiel on the other hand, does not, which surprises Cyndi (and intrigues her). A DOSA soldier (Adamski) comes in and pulls a gun on Ezekiel and
Jacob, having recognized them from video footage at the barn. Jacob starts spilling everything about the Library to Cyndi until Eve comes in to deliver lunch. Adamski recognizes her too, so she decks him and Cyndi takes off. They call Jenkins for a magic portal and manage to get Flynn and Jacob through before more DOSA agents arrive. In the Library, Flynn and Jacob have to be restrained because they’re 
so crazy about Cyndi and Jenkins figures out that Cyndi’s perfume is acting like a love potion (though he explains love potions actually don’t cause love, just obsession). Jenkins says he can work on a cure, but a sample of the original substance would really speed things up, so they head back to the estate (using a vomitous substance smeared under their noses to block the effects of Cyndi’s perfume).
Eve and Cassandra sneak into the barn, where something called Project Aphrodite is taking place. It turns out to be a long-range missile that Cyndi plans to use to spread her obsession potion over the entire Eastern
Seaboard. Back at the Library, Jenkins tries an antidote on Jacob and Flynn, and while it does make them forget about Cyndi, it also makes them hot for each other. At the estate, Ezekiel sneaks into Cyndi’s room and finds her crying while watching footage of herself on the Life Show getting betrayed by her supposed friends. Ezekiel finally recognizes her because he was a fan of the show. Eve and Cassandra confront Agnes, who claims she’s been forced to make the love potion, but 
locks them in the freezer. They bust out by lowering the temperature even more and rewiring the door to make it brittle enough to open with a kick. Cyndi opens up to Ezekiel about how bad the betrayal on the show made her feel and how Agnes (the show’s make-up artist) offered to make a potion so people would love her. Ezekiel tells her he knows how she feels since he grew up poor and tried to fulfill himself by stealing, but could never steal enough to make himself happy. Ezekiel demonstrates the difference between love and obsession by tossing Cyndi’s perfume vial at some of her fans, who go crazy and almost tear her apart before Ezekiel gets her to safety.
Cyndi and Ezekiel head to the barn to stop the launch, but no one will listen to her because Agnes has switched their obsession to her. Eve arrives and
dumps a whole barrel of potion on the floor, which is activated when Cassandra rubs an onion is Agnes’s face, making her cry into the potion. Everyone is the barn mobs Agnes, leaving the Librarians to stop the missile launch. Jenkins shows up and sprays everyone with antidote and Agnes turns out to be possessed by Apep. Later, Cindy thanks Ezekiel for straightening her out and he tells her to find friends worthy of her love, instead of worrying about who loves her. She lays 
a big kiss on him, so I think she might already have some love to give. Back at the Library, Jacob tells Ezekiel he thinks Cindy’s love potion didn’t work on him because he was already in love with her from seeing her on the TV show … which Ezekiel doesn’t deny. Eve and Flynn figure Apep retreated to his sarcophagus to heal, but they have no idea where it is. We do though, as we see the sarcophagus is in a DOSA facility.
This is a really good episode that explores the difference between love and obsession. Ezekiel is right when he says it’s more about who you give your
love to than who loves you and Jacob’s theory about his feelings for Cindy makes sense. I’d like to see them continue as a couple since I really like Cindy as a character, but as far as I know she never appears again. Even at the beginning of the episode, we could see that Cindy wasn’t enjoying all the worship; as Ezekiel said, that sort of hollow adoration can’t fill a hole in your soul left by lack of love. The 
connection between DOSA and Apep revealed at the end is interesting. Does that mean DOSA is working with Apep to spread chaos? Or maybe just a small group within DOSA is involved? Or Apep could be hiding out at a DOSA facility because he thinks it’s the last place anyone would look for him. But a working relationship between them would explain why so many DOSA agents were around Cindy’s place.
Noticeable Things:
- Some of the barrels of love potion in the freezer were labelled “No. 9”, which I assume is a reference to the old song by The Searchers.
Favourite Quotes:
- “You know what a panoply is!” Cassandra getting upset at Ezekiel’s feigned ignorance.
- “I have no idea what that means, but probably worse.” Jenkins responding to Ezekiel’s reference to a wild pack of Beliebers.
- “Powdered cheese, sacre bleu!” Chef Pierre expressing his disdain for boxed mac and cheese. I gotta say, despite being a proud Canadian I agree with him 100%.