The Librarians and the Dark Secret – Director: Marc Roskin/Writer: Marco Schnabel
This one starts in Rome, where some guys are tuning a huge church organ. They find a piece of parchment inside, but when a church official (Father Giallo) comes to claim it, he has his men kill the two guys who found it. The parchment turns out to be a map showing the location of some valuable stones. That really interests Giallo’s boss (Monsignor Vega) who already has one of the stones and now has a map to the other three.
At the Library, very important ceremony is taking place. We’re supposed to think Flynn and Eve are getting married, but it turns out to be a tethering
ceremony for the Library, to anchor it to the real world so it isn’t vulnerable to dark magic … or something. (It’s actually just a rehearsal, which is good because it’s a disaster.) At Niagara Falls, Father Giallo and his minions find another stone in the barrel used by Annie Edison Taylor to go over the Falls, and they kill a guard before leaving. The Librarians get an alert that one of the stones has been found and Flynn explains that the stones are cornerstones of the Library of Alexandria, the original magical Library. If all four stones are brought 
together, the Alexandria Library will become physical and overwhelm the current Library with a flood of knowledge, imploding it. Unfortunately, nobody knows where the cornerstones are … but Jenkins might know someone who does. He reluctantly takes the others to an underground cell where Nicole Noone, Flynn’s first Guardian, is imprisoned. This is the same character from the first Librarian movie, but she’s played a by a different actress (Rachel Nichols) here.
Flynn thought Nicole died in their last adventure when the time machine exploded, but she was actually just thrown back in time. Jenkins says she
started stealing artifacts (including one to make her immortal) so she could get back at Flynn and the Library. She’s not inclined to be cooperative, so Eve sends the other three Librarians to Niagara Falls to look for clues while she and Flynn stay and try to get Nicole to talk. After examining the broken barrel at Niagara Falls, Ezekiel gets hold of a tourist’s camera SD card and they find pictures showing the priests in the background. At the Library, Nicole claims she hid 
the stones to keep them safe and didn’t want to bring them to the Library because she doesn’t trust it completely. She points out that she didn’t use any of the artifacts she stole except the one to make herself immortal, but says she only did that because she’s still in love with Flynn and wanted to see him again. She says she’ll tell the truth about where she hid the other stones, but only to Flynn.
The others return and Jenkins recognizes the cross Father Giallo is wearing as belonging to a sect called the Order of Shadows, who want to destroy all
modern knowledge and bring the world back to the Dark Ages when faith was more important than knowledge. In the crypt, Flynn admits to Nicole that he caused the explosion that threw her back in time because he rewired the time machine. He was hoping it would freeze time if their opponents used it, but it exploded instead. She gives him the location of another cornerstone, but instead of just telling 
him she couches it in an obscure description. Jacob figures out that Nicole hid the stones in places associated with the Muses, so he and the others head to the Paris Opera house to look for the next one. Father Giallo and his thugs show up too and take the stone away from the Librarians right after they find it, capturing them in the process.
The others soon figure out what happened and press Nicole for the location of the last stone. She says she’ll tell them only if they let her out. Jenkins is against it, but Eve and Flynn overrule him. Nicole leads them to Lake Maracaibo, where lightning bolts are constantly striking the ground. The
last stone is hidden in a plinth, but to get to it they have to raise a lightning rod. Eve runs the gauntlet of lightning bolts (with some help from Flynn) and raises the rod. They get the stone but hear Cassandra scream from a nearby building. When they go to check it turns out to be a trap and Monsignor Vega takes the last stone from them. He sets them up but nothing happens … until Nicole volunteers to help activate them, saying the world is better off without the Library. She activates the stones and the Library of Alexandria starts to materialize in the sky. Flynn and the others overcome Giallo and hi thugs, but Vega stops 
them from disrupting the ceremony. Nicole switches sides again and tosses one of the stones into the vortex, collapsing it. She’s pulled into the vortex (as is Vega) and Flynn goes in after her. Cassandra figures out how to keep the vortex open long enough for Flynn to bring Nicole back, then the vortex collapses for good and everything’s fine. Nicole takes off, leaving the others to debate whether she was good or not. Jenkins insists they keep practicing the tethering ceremony, but Flynn is starting to wonder if he really can trust the Library anymore. Eve tells him to trust the people, not the institution.
This is a pretty good episode that introduces some new villains and a new … whatever Nicole is supposed to be. She claims she only disrupted Vega’s scheme to save Flynn because she still loves him (and she certainly does
look jealous when Flynn and Eve kiss), but she also said she didn’t use any of the artifacts she stole because she doesn’t really want the Library destroyed. It’s possible she really doesn’t care about the Library b does still love Flynn, or maybe she’s mixed up with the Order of Shadows. She had 500 years to plan her revenge and Jenkins said the Order was founded in the 1700s, so maybe she was the founder and everything’s part of a really long game for her. If you’re wondering why Jenkins didn’t just tell Flynn about Nicole, apparently her being thrown back in time and gathering the artifacts is part of some 
prophecy, so they had to let it play out as it did. If nothing else, Nicole has planted a seed of distrust in the Librarians towards the Library, so we’ll have to wait to see what comes of that. Sounds like filling up a plot hole to me, but whatever. It’s interesting how Nicole’s hiding places for the stones are linked to the original three Muses (Aoide, Melete, and Mneme). There was a mistake when Jenkins says the next vernal equinox would be in 89 days; he should’ve just said “equinox”, since the next one would be autumnal, not vernal.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Let me guess … cause that would be bad?” Ezekiel cutting through the usual jargon.
- “Ohhh … no bingo.” Jacob revising his estimate on how easy it’ll be to get the stone after almost breaking his elbow.