The Librarians Season 2 Episode 10 Review: And the Final Curtain
Kathleen Wiedel
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It seems like The Librarians Season 2 just started, and already you're here reading the review for the season finale. Only ten episodes! On the plus side, The Librarians has already been picked up for Season 3, so we have a pretty big consolation prize!
In The Librarians Season 2 Episode 10, we finally got a lot of answers plus a few more questions, and an absolutely sweet reunion between Flynn and one of his oldest friends, Cal. That's "Excalibur" to the rest of us. Plus that epic kiss!
Onward, noble readers!
I can honestly say that I definitely didn't predict the reveal about Prospero actually possessing Shakespeare, rather than being a more normal Fictional like Moriarty. It was an interesting twist, one which set up the exorcism scene.
The lines the Librarians were reading, of course, had direct meaning for each of them. It wasn't subtle, but it really didn't need to be. It was pretty much a summation of what each of them learned about themselves over the course of the season.
There were also some pretty obvious comparisons made between King Arthur and Flynn Carsen. Arthur, according to legend, would return when needed the most. Sounds sort of like what Flynn had been doing now and again with the Library. Plus, the man who once wielded Excalibur will wield it again!
I loved the reunion between Flynn and Cal. Thinking back to The Librarians Season 1 Episode 1, when Eve first came to the Library, she met Flynn and Cal playing. Cal has been Flynn's friend for years (and is even accompanied by dog sounds).
Cal was delivered to Eve by Beth Riesgraf's Lady of the Lake, who last appeared to Cassandra in The Librarians Season 2 Episode 4. It's not quite clear if the Lake is outside normal time (though that seems fairly likely to me), nor how they managed to reconstitute Cal, who essentially died in The Librarians Season 1 Episode 2.
What is her agenda, anyway? We know very little about her, but she does seem immensely powerful. Hopefully, she's not left a complete mystery in Season 3!
One of the other big questions this episode left me with was Moriarty, who was unmade by Prospero but still managed to impart information on defeating him. Is it possible that he may return in time? I think so, given the rather complex circumstances involved. I wouldn't mind seeing him again, especially given his snarky rivalry with Flynn:
I have a far simpler plan, and a much more convincing British accent.
Moriarty
On a (snarky) side note, in reality a late-19th century British accent should have been just as unconvincing to early-1600s Britons as a 21st century American accent! But since they're all fictional characters on a TV show, it's really all just accepted convention. And for a man who can speak as many languages as he can, Flynn's, ahem, accent really was terrible.
Something I totally did call was Flynn and Eve's method of "time travel" back to the present. All they needed was a little freezing magic and a safe place, the most obvious being the Library. Though I had forgotten about that locked door.
It was awfully convenient that the Librarians happened to discover them back there within about five seconds of them being lost in the 1600s!
Here's a question: with Prospero exorcised from Shakespeare, what happened to his magic in the present? Presumably, they didn't leave London a mass of forest! And where would we be without the Internet?! (Well, 1995, apparently, but I digress.)
One curiosity about this episode is its theory of time travel. There are two main schools of thought in regards to time travel:
- The moment you appear in the past, you create an alternate timeline diverging from the original one, and nothing you do in the past will change anything in the original timeline, only the new one. This "fork in the road" theory features prominently in Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
- Anything you do in the past was always done by you, and will always be done by you, and will only serve to ensure the way things have always been. This is the type of time travel that appeared here.
They went to ridiculous lengths to prevent predestination paradoxes from ensuing, but there is one big message to be found in all that mess: time travel will give you a headache. Also, the past stinks.
A few final thoughts before I turn the discussion over to you:
- For the record, Rebecca Romijn (who plays Eve Baird) is 5'11", which is remarkably tall for a woman even nowadays. For comparison, Noah Wyle is 6'1" and David S. Lee (Moriarty) is 6'2 1/2". They would all have been seen as ridiculously tall.
- Jenkins poignantly reminded us that he actually knew King Arthur personally, being Sir Galahad, after all.
- Flynn and Eve seem to have more or less resolved their relationship issues, if that kiss was anything to judge by! Though where she got a dress to fit her is another question entirely.
- Flynn's terrible acting put me in mind of Sophie from Leverage, whose first scene was of her doing a hilariously bad performance of Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
So, what did you think of The Librarians Season 2 Episode 10? Were you happy to see Flynn reunited with Cal? Disappointed that Moriarty is apparently gone? Did you enjoy meeting Shakespeare? Was it a fitting season finale? Let us know in the comments below!
If you missed this episode or just want to relive the snarkiness and banter, be sure to watch The Librarians online. Happily, we can all look forward to when the Librarians returns next year with Season 3!
