The Librarians--Season Four

[Christopher]

Nichols was also a regular on ALIAS in its last few seasons.

Only its concluding fifth season, when she was brought in as a fill-in lead during Jennifer Garner's pregnancy -- although it turned out that the producers delayed the back half of the season until after Garner's maternity leave, so Nichols ended up getting sidelined in the final episodes. Which disappointed me, since I liked her a whole lot more than Garner.

 

[RJDiogenes]

To refresh your memory, the first movie ended with Flynn and Nicole rushing off to deal with the (unseen) Time Machine crisis, simply to imply that they would have many more exciting adventures to come.

I forgot about that, but it's definitely an "untold tale." I wonder if we'll get actual flashbacks to that incident when Nicole returns later in the season. Or maybe some novelist will suggest that it be fleshed out in book form.

Nichols was also a regular on ALIAS in its last few seasons.

Ah, right. I thought I knew her from somewhere.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

If we're gonna remind people where they know Rachel Nichols from, she also was the female lead in the Jason Momoa version of "Conan, the Barbarian" (still think that was a case of Brandon-Routh-Syndrome of perfect casting in a not-so-perfect movie).

 

[Christopher]

If we're gonna remind people where they know Rachel Nichols from, she also was the female lead in the Jason Momoa version of "Conan, the Barbarian" (still think that was a case of Brandon-Routh-Syndrome of perfect casting in a not-so-perfect movie).

Never saw that. Didn't even remember it existed.

 

[JD]

Finally remembered to watch the second episode on the TNT app today. It was fun, I'm a big fan of Richard Kind going back to Spin City, so I got a kick out of seeing him here, and the reveal of what was really going on was a nice little twist.

 

[Greg Cox]

Just a reminder that THE LIBRARIANS is airing two episodes in a row tonight. Set your DVRs accordingly.

 

[Christopher]

Just a reminder that THE LIBRARIANS is airing two episodes in a row tonight. Set your DVRs accordingly.

Since The CW is on winter hiatus, I don't need a DVR tonight -- I can just watch them live.

 

[JD]

Tonight's episodes' descriptions from TV Guide:
4x03 (The Librarians) and The Christmas Thief:
When Santa takes Flynn, Baird, and Jenkins on his first vacation in centuries, he leaves his beloved sleigh in the care of the Librarians. But when Exekiel's career criminal mother steals the magic door, they must use the sleigh to save her, as well as Christmas itself, from Santa's Grinch of a brother, the Patron Saint of Thieves.

4x04 (The Librarians) and The Silver Screen:
When Flynn and Baird are sucked into Baird's favorite classic film noir movie, the Librarians will need to perfect their lassoing skills, sharpshooting, and snappy dialogue if they're going to make it out alive.

 

[Christopher]

Santa's Grinch of a brother, the Patron Saint of Thieves.

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of thieves. Well, repentant ones.

 

[JasonJ]

According to Wikipedia Nicole was played by Sonya Walger (Penny from Lost) in the first movie, her IMDB entry has two movies down as filming and two in post production, so it looks like she might have been to busy to come back. The new Nicole is Rachel Nichols (Keira from Continuum and the Orion Gaila in first Kelvinverse Trek movie), who I am shocked to realize I did not recognize.

I didn't recognize her either, but she looked familiar. Wow...

If we're gonna remind people where they know Rachel Nichols from, she also was the female lead in the Jason Momoa version of "Conan, the Barbarian" (still think that was a case of Brandon-Routh-Syndrome of perfect casting in a not-so-perfect movie).

Not a horrible movie, but it was entertaining enough. I still liked Superman Returns just fine, even if Luthor's master plot was to create a new continent to rule over. Kinda lame... "I'm going to island you to death! Bwa-ha-ha!"

 

[UssGlenn]

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of thieves. Well, repentant ones.

I had too look that up, I thought something was odd when they didn't give him a name.

 

[Christopher]

The bit about the evil mastermind turning out to be a whiny, insecure child at the core sounded like a dig at our current national leadership, as did the thematic message about "If you have a lot, you share it." Whereas Ezekiel's manifesto about the good he did with his master thievery sounded like the mission statement of the Leverage team from John Rogers's previous series.

Otherwise, the first episode was rather silly even for this show. Ezekiel learned his thieving craft from this bunch of penny-ante shoplifters and their wannabe Fagin who's so dumb she doesn't even know what a Faberge egg is? And he was so needy for her approval that he casually broke his sacred vow to preserve the secrecy of the Library? Also, how did the timing of this work out? It seemed to be set on Christmas Eve, but then, how could Santa and the elves have already completed delivering their presents?

The second episode was a decent try at replicating the look and feel of vintage movies, but the image quality and credit graphics in the film noir looked a little too digital. Also, the actor playing the villain in the movie was terrible. And the "mystery" about the real author of the screenplay was telegraphed well in advance. And if Flynn needed Eve to tell him what to do in his movie role, how come Jacob instinctively knew what song to sing in the cowboy musical?

I liked Flynn's questions about the driving scene with only one unending road, though.

 

[Velocity]

Noah Wyle was really chewing the scenery in that one. I mean more than usual.

 

[Greg Cox]

A reminder that TNT is once again airing two new eps in a row tonight.

 

[JD]

Tonight's episodes:
(The Librarians) And the Bleeding Crown
A Librarian from the past teams up with the Librarians of the present to take down an ancient and powerful enemy let loose in the modern day. When superfan Flynn is met with the prospect of teaming with his Librarian hero Darrington Dare, he could not be more excited, until Darrington leaves the Librarians with this dire warning: There can be only one Librarian - ignore at your own peril.

(The Librarians) And the Grave of Time
When Baird goes after Nicole Noone in an attempt to repair her rift with the Library, she ends up joining Nicole in a mission to retrieve a dangerous artifact before it falls into the hands of Russian grave robbers.

Looks like we were right to expect Nicole to return. Her and Baird teaming up should be interesting.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, On Demand seems to have difficulty with the concept of two episodes. Once again, they only had the second of the two available. I figured, since Librarians is essentially episodic, I might as well watch episode 6 now and catch up with 5 later. Well, episode 6 turned out to include a couple of major developments.

After a nice story, which had a few interesting twists and turns, and kept us guessing about Nicole's allegiance, and brought us the nefarious Rasputin as the villain (especially cool since I've just been writing a story with a character named Rasputin), we learned that the learned and nearly infallible Jenkins has made a grievous error in his judgment of Nicole. He thought that she was after the magical blade to use it on him-- my guess was that she wanted to use it on herself-- but, no, she knew about Rasputin and was after him. Jenkins' error nearly cost Nicole her life, and he could only save her by transferring his own immortality to her. Galahad is now a mortal man.

Then, after several episodes of doubts and misgivings, Flynn has apparently resigned from the library and gone off the grid-- which means he has also abandoned Eve. Will he hook up with Nicole? Will this initiate the prophesied conflict between Librarians? Is it true that there can be only one? Between Jenkins' mortality, Flynn's flight, Eve's doubts, and the potential for conflict among the remaining Librarians, things look dim for the Library at this time.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, episode 5 showed up today and it was quite good. It was interesting that the Librarians were saved by Jenkins' immortality, since he lost it in the next story-- good thing the characters aren't at the mercy of On Demand like I am, otherwise they'd all be dead.

But this was a nice look back at a historical Librarian and his arch enemy (and his sidekick, briefly). He would be an interesting character to explore in a spin-off novel or something. His archaic speech patterns and mannerisms were cartoonishly portrayed, which is perfectly appropriate for this type of show, yet he adapted easily and enthusiastically to the world of the future. The compare-and-contrast element of the plotline reminded me a bit of Buffy, and it was a nice moment when the biographical volume of the Librarians adjusted itself to reveal that it was Flynn's who turned out to be the role model for his own hero. After the moment passed, though, one had to wonder if the writers really thought it through. If Dare survived and remained a Librarian until retirement-- and we know he retained his prejudice against multiple Librarians-- that means at least one other person, and probably several, were never Librarians in this altered timeline. How has history been changed? Will this be ignored, or will it turn up later in the season when we least expect it?

And that brings us back to Darington's warning. It made an impression on Flynn and seems poised to be a major plot point for the season, but it rests on shaky ground-- one would think that somebody who was allegedly the model for Sherlock Holmes would have thought it through a bit more. The example of one set of emotionally flawed twins does not really demonstrate an absolute (even if they were responsible for the Dark Ages). On the other hand, oppressive social constructs, from Classism to Political Correctness, have been built on less. Hopefully illustrating this is the ultimate goal of the plot.

 

[JD]

We're down to just one new episode tonight

(The Librarians) and the Disenchanted Forest (Season 4, Episode 7)
When dissension threatens the group, Baird takes the Librarians to a charismatic self-help guru's team-building camp on the edge of a forest where people have been mysteriously disappearing.

 

[Greg Cox]

A non-spoilery observation: Cassandra has obviously seen "The Parent Trap" too many times. (The original with Hayley Mills, of course.)

And, you know, I was just wondering whether Jenkins ever needed to sleep, being immortal and all.

 

[Christopher]

I recognized the name of the actress who played the reporter, Dilshad Vadsaria, as a name I'd come across in something quite recent, and it took me a few minutes to remember that she was the voice of Phantom Lady in CW Seed's Arrowverse webseries Freedom Fighters: The Ray.

It was pretty easy to guess that the forest itself was the cause of the disappearances, because they made a point of having the camp director drop that line about the whole forest being a single organism. But there was an odd bit in the finale, when Stone (I keep wanting to call him Eliot, even years after Leverage ended) told the reporter that the Library was "the reason I can't be with you." Huh? There was nothing romantic established between them besides some initial attraction and mild flirtation. A line like that is better suited to a more intense love affair. Was there an early script draft in which they were more deeply involved?