14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
~I’m pretty organized when it comes to my work.
~I’m punctual. In fact, I hate being late. I’d rather be early than on time.
~I’m loyal. Friends, jobs, family. Once you have me, I’ll be around for ages.
~I’m friendly and I generally get along well with just about anyone.
~I have a very good memory, especially for things I’ve read. Like ridiculously good (though not perfect). Sometimes people find it weird just how much I remember.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday: Cracks, T-Shirt, Deck Chair
Here is this week’s writing prompt. I went with Sixth Sense Cards from the Writer’s Tool Box this week.
The cards:
A sidewalk with a crack
The smell of the t-shirt from a B-52’s concert
A lime green deck chair
---
I sit on the steps to my porch, staring at the crack in the sidewalk. It’s been there forever, since I was a little girl. I don’t even remember what made it. One day it wasn’t there and the next it was. It’s grown slowly over the years, like I have, changed as the seasons come and go. It almost reaches from one side of the path to the other, tiny tendril crack spiking off of it like veins from an artery. A dandelion has sprouted from one section, its green leaves covering up portions of the crack, hiding it from my view with the jagged edges. It’s bright yellow flower waves at me in the light wind, garish and haughty in it’s vibrancy.
That breeze carries with it a familiar scent, the smell of the t-shirt from a b-52s concert. I don’t even know why he likes that band or how he got it. BUt it’s the smell of him, strong with the musk of bodies and beer and smoke mixed together with his grapefruit shampoo. It’s what I smelled the day we first met and it’s what I smell now as he walks up that cracked sidewalk toward me.
“Hey?” He says, and I see the dark blue and the logo of that hauntingly familiar shirt.
“Hey.” I reply, not sure if I should smile or frown. The smile wins.
“Can I join you?” he asks. I nod, but instead of letting him sit on the tiny steps, I move and he follows. We settle into the lime green deck chairs that are tucked into the corner of the porch. My mom bought them at a flea market, since they are her favorite color. Seeing them always cheers me up.
“So…?” he asks, his finger rubbing the armrest of his chair. There’s a small patch on the chair where the paint has chipped and my mom hasn’t gotten around to fixing it. His finger moves to worry the edge between the lime green and the plain wood underneath and I’m fascinated watching it move back and forth.
Finally, I remember he asked me a question.
---
Yea, once more I really don’t know where it was going, but these exercises are fun.
Friday I’ll do my next question in the 30 Questions.
Until then.
The cards:
A sidewalk with a crack
The smell of the t-shirt from a B-52’s concert
A lime green deck chair
---
I sit on the steps to my porch, staring at the crack in the sidewalk. It’s been there forever, since I was a little girl. I don’t even remember what made it. One day it wasn’t there and the next it was. It’s grown slowly over the years, like I have, changed as the seasons come and go. It almost reaches from one side of the path to the other, tiny tendril crack spiking off of it like veins from an artery. A dandelion has sprouted from one section, its green leaves covering up portions of the crack, hiding it from my view with the jagged edges. It’s bright yellow flower waves at me in the light wind, garish and haughty in it’s vibrancy.
That breeze carries with it a familiar scent, the smell of the t-shirt from a b-52s concert. I don’t even know why he likes that band or how he got it. BUt it’s the smell of him, strong with the musk of bodies and beer and smoke mixed together with his grapefruit shampoo. It’s what I smelled the day we first met and it’s what I smell now as he walks up that cracked sidewalk toward me.
“Hey?” He says, and I see the dark blue and the logo of that hauntingly familiar shirt.
“Hey.” I reply, not sure if I should smile or frown. The smile wins.
“Can I join you?” he asks. I nod, but instead of letting him sit on the tiny steps, I move and he follows. We settle into the lime green deck chairs that are tucked into the corner of the porch. My mom bought them at a flea market, since they are her favorite color. Seeing them always cheers me up.
“So…?” he asks, his finger rubbing the armrest of his chair. There’s a small patch on the chair where the paint has chipped and my mom hasn’t gotten around to fixing it. His finger moves to worry the edge between the lime green and the plain wood underneath and I’m fascinated watching it move back and forth.
Finally, I remember he asked me a question.
---
Yea, once more I really don’t know where it was going, but these exercises are fun.
Friday I’ll do my next question in the 30 Questions.
Until then.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Review of The Librarians 1x03 And the Horns of a Dilemma: Learning to Trust
Trust. It’s a tricky thing that little word. Some people give it freely while others guard it preciously and only bestow it on a select few. And yet, it is a key ingredient to any functional working relationship. You can’t have a relationship without it. Not a real one at least. Which is why, when someone breaks trust with you, it’s often the hardest thing in the world to regain.
In Horns, we see our LITs and their Guardian working to forge some kind of team, but failing because there is little trust amongst them. Eve doesn’t trust that the LITs will be able to survive without her. Jake no longer trusts Cassandra because of her actions in the previous two episodes. No one is sure they can trust Ezekiel since he’s a thief and is very vocal about only looking out for himself. And then there’s Cassandra, who doesn’t trust herself to be able to do what the team needs her to. If these four people can’t learn to extend some trust to each other, they are never going to be able to work together. And that’s what this episode is all about. Well that and escaping a magical maze and and an angry monster.
The beginning of the episode finds the LITs sneaking through a darkened warehouse, clearing trying to escape a dark figure. The thing that strikes me as interesting about this scene is how, despite supposedly being a team, the three LITs are completely separate in how they react and try to escape the person pursuing them. They each try to deal with the figure on their own, instead of working together. Jake decides to try to fight her (it’s Eve after all) while Ezekiel looks out for himself and just runs. Cassandra, oh dear Cassandra, doesn’t even get that far. She hides and then bumps her head on something, effectively ending any chance she had of getting away.
As the group walks back to the Annex, Eve chastises them for how they handled the situation. They are Librarians (in Training). They should be able to think their way out of the situations, but instead they aren’t doing anything. She decides that they are going to continue to run drills until she’s sure they won’t get themselves killed in the field.
Inside the Annex, Jenkins points out that another page has appeared in the clippings books and Eve gets annoyed, saying that the LITs aren't’ ready yet. And we find out that she isn’t letting them do anything but drill, despite new mysteries appearing each day. She just doesn’t trust that they’ll be able to handle it. And it’s frustrating our LITs to no end.
As Eve leaves to talk to Jenkins, Cassandra calls after her that Flynn told them to help people. And Jake pipes up, saying that Ezekiel is right and they have a job to do. This clearly frustrates Cassandra and gives us another glimpse of the underlying trust issues that exist amongst our team.
In the workroom, Eve has a little chat with Jenkins about the LITs. He points out that she’s going to have to put them in the field eventually. Eve counters by saying that she’s been in the field with trained soldiers and wound up losing them all. The LITs are not trained soldiers. And because of that, she can’t imagine that they’d be able to do anything but get themselves killed. Jenkins points out that the LITs job is to keep magic out of the wrong hands, and this means that they must be in harms way, the very thing Eve is trying so hard to avoid. Eve insists that they aren’t trained enough and Jenkins counters with the point that Librarians used to get no training at all. Eve wonders how many actually came back, and Jenkins’s answer is telling (and chilling): the best ones came back.
Back in the main part of the Annex, the LITs have decided that they don’t care what Eve says, they are going to look at the clippings book. They find that eight people have gone missing in the last year all from different places in the country and all without any active investigation going on. Eve doesn’t want to investigate, but the LITs insist, asking how many more people have to go missing before they step in. Cassandra even points out that the latest victim may still be alive. Eve asks if they are willing to risks their lives for this stranger and they all agree (well, Cassandra and Jake do. Ezekiel insists that he’ll just outrun anything that might kill them). With that, Eve acquiesces, and immediately regrets her decision. She wants a plan, but she still doesn’t trust that the LITs can take care of themselves enough to pull this off.
After a planning session when the LITs go over everything they have learned about the missing people, Eve decides they need to go to Boston (since that’s where all the people disappeared from). Thanks to Jenkins and some magic (literally) they can get there simply by stepping through the backdoor ( again, literally).
In Boston, they meet with the CEO of Golden Axe, the company all the missing people interned at before they disappeared. The CEO (who happens to be the same woman who watched one of her interns disappear in the cold open of the episode) tells them that they had no idea they had missing interns and insists the team talk to someone in HR. Eve clearly knows something is up and decides the team needs to split up. Since she still doesn’t trust the LITs to take care of themselves, she decides they should go to HR and see whatever show the CEO wants to put on while she (Eve) breaks into the server room to find records of the company’s wrongdoing. The LITs object, but Eve insists (read: orders) and sends them on their way. And of course, the LITs wind up in just about the least safe place they can be.
Each half of our team finds something very interesting on their excursions. Eve finds what looks to be a museum with lots of really old art and a large ball of string. The LITs find a room full of human skulls. Their respective discoveries drive them to contact each other and it’s by looking at the art that Jake figures out part of what’s going on. They have somehow stumbled into Theseus’s Labyrinth. While Eve works on a way to get them out, the LITs work on finding their own way out.
It’s during their escape attempt that things come to a head between Jake and Cassie. He comments about that fact that he’s stuck in the maze with two of the least reliable people he knows, making it clear that he doesn’t trust either of the other two LITs. Cassie demands to know what his problem is and they fall into a discussion of her betrayal and how Stone feels about it. It’s the first time the two have really talked about it since they started working together and Cassie feels she has the right to explain herself. She insists that Jake has no right to judge her for her actions, since he doesn’t know what it’s like to be in her position, with her diagnosis hanging over her head. Jake, ever the stubborn person he is, doesn’t think he would have done the same thing.
But their conversation is cut short when Cassandra realizes that there is a pattern to the maze and she can find the way out. Just as she’s finding the pattern, Ezekiel reminds them that they need to get out of there due to the minotaur chasing them. So Cassie and Jake set aside their trust issues for a time and follow Cassie’s “brain grape” to the exit.
The team eventually finds a way out of the Labyrinth thanks to Jenkins. After some discussion, they figure out the best way to stop Golden Axe is to steal the thread that’s powering the maze. The team decides to go back in only to discover that they are back in the Labyrinth. Within minutes they are running for their lives to escape a very angry minotaur.
Thanks to Jenkins, they find a place to hide for a few minutes so they can plan their next moves. And it’s in this place that Eve’s trust issues with the team finally come to a head. She starts to order the LITs around as if they were her soldiers until Cassie reminds her that they aren’t.
Suddenly, Eve realizes that she’s been going about this all wrong. Librarians win with what they know, so she asks the team what they know. After a few minutes, they come up with a plan to get out and get the thread. During the planning session, the LITs realize that they are going to need to split up.
This is where Eve really balks. She refuses to let them out of her sight but all three of the LITs point out that if they all stay together the minotaur will find them and will kill them. Eve and Jake need to distract the monster so Cassie and Ezekiel can get to the center and get the thread. Eve still hesitates, but Cassie tells her that the Guardian can’t protect them all. With a sigh, Eve gives in, asking how much time the thief and the synesthete need.
At this point, I don’t think Eve trusts them to come back, but she realizes that they are right. The best she can do now is hope they are up to the task. It’s the beginning of trust and that’s all she can give at the moment. It won’t be until the two “weakest” members of her team come back that she actually starts trusting them to be able to handle themselves (to a point).
So the team splits up, Eve and Jake to distract the monster and Ezekiel and Cassie to find the thread. In the midst of their journey to the center of the Labyrinth ,we get another discussion of trust, this time between Ezekiel and Cassie.
In Horns, we see our LITs and their Guardian working to forge some kind of team, but failing because there is little trust amongst them. Eve doesn’t trust that the LITs will be able to survive without her. Jake no longer trusts Cassandra because of her actions in the previous two episodes. No one is sure they can trust Ezekiel since he’s a thief and is very vocal about only looking out for himself. And then there’s Cassandra, who doesn’t trust herself to be able to do what the team needs her to. If these four people can’t learn to extend some trust to each other, they are never going to be able to work together. And that’s what this episode is all about. Well that and escaping a magical maze and and an angry monster.
The beginning of the episode finds the LITs sneaking through a darkened warehouse, clearing trying to escape a dark figure. The thing that strikes me as interesting about this scene is how, despite supposedly being a team, the three LITs are completely separate in how they react and try to escape the person pursuing them. They each try to deal with the figure on their own, instead of working together. Jake decides to try to fight her (it’s Eve after all) while Ezekiel looks out for himself and just runs. Cassandra, oh dear Cassandra, doesn’t even get that far. She hides and then bumps her head on something, effectively ending any chance she had of getting away.
As the group walks back to the Annex, Eve chastises them for how they handled the situation. They are Librarians (in Training). They should be able to think their way out of the situations, but instead they aren’t doing anything. She decides that they are going to continue to run drills until she’s sure they won’t get themselves killed in the field.
Inside the Annex, Jenkins points out that another page has appeared in the clippings books and Eve gets annoyed, saying that the LITs aren't’ ready yet. And we find out that she isn’t letting them do anything but drill, despite new mysteries appearing each day. She just doesn’t trust that they’ll be able to handle it. And it’s frustrating our LITs to no end.
As Eve leaves to talk to Jenkins, Cassandra calls after her that Flynn told them to help people. And Jake pipes up, saying that Ezekiel is right and they have a job to do. This clearly frustrates Cassandra and gives us another glimpse of the underlying trust issues that exist amongst our team.
In the workroom, Eve has a little chat with Jenkins about the LITs. He points out that she’s going to have to put them in the field eventually. Eve counters by saying that she’s been in the field with trained soldiers and wound up losing them all. The LITs are not trained soldiers. And because of that, she can’t imagine that they’d be able to do anything but get themselves killed. Jenkins points out that the LITs job is to keep magic out of the wrong hands, and this means that they must be in harms way, the very thing Eve is trying so hard to avoid. Eve insists that they aren’t trained enough and Jenkins counters with the point that Librarians used to get no training at all. Eve wonders how many actually came back, and Jenkins’s answer is telling (and chilling): the best ones came back.
Back in the main part of the Annex, the LITs have decided that they don’t care what Eve says, they are going to look at the clippings book. They find that eight people have gone missing in the last year all from different places in the country and all without any active investigation going on. Eve doesn’t want to investigate, but the LITs insist, asking how many more people have to go missing before they step in. Cassandra even points out that the latest victim may still be alive. Eve asks if they are willing to risks their lives for this stranger and they all agree (well, Cassandra and Jake do. Ezekiel insists that he’ll just outrun anything that might kill them). With that, Eve acquiesces, and immediately regrets her decision. She wants a plan, but she still doesn’t trust that the LITs can take care of themselves enough to pull this off.
After a planning session when the LITs go over everything they have learned about the missing people, Eve decides they need to go to Boston (since that’s where all the people disappeared from). Thanks to Jenkins and some magic (literally) they can get there simply by stepping through the backdoor ( again, literally).
In Boston, they meet with the CEO of Golden Axe, the company all the missing people interned at before they disappeared. The CEO (who happens to be the same woman who watched one of her interns disappear in the cold open of the episode) tells them that they had no idea they had missing interns and insists the team talk to someone in HR. Eve clearly knows something is up and decides the team needs to split up. Since she still doesn’t trust the LITs to take care of themselves, she decides they should go to HR and see whatever show the CEO wants to put on while she (Eve) breaks into the server room to find records of the company’s wrongdoing. The LITs object, but Eve insists (read: orders) and sends them on their way. And of course, the LITs wind up in just about the least safe place they can be.
Each half of our team finds something very interesting on their excursions. Eve finds what looks to be a museum with lots of really old art and a large ball of string. The LITs find a room full of human skulls. Their respective discoveries drive them to contact each other and it’s by looking at the art that Jake figures out part of what’s going on. They have somehow stumbled into Theseus’s Labyrinth. While Eve works on a way to get them out, the LITs work on finding their own way out.
It’s during their escape attempt that things come to a head between Jake and Cassie. He comments about that fact that he’s stuck in the maze with two of the least reliable people he knows, making it clear that he doesn’t trust either of the other two LITs. Cassie demands to know what his problem is and they fall into a discussion of her betrayal and how Stone feels about it. It’s the first time the two have really talked about it since they started working together and Cassie feels she has the right to explain herself. She insists that Jake has no right to judge her for her actions, since he doesn’t know what it’s like to be in her position, with her diagnosis hanging over her head. Jake, ever the stubborn person he is, doesn’t think he would have done the same thing.
But their conversation is cut short when Cassandra realizes that there is a pattern to the maze and she can find the way out. Just as she’s finding the pattern, Ezekiel reminds them that they need to get out of there due to the minotaur chasing them. So Cassie and Jake set aside their trust issues for a time and follow Cassie’s “brain grape” to the exit.
The team eventually finds a way out of the Labyrinth thanks to Jenkins. After some discussion, they figure out the best way to stop Golden Axe is to steal the thread that’s powering the maze. The team decides to go back in only to discover that they are back in the Labyrinth. Within minutes they are running for their lives to escape a very angry minotaur.
Thanks to Jenkins, they find a place to hide for a few minutes so they can plan their next moves. And it’s in this place that Eve’s trust issues with the team finally come to a head. She starts to order the LITs around as if they were her soldiers until Cassie reminds her that they aren’t.
Suddenly, Eve realizes that she’s been going about this all wrong. Librarians win with what they know, so she asks the team what they know. After a few minutes, they come up with a plan to get out and get the thread. During the planning session, the LITs realize that they are going to need to split up.
This is where Eve really balks. She refuses to let them out of her sight but all three of the LITs point out that if they all stay together the minotaur will find them and will kill them. Eve and Jake need to distract the monster so Cassie and Ezekiel can get to the center and get the thread. Eve still hesitates, but Cassie tells her that the Guardian can’t protect them all. With a sigh, Eve gives in, asking how much time the thief and the synesthete need.
At this point, I don’t think Eve trusts them to come back, but she realizes that they are right. The best she can do now is hope they are up to the task. It’s the beginning of trust and that’s all she can give at the moment. It won’t be until the two “weakest” members of her team come back that she actually starts trusting them to be able to handle themselves (to a point).
So the team splits up, Eve and Jake to distract the monster and Ezekiel and Cassie to find the thread. In the midst of their journey to the center of the Labyrinth ,we get another discussion of trust, this time between Ezekiel and Cassie.
(Can I just say I find it interesting and telling that Jake and Eve never have to have a real discussion about trust in their partnership. The two had an immediate understanding and that doesn’t change throughout the whole season. I think part of it stems from the two of them being warrior types. But also, Eve has always been honest with Jake, and never given him reason to not trust her. I don’t think that makes their relationship better necessarily, but it’s certainly easier in some ways.)
Cassie begins to have difficulty with the maze when they get to a room that seems to have been designed by M.C. Escher himself. She starts to doubt her abilities, saying that seven dimension is too much and that Jake was right about not being able to trust her. What follows is a lovely conversation between the thief and the synesthete where Ezekiel assures her that he understands why she did what she did with the Brotherhood. He tells her that he probably would have done the same thing if he’d been in her shoes. Only, he would have gone all the way with it, bringing magic back to the world completely and letting Flynn die. The way he sees it, Cassie may have screwed people over but she didn’t let anyone down. He offers to be Cassie other senses so she doesn’t get overwhelmed and she asks if he’s sure he trusts her to guide him through. He laughs at that, and reminds her that he’s the thief who always bails. Really she’s the one trusting him.
I find this whole conversation so interesting mostly, because Cassie is convinced that she is the untrustworthy one yet she is so willing to trust everyone else. Earlier in the episode she watched Ezekiel try to escape on his own, yet here, she hesitates not because she thinks he’ll do it again, but because she doesn’t see herself as trustworthy. She readily trusts everyone on the team, yet the only person on the team who seems to trust her is the person who is actually probably the least trustworthy of the bunch (at the moment). The most trusting of the group is the one everyone treats as the least trustworthy. Interesting, no?
Upon entering the control room, Ezekiel gets to work trying to get the thread, but is stopped when our favorite CEO Karen Willis appears pointing a gun and threatening. Ezekiel tries to be his charming self and talk his way out of the problem, but it doesn’t really work. So Cassie jumps on Willis and tries to hold her off while Ezekiel finishes grabbing the thread. She helps him out by getting Willis to shoot the case and the thief grabs the thread. For a moment, it looks as if he’s going to abandon Cassie when he bolts out the door with the thread, but a second later he’s back. With some quick thinking, they destroy the Labyrinth and get back to the Annex with all the others. With their job done for the day, everyone heads off to do their own thing.
Before the episode ends though, we get one last conversation about trust, this time the one that’s been building the whole episode. Cassie finally confronts Jake about why he is so angry at her. And we, like her, finally learn why he is having such a hard time trusting her again. See Jake hides his gift from his family, from everyone really. And Cassie was one of the first people he shared it with. Then she went and betrayed the team and now, he’s just can’t seem to get back to where they were before. He’ll work with her, but he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to trust her again.
I think the most important aspect to the issues between Cassie and Jake isn’t that she betrayed him, but that he liked her (I don’t know if he meant that romantically or just in a general way that you like your best friends) before she betrayed him. That’s what made it worse. If he hadn’t liked her, hadn’t connected with her so easily, her betrayal wouldn’t have been so bad (probably). Jake is clearly the type of person who has trouble connecting with people, really connecting with them. So when he opened himself up to Cassie, it was because he felt a connection of some kind. Then she shattered that connection through her actions with the Brotherhood and that hurt him, deeply. Now, he doesn’t want to risk that again. He’ll work with her, but he refuses to trust her again.
The episode ends with a brief conversation amongst the whole team, with Eve admitting she wasn't the best today. She admits that she had been trying to put the LITs into a box, but they don’t fit in one and she doesn’t know how to handle that. Jake suggests she should look at them as partners and Eve accepts this. She’s starting to trust them, and though she still has a bit to go before she does so fully, this is an excellent start.
Other random goodness:
~”I don’t do punchy”
~“I am here to do science and math . . . and occasionally hallucinate.”
~I love the scene where Jenkins has Jake hook up the globe to the door while he’s explaining. Then when Jake stands by him, Jenkins just stares at the cowboy until he walks back over with everyone else. Jenkins is the best.
~”Any door? Like, say, a bank vault door? I’m asking for a friend.”
~John Kim is seriously charming. I think that’s the only reason I can actually stand Ezekiel. Normally I probably wouldn't like his character, but you can’t help but like him a little cause of John.
~”Good luck.” “What?” “Nothing. Go away. I’m working.”
~”How many ways can I mean human skulls?!”
~”I am impressed. We’ve had Guardians lose librarians before but never three in one day. It’ll be quite some time before someone beats that.”
~”We’re not calling it a brain grape!” *Minotaur roars* “Follow the brain grape.”
~”So first time out, how’d it go?” The teams’ reactions to this are perfection. My favorite is Jake dropping the sword. Christian Kane has serious comedic timing. I love that we get to see more of that as the season goes on.
~”Nasty creatures. Hold a grudge.”
~”So annoying or cryptic, those are your two speeds huh?”
~”Back off. I’m doing math.”
~The final scene between Jake and Cassie was great. So emotional. All the kudos to Christian and Lindy for striking just the right emotional chord there. So good.
That’s it for this review. Next week, I’ll be doing Fables (not Santa). I’ll explain why in that post. In the mean time, come back Wednesday for my writing post and Friday for the next question in my 30 Questions series.
Until then.
Cassie begins to have difficulty with the maze when they get to a room that seems to have been designed by M.C. Escher himself. She starts to doubt her abilities, saying that seven dimension is too much and that Jake was right about not being able to trust her. What follows is a lovely conversation between the thief and the synesthete where Ezekiel assures her that he understands why she did what she did with the Brotherhood. He tells her that he probably would have done the same thing if he’d been in her shoes. Only, he would have gone all the way with it, bringing magic back to the world completely and letting Flynn die. The way he sees it, Cassie may have screwed people over but she didn’t let anyone down. He offers to be Cassie other senses so she doesn’t get overwhelmed and she asks if he’s sure he trusts her to guide him through. He laughs at that, and reminds her that he’s the thief who always bails. Really she’s the one trusting him.
I find this whole conversation so interesting mostly, because Cassie is convinced that she is the untrustworthy one yet she is so willing to trust everyone else. Earlier in the episode she watched Ezekiel try to escape on his own, yet here, she hesitates not because she thinks he’ll do it again, but because she doesn’t see herself as trustworthy. She readily trusts everyone on the team, yet the only person on the team who seems to trust her is the person who is actually probably the least trustworthy of the bunch (at the moment). The most trusting of the group is the one everyone treats as the least trustworthy. Interesting, no?
Upon entering the control room, Ezekiel gets to work trying to get the thread, but is stopped when our favorite CEO Karen Willis appears pointing a gun and threatening. Ezekiel tries to be his charming self and talk his way out of the problem, but it doesn’t really work. So Cassie jumps on Willis and tries to hold her off while Ezekiel finishes grabbing the thread. She helps him out by getting Willis to shoot the case and the thief grabs the thread. For a moment, it looks as if he’s going to abandon Cassie when he bolts out the door with the thread, but a second later he’s back. With some quick thinking, they destroy the Labyrinth and get back to the Annex with all the others. With their job done for the day, everyone heads off to do their own thing.
Before the episode ends though, we get one last conversation about trust, this time the one that’s been building the whole episode. Cassie finally confronts Jake about why he is so angry at her. And we, like her, finally learn why he is having such a hard time trusting her again. See Jake hides his gift from his family, from everyone really. And Cassie was one of the first people he shared it with. Then she went and betrayed the team and now, he’s just can’t seem to get back to where they were before. He’ll work with her, but he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to trust her again.
I think the most important aspect to the issues between Cassie and Jake isn’t that she betrayed him, but that he liked her (I don’t know if he meant that romantically or just in a general way that you like your best friends) before she betrayed him. That’s what made it worse. If he hadn’t liked her, hadn’t connected with her so easily, her betrayal wouldn’t have been so bad (probably). Jake is clearly the type of person who has trouble connecting with people, really connecting with them. So when he opened himself up to Cassie, it was because he felt a connection of some kind. Then she shattered that connection through her actions with the Brotherhood and that hurt him, deeply. Now, he doesn’t want to risk that again. He’ll work with her, but he refuses to trust her again.
The episode ends with a brief conversation amongst the whole team, with Eve admitting she wasn't the best today. She admits that she had been trying to put the LITs into a box, but they don’t fit in one and she doesn’t know how to handle that. Jake suggests she should look at them as partners and Eve accepts this. She’s starting to trust them, and though she still has a bit to go before she does so fully, this is an excellent start.
Other random goodness:
~”I don’t do punchy”
~“I am here to do science and math . . . and occasionally hallucinate.”
~I love the scene where Jenkins has Jake hook up the globe to the door while he’s explaining. Then when Jake stands by him, Jenkins just stares at the cowboy until he walks back over with everyone else. Jenkins is the best.
~”Any door? Like, say, a bank vault door? I’m asking for a friend.”
~John Kim is seriously charming. I think that’s the only reason I can actually stand Ezekiel. Normally I probably wouldn't like his character, but you can’t help but like him a little cause of John.
~”Good luck.” “What?” “Nothing. Go away. I’m working.”
~”How many ways can I mean human skulls?!”
~”I am impressed. We’ve had Guardians lose librarians before but never three in one day. It’ll be quite some time before someone beats that.”
~”We’re not calling it a brain grape!” *Minotaur roars* “Follow the brain grape.”
~”So first time out, how’d it go?” The teams’ reactions to this are perfection. My favorite is Jake dropping the sword. Christian Kane has serious comedic timing. I love that we get to see more of that as the season goes on.
~”Nasty creatures. Hold a grudge.”
~”So annoying or cryptic, those are your two speeds huh?”
~”Back off. I’m doing math.”
~The final scene between Jake and Cassie was great. So emotional. All the kudos to Christian and Lindy for striking just the right emotional chord there. So good.
That’s it for this review. Next week, I’ll be doing Fables (not Santa). I’ll explain why in that post. In the mean time, come back Wednesday for my writing post and Friday for the next question in my 30 Questions series.
Until then.
Friday, February 20, 2015
30 Things: Question 13
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
~I am a perfectionist and due to this I have a massive fear of failure. I want something to be so perfect that often, I don't finish it out of fear that it won't be good enough. I'm working on this.
~I'm a procrastinator. This also probably goes back to my perfectionism and fear of failure. Also working on this.
~I have trouble finishing things. See above issues for reasons. Working on this one too.
~I can be lazy at times. Working on this one as well.
~I can be judgmental when I think I know the right answer or way to do things. I'm much better about not being judgmental than I was when I was younger, but it is a struggle sometimes. God's been working on this with me for years.
As you can see, I am working to overcome these weaknesses, but I think it'll be a lifelong struggle. Still, everyone has weaknesses. Hopefully you can forgive mine.
See you next week for the next review of the Librarians.
Until then.
~I am a perfectionist and due to this I have a massive fear of failure. I want something to be so perfect that often, I don't finish it out of fear that it won't be good enough. I'm working on this.
~I'm a procrastinator. This also probably goes back to my perfectionism and fear of failure. Also working on this.
~I have trouble finishing things. See above issues for reasons. Working on this one too.
~I can be lazy at times. Working on this one as well.
~I can be judgmental when I think I know the right answer or way to do things. I'm much better about not being judgmental than I was when I was younger, but it is a struggle sometimes. God's been working on this with me for years.
As you can see, I am working to overcome these weaknesses, but I think it'll be a lifelong struggle. Still, everyone has weaknesses. Hopefully you can forgive mine.
See you next week for the next review of the Librarians.
Until then.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday: Forbidden
I wanted to see where just writing from the first sentence prompt would take me, without having to work in other things. I've come up with interesting things doing that in the past, so that's what I decided to do this week. I planned to write for ten minutes, though I went a little longer than that. Not by much though.
Here is the prompt this week: There I was, just standing there, when what I wanted to do was forbidden. I
---
There I was, just standing there, when what I wanted to do was forbidden. Social customs forbid me from walking up to anyone of a higher rank and introducing myself. Or slapping them. Actually, they forbid me from introducing myself doing anything of any consequence in public. Being a woman often felt like the most constraining type of existence.
Across the room, the Marquis of Farron smiled and greeted guests while I stood, my corset pressing into my rib cage and my mother twittering away beside me. Why did I even care? I wondered as I watched him kiss the hand of another debutante while she simpered up at him. So he'd slighted me and my family by ignoring us. I shouldn't care what a stuffed suit thought of us.
And yet, I did.
Taking a deep breath to keep from sighing, I turned away. I needed to distract myself or I would get in trouble again. Mother was always telling me I was too impetuous, to fiery. Men didn't want a wife who would challenge them, she insisted. They want nice, demure things who just smiled and did what they were told. Unfortunately for her, I would never be that girl.
Shaking my head, I stepped away from the wall and Mother, who continued to talk to my sister. I needed air and I'd hear that the Marquis had lovely gardens at this house. Twisting and turning, I made my way through the throngs. Why did I let Mother bring me to these things? There were too many people, the air pressing against me like heavy hot hands, suffocating and inescapable.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was really only minutes, I stepped through the massive glass doors onto a beautifully sweeping terrace bordered by carefully manicured foliage. A few people occupied different places along the railing, groups of friends or couples sneaking some times alone together. At the far end, I found a small section unoccupied in a corner that had too much light to appeal to couples but not enough room to appeal to the groups of friends.
With a sigh, I leaned up against the railing, finally relaxing now that I was away from all the people and could finally breathe.
---
I have no idea where this was going. It is certainly interesting though. I wonder what would have happened next. And why did my character hate the Marquis so very much? Maybe one day I'll keep writing this and find out.
Friday I'll post the next 30 Things question.
Until Then
There I was, just standing there, when what I wanted to do was forbidden. Social customs forbid me from walking up to anyone of a higher rank and introducing myself. Or slapping them. Actually, they forbid me from introducing myself doing anything of any consequence in public. Being a woman often felt like the most constraining type of existence.
Across the room, the Marquis of Farron smiled and greeted guests while I stood, my corset pressing into my rib cage and my mother twittering away beside me. Why did I even care? I wondered as I watched him kiss the hand of another debutante while she simpered up at him. So he'd slighted me and my family by ignoring us. I shouldn't care what a stuffed suit thought of us.
And yet, I did.
Taking a deep breath to keep from sighing, I turned away. I needed to distract myself or I would get in trouble again. Mother was always telling me I was too impetuous, to fiery. Men didn't want a wife who would challenge them, she insisted. They want nice, demure things who just smiled and did what they were told. Unfortunately for her, I would never be that girl.
Shaking my head, I stepped away from the wall and Mother, who continued to talk to my sister. I needed air and I'd hear that the Marquis had lovely gardens at this house. Twisting and turning, I made my way through the throngs. Why did I let Mother bring me to these things? There were too many people, the air pressing against me like heavy hot hands, suffocating and inescapable.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was really only minutes, I stepped through the massive glass doors onto a beautifully sweeping terrace bordered by carefully manicured foliage. A few people occupied different places along the railing, groups of friends or couples sneaking some times alone together. At the far end, I found a small section unoccupied in a corner that had too much light to appeal to couples but not enough room to appeal to the groups of friends.
With a sigh, I leaned up against the railing, finally relaxing now that I was away from all the people and could finally breathe.
---
I have no idea where this was going. It is certainly interesting though. I wonder what would have happened next. And why did my character hate the Marquis so very much? Maybe one day I'll keep writing this and find out.
Friday I'll post the next 30 Things question.
Until Then
Monday, February 16, 2015
Review of The Librarians 1x02 And the Sword in the Stone: When a Plan Comes Together
I’m going to admit something to y’all: as hard as I try, I can’t always find an overriding theme with works that I read or watch. As much as I want to see some deep connective thread that ties the whole episode together, sometimes, it just escapes me. That’s pretty much what happened with this episode. I spent all week thinking about it and while I could easily come up with themes and threads for pretty much every other episode in the season, I kept coming up dry for this episode.
What I determined was that this episodes theme really was about solving the puzzle and getting the final team together. It was a continuation of last weeks episode in that while last week worked to get four lonely people together, this week was about what happened when they were together (or mostly together). It was about the adventure and the puzzle and the race against the clock. And that’s okay, because sometimes that’s what an episode of TV is. So this week will be more about what happened during the episode than anything else. Enjoy.
This episode picks up right where the first one left off. Which isn’t surprising considering that the first two episodes were technically meant to go together.
Just as Lamia’s goons are about to finish Flynn off, Eve shows up and bashes their heads together, saving Flynn from dying. At least for the time being. Unfortunately, as he explains to her, Jake, and Ezekiel, his wound is a magical wound that can’t be healed. Even though he drinks Bathsheba’s Oil of Healing, he’s only staved off death for a short time. He will eventually succumb to the wound Excalibur gave him.
While taking care of his wound, Flynn reveals that it was Cassandra that let the Brotherhood in. The group is suitable shocked. How could Cassandra -sweet, excited Cassandra- have betrayed them like this? They quickly realize that rather than worrying about this puzzle they instead need to find Charlene. Eve mentions that Charlene told her that she wanted them to meet her deep in the Library, at a place called the Corridor or Doors. So the group heads off to follow Charlene’s instructions.
At the front of the Library, Cassandra begins her journey of rethinking her involvement with the Brotherhood. She’s visibly changed from the bright, exuberant girl we first met in the previous episode. Here, she is quiet, subdued, clearly shocked by Lamia and the Brotherhoods harsh methods. She asks Lamia if it was really necessary to hurt Flynn. Lamia, the masterful snake that she is, appeals to Cassandra’s desire to help people (which part of what drove her to betray Flynn in the first place) and tells her that the Librarians are the wrong ones for keeping so much power locked away from the rest of the world. Cassandra still isn’t totally convinced and wonders how the Brotherhood’s actions can possibly make them “the good guys”. Lamia simply reminds Cassandra that they are going to use the magic in the Library to change the world.
Suddenly, both groups hear a large bell start tolling and they both know what it means. Flynn tells his group that it’s the countdown clock, and Eve wants to know what happens when the bells stop. Turning around, they see the Library begin to fold up on itself and she quickly understands. Back with Lamia, Cassandra gets a fuller explanation. Lamia tells her that the first Librarian has cut the anchor chain, and the Library is going to cut itself off from the rest of the world, isolating itself in its own pocket dimension.
Flynn and company arrive at the Corridor of Doors and as the number of tolls decreases, Eve forces him to pick a door which they jump through. On the other side, they take a few moments to figure out where they are (Oregon) then, realizing that Flynn is getting worse, decide they need to find a hospital. Eve uses her GPS to locate a road and they stumble across a man who happens to be waiting with a car. Eve asks if he can help them and he agrees. It isn’t until she asks how close to a hospital they are that things get weirder.
The man reveals that they aren’t going to a hospital, but somewhere else. And then he reveals that he knows about magic, Excalibur, Flynn, and the Library. No one understands, until the man reveals that his name is Jenkins, and they are actually at the Library. Well, sort of. It’s actually an annex where they can access all the Library’s knowledge, but not the actual Library itself. This information devastates Flynn. He suddenly comes to the realization that everything he’d gotten used to, everything he’d loved for so long, was gone, no longer available to him. He sinks into a stupor of despair, unable to do anything but wallow.
Back with the Brotherhood, Cassandra continues to question her decision. Her first question to Du Lac is if the others got out. Of course, she is still counting on the Brotherhood to heal her and save everyone else that science can’t save, so she’s not ready to leave them yet, but she is clearly concerned about the friends she betrayed. Du Lac assures her that this is his goal, even while preventing Lamia from killing Cassandra. Once Cassandra goes to rest, Du Lac reveals that he clearly has other plans for magic and Cassandra than he’s letting on.
At the annex, Eve is lamenting the fact that Flynn is falling apart. She has no idea what to do. Jenkins, in his wonderfully crotchety and wise way, reminds her that being a Guardian is about more than just keeping Flynn safe from physical harm. It’s about helping Flynn get through any danger, be it emotional, physical, or other. She needs to find a way to save him from drowning in his sorrow. This prompts the Guardian into action and she goes to find her Librarian.
What follows is a wonderful scene between Eve and Flynn, showing how much they connect, despite only knowing each other for a few days. She is exactly the person he needs right now, and she proves it by showing him that he’s hiding and reminding him what he needs to do. So, he decides to save the world one more time.
Of course, their little talk inspires Flynn and gets him going in the right direction. The Librarian and the Guardian rush down the stairs, Flynn rambling about what he’s figured out. Between Flynn, Jake, Ezekiel, and Eve, they figure out their next stop (London and the Stone from where Arthur pulled the Sword originally). Then Flynn begins to rush out. Ezekiel asks if he means for them (him and Jake) to come too. And Flynn takes a wonderful stride forward, saying that since he’s dying and they don’t have much time and they all started this adventure together anyway, yes the boys get to come too. The foursome runs out, leaving Jenkins alone once more in his annex.
In London, our foursome is perusing the Crown Jewels, looking for an artifact to use as a compass to locate the Stone. And once more, we see why all of these people are needed to get this job done. They need to steal one of the Crown Jewels to use as a compass. Flynn even tells Ezekiel he now knows why the Library chose the thief. (I love the mini heist they pull off. It brings back lovely memories of another Rogers/Devlin show that involved purloining things.)
Once they have the gem, Flynn quickly attaches it to some string (using gum, which is awesome) and recites a spell to show them where the Stone is. They follow the gem as it pulls Flynn along, until arrives at none other than Buckingham Palace. At this revelation, Eve storms off, asking how many other famous landmarks they are going to have to break into. Flynn assures the boys that she’ll be back.
Meanwhile, Du Lac explains to Cassandra what they are doing to jumpstart the return of magic to the world. He tells her how Excalibur factors into the plan. He also reveals a small clue about himself, saying how he remembers the road they are on (which is underground) ran aboveground through meadows. Clearly Du Lac is far older than we first thought.
Back at Buckingham Palace, Flynn, Stone, and Jones all stand in line, waiting to get into the party at Buckingham Palace with forged invitations. Just as it appears that the guards are going to detain them (since Ezekiel’s forgeries are crap) Eve appears again and gets them into the event (looking stunning while doing so).
They head into the party and decide that Jake and Ezekiel will look around outside while Flynn and Eve stay on the dance floor. The Librarian and the Guardian decide the best way to find the secret passage is to dance, since it will give Eve a way to keep Flynn on his feet (blood loss is starting to kick in) while also giving them an excuse to move around the room.
Outside, Jake and Ezekiel begin their search and are promptly distracted. Jake gets sidelined by a discussion of an art piece while our favorite Thief notices a lovely necklace that he decides should be in his company instead of around the throat of the British guest to whom it belongs.
Back on the dance floor, Eve and Flynn keep looking for the secret passage while also discussing his first mission. They also give us a cute little moment when Eve decides they should schedule a dance when Flynn isn’t slowly bleeding to death.
Meanwhile, under their feet, Lamia and her goons have successfully found the chamber with the Stone. Lamia orders a man to cut through the protective cage surrounding the Stone. Unfortunately for him, there is some kind of magic on the cage and he is vaporized. Lamia insists that Cassandra open the cage instead. While she may be starting to mistrust the Brotherhood, Cassandra is still there to help them, so she agrees. The cage can be opened by solving a complex puzzle involving high Enochian (a mathematical language based on ancient Greek and Hebrew apparently) which is right up Cassandra’s alley. She sets to work, while Lamia puts on the crown and grabs Excalibur, getting ready to enact the final part of their plan.
Upstairs in the ballroom, Eve and Flynn find the location of the secret door, then go grab the Thief and the Cowboy so they can get through the door. Using Ezekiel’s tech, they get the door open and the four head down into the bowels of Buckingham palace.
Meanwhile, Cassandra finishes solving the puzzle and opens the cage surrounding the Stone. Lamia is thrilled. So thrilled she promptly throws Cassandra into a jail cell. And this is what finally pushes Cassandra over the edge, causing her to realize that the Brotherhood isn’t out to help the world, only themselves. They want to control magic and Cassandra has just helped them get exactly what they want.
Our four heroes soon find themselves in a wine cellar, trying to open yet another secret door while Lamia rejoins the Sword to the Stone. Flynn’s wound is only going to get worse at a faster rate, so they don’t have much time to stop the Brotherhood. Thanks to Ezekiel, they find their second secret door and head down into the tunnels.
Down at the Stone, Flynn quickly realizes they need to come up with a plan to defeat Lamia. Thankfully, they happen to discuss this right outside Cassandra’s cell and the synesthete has some ideas for defeating Lamia.
I find the group’s reactions to Cassandra all very interesting and very indicative of who they are as people:
~Ezekiel, ever the selfish person that he is, holds nothing against Cassandra. We’ll learn later in the series that he probably would have done the same thing, and gone even further than she did.
~Eve seems unsure whether she should be mad at the young synesthete or not.
~Jake, however is not happy to see her and doesn’t want to hear her ideas. He was clearly very hurt by her betrayal and doesn’t trust her not to betray them again.
~Flynn is quick to forgive her, understanding that many people in her position would have done exactly the same thing. He thinks she deserves a second chance and wants to give it to her.
Flynn tells everyone that she had her reasons and to get her out of the cell. Jake tries to protest again, but Flynn puts a stop to it, saying that they all ganged up on him to do it together, so he wants to do it together. So they let Cassandra out of the cell and work out their plan.
They all get to work, each with their own jobs. And what I love about this is that, like so many things they will do and have done, every one of them is needed to pull off the plan. Without just one of them, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Brotherhood and foil their evil plan.
Of course Lamia challenges Flynn, asking how he possibly hopes to defeat them with (and I love this quote) his “little knockoff librarians, one who is doomed by her gift, one who fled his gift, and one who abuses it.” Or his little soldier girl. I love this description of the group, as it’s so perfect for where they are at the beginning of the series. But this is the beginning and so they will all have the chance to change and grow into the Librarians they will become. It’s lovely.
Flynn, ever the Librarian, tells her that no, he won’t use force to beat her. He will use knowledge and science to beat her. And then he does. Well that and Excalibur. Excalibur fends off Lamia, but it’s quickly clear that something is terribly wrong with Cal.
Flynn reveals that Cal’s magic has gone back into the ley lines and Cal is dying. In fact, so is Flynn. As his last act, the Librarian gives Cal to Cassandra. Cal has just enough raw magic left to heal her. She starts to use Flynn’s last gift, but as he slumps over succumbing to his magical wound, she can’t bring herself to do it, and instead uses Cal to heal Flynn instead of herself. Flynn recovers, but is sad. He insists that the magic was supposed to be for Cassandra, to save her. She tells him that he already did save her, and they share a small smile.
Unfortunately, that was Cal’s last act. Flynn takes up his friend one last time and lays him on the Stone, allowing Cal to fade back into the Stone from which he was pulled all those years ago. (It’s at this moment that the fandom cried for a sword, which I’m sure we’ve probably never done before.)
After saying goodbye to Cal, the group returns to the annex to say a last goodbye to each other. It looks like Cassandra, Jake, and Ezekiel have to go home. Flynn doesn’t think it’s fair or safe to involve them in the life of the Librarian any longer. They don’t like this idea, after all they’ve experienced and seen and protest, but Flynn, ever the lovely and kind person he is, has nothing to say in reply and just walks away. Eve, ever the pragmatist, reminds the three that they can’t tell anyone. Or rather, they can, but no one will ever believe them.
Back in the annex, Flynn has one last encounter with Judson, who gives him some advice for how to move forward. Flynn insists that he’s going to find the Library, but Judson reminds him that the Brotherhood has released magic back into the world. Flynn’s going to be busy. After a few moments of thought though, Flynn realizes he can start making some new rules. He runs outside and grabs the three before they can leave. Opening their envelopes, they discover that they won’t be going home after all. Instead, the Library has called them to be Librarians. They have a lot of work to do. He dubs them the Librarians in Training (LITs) and puts Jenkins and Eve in charge of training them and keeping them alive. Then, after a brief kiss with Eve, sets out to find the Library again.
And that’s it for the second half of the premier of the Librarians. Wasn’t it a fun romp?
Other random things I liked from the episode:
~Jenkins is the best. I love him.
~”I think you broke Africa.”
~“I am Henge and Key”
~”You didn’t turn off the glowy globe.” *Jenkins claps twice then sighs* “Hope it’s on a timer.”
~“Seriously, you’re going to put your gum on a stone worth €7M?”
~”Can you make me a duke?”
~”This is my first suit.”
~Eve & Ezekiel returning the stolen jewelry. Seriously. I love their expressions and everything about the little scene.
~”I was really expecting a better secret door.” “Oh write a letter!”
~”Why would you go there? That’s a horrible thing to say!”
~”They tunneled in from the side. It’s much smarter than what we did.”
~”Librarians win with electromagnets!”
~The entire exchange with the NATO soldiers. Everything about it was perfection.
~”Please, tell people about the magic library and Excalibur and how you broke into Buckingham Palace because King Arthur was really Roman and I’ll come visit you to make sure the straight jacket is not too tight.” The LITs reactions to this little speech is excellent as well. I just love all of these characters so much.
Next week, we’ll get to see how the LITs first mission goes in And the Horns of a Dilemma. It’s fun episode so I’m looking forward to it.
In the mean time, Wednesday will have a new writing exercise and Friday more of the 30 Things series.
Until then.
What I determined was that this episodes theme really was about solving the puzzle and getting the final team together. It was a continuation of last weeks episode in that while last week worked to get four lonely people together, this week was about what happened when they were together (or mostly together). It was about the adventure and the puzzle and the race against the clock. And that’s okay, because sometimes that’s what an episode of TV is. So this week will be more about what happened during the episode than anything else. Enjoy.
This episode picks up right where the first one left off. Which isn’t surprising considering that the first two episodes were technically meant to go together.
Just as Lamia’s goons are about to finish Flynn off, Eve shows up and bashes their heads together, saving Flynn from dying. At least for the time being. Unfortunately, as he explains to her, Jake, and Ezekiel, his wound is a magical wound that can’t be healed. Even though he drinks Bathsheba’s Oil of Healing, he’s only staved off death for a short time. He will eventually succumb to the wound Excalibur gave him.
While taking care of his wound, Flynn reveals that it was Cassandra that let the Brotherhood in. The group is suitable shocked. How could Cassandra -sweet, excited Cassandra- have betrayed them like this? They quickly realize that rather than worrying about this puzzle they instead need to find Charlene. Eve mentions that Charlene told her that she wanted them to meet her deep in the Library, at a place called the Corridor or Doors. So the group heads off to follow Charlene’s instructions.
At the front of the Library, Cassandra begins her journey of rethinking her involvement with the Brotherhood. She’s visibly changed from the bright, exuberant girl we first met in the previous episode. Here, she is quiet, subdued, clearly shocked by Lamia and the Brotherhoods harsh methods. She asks Lamia if it was really necessary to hurt Flynn. Lamia, the masterful snake that she is, appeals to Cassandra’s desire to help people (which part of what drove her to betray Flynn in the first place) and tells her that the Librarians are the wrong ones for keeping so much power locked away from the rest of the world. Cassandra still isn’t totally convinced and wonders how the Brotherhood’s actions can possibly make them “the good guys”. Lamia simply reminds Cassandra that they are going to use the magic in the Library to change the world.
Suddenly, both groups hear a large bell start tolling and they both know what it means. Flynn tells his group that it’s the countdown clock, and Eve wants to know what happens when the bells stop. Turning around, they see the Library begin to fold up on itself and she quickly understands. Back with Lamia, Cassandra gets a fuller explanation. Lamia tells her that the first Librarian has cut the anchor chain, and the Library is going to cut itself off from the rest of the world, isolating itself in its own pocket dimension.
Flynn and company arrive at the Corridor of Doors and as the number of tolls decreases, Eve forces him to pick a door which they jump through. On the other side, they take a few moments to figure out where they are (Oregon) then, realizing that Flynn is getting worse, decide they need to find a hospital. Eve uses her GPS to locate a road and they stumble across a man who happens to be waiting with a car. Eve asks if he can help them and he agrees. It isn’t until she asks how close to a hospital they are that things get weirder.
The man reveals that they aren’t going to a hospital, but somewhere else. And then he reveals that he knows about magic, Excalibur, Flynn, and the Library. No one understands, until the man reveals that his name is Jenkins, and they are actually at the Library. Well, sort of. It’s actually an annex where they can access all the Library’s knowledge, but not the actual Library itself. This information devastates Flynn. He suddenly comes to the realization that everything he’d gotten used to, everything he’d loved for so long, was gone, no longer available to him. He sinks into a stupor of despair, unable to do anything but wallow.
Back with the Brotherhood, Cassandra continues to question her decision. Her first question to Du Lac is if the others got out. Of course, she is still counting on the Brotherhood to heal her and save everyone else that science can’t save, so she’s not ready to leave them yet, but she is clearly concerned about the friends she betrayed. Du Lac assures her that this is his goal, even while preventing Lamia from killing Cassandra. Once Cassandra goes to rest, Du Lac reveals that he clearly has other plans for magic and Cassandra than he’s letting on.
At the annex, Eve is lamenting the fact that Flynn is falling apart. She has no idea what to do. Jenkins, in his wonderfully crotchety and wise way, reminds her that being a Guardian is about more than just keeping Flynn safe from physical harm. It’s about helping Flynn get through any danger, be it emotional, physical, or other. She needs to find a way to save him from drowning in his sorrow. This prompts the Guardian into action and she goes to find her Librarian.
What follows is a wonderful scene between Eve and Flynn, showing how much they connect, despite only knowing each other for a few days. She is exactly the person he needs right now, and she proves it by showing him that he’s hiding and reminding him what he needs to do. So, he decides to save the world one more time.
Of course, their little talk inspires Flynn and gets him going in the right direction. The Librarian and the Guardian rush down the stairs, Flynn rambling about what he’s figured out. Between Flynn, Jake, Ezekiel, and Eve, they figure out their next stop (London and the Stone from where Arthur pulled the Sword originally). Then Flynn begins to rush out. Ezekiel asks if he means for them (him and Jake) to come too. And Flynn takes a wonderful stride forward, saying that since he’s dying and they don’t have much time and they all started this adventure together anyway, yes the boys get to come too. The foursome runs out, leaving Jenkins alone once more in his annex.
In London, our foursome is perusing the Crown Jewels, looking for an artifact to use as a compass to locate the Stone. And once more, we see why all of these people are needed to get this job done. They need to steal one of the Crown Jewels to use as a compass. Flynn even tells Ezekiel he now knows why the Library chose the thief. (I love the mini heist they pull off. It brings back lovely memories of another Rogers/Devlin show that involved purloining things.)
Once they have the gem, Flynn quickly attaches it to some string (using gum, which is awesome) and recites a spell to show them where the Stone is. They follow the gem as it pulls Flynn along, until arrives at none other than Buckingham Palace. At this revelation, Eve storms off, asking how many other famous landmarks they are going to have to break into. Flynn assures the boys that she’ll be back.
Meanwhile, Du Lac explains to Cassandra what they are doing to jumpstart the return of magic to the world. He tells her how Excalibur factors into the plan. He also reveals a small clue about himself, saying how he remembers the road they are on (which is underground) ran aboveground through meadows. Clearly Du Lac is far older than we first thought.
Back at Buckingham Palace, Flynn, Stone, and Jones all stand in line, waiting to get into the party at Buckingham Palace with forged invitations. Just as it appears that the guards are going to detain them (since Ezekiel’s forgeries are crap) Eve appears again and gets them into the event (looking stunning while doing so).
They head into the party and decide that Jake and Ezekiel will look around outside while Flynn and Eve stay on the dance floor. The Librarian and the Guardian decide the best way to find the secret passage is to dance, since it will give Eve a way to keep Flynn on his feet (blood loss is starting to kick in) while also giving them an excuse to move around the room.
Outside, Jake and Ezekiel begin their search and are promptly distracted. Jake gets sidelined by a discussion of an art piece while our favorite Thief notices a lovely necklace that he decides should be in his company instead of around the throat of the British guest to whom it belongs.
Back on the dance floor, Eve and Flynn keep looking for the secret passage while also discussing his first mission. They also give us a cute little moment when Eve decides they should schedule a dance when Flynn isn’t slowly bleeding to death.
Meanwhile, under their feet, Lamia and her goons have successfully found the chamber with the Stone. Lamia orders a man to cut through the protective cage surrounding the Stone. Unfortunately for him, there is some kind of magic on the cage and he is vaporized. Lamia insists that Cassandra open the cage instead. While she may be starting to mistrust the Brotherhood, Cassandra is still there to help them, so she agrees. The cage can be opened by solving a complex puzzle involving high Enochian (a mathematical language based on ancient Greek and Hebrew apparently) which is right up Cassandra’s alley. She sets to work, while Lamia puts on the crown and grabs Excalibur, getting ready to enact the final part of their plan.
Upstairs in the ballroom, Eve and Flynn find the location of the secret door, then go grab the Thief and the Cowboy so they can get through the door. Using Ezekiel’s tech, they get the door open and the four head down into the bowels of Buckingham palace.
Meanwhile, Cassandra finishes solving the puzzle and opens the cage surrounding the Stone. Lamia is thrilled. So thrilled she promptly throws Cassandra into a jail cell. And this is what finally pushes Cassandra over the edge, causing her to realize that the Brotherhood isn’t out to help the world, only themselves. They want to control magic and Cassandra has just helped them get exactly what they want.
Our four heroes soon find themselves in a wine cellar, trying to open yet another secret door while Lamia rejoins the Sword to the Stone. Flynn’s wound is only going to get worse at a faster rate, so they don’t have much time to stop the Brotherhood. Thanks to Ezekiel, they find their second secret door and head down into the tunnels.
Down at the Stone, Flynn quickly realizes they need to come up with a plan to defeat Lamia. Thankfully, they happen to discuss this right outside Cassandra’s cell and the synesthete has some ideas for defeating Lamia.
I find the group’s reactions to Cassandra all very interesting and very indicative of who they are as people:
~Ezekiel, ever the selfish person that he is, holds nothing against Cassandra. We’ll learn later in the series that he probably would have done the same thing, and gone even further than she did.
~Eve seems unsure whether she should be mad at the young synesthete or not.
~Jake, however is not happy to see her and doesn’t want to hear her ideas. He was clearly very hurt by her betrayal and doesn’t trust her not to betray them again.
~Flynn is quick to forgive her, understanding that many people in her position would have done exactly the same thing. He thinks she deserves a second chance and wants to give it to her.
Flynn tells everyone that she had her reasons and to get her out of the cell. Jake tries to protest again, but Flynn puts a stop to it, saying that they all ganged up on him to do it together, so he wants to do it together. So they let Cassandra out of the cell and work out their plan.
They all get to work, each with their own jobs. And what I love about this is that, like so many things they will do and have done, every one of them is needed to pull off the plan. Without just one of them, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Brotherhood and foil their evil plan.
Of course Lamia challenges Flynn, asking how he possibly hopes to defeat them with (and I love this quote) his “little knockoff librarians, one who is doomed by her gift, one who fled his gift, and one who abuses it.” Or his little soldier girl. I love this description of the group, as it’s so perfect for where they are at the beginning of the series. But this is the beginning and so they will all have the chance to change and grow into the Librarians they will become. It’s lovely.
Flynn, ever the Librarian, tells her that no, he won’t use force to beat her. He will use knowledge and science to beat her. And then he does. Well that and Excalibur. Excalibur fends off Lamia, but it’s quickly clear that something is terribly wrong with Cal.
Flynn reveals that Cal’s magic has gone back into the ley lines and Cal is dying. In fact, so is Flynn. As his last act, the Librarian gives Cal to Cassandra. Cal has just enough raw magic left to heal her. She starts to use Flynn’s last gift, but as he slumps over succumbing to his magical wound, she can’t bring herself to do it, and instead uses Cal to heal Flynn instead of herself. Flynn recovers, but is sad. He insists that the magic was supposed to be for Cassandra, to save her. She tells him that he already did save her, and they share a small smile.
Unfortunately, that was Cal’s last act. Flynn takes up his friend one last time and lays him on the Stone, allowing Cal to fade back into the Stone from which he was pulled all those years ago. (It’s at this moment that the fandom cried for a sword, which I’m sure we’ve probably never done before.)
After saying goodbye to Cal, the group returns to the annex to say a last goodbye to each other. It looks like Cassandra, Jake, and Ezekiel have to go home. Flynn doesn’t think it’s fair or safe to involve them in the life of the Librarian any longer. They don’t like this idea, after all they’ve experienced and seen and protest, but Flynn, ever the lovely and kind person he is, has nothing to say in reply and just walks away. Eve, ever the pragmatist, reminds the three that they can’t tell anyone. Or rather, they can, but no one will ever believe them.
Back in the annex, Flynn has one last encounter with Judson, who gives him some advice for how to move forward. Flynn insists that he’s going to find the Library, but Judson reminds him that the Brotherhood has released magic back into the world. Flynn’s going to be busy. After a few moments of thought though, Flynn realizes he can start making some new rules. He runs outside and grabs the three before they can leave. Opening their envelopes, they discover that they won’t be going home after all. Instead, the Library has called them to be Librarians. They have a lot of work to do. He dubs them the Librarians in Training (LITs) and puts Jenkins and Eve in charge of training them and keeping them alive. Then, after a brief kiss with Eve, sets out to find the Library again.
And that’s it for the second half of the premier of the Librarians. Wasn’t it a fun romp?
Other random things I liked from the episode:
~Jenkins is the best. I love him.
~”I think you broke Africa.”
~“I am Henge and Key”
~”You didn’t turn off the glowy globe.” *Jenkins claps twice then sighs* “Hope it’s on a timer.”
~“Seriously, you’re going to put your gum on a stone worth €7M?”
~”Can you make me a duke?”
~”This is my first suit.”
~Eve & Ezekiel returning the stolen jewelry. Seriously. I love their expressions and everything about the little scene.
~”I was really expecting a better secret door.” “Oh write a letter!”
~”Why would you go there? That’s a horrible thing to say!”
~”They tunneled in from the side. It’s much smarter than what we did.”
~”Librarians win with electromagnets!”
~The entire exchange with the NATO soldiers. Everything about it was perfection.
~”Please, tell people about the magic library and Excalibur and how you broke into Buckingham Palace because King Arthur was really Roman and I’ll come visit you to make sure the straight jacket is not too tight.” The LITs reactions to this little speech is excellent as well. I just love all of these characters so much.
Next week, we’ll get to see how the LITs first mission goes in And the Horns of a Dilemma. It’s fun episode so I’m looking forward to it.
In the mean time, Wednesday will have a new writing exercise and Friday more of the 30 Things series.
Until then.
Friday, February 13, 2015
30 Things: Question 12
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
I start most days at 6am. Getting up, I go through my typical morning routine of getting ready for the day. I get up, take a shower, fix my hair (which generally just consists of either spraying some curling gel in it or pulling it into a ponytail. No fancy hairdos here.), and then go downstairs to eat breakfast. I usually don't need to be at work until a little before 9am, so I spend the next couple of hours getting my things together for work (making lunch, etc.) and doing a few relaxing things. I will work on my Spanish (I'm trying to beef up my Spanish skills since I'm going to Guatemala in June), write, pay bills, or watch some TV.
At 8:30 I leave for work. My work day is usually pretty basic. I do internet research for products that my company is getting ready to source and sell, so I spend most of my day reading various websites about whatever product I'm currently researching. I find out what makes a good product, then I find out what customers like or dislike about that type of product and about various competitor's products in the same category. Occasionally I have meetings with my boss to explain what I've found or help discuss what features we want in our product when we source it. I usually leave around 5pm.
After work, my evenings vary depending on the day of the week. Some nights, I'm home by myself so I grab some dinner and do some blogging/writing before watching a little TV and heading to bed. Other nights my husband and I have church meetings to go to. On nights that we don't have other things to do, we usually eat dinner together, then spend time relaxing by watching TV and talking. Then we go to bed around 9:30pm.
As you can see, my life is incredibly action packed. Not.
I start most days at 6am. Getting up, I go through my typical morning routine of getting ready for the day. I get up, take a shower, fix my hair (which generally just consists of either spraying some curling gel in it or pulling it into a ponytail. No fancy hairdos here.), and then go downstairs to eat breakfast. I usually don't need to be at work until a little before 9am, so I spend the next couple of hours getting my things together for work (making lunch, etc.) and doing a few relaxing things. I will work on my Spanish (I'm trying to beef up my Spanish skills since I'm going to Guatemala in June), write, pay bills, or watch some TV.
At 8:30 I leave for work. My work day is usually pretty basic. I do internet research for products that my company is getting ready to source and sell, so I spend most of my day reading various websites about whatever product I'm currently researching. I find out what makes a good product, then I find out what customers like or dislike about that type of product and about various competitor's products in the same category. Occasionally I have meetings with my boss to explain what I've found or help discuss what features we want in our product when we source it. I usually leave around 5pm.
After work, my evenings vary depending on the day of the week. Some nights, I'm home by myself so I grab some dinner and do some blogging/writing before watching a little TV and heading to bed. Other nights my husband and I have church meetings to go to. On nights that we don't have other things to do, we usually eat dinner together, then spend time relaxing by watching TV and talking. Then we go to bed around 9:30pm.
As you can see, my life is incredibly action packed. Not.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Writing Prompt Wednesday: Exam Prep
So my next attempt to spice up this blog is posting weekly writing exercises I'll be doing this. These are based on prompts I found in the Writer's Tool Box. They'll be rough, generally unedited and probably won't make a lot of sense, but it might be fun to post them anyway. Who knows, maybe an actual story will end up developing out of them. Even if one doesn't, you can enjoy laughing at how I struggle to connect all the parts of the prompts I get.
This week's prompts are the following:
First Sentence: The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating.
Non sequitur: "If you don't take chances," said the man in striped pajamas, "you might as well not be alive."
Last Straw: the day her mother slapped her face
Here's what I came up with. Don't worry, I know it sucks.
---
The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating. That's what he told me when he showed up at my room Thursday night.
"There has to be another way," I told him, "We'll think of something." I can't lose you too, I didn't say.
We spent the whole night brainstorming and studying. I quizzed him, but there was too much material, too much at stake. Around 4am, I began to think that maybe John was right.
Sagging into the couch we shared, I dropped my face into my hands, a sense of defeat and dread pressing down on my shoulders.
"Cassie, don't worry," John said.
Just then, my brother Kyle ambled in wearing his trademarked pajamas. "If you don't take chances," said the man in striped pajamas, "you might as well not be alive."
I stared up at him for a few moments before I realized he was sleepwalking again. Sighing heavily, I stood and carefully guided him back to his bed. Once Kyle was taken care of, I returned to John.
"I can't help worrying," I told him, continuing our conversation from before, "You're the last friend I have in this trial. If you don't make it through this exam, I'll be alone." I can't lose you too. I left this unsaid again. John was already too stressed out.
He looked at me, brown eyes dark with concern. "Then I'll have to do whatever it takes to pass. Life and death are at stake after all." I swallowed, but didn't argue. He wasn't wrong.
Ordinarily I would never agree to helping him cheat. But everything had changed the day my mother had slapped my face and told me the truth about the trials. We had no choice but find a way to pass.
It was the only way to save everyone, including her.
John and I set back to work, this time coming up with the best way to sneak additional information in for him. I didn't need to worry about that. I was a ringer already. A eidetic memory will do that for you. Everything we'd read that long night was already lodged in my brain, irrevocably etched in my mind just like every other experience I'd ever had. John wasn't so lucky.
---
Okay. On Friday, I'll continue my 30 Things series.
Until then.
This week's prompts are the following:
First Sentence: The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating.
Non sequitur: "If you don't take chances," said the man in striped pajamas, "you might as well not be alive."
Last Straw: the day her mother slapped her face
Here's what I came up with. Don't worry, I know it sucks.
---
The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating. That's what he told me when he showed up at my room Thursday night.
"There has to be another way," I told him, "We'll think of something." I can't lose you too, I didn't say.
We spent the whole night brainstorming and studying. I quizzed him, but there was too much material, too much at stake. Around 4am, I began to think that maybe John was right.
Sagging into the couch we shared, I dropped my face into my hands, a sense of defeat and dread pressing down on my shoulders.
"Cassie, don't worry," John said.
Just then, my brother Kyle ambled in wearing his trademarked pajamas. "If you don't take chances," said the man in striped pajamas, "you might as well not be alive."
I stared up at him for a few moments before I realized he was sleepwalking again. Sighing heavily, I stood and carefully guided him back to his bed. Once Kyle was taken care of, I returned to John.
"I can't help worrying," I told him, continuing our conversation from before, "You're the last friend I have in this trial. If you don't make it through this exam, I'll be alone." I can't lose you too. I left this unsaid again. John was already too stressed out.
He looked at me, brown eyes dark with concern. "Then I'll have to do whatever it takes to pass. Life and death are at stake after all." I swallowed, but didn't argue. He wasn't wrong.
Ordinarily I would never agree to helping him cheat. But everything had changed the day my mother had slapped my face and told me the truth about the trials. We had no choice but find a way to pass.
It was the only way to save everyone, including her.
John and I set back to work, this time coming up with the best way to sneak additional information in for him. I didn't need to worry about that. I was a ringer already. A eidetic memory will do that for you. Everything we'd read that long night was already lodged in my brain, irrevocably etched in my mind just like every other experience I'd ever had. John wasn't so lucky.
---
Okay. On Friday, I'll continue my 30 Things series.
Until then.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Review: The Librarians 1x01 And the Crown of King Arthur (Lonely People)
So I’ve decided that the first series I want to review is The Librarians. I’m a huge fan of fantasy, sci-fi, and adventure. Sadly, there is a general lacking of this type of show on TV currently. So when I discovered this show earlier this year, I was pretty happy. I was even more thrilled when I found out it was spearheaded by none other than John Rogers and Dean Devlin, the brilliant minds behind one of my other favorite shows Leverage. That pretty much sealed the deal for me and I settled in for several weeks of rollicking adventures.
Now, the show has already finished its first season (and we’re waiting for word of whether they’ll get a second), but I liked it so much that I decided for my first try at this reviewing segment on my blog, I’d review The Librarians. It was just so much fun, I couldn’t resist.
So here we go. It may be a bit rough, as I’m not terribly experienced at this. Hopefully you’ll still enjoy it.
This episode is the beginnings of how this team of people first come together. It’s about merging a group of individuals into a single unit. And as we can tell from the first half of this premiere, that path doesn’t always run smooth.
The truly interesting thing about each of the characters we meet in this episode is how utterly alone they all are in their lives. They are about to get a lot less alone, but they don’t know that yet. This episode is about first gathering them all together from their singular lonely existences. Only once that happens can the real fun begin.
So where are each of them as the plot finds them? Each of our heroes is in their own state of loneliness, even if they don’t realize that they are. In fact, they all think their lives are about as good as they can make them. It takes the push of the Library for them to realize that there is so much more out there.
We meet the first of our heroes, Eve Baird, as she is preparing to lead her NATO team to recover a WMD. It’s immediately obvious that Eve is in charge and doesn’t like other people telling her what to do. When one of her team members tells her they should wait for backup, she doesn’t take it well and insists that they go in now. Once inside, Eve almost immediately splits off from her team. She’s clearly a woman who knows how to handle herself and works best alone, even if she is supposed to be leading a team. But Eve’s about to encounter something that she can’t do alone.
Just as she gets the drop on two terrorists, a strange man appears out of a steam tunnel spouting gibberish about an opal and Nazi’s and a magical safe. Eve’s no less confused than the terrorists (who she still has at gun point). The three normal people kind of forget what they were originally doing while they gape at the stranger (Flynn) as he continues to ramble and starts messing with a large strange looking crate. In fact, they don’t really do much but watch him as he fiddles with some dials and then sets off something that he says is a trap. Even demands he disarm it and he says he will, but it’d be a lot easier if the nuclear bomb would stop beeping. This brings Eve and our terrorists back to themselves.
Eve grabs the bomb while the terrorists grab their guns and what follows is a sequence of Flynn and Eve trying to disarm their respective devices while avoiding being shot. Well, actually, Flynn is disarming both at the same time. He’s working through the sequence he needs to decode while also walking Eve through disarming her nuclear bomb. Interestingly though, Even winds up helping him as much as he helps her. And we see that Eve isn’t just brawn, she has some brains too.
They both enter the codes to deactivate their devices (improbably the same code for both) then finish up their respective tasks (Eve taking out the terrorists and Flynn recovering the opal). Watching Flynn, Eve is flabbergasted. She wants to know how this strange man knew everything he knew. His only answer: I’m the Librarian. And then he disappears.
Once the adventure in Berlin is taken care of, we get basically a giant neon sign to how comfortable Eve is being by herself when she gets home. Her whole identity is wrapped up in her job. So as she climbs out of a cab and unlocks the door to her barren apartment, she’s told by her boss that she’s being forced to take a month of leave. Staring at her empty apartment, it’s clear that Eve has no idea what she’s going to do with herself for a month stuck at home. She’s so rarely there that the only furnishings she has are a folding chair and some kind of exercise machine. Even her fridge is empty, save for a single bottle of water.
Thankfully, she isn’t going to have to learn to decorate. Just as she’s about to despair, a white envelope slides under her door. Opening it, she finds a summons to the Metropolitan Public Library. With nothing to lose, Eve heads for the interview. Of course, going to this Library, she expected answers, not more questions. But all she gets is more questions.
Now, one thing to note about this. I don’t think Eve would have gone if she’d been happy in her current life. She easily could have just thrown the letter away and gone back to her life. But her curiosity go the better of her. Plus, she was about to spend a month on forced leave. Clearly she was searching for something. So she went. And getting there, despite having no idea what was going on, she jumped right in. She asks a few questions, but doesn’t object when Charlene has her sign things or takes her to a strange place with an elevator that goes down and down and down. And instead of running when she finds out about magic, she accepts that it’s real. The Library needs her expertise, and she accepts that.
And in accepting that, she accepts working with Flynn. Another person who has become used to being alone.
Now Flynn is an interesting case, in that he’s not actually a main character for the show. He was the main character of the movies the show is based on, but he’s not going to be around for the entire season. Still, he’s an important part of the universe and has an influence on everything that happens and particularly on Eve, so it’s worth exploring.
Charlene and Judson both tell Eve that Flynn has been alone for a long time, 10 years in fact. So he is not interested in having a new guardian. He’s less than interested. He downright refuses to keep her around. He tells Eve to leave and never come back. But Eve isn’t one to take no for an answer, and she desperately needs answers because nothing about her life makes sense anymore. So she follows Flynn and insists that he tell her what’s going on.
While talking to Flynn, Eve meets Judson, who gives her a little more information about being a Guardian and Flynn. Flynn having to survive by himself for so long has changed him, but the Library has decided that he needs Eve. And Eve needs a job, so she rolls her shoulders and dives in. Something about Flynn and this place is calling to her, so she steps into Flynn’s murder investigation (he’s looking for information about the man who was killed earlier in the episode). And surprisingly, Flynn gets some inspiration from talking to Eve. Turns out, he might need her after all.
The pair discusses various things and eventually arrive at the conclusion that someone is killing potential Librarians, but three top ranked candidates have not been killed yet. They decide that they need to save these three and see what all the fuss is about. Flynn, still insisting on working alone, tries to ditch Eve, but she’s having none of it. So they go to New York to find the first candidate.
Just before they stumble upon the first candidate (Cassandra Cillian) they have a short discussion about why Flynn insists on working alone, and it’s very enlightening. All of his partners are either gone or dead. They’ve all left him eventually. So, after a while, he decided it was just better to be alone. And now, he doesn’t know how to be anything else. So he’s going to fight pairing up with Eve with everything in him.
This brings us to our first candidate, Cassandra Cillian. As I said before, all of these individuals, all of our heroes are in various states of aloneness. Cassandra is alone by necessity. She’s working as a janitor at a hospital when she is clearly far smarter than that. But very quickly we see why. She’s a synesthete and she has full on hallucinations if she uses her considerable brain power too much. In addition to her superb intelligence, we’ll learn later that she also has a brain tumor that is responsible for heightening her synesthesia and will one day kill her.
Now, I’m not a super intelligent person nor do I have a brain tumor or any kind of life threatening illness, but I do know that the combination of being extremely smart and having a life threatening condition is something like a perfect storm of having people not know what to do with you. I imagine that seeing and processing the world in a way that is different from what is considered normal is rather off putting to people who don’t experience the world in that way. That’s bad enough. But then, combining that with a life threatening illness, something that no one knows how to react to or deal with, that’s the perfect storm of loneliness right there. We don’t know much about Cassandra yet, but we do know that she is probably very lonely. She’s probably been treated as a freak for most of her life. So when two people show up and don’t freak out that she’s hallucinating, she jumps at the chance to join them. They are probably the first people in her life to simply accept her.
Once they've collected Cassandra, Eve and Flynn decide to split up to collect the other two candidates, since they are on opposite sides of the world. Flynn sends Eve to Oklahoma and he heads to Geneva.
Our next stop in gathering our group of loners is Geneva with Flynn. He’s going after Ezekiel Jones. We meet Mr. Jones as he is in the process of completely a heist of a museum. Ezekiel is just as alone as the rest of our characters, and just like the rest of them, he’s certain he’s happy. In fact, he’s probably most certain of this. He doesn't want to come to the Library. He continues to be uninterested in joining Flynn until Flynn tells him that he (Flynn) can help him figure out why someone wants to kill him. Since Ezekiel is all about Ezekiel, he agrees to go along. It’ll take a little more than the promise of magic and adventure to get him.
Our final candidate is found in Oklahoma at a bar. Jacob Stone, a cowboy with a secret. This is the most interesting case of a lonely person yet in this show. Everyone else up to this point has been shown on their own, working alone, without friends or family. Not so with Jake. He’s out enjoying an evening of beers with his boys. They laugh and joke and interact with the pretty cowgirls. And Jake seems happy. He has a job and a purpose. But our first clue that he isn’t as happy as he seems is when a strange woman in black walks in. He and his boys immediately notice and one of them comments that she isn't from around there. Jake’s reply is telling. He says no she isn’t. She’s from somewhere interesting. This tells us that Jake finds his current life boring. His home isn’t interesting. It’s home.
Another clue to Jake’s dissatisfaction with his life comes in his reply to his friends question about his dad. He says he’s too drunk to work and too stubborn to die. Clearly there’s some bad blood there. But we won’t really get more information on that until later in the season.
We don’t get a full reveal of just how different Jake is until he actually goes to talk to the stranger at the bar. When his friend comes back having struck out, Jake asked what happened. His friend tells him the girl is demanding that any guy who wants to talk to her first has to tell her what her tattoo means. Jake decides to give it a try. At first, he puts on an act, saying that the language is “I-talian” maybe and the woman loses interest. So, after a quick look around to make sure no one is paying attention, Jake starts reading the tattoo. And immediately the stranger (Lamia we learn) perks up. Then she tries to kill him.
Thankfully Baird shows up and stops her. She and Jake then proceed to get into a bar fight with Lamia and her ninjas (in Oklahoma?) before Eve drags him out of the bar. As they drive away, we finally learn what Jake’s been working so hard to hide. He’s no ordinary cowboy. He has an IQ of 190 and turned down scholarships to two prestigious art institutes to stay home and work on an oil rig. In his spare time, he publishes scholarly papers on art history under a pseudonym. So despite being at home with his family, Jake is just as alone as the rest of our heroes. He just hides it better.
Now that all of the candidates have been gathered up, they head to the Library and figure out why people are trying to kill them.
The really cool and interesting thing about this episode is that it starts the group on the journey that they are going to be taking for the rest of the season from individuals forced to work together to a well-functioning unit who compliments each other with each person providing a crucial part of the puzzle. We get to see the first steps (and first stumbles) toward this throughout the rest of this episode.
The group converges on the Library and meet Flynn. He tells them that they don’t have much time but lets them ask questions. All of them are in awe of everything they are seeing. After a few initial questions, we start to learn more about what has driven these characters into their solitary existences. First, we find out about Cassandra’s brain tumor. It’s what has cross wired all five of her senses and supercharged her synesthesia. And it will eventually kill her. She was in the hospital for it when her summons to the Library came, so that’s why she didn’t show. Stone didn’t show up because he already had a job. And Ezekiel just threw his out. So now we know why they didn’t show up. Next we get to learn why they’re needed now.
Flynn, Eve, and the other three gather in the work room to try and figure out what is going on. It’s the first time that we get a taste of all of them working together and it’s great. Each person brings something to the discussion that they wouldn’t have if that person weren’t there. This theme continues throughout the rest of this episode and it’s fun to watch. Stone recognizes the painting, Ezekiel tells them where it is currently, and Cassandra tells them how quickly they can get a flight out. And in doing this, they figure out why they were being targeted. Because they can find what the Serpent Brotherhood is after. So off to Munich they go.
In Munich, they head to the museum and we see that they aren’t quite ready to fully trust each other yet. Ezekiel asks why they are looking for a British crown in a German museum and Jake clues him in, before realizing that he shouldn’t know any of that as a simple cowboy and tries to pass it off as something he heard on the radio. No one buys it of course. It’s fun to note that that’s pretty much the last time Jake tries to hide his expertise.
Inside the museum shows us once again that all of the parts of the team are needed to solve the mystery. Eve is needed because she notices Lamia and the Brotherhood are there so she goes off to deal with them. Without her, the Librarians wouldn’t be able to figure out the next part of the puzzle. Of course, they are so caught up in the mystery that they don’t even notice she’s gone. Instead they work on what the painting means. And each of the Librarians figures out a key part of the puzzle. Jake points out that the painting is a fake and painted much later than it says it was. Ezekiel notices that the frame is bolted into the wall so the painting wouldn’t be able to be moved without demolishing the wall. And Cassandra notices that there’s a binary code on the frame. Flynn takes all this information and figures out that this is all important and leads to something interesting. So they head off to figure out where. Eve finishes taking care of the thugs and joins the rest of the team just in time to find out that they need to head into the Black Forest.
In the Black Forest we get another lovely scene showing that these people need each other more than they think they do. It starts with a conversation that Eve and Flynn have showing that really, they aren’t so different. Neither of them particularly likes being around their friends and family, they prefer to be working and on missions. And they get that about each other. They get on a lot better than they thought they would. It’s surprisingly refreshing for both of them.
Of course, this moment is quickly forgotten as Flynn spots what they’ve been looking for: a henge (which apparently is unheard of that part of the world). They decide to split into two teams. Eve and Ezekiel go to stall Lamia and her team while Flynn, Cassandra, and Jake work to decipher the meaning of the henge.
This is where we get another taste of how these people can help each other. Cassandra starts calculating and hallucinating as Jake and Flynn watch, both in awe as she does incredibly complex equations in mere minutes. But the more equations that she does, the worse the hallucinations get until she’s overwhelmed by them. As Flynn finishes finding what Cassandra’s calculations led him to, Jake rushes over and helps Cassandra deal with the aftermath, giving he a trick for not getting lost in her hallucinations that he learned from an artist he read about who also had synesthesia. It works beautifully and Flynn just nods. And once more we see that only by working together can they accomplish what they’re meant to do.
Once Jake finishes calming Cassandra down, Flynn finds what they’re looking for and they realize they need a cutting torch. Thankfully, Cassandra’s picnic has all the ingredients they need. Flynn quickly puts together a cutting torch out of a cucumber, prosciutto, and some fire. Jake and Cassandra are suitably impressed.
Back at the helicopter, Eve and Ezekiel work together to disable Lamia’s helicopter and buy Flynn the time he needs. After assessing the situation, Eve asks Ezekiel if he can hotwire a helicopter. While he gets to work doing that, she fends off Lamia and her goons. It takes a little work, and when Flynn arrives to stop Lamia from killing Eve, we see once more that they really do need each other. There’s no way that he would have been able to stop Lamia and get the prize by himself.
Back at the henge, Jake and Cassandra have recovered none other than the Crown of King Arthur. Once everyone meets back up, the group quickly retreats back to the Library to recoop make sure they’ve placed the Crown in safety.
Unfortunately, Flynn still isn’t ready to accept that he might need their help. It’s going to take something a little more strenuous than just outrunning the Brotherhood to convince him that the potential Librarians are needed. And he’s about to meet that something.
Back at the Library, the candidates are all talking about how they need to head back to their real lives (or at least Jake is) when suddenly an alarm starts going off. Someone is trying to get into the Library. Flynn is sure they won’t be able to, unless someone from the inside lets them in. And that’s exactly what happens, much to his horror.
The group splits up once more, Flynn to save the Crown and the rest to find Charlene. And the tenuous unity they had just created starts to fall apart. First Jake accuses Ezekiel of letting the Brotherhood in. Ezekiel quickly turns the accusation back on Jake, but when both are targeted, they decide neither of them is to blame. Sadly, Flynn is about to discover their traitor and their unity will really fall apart.
Flynn arrives at the Crown to find Lamia already there, with Cassandra. At first, it looks as if Cassandra is Lamia’s prisoner, but Flynn soon learns that Cassandra is in fact the person that let Lamia in (the Brotherhood promised to heal her and she believed them. Quite possibly one of the saddest and most understandable reasons for her actions possible). With this revelation, chaos truly descends on the Library. Charlene and Judson decide to do something to protect the Library, while Flynn tries to fight Lamia and loses, receiving a deadly wound from Excalibur in the process. As the episode closes, Lamia gives orders to seize as much of the loot in the Library as possible, but first, to kill Flynn, much to Cassandra’s horror.
What’s interesting about the end of this episode is that Cassandra really was horrified. She didn’t realize how bad things were going to get. She didn’t know Lamia would try to kill Flynn and the rest of the people who she (Cassandra) had started coming to think of as friends over the past few days. She made the decision to let them in before she knew these people. And her fear of death was greater than her love of any connection she might have felt with them. Thankfully, by the end of the next episode, this will change, but we have a rocky road to walk before we get there. And her actions won’t be free of repercussions, both within the team and without.
Loneliness is a powerful feeling, and something that we all try to avoid in one way or another. Unfortunately most of the time, we only succeed in convincing ourselves we aren’t lonely when really we couldn’t be more alone. That’s what each of our heroes was feeling before they were thrown together in this first adventure. But now they’ve found a place where they really do belong. They just have to figure that out before it’s too late. Next week, we’ll get to watch them do that.
Random Things I Liked from this Episode
-“See that blue wire?” Eve starts to pull the wire. “Don’t touch the blue wire.” “Arg! Start with don’t! Start with don’t!”
-“Improbably, both.”
-Charlene was very excited that Eve had to sign a bunch of forms.
-Eve signed all the forms without even looking at them. She is a woman on a mission.
-“Ninjas? In Oklahoma?” then “Ninjas possibly.” “In Oklahoma?” “That’s what I said.”
-Jake saying that their trek through the Black Forest is nothing like his job. Then it turns out it is exactly like his job.
-I love how excited Jake gets over all the magic stuff. He’s like a kid in a candy store. “Is that a flying sword? He’s got a flying sword!”
Next week I’ll review 1x02 And the Sword in the Stone. Before that though, on Wednesday, I’ll start my new series of drabbles developed from various writing prompts. And on Friday, 30 Things will continue.
Until Then.
Now, the show has already finished its first season (and we’re waiting for word of whether they’ll get a second), but I liked it so much that I decided for my first try at this reviewing segment on my blog, I’d review The Librarians. It was just so much fun, I couldn’t resist.
So here we go. It may be a bit rough, as I’m not terribly experienced at this. Hopefully you’ll still enjoy it.
This episode is the beginnings of how this team of people first come together. It’s about merging a group of individuals into a single unit. And as we can tell from the first half of this premiere, that path doesn’t always run smooth.
The truly interesting thing about each of the characters we meet in this episode is how utterly alone they all are in their lives. They are about to get a lot less alone, but they don’t know that yet. This episode is about first gathering them all together from their singular lonely existences. Only once that happens can the real fun begin.
So where are each of them as the plot finds them? Each of our heroes is in their own state of loneliness, even if they don’t realize that they are. In fact, they all think their lives are about as good as they can make them. It takes the push of the Library for them to realize that there is so much more out there.
We meet the first of our heroes, Eve Baird, as she is preparing to lead her NATO team to recover a WMD. It’s immediately obvious that Eve is in charge and doesn’t like other people telling her what to do. When one of her team members tells her they should wait for backup, she doesn’t take it well and insists that they go in now. Once inside, Eve almost immediately splits off from her team. She’s clearly a woman who knows how to handle herself and works best alone, even if she is supposed to be leading a team. But Eve’s about to encounter something that she can’t do alone.
Just as she gets the drop on two terrorists, a strange man appears out of a steam tunnel spouting gibberish about an opal and Nazi’s and a magical safe. Eve’s no less confused than the terrorists (who she still has at gun point). The three normal people kind of forget what they were originally doing while they gape at the stranger (Flynn) as he continues to ramble and starts messing with a large strange looking crate. In fact, they don’t really do much but watch him as he fiddles with some dials and then sets off something that he says is a trap. Even demands he disarm it and he says he will, but it’d be a lot easier if the nuclear bomb would stop beeping. This brings Eve and our terrorists back to themselves.
Eve grabs the bomb while the terrorists grab their guns and what follows is a sequence of Flynn and Eve trying to disarm their respective devices while avoiding being shot. Well, actually, Flynn is disarming both at the same time. He’s working through the sequence he needs to decode while also walking Eve through disarming her nuclear bomb. Interestingly though, Even winds up helping him as much as he helps her. And we see that Eve isn’t just brawn, she has some brains too.
They both enter the codes to deactivate their devices (improbably the same code for both) then finish up their respective tasks (Eve taking out the terrorists and Flynn recovering the opal). Watching Flynn, Eve is flabbergasted. She wants to know how this strange man knew everything he knew. His only answer: I’m the Librarian. And then he disappears.
Once the adventure in Berlin is taken care of, we get basically a giant neon sign to how comfortable Eve is being by herself when she gets home. Her whole identity is wrapped up in her job. So as she climbs out of a cab and unlocks the door to her barren apartment, she’s told by her boss that she’s being forced to take a month of leave. Staring at her empty apartment, it’s clear that Eve has no idea what she’s going to do with herself for a month stuck at home. She’s so rarely there that the only furnishings she has are a folding chair and some kind of exercise machine. Even her fridge is empty, save for a single bottle of water.
Thankfully, she isn’t going to have to learn to decorate. Just as she’s about to despair, a white envelope slides under her door. Opening it, she finds a summons to the Metropolitan Public Library. With nothing to lose, Eve heads for the interview. Of course, going to this Library, she expected answers, not more questions. But all she gets is more questions.
Now, one thing to note about this. I don’t think Eve would have gone if she’d been happy in her current life. She easily could have just thrown the letter away and gone back to her life. But her curiosity go the better of her. Plus, she was about to spend a month on forced leave. Clearly she was searching for something. So she went. And getting there, despite having no idea what was going on, she jumped right in. She asks a few questions, but doesn’t object when Charlene has her sign things or takes her to a strange place with an elevator that goes down and down and down. And instead of running when she finds out about magic, she accepts that it’s real. The Library needs her expertise, and she accepts that.
And in accepting that, she accepts working with Flynn. Another person who has become used to being alone.
Now Flynn is an interesting case, in that he’s not actually a main character for the show. He was the main character of the movies the show is based on, but he’s not going to be around for the entire season. Still, he’s an important part of the universe and has an influence on everything that happens and particularly on Eve, so it’s worth exploring.
Charlene and Judson both tell Eve that Flynn has been alone for a long time, 10 years in fact. So he is not interested in having a new guardian. He’s less than interested. He downright refuses to keep her around. He tells Eve to leave and never come back. But Eve isn’t one to take no for an answer, and she desperately needs answers because nothing about her life makes sense anymore. So she follows Flynn and insists that he tell her what’s going on.
While talking to Flynn, Eve meets Judson, who gives her a little more information about being a Guardian and Flynn. Flynn having to survive by himself for so long has changed him, but the Library has decided that he needs Eve. And Eve needs a job, so she rolls her shoulders and dives in. Something about Flynn and this place is calling to her, so she steps into Flynn’s murder investigation (he’s looking for information about the man who was killed earlier in the episode). And surprisingly, Flynn gets some inspiration from talking to Eve. Turns out, he might need her after all.
The pair discusses various things and eventually arrive at the conclusion that someone is killing potential Librarians, but three top ranked candidates have not been killed yet. They decide that they need to save these three and see what all the fuss is about. Flynn, still insisting on working alone, tries to ditch Eve, but she’s having none of it. So they go to New York to find the first candidate.
Just before they stumble upon the first candidate (Cassandra Cillian) they have a short discussion about why Flynn insists on working alone, and it’s very enlightening. All of his partners are either gone or dead. They’ve all left him eventually. So, after a while, he decided it was just better to be alone. And now, he doesn’t know how to be anything else. So he’s going to fight pairing up with Eve with everything in him.
This brings us to our first candidate, Cassandra Cillian. As I said before, all of these individuals, all of our heroes are in various states of aloneness. Cassandra is alone by necessity. She’s working as a janitor at a hospital when she is clearly far smarter than that. But very quickly we see why. She’s a synesthete and she has full on hallucinations if she uses her considerable brain power too much. In addition to her superb intelligence, we’ll learn later that she also has a brain tumor that is responsible for heightening her synesthesia and will one day kill her.
Now, I’m not a super intelligent person nor do I have a brain tumor or any kind of life threatening illness, but I do know that the combination of being extremely smart and having a life threatening condition is something like a perfect storm of having people not know what to do with you. I imagine that seeing and processing the world in a way that is different from what is considered normal is rather off putting to people who don’t experience the world in that way. That’s bad enough. But then, combining that with a life threatening illness, something that no one knows how to react to or deal with, that’s the perfect storm of loneliness right there. We don’t know much about Cassandra yet, but we do know that she is probably very lonely. She’s probably been treated as a freak for most of her life. So when two people show up and don’t freak out that she’s hallucinating, she jumps at the chance to join them. They are probably the first people in her life to simply accept her.
Once they've collected Cassandra, Eve and Flynn decide to split up to collect the other two candidates, since they are on opposite sides of the world. Flynn sends Eve to Oklahoma and he heads to Geneva.
Our next stop in gathering our group of loners is Geneva with Flynn. He’s going after Ezekiel Jones. We meet Mr. Jones as he is in the process of completely a heist of a museum. Ezekiel is just as alone as the rest of our characters, and just like the rest of them, he’s certain he’s happy. In fact, he’s probably most certain of this. He doesn't want to come to the Library. He continues to be uninterested in joining Flynn until Flynn tells him that he (Flynn) can help him figure out why someone wants to kill him. Since Ezekiel is all about Ezekiel, he agrees to go along. It’ll take a little more than the promise of magic and adventure to get him.
Our final candidate is found in Oklahoma at a bar. Jacob Stone, a cowboy with a secret. This is the most interesting case of a lonely person yet in this show. Everyone else up to this point has been shown on their own, working alone, without friends or family. Not so with Jake. He’s out enjoying an evening of beers with his boys. They laugh and joke and interact with the pretty cowgirls. And Jake seems happy. He has a job and a purpose. But our first clue that he isn’t as happy as he seems is when a strange woman in black walks in. He and his boys immediately notice and one of them comments that she isn't from around there. Jake’s reply is telling. He says no she isn’t. She’s from somewhere interesting. This tells us that Jake finds his current life boring. His home isn’t interesting. It’s home.
Another clue to Jake’s dissatisfaction with his life comes in his reply to his friends question about his dad. He says he’s too drunk to work and too stubborn to die. Clearly there’s some bad blood there. But we won’t really get more information on that until later in the season.
We don’t get a full reveal of just how different Jake is until he actually goes to talk to the stranger at the bar. When his friend comes back having struck out, Jake asked what happened. His friend tells him the girl is demanding that any guy who wants to talk to her first has to tell her what her tattoo means. Jake decides to give it a try. At first, he puts on an act, saying that the language is “I-talian” maybe and the woman loses interest. So, after a quick look around to make sure no one is paying attention, Jake starts reading the tattoo. And immediately the stranger (Lamia we learn) perks up. Then she tries to kill him.
Thankfully Baird shows up and stops her. She and Jake then proceed to get into a bar fight with Lamia and her ninjas (in Oklahoma?) before Eve drags him out of the bar. As they drive away, we finally learn what Jake’s been working so hard to hide. He’s no ordinary cowboy. He has an IQ of 190 and turned down scholarships to two prestigious art institutes to stay home and work on an oil rig. In his spare time, he publishes scholarly papers on art history under a pseudonym. So despite being at home with his family, Jake is just as alone as the rest of our heroes. He just hides it better.
Now that all of the candidates have been gathered up, they head to the Library and figure out why people are trying to kill them.
The really cool and interesting thing about this episode is that it starts the group on the journey that they are going to be taking for the rest of the season from individuals forced to work together to a well-functioning unit who compliments each other with each person providing a crucial part of the puzzle. We get to see the first steps (and first stumbles) toward this throughout the rest of this episode.
The group converges on the Library and meet Flynn. He tells them that they don’t have much time but lets them ask questions. All of them are in awe of everything they are seeing. After a few initial questions, we start to learn more about what has driven these characters into their solitary existences. First, we find out about Cassandra’s brain tumor. It’s what has cross wired all five of her senses and supercharged her synesthesia. And it will eventually kill her. She was in the hospital for it when her summons to the Library came, so that’s why she didn’t show. Stone didn’t show up because he already had a job. And Ezekiel just threw his out. So now we know why they didn’t show up. Next we get to learn why they’re needed now.
Flynn, Eve, and the other three gather in the work room to try and figure out what is going on. It’s the first time that we get a taste of all of them working together and it’s great. Each person brings something to the discussion that they wouldn’t have if that person weren’t there. This theme continues throughout the rest of this episode and it’s fun to watch. Stone recognizes the painting, Ezekiel tells them where it is currently, and Cassandra tells them how quickly they can get a flight out. And in doing this, they figure out why they were being targeted. Because they can find what the Serpent Brotherhood is after. So off to Munich they go.
In Munich, they head to the museum and we see that they aren’t quite ready to fully trust each other yet. Ezekiel asks why they are looking for a British crown in a German museum and Jake clues him in, before realizing that he shouldn’t know any of that as a simple cowboy and tries to pass it off as something he heard on the radio. No one buys it of course. It’s fun to note that that’s pretty much the last time Jake tries to hide his expertise.
Inside the museum shows us once again that all of the parts of the team are needed to solve the mystery. Eve is needed because she notices Lamia and the Brotherhood are there so she goes off to deal with them. Without her, the Librarians wouldn’t be able to figure out the next part of the puzzle. Of course, they are so caught up in the mystery that they don’t even notice she’s gone. Instead they work on what the painting means. And each of the Librarians figures out a key part of the puzzle. Jake points out that the painting is a fake and painted much later than it says it was. Ezekiel notices that the frame is bolted into the wall so the painting wouldn’t be able to be moved without demolishing the wall. And Cassandra notices that there’s a binary code on the frame. Flynn takes all this information and figures out that this is all important and leads to something interesting. So they head off to figure out where. Eve finishes taking care of the thugs and joins the rest of the team just in time to find out that they need to head into the Black Forest.
In the Black Forest we get another lovely scene showing that these people need each other more than they think they do. It starts with a conversation that Eve and Flynn have showing that really, they aren’t so different. Neither of them particularly likes being around their friends and family, they prefer to be working and on missions. And they get that about each other. They get on a lot better than they thought they would. It’s surprisingly refreshing for both of them.
Of course, this moment is quickly forgotten as Flynn spots what they’ve been looking for: a henge (which apparently is unheard of that part of the world). They decide to split into two teams. Eve and Ezekiel go to stall Lamia and her team while Flynn, Cassandra, and Jake work to decipher the meaning of the henge.
This is where we get another taste of how these people can help each other. Cassandra starts calculating and hallucinating as Jake and Flynn watch, both in awe as she does incredibly complex equations in mere minutes. But the more equations that she does, the worse the hallucinations get until she’s overwhelmed by them. As Flynn finishes finding what Cassandra’s calculations led him to, Jake rushes over and helps Cassandra deal with the aftermath, giving he a trick for not getting lost in her hallucinations that he learned from an artist he read about who also had synesthesia. It works beautifully and Flynn just nods. And once more we see that only by working together can they accomplish what they’re meant to do.
Once Jake finishes calming Cassandra down, Flynn finds what they’re looking for and they realize they need a cutting torch. Thankfully, Cassandra’s picnic has all the ingredients they need. Flynn quickly puts together a cutting torch out of a cucumber, prosciutto, and some fire. Jake and Cassandra are suitably impressed.
Back at the helicopter, Eve and Ezekiel work together to disable Lamia’s helicopter and buy Flynn the time he needs. After assessing the situation, Eve asks Ezekiel if he can hotwire a helicopter. While he gets to work doing that, she fends off Lamia and her goons. It takes a little work, and when Flynn arrives to stop Lamia from killing Eve, we see once more that they really do need each other. There’s no way that he would have been able to stop Lamia and get the prize by himself.
Back at the henge, Jake and Cassandra have recovered none other than the Crown of King Arthur. Once everyone meets back up, the group quickly retreats back to the Library to recoop make sure they’ve placed the Crown in safety.
Unfortunately, Flynn still isn’t ready to accept that he might need their help. It’s going to take something a little more strenuous than just outrunning the Brotherhood to convince him that the potential Librarians are needed. And he’s about to meet that something.
Back at the Library, the candidates are all talking about how they need to head back to their real lives (or at least Jake is) when suddenly an alarm starts going off. Someone is trying to get into the Library. Flynn is sure they won’t be able to, unless someone from the inside lets them in. And that’s exactly what happens, much to his horror.
The group splits up once more, Flynn to save the Crown and the rest to find Charlene. And the tenuous unity they had just created starts to fall apart. First Jake accuses Ezekiel of letting the Brotherhood in. Ezekiel quickly turns the accusation back on Jake, but when both are targeted, they decide neither of them is to blame. Sadly, Flynn is about to discover their traitor and their unity will really fall apart.
Flynn arrives at the Crown to find Lamia already there, with Cassandra. At first, it looks as if Cassandra is Lamia’s prisoner, but Flynn soon learns that Cassandra is in fact the person that let Lamia in (the Brotherhood promised to heal her and she believed them. Quite possibly one of the saddest and most understandable reasons for her actions possible). With this revelation, chaos truly descends on the Library. Charlene and Judson decide to do something to protect the Library, while Flynn tries to fight Lamia and loses, receiving a deadly wound from Excalibur in the process. As the episode closes, Lamia gives orders to seize as much of the loot in the Library as possible, but first, to kill Flynn, much to Cassandra’s horror.
What’s interesting about the end of this episode is that Cassandra really was horrified. She didn’t realize how bad things were going to get. She didn’t know Lamia would try to kill Flynn and the rest of the people who she (Cassandra) had started coming to think of as friends over the past few days. She made the decision to let them in before she knew these people. And her fear of death was greater than her love of any connection she might have felt with them. Thankfully, by the end of the next episode, this will change, but we have a rocky road to walk before we get there. And her actions won’t be free of repercussions, both within the team and without.
Loneliness is a powerful feeling, and something that we all try to avoid in one way or another. Unfortunately most of the time, we only succeed in convincing ourselves we aren’t lonely when really we couldn’t be more alone. That’s what each of our heroes was feeling before they were thrown together in this first adventure. But now they’ve found a place where they really do belong. They just have to figure that out before it’s too late. Next week, we’ll get to watch them do that.
Random Things I Liked from this Episode
-“See that blue wire?” Eve starts to pull the wire. “Don’t touch the blue wire.” “Arg! Start with don’t! Start with don’t!”
-“Improbably, both.”
-Charlene was very excited that Eve had to sign a bunch of forms.
-Eve signed all the forms without even looking at them. She is a woman on a mission.
-“Ninjas? In Oklahoma?” then “Ninjas possibly.” “In Oklahoma?” “That’s what I said.”
-Jake saying that their trek through the Black Forest is nothing like his job. Then it turns out it is exactly like his job.
-I love how excited Jake gets over all the magic stuff. He’s like a kid in a candy store. “Is that a flying sword? He’s got a flying sword!”
Next week I’ll review 1x02 And the Sword in the Stone. Before that though, on Wednesday, I’ll start my new series of drabbles developed from various writing prompts. And on Friday, 30 Things will continue.
Until Then.
New Posts
After some thinking, I decided that I'm going to add two new types of posts to this blog. On Monday's I'll post a review of a TV show. On Wednesdays, I'm going to posts the results of writing prompt exercises I do. Fridays I'll keep posting 30 Things questions until I run out.
Since I'm still figuring out some of these things as I go, these may be a bit rough at first. That and the formatting for the posts may change a bit. Hopefully I'll get most of the kinks worked out pretty quickly.
Hopefully you'll enjoy them.
I'll post my first review today. Let em know what you think.
Since I'm still figuring out some of these things as I go, these may be a bit rough at first. That and the formatting for the posts may change a bit. Hopefully I'll get most of the kinks worked out pretty quickly.
Hopefully you'll enjoy them.
I'll post my first review today. Let em know what you think.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Lack of Direction
Time for a little transparency from me. Something I'm not always that great at, but here goes nothing. I have no idea what this blog is about. I'm not sure I ever really have.
I started this blog years ago and have let it lapse on more than one occasion. I usually come back to it, and try to pick up where I left off. I try to find something to write about with varying degrees of success. But I've never really had a direction or theme or goal with this blog other than to blog. Cause as a writer, you're supposed to blog. So I wanted to do that.
The problem with doing something just because it's what you're supposed to do is that you quickly learn that there's not a lot else there. I rarely have anything to say, because I have no idea what I want to say. What do you talk about when you feel like you have nothing of value to say?
Cause that's how I feel most of the time. I'm not published, and haven't really taken any steps towards getting published, despite all my talk of doing so. I don't have kids or an interesting job that gives me lots of stories to relate. I mean, who really wants to hear about how I spent all day reading reviews about bathroom scales? Yeah, not me either. I've thought about reviewing things (TV, books, etc) but I don't feel qualified to do that. Who really wants to hear my opinions about those things? I mean, I barely remember anything about themes from my lit classes in college, so who am I to comment on that type of thing in what I read and watch?
Thinking all of these things leaves me feeling as if I have nothing of value to write about. I've already cycled through all my thoughts and processes on plot and character creation. What else can I say?
All this is to say that I'm feeling a little at a loss with this blog right now. I don't want to give up on it, but I honestly have no idea what to do with it. If it's the thing that's supposed to allow readers to peak into my mind, what do I want them to see when they do? Do I have any thoughts worth putting out there? I'm not sure. Honestly, I never feel like my thoughts are worth putting out there. It's why I so aggressively filter myself in real life. My voice isn't really worth anything, so there's no point in talking up.
Which I know is stupid, and surely I can find something to say, even if it's just for myself, but it's how I feel most of the time. There are so many people out there that are so much smarter than me that my thoughts seem pointless most of the time.
But I don't want to give up. I want to build a successful blog. Not just because I'm supposed to, but also because I want to find my voice. It's just right now, I don't know what this blog should be about.
So I'm gonna take some time and think about it. And I'll probably try a few things (like reviewing a show) and see if anything seems to stick. We'll see what happens.
But for now, I'm going silent while I do something thinking. I should be back in a a week or two.
Until then.
I started this blog years ago and have let it lapse on more than one occasion. I usually come back to it, and try to pick up where I left off. I try to find something to write about with varying degrees of success. But I've never really had a direction or theme or goal with this blog other than to blog. Cause as a writer, you're supposed to blog. So I wanted to do that.
The problem with doing something just because it's what you're supposed to do is that you quickly learn that there's not a lot else there. I rarely have anything to say, because I have no idea what I want to say. What do you talk about when you feel like you have nothing of value to say?
Cause that's how I feel most of the time. I'm not published, and haven't really taken any steps towards getting published, despite all my talk of doing so. I don't have kids or an interesting job that gives me lots of stories to relate. I mean, who really wants to hear about how I spent all day reading reviews about bathroom scales? Yeah, not me either. I've thought about reviewing things (TV, books, etc) but I don't feel qualified to do that. Who really wants to hear my opinions about those things? I mean, I barely remember anything about themes from my lit classes in college, so who am I to comment on that type of thing in what I read and watch?
Thinking all of these things leaves me feeling as if I have nothing of value to write about. I've already cycled through all my thoughts and processes on plot and character creation. What else can I say?
All this is to say that I'm feeling a little at a loss with this blog right now. I don't want to give up on it, but I honestly have no idea what to do with it. If it's the thing that's supposed to allow readers to peak into my mind, what do I want them to see when they do? Do I have any thoughts worth putting out there? I'm not sure. Honestly, I never feel like my thoughts are worth putting out there. It's why I so aggressively filter myself in real life. My voice isn't really worth anything, so there's no point in talking up.
Which I know is stupid, and surely I can find something to say, even if it's just for myself, but it's how I feel most of the time. There are so many people out there that are so much smarter than me that my thoughts seem pointless most of the time.
But I don't want to give up. I want to build a successful blog. Not just because I'm supposed to, but also because I want to find my voice. It's just right now, I don't know what this blog should be about.
So I'm gonna take some time and think about it. And I'll probably try a few things (like reviewing a show) and see if anything seems to stick. We'll see what happens.
But for now, I'm going silent while I do something thinking. I should be back in a a week or two.
Until then.
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