So, I have decided that I’m going to write these reviews in the order that the episodes were originally intended to be seen in. This is not because I’m mad at TNT. I love TNT for bringing us this wonderful show and giving us a second season of it (YEA!!!!). Now, I feel the season makes more sense if watched in the intended order, so that’s what I’m going to do.
I actually debated this for a while, since if I were doing these reviews live, I’d have to do them in the order shown. But I’m not, so I’m going to stick with my decision and just go with the intended order. They’ll still have their air order numbers, but I’ll post the reviews in the order that they would be in the intended order. Hopefully that make sense. Now on to the review.
Fairy tales. Everyone knows them. They are filled with beautiful princesses, dashing princes, heroic deeds, and evil schemes. They were some of my favorite stories growing up and even now I still love them. There’s something about these characters, these archetypes that resonate with people, even today. Know that good will always win, that evil will always lose, and the prince will always get the girl is comforting in a way.
But often, we forget that the tales we know so well, the ones that a certain large entertainment company has made cartoon versions of to the glee of young girls everywhere, aren’t the original tales. Those tales, the ones gathered by the Grimm Brothers and written by Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen, are not the happy light tales many have come to know. As Jenkins points out, often times the heroes suffer just as much as the villains. Our four heroes find themselves in a town plagued by these tales, and thanks to this we get a glimpse into a different side of them. It’s interesting to see which archetype each of our heroes takes on and what it might say about their character in general. So let’s jump in.
The beginning of the episodes find out LITs and their Guardian stumbling into the sunshine near a bridge where a truck has gone plummeting over the side. The clippings boo sent them there so clearing the accident isn’t just an accident. After an awkward encounter with the local sheriff, they head over to the truck and Cassandra immediately notices a pattern on the window that no one else can see. She tries to tell them what it is, but fails. Jake comes to the rescue and sprays the area with fire extinguisher, revealing a large fingerprint and their first clue as to what might be going on in the town.
(Isn’t it interesting how it’s Jake who figures provides the key to the rest of the team understanding what Cassandra is seeing? Even if he doesn’t trust her, they still share a connection and he still understands her in a way that the rest of the team doesn’t.)
The group has a quick conversation with Jenkins and determines that they are looking at a troll attack. Eve splits the team up to determine what type of troll they might be facing while she sends Jake and Cassie to get surveillance from the sheriff. Cassie is hesitant about this, since Jake made it clear he doesn’t trust her. She tries to give him the opportunity to work with one of the other team members, but Eve insists. Jake says no problem, so off the pair go, while Eve drags Ezekiel off to look for the troll.
While Eve and Ezekiel search for the troll, we learn how Ezekiel likes to operate. He tells Eve that he only became a Librarian because it looked like fun. He hates boredom. As soon as he starts getting a little bored, he splits. I think his attitude changes a little bit over the course of the episode and the season, but right now, he’s just in this for the fun. When it stops being fun for him, he’ll be gone without a second thought.
Back in town, Cassie and Jake have another conversation about their working relationship. Cassie is glad that Jake agreed to work with her, but the Cowboy assures her that he has no problem working with her. He likes the synesthete. He just doesn’t trust her. Cassie asks if that means she is supposed to run around trying to regain his trust and Jake tells her no, he’s fine with the way things are. This seems to bother Cassie, understandably so. How can she ever truly be a part of the team if one of the members refuses to trust her?
Their conversation ends there as the sheriff walks up and hands them the surveillance photos they had asked for. While talking about it, they have an uncomfortable encounter with the town’s mayor which leads them to ask if any other strange things have been happening in town. The sheriff lists off a few things that make Cassie and Jake realize that something else is going on in this town.
When they meet back up with Eve and Ezekiel to discuss their findings, they are interrupted once again by another strange happening. This time, it’s giant white wolf in a nightcap terrorizing the people on main street. This encounter is what causes them to finally realize what might be going on: fairy are coming to life and attacking people.
The team heads back to the Annex to discuss the situation with Jenkins and they determine that one of a few magical objects could be causing the problem. To determine which one it is, they’ll need to get their hands on the giant wolf and do an autopsy. So they team heads back to Bremen to get the wolf and we get our first clues that they may be being affected by whatever is going on in the town (as well as a nice conversation between Eve and Cassie about Jake).
(Actually, that’s not strictly true. The first clue was when Jake threw the axe at the wolf, but it’s so quick, it’s easy to miss.)
While waiting for their drinks, Cassie asks Eve what she (Cassie) should do about Jake. Eve tells her not to worry about it too much. She says that guys like Jake are all the same. They may bluster and be hard to get along with at first, but they eventually come around. He’ll eventually see that Cassie is trustworthy, she just needs to be patient.
This conversation leads directly into the the hints that the team is being pulled into the strange events of the town. The biggest thing to notice is that Eve’s hair is down. So far, she’s never worn her hair down in the field, so this is a big departure from the norm. Meanwhile, all the women in the bar keep staring at Cassie. Neither woman is sure why, since Eve is the one that is having the great hair day, but they don't think too much of it since it’s time to distract the bartender.
Outside, we get even more indications that our team is being affected. The boys are hauling the wolf out (and arguing about the fact that they are sure to be seen) when a man pulls up in a pickup truck. The boys go still, hoping they won’t be seen. And lucky them, they aren’t. Even luckier, they find that the keys are in the truck and it’s ready to go. Jake notes that this is just too good to be true, but Ezekiel doesn’t question it.
Back at the Annex, Jenkins finally gets all the clues he needs to know what’s causing the problems, and it’s far worse than he originally thought. Meanwhile, our heroes sink further still into the curse without noticing. When they return to town, even their outfits are starting to be affected. But how they are being affected won’t become clear until a little later in the episode.
At the hospital, after questioning the girl they pulled out of a wolf, the team splits up once more to try and find the Librus Fabula, the cause of the problem in the town. Eve takes Jake to look at the local library while Jenkins and Cassie look for people getting sick due to the artifact. Ezekiel’s job is just to keep out of jail.
It’s while he’s keeping out of trouble that Ezekiel happens upon the thing (or rather the person) their team has been looking for. He meets Jamie, a young girl who is deathly sick and they immediately connect. When he realizes that the Librus Fabula isn’t in her room, he heads off to find the rest of the team so they can help the girl.
When the team gets back together to discuss what they’ve found, the strange fairy tale happenings take a turn when the sheriff tries to arrest Ezekiel then takes on the persona of a big bad wolf. Suddenly the LITs are running for their lives. It’s while they are running that they discover they too have been sucked into the fairy tales and have taken on archetypes of their own. Each of them take on an unexpected role, that role taking over their usual personality. I think that each of these archetypes reveals a little something about the characters that wind up with as them. Let’s take a look.
Jake as the Huntsman - This is an interesting choice for Jake as it’s both opposite and exactly like him as a character. In the stories, the huntsman is an earthy character, connected to the woods and animals. He’s not known for his intellect but rather his ability to survive in the wild. He’s a loner. It’s not the most widely known archetype, but it does feature in several stories (Snow White and Red Riding Hood spring to mind).
Jake is an intensely physical person, and the most down to earth of all the characters. He’s most closely associated with hard work and grit, which goes well with this archetype. But he’s also very intelligent (190 IQ, love of art, polyglot) yet he continues to be the second most physical character on the show. It’s an interesting dichotomy.
Cassie as Prince Charming - Prince Charming is an intensely honorable, heroic character. He comes to the rescue of the damsel and fights evil at every turn. HIs personality is magnetic and draws everyone to him. They are well spoken and good leaders. In essence, the exact opposite of Cassandra, and not just because she’s a girl.
Cassie is the least confident, quietest character. Add to that that in her first appearance, she betrayed the team, and you’d think that this is the most off characterization there is. But, really, I think this archetype is revealing something about Cassie’s character that is usually hidden. She’s actually very good at what she does (math) and besides that first betrayal, she’s really very loyal, even when others think the worst of her. And everyone on the team actually really does like her (even if one particular cowboy doesn’t quite trust her yet). So perhaps her archetype isn’t quite as far away from her real character as it first appears.
Eve as the Princess - The helpless maiden who must be rescued. Always beautiful, usually with a lovely singing voice, whom small animals flock to. The princess is the one that needs saving in all the stories. Rarely does she do anything for herself. Instead, she’s forced to wait for her prince to help her. Which sounds about as far as you can get away from Eve as possible.
Eve is one of the least helpless woman you’ll meet. She’s a Colonel in NATO’s counterterrorism unit, so she’s got to be pretty self-sufficient. She certainly doesn’t need a man to rescue her. This is probably the most opposite archetype for Eve’s usual character. She has the beautiful thing down, but other than that, there’s very little similarity to what Eve is usually. Which is why it’s so interesting and fun to see her take on this archetype. It’s so completely opposite of what she is normally that it immediately become more interesting. Still, I prefer Eve the way she is.
Ezekiel as the Rogue/Jack/Trickster - In tales dating back to ancient times, it’s the trickster hero that wins out, and comes out of the tale without a scratch. One of the oldest trickster heroes if Odysseus, but others have existed. In fact, the Trickster is one of the most prevalent archetypes in stories. There’s just something about a hero who makes his way on his wits that’s appealing to people.
Which makes this the perfect archetype for Ezekiel. In fact, he is the only one of the four who isn’t really changed by the Librus Fabula. He remains basically the same clever person he’s always been. He just gets a little more luck, since that’s what all of the best guile heroes in the stories have.
After they figure out which archetypes they are, Ezekiel heads off to save Jamie while the other three try to save the rest of the town. It’s up to Ezekiel to save the day, and the only way he can is to stop the evil town librarian guy to use his wits and his luck. Thankfully those are his best tools and he manages to get the Librus Fabula away from the villain and give it to Jamie so she can give the story a happy ending.
Jamie gives Jake, Cassie, and Eve new characters that allow them to fight off the crazy town folks and we get to see them a little more like themselves again. Eve becomes a ninja princess, Jake becomes a robot huntsman, and Cassie becomes Merlin disguised as a prince. With their new powers, they defeat the crazy townsfolk and the story comes to a close.
The episode ends with the team heading back to the Annex and discussing how weird the day was and Ezekiel reminding them that he’s awesome, much to everyone’s annoyance.
Other random goodness:
~Jake is still so happy about the use of the backdoor.
~This episode has several callbacks to the previous episodes. I’m a big fan of continuity, so seeing this type of thing always makes me happy.
~The way Lindy and Christian played the reaction to the mayor was incredibly funny. I laughed so hard at that scene.
~”Someone has weaponized fairy tales?”
~”It’s never the Genie’s Lamp.”
~It was fun watching the subtle changes into their archetype characters until suddenly it was just bam, they’re them.
~The scene where Red Riding Hood is fawning over Cassie much to Jake’s annoyance is so funny.
~The whole vending machine speech by Jenkins was hilariously creepy.
~I loved how Cassie kept oscillating between being flattered and then freaked out by all the girls in the town coming onto her.
~When Jake goes full-on huntsman with the owl on his arm is probably my favorite scene in the entire episode.
~”Fatal yet interesting.”
~”Why am I wearing heels?”
So that’s it for Fables. What did you think? What was your favorite archetype? Do you think the right archetypes went to the right people? Feel free to discuss it in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Next week I’ll be reviewing Heart of Darkness. It’s a big Cassie episode so I’m super excited about it. In the mean time, come back Wednesday for another writing prompt and on Friday I’ll do the next question in the 30 Things series.
Until then.
Next week I’ll be reviewing Heart of Darkness. It’s a big Cassie episode so I’m super excited about it. In the mean time, come back Wednesday for another writing prompt and on Friday I’ll do the next question in the 30 Things series.
Until then.
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