The Librarians 1x07 and the Rule of Three: Past Lives

First, let me apologize for the lateness of getting this review done. My life got super busy the week before Easter and didn’t really slow down until this week. Thankfully, it’s looking to be slowing a bit so I had a chance to work on this. I’m hoping to be back to normal scheduling this week or next. Now on to the review.

Highschool. That word brings about a lot of different feelings for a lot of different people. For some, it’s the best time of their lives. For others, it’s the closest thing to torture they’ve ever endured and they couldn’t be happier when they never have to deal with it again. For still others, it was neither of these things, instead just a place that they went everyday to get a little learning and prepare for college. No matter what they thought of high school, everyone was sorted into some kind of category and that category seemed to say a lot about who they were.

At least, that’s what I’ve heard. My high school experience wasn’t the typical one. You see, I was homeschooled all through high school (actually from third grade until I graduated high school). Because of this, I really have no experience with the great beast that was high school, nor with the groups that everyone seemed to fall into. High school, for me, was always something of a mystery, since I experienced it so differently from all of my friends.

Despite this, I do know that who we were in high school says a lot about us, but it doesn’t completely define us and it’s possibly to change from who we were into a new person all together. Just telling you that I was homeschooled brings up assumptions in your mind. The same thing is true when you find out that someone was an athlete or a mathlete or class president when they were in high school. Just because we were one thing in high school though, doesn’t mean that we can’t change.

This week, our LITs head to a high school science fair and we get a little peak into some of their pasts, which informs what we know about their presents. So lets dive in.

Cassie

The mystery this week takes the LITs to a place that is like a second home to Cassie. The STEM fair is is her world, a world of science and math and intelligence. Cassie is so excited to be there and see all the projects and just simply be around all the science. She loves this, used to live for it, so it’s like stepping into a familiar memory for her, returning to a happy place. At least, that’s what it seems like at first. As the episode continues though, we learn that this isn’t the case after all.

As she tells Ezekiel later in the episode, the science fair was her home, so much so that she had a wall full of trophies. In high school, she was the quintessential smart kid. She had all the answers, won all the awards, was on track to get into the best college and become a brain surgeon or astrophysicist. That all changed when she started having hallucinations and had to drop out of school. Suddenly, her parents couldn’t handle how she’d changed, so school and fairs and trophies went away. Cassie’s life was never the same.

The sad thing for Cassie is that she didn’t just lose the fairs; she lost her parents too. Before her tumor, everything was about her grades and doing well. It’s why she can completely relate to Amy. She knows what it’s like to put everything else on hold, to try to live up to the pressure of overenthusiastic parents. She tells the team that if she’d been given a shortcut, a guarantee to win and get into a good school, she would have taken it. When everything is about winning and coming out on top, you’ll stop at nothing to do that.

Now though, Cassie realizes the importance of balance, of life outside of scholastic accomplishment. She didn’t learn that by losing all her trophies though. Remember where Flynn found her? She was a janitor in a hospital. She was so far from what she had been. Losing everything because of her tumor sent her into a spiral. It wasn’t until she came to the Library and met Flynn, Jake, Ezekiel, and Eve that she started to find that balance, started to see that she could use her hallucinations and her super intelligence together and still have friends and a new family. The library gave her that.

Ezekiel

In a short meta for Tumblr that I wrote on character arcs throughout the season, I mentioned that Ezekiel is the one character whose arc has been the subtlest. He seems to change the least of everyone at the Annex (except for maybe Jenkins). I think this is the episodes that shows just how much he has changed since the beginning of the season.

Back in the pilot, Ezekiel made sure everyone knew he was just helping because he wanted to find out who was trying to kill him. He could care less about saving the world. In Horns, he was very clear on the point that if things got sticky, he’d bail. He didn’t fight. Then in Fables, he told Eve that when things got boring, or too much like work, he’d bail. He doesn’t do attachments or hard work. He’s spent too much time skating through life, why stop now?

As the season progressed, we began to see a slightly different side of Ezekiel. He’s never not going to be the cocky thief who relies far too heavily on his (admittedly very good) luck. Now though, he’s also grown a bit attached to the people at the Library. He proves that by what he does at the end of Rule of Three.

He spent the episode finding out that Cassie had lost a lot because of her hallucinations. She’d lost her future, her way of life, and her family. He is clearly struck by this, because at the end of the episode he does something that is as close to selfless as Ezekiel gets: he steals the STEM trophy and gives it to Cassie. This is kind of a big deal and I’m going to tell you why.

Ezekiel is nothing if not selfish. He looks out for himself first. Everything he’s done to help throughout the season has had the added benefit of keeping himself safe and in one piece. In fact, at the beginning of the episode, he is seen to have availed himself of the backdoor just to steal something for himself, because he can. He looks out for number one first.

Yet, at the end of Rule of Three, he acquires the trophy not because it’s meaningful to him or will bring him anything. No, he gets it for the sole purpose of giving it to Cassie and trying to give her back a little piece of everything she’d lost. It was as close to a selfless act as we’ve ever seen from him. That, my friends, is kind of a big deal. I never want Ezekiel to be less of the cocky thief that he is, but it’s nice to see that he is able to think of people besides himself, that he’s come to care about his team, maybe even seeing them as friends.

Jake

Just like with Cassie, thanks to this weeks setting, we get to learn a little bit about what Jake was like in high school. One might think, given his love of art and history that Jake would have been one of the artistic or literary kids, but he wasn’t. Instead he concealed his love of art and focused on on more socially acceptable pastimes (probably football. Oklahoma and all). Where Cassie let her intelligence consume her life, Jake hid from his. They are like two sides of the same coin. Jake has always been a bit afraid of his intelligence. He’s a man with an IQ of 190 and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of art, culture, history, and language. But you’d never know that when you first meet him. And until he came to the library, that’s exactly how he liked it.

Jake tells Dashel that he wore a costume in high school. He did all the things that were expected of him. When Dashel quips that he’s sure Jake never got beat up for reciting poetry, Jake tells him he’s right, because Jake never recited poetry. Instead, he hid behind his physical attributes, wore his costume “like second skin”. He made sure everyone saw him the way he wanted them to see him. He’s starting to realize that he did that for too long. He even tells Dashel as much. Now, thanks to the Library and the LITs, hes finding that he can actually be himself, just like Cassie.

Eve

Have you ever met someone who is constantly being underestimated? I’m sure you have. We all have. In fact, you might even be that person. In the Library universe, Eve is that person. Everyone knows that she is a physical threat. She’s the most physically capable person on the show. What they seem to forget is that she’s a lot smarter than she seems. It can be easy to forget Eve’s intelligence because she’s constantly surrounded by genius level intellects. Being surrounded by geniuses has a tendency to make above average people look dumb. However, Eve is not dumb. This episode continues to prove that.

She manages to surprise Morgan la Fey, something that no one would think possible, given that Morgan is one of the most powerful magic wielders ever. Yet Eve devises a way to use Morgan’s own power against her. She even impresses Morgan, which I’m certain is extremely hard to do. I don’t think Morgan will ever underestimate Eve again.

Other Random Goodness:
~”It’s a brain jar. What else would one put in it?”
~I love how all of the team spends even their days off at the Annex.
~”Why are you blighting me today?”
~I love when Cassie gets to be excited and dorky. That’s my favorite side of Cassie.
~Ezekiel never tells us what he was in high school. I find his desire to hide that info suspicious. What dark secrets are lurking in his past? Could it be a terrible yearbook photo? *gasp* Seriously though, what group did he fit in during high school?
~”Someday, that cover story is not gonna fly.”
~Everyone listening to the entries, but especially Cassie’s and Eve’s reactions.
~The “interrogation” takes place in a set in the school’s theater.
~Jake’s reaction to the high schooler’s crush on Eve.
~”I was going to stand around all day waiting for you to call, and then I remembered, I have free will.”
~Jake sounds very familiar with the notion of falling for a smart girl. It sounds like he might have some experience with this. Just saying.
~Eve starts listing the words that rhyme with mash until Jenkins gives her a dirty look.
~”Oh Guardian, sorry. I’ll talk slower.” “Hey!”
~Volcano guy won.
~”Wow. First place. In . . . .” “In the category of mathmagics.” “Mathmagics. I like it.”

Well that’s it for the penultimate episode of the first season. Next week I should have the review for Loom of Fate done.

In the mean time, I’ll try to get back to my regular blogging, but I can’t promise anything.

Until then.

30 Things Question 19

19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

I like where I live now, due to the strong friendships I have. But, I could move anywhere else, I think I’d probably move to Italy. I love Italy. I’ve had the opportunity to go there twice and both times it was spectacular. I love the food and the cities and the weather. Plus one of my best friends lives there, so I’d get to see a lot more of her, which would be cool. So yeah, probably Italy.

Next week I'll have my review of the Rule of Three up.

Until then.

Writing Prompt Wednesday - Rag

Welcome back to writing prompt Wednesday. THis week, I decided to take my first sentence from the Writer’s Toolbox again.

Prompt: My mother was doing that thing she did. That thing with the rag in the sink.

~~~

My mother was doing that thing she did. That thing with the rag in the sink. She only did this when something was wrong. When something was really wrong.

Swallowing, I stepped fully into the kitchen and said, “Mom?” Her head jerked up, like a startled animal, before she turned and saw me. The look in her eyes scared me more than the cleaning. “Mom what is it?”

“Rose, it’s your father.”

“Papa?” My heart pounded against my breast bone and my hands felt clammy. “Whats wrong with Papa?”

Mom looked at me for a moment longer, then she dropped the rag before letting her face fall into her hands and starting to weep.

“Mom what is it?” I rushed to her, pulling her into my arms and trying to stem the flow of tears.

“I got a letter today,” she sobbed, “It said that Papa had been caught trying to steal something from the garden of that mansion on the edge of town.”

“The mansion? THe big empty one that no one goes near? WHy on earth would Papa be near there?”

“I don’t know. All the letter said was that the own of the estate was going pressing charges and imprisoning him on the estate for attempted robbery. The constable won’t do anything. Says the owner’s too powerful.”

I stared at her, dumbstruck. None of this made sense. We hadn’t even realized someone lived in that old mansion. And why would Papa be there in the first place? What could he have possibly been trying to steal?

“This can’t be true.” I said, pulling away to try and look at my mother’s face. But she wouldn’t look at me. “We have to do something.”

“What can we do that the constable can’t?” Mom demanded, tears still streaming from her eyes.

“I . . . I don’t know, but I’m going to try. I’m going to go to the mansion and demand to speak with the owner. Surely i can make them listen to reason. Papa wouldn’t steal from them. I’ll make them see that.”

“Rose no, you can’t. What if he gets angry with you too? I can’t bear the thought of losing both you and your father.”

“I’m not doing nothing. I’m going to get Papa released.”

~~~

This is the beginning of something bigger. I can feel it. In fact, I got an idea for an entire story based on this prompt. I may have to pursue it at a later date.

Come back Friday for the next 30 Things question.

Until then.