Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
I’m always up for seeing ensemble characters have independent adventures.
It’s smart to remind them and the audience that every character can succeed on their own if forced to.
While Charlie doesn’t often get to solve magical dilemmas, it not improbable that when adventure calls, she answers.
The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Toy Phone”
Of course, Charlie isn’t alone on The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Toy Phone.”
OG Librarian Jacob Stone returns (again 💗 seriously, drop in anytime, Christian Kane!) and this time, Cassandra Cillian comes with him. [cue fanfare trumpets and cheering crowds of LITs.]
I suspect the point of teaming Jacob and Cassie up with Charlie is to highlight the differences between the seasoned Librarians and Vikram’s young crew.
Everything Charlie’s learned about Librarian-ing(?) has been shaped by her experiences with Vikram, Lysa, and Conner. And their typical strategy is chaotic at best.
If memory serves, Jacob and Cassie dealt out their own share of chaos in their day on The Librarians.
But clearly a decade of magic wrangling and artifact collection has taught them what works best for them and built a trusty toolbox of strategies and techniques.
Charlie’s figuring things out on the fly. Especially since she isn’t a Librarian herself. However, she’s learned to trust how Vikram and the rest of the team approach a challenge.
Charlie is also a person driven to do the right thing. She’ll always pick heart over head when push comes to shove.
What Jacob and Cassie bring to the table is Jacob’s encyclopedic knowledge about art and architecture and Cassie’s brain-grape-fuelled Foundation-level calculations.
Also, their expertise in boogeymen.
A Time and Place for Fear
Charlie’s encounter with the Fear Boogeyman feels similar to Connor’s clash with the demon siblings who fed on despair on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 4, “And the Recipe for Disaster.”
In order to defeat the foe, they had to get a handle on the thing that the being craved.
In Connor’s case, it was accessing a memory of a time he felt hopeful and secure. For Charlie, she must accept that fear is a part of her, that being afraid is part of being brave.
She also learns to reframe her definition of success when she learns that Jovan has been a ghost all along.
Many Ways to Save Someone
Although he fades away happily reunited with his family and free of the Boogeyman, Charlie feels like she should have saved him so he could live a life.
Jacob and Cassie have to explain that saving someone doesn’t always mean bringing them back whole and hale. In Jovan’s case, he spent decades alone, separated from his family and terrorized by the Boogeyman.
Charlie saves all of the Boogeyman’s victims by organizing and encouraging them all to escape the other realm.
This is a lesson that will probably serve Charlie well on future missions. Living isn’t always the happy ending. Freedom might be.
Structural Issues
I’m usually okay with a bit of ambiguity when The Librarians: The Next Chapter gets all timey-wimey with things.
Jovan made his call for help decades ago, got it.
The psychically-twinned phone rang today in the Annex for Charlie because the Library knew she was the right team member for the job. Sure.
But, going back to the cold open where we meet Jovan, I have questions.
Why was he trying to sleep when it was still clearly daylight outside? Was that to throw us off because Charlie and the Librarians approach the house in the daytime?
And why are his parents leaving him alone in the house? To go to sleep, in the middle of the day?
Was he sick, home from school? Were they taken by the Boogeyman after he was captured? How did his psychic link through the phone keep him physically in the room even though he was a ghost?
Is he a ghost because the Boogeyman took him, or did he die while on the phone waiting for the Library to find him a Guardian? And how did the Library get the partner phone?
Or was there only ever one phone? He made the call on it, creating the psychic link, making a ghost phone, and then the Library got the physical one and connected the ghost call when the time was right?
Good lord, is my head ever spinning now.
Librarians-On-Call
I know that Cassie’s return was a lot to do with fan service, and I appreciate that, I really do.
It was awesome to have her pull out her brain schematics for old times’ sake. Even better that Charlie asked what the heck she was doing.
But, it’s also such a tease for hard-core LITs, some of whom have a hard time accepting that The Librarians: The Next Chapter groove righteously to their own melodies.
That being said, if you could rub a genie’s lamp and get another OG team member to drop into Belgrade, who would it be? Vote in the poll below.
And while you’re feeling all engaged and invested, please comment on the episode! Highlights? Lowlights? Burning questions? We’ll take them all!
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On The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Last Resort” a nostalgic holiday getaway turns dark when PUPPETS take over. Read our review!
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On The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Monkey’s Paw,” it’s the magic they need, not what they wish for, that comes to life! Our review!
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On The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And Descartes’ Dilemma,” Merlin hides in plain sight when an artifact body swaps the team. Our review!
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