The Librarians: And What Lies Beneath the Stones Recap

Synopsis 02×03: No fictionals terrorizing anyone this week. The Librarian team went on their first mission back together without Eve or Flynn and learned a whole lot about Jake’s past. Oh, and there’s a shapeshifter.

Rating: ?????

Over in Oklahoma, we were introduced to some sort of construction site where a rather snarly older gentleman was insistent they dig even without the permits. Naturally, it ended up being a terrible idea. After one of his workmen fell into a magical sinkhole, a shapeshifter began to wreak havoc on the construction site. It not only put the project at risk, but also the lives of those working for the company. To add insult to injury, there was a feisty group of protesters who believed the dig shouldn’t have even been started in the first place because of its location near an ancient tribal ground.

Back at the Library, Eve and Jenkins worked to make sense of the chaos that resulted from its return. Rooms were missing, artifacts weren’t where they should be, and they had to figure out how to get it back in order. It worried Jenkins, which in turn worried Eve, but they were soon distracted as the Librarians were given their next task. Eve made the executive decision to send the kids out by themselves this time around, because they were all fully trained Librarians and needed to be reminded what it was like to work together. They reluctantly went, and ended up in Oklahoma near the dig site. Go figure.

It turned out that the construction company overseeing the dig just so happened to belong to Jake’s family, specifically his dad. It was the family business he had run away from years and years ago in order to pursue his education. His reunion with his father was less than friendly after they tracked him down to a bar where he was drinking his sorrows away. Cassandra and Ezekiel both seemed to get a kick out of the exchange which was heartbreaking at best, when anyone really settled down to think about it.

Jake lied about what they were doing in order to continue concealing his expertise and intelligence. Instead, he set Ezekiel up to be the expert and sent him down into the sinkhole with his dad and one of the protesters to investigate. It didn’t go well, as whatever creature haunting the place made an appearance and took on the shape of Jake’s father. It proceeded to knock out the protester and then vanished just in time for Jake to join the party. All eyes turned to his father who was blamed for the attack and tensions rose.

Jake and his father had a bit of a blowout argument over the company, which his father blamed him for screwing up (even though it was quite the opposite).

The shapeshifter continued to wreak havoc on the team as it took on the appearance of Cassandra and said some rather cruel things to Jake before stealing a bunch of explosives. Cassandra and Ezekiel, meanwhile, spent time at the Library to try and figure out what it could be that’s causing the disturbances. They came to the conclusion that it was indeed a shapeshifter, and that they came in many shapes and sizes. Get it? Different shapes of shapeshifters… okay, I’ll stop. This show is astoundingly ridiculous sometimes. Regardless, they figured out they were dealing with some sort of “trickster god,” and went to find Jake to tell him the news.

Of course Jake was busy taking after his father, spending the day feeling sorry for himself in a bar. The team managed to snap him out of it though when they insisted it hadn’t been Cassandra that had been so cruel. Rather, it had been a shapeshifter, and Jake of course knew exactly what shapeshifter. The particular brand they were dealing with was an ancient trickster god that consumed lies. If it consumed enough, it would be able to leave the site in Oklahoma and cause chaos elsewhere in the world.

The lie that had released it had been Jake’s father’s insistence that they had the permits to dig there in the first place. From there, it fed on the lies it created through casting doubt on people’s innocence. First Jake’s father, then one of the protesters after it orchestrated some car explosions. The Librarians went back down into the sinkhole to try and engage the being and ended up getting trapped inside a room with a locked door that could only open if people told the truth.

So the team did, in earnest, and embodied the theme of “family” that all the cast members spoke about at the New York Comic Con panel.

With the door unlocked, two had to stay behind, so Jake ended up going after the spirit that was causing all the trouble. He got out of the hole only to run into his father who insisted that they were going to blow the damn thing. In a moment of courage, Jake was honest with his father. He told him about his degrees, his expertise, and revealed who he truly was in a touching moment between father and son. Then, his father told him he loved him, and Jake tossed him into the hole because that was the indication it was the shapeshifter and not his father.

Yeah, folks, this show doesn’t mess around.

In the hole, facing the shapeshifter, he ended up coming face to face with his friends, and then finally himself, and had a knock-down drag-out fight the ended with him dragging the shapeshifter into the room that Cassandra and Ezekiel had kept open. He then shared the reason why he’d left the team after their last excursion together, before they were reunited in New York City. Cassandra, too, admitted her own hesitance in continuing to work as a team, and their truths bound the trickster, keeping him from being able to get out and torment anyone again.

They escaped, the door locked behind them, and Jake only paused to tell his dad a single thing: he didn’t care anymore if his father learned the truth of who he was. He didn’t need his approval. The team then returned to the Library in one piece.

One final touching scene about fathers and sons between Jenkins and Jake rounded out a heartfelt episode that gave everyone a deeper look into the man that is Jake Stone.