And the Apple of Discord

And the Apple of Discord
General Information
Directed by	Marc Roskin
Written by	Paul Guyot & Geoffrey Thorne
Season	1
Episode	5
Original Airdate	December 28, 2014
Previous Episode	"And Santa's Midnight Run"
Next Episode	"And the Fables of Doom"

"It's the dragons."
—Flynn Carsen

"And the Apple of Discord" is the fifth episode of the first season of The Librarians. It aired on December 28, 2014.

Synopsis

When the dragons sleeping beneath the Earth threaten to awaken and wreak havoc around the world, Flynn returns from out of the blue to help find their hidden treasure.

Plot

Flynn returns to the Annex to help the team with the latest magical threat: dragons. The dragons live beneath the earth and when angered, they awaken. Dragons can cause all kinds of trouble, including strange weather and natural disasters such as earthquakes. Eastern dragons (the Fei Lung) and Western dragons have had a blood feud stretching back many millennia and a fight between them could lead to widespread destruction. Eve has mixed feelings about Flynn's return, as she feels he is disrupting the team and undermining her authority as team leader.

The team meets a representative from the Eastern dragons, a lawyer named Mr. Drake, who informs them that the Western Dragons have stolen the Mystic Pearl of the Fei Lung. He demands that it be returned or else the dragons will go to war. Due to a misunderstanding, it is up to Ezekiel to deal with Mr. Drake, who has brought with him a long list of grievances the Eastern dragons wish to see addressed in an Intercession. Jenkins takes on the task of assisting Ezekiel with the details of the Intercession, but the two are often at odds - Jenkins feels that Ezekiel is not taking things seriously and cannot be trusted with a task of this importance.

Meanwhile, Flynn, Eve, Jacob, and Cassandra head to Vatican City in search of the lair of the Western Dragons, which lies underneath the city. After a quick escape from the Vatican, the team makes their way through puzzles and traps to retrieve the Mystic Pearl. However, the Pearl secretly holds the Apple of Discord, which brings out the worst possible version of whomever holds it. The Apple first infects Jake, who tries to rearrange a local art gallery by force. Flynn, Eve, and Cassandra encounter one of the Western Dragons, who tells them that they were not the ones behind the theft of the Pearl. The team manages to disarm Jacob, but the Apple is transferred to Cassandra. Using math, she is able to easily take down Lamia, and then sets her sights on causing a massive power grid failure. While the team manages to disarm her, Eve and Flynn end up with the Apple -- first sharing it, then fighting over it when it becomes clear that their evil visions for the future are incompatible. Lamia nearly gets killed when she interferes in the fight, and in the end, Flynn escapes with the Apple.

Back in the Annex, Ezekiel finds himself having to chair a Conclave of several magical factions (including the Jinn, the Fae Legions, and the Iron Kingdom) in which they must try to resolve their disputes peacefully. Unfortunately for them, things take a turn for the worse when Dulaque shows up, trying to remove the Library from its historical role as arbiter among them. Ezekiel is upset when Dulaque's appearance causes Jenkins to leave, but Jenkins eventually comes back to help try to keep things under control. Dulaque's play for power is in full swing when the session is interrupted by a power-crazed, Apple-holding Flynn. Happily, the team is able to get Ezekiel close enough to pickpocket the Apple away and Flynn convinces the conclave attendees (except Dulaque) of the necessity of the Library.

The team is deeply concerned about what will happen to Ezekiel when he holds the Apple, but it turns out that he is immune -- he is already the worst version of himself. Ezekiel also realizes that Mr. Drake was the one to originally steal the Pearl, and prevents him from causing any more trouble.

Finally, Jenkins has a private moment with Dulaque and tells him off, knowing that he was the one to wake the dragons and cause all of the trouble that the team just had to face, all for his own agenda. Dulaque tries to offer Jenkins the opportunity to join his side, but Jenkins says that what they once had is gone now.

Flynn is impressed with the work Eve has done, so he offers her transfer papers to go from NATO to Guardian permanently and says he'll stay if she does. Eve signs the papers, but reminds him that he must go back out and recover the main Library.

Cast

Main Cast

• Rebecca Romijn as Eve Baird
• Christian Kane as Jacob Stone
• Lindy Booth as Cassandra Cillian
• John Kim as Ezekiel Jones
• John Larroquette as Jenkins

Recurring Cast

• Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen
• Matt Frewer as DuLaque
• Lesley-Ann Brandt as Lamia

Guest Cast

• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Mr. Drake
• Jimmy Garcia as Dobra
• Naia Schroder as Lady Sylalandria
• Natsuko Abrams as Akemi
• Kei Sugimoto as Haruki
• Ciro Fusco as Spindly Docent
• Carey Gosa as Dragon (voice)
• Tyron Strickland as Vatican Guard

Trivia

• Flynn Carsen is wearing the same suit he wore in The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice and also refers to Simone Renoir from that same movie.
• Under the Vatican, Flynn says that the hunt for the lost Library is "not exactly like finding a guy in a red and white sweater," a reference to the Where's Wally? (US: Where's Waldo?) book series.
• The dragon beneath the Vatican speaks in Latin, although it responds to the English spoken to it:
  "Hic debetis non esse, parva." (Roughly: You should not be here, little things.)
  "Margaritam non clepsimus, bibliothecari." (We do not steal (hold) the pearl, o Librarians.)
• While this episode aired fifth, it was originally supposed to be episode seven, and was shot ninth as Noah Wyle was only available for a short period of time and they needed to shoot back-to-back with the finale. The show had been filmed before the production staff knew the air dates, and the order had to be rearranged due in part to the Christmas episode.
• Originally, Flynn was supposed to be the Arbiter, but it didn’t make sense to bring Noah Wyle back only to have him sitting in a conference room for the entire episode. Ezekiel was chosen because he was the “worst possible option” for dealing with the Conclave situation - something that would lend more tension to the proceedings. This also let the writers work on the relationship between Ezekiel and Jenkins, who hadn't had much interaction before this episode. It was also the first episode where John Harlan Kim had to carry scenes mostly on his own, and John Larroquette helped walk him through the scenes.
• References made during the Conclave include: Wold Newton, Lupin, the World Crime League from Buckaroo Banzai, and the O2STK ("Organization Too Secret to Know") from The Middleman, as well as the "Guild of Fictional Entities", which seems to be a Librarians original.
• Other groups that didn’t end up making the cut included “the Council of Dolphins” (via speakerphone) and the “Parliament of Babies”.
• Each character’s eyes change to a different colour when they are affected by the Apple of Discord. The colours match up with colours traditionally associated with the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Stone - red - lust (”desire to possess”)
  • Cassandra - black - wrath
  • Eve - green - envy
  • Flynn - orange - pride
• Thematically, this episode was meant to show two things:
  • That the Library is only a part of a much bigger, more complicated magical world, with its own history, factions, and politics.
  • How much the team has changed since the last time Flynn saw them - the changes were especially noticeable in production order, rather than airing order.
• The location used for the outside scene in Rome is the same part of Portland used for the Leverage episode "The San Lorenzo Job".
• Lady Sylalandria referring to Dulaque as "Son of Ban" was a "fair play clue" to his true identity. Matt Frewer and John Larroquette were the only cast members informed of their characters' true identities and relationship before the finale.
• On iTunes, the episode title is misspelled as "And the Apple of Dischord".

Quotes

• Flynn Carsen: "Eastern and Western dragons have been in a blood feud for 3,000 years."
  Jenkins: "That's not dissimilar to the East Coast, West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the late 20th century."
  Ezekiel Jones: "Jenkins, you know hip-hop?"
  Jenkins: "Ah, well, as Eric B. and Rakim so aptly flowed, 'I'm paid in full'."
• Jenkins: "May I get you anything to drink?"
  Mr. Drake: "The tears of our enemies wrenched from their bodies as their bones are crushed."
  Jenkins: "I have jasmin tea."
  Mr. Drake: "Ooh. Jasmin. Yes, please."
• Eve Baird, on the roof of the Vatican: "Is that the Pope?!"
• Jacob Stone, on what the Apple did to him: "I felt like I had all the answers. Like no one else mattered."
  Flynn Carsen: "Hubris."
• Ezekiel Jones: "Better to be lucky than lucky to be smart."
• Lamia, having been beaten by two different very strange Librarians: "What is going on today?!"

Media

The Librarians 1x05 Promo "And the Apple of Discord" (HD)

Ratings

The episode rated 1.0 (up .2 from the previous week) in the 18-49 demographic for Live+Same Day. This was a viewership of just under 4.1 million. The Librarians was the second highest rated cable original program for the night.

External links

• "And the Apple of Discord" on TNT
• "And the Apple of Discord" on IMDb
• "And the Apple of Discord" on UPtv