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*The decision to take the Library away was made early on in planning, in part to give Flynn a clean start<ref name="kfm123" />, and in part because the Library and Flynn together were too powerful.<ref name="comm102">[[Dean Devlin|Devlin, Dean]], [[John Rogers]], and [[Noah Wyle]]. Audio Commentary. "And the Sword in the Stone" ''The Librarians'', season 1, episode 2, [http://www.tntdrama.com/ TNT], 2016.</ref>
 
*The decision to take the Library away was made early on in planning, in part to give Flynn a clean start<ref name="kfm123" />, and in part because the Library and Flynn together were too powerful.<ref name="comm102">[[Dean Devlin|Devlin, Dean]], [[John Rogers]], and [[Noah Wyle]]. Audio Commentary. "And the Sword in the Stone" ''The Librarians'', season 1, episode 2, [http://www.tntdrama.com/ TNT], 2016.</ref>
 
*Due to her other commitments, they could only have [[Jane Curtin]] for one episode in the first season, which they only found out after they'd begun shooting. Both pilot episodes got rearranged in order to keep all her scenes in the first one. Unfortunately, this meant they had to cut a scene where the [[Serpent Brotherhood]] attempted to surprise Charlene, only for her to fight them and reveal that she was a [[Guardian]]. In the scene where she speaks to Judson about sealing off the Library, her sleeve is cut--a remnant from that fight scene.<ref name="comm101" />
 
*Due to her other commitments, they could only have [[Jane Curtin]] for one episode in the first season, which they only found out after they'd begun shooting. Both pilot episodes got rearranged in order to keep all her scenes in the first one. Unfortunately, this meant they had to cut a scene where the [[Serpent Brotherhood]] attempted to surprise Charlene, only for her to fight them and reveal that she was a [[Guardian]]. In the scene where she speaks to Judson about sealing off the Library, her sleeve is cut--a remnant from that fight scene.<ref name="comm101" />
*[[Bob Newhart]] filmed his scenes in Los Angeles, with Noah Wyle there, while Noah filmed his on set in Portland.<nowiki><ref name="comm101/"></nowiki>
+
*[[Bob Newhart]] filmed his scenes in Los Angeles, with Noah Wyle there, while Noah filmed his on set in Portland.<ref name="comm101/">
*Originally, [[Lamia]] was supposed to die in the pilot, but they liked her so much that they decided to keep her around.<nowiki><ref name="comm101"></nowiki>
+
*Originally, [[Lamia]] was supposed to die in the pilot, but they liked her so much that they decided to keep her around.<ref name="comm101">
 
*Filming locations for this episode included:
 
*Filming locations for this episode included:
 
**the Blue Heron Paper Mill for the Berlin warehouse (also used in a number of other episodes, including the season finale)
 
**the Blue Heron Paper Mill for the Berlin warehouse (also used in a number of other episodes, including the season finale)

Revision as of 04:11, 18 December 2020

"Welcome to the secret world, Colonel Baird. Welcome to The Library."
Charlene


"And the Crown of King Arthur" is the first episode of the first season of The Librarians, and the first section of the two-part series premiere. It aired on December 7, 2014.

Synopsis

Someone is killing off potential Librarians and it's up to Flynn Carsen and his new Guardian, Colonel Eve Baird, to save the three that are left.[1]

Plot

In Berlin, Colonel Eve Baird of NATO and her team are tracking terrorists through a warehouse when she encounters Flynn Carsen, who rolls out of a wall. As Eve tries to disarm a nuclear bomb from the terrorists, Flynn works on disarming a magical safe left by the Nazi Occult Division, which is hiding the Opal of Samara, a magical gem that can summon demons, but not control them. Using a wide range of obscure knowledge, Flynn solves the safe, helps Eve disarm the bomb, introduces himself as The Librarian, and then vanishes while Eve is dealing with the terrorists.

Back in the United States, Flynn receives a call from Jonas Sheir, a man who knows about The Library and says that he's coming to meet with Flynn. However, as he makes his way through the lobby of the Metropolitan Library, he's fatally stabbed by another man, who says, "the crown is mine". One of the pieces of paper the man was holding drifts away--a print out of a painting.

Meanwhile, Eve has been told to take a month of leave after giving an accurate but difficult to believe report to her superiors about the events in Berlin. As she tries to figure out what to do with her time, an invitation to interview with the Library arrives, the text magically appearing on it much like it did for Flynn in the first movie. When she heads to the Library, hoping it will lead her to Flynn and answers, she meets Charlene, who tells her that the Library has chosen her to be Flynn's Guardian. As Flynn hasn't had a Guardian in ten years, when Nicole Noone was lost, Charlene warns Eve that Flynn will make a fuss, but even he can't argue with the Library. As Charlene explains the world of magic to Eve, she takes her down the impossible elevator, to the Library.

As Eve tries to take in the expansive, magic-filled space, Flynn makes his entrance, parrying with Excalibur. When Cal perceives Eve as a potential threat, he flies towards her throat, stopping just short of cutting her, but is called off--a good thing, as wounds from Excalibur never heal. When Charlene introduces Eve as his new Guardian, Flynn protests thoroughly that he doesn't need a Guardian, then runs away when Eve tries to get him to explain further. She follows, and encounters Judson, whose spirit lives on and can communicate with them through a mirror. He's more willing to explain the situation to Eve than Flynn had been, letting her know that the Guardian's role is that of a partner and bodyguard, as Librarians tend to die. Judson also tells her that Flynn has survived longer than any other Librarian, mostly without a Guardian, and that the experience has changed him. Eve protests that she already has a job, hunting terrorists, and Judson points out that the role of Guardian is the same line of work. He also reminds her that the Library chose her, specifically, to be the Guardian.

Meanwhile, Flynn is investigating the murder of noted archaeologist Dr. Jonas Sheir, right on the doorstep of the Library. He hasn't been able to figure out what the painting on the paper Sheir had been holding, or how Sheir knew about the Library. When Eve suggests that Sheir might have gotten a glowing envelope by mistake, Flynn realizes that Sheir was an alternate candidate for The Librarian position ten years ago, when Flynn got the job. He and Eve look up other candidates to discover that nearly all of them have been killed, or died under mysterious circumstances. Someone is killing potential Librarians, and the only ones who remain are three candidates who ignored the invitations.

Flynn prepares to take off and find the remaining potential Librarians before their enemies do, brushing off Eve when she points out that having a partner along isn't a bad thing. He tells her that he's had partners in the past, and they've either left him or died.

Nonetheless, Eve follows him to New York, where they find Cassandra Cillian. Cassandra is a genius, working as a cleaner in a hospital. When she realizes that the doctors have misidentified medical symptoms, she and Flynn convince them to switch the diagnosis, but she's quickly overwhelmed by her synesthesia--a condition that produces auditory and sensory hallucinations linked to memory retrieval. For Cassandra, numbers appear as colours, science as musical notes, and math as scents--mostly food. Flynn tells her that she's in danger, and that she needs to come with them; he and Eve split up to find the remaining two candidates.

At a museum in Geneva, Flynn retrieves Ezekiel Jones, a thief that Flynn finds particularly irritating. Flynn saves Ezekiel from an assassin disguised as a guard, and Ezekiel recognizes him from a museum in Cairo, where Flynn had been trying to convince the museum that an artifact was cursed, while Ezekiel was there to steal the jewels. When Ezekiel accidentally sets off the museum alarms while trying to steal a jewelled dagger, bringing guards running to their location, Flynn offers him both a way out and the opportunity to find out who is trying to kill him.

Meanwhile, at Duke's Country Bar & Grill in Oklahoma, oil rigger and expert art historian Jacob Stone flirts with a mysterious woman, who has a tattoo of a snake and a Latin translation of lines from "The Second Coming", a Yeats poem about the apocalypse. When he translates the poem, after playing dumb for a moment and checking to make sure no one's watching, she introduces herself as Lamia and calls him by name, then kicks him to the ground and pulls out a sword. Eve steps in to prevent Lamia from killing him, and the bar is quickly swarmed by ninjas, starting an all-out bar brawl. Eve holds off Lamia and pulls Jacob to safety. As they drive away, Jacob once again tries to play dumb, but Eve calls him out on it, letting him know that she knows he's got an IQ of 190 and has been writing literature on art history for 20 years under an assumed name.

Back at the Library, Flynn gives the newcomers a basic breakdown of The Library and its greatest hits before Eve asks them each about the envelope they'd received ten years prior. Cassandra says that she was in the hospital, and Flynn reveals that she has a tumour--the reason that all five of her senses are involved with her synesthesia. She tells everyone that the tumour is about the size of a grape, and it sits right in her frontal lobe, but she's not dying--yet. When asked why they didn't come for an interview, Stone says that he already had a job in the family business. Ezekiel says he threw his out, assuming it was a mistake. He's been thief since he was a kid, so why would he be invited to work at a Library? Apparently unimpressed by the fact that magic is real, Ezekiel tells them that he's only there to find out who was trying to kill him.

When Jacob asks why no one knows that magic is real, Flynn explains that magic once travelled along the planet’s ley lines. Over the centuries, it’s been drained and stored in artifacts like Excalibur. As magic fades, The Librarians make sure any lingering power stays out of the wrong hands.

Eve tells Flynn about Lamia's snake tattoo, and Flynn immediately realizes that the Serpent Brotherhood, an ancient cult set on bringing magic back into the world, are the ones killing off potential Librarians. As Flynn and Eve try to figure out what Professor Sheir discovered that could have started them on their murder spree, Jacob recognizes the painting that Sheir had been bringing to his meeting with Flynn as the "Crown of King Arthur". Things start to click into place for Flynn, who knows that the real Crown of King Arthur was forged by Merlin to help Arthur control the magic he used to build Camelot. Flynn surmises that the Brotherhood want magic back in the world but need the crown to control it, as uncontrolled magic leads to chaos. He decides that he needs to start by examining the painting; Ezekiel tells him it's in the Munich Museum of History and Art, which he'd cased for a heist recently. Eve realizes that the others were targeted because they were already doing what Librarians do: investigating, exploring, and learning, making them the most likely people to find the crown, and therefore a threat to the Brotherhood. Flynn once again tries to leave on his own, but the others tell him that they're going as well, whether he likes it or not.

They arrive at the museum in Munich, but find that the Serpent Brotherhood are also there, looking for the painting. While Eve fights off The Brotherhood, the rest use their unique talents to investigate the painting. Jacob recognizes that the red in the painting is carmine, which wasn't discovered until the 1500s, meaning that the painting is a fake; Ezekiel notices that the painting's frame is attached to the wall, so it can't be moved. Cassandra finds a binary code embedded its frame. Flynn puts everything together, realizing that the code gives coordinates, with the unmovable painting as the key. They follow the coordinates to a sundial outside the museum, which bears a Latin inscription giving the location of "the crown of the Celts", deep in the Black Forest.

In the forest, the team finds a henge: a sign of Celtic influence. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood have also found their way to the forest. Eve heads off to stall them, taking Ezekiel with her at Flynn's suggestion, and reveals that she's read his FBI files--both of them. Meanwhile, Flynn, Jacob, and Cassandra get to work on the puzzle of the henge, which is astrological in nature. Although they're not there on the right day, Cassandra can do the math to recreate the sun's path, leading them through the clues on the henge until she gets overwhelmed. While Jacob gets her grounded again, Flynn finds the cache hiding the crown of King Arthur. Flynn jury-rigs a welding torch from an oxygen tank and some prosciutto stuffed into a cucumber and leaves Jake and Cassandra to it so he can help out Eve and Ezekiel. While he engages Lamia and her samurai sword in a duel with a crowbar, Ezekiel sabotages the Brotherhood's helicopter, which explodes as he, Flynn, and Eve make a run for it.

When they arrive back at the clearing with the henge, Jacob has just finished cutting open the cache, revealing the crown.

Once back at The Library, with the crown safely put in a display case, everyone agrees the newcomers did well for their first time out. As they discuss heading out--Jacob has to get back to work, while Ezekiel has things to steal--Cassandra asks how Flynn became the Librarian. When he tells her that the previous Librarian had died, she points out that the three of them are the only candidates left, meaning that if Flynn dies, it will likely be one of them taking over. Flynn laughs, but at that moment, alarms start blaring. Someone has set off the Library's perimeter alarm.

Checking on the Library through a mirror, Flynn says that no one can get into the Library unless someone lets them in--but as he says that, the Brotherhood breech The Library, meaning someone has disabled the magical security from the inside. With Cal by his side, Flynn races to the Library, followed by the others. Jacob and Ezekiel accuse each other of being the one to let the Brotherhood in, but are interrupted by Brotherhood ninjas trying to kill both of them, meaning that neither of them was behind the betrayal. Meanwhile, Flynn finds Lamia, apparently holding Cassandra hostage. As he tries to negotiate, he realizes that Cassandra is holding the crown: she's the one who let the Brotherhood into the Library, having been promised that magic could save her life. Flynn points out that serpents lie, and begins to fight Lamia, who puts on the crown.

Fresh from an unseen fight, a furious Charlene storms into Flynn's office to tell Judson that the Brotherhood has invaded the Library, then tells him to "do it". He points out that the Library has gotten very big, and it will take both of them. She tells him that she knows, and touches the mirror, power building around them as she laments that Flynn will never save his receipts. Together, Charlene and Judson’s spirit begin to seal the library.

With the crown on her head, Lamia controls Excalibur. She turns the sword on Flynn, striking him deep. She tells the Brotherhood minions to let Dulaque know that they have "the key" to open the lock and return magic the world. But first, they must kill the Librarian--Flynn, who is lying on the floor, bleeding heavily from the wound left by Excalibur, the sword whose wounds never heal.

Cast

Main Cast

Recurring Cast

Guest Cast

Production & Trivia

  • The first season of the show had a very compressed production timeline, which meant that they were shooting the pilot "out of order, on location, so the production team could buy enough time for the paint to dry on the sets", as per John Rogers, while also not knowing which actors would be available.[2]
  • Along with "And the Sword in the Stone", this episode needed to set up the switch from the movies, with Flynn as the only Librarian, to the series, with a larger cast and different time frame for the story. In order to balance the team, especially with Flynn's expertise, the writers drew from pulp stories--specifically, the 1930's series Doc Savage, whose team had a variety of specialties.[2] While each character knows their own specialties more than Flynn does, his experience lets him synthesize the information and see the bigger picture.[3] They also made sure to address the audience's tension about the switch by acknowledging it within the episode itself, with Flynn uncomfortable with the idea, but learning to embrace it. He grows from being mentored by Judson and Charlene to being the mentor himself and introducing the newcomers to the Library. However, he still isn't comfortable having other people working with him.[3]
  • Along with each new character having their own area of expertise, each of them needs the Library for a different reason.[3]
  • Starting the series with the introduction of new characters, who are new to the world of magic, also helps bring in audience members who might not have watched the movies.[4] However, they also worked to establish continuity with the movies, including using the scene of Flynn standing in line for his interview and the use of the magical invitation to the Library.[5]
  • With ten years between the first movie and this episode, it was important to show how Flynn had evolved and grown more comfortable in the role of Librarian and the world of magic, while also showing that his solitary and unusual life had left him still somewhat naive with regard to the real world. In the commentary, Noah Wyle says, "he's become more an of eccentric and a little bit more distant from being able to connect with other people."[3] He's also gotten older--Noah Wyle points out that he has Flynn stretching more now before action scenes.[3]
  • The episode also needed to establish the tone of the series as early as possible, starting with the scene in the warehouse, which introduces the idea of a secret magical world running alongside the known world, with its own history, and with its influence scattered around the world.[2] It's also presented in a fast-paced style, with lots of obscure knowledge flying around, which continues through the rest of the series.[3] Magic itself is established as coming from a mix of sources, with the ley lines used as a way to get the characters travelling around the world.[3]
  • The decision to take the Library away was made early on in planning, in part to give Flynn a clean start[5], and in part because the Library and Flynn together were too powerful.[6]
  • Due to her other commitments, they could only have Jane Curtin for one episode in the first season, which they only found out after they'd begun shooting. Both pilot episodes got rearranged in order to keep all her scenes in the first one. Unfortunately, this meant they had to cut a scene where the Serpent Brotherhood attempted to surprise Charlene, only for her to fight them and reveal that she was a Guardian. In the scene where she speaks to Judson about sealing off the Library, her sleeve is cut--a remnant from that fight scene.[3]
  • Bob Newhart filmed his scenes in Los Angeles, with Noah Wyle there, while Noah filmed his on set in Portland.<ref name="comm101/">
  • Originally, Lamia was supposed to die in the pilot, but they liked her so much that they decided to keep her around.<ref name="comm101">
  • Filming locations for this episode included:
    • the Blue Heron Paper Mill for the Berlin warehouse (also used in a number of other episodes, including the season finale)
    • Duke's Country Bar & Grill
    • the Oregon State Capitol for the Metropolitan Library in New York
    • the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for the museum in which Flynn meets Ezekiel
    • the Oregon Department of Education for the outside of the Munich Museum of History and Art
    • the Wells Fargo Bank at 635 SW 6th Ave, Portland, for the museum stairs and basement
    • Milo McIver State Park for the Black Forest
    • an unused wing of a working hospital[3]
    • Marc Roskin's apartment for Eve Baird's apartment[3]
  • The dagger that Ezekiel is trying to steal when Flynn finds him is the Dagger of Aqu'abi from "The Rashomon Job" episode of Leverage, Dean Devlin and John Rogers' previous series together (which also starred Christian Kane. Some of the paintings in the background of the Munich museum are also re-used Leverage props, from "The Two Live Crew Job".[3]
  • The NATO team in the opening sequence was mostly played by actual military people, including SEAL team and Delta Force members, rather than actors or extras.[2]
  • The opening sequence in the warehouse was the first thing filmed for the series.[3]
  • Rebecca Romijn made them count the bullets during the opening fight to make sure that Eve wouldn't have run out.[3]
  • The Nazi occult division was a real thing.[3]
  • The sword versus bottle part of the bar fight was stolen from a Jackie Chan fight.[3]
  • The assassin sent after Ezekiel was the show's stunt co-coordinator, Austen Brewer.[3]
  • The math on the henge all works, as per John Rogers.[3]
  • The prosciutto torch also works--there's videos of it on YouTube. The props department made a functional version of it, but they decided not to use it because they didn't want to set anyone on fire.[3]

Quotes

  • Flynn Carsen: And it would be a lot easier to concentrate if someone were to turn off that beeping nuclear bomb!
  • Charlene: Each Librarian has a Guardian... Someone who's trained in combat, tactics, survival. Sort of the brawn to the Librarian's brain. But... No, no. Much more than that. Sort of the common sense to their head in the clouds.
  • Judson, as Eve checks out his mirror: Hey, buy a guy a drink first.
  • Eve Baird: I was about to be super-pissed at you for assuming I don't know what a synesthete is, but I actually don't know what a synesthete is.
  • Flynn Carsen: Get ready for anything.
    Eve Baird: Define "anything".
    Flynn Carsen: Oh, ninjas, possibly.
    Eve Baird: Ninjas? In Oklahoma?
  • Flynn Carsen: And now you're going to steal this jewelled dagger.
    Ezekiel Jones: Oh, no, no, no. It's mine. I just left it locked in this display case on my way to work this morning.
  • Eve Baird: Not bad for an amateur.
    Jacob Stone: There ain't nothing amateur about my bar fights, sweetheart.
  • Flynn Carsen, listening to the others talk over each other: It's like listening to the inside of my own head... Except louder.
  • Jacob Stone: Hey, we're on an adventure, travelling down bad roads in a crappy truck. This sure beats my day job... Of travelling down bad roads in a crappy truck.
  • Dulaque: Lamia, centuries of planning depend on you outrunning one half-mad Librarian, his part-time bodyguard, and their amateur sidekicks. You can understand my frustration.
  • Cassandra Cillian: They said they could save me. That only magic could save me.
    Flynn Carsen: They're the Serpent Brotherhood. Serpents lie.

External links

References

  1. Listings - LIBRARIANS, THE on TNT - The Futon Critic
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Rogers, John. "THE LIBRARIANS 101/102 post-game: "and the Crown of King Arthur" / "and the Sword in the Stone"." Kung Fu Monkey, 11 Dec. 2014, kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-librarians-101102-post-game-and.html
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Devlin, Dean, John Rogers, and Noah Wyle. Audio Commentary. "And the Crown of King Arthur" The Librarians, season 1, episode 1, TNT, 2016.
  4. Rogers, John. "Writer Vlog: And the Crown of King Arthur/And the Sword in the Stone." The Librarians, TNT, 2016.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Rogers, John. "LIBRARIANS 101/102 +103 Answer post" Kung Fu Monkey, 21 Dec. 2014, http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2014/12/librarians-101101-103-answer-post.html
  6. Devlin, Dean, John Rogers, and Noah Wyle. Audio Commentary. "And the Sword in the Stone" The Librarians, season 1, episode 2, TNT, 2016.