The Librarians: And the Rise of Chaos Recap

Synopsis of 03×01: The Librarians are back, and the stakes are even higher! When the ancient Egyptian god of chaos is released into the world, the Librarians have to scramble to stop him from opening a portal of pure evil. However, there is a bigger battle looming on the horizon that the team has to come to terms with after the clipping book explodes. 

TNT’s The Librarians is back for its third season and wasted no time in diving into the slightly darker plot line. At a museum in Boston, a disgruntled Navy vet begrudgingly followed his wife through the winding exhibit. He expressed a desire to see mummies, not knick knacks, and his wife ignored his complaining. A voice in his headset caught his attention and he was led into a back room where he opened a casket and released some sort of spirit leading to his possession. 

Elsewhere, the team caught a band of druids and managed to grab the artifact they were after in order to return it safely to the Library. Once back, and done with the latest mission, Baird picked up the pace on training the team and sparred with Stone in order to help him become less of a brawler and more of a real fighter. He was not exactly open to the pushing and pointed it out to her, only to have Baird insist that he needed to become more controlled and better at fighting in order to succeed in the field. 

Back at the museum, a member of the night staff had a Doctor Who moment when all of the exhibit mannequins came to life and kept chanting the word “stendeck” until they cornered the staff member and left him with nowhere to go. 

With Baird acting so strangely, Flynn pulled her a side and asked what was going on. She pointed out to him that she had a bad feeling and thought something was coming. She called it Guardian’s intuition, and reminded him that she had a vision of the future where the Librarians were ultimate versions of themselves. Eve told Flynn that she wanted to help expedite the process in order to prepare them for whatever was to come, even as he tried to tell her everything was fine. Naturally, the clipping book chose that moment to explode. 

Jenkins, Baird, and Flynn stepped aside after that and insinuated that the clipping book was predicting so many events to come that it got overheated, which led to the explosion. They would have to try and piece it back together, but it was certainly not a good sign.

Cassandra, Ezekiel, and Jake were near the clipping book, attempting to put it back together while bickering about magic. Here, the seed for a divide was planted, as Cassandra and Ezekiel advocated for the use of magic while Jake, and later Jenkins, both counseled against it because magic always comes at a cost. 

With a little help from Cassandra’s mind, she was able to come up with the most likely possibility for the pieces of the clipping book and it landed them at the Boston Museum where the whole episode started. They asked security if they could take a look around, while the audience got a peek at what happened to the night staff who was attacked by the mannequins. Some government organization – the Department of Statistical Anomalies – picked him up and questioned him about the incident only to find he really knew nothing.

He woke up in a hospital with Eve and Flynn there with him, ready to question him while the rest of the team checked out the museum. The staff member was anxious, and it did not help that the comatose patients in the room with him all started chanting “standek” too. The team returned to the library where they discovered that “standek” was an ancient Egyptian word that had to do with time, and they decided it was a warning.

Cassandra remembered an old clock that was on display at the museum and once again, they returned to Boston. They wound their way down into the bowels of the museum and that is where they met Apep for the first time.

Jake and Ezekiel went to get sonar equipment from a nearby submarine at the museum while Flynn, Cassandra, and Eve tried to figure out the combination to an ancient box they had found which supposedly held the key to a portal that would release pure evil into the world. As Librarians do, of course. With Apep lurking nearby he flexed his powers and got the three of them arguing while he made off with the key and they were left with nothing.

The Department of Statistical Anomalies was a step behind the entire time, struggling to keep up with the story. Typical.

The team quickly realized who they were dealing with, and learned that Apep wanted to let pure evil into the world in order to upset the balance between good and evil and start the war that they discussed at the start of the episode.

With so much at stake, they had to think fast, but before Jake and Ezekiel could get off the submarine it started to move. Controlled by Apep, who had inhabited the body of a former sailor who could operate a submarine, a torpedo was armed and aimed right at the museum. It took a little work on Jake and Ezekiel’s part, and watching them work as a team was truly a delight, as they managed to just barely divert the torpedo. 

Nonetheless, the torpedo blew a hole in the ground and the team then realized that was the plan all along, and Apep now had access to the portal. Why an ancient Egyptian portal was located underneath the ground in Boston, no one will ever really know. They tried to stop him but he worked his voodoo on them again and sent the team bickering, bringing out their usually hidden spite.

It was only when Baird was knocked out of the spell’s radius that she realized what was happening and pulled everyone else out of it, too. Thinking quickly, the team decided they had to show a united front, and marched back into the fray singing a song together. 

As they temporarily defeated him and got the key, the DOSA agents showed up and confronted them. They took the key, but Flynn tricked them into messing with Apep who sent them bickering with each other while Flynn and the team made off with the key. The day was saved, and Apep fled his host’s body and left the man behind to be picked up by DOSA and questioned. 

Back at the Library, Flynn stayed up late looking over some research and Jenkins checked in on him, revealing that Flynn knew there was more to come regarding the battle between good and evil but did not want to worry the team just yet.