The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 10 Review: And the Heart of a Librarian

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

Vikram is a lonely Librarian.

Lonelier than typical, seeing as he is a man out of his time and forever separated from his great love, Anya.

Bad enough that his great-great-great-granddaughter, Lysa, is Anya’s lookalike, but to bring Anya back through magical correspondence seems excessively cruel.

In addition, effectively sidelining him in the present-day while she barrels headlong into danger in Victorian times is a real role reversal and probably caused him more anxiety than he’s ever experienced.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Heart of a Librarian”

Vikram’s default devil-may-care approach to life and Librarianship masks his melancholy. Perhaps he does it for himself as much as to put up an energetic front for his team.

My favorite scene on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 10, “And the Heart of a Librarian,” is when Vikram finds Anya wandering around his Annex.

Clearly, Library security has always been an issue.

Olivia Morris deserves all the props for her complete transformation into Anya, a clever, brave, and resourceful woman of her time, but indistinct from her .

Truly, she has the heart of a Librarian, despite never being formally invited.

Mind you, the Library letting her discover the Annex is a passive invite if there ever was one.

Considering there’s never been a modicum of romantic chemistry between Lysa and Vikram, it’s delightful how palpable the thoughtful and deep affection is between Anya and curly-haired younger Vikram.

Enter Benedict Hale, Librarian

It’s always fun to spot the actors who crossover between Dean Devlin productions.

First and foremost, there’s Christian Kane who features in nearly all of the current Devlin shows.

Then, as noted in my aside in the review of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 4, “And the Recipe for Disaster,” we spotted the spacesuit-clad extras from The Ark in the background on the studio lot.

Back on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Episode 9, “And the Feast of the Vampir,” The Ark’s Pavle Jerinić guest starred as history’s first vampire, Petar Blagojević, a fun fantastical holiday from Felix Strickland’s security duties.

Here, Anya crosses paths with Vikram’s successor, Benedict Hale, played by The Ark’s Reece Ritchie. Hale, while an adept and capable Librarian also sports a Serpent Brotherhood tattoo which is never really explained satisfactorily.

The Greater Good

I am curious how the Library deals with Librarians who go astray ideologically.

Obviously, it wouldn’t have invited Hale to become The Librarian if he had already been a member of the Serpent Brotherhood.

So, somewhere along the way, Dulaque or some of his cronies manage to convince Hale he shouldn’t be protecting humanity by securing magic and magical artifacts.

Instead, he chooses to protect humanity by USING magic and magical artifacts.

So the real question is: How does The Library fire a Librarian? A fascinating thought to puzzle over another day.

Magic Always Has Consequences

As capable as Hale is, he’s more impulsive that recommended for a Librarian — even compared to Vikram — and with a dangerously low level of foresight.

One would think a person smart enough to be a Librarian would realize that something as enormous as World War One couldn’t be so easily derailed.

However, I do appreciate that removing Queen Victoria and her entire family in a single fell swoop with a magical camera would definitely do something to how history unfolded.

But, as Connor lays out in the present day, it would actually accelerate the onset of The Great War to an earlier time when the Allies would probably lose.

Perhaps the Serpent Brotherhood’s whole strategy was to weaponize Hale’s good intentions. Admittedly, it’s a pretty brilliant plan that nearly worked.

Anya’s solution is equally brilliant, although I can’t figure out how she slipped that mirror into the camera in the time she had it in her hands. Ezekiel Jones would be impressed.

What’s even better is she never interacts or manipulates the magic herself. Everything that happens to Hale is of his own doing.

A Lady of Ability

I sincerely hope the Library does involve Anya in more missions that we get to see.

Hmm… Maybe Anya is how the Library fires bad Librarians?

She could be the Library’s Internal Affairs Guardian, a Human Resources department of one.

And she has Mrs. Astolat on her side. That’s half the battle won already.

If I have one complaint about The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2, it’s the serious lack of Astolat content.

Yes, I know she’s off living her best life, but her presence (in any era and any costuming) provides some needed gravitas. Even when she’s kidnapping magic-addicted legendary wizards.

With the penultimate episode and finale within sight, I expect Mrs. Astolat will be front and center as the team faces off with Merlin.

Based on the Season 2 trailer, Merlin returns in a spectacular and sinister manner. With dragons.

It doesn’t take a Scrying Orb to infer that the castle, knights in armor, and balls of magic fire being lobbed about spotted in the trailer are hinting at some sort of a return to Camelot.

But it looks like a Camelot with Merlin in charge. How will Mrs. Astolat react? Could Vikram give into the temptation of Merlin’s promises?

Can this season’s adventures, antagonists, and artifacts combine to something greater than the sum of its parts? That would be a trick.

Over to you, Fanatics! Does Vikram and Anya’s story stir your pot? Or is it just a retread of old backstory? Is this team ready for a fight with Merlin? And DRAGONS?

Pop your thoughts and theories into the comments section and let us know what you thought of the episode by voting in the poll below!

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