The Librarians S1E1 - "And the Crown of King Arthur" Recap

Berlin. Colonel Eve Baird leads a squad into a warehouse to capture some weapons of mass destruction. She's part of a NATO counterterrorism unit. She corners some terrorists who activate a ticking bomb but the tense moment is interrupted by Librarian Flynn Carsen, who uncovers the Opal of Simara, recovered by the Teutonic Knights during the Third Crusade, stolen by the Nazi Occult Division. But he needs to turn that off, since he accidentally activates it and if he doesn't stop it, it will turn all the nearby corpses into flesh-eating zombies. He casually disarms it while also helping Eve to defuse her bomb. Handily, it has the same deactivation code as the magical safe booby trap. Flynn simply identifies himself as "The Librarian" and disappears before the rest of Eve's team shows up.

Flynn returns to the state and gets a call from a man desperate to see him. He gets to the library but is fatally stabbed in the lobby by a mysterious man in a hat, sending his documents scattering, one of which ends up in the hands of Flynn himself.

Eve returns home and gets a fancy invitation to come to the Library for a job interview. Curious about the mysterious Librarian, and disgruntled at being made to go on leave by NATO, she shows up dressed in a business suit and meets Charlene, who tells her she will be the Guardian to Flynn's Librarian, the brawn to the Librarian's brain. Enter one secret passageway, to a secret elevator, and Eve finds herself in one enormous Library.

Flynn is parrying with Excalibur, much to the amazement of Eve. The sword tries to injured Eve but Noah saves her, warning that injures from the sword never heal. Flynn objects to the idea of Eve being his guardian but the Library has spoken and thus Eve received her invitation. Eve is also introduced to Judson, whose spirit lives on in the standing mirror in Flynn's study. Judson tells her that Flynn has survived ten years, longer than any other Librarian; Librarians tend to have a short shelf-life.

Eve helps Flynn on his so-far fruitless efforts to solve the murder of archaeologist Dr. Jonas Shier. He has been an alternate candidate for the Librarian position ten years prior, when Flynn got the job instead. Someone is killing librarian potentials so they need to track down the ones who didn't show up to the interview.

Flynn and Eve head to New York first to meet Librarian potential Cassandra Cillian, a genius who suffers from synesthesia which produces auditory and sensory hallucinations linked to memory retrieval. Numbers appear as colours, science as musical notes, and maths as scents. Flynn and Eve then split up to get the next two potentials. Flynn heads to Geneva where Master Thief Ezekiel Jones is nearly killed in the middle of a heist. Ezekiel accidentally sets off the alarms so he opts to go with Flynn and figure out why folks are trying to kill him.

Eve heads to Oklahoma where oil rigger/expert art historian Jacob Stone tries to chat up a woman named Lamia. He's also fluent in Italian, if the pretty face wasn't enough to lure you in. She knows who he is and tries to kill him but it sets off a bar fight and though Eve was able to stop Lamia's first attempt, a team of ninjas arrives and a brawl ensues.

Flynn gives the new trio a brief tour of the library and we learn that Cassandra has a tumour. He explains that magic once travelled along the planet's let lines and over the centuries, it's been drained and storied in various artefacts. Magic fades, and the Librarians make sure any lingering power doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Through the snake tattoo of Lamia, they determine that they're up against the evil Serpent Brotherhood. Lamia is the leader and they want the crown of King Arthur. This can't happen because a world of magic means chaos and pain. They must head to Munich where a painting is on display, depicting King Arthur using the crown to channel magic and build Camelot. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood shows up, thus creating a bit of a time crunch. The intellectuals determine that the painting is a fake, though they can still derive some clues from it. There's also a binary code engraved into the frame you can't move. There's a code that leads to coordinates and the dimensions of the museums are the key to cracking it.

Eve fights off members of the Brotherhood, while Flynn and the rest of his team head out and find a sundial with Celtic directions, leading them to the Black Forest. The team reaches the forest and reach a henge, which holds a hidden cache, in which there is King Arthur's crown, which the group were able to find thanks to some handy maths calculations by Cassandra. First they had to recreate the solstice sunlight effect in order to reveal the cache. Flynn manages to put together a welding torch using an oxygen tank and prosciutto stuffed into a cucumber. Jake handles the welding torch while Eve fights off Lamia and Ezekiel gets to the helicopter and rigs it to explode. That trio heads back to the cache to retrieve King Arthur's crown and now they can head back to the library.

Charlene notes that the group did well for their first time out. Unfortunately, the alarms go off meaning that somebody let the Brotherhood into the Library by disabling the magical security from the inside. Flynn summons "Cal" (Excalibur" and Jake is excited at seeing a flying sword. Flynn reaches the holding place of King Arthur's crown but it's gone, since Lamia has Cassandra, who has betrayed the group. Cassandra says that the Brotherhood said they can save her. There's a bit of sword play and Lamia puts the crown on her head.

Charlene and Judson's spirit work together to seal the library. Unfortunately, Lamia is able to control Excalibur using the crown, which she then turns on Flynn, wounding him badly. Remember that Excalibur's wounds never heal. Cassandra is taken away by members of the Brotherhood, while Lamia orders two others to "kill the Librarian."

The Librarians airs Sundays on TNT at 8PM.