THE LIBRARIANS and the Body Snatchers

Season 1, Episode 9: “And the City of Light”

Independent journalist and UFO enthusiast Victor Finch opens the show, traipsing through the woods wearing special goggles that look like something out of Warehouse 13’s steampunk gear. He’s in search of mysterious lights reported around the small, out-of-the way place called Collins Falls. His goggles reveal ghostly glowing figures all around him, but as he raises an alarm through town, the townspeople turn on him, their eyes and bodies glowing as they close in to convert him into…what, exactly?

Ezekiel: “it’s aliens.”

Jenkins: UFOs do not exist.
Ezekiel: Says the guy with the teleporting door.#TheLibrarians

— Librarians Fanatic (@LibrariansTVF) January 19, 2015

EZEKIEL GEEKING OUT ABOUT ALIENS!!
"I will absolutely sell out the human race!" #TheLibrarians

— slut! (taylor’s version) (@anyataylorsoy) January 19, 2015

This episode was a mix of Tesla inventions, mystery, ghosts and love, but no aliens (sorry, Ezekiel).

As the Librarians investigate the town, Jacob notices that the architecture of the city and its age don’t match, so he and Cassandra go to look around and take notes. They meet one of the locals: Mabel Collins (Haley Webb), who is wise beyond her years…all 130+ of them.

Jacob: “Mabel? That’s an old-fashioned name.”

Mabel: “You don’t know the half of it, buddy!”

Gotta love brilliant brunettes who are older than they look. #TheLibrarians

— JW Dickson (@jameswdickson) January 19, 2015

But I’m getting ahead of the story. When Jacob and Cassandra meet pretty, 30-something Mable, she is fixing one of several antique gas lamps on the street and explains that although they don’t work, she tinkers with them from time to time and dreams of seeing them all lit up. As Jacob compares that to Paris, she returns a reply in French, prompting some light flirting (ala Francois). Something is lighting up in Collins Falls — and it’s not the gas lamps.

First poetry & now French?!? O.M.G. Jake finds a new way to melt me every week! Gonna miss that! :'( @ChristianKane01 #TheLibrarians

— s_squirl (@S_Squirl) January 19, 2015

Jacob uses every opportunity to work with Mable on this case, as he has fallen head over heels for her, and they develop a nice connection about their mutual interests in travel, and their very similar family obligations to stay home to take care of things. His is out of true obligation, hers is because she can’t leave the city limits…but more on that later. They bond over small-town comparisons and talk about going to distant countries to create amazing memories. Her dream: to see the Eiffel Tower, in the rain, where everything glows under the lights from the gas lamps.

Ezekiel and Eve investigate the woods where Victor was researching and find another gas lamp, like the ones in town.

Feels like Narnia with the light post #TheLibrarians

— Oanh (@julybug17) January 19, 2015

Victor Finch (the UFO hunter), attacks them.  He is now glowing and emitting a high-pitched screeching sound. During the scuffle, Eve and Victor bump into the gas lamp. Victor seems to be himself again; however, after coming into contact with the lamp, Eve disappears.

#TheLibrarians WOAH WOAH WOAH WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO BAIRD OMG

— OLD ACCOUNT (@RosieThe3rd) January 19, 2015

They interrogate Victor, who doesn’t remember anything, even how long he’s been missing. To the team’s disapproval, Jacob brings Mabel to the clearing in the woods, where the team has assembled to try and find Eve.

"You brought… Someone who's NOT a Librarian… To here? Yay." #TheLibrarians

— Michael Henson: A Star Wars Story 🇺🇦 (@ChasingBristol) January 19, 2015

Mabel claims to never have seen the gas lamp in the woods, and starts to question the Librarians and their real reason for being here. Jacob promises to tell her everything he knows in exchange for her help on the town history, and anything she can dig up on these lamps in the city archives.

"only you people could lose a Guardian, a librarian sure, we go through them like tissue" love the dialog in this show #TheLibrarians

— Robin ❤️🇺🇸👈✡ (@rob0349) January 19, 2015

Ezekiel, now donning Victor’s special goggles, joins Cassandra to investigate the woods, and discovers that the goggles enable him to see Eve, but not hear her. Eve motions for them to split up. Cassandra goes off to the dam, which she believes is the source of the power, while Ezekiel follows Eve back to town. Eve, who is still invisible to everyone else, shows Ezekiel that there are many other “ghosts” possessing the townspeople.

https://twitter.com/swpatchcat/status/556986528954474496

He figures that the lamp posts are somehow connected to these apparitions, proving his theory by hitting one with a picket from a nearby fence, and releasing the ghosts from his pursuers, turning them back into normal people with short-term memory loss.

Through their investigations, each team member comes up with pieces to this 100-year-old puzzle: The town has been here much longer than its recorded history. Jacob learns from Mabel’s archives that Collins Falls exists on the site of a town known as Wardenclyffe Falls, which was an experimental site built by Nicola Tesla, and the original home of the gas lampposts.

Each time Nikola Tesla is mentioned on #TheLibrarians my brain smiles.

— We So Nerdy (@WeSoNerdy) January 19, 2015

Ezekiel reports that the townspeople are possessed by body snatchers, for lack of a better term, and Cassandra stumbles on an old power station and a picture of Nicola Tesla, and several people, including Mabel, circa 1915. Cassandra confronts Mabel about the picture, who divulges the full story after getting Jacob’s promise to help. Mabel Collins is many things to this city: the city archivist, the Volunteer Fire Chief and Notary, and its eponym.

If anyone is interested in the real Wardenclyffe, check out http://t.co/W8KJrqr3k6 or https://t.co/VcEDcu2oY0 on FB #TheLibrarians

— Carrie (@Kes13) January 19, 2015

Mabel explains that the gaslamps are prototype wireless energy transmitters developed by Tesla. When they turned them on, 87 people were zapped out of phase — all except for Tesla and Mabel, who were both in the power station at the time. Tesla grounded Mabel and converted the lamps into a force field to contain the out-of-phase people until they had the means to release them safely, cutting a deal with the government to keep the posts intact until a solution could be found. This is why Mabel could never leave the town — she, like all of the others, would cease to exist outside the energy field’s protection.

They calculate that the power station has been actively storing energy for 100 years, and should have enough to release the previously trapped inhabitants, so they start preparing for the big day. As they turn on the power, Cassandra realizes that they may have made a miscalculation, putting hundreds of people at risk, and recommends that they shut it down, leaving all of the Wardenclyffe Falls townspeople and Eve Baird trapped out-of-phase indefinitely.

So you built a bomb…. #TheLibrarians

— Ashley Hardwicke (@AshleyHardwicke) January 19, 2015

Victor (now again possessed by his Wardenclyff Falls inhabitant) sabotages the power plant so that Cassandra can’t shut it down. This requires Mabel, who is the only grounded person, to go through the building energy fields to the auxiliary shut-off switch at the highly-charged power plant. Jacob holds her hand and together, they make their way through the dangerous area to reach the switch. Jacob and Mabel endure a lot of voltage to reach the switch, during which time Eve appears before they shut it down.

https://twitter.com/OopsDistraction/status/556991036191690752

Mabel, having endured too much voltage, dies in Jacob’s arms, leaving him devastated.

*SOB* but, #JASSANDRA!! 🙁 #TheLibrarians @filmwritr4 @Dean_Devlin @jonrog1 @johnlarroquette @LindyBooth @ChristianKane01 @GdayJohnKim

— I MET CHRIS EVANS TODAY! Maggie (@AUMagic) January 19, 2015

Cassandra and Ezekiel are not happy with the continued entrapment of the city inhabitants, and they are second-guessing the decision to shut down the experiment so soon after it appeared to be working. Eve gives them encouragement about their decision — they did the right thing, and no one can expect to “win them all.”

They depart, leaving Eve sitting in thought as Jenkins enters the room and gives Eve the Library schedule book. He suggests that this book might be used to leave a note for future Librarians to assemble the right equipment 100 years from now to safely rescue the rest of the trapped people after the needed energy has been stored again.  Eve begins to write in the schedule, a smile of hope on her face.

This ending is bittersweet, as there is hope for the town to be rescued, but it will probably be in another hundred years.  Departing from the rest, Jacob sets the Annex globe and walks through the portal doors into a rainy Paris night, where the gas lamps are making everything shine.

https://twitter.com/CrowKythiaranos/status/556996973413548034