The Librarians S03 E07: And The Curse of Cindy

On this episode of The Librarians, we find out that Stumpy isn’t the only love of Ezekiel’s life.

The clipping book leads The Librarians to a group of spaced out hippies obsessed with a girl named Cyndi. Suspecting that magic is playing a role in Cyndi’s popularity, the gang must discover the source of Cyndi’s power before the entire world falls under her spell.

Messages Run Deep

This episode was written by Gareth Roberts who has also written many great Doctor Who episodes. He does an equally great job writing The Curse of Cindy. It’s an episode that really makes you think.

Cindy was a contestant on a Big Brother type reality show. She thought that the other contestants were her friends, but they were only being nice to her as part of the game play. When they all brutally, and unanimously, vote Cindy off the show, she is deeply wounded by the rejection. Cindy’s goal in life becomes getting as many people to like her as possible. She is obsessed with gathering more and more followers. It really got me thinking about social media. It feels good when you post something and get lots of likes. In my travelblogging life, there is a huge push and a lot of pressure to accrue followers, views, and likes. It is a necessity. You cannot progress unless you can prove you are sufficiently liked. So the question becomes where do you draw the line? At what point does your need for likes become unhealthy? The constant need for validation can become addicting. Obviously Cindy went way over the top, but it’s a little harder to tell where the line should be drawn in real life.

Being Awesome

The acting in this week’s episode was top notch. Flynn and Stone falling under Cyndi’s spell, then later becoming obsessed with each other, was really fun to watch.

However, actor John Kim, who plays Ezekiel, was the star of the night. Kim does such a great job playing the self-obsessed, cavalier, Ezekiel Jones, that when Ezekiel opens up and softens, it’s a total surprise that elicits multitudes of warm fuzzy feelings. When it’s decided that Ezekiel is immune to Cyndi’s love/obsession potion, it was easy to believe that it was because he is just that self-absorbed, or as Ezekiel preferred, awesome. Later we find out that Ezekiel watched Cyndi’s reality show and had developed a little bit of a crush on her. It was because he already liked her that he was immune to her spell. To be honest, out of all of the gang, Ezekiel was the last person I imagined having a romance. Particularly a romance with a fairly quirky, nerdy girl, but by the episode’s end I was all in.  That last, sweet, kiss on the forehead, made me fangirl swoon.

I think it could be a challenge to make a character believable that is haughty and fun-loving most of the time, but has bursts of insecurities, kindness and sincerity. John Kim is able to pull it off fantastically.

Of course once again Apep fooled me. I never suspected that he was possessing one of the characters in play this week. We learn that Apep’s sarcophagus is being housed at DOSA’s headquarters which really raises the question as to what DOSA is up to. As we hurtle towards the season’s end, I’m sure the answer will become clear.

So far this season we’ve seen crazy clowns, frost giants, and werewolves, so it’s no surprise that in next week’s episode the gang faces off with vampires. I’ve been both relieved by and wondering why Cassie’s brain tumor hasn’t been a focus this season, but it looks like we’ll also be receiving a brain grape update next week.