The Librarians and the Trial of the One

Has the end begun? With the Library beginning to crumble due to a tethering ceremony having not taken place, Jenkins (John Larroquette) provides a temporary fix while imploring Eve (Rebecca Romijn) to choose a Librarian for the ceremony. Against Jenkins' advice, the group chooses to use the Library's oldest scroll to help determine their fate. Unfortunately for everyone involved that means all three Librarian and their Guardian are transported to the testing grounds for the "Trial of the One" where Jenkins (controlled by the spirit of the Library) orders them to each face their deepest fear and then fight to the death to determine the one true Librarian. Failure to compete will not only sacrifice Jenkins life but leave the Library untethered, and growing less interested in humanity with every passing second.

As the first-half of the season finale "And the Trial of the One" works fairly well, although there are spots where it's a bit too obvious that the show's budget couldn't quite replicate what sounds like a pretty cool concept. While a tad over-simplistic, each of the fear scenes work (with a great deal of help of Eve's reaction to them), but the chase through the pint-sized maze, Stone (Christian Kane) going all Rambo - but still not hurting a fly, and the inability to create realistic tension when each Librarian threatens the others with death, all leads to the weakest part of the episode.

All that said, the episode is a success thanks in large part to its emotional moments, most of which are provided by Romijn. The final reveal of Nicole Noone (Sonya Walger) as the season's true villain pulling the strings of the Librarians certainly ends the episode on a high note (and makes me wish we could have seen more of her this season). With the Library forgotten, and now untethered to humanity, what is left for our heroes? I doubt we'll see the season (and perhaps series?) end on such a dark note. With a single episode remaining, the former Librarians and their Guardian are still alive, but is there enough magic left in the world to bring them back together once more? And, maybe just as important a question to answer because of what we see of the Library's spirit in this episode, is it even worth being saved?