THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Recap: (S01E06) And the House of Cards

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4 days ago

The steepest learning curve for the intrepid heroes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter has been learning to gel as a team. Lysa's (Olivia Morris) science-bound brain butts up against Connor's (Bluey Robinson) supernatural lore. Charlie's (Jessica Green) mission to protect Vikram (Callum McGowan) conflicts with his fast-and-loose approach to safety. In Season 1 Episode 6, 'And the House of Cards,' Vikram finds himself left out when the rest of the team is abducted. Suddenly, he realizes that he cares what happens to them. It's quite the emotional breakthrough.
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Meanwhile, the others must puzzle out their strange and cryptic new circumstances: a house they can't escape, full of characters who don't make sense, and a dangerous artifact gone missing. It's a supernatural murder mystery party to which no one accepted an invitation. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the House of Cards'
An explosion in the woods. The team stumbles out, coughing and spluttering. Lysa insists she could've set up a controlled detonation that wouldn't have required blowing up the entire rock formation. Vikram explains that her way would've taken too long. Lysa argues he destroyed all the information the formation held about the geology of the region. Charlie adds that he nearly blew his face off in the process.
Connor's holding the artifact they retrieved. Vikram identifies it as the Dagger of Seraphim, fashioned from the ashes of a fallen star by the Devil, which 'can kill what does not live.' He tells Connor to let him carry it. Connor refuses, reminding Vikram that they're a team even though Vikram doesn't trust them. He relinquishes it, but Vikram repents and gives it back just before they return to the Annex through the magic door. Vikram is the last to walk through, noting the magic flickers slightly before he does.
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Connor, Charlie, and Lysa emerge from the magic door into the foyer of a large house. The magic door disappears, leaving them confused and Vikram-less. Meanwhile, Vikram arrives in the Annex alone. Initially, he thinks they're pranking him, but realizes soon that something is wrong.
In the mysterious house, Lysa tries to figure things out logically, while Connor concludes this is a test. Charlie's got a bad feeling about this. They walk into a cocktail party full of strangely dressed guests. Everyone turns to look at them when they enter, then resumes their mingling. There's a violent rainstorm outside. The team spreads out to look for clues. A Cast of Characters
A sultry woman in a flashy dress talks with Connor, commenting that the storm knocked out the phone lines and that the roads are blocked off for miles. A smarmy man in a striped suit introduces himself to an older lady as the actor, Chauncy Cooper (Dominik Čičak), and offers an autograph. Phillip (Aleksa Ilić) and Vera (Annamaria Serda), newlyweds, walk by cooing affection at each other. Lysa and Charlie agree that the party is strange. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic
Connor approaches the woman in the dress and introduces himself. She is Yvette Laslo (Milena Radulović), a singer. A bell rings. The butler announces that Madam Visconti (Sam Bell) will begin her tarot reading shortly. Lysa pulls Connor away from Yvette. Charlie comments that the Dagger of Seraphim needs to be stored safely in the Library as soon as possible. She rifles through Connor's bag, finding cheesepuffs and a mystery novel, The Bollingsworth Affair , with the dagger.
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Connor sees a magician performing tricks and walks over. The magician calls himself The Mysterious Mortadella (Stefan Bundalo), impressing Connor with a few tricks.
A girl wearing a tiara, standing next to a nun in a habit, throws a tantrum. Chauncy Cooper tells them the girl is Princess Lucille (Una Škerović). He hints that her parents met with a tragic end. The nun is Sister Anabelle (Ana Mandić), Lucille's new nanny. The bell rings again, and the butler invites the guests into the next room. Magic Door Issues
At the Annex, Vikram tries to activate the magic door. It doesn't work. His concern about the Dagger of Seraphim and the team grows.
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In the house, the team watches as the guests mill about the table. The butler insists Chauncy move seats, away from the one next to Vera. Lucille screams at a loud clap of thunder, and Connor steps over to comfort her by making her laugh. She hugs him.
The bell rings, everyone finds a seat, and Madam Visconti gathers her cards. Connor admires the tarot cards, commenting that they look like the Sforza Tarot Deck. Madam Visconti draws and lays down The Fool, The Magician, and The High Priestess. The lights go out for a second. When they come back on, Chauncy is dead at the table, bleeding from a stab wound in his chest. Charlie examines it and realizes it looks like it was caused by the Dagger of Seraphim. Connor discovers the dagger is no longer in his bag. The Game Is Afoot
Charlie announces that the murder weapon must be found and that they plan to question everyone. When asked why they should listen to her, Connor introduces her as Chief Inspector Poppy Bollingsworth of Scotland Yard, inspired by his novel. The guests buy the story.
In the Annex, Vikram finds the Magic Door Instruction Manual. It's inscrutable. He rants at the door a bit more.
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Each member of the team questions some of the guests. Connor gets Mortadella, Vera, and Phillip. Lysa interrogates Yvette. After learning the priest has taken a vow of silence, Charlie sits down with Sister Anabelle, discovering that the nun doesn't know her biblical verses very well. Just as Anabelle is about to tell her about Lucille's parents, the clock chimes nine, and Anabelle jumps up to leave, insisting that she must see to Lucille. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic Making Progress
At the Annex, the pendulum becomes agitated. Vikram takes it off its hook, and it activates the magic door for him, then drags him through.
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In the house, the team meets to debrief. Connor still thinks it's a test, but Lysa and Charlie suspect the door was hacked by a powerful magician so they could steal the Dagger. They split up to look for The Mysterious Mortadella.
The pendulum brings Vikram through a stone archway. It leads him up a flight of garden steps to a large mansion.
In the house's foyer, the team reunites. None of them could find the magician. A scream rings out from the study. All the guests are gathered, shocked to find the magician dead on the ground, stabbed. Charlie directs everyone to return to their rooms and lock the doors. Once they're gone, Charlie, Lysa, and Connor inspect the room. Lysa notices dirt on the ground from a potted plant that was knocked over when Mortadella fell. It's been disrupted in a way that indicates a secret door. Secrets
Opening the door, they follow a passageway in the walls, finding a jewel from the dagger's hilt. The passageway leads to another hidden door in the tarot room. Lysa recalls that Sister Anabelle stood right by this door with Lucille after Chauncy's murder. They decide to question her again.
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The pendulum drags Vikram into the house, but it is a dusty and abandoned version. It leads him through the rooms until they end up in the tarot room where Madam Visconti sits at the table, waiting. Vikram demands to know who she is and where his team is. Silently, she taps a torn tarot card at the top of the deck, The Wheel of Fortune. He refuses to play cards with her, promising to tear the house apart to find his colleagues. She draws The Hermit, stating she sees a wise man of books, not of this world, out of time. The next cards are The World and The Temperance.
Vikram concludes she must speak through the cards. She nods. He sits down and asks for a reading. Revelation
In the house, the team can't find Sister Anabelle. When they return to the foyer, the chandelier falls, narrowly missing them. Suddenly, Lucille is there, screaming in fear. She says she was looking for Sister Anabelle. Connor asks if she saw the dagger. Lucille shakes her head and runs off.
Charlie strongly suggests they leave, but Connor insists they stay to protect the guests and prove that Vikrim needs his team. When they try to open the house's doors and break the windows, they can't. Lightning reveals a cloaked, faceless figure waiting outside. Connor asks who that is. Madam Visconti appears behind them, telling them that the figure outside is Death and they cannot leave.
She leads them to the tarot room. When she tells them she is a servant to the cards, Lysa sits down and asks for a reading.
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In both planes of existence, Madam Visconti reveals the same cards to Vikram and Lysa. First, the Eight of Swords. 'No cage can contain it. No shackles can constrain it. Not on this earth, anyway,' she says. Then, The Justice. 'Centuries ago, they constructed this place to confine it, disguised in plain sight.' Finally, The Devil. A Thing Is a Thing
Vikram recalls that centuries ago, the Sforza family imprisoned the Devil. Simultaneously, Connor comes to the same conclusion, realizing the house is the Sforza manor, interpreting the revealed cards to mean that the Sforzas captured an aspect of the Devil in the 15th Century and trapped him in the house, guarded by three keepers. Visconti draws the same three cards as earlier that night — The Fool, The Magician, and The High Priestess. Those are the keepers. The Fool and The Magician disappear from their cards. Lysa concludes the Devil used the dagger to kill two of his three keepers already, Chauncy and Mortadella.
Vikram realizes that if the last keeper, the High Priestess, dies, the Devil can escape. He asks how he gets into the prison. Visconti warns that he should worry more about getting out. She lays out the Death card. She warns him that if he enters the prison, Death will come for him. He shrugs. 'It's never stopped me before.' Holding the pendulum out, he tells it to take him to his friends. The pendulum drops to the table, pointing to the deck.
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In the house, Connor realizes they're inside the Sforza deck. Every guest is one of the Major Arcana. Because the High Priestess is often depicted wearing a diadem, they believe Princess Lucille is the last keeper, and Sister Anabelle must be the Devil. They go looking but can't find them until Lucille screams again. They run out to the foyer and find her struggling with Sister Anabelle. Charlie tells the nun to get away from Lucille. Anabelle turns to explain, then gasps and falls, the dagger buried in her back. Lucille transforms into the Devil, and her bracelets fall off. Devilishly Adorable
She walks towards the trio. Exposition time: Her fear of the storm was fake, but effectively drew Connor to her for a hug when she stole the dagger. Using the dagger, she killed her keepers, the tarot cards, entities who weren't actually alive. A long time ago, the Devil set alarms when she hid the dagger. Blowing up the cave set them all off. She rerouted the magic door to bring them to her. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic
All she needs now is for the team to provide an exit. Just as Charlie vows they'll never help her escape, Vikram arrives via magic door. Once he gets the lay of the land, he offers the door to the Devil, but makes meaningful eye contact with Connor, who surreptitiously scoots closer to the dagger. The Devil becomes suspicious. Connor throws the dagger to Vikram, who stabs himself with it. When Vikram hits the ground, the front doors open, and Death enters.
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Connor pulls Charlie away from Vikram's body, reminding her that tarot cards have multiple interpretations. Death grabs the dagger. The Devil screams. She changes back to Princess Lucille, complete with leather bracelets. The team disappears. In the parlour, the cocktail party begins from the beginning. Sister Anabelle tells Lucille the tarot reading is about to begin. Lucille is silently furious. Reset
Back in the non-tarot world, the team lies unconscious on the floor of the tarot room, cards falling around them. Charlie sits up and wakes Vikram. They are all relieved when he opens his eyes. Madam Visconti sits nearby. Lysa reasons that the key to the manor is sacrifice. When a real person dies, Death can enter and reset the Devil's prison. Lysa gathers the cards and returns them to Visconti. She hands the deck to Vikram to store in the Library, then disappears.
Back in the Annex, Vikram lets Connor store the deck and dagger. He clears the air with the team as well. Lysa shows him that Madam Visconti was a 15th-century Librarian who agreed to stay within the deck forever as part of the Sforza enchantment to watch over the Devil.
New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 9 pm ET.
New TV Shows This Week (June 22 – 28) Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.