In today’s wondering – what would have happened if Flynn hadn’t made it?

“Judson’s gone, Charlene’s gone. If anything happens to me they are the future.”

“Most of the magic has gone back into the Earth. He’s dying, I think we both are.”

“I need Flynn to pull it together. I’m too new at all this.”

So thought experiment, Flynn died with Excalibur by the stone of King Arthur. Problem #1 what happens with his body? (Side note: practicalities like that aren’t a strong point of TV) but taking a leaf from said TV’s book, that isn’t what I’m really wondering about.

I’m guessing Eve takes the gang back to the annex but then what? They are all brand new to this, there’s no library, nobody to explain anything … except Jenkins.

“Good luck.”
“What?
“Nothing, go away I’m working.”

That was from Horns of a Dilemma, so the episode straight after the two-part premiere. Jenkins professed to want peace and quiet, he said he wanted them gone, but he always cared from the very start. So without Flynn, what would happen to Jenkins?

I don’t think he came clean about his true identity or his immortality until after the season 1 finale, it’s not anything we ever saw on screen. Eve said at the start of the finale “we never did get to have that chat” in reference to Morgana Le Fey. I’ve sniggered every rewatch about Eve threatening him “make yourself useful or make yourself gone” and I wonder if she ever remembered that and felt belated embarrassment.

But I digress. I think demoralised, defeated, worried, our team return to the annex. They had wondered out loud if one of them would become the librarian if Flynn died and it was obviously a job they wanted (Stone and Cassandra’s faces) but that wasn’t a price they wanted to pay. Cassandra especially would be carrying around a lot of guilt. Stone didn’t trust her, Cassandra stayed because Flynn said “even her” and Eve pointed out that she “sacrificed her own life to save Flynn’s” but if Flynn is dead then that doesn’t apply.

Jenkins would have to be team leader for a while because he’s the only one who knows anything. He’d tell them about the clippings book, he’d say that the world is going to get crazy now with magic back in the world. I think Eve would say that both Stone and Ezekiel should stay rather than picking one of them. She’s a solider, the whole “there can only be one” thing just wouldn’t fly with her. Cassandra would leave, and she’d go believing she deserved it, I shudder to think what would happen to her after that to be honest.

Jenkins is a researcher, Eve is a tactician. She kept them training for weeks, and she’d feel at a huge disadvantage, thrown into this world she knew nothing about. I wonder if she’d find the logbook, see if there were any other librarian candidates still around. Cassandra, Stone and Ezekiel were the last “top ranked” candidates still alive but there were dozens in the Spear of Destiny movie, so I’m guessing ones lower down the list weren’t wiped out. I’m thinking she’d want to recruit more and not just librarians. There’s no ‘library approved’ list of guardians but she’d have a lot of contacts in that field.

I don’t think Jenkins would approve of the expansion but he always knew what was coming – the prophecy about the ultimate battle between good and evil. The status quo has changed, with magic being out for the first time in a couple of thousand years, and so I think he’d go along with it. After all the prophecy says there is going to be a battle, not how they were going to win, and Jenkins is a follower and not a leader.

He’d be their source for knowledge of all things magical. He would tell them everything about the job and then let them get on with it. He would have to be more proactive as Flynn wouldn’t be there to suggest things like “arbiter” and he’d probably feel more responsibility so he wouldn’t consider walking away like he did during the conclave.

I’m not too sure how having more people, and no Cassandra, would affect things. Cassandra is special, from that very first mission in the labyrinth her gift was critical to the outcome. Would the team have succeeded and got the ball of twine without her? Would they even have gone on the mission at all if Eve was busy recruiting and training a couple of teams worth of librarians/guardians?

Because ultimately the events of season one all tied into the finale. The twine, the storybook, the Tesla device, the phone app etc. All combined together to bring the library back successfully. Of course that only happened because of the notes Duloque ensured Flynn found, and with no Flynn and Jenkins belief that finding the library was impossible, would anyone even be looking?

I’m thinking actually events would have gone very differently. Those missions might not have happened at all, and success wasn’t guaranteed, and so Duloque wouldn’t have been able to use them to get to the loom of fate. He did say that he hadn’t wanted it to play out this way, that it was very much a backup plan. Maybe he kept on with his original plans? Morgana Le Fey got an awful lot of magic from her app scam, so what I mean is there were other paths for Duloque to take.

So he’s not dead when Prospero makes his move. With no Flynn, no library, no time travel, those staff pieces would still presumably be under the stage? Although without time travel, as it was a loop, who would have defeated Prospero in the first place? Time travel is headache inducing like that.

Although this entire thought experiment is a bit headache inducing as what conclusion have I drawn besides Cassandra would have been booted, and Eve probably would have recruited a bunch more people.

Flynn meant the library returned, and with that everything that was tied into the library. Without Flynn like I said no time travel. How about with Apep? They defeated him in the library to ensure he was gone for forever, and they used the Eye of Ra to do it. I can’t 100% recall how Flynn learned that the Eye of Ra was “the one artifact that could stem the tide” and it was Stone that worked out the secret message in the Bermuda Triangle. So maybe they could have done that part without him, but without the library?

The more I think about it, the more I understand why Flynn lasted “ten years, longer than anyone” because he had to. Given the statue of Flynn and Eve was put in the library – who saw that? Someone had to take delivery, someone had to follow the instructions, who would have been at the library?

Judson. Judson would have been there. Now, he could have thought to himself “oh he has to survive in order to time travel, otherwise there will be a paradox, so he’s invulnerable” and maybe he did think that to a certain extent. Maybe though he got scared because that is the danger when it comes to knowledge of the future, he could assume Flynn would be alright and ignore him, when actually if he hadn’t known he would have saved him.

Ugh headache inducing. Still I’ve said before that I think Judson had to have sacrificed his immortality, otherwise there’s no reason for him to be dead, and the only reason I can think for him to do that is to save Flynn. Either that or he got killed by a weapon that can kill immortals but who would have done that? And surely if he’d been murdered then Flynn would have known. It’s only ever been said that he died but I’m getting off topic again.

Basically take Flynn out and it’s like dominos, the house of cards just falls down. He’s integral. Even ignoring Prospero and just saying that none of that could happen, because the time travel never happened. There is still Duloque and Apep and the ultimate battle.

Would Duloque help Apep? Or would he stand against him? Sort of maybe a “I’m not with you but we’re both against him, so temporary truce” type deal? Still they fought Apep in the library for a reason, without the library could they defeat him? Without Cassandra they wouldn’t be able to make Apep human, she gave him the power of thought, so someone would have to die for the Eye of Ra to “pursue it’s gift”.

Who would sacrifice themselves? I’m thinking Eve would be like Flynn and say that the only life she could sacrifice is her own. By this point Eve would have a command structure in place, someone who would take over if she fell. So there would be no compelling reason why it shouldn’t be her, so she’d insist it had to be and then she’d die.

The Conclusion
Prospero stuff never happened, Cassandra got booted, and Eve recruited a lot more people. The library (and Charlene) are still lost in the void. Duloque is still alive and Eve sacrificed herself to take down Apep (temporarily perhaps, if only the library would make it permenant).

Although I do wonder what would happen when the events of season 4 started. I know there was the reset at the end, so its like it never happened, but that was only due to Flynn and the time travel – again! So play the events straight and the cornerstones would bring the library back, sort of? I mean they tried to manifest it physically, rather than simply tie the portal entrance thingy to the library dimension to a single point in space.

If the expanded librarians crew got hold of the four cornerstones, could they use them to rebind the library to our dimension? Charlene wouldn’t have to die then if Apep was already gone, or banished, so the issue of tethering wouldn’t come up as the library would still be tethered through her.

So maybe eventually the library would return.

Just in time for Darrington Dare to have a complete fit at the dozen or so librarians running around heh 🙂

#one day I will stop flailing over this show but that day is not today#plus I do seriously love this show#too much sugar methinks from the icecream#why did I do this? I do not know