Critic’s Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
3.5
The Monkey’s Paw mythology began with W.W. Jacobs’ 1902 short story which mashed up the three wishes structure of fairy tales with a “Be careful what you wish for” lesson.
The Librarians: The Next Chapter reinterprets the twisted nature of the wishes from a cruel actualization of a person’s wishes to the paw providing the person with something to salve a subconscious need.
On The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 7, “And the Monkey’s Paw,” they spotlight Lysa’s unresolved trauma with her parents’ death against a background of family forgiveness.
(Courtesy of TNT)
The Librarians: The Next Chapter “And the Monkey’s Paw”
In general, The Librarians spend a lot of time talking people down from various heights on manic or depressive — but always dramatic — emotions. Or being chased by them.
When they find a man named Josh standing on a high precipice, he’s having a really bad day. To top it all off, his wish on a Monkey’s Paw didn’t work either, so why shouldn’t he just jump?
Magic fog to the rescue… or at least the intervention.
The Paw couldn’t have known that Lysa hates fog before she even touched it with her torn glove, but she does and even magic fog doesn’t assuage that apprehension.
Hence, she’s primed for her own sort of bad day.
(Courtesy of TNT)
But then the Paw transports them all to the temporal waystation where both she and Josh get the opportunity to work through all sorts of family issues. Once they figure out why everyone’s there.
Family Matters
Lysa’s parents’ death has always been a crucial part of her backstory. Being orphaned at a young age and being uniquely brilliant left her feeling isolated and unloved through her formative years.
We saw how much she clung to any friends who showed her any kindness on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Episode 8 “And the Hangover From Hell.”
And when addressing the Rage Demon on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2 Episode 1 “And the Burning Heart,” she admitted her greatest fear was losing the team because of how scared and angry she was after she lost her parents.
Despite her growing security with the Librarians, her continued phobia around fog — the conditions in which her parents died in a car crash — illustrates how she hasn’t dealt with her feelings around them and their deaths.
(Courtesy of TNT)
Future Imperfect
In what should probably have been the primary plotline but felt secondary because of Lysa’s issues, Josh discovers the waystation is full of his family and memories.
Except for the troubled woman at the bar who turns out to be his five-year-old daughter, Amy, all grown up with abandonment issues that stem from his death by suicide.
Recognizing all the generations of his family around him who survived terrible experiences in order for him to be born reminds him that he comes from a long line of survivors.
Remembering how close he and his brother were inspires him to rebuild that relationship again.
But it’s seeing what his death does to his little girl’s future that motivates him to try harder to be there for her.
(Courtesy of TNT)
Not the Wish but the Need
Josh wished for a better life. The Monkey’s Paw gave him a reason to live a better life. It’s up to him to do that.
Lysa’s wish was something along the lines of saving her parents from their car crash.
But what she needed was to let them go.
The Monkey’s Paw gave her the chance to tie off the loose ends she’d left with them. In seeing them together again, she recalled how they would squabble, relived the way they were intensely into each other.
Once she was able to be honest with them about who she is, she gains closure by finally being able to tell them about how she felt as a child.
(Courtesy of TNT)
Found Family
Letting go doesn’t come easily. It takes Vikram, who had to do something similar with Anya, and who is technically Lysa’s only living biological family, to convince her of what she needs to do.
The lesson isn’t for Lysa’s parents, although it’s somehow satisfying knowing that they might understand their daughter better before dying. Weird and morbid, but satisfying.
Lysa survives a crucible of emotional turmoil that she was probably too young to understand or process at the time of their deaths.
She is only able to let go because she has a new family among the Librarians. Beyond that, she has purpose. Her genius is helping to make the world a safer place.
(Courtesy of TNT)
Laying the Groundwork
Recently, I’ve been revisiting the original The Librarians series from the beginning, in tandem with the new episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 2.
In doing so, a season-long style of preparing the team for the finale emerges.
So I’m thinking about what we’ve seen in the first half of a season that is speeding towards a final boss battle with Merlin.
We have a genie and a couple of cookie-shaped hunger demons recently incarcerated in the Library. Body-swapping bracelets and the Monkey’s Paw are the newest catalogued items.
(I’m considering the Rage Demon statuette as an also-ran adventure that introduced Merlin, the Red Rock destroyed, and Peter Pan sent to Neverland, and thus out of the picture.)
(Courtesy of TNT)
Could these entities and artifacts come into play in the big showdown?
How will Merlin and Mrs. Astolat’s history come into play?
Will all the work the team members have put into themselves this season pay off when Merlin’s sweet promises try to insinuate themselves into the mortar of the collective?
These are the things that keep me up at night, Fanatics. Let me know I’m not alone with some comments down below!
And don’t forget to vote for your favorite “wish” artifact in the poll!
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