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Recap / The Librarians S 4 E 09 And A Town Called Feud

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In a town called Feud, ghosts start appearing in the middle of a Civil War reenactment. Everything appears to be tied to the story of two brothers, who found themselves on opposite sides of the war and killed one another. In the meantime, Cassie stays behind with Jenkins and tries to find out more about the warring Librarian brothers. Meanwhile, the Tethering ceremony is only weeks away, and Eve must choose one of the Librarians to join her, since Flynn is no longer an option.

Tropes

  • Awesomeness by Analysis: When Eve, Jacob, and Ezekiel are stuck in jail, Jacob uses his knowledge of architecture to find Ezekiel a pin, which the latter uses to pick the lock and break them out.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: The caterer of the reenactors is one, believing in aliens and ghosts, along with other stuff.
  • Demonic Possession: As soon as the locket halves are reunited, the Loveday brothers' ghosts appear, along with the ghosts of the other soldiers killed in that battle. The soldiers possess the reenactors, forcing them to aim their weapons at one another, while the brothers possess Jacob and Ezekiel, causing them to do the same. The brothers deliberately miss, resulting in the other ghosts doing the same.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: The Loveday locket, split by the brothers' mother, who gave half of it to each of her sons, hoping that they might put it back together someday. One half was discovered years ago, and the other has just been located. :In fact, they did put it back together, just before being killed, but the museum curator thought the Sibling Rivalry made for a more interesting story, so she split the locket and "found" the second half in order to attract more tourists.
  • A House Divided: The town tries to invoke this as a means of attracting tourists. The entire town has a red line running through it, perfectly splitting the Loveday house, which has been converted into a museum, in two. The town even changed its name to Feud because of the brothers' tale.
  • I Own This Town: Janet brought the eponymous Dying Town Back from the Brink with Civil War tourist attractions Based on a Great Big Lie. She seems genuinely dedicated to preserving the economy of her neighbors and community but is heavy-handed enough to brag "And this is my town" before having the Librarians arrested for snooping into her dirty secrets.
  • Love Redeems: The team eventually learns that, just before his death, General Uriah Loveday turned his back on the war and the Confederate cause due to a combination of lingering affection for his Union brother and marrying a black woman.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: It's revealed at the end that the Confederate brother was in love with a black woman and, as such, unable to marry her due to the laws of the slave-owning South.
  • Manly Gay: Two of the Good Ol' Boy War Reenactors (including the food truck guy) mention feuding over the affections of other boys in high school.
  • Mortality Ensues: Jenkins continues to be annoyed at all the things he didn't have to do as an immortal, such as eat, use the bathroom, and go shopping.
  • Mutual Kill: According to the story, the Loveday brothers met on the field of battle and shot one another.
  • Picked Last: Cassie reveals this about her school days and the reason she desperately tries to keep the Librarians together, figuring that the sole Librarian would never be her.
  • Sibling Rivalry:
    • Exaggerated with the Loveday brothers, one of whom joined the Union army, while the other one fought for the Confederacy. According to the story, they met in battle near their hometown and shot one another. The story is false. The brothers couldn't bring themselves to kill one another and reconciled, moments before a cannon blast killed both of them.
    • Also applies to the Librarian brothers, who started the war that led to the Dark Ages, as Cassie and Jenkins learn more about them.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jacob and Ezekiel argue more than usual, as each of them believes that he deserves to be the sole Librarian. This rivalry is what allows the Loveday brothers' ghosts to possess them.
  • There Can Be Only One: Jacob and Ezekiel spend most of the episode bickering, as they're convinced that Darrington Dare was right. They just disagree on which of them gets to be the one true Librarian. They change their minds at the end. In a twist, Cassie and Jenkins end up learning more details of the warring brother Librarians and flip from doubting the trope to believing it. Additionally, only one Librarian may be tethered to the Library along with Baird. Originally, it was supposed to be Flynn, but, since he left, it has to be one of the other three.
  • Unfinished Business: A number of ghosts can't rest until rights are wronged. In the case of the Loveday brothers, it's the false story about them. There's also the ghost of a little boy, who turns out to be the son of one of the brothers, who lost the hat his father had given him before himself being killed. And the ghost of a veiled woman, who is the Confederate brother's black lover.
  • War Reenactors: Civil War reenactment is central to the plot. In fact, the episode deliberately starts with a battle sequence, meant to get viewers to assume it's a flashback or something, before someone's phone rings.

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