Meet Darrington Dare, Librarian
The entire population of a small town suddenly turns old. The Librarians head there and happen upon Darrington Dare, whom Flynn recognizes as a Librarian from the 1880's, his hero. Apparently, Darrington's Arch-Enemy Ambrose Gethik has traveled forward in time in order to enact a deadly plan that can't be accomplished at any other time period.Tropes
- Alliterative Name: Darrington Dare.
- Anti-Magic: Darrington's Power Tattoo allows him to block any spell thrown at him, which frustrates Ambrose to no end. In fact, the whole reason he comes to the present is to find a way to overcome the tattoo and kill Darrington.
- Arch-Enemy: Darrington and Ambrose have been enemies for years, with neither able to decisively defeat the other. Flynn eventually realizes that Darrington has become obsessed with Ambrose to the exclusion of everything else.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Darrington continues to wear his 19th century outfit (complete with a waistcoat and a cravat). On the other hand, Ambrose quickly adopts modern styles of clothing and shows up to the final battle wearing a tracksuit with a hoodie.
- Clock Punk: Ambrose's time portal certainly has that aesthetic.
- Clone Degeneration: Ambrose's clones quickly degrade into humped, hobbling sacks of flesh that, nevertheless, possess extraordinary strength and fierce loyalty to their master. They typically wear burlap sacks on their heads with holes for eyes cut out. The clones of Jacob, Cassie, Ezekiel, and Eve are able to hide their identity for a while by pretending to be the originals, whom Ambrose has forcibly aged. When Ambrose dies, all his clones turn to dust and chunks of flesh.
- Dead Sidekick: Darrington explains that, just before jumping forward in time, Ambrose used the Crown to drain the lifeforce of his manservant.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When visiting the family that hasn't become old, Flynn and Darrington are able to quickly deduce the reason, although they look at different things. Darrington looks at recently-used candles, while Flynn notices a past-due electric bill. Both jump up and, in unison, say that it's because of the electricity.
- Evil Sorcerer: Ambrose Gethik, although he adapts to modern technology quite well, even making a joke that only a modern person would understand (unplugging his magical crown from a cable and saying he's gone wireless).
- Expy: In-Universe, Darrington claims that Sherlock Holmes was based on himself. This implies that Gethik is his Moriarty.
- Fling a Light into the Future: At the end of the episode, Flynn finds a letter addressed to him. It's from Darrington, who thanks him for changing his solitary ways and reiterates his wish for Flynn to once again become the sole Librarian.
- Friendless Background: Just like Flynn before the show, Darrington carely only about his work in the Library, forsaking his friends and anyone close to him. This is the main reason Flynn chose Darrington to be his hero. Flynn helps Darrington rectify that, which allows Dare to survive an assassination attempt he was destined to die in.
- Hypocrite: During the fight with Ambrose, Darrington ignores Flynn's pleas to help him save the others, claiming they're expendable. But when Ambrose has him at his mercy, he's quick to call to Flynn for help. Apparently, he is not expendable.
- Laser Blade: Ambrose uses his magic to turn an ordinary sword into this.
- Legacy Character: Darrington is a Librarian from the late 19th century, presumably taking over from Teddy Chislington after the latter's disappearance in 1886.
- Life Drain: The Bleeding Crown used by Ambrose is an artifact previously owned by a vampire queen. It can instantly drain a person's life force, empowering the wearer. Ambrose manages to boost the artifact with some Magitek in order to drain the Librarians of their energy and use the resulting magic to overcome Darrington's Anti-Magic tattoo. Unfortunately for Ambrose, he doesn't anticipate that the Crown can be overloaded by too much life force, which Flynn takes advantage of by having it drain Jenkins's limitless life force.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Ambrose ages an entire town so he can duplicate the Librarians, and have their degenerated clones pretend to also be the victim of magical aging.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had Ambrose not traveled to the present, along with Darrington, Darrington would have been killed by the Serpent Brotherhood the very next day. Now, Ambrose is the one who's dead, and Darrington manages to survive the attempt on his life and live to a ripe old age.
- No Ontological Inertia: At the end of the episode, the town citizens all return to their normal age and all the clones turn to dust.
- Out of Focus: Despite the show being primarily about them, Jacob, Cassie, and Ezekiel barely do anything of consequence in this episode, with the episode mainly focused on Flynn and Darrington.
- The Power of Friendship: Flynn eventually realizes that this is the one thing he has that Darrington does not. He urges Darrington to reconcile with his own friends. This advice ends up saving Darrington from his fate, as he spends his 40th birthday with his friends instead of alone, and, together, they're able to fight off the Serpent Brotherhood assassins.
- Power Tattoo: Darrington has a magical tattoo on his right forearm, which allows him to block any spell thrown at him.
- Rapid Aging: The plot is kicked off when an entire small town becomes senior citizens, regardless of their actual age. The Librarians find a family that hasn't been aged and realizes that Ambrose must have used the electrical grid for that purpose (that family's power had been shut off by the company).
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Flynn inadvertently gives Darrington advice that allows the latter to survive an attack by the Serpent Brotherhood on his 40th birthday and live to the ripe old age of 102.
- Sherlock Scan: Darrington is able to instantly deduce that Eve is a Guardian with a single look, and also that she and Flynn are dating. He then casually calls Jacob "Mr. Stone" before explaining that it's embroidered on his shirt collar. According to Darrington, Arthur Conan Doyle based the character of Sherlock Holmes on him, making the trope "Darrington Scan".
- Sibling Rivalry: According to Darrington, a long time ago, the Library chose a pair of twins as Librarians, the first time more than one Librarian had been chosen at a time. They grew jealous of one another, resulting in a civil war of sorts, which had far-reaching effects (AKA the Dark Ages). The story of the brothers has been magically excised from the chronicles of the Librarians, unless one knows the correct incantation, which is why Flynn has never heard of it. Darrington is angry at Jenkins (whom he calls by his real name Galahad) for not warning Flynn about the potential consequences of having more than one Librarian. He begs Flynn to fire the others before another civil war starts.
- Squee: Flynn's reaction to pretty much everything Darrington says or does.
- Time Travel: Ambrose Gethik used a Magitek flashlight-like device to open a portal into modern times from the late 19th century. Darrington jumped in after him, but reappeared months after Ambrose's arrival into the present. At the end of the episode, Jenkins recalibrates the same device to open a one-way portal back to the same day Darrington left.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Ambrose's plan is to capture the four modern Librarians, plus Eve, and use the energy of the Library to power the Crown and a glowing sword in order to finally kill Darrington. Unable to free the others, Flynn, instead puts Jenkins into one of the pods, and his infinite lifeforce overloads the artifacts, destroying them and Ambrose.
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Values Dissonance: Averted. Despite being from the late 19th century, Darrington takes Eve being a Guardian in stride. Then again, if he's aware of Jenkins's true identity, he also probably knows about Charlene, so it wouldn't surprise him to see an Action Girl. In fact, there has never been evidence of a male Guardian in the series.
