[AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan] S04E04 "The Tale of the Quiet Librarian"

RECAP

Kiki shushes the Midnight Society, then weaves a tale that explores the dark consequences of complete silence.

Overachiever Laurie and athletic Jace get paired up for an assignment. The two head to the library, even though two kids recently disappeared while there. Laurie takes the lead and relegates Jace to book gopher. He heads off to the basement to fetch some books and accidentally leaves Laurie’s notebook behind. Furious, Laurie demands that Jace go back to the library with her to find the notebook. The library doors are locked when they arrive, but the pair sneak in through a window that’s mysteriously been left open. The library looks different than it did before -- all the modern technology is missing and Laurie finds an old kerosene lamp. She and Jace head to the basement and find a Quiet Reading Room they’ve never seen before. Inside is a long, cobweb-covered table where several children are seated. Laurie recognizes two of them as the missing kids and screams. The Quiet Librarian accosts Laurie and Jace, trying to trap their voices in a box. She succeeds but Jace uses a sound effects box to vanquish her, freeing the trapped souls from her box and the two missing kids from the Quiet Reading Room.

Kiki tries to get the rest of the gang to swing by the library after the meeting so she can return a book, then laughs with glee when they all decline.

REVIEW

T: One – I love Tucker arriving at the Midnight Society in Frank’s headlock. Two – I love even more Kiki being a badass. Sometimes the storyteller’s little prologue speech falls flat (see Tucker in “Guardian’s Curse”), but damn, this one is strong. She’s selling the creep and everything she says fits the theme perfectly.

E: I feel like Kiki generally has some of the strongest prologue speeches. Part of it is Jodie Resther’s reliably killer delivery, but as Gary emphasized in his speech for the season premier, Kiki tells stories about real people who get sucked into unreal situations. Her stories naturally lend themselves to a prologue that connects the experiences of the Midnight Society to the story that’s about to be told.

T: And we open with the youngest snuff victim ever. Of course he gets saved later on, but I was surprised we started with having such a little kid put in mortal danger.

E: I really love the way they flip this with the second abduction though. You think the little kid is going to get silenced and snatched again but nope! It’s her teenage babysitter.

T: There’s no opening voiceover monologue? Did I miss it? I went back to look for it to use it for my fan art, but I couldn’t find one.

E: No, I think you’re right. The story jumps straight from Timmy being snuffed to Laurie and Jace’s teacher announcing the team assignment. I realize the brief voiceover monologues are meant to remind us there’s a person telling the story, but they often feel unnecessary.

T: I don’t like talking shit about kid actors, but – wow – the friend in that classroom scene is painful. For more on Brian, the friend who can’t act, check out the Trivia, Useless Trivia section below!

E: I guess it’s a reminder that the casting on any anthology series can be really hit or miss. It’s where a lot of newbie actors get their start. Some of them will go on to become Ryan Gosling and Neve Campbell. And some of them will be Brian. Oh, Brian.

T: Why is this happening now? People haven’t been going missing from the library for decades, so what gives? Like in the last eighty years, two kids went missing, now the library’s on a rampage taking a bunch for reasons?

E: I had this same thought. But given that all but the recent victims look like they’ve been there since the turn of the 20th century, maybe the Quiet Librarian is kind of like the monster from IT? Like, she comes back every eighty years or so to “feed”? That said, if two kids are missing and were last seen at the public library, why the flip isn’t it a crime scene?

T: It was the ’90s! Nobody cared about safety. Compared to today, it was basically the Wild West.

E: LOL. Though you’re not completely wrong, “stranger danger” panic hit the U.S. pretty hard in the ’80s and continued throughout the ’90s (maybe things were different in Canada). Widespread media coverage of a handful of child abductions starting in the 1970s made people think kids were being snatched all over the place, leading to a significant decrease in the ability of kids to roam around, make new friends, and just be kids. That said, thanks to “helicopter parenting,” this trend has only continued to get worse even though crime rates have been steadily dropping for decades. So it’s not quite fair to say that no one cared about crime in the ’90s, but it is fair to say that the freedom of kids continues to shrink. When I think about the amount of unsupervised time I spent as a kid compared to the amount of unsupervised time which is now socially acceptable for my five-year-old, I cringe so hard. And that’s the real horror story!

T: A library is such a great setting for a horror story. They’re public places filled with knowledge that are closed off at night. That just screams scary setting. I’m surprised they’re not used more often. Ghostbusters did it. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon has a great library scene with Zeda Rubinstein. Um, I’m sure there’s a few more, but nothing’s jumping out to me. I would imagine the logistics of filming in libraries isn’t easy, but struggling, small town libraries could also use the income. So, yeah, indie horror creators, set your movies in libraries and help out your town.

E: There are also so many places for a monster/killer to hide in a library! Plus the silent scream is deeply terrifying in any context.

T: Jace has the WORST GLASSES EVAH! I know it’s sort of the point, that he’s self-conscious of them, and kids are still that way today even though there’s so many more stylish options, but they’re atrocious. And maybe it’s just me. I got glasses when I was a pre-tween and never looked back. I think I look better with them on, but I can sympathize with people who feel differently.

E: Oh my god, what? Who even are you? I thought his glasses were adorable. Maybe they weren’t adorable in the ’90s, but he totally had that nerd-chic thing going on. It’s cool, Jace. In ten years, all the babes will love your glasses, not just Laurie.

T: Nope. They are atrocious. They’re huge, they’re over half the size of his head. To warrant glasses that large, your peripheral vision has to be on par with owls.

E: It’s about fashion, not utility, Troyson.

T: Since I’ve established all of Kiki’s stories are based on what’s going on with her, who is the Kiki in this story? Like, she’s not the A-student nerd girl, so she’s Jace? I don’t read her as trans at all, but is he acting as her stand-in here? Is she into a nerd girl who doesn’t see how awesome she is?

E: Given that we know Kiki is an athlete but not a jock-hole, I think she’s definitely the Jace. So yeah. She totally got paired up with an overachiever for an assignment and developed a little crush on her partner.

T: Laurie: “I’m going to flunk. I’ve never flunked anything in my life.” Jace: “You didn’t do too hot in the team work department, remember.” LOLOLOL

E: Do kids still say flunk? It’s such a great word. In any case, Jace really does try to call her on her bullshit. And I get why she’s salty after catching Brian and Jace calling her a brainiac and an ice queen, but she doesn’t give Jace much of a chance. He might not be an overachiever, but he’s obviously not a dunce. You don’t have to be friends with someone to work on an assignment with them. That said, I remember hating group assignments with a fiery passion. As a Laurie-esque overachiever, I was well aware that I would end up doing most of the work if I wanted a decent grade. For better or for worse, most of my fellow students seemed fine with that.

T: So at night, the library is transported back in time to 1910?

E: Yes, and I love this little twist. It significantly ups the creep factor and gives the director an excuse to have the characters walking around with a kerosene lamp. But what about the security guard? Has he never noticed? Or does it only transport young visitors who are lured in at night?

T: We don’t know, because none of it’s ever explained or makes sense if you stop and think about it.

E: Solid point.

T: So Laurie’s spent so much time in the library that she just drops her bag where she knows the copier should be, but she’s never noticed the giant painting of Mercy MacGregor before?

E: LOL. But Troyson, the painting has never been useful to Laurie before. The girl needs a photocopier for her overachieving. She has no need for an intimidating portrait of an old white lady.

T: I took so many notes in the first half of this, but once it turned into an ’80s slasher movie, I was just engrossed. Imagine how great this episode could have been if they’d spent five minutes of set-up instead of ten, and then the rest in the nightmarish library scenario?

E: As cool as that would’ve been, I really love the dynamic between Jace and Laurie. But somebody needs to write a library slasher one of these days. Not just a slasher with one library scene, an entire slasher movie set in a library.

QUEER OR NOT?

T: Marginalized people so often feel silenced. We have a queer black girl telling a story about a white government official literally stealing voices/silencing people. I don’t know to what extent D.J. MacHale and co. were operating on these subtextual levels, but I’m not surprised that their black storyteller told this tale. If any of the white dudes told it, and it featured two white bros, the entire message would have been lost.

E: I’m so glad I’m not alone in thinking this. And we have no way of knowing how intentional it was, BUT this episode was written by a woman of color, Susan Kim, who went on to write episodes of The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo (an important example of Asian-American rep in the very white landscape of ’90s kids’ TV), as well as the stage adaptation of The Joy Luck Club. In addition to this episode, she also wrote “Curious Camera,” “Carved Stone,” and “Jagged Sign.” Maybe we should reach out to Susan for an interview?

T: Good call! I loved The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo! Interestingly enough, “Curious Camera” and “Carved Stone” feature lonely protagonists just trying to be noticed.

E: Ooooooh, yes! There are definitely patterns in her stories.

T: Also, when Kiki has them listen to silence, Gary looks like a badass with his hands on his hips in his tucked-in pink shirt. Just had to geek over Gare Bear for a second.

E: Geeking out over Gary is always appropriate.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

T: If Jace’s buddy Brian looked familiar, it’s because Justin Borntraeger was Kit, the spunge-obsessed friend in “Tale of the Hatching.” Apparently a side effect of consuming spunge is wooden acting.

E: But it tastes so good!

T: Okay, buckle up for this one. The uncredited cop who gives Laurie back her notebook and tells them they can go? That’s Leni Parker. She’s a fantastic Canadian actress still working today and best known for co-starring as Da’An in Earth: The Final Conflict from 1997 to 2001. I loved that show when it was on so much. High tech aliens came to Earth to help us out, but are they friend or foe? And the aliens were all played by bald women who used masculine pronouns. Leni Parker was the main alien in it, and she was just fantastic.

E: I’ve literally never heard of this show but it sounds fun and super queer!

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: First thing I’d do is figure out the backstory. We have a librarian’s ghost, a box that steals sound, a public building that transports back to 1910 at night… I’m not saying they can’t all coexist, but as presented they’re pretty much three separate ideas. And they don’t kick into gear until the final third of the episode.

E: A more cohesive backstory could be good. I’m particularly curious about where the box came from. A turn of the century iteration of the Magic Mansion, perhaps? Also, I hate to say this but you’d probably need a specific reason why these kids need to do this assignment at an actual library instead of just looking things up on the interwebs. Or give them another reason to be there. Make them book nerds!

JUST GIVE IT A NUMERICAL RATING ALREADY

T: The acting’s not as strong as most episodes. And there’s some background stuff that doesn’t quite make sense. The librarian is the ghost, but the whole library transports back in time? The first half is kind of slow – they try to put a scare in with Jase in the basement, but that’s it – and then the second half is a horror movie. The tonal shift is a little jarring. There’s a lot to like – the titular quiet librarian is a great villain – but there’s some unfortunate flaws. I’m going to go with 7.7 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.

E: I think I enjoyed this one a little more than you, despite its messiness. The silent screams are seriously creepy and I found the two leads quite likable by the end. I’m going to round up to 8 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.