Welcome back, fellow Librarians fans, and welcome to Season 3! The season got off to a quick start with The Librarians Season 3 Episode 1, "And the Rise of Chaos," featuring a couple new villains. Well, one new villain and a whole group of strangely incompetent government nitwits.

Yes, indeedy-do! Apparently, no one informed the Men in Black anything about what the Library under the Metropolitan Library in New York was actually doing! (Communication, people. It's important stuff!)

So let's dive right in and take a look at the season's new villains. First up, let's look at the mooks known as the Department of Statistical Anomalies.

Their whole purpose in existence appears to be to get in the way of our heroes and to cause problems. Certainly, neither of the two featured representatives of the organization seems to exhibit any sort of genuine desire to, you know, do good and protect people.

Honestly, I was actually waiting for Ezekiel to make a Men In Black crack at some point. Seriously, though, these guys were really rather ridiculous, and seemed far more of an annoyance than an actual threat.

Comparing them to the other new villain of this season, I was actually put in mind of an exchange between two groups of villains on the classic British series, Doctor Who:

Cyberman: Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.

Dalek: This is not war. The is pest control!

Cyberman: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?

Dalek: Four.

Cyberman: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?

Dalek: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect.

Cyberman: What is that?

Dalek: You are better at dying!

(Speaking of Doctor Who, the scene at the start of this episode with all the exhibits coming to life was extremely reminiscent of the first episode of the revived series, when our heroes were being chased around by murderous mannequins. Either that, or Night at the Museum done as a slasher film.)

The other villain of the season was Apep, Egyptian god of chaos and outright evil. I wasn't exactly super-impressed with his showing, but maybe he needed a cup of coffee after sleeping in his sarcophagus for so long? All he really seemed to do on his own was create a limited-range chaos bubble.

Heavens, the Librarians even used his power to escape the DOSA suits. For a god, he was pretty easy to beat, at least at this point.

Add to this the fact that the chaos was fairly simple to overcome with a showtunes-version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic! I really was laughing my head off when the Librarians marched in singing that song as if they were on stage.

I suspect, however, that Apep will grow more powerful as the season progresses. There have indeed been a few ominous warnings courtesy of showrunner Dean Devlin, and then there was that seemingly-insignificant exchange about magic corrupting...

I shall set aside my personal dislike of the Manichaean theory that underpins the whole basis for the Ultimate Battle that Flynn and Jenkins discussed at the end of the episode. You can see a similar dualistic approach in Star Wars with the Light Side versus the Dark Side of the Force, the whole concept of a balance between good and evil.

We were left with the ominous warning of an Ultimate Battle between Good and Evil, which left me a little bit annoyed. Regardless of one's religious beliefs on this topic, as viewers we are pretty sure how this Ultimate Battle will end, anyway, so what's the point? It's far more interesting to focus on the smaller, less inevitable battles.

Flynn: So, the Ultimate Battle. Is it coming?
Jenkins: Coming? No, sir... it's already begun.

• Permalink: Coming? No, sir... it's already begun.

There were a number of entertaining moments throughout the episode, most of them character-related, such as both Ezekiel and Jake (repeatedly) geeking out over the submarine, and Eve training Jake how to properly defend himself, and Flynn sharing helpful trivia while murderous druids were trying to kill them.

And the clipping book lighting on fire? That was great.

Each of the characters brought something to the table, and that was definitely fun. That submarine, though, that had me in "are you kidding me?!" mode.

Be sure to check out our Librarians Quotes page for some of the notable quotes from this episode!

A few final thoughts and musing before I turn the discussion over to you:

• The Battle of Salamis, mentioned during the interrogation scene at the end of the episode is considered one of the most pivotal moments in Western civilization. It was made possible in part due to the Spartan troops at Thermopylae delaying the Persian ground advance.
• If there is a Portal to Ultimate Evil, why (really, WHY?!) would you leave the key laying around? Seriously, destroy the thing. If for whatever reason you can't destroy it, make it completely inaccessible: toss it into the middle of an ocean trench, throw it into a volcano, shoot it into the sun.
• Dean Devlin, the series showrunner, is, unsurprisingly, a huge Doctor Who fan.
• Fans of Stargate will recognize Apep by the variant Apophis. Yeah, Apophis was Super Evil in Stargate, too. (He ended up smashing his space ship into a planet. It makes sense in context.)
• There is definitely some inherent magic in play whenever our heroes identify themselves as Librarians, because everyone just accepts them as reasonable authority figures instead of staring at them as if they were insane.

If you missed this episode, be sure to watch The Librarians online! The Librarians Season 3 Episode 2, "And the Fangs of Death," is scheduled to air on Sunday, November 27, 2016 at 8/7c on TNT.

So, what did you think of "And the Rise of Chaos"? Are you excited by the new villains, or did you find them less-than-intimidating? How about the foray into Egyptian mythology? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!