Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Endless

EPISODE 5.6 "Endless"

Original Air Date: 19 May 2014

Mrs. Frederic: "Warehouse 13 is reaching the end of it's tenure"

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

First a technical thingy. For these "fresh" episodes I usually like to use screen-captures from one of the online sites so I can pick some unique pictures. Unfortunately while preparing this review there weren't any around or at least no full ones to be found. One of the sources I had used for the last few (otvseries.com) had a "Bones" episode in the link for this episode, maybe I was just trying too soon. I'm only talking the freebies not the Amazons where you have to pay just to see the dang thing, when it is on a ton of other places for free. So some images I wanted to use I couldn't find readily. The ones I am using are either part of some of the online previews and promos or stills from hot off the press reviews.

This final episode was a bitter/sweet pill to swallow as many series finales are. Part of the bitterness was that damn Pete/Myka shipping they just HAD to canonize that crap. I am not against having characters fall for each other but not main characters that have already established the fact that it is one of those tension friendships that started with one person "lusting" (for lack of a better word) after the other and the other not reciprocating at all. From day one it was obvious that Pete was attracted to Myka but she WAS NOT attracted to him. That is how things should have stayed. I know people can change over time but it is best not to change characters. The only people who enjoyed this matching up were the fangirls who have been requesting it since day one, most of the other fans have been saying NO FRACKING WAY! When she kissed him to show she "loved" him ooooohhh I got real pissed at the writers and producers for that. OK end of this portion of my shipping rant.

Other fans may not like the series finale because of the format of it's storytelling. One poster on the IMDb.com boards called it a "clip episode", meaning it was a lazy writers episode made up from clips of previous episodes. Except the "clips" were new footage as someone else pointed out. I liked the episode and the format even though I normally don't like that lazy style. It does make for a good format to use for a series wrap-up though.

We start things off by going Back to the Future to 1889 London during the reign of Warehouse 12. A street tart is screaming and being chased by a shadowy figure one Jack The Ripper. He corners her but she is not completely what she appears to be and not as helpless.  She reveals herself to be Warehouse Agent H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray) by turning Harriet Tubman's Thimble, she shoots Jack with a Tesla gun and takes his lantern which is another artifact. A proper Englishman comes from around a corner and congratulates H.G. on her work for the Warehouse. I didn't catch all the detail but he mentions the previous 11 Warehouses were not in England and they make a note that the Warehouse will "never" leave England. The scene fades as a video image being watched by the Warehouse 13 team seated around a large round stone table that looks like something that should come from the Stargate.

Mrs. Frederic explains that the table is the inspiration for King Arthur's Round Table and is a sort of time capsule that records the defining moment of a warehouse agent. As part of the ritual of the warehouse moving the current warehouse agents "record" their defining moment into the table's database. It is the table that decides what part of a warehouse agent's past is their "defining moment". That moment in their service to the warehouse that best describes them as an individual.

Mrs Frederic suggests that each of the members contribute. First up is Claudia whose moment is a very silly huge tap-dancing musical number that is brought on by Pete pushing a button on an artifact (of course) which is the Marquee of the original performance of 42nd Street which causes an army of dancing girls to force the victim to tap-dance until they die. The solution to stopping the Broadway disaster is the combination of alcohol from Busby Berkely's Flask poured onto the tin pan from Tin Pan Alley. The alcohol is attracted to anything showbiz/theater related and the pan when flung seeks out anything showbiz/theater related. Claudia has to do a showstopping tap-dance to distract the showgirl army so the alcohol soaked tin pan can do it's damage to the Marquee lights.

Pete not wanting the warehouse to move or their team to be broken up and retired doesn't want to have anything to do with the time capsule table. When it comes time for Myka's turn it reveals that she has true feelings for Pete (shipping UGH) after her suburban Ninja cat buglers adventure with Pete. I think this is where the character Maddie (Jennifer Gibson) comes in, not sure as I didn't catch much of the character names from this bit. The artifact of the adventure was a five-tailed fox statue that turns whoever touches the statue into a Ninja.

For Artie a time-travel adventure is featured from a memory that Artie chooses and Mrs Frederic warns that it could backfire, but he wants to relive/record it anyway. So sometime in the 80s or 90s Artie takes a newbie Agent Scott (Samm Levine) for a first assignment on a case Artie has been trying to solve for sometime. The catch is he only has a half-hour to try to find an artifact that is keeping a night club from New Years Eve 1941 in a time loop. Once a year the night club appears at 11:30 PM and Artie has a half hour to figure out what the artifact is to snag it. He is close to solving the case but isn't quite there yet he figures a set of new eyes would help and it does. The artifact is Thomas Wedgewood's Champagne Glass which has the power to keep a moment frozen in time. A newly wedded war bride has used it to keep her husband fresh and away from the war America has just entered. She hasn't yet told him that she is "in a family way".

Artie's moment ends with Scott calling Artie "Dad". This revelation gets Claudia a bit mad at Artie for keeping his son a secret and she storms off. At some point in the episode it is also revealed that at this time Claudia does not want to be the Warehouse caretaker even though she has often said how excited she is and can't wait to become the caretaker.

Meanwhile Steve doesn't quite feel like taking his turn because he has never really felt like he fits in and has some secret one-on-one time with Mrs. Frederic as she shows him some of her past, which is kept secret from the audience as we are shown side scenes of Pete wanting to find a way to keep the warehouse from moving and Artie getting mad at the warehouse for just using everybody who ends up getting caught up in it.

When it does come time for Steve's moment to share we are treated to a tribute to the movie Fantastic Voyage Warehouse 13 style. Apparently Artie has gotten some kind of artifact trapped inside of his heart that is going to kill him, by using some sort of miniaturization device of H.G.'s Claudia and Steve are shrunk down and ala the movie must navigate via submarine through Artie's body. It is while Steve is in the center of Artie's heart that he feels the awesomeness of it and has found something he is a part of or some such nonsense.

After the stupid canonizing of Myka giving in to the Pete Myka shipping and confronting Pete about HER feelings for HIM Pete is ready to contribute to the time capsule. His moment is the longest of all of them and doesn't have any one specific event. For him it is all just everything about the entire warehouse job and the family unit of the warehouse staff that becomes his moment. I think part of this is the often forgotten alcoholic past of his. I think this "everything is so wonderful" moment comes from that and is the warehouse's way of telling Pete he is needed. I think this happy moment confuses people a little in thinking that maybe Pete is going to be caretaker since Claudia doesn't want the job. That is just fan confusion.

There was a wonderful moment with Mrs. Frederic and Leena where Leena tells Mrs. Frederic that she knows she is destined to die IN the warehouse. Mrs Frederic says that she will do what she can to stop it but Leena tells her that is is something that must be and she can't stop it.

Series Regulars:
Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock)
Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly)
Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubenik)
Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti)
Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore)
Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder)

Helena "H.G." Wells (Jaime Murray)
Leena (Genelle Williams)

Guest Cast:
Scott (Samm Levine)
Maddie (Jennifer Gibson)
Jack (Jack Kenny) Series Producer (uncredited cameo as actor)

I mentioned other places that I love/hate this episode. For the most part I love it and about 90% of what is in it, the 5% or so of the Pete and Myka relationship crap I couldn't stand and was cursing too much during their "romantic" kiss. I am not alone in the thought that they forced the issue here. One person said that it was because of the shortened season that it seemed forced and that had they had a full season or more to tell things properly it wouldn't have been so forced and could live out naturally. Well that is a nice theory but for this series and these characters I think it was the WRONG WAY to go. A while back with another series I love Doctor Who they messed with some relationships and revealed that a character I loved was the daughter of two of the other more regular characters. That was another decision I thought was WRONG but I have since accepted that. I suppose sometime later I will accept this also, but I still won't LIKE it.

We the audience are treated to a glimpse of the future to "several decades later". To see Claudia is now the Warehouse caretaker with a different crew and that Warehouse 13 is still in the same place and hasn't moved yet. Series Producer Jack Kenny makes an acting cameo here. I wasn't quite sure of the significance until I saw some discussions online yesterday (Tuesday 20 May), I was thinking maybe the other two characters were also producers or writers even though I think I've seen the actress before.

I give this episode 4 Warehouse artifacts ****