NCIS: New Orleans: I Am So Psyched!

(Image from claimfame.com)

The latest show in the NCIS Franchise (Technically the JAG Franchise) NCIS: New Orleans kicks off this fall on Tuesday 23 Sept 2014 CBS 9:00 PM ET. The show will take the slot following the current mother show NCIS, which means that sister show NCIS: Los Angeles moves to Monday nights. I hope it does well. I plan on watching it and hoping it has a long run, even though I was not real big on the idea of having a third NCIS show when the other two were still super hot.

So far there have been some on-air promos telling that the show is coming. Images in the promo appear to only be stuff from the backdoor pilot that aired during season 11 of NCIS in the two episode Crescent City story (pt1, pt2)

Related Articles:
'NCIS' expands reach to New Orleans - USA Today
'NCIS: New Orleans' adds Rob Kerkovich to cast, plans 'NCIS' character crossovers - NOLA.com

Related Previous Posts:
Green Light for NCIS: New Orleans
Quantum NCIS Enterprise
NCIS: New Orleans?

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 ****

Green Light For NCIS: New Orleans

CBS Green Lights NCIS: New Orleans 2nd Spin-off Show from NCIS

(3rd Spin-off from J.A.G.)

This past March/April (25 March & 1 April, 2014) NCIS had a two part story titled "Crescent City" that acted as a backdoor pilot for the potential NCIS: New Orleans spin-off series. The story was successful and the new series has been given the green light by CBS execs.

As a long time fan of the current NCIS flagship series (NCIS itself is a spinoff from the mother flagship show JAG) and the spin-off series NCIS: LA as well as a fan of a few of the main actors Scott Bakula and CCH Pounder, I am going to embrace this new television series. I was originally against the idea (NCIS: New Orleans? and sort of Quantum NCIS Enterprise), but after seeing the backdoor pilot, which I enjoyed a lot and thought it was one of the better episodes of the season, I changed my mind. I think the actors that were cast has a lot to do with it. This new series will be executive produced by NCIS star Mark Harmon. I believe that is one of the big reasons the series was given the green light. I think they are planning to have a  regular around September season premiere/start.

Regular Main Cast:
Special Agent Dwayne Cassius Pride (Scott Bakula)
Special Agent Meredith 'Merri' Brody (Zoe McLellan)
Jefferson Parish Coroner Doctor Loretta Wade (CCH Pounder)
Special Agent Christopher Lasalle (Lucas Black)
 
Linda (Paige Turco)
Lamar (LaJessie Smith)

Related Links:
'NCIS: New Orleans', 'The Odd Couple', 'Scorpion' Lead CBS Pickups- HitFix
CBS Orders 'NCIS' Spinoff, 'Odd Couple', Four More to Series -Hollywood Reporter
'NCIS: New Orleans' gets series order from CBS - NOLA.Com
CBS Orders 'CSI: Cyber', 'NCIS: New Orleans', 'Odd Couple' 'Stalker', 'Madam Secretary', 'Scorpion' & 'The McCarthys' - TV By The Numbers
CBS adds 'NCIS' and 'CSI' spinoffs, new "Odd Couple"- USA Today
'NCIS: New Orleans' gets green light from CBS-TV - WWL First News

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Cangku Shisi

EPISODE: 5.5 "Cangku Shisi"
倉庫十四 (Warehouse 14)

Original Air Date: 12 May 2014

CLAUDIA: "It's like the transporter from Star Trek minus the dilithium crystals"

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

Wow a major adrenaline pumping emotion driving episode. This episode packed a lot of action into it and a few twists and turns I don't want to ruin everything. OK so we open things up with Claudia going to the facility where the Warehouse Regents had her sister Claire (Chryssie Whitehead) in the artifact induced coma. Not only is Claire gone but the artifact that is keeping her in the coma is gone. Using the Durational Spectrometer Artie and Claudia discover that Benedict Valda (Mark Sheppard) from the alternate time-line has kidnapped Claire.

Valda gives a demonstration of power of some artifacts to a mysterious buyer telling him that instead of being stored away to collect dust they should be used and experimented with to advance science and civilization. He endangers a crowd of people in a park and is several steps ahead of the warehouse team. They save the people and must figure out what his plan is.

The team discovers that Valda's plan is to move the warehouse using Clarie as a puppet caretaker to his "Warehouse 14". Artie describes the special procedure that needs to be followed to insure the warehouse gets moved properly and the artifacts transferred to the new location. There are three artifacts that need to be used and they discover that Valda has them, except for one piece which they must travel to Boston to obtain. As with Indiana Jones in his movies they locate the artifact only to have it taken from them by their nemesis.

The team works out that Valda plans to move the warehouse to China and has found a location. Pete, Myka and Claudia use an artifact portal to beat Valda to China while Artie and Steve try to hold down the fort er the warehouse and keep Valda from completing the transfer of the artifacts to the new warehouse.

 While picking up the pieces so to speak, resettling things Artie and Myka see the warehouse compass (one of the tools needed to move the warehouse) turns back on. Artie Farnsworths Mrs.Frederic she announces that Valda's actions have set some things in motion that even she can't control or predict. Some of Mrs. Frederic's past was revealed earlier in the episode that confirms she is over 100 years old.

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)

Guest Cast:
Claire Donovan (Chryssie Whitehead)
Benedict Valda (Mark Sheppard)

On a light subtle reference to something else the artifact that Benedict Valda used to control Claire the Donovan Chester Moore Hall's Achromatric Lens has major similarities to the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation and later Trek Series.

Once again they brought the dang Pete Loves Myka shipping junk into the plot, just as NCIS: Los Angeles has been shipping Marty Deeks and Kensi Blye. Maybe both shows have the same romance loving writers. With this new plot undertones Pete has become more of a wuss (ditto Deeks).

I give this episode 4 Warehouse artifacts ****

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Season 5 Begins To End

This past Monday (14 April) Warehouse 13 returned to SyFy Channel for the beginning of the end of Season 5. This past year I have had real mixed emotions about this whole "last season" business. I love the show and am very saddened that the network decided to pull the plug on the show around this time last year. This season is very bittersweet as it is the final season. I am glad that Sci-Fi had the decency to announce the cancellation before the final season had been filmed so that the writers and production staff could finish things off. Sometimes shows have been canceled with no warning after they had wrapped up the final episodes (Eureka and Alphas anyone?)

I wasn't sure if I was going to do a review of the Season 5 premier or not. I guess I'm going to do a mini-review.

EPISODE: 5.1 "Endless Terror"

Original Air Date: 14 April 2014

CLAUDIA: "Looks like your warehouse still has a little bit of a crush on me."

Warning: This review may contain spoilers

This was a fantastic episode I hope the rest of the season keeps me as interested as this one did. Last season there were a couple of episodes that were about 3/4 interesting and the rest of the episode had me thinking of what websites I need to surf to when the show ended. This episode kept me wanting more and cursing the commercial breaks. I am looking forward to late May when the DVD will be released. Supposedly the Season 5 DVD will have the Christmas episode from the end of Season 3 "The Greatest Gift" which currently is only available on the Region 2 DVD release. But I digress before I even began.

Endless Terror begins where last season left off with a cliff-hanger of course. Claudia was confronting Paracelsus (Anthony Head) who had just taken control of the Warehouse and evicted the team. He starts throwing dangerous artifacts or shooting their projectiles at her and she uses other artifacts to block or counter the attacking artifact. Soon Paracelsus realizes that the Warehouse is protecting Claudia because she is its caretaker, he also realizes since he controls the Warehouse he can control Claudia and he does (with the assistance of an artifact of course).

With Claudia's unwilling assistance Paracelsus collects and hooks up some artifacts to H.G. Wells' Time Machine to create a time portal to the past. Meanwhile the team after some failed attempts at gaining entry back into the warehouse with some humorous results, do finally gain access to the warehouse. The team still needs to regain control of the warehouse. To do that they need to split up, Pete and Steve are confronted by the Paracelsus Minion Claudia, who warns them about each of the artifacts she is using against them with some humorous dialogue. Artie and Myka go into the depths of the warehouse to the nerve center to realign the controlling flames that need to be in their proper alcoves they had been removed from to create the ring of fire Paracelsus' control had made them into. Once the flames are returned to their proper places Paracelsus no longer has control over Claudia, but he manages to escape into the time portal he has created.

Before the team can chase Paracelsus through the time portal the warehouse has been transformed. Gone is the steampunk antique mechanical designs to be replaced by shiny high-tech digital and computerized fixtures. They discover that he made changes in the past to not only become caretaker of Warehouse 9 as before, but he also has killed the regents from that time to become the caretaker for all the Warehouses from 9 up to 13.

Pete and Myka go back to Warehouse 9 while Artie goes off to confront the modern Paracelsus instructing Claudia and Steve to stay behind and keep the time portal open for Pete and Myka. Claudia follows Artie leaving Steve to fend for himself. Upon arrival in the past Pete and Myka are met by Lisa Da Vinci (Rebecca Mader) and accused of murdering the warehouse guards and plotting to kill the regents (who haven't yet been killed when they arrive in the past).

Meanwhile in the alternate present Artie is captured by the warehouse security force that is enhanced by artifacts that Paracelsus has duplicated and are lead by Benedict Valda (Mark Sheppard). Paracelsus throughout his reign as warehouse caretaker has experimented with artifacts on innocent people to advance the warehouse technology and increase his overall power. His medical staff includes some familiar faces; Doctor Vanessa Calder (Lindsey Wagner) and Hugo Miller (Rene Auberjonois) who in this alternate timeline are married and are forced to work under Paracelsus to keep their children alive.

Pete and Myka with Lisa Da Vinci's help, save the regents from the past, defeat Paracelsus and rebronze him. Rebronzing Paracelsus in the past cause the Paracelsus of the present to bronze once the changed ripples of time get to it.

The team goes about settling down for the evening winding down from the latest adventure, Artie while putting away artifacts notices that one of the artifact forks from the silverware set he is putting away is missing. He brushes it off with a sort of "oh well" attitude. We as the audience are then shown Valda holding the missing fork someplace else, setting up things for next week's episode or possibly later.

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)
Abigail Cho (Kelly Hu)

Guest Cast:
Paracelsus (Anthoney Head)
Hugo Miller (Rene Auberjonois)
Vanessa Calder (Lindsey Wagner)
Benedict Valda (Mark Sheppard)
Lisa Da Vinci (Rebecca Mader)

Season Five has started off with a big bang. I hope that the rest of the season continues to be as exciting and as powerful as this episode was. I wish the network executives hadn't pulled the plug on this wonderful series. I would really like to see the series live on in some form perhaps in the form of novels and some audio adventures.

I give this episode 4 Warehouse artifacts ****

Quantum NCIS Enterprise

OH BOY!

The latest casting news for the potential new spinoff in the NCIS franchise NCIS: New Orleans has been announced. Scott Bakula has been cast as team leader Special Agent Pride. Pride is described as a man who “embodies New Orleans" and is driven by the "need to do what’s right and does it all with warmth, passion, strength and humor." He is also apparently an old associate of Gibbs (Marc Harmon) from the NIS (Naval Investigative Service) days.

Special Agent Pride and his team will debut this spring in a two-part story on the current flagship show NCIS as a backdoor spinoff pilot. NCIS itself is a spinoff from the mother flagship show JAG.

Speaking of JAG Zoe McLellan (P.O. Jennifer Coates) has been cast as Special Agent Brody on Pride's team. Also cast is CCH Pounder (Mrs. Irene Frederic from Warehouse 13) who will play medical examiner Dr. Wade. Another field agent named LaSalle has yet to be cast, or at least the casting has yet to be announced for that character.

I have mentioned in this blog and elsewhere that I really don't think there needs to be three NCIS shows right now. This show, however, seems more interesting and has a bigger named star to anchor the potential series than the previous spinoff attempt (from NCIS: Los Angeles) NCIS: Red. I'm a big NCIS fan and a big fan of Scott Bakula as well as a huge Warehouse 13 fan. Even though I don't agree with the plans for a new series I will end up watching, supporting and probably enjoying NCIS: New Orleans.

Related Links:
'NCIS: New Orleans' casts 'JAG' actress - Entertainment Weekly
'NCIS' scoop: Scott Bakula to star in new spinoff - Entertainment Weekly
'JAG' Alum Set as Female Lead in CBS' 'NCIS' New Orleans Spinoff - The Hollywood Reporter
NCIS: New Orleans? - Kirk's Knook (This blog right here)
Bakula cast in lead role of 'NCIS' New Orleans spinoff - New York Post
Bakula leads cast of 'NCIS' New Orleans episodes - USA Today

Warehouse 13 Wednseday: Pilot

EPISODE 1.1 "Pilot"

Original Air Date: 07 July 2009

ARTIE: "Miss Bering, Mr. Lattimer Welcome to Warehouse 13...

I'm thrilled you're on the team. "

MYKA: "What Team? What is this place?"

ARTIE: "Officially K39tripleZ on the North American Grid,
but I like to think of it as America's Attic."

Warning: This review may contain spoilers
(and may be a bit lengthy since it was a two-hour episode)

This is where it all began your "invitation to endless wonder". When the concept/basic plot premise for Warehouse 13 was first announced many (including myself) noticed it was similar to the late 1980s television series "Friday The 13th" (AKA: "Friday's Curse"), not to be confused with nor is it affiliated with the movie series of the same name with that Jason freak. Some call it a rip off I do not. The basic concept of retrieving artifacts that are cursed or have magic or psychic properties is the same, and you have a middle aged man taking the lead with a young male and female partner team that do the searching. That is basically where things end, the details on who they are and why they do it is slightly different. For WH13 all the magic/psychic artifacts once found are "neutralized" and then stored in a warehouse which is technically run by the government under a super top secret black ops department. As opposed to just being tossed into a vault under an antique shop without any neutralization. It has been ages since I've seen FT13 so my details on that show might be slightly off.

Things open at a museum in Washington DC, the Capital Museum of Natural History (It is supposed to be the Smithsonian Natural History Museum) we meet Secret Service Agent Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) as she waits to meet up with Chet Greenfield (William Colgate) the museum curator for the umpteenth time to make the final security arrangements for the President's arrival at a reception of some sort at the Museum. Myka is very organized and has an eye for detail, later it is mentioned that she has eidetic memory (Photographic memory). During their final sweep tour Mr. Greenfield takes Myka to a lab were Gordon Letanik (Rauol Bhaneja) is cleaning an Aztec Blood Stone (which is the first of several "artifacts" for the episode). Myka informs them that some of the displays need to be moved because they are blocking access to an exit. After Greenfield and Myka leave the room Gordon drops a tool in the mouth of the stone and while trying to retrieve it cuts his finger on one of the glass teeth of the face on the stone.

Our introduction to Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) is an intimate one as he is with his girlfriend (or girlfriend of the moment) Kacey (Kristina Pesic). She sees his father's fireman badge hanging by his bed and she thinks he is a fireman. He is actually another Secret Service Agent assigned to the Museum detail that Myka is in charge of security for.

At the Museum reception several things happen, of course. Gordon gets possessed by the blood stone his eyes turn bloodshot and his finger wound continues to bleed. Pete senses something is "off" he explains to Myka he gets "vibes". A mysterious man with a bag, who turns out to be Arthur "Artie" Nielsen (Saul Rubenik) enters the museum and in an isolated hallway knocks out one of the Secret Service Men with a ray gun (which is later explained to be a Tesla Stun Gun, an artifact which will be a useful tool for the Warehouse Team). Pete notices blood coming from the stone but nobody listens to him, he takes it just as Kacey who is one of the caterers/party servers sees him and asks what he is doing there, he says working and then Mr. Greenfield starts to approach him and he slips out saying secret service business. Myka notices the blood trail from Gordon as he takes out a stone knife and makes an attack at an ambassador with a stone knife. After a bit of a struggle Myka stops him. Pete meanwhile has gone up to another floor where he trips and the blood stone rolls to the feet of Artie who neutralizes the stone with some sort of top piece, the blinding flash stuns Pete long enough for Artie to get away.

Pete's boss Daniel Dickenson (Simon Reynolds) not believing his story of the theft of the blood stone, suspends him with pay. Dejected Pete returns home to find a mysterious woman Mrs. Irene Frederic (CCH Pounder), along with her driver/body guard (Jung-Yul Kim). Mrs. Frederic informs him that he has been re-assigned to a position in South Dakota. Pete arrives at the designated location a huge wasteland with a strange looking warehouse set into the hillside. He is joined by Myka, who had a visit from Mrs. Frederic as well, and after seeing Pete is convinced there is some kind of screw-up. Soon Artie shows up with a strange rod contraption, he explains he was fixing the F.I.S.H. (a device that is mentioned a few times later during the series and will actually be shown and explained in Season 4) and formally introduces himself and tells them he will explain everything inside. Tentatively they follow and they are given a nickel tour of the warehouse. Pete is shown an old photograph of some warehouse agents with Mrs. Frederic who still looks the same age, meanwhile in a huff Myka has gone out to call Dickenson to try to get things straightened out so she can return to DC. Later they are told they will be staying at Leena's Bread and Breakfast while on their new assignment. There they meet Leena (Genelle Williams) and settle in before their first assignment as Warehouse Agents.

For their first assignment Pete and Myka are sent to Seever City, Iowa to investigate a strange case about a college boy named Cody Thomas (Dillon Casey) who attacked his girlfriend Emily Krueger (Sarah Allen). Part of their arsenal of tools they are given a high-tech steampunk video communications device called a Farnsworth, and a neutralizing kit. While they interview Cody he gets very violent and says something in an old form of Italian. With the help of a professor at the college Professor Ed Marzotto (Michael Boatman) Pete and Myka get a translation of what Cody said, they suspect, however, that the professor isn't telling the complete truth. Artie researches and discovers the artifact they need to find, at around the same time that Pete and Myka learn who has the artifact, Cody's lawyer Lorna Soliday (Sherry Miller). The artifact they need to find is a comb Lucrezia Borgia's comb which has hypnotic powers that basically gives the user control over others. The energy/power is activated by a specific phrase spoken in old Italian, the phrase that Cody had been saying just before he went berserk. At some sort of party for a play Soliday uses the combs power to hypnotize the crowd, Pete and Myka arrive and eventually get the artifact comb neutralized to save the day and Emily's life.

At the end of the day Dickenson who has been in contact with Mrs. Frederic, calls Myka and informs her that Pete's transfer to the Warehouse is permanent, but that she can return to DC he gives her only about five seconds to think about it, as she is considering it Mrs. Frederic who is still with Dickenson is counting down.

All in all I loved the pilot episode for WH13, however, I agree with others who have reviewed the pilot that a full two-hour (technically only one hour and a half) debut was a bit lengthy choppy in parts and dragged some. True there is a lot of exposition and the usual minutia that goes with exposition, but those aren't really the parts that drag, it's the going back and forth between the actions of the supporting characters and Pete and Myka's investigation that seems to drag it seemed they wanted to set up all the relationships before actually getting around to the action with the artifact.

I give this episode 4 Warehouse artifacts ****

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: All The Time In The World

EPISODE 4.19: "All The Time In The World"

Original Air Date: 01 July 2013

PETE: "We can't just go digging holes all over Istanbul."

 Warning: This review certainly contains spoilers

This episode was a fun episode but was not as exciting as some of the other Season Four episodes.  Some fans of the show already disagree with me and think the whole season stinks. I think the second half has been one of the best half seasons. I had to alter my Spoiler Warning notice slightly due to the fact that this episode continues from the previous episode "Lost & Found" and relies on that episode and a few other recent episodes for the plot and some of the guest character backgrounds and IDs. There were some facts from "Lost & Found" that I did not want to reveal in my review last week but due to their importance to this episode's main plot I am forced to reveal for this one. Please excuse me for that.

OK so to start things off with a Bang and a Boom we know from last episode that Nick (Josh Blaylock) has freed Paracelsus (Anthony Head) from the Bronze sector and that they have now bronzed Claudia. One of the facts from last episode I didn't want to spoil, but is a major plot point ***SIGH***. Using some artifact that wasn't explained Nick shows Paracelsus a Reader's Digest vision of the last few hundred years to bring him up to speed. They leave and later the team assumes that Nick has been kidnapped by Paracelsus.

Steve is first on the scene to discover Bronze Claudia and notifies Artie and the team with the disturbing news. Using a recording of a warehouse artifact a durational spectrometer to try to figure out what Nick and Paracelsus were up to. Shortly after viewing the recording, Myka notices that several artifacts are missing from the inventory. They try unsuccessfully to debronze Claudia but the Bronzing Machine isn't working. The reason Artie discovers is that the bronze statue (Stele) that powers the machine is gone. They find a note on the inside of the panel that held the bronze stele that says "Sutton knows what I want". So it is off to find Sutton (James Marsters).

Through flashbacks from a few centuries ago we learn that Paracelsus is responsible for making Nick and his parents Charlotte (Polly Walker) and Sutton immortal by using an artifact known as The Philospher's Stone (a geode). Artie and the team had found half of the stone last episode. After being made immortal the stone was cut in two by Sutton years ago and he made a ring out of some of the crystal inside that gave him the power to revive dead plants. At the bed and breakfast where they are holding Charlotte, we also learn that Paracelsus is Sutton's brother. In an odd sort of way that helps explain why he chose them for his immortality experiments. In the flashbacks he explains that he need a man, a woman and a child, to see how gender and age are affected by the process. Charlotte explains that over the centuries she and Nick have learned how difficult it is for him to be stuck in immortality at age fifteen stuck between childhood and being a man. Both Charlotte and Nick wish for him to become mortal again to end his eternal suffering of not being able to love someone naturally.

The need to debronze Claudia is made more urgent due to deterioration due to Paracelsus using the bronze stele directly and not the bronzing chamber. The team needs to save Claudia super fast. Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) tells Artie that there are some restricted files that she needs to find to help the situation, and that will explain the mystery surrounding Paracelsus. Artie and Steve notice that Mrs. F. is walking away instead of her usual vanishing act. She discovers that the files she needed were redacted. She also seems to be quickly developing dementia. Regent Mr. Kosan explains to Artie that as the caretaker of the warehouse she is "hardwired" into it and he takes him to the heart/nerve center of the warehouse where they discover a problem that is causing Mrs. F's rapid development of dementia and declining health.

Several artifacts are used to try to help stabilize Claudia until they can unbronze her which they eventually are able to do successfully. Through Mr. Kosan we learn that there is a Keeper of the warehouse who is the "living memory" of the warehouse that can access the redacted information from the files concerning Paracelsus. It turns out that the keeper is Abigail (Kelly Hu). It is through her that we discover the actual cause of Mrs. F's condition and another secret of Paracelsus that will of course be partly carried out in next week's episode which is the season finale and a big end of season cliffhanger. I'll keep some of that info under my hat until next week's review.

I give this episode 3 Warehouse artifacts ***