November Update.

November, November, November let me count the ways. UM NO. So looking back on this month from the end of the month point of view was there anything majorly significant this month? No, not in the grand scheme of things whatever that is. I did sell a DVD - Season 5 of the Television Show "Castle" on Ebay.  Unfortunately I lost out on shipping the package was over 1 pound. I charged $5.00 shipping and real shipping was $8.55. It was my 3rd sold item on Ebay for this year. Right now there are 68 items listed. "And there was Much Rejoicing"

Not sure if I'll add anything to this or not. Got some things on my plate.

Ebay And A Name Misspelling Repeat Of Sorts

 Hello and welcome to a typical "I don't know what I'm going to post about" post.

So on Ebay I did a minor little goof on ordering something. I ordered a DVD I wanted from a seller that is in Canada. I usually try to just order from USA but will order from Canada from time to time. It is not that I am Anti buying from Canada, I just prefer to order from the US because tracking is more accurate and if there is a problem with the item and I have to return it I don't have to go through the whole shipping to another country thing. Anyway I ordered a DVD and I could have sworn it was from a US seller, but now that I think about it, it was more a case of I wanted the item so bad I didn't really care where it came from. Also I had the item on my watch list for quite sometime, so I probably just assumed it was located in the US. OH Well no biggy.

Not a goof but another Ebay oddity for me was I ordered some vinyl 45s singles. One seller I bought 4 singles from and another seller I had purchased only one. In an odd bit of irony the lot of 4 singles was shipped in a polybag bubble mailer protected by cardboard, and the lonely single was shipped in a 9" x 9" x 6" box. Packed with bubble on top and the single at the bottom of the box. I had expected things to be the other way round.

Quick misspelling Name Game. A year or two ago I once got a receipt with the name "Cork" well now I can add a variant spelling with a "K" twice. Now there are two recent trips to Chick-Fil-A where my name was misspelled as "Kork". I was bad  for a while in February and early March by going there about once a week for 3 or 4 weeks on Friday evenings or on Saturdays around lunchtime.

Random Stuff Episode 1: DVD Update & Ebay

Random Stuff Episode 1:

Updates: DVD & Ebay

For quite a while now my regular DVD player attached to the TV in my living room I have not used because it gradually stopped recognizing DVDs. It accepts audio CDs but sadly the laser that reads DVD video information has been broken for something like 2 or 3 years. It has been even longer since I watched DVDs on a regular basis. When this problem started back whenever at first it was just an occasional DVD disc. Then it became every DVD disc I would put in a disc and it would give me a "no disc" error. I noticed I could put an audio CD in and it recognized that and played the audio from them, but didn't recognized DVDs. I had purchased a cleaning disc that is supposed to help, but it didn't. However  I have still been buying occasional DVDs via Ebay and elsewhere, but mostly from EBay.

I have a CD/DVD ROM player on my ancient Windows XP laptop but ages ago whenever I would view videos the computer would overheat and crash. I also have an external DVD ROM Drive but that is a pain to have to plug in all the time plus I had the overheating problem with that laptop so I got out of the practice of DVD viewing.

This lack of a DVD player problem was on the back burner for a long time. I finally got a really cheap DVD player from Best Buy ($37 and some change including sales tax). I was going to get one at Target for about twice as much, but my Target no longer carries DVD players or DVDs and I don't like buying electronics online or trust getting electronic equipment shipped. Ironically that is how I got my Chromebook. My biggest concern with that isn't with the risk of damage during shipping but rather the porch pirates when it gets delivered. Anyway now I have a basic DVD player again. I hooked it up and the first disc I watched was a Doctor Who episode on DVD. Felt good. 

Also related to the DVD issue and my past computer problems, which my Chromebook has helped recover from somethings. My lack of activity for my DVDProfiler cataloging. I need to get things updated and try to see if I can transfer the base program from my ancient XP to my Chromebook. I don't want to have to download the program and learn that I have to pay for it. I think I paid for the software ages ago to have an account tracking more than 50 DVDS. I have way way more than that in TV series alone. A few years back they added an Android app. Not sure if you can add stuff on it, but I can at least see my online collection on it. 

 

I sold another card on Ebay on 29 June for $6 ($2 plus $4 shipping I don't use the Ebay Standard Envelope or PWEs when selling) the last sale was on May 3rd for $7 total.

Bitch Slap DVD Review

Bitch Slap (2009) - R

 (DVD Unrated Version)

****

"What can I say? We're all just bitches in the end."

WARNING: This review might contain SPOILERS!

Where to begin? The beginning? Well the movie itself doesn't begin at the beginning so why should this review. HA! In a nutshell the writers/producers wanted to make a movie with the world's longest chick fight aka "Bitch Slap" for the soul purpose of their own enjoyment. Well I think this film achieved that. I'm not sure if it made the record for being the longest chick fight in cinema history but it is basically just a long drawn out chick fight with some flashback exposition in the attempt to give the long chick fight some storyline. Of course most straight male viewers (and a few female viewers) between the ages of say 12 to 35 (the target audience) wouldn't notice if there was a plot to this thing. It does manage to keep the fight relatively "clean". The only nudity in the film is topless dancers in a flashback scene, the fight itself doesn't have any nudity. The only real wardrobe malfunctions if you can call them that would be a very quick crotch shot (nothing shows) and maybe maybe a nipslip or two. My TV is only 20" at the most so there could be more. I don't have all the hi-tech super duper "toys" so what?

One of the main reasons I picked up this DVD as a blind buy was because of the Cameos of Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst (Their parts are a little more than just cameos) from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor from Xena: Warrior Princess (Whose cameos are just cameos). Bitch Slap Producer Rick Jacobson directed some episodes of those two fantasy/adventure shows. He also directed six episodes of the sci-fi adventure Cleopatra 2525 another slightly larger than shoe-string budget television series filmed in Ozland that I enjoy. I have the DVDs for that as well, but not Herc and Xena. Their original DVD releases were by season and too expensive at the time.

Also appearing in this film is stunt woman/actress Zoe Bell and Ausie native who worked on all those other shows mainly as a stunt woman her main role in the entertainment world. She plays the character Rawhide in this as well as doing much of the stunt work and the main choreographer of the stunts. In one of the behind the scenes segments on the DVD or in the commentaries maybe in both either Zoe or Erin Cummings gives a shot by shot commentary of when Zoe was doing the fighting for the characters in the final battle. To see more of Zoe watch the Death Proof segment of Grindhouse (2007) she plays herself. In some countries the segments were shown as two separate movies (Death Proof and Planet Terror) in others they were shown together.

I don't want to spoil to much even though I posted a spoiler warning, but come to think of it there is somewhat of a storyline that involves stolen diamonds, weapons of mass destruction and spies and stuff. OH and lots of scantily clad Girls Women Chicks Babes Sluts Bitches fighting each other. There are loads CGI/green screen special effects many of which are totally ridiculous, but that is all part of the name of this game.

So an intellectual cinematic masterpiece this is not. It is also not a family movie. It could be viewed as sexist and juvenile. However, it is entertaining, and in places quite funny.

Starring:Julia Voth, Erin Cummings, America Olivo, Michael Hurst, Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor, Zoe Bell

Directed by: Rick Jacobson

Bombshell Pictures, IM Global

DVD Release Date: 02 Mar 2010

Region 1

1 Disc - 109 Minutes (Unrated) / 106 (R)

I gave this DVD 4 stars ****

DVD Update: Wizards & Warriors

Wizards & Warriors (1983)

WARNING: This is an ANCIENT Post! Only slightly updated.

This post has been sitting around for a few many many months almost years since the September 2014 release. I just was never motivated to continue with it, plus once again scanning photos or surfing the web for an appropriate image caused me to dilly dally and procrastinate. While trying to clear out my dusty drafts folder I decided it would be better to go ahead and post an out of date old post, and add some images, rather than delete it wasting any effort I put into it.

The long awaited television series Wizards and Warriors (1983) has finally come to DVD 30 years after it originally aired sort of. Unfortunately the series was very short lived having only 8 episodes total. I'm not even sure if all of them were aired. Again an unfortunate event is it is only available as an "On Demand" Title. Meaning it is made to order ONLY when ordered online and burned onto a DVD-R not a regular mass printing.

Marco (Walter Olkewicz) and Prince Erik Greystone (Jeff Conaway)

The series was a sword and sorcery fantasy series that starred Jeff Conaway, Clive Revill, Duncan Regehr, Ian Wolfe, Walter Olkewicz, Julia Duffy and Randi Brooks with an appearance (well two) by Christine De Lisle. It was very tongue planted securely in cheek slapstick campy humor. Sort of a Dungeons and Dragons version of the 1970s When Things Were Rotten. Which was a short lived Robin Hood series produced by Mel Brooks.

When I first heard this was coming to DVD I was super excited since I loved the show and hadn't seen it since the original airings. Sure some people have been selling pirated copies on all formats (even some VHS copies) on Ebay for years. However, they were typical pirate low-quality copies not even worth watching. Most copied from an ancient VHS copy.

The Wizard Vector (Clive Revill) and The Witch Bethal (Randi Brooks)

I'm not sure if I am going to take the plunge on this one. I'm not too thrilled about the ON Demand concept. There are some other titles of shows/movies that are in this same ON DEMAND DVD-R boat. I can't think of those titles at this moment and I don't want to do any more research for this ancient post. I would love to get this, but I'm just not sure.

The best photos of the show seem to be at a fan website called wizardsandwarriors.org of course. It is an old site and probably hasn't been updated. That is the site I got the screen shots from. It seems to be the only site people have gotten stuff from, they have the most variety of images, i.e. more than just what a quick Google image search gives you. The DVD cover shot is at several sites, most of them I think are from people who got the DVD and reviewed it on some online forum.

Show links on imdb.com
Wizards and Warriors (1983)
When Things Were Rotten (1975)

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Magnetism

EPISODE 1.3 "Magnetism"

Original Air Date: 21 July 2009

MYKA: "I've been exposed to the artifact, I should stay locked up."

Warning: This review may contain spoilers

When I originally started this review, and this little Warehouse 13 episode review project of mine, I thought I would be most of the way through the series with a few episodes of Season Four left to review when Season Five came around. Since I had a lot of time I put things off and this review project got stalled. Then the Final Season Season Five started and I had barely started reviewing the first season. Well now Season Five is over and done and reviewed, and it had been a long long time since I had done anything about this pet project. I guess that is the "Pro" in procrastinate.  I rewatched Season 1 Disc 1 to keep everything fresh for this review and to get back into the habit of watching the series DVDs. OK on with the review/recap of this episode.

I find it interesting that in the beginning bit of Pete and Myka retrieving Marie Antoinette's Guillotine from the French Museum and replacing it with a replica, they seem to be a solid well working team as if they have been together for years, but during the bulk of the episode they still seem to be having a power struggle for "team leader".

In the Warehouse while putting the guillotine artifact away and even after Pete and Myka are arguing and shouting at each other. Myka is a bit ticked at Pete for not recharging the Tesla gun from whatever their last assignment was (forcing her to have a more physical fight with the Museum Guards), and about his not following the overall plan and ignoring organized protocol. They unknowingly are disturbing the zen balance of the Warehouse with their negative energy. Artie monitors some online news feeds seemingly while events are unfolding and discovers some possible artifact activity in Unionville, Colorado. He notices Pete and Myka arguing and tries getting their attention telling them to keep it down, but they keep on arguing. Artie is left with no choice he clicks a few computer keys and some levers and switches of other equipment and gives them a shower of purple neutralizing goo.

Back at the bread and breakfast, Pete and Myka have cleaned up and Artie briefs them on the goings on in Colorado. In separate one-on-one short discussions (Pete before the briefing and Myka after the brief) Artie mixes things up by telling each of them before they leave for the main mission of the episode that they are really the team leader in charge, but to let the other one think they are in charge because s/he is sensitive. Pete asks to borrow Artie's car since his truck is still where it was left apparently from a previous mission.

So what do an old lady, a teenager, and a nun all have in common beside freaking out and acting in bizarre ways that are totally against their normal nature? All three, and eventually a few others, were exposed to an artifact.What they came in contact with is what Pete and Myka need to figure out. Pete and Myka interview townsfolk and witness some further bizarre behavior. While consulting with Artie they conclude that the artifact must somehow affect the brain causing a chemical imbalance to whoever has recently touched it or been in contact with it. Pete follows some clues that lead him to an AA meeting and a psychiatrist who is the therapist for some of those affected, he finds a newly acquired pocket watch the therapist bought (he collects fine watches) that once belonged to a famous mentalist. Pete thinking he has made the score starts acting like the king of Warehouse 13 agents but since Myka had been affected by the artifact and was never with the therapist they are back to square one.

Meanwhile back at the Warehouse continuing power outages and electrical glitches that tell Artie the hacker is trying to figure out the power grid of the Warehouse. Leena asks him if he has had anymore success on tracking the hacker, but he tells her it is a pest he will ignore hoping it will just give up and go away.

Pete and Myka mentally retrace their steps trying to figure out what she came in contact with that he didn't, where had she been that he hadn't? As they are putting the pieces together they notice some of the town people including some of the artifact victims entering the town church. That is it Myka had interviewed the priest Father Braid (Phillip Craig) trying to figure out what had set off Sister Grace Ellen (Jennifer Vey) into making her think she could fly. They ask Father Braid if he had acquired anything new recently and find out he had received a chair that had once belonged to a famous ancestor of his James Braid a physician and surgeon who is known as the "Father of Modern Hypnotism". The springs of the chair act as a tuning fork when a descendant of Braid speaks near it, causing anyone who is sitting in the chair to release and act upon their subconscious desires.

Mack the Sheriff causes a commotion in the church sanctuary gun in hand wearing a bomb vest, ranting and raving. Myka confronts him to try to calm him down while in the priest's office Pete douses the chair with neutralizing goo. The goo doesn't work so Pete has to smash the chair with a fire ax. He runs out to check on Myka who is grappling with Mack who is still a bit psycho, he had set off her man issues with some sexist comment. The bombs timer on the vest is ticking away and in typical action drama show fashion gets almost down to zero. They manage to get the vest off of Mack and Pete runs out of the church tossing the vest with few microseconds left.

Back at the bread and breakfast, Pete and Myka report back to Artie filling him in on the artifact snag and giving him some bad news about his car. It seems Pete needed a small enclosed area to toss the bomb and well... It turns out to be just a psyche-out "gottcha" for misleading them about which one is in charge.

Later at the Warehouse the power fluctuations that Artie had been trying to ignore return, he goes to the electrical circuit power grid to fix things. He replaces a fuse, powers down then powers back up and the warning lights begin to flash spelling out "Knock, Knock" a few times. Artie realizes that the hacker has gotten completely into the system.

Series Regulars:
Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock)
Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly)
Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubenik)
Leena (Genelle Williams)

Guest Cast:
Sheriff MacKenna (Cornell Womack)
Ross (Ivan Sergei)
Luis (Pedro Miguel Arce)
Ellis (David Collins)
Father Braid (Phillip Craig)
Meg (Deborah Grover)
Dave (Bill Lake)
Tommy (Blake Pouliot)
Sister Grace Ellen (Jennifer Vey) Uncredited

I give this episode 3 Warehouse artifacts ***

Myka Monday: Season Five Begins To End

14 April 2014:

Warehouse 13 Season Five Begins to End

 Myka is celebrating because tonight Season 5 of Warehouse 13 begins. Unfortunately there are only six episodes so it will be over way too soon. That makes Myka a bit sad but it hasn't sunk in yet.

We shall see what the next few weeks hold in store for us.So keep on smiling Myka we will always love you.

Myka Monday: Don't Panic

 Oh good Myka I caught you before you left. I almost didn't get this one in.

 Now don't look at me that way.

That's much better.

Myka Monday: Rule #1 Artie Lies

Rule # 1 Artie Lies

Artie the fish was how big? UM NO, OK tell another one.

A closer look at Myka and her reaction. Just because she is so damn beautiful.

Myka Monday: More Swordplay

Word of advice:

Don't get into a sword fight with Myka

Image from episode "Age Before Beauty" Season 2 Episode 4.

I almost missed posting this week. If I had I would have been on the receiving end of Myka's wrath and her sword. I might have ended up like this:

 Black Knight Image from "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" movie.

Myka Monday: Myka Look Into My Eyes Again

Myka You are absolutely stunning.

image from Episode "Age Before Beauty" Season 2 Episode 4

Myka Monday: Smile Myka You're All Better

Smile Myka you are young again.

image from Episode "Age Before Beauty" Season 2 Episode 4

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Resonance

EPISODE 1.2 "Resonance"

Original Air Date: 14 July 2009

PETE: "Belski just got spanked.

So lets go strike while the butt is still hot."

Warning: This review may contain spoilers

OK so for this review I'm a little slow (as I am on most of my reviews dang) I'm not quite ahead in writing reviews as I had originally planned and I'm only 1 episode ahead in watching now. It is not as easy as it looks or sounds to do these reviews (and I'm probably the only one reading them). If I were to do this professionally I would have been fired long ago for doing what Douglas Adams did about deadlines by just listening to the whoosh sound they make passing by. ARGH! To paraphrase a common line from the show I need to view it, review it, and write it (then edit it and post it). 

This is the first regular episode of the series and the first one to show the opening title sequence, more on that sometime in a different post maybe.

After the standard "previously on Hill Street Blues" type recap, things start off with a bank robbery in Chicago, only it isn't a standard hold up. A van pulls up to the bank two people dressed in all black and wearing masks exit the van and enter the bank. One of them opens their coat and the view switches to the bank's CCT security system and interference blanks the screen.

Switch to deep inside the warehouse Pete is playing ping-pong vs. himself via Lewis Carrol's Looking Glass. A large mirror that allows the viewer to interact with their mirror image, in a later episode we will find out more about what the mirror is capable of. Meanwhile some electrical glitches show Artie that someone is trying to hack into the Warehouse's computer systems and they are good. Myka is outside the warehouse talking to her mom on her cell phone and almost pulls a Marsha Brady with the strange football artifact that circles the globe that was sort of introduced in the pilot. It may have some sort of satellite surveillance connection to help hide the warehouse, it is another artifact we will learn more about later in the series. Artie sends Pete and Myka to Chicago to investigate the bank robberies.

Pete and Myka get to Chicago and hit a little bit of a road block via the local FBI agent Bonnie Belski (Tricia Helfer Battlestar Galactica reboot). Seems agent Belski has done a background performance check on Pete and Myka's track record and thinks they are trouble. So she makes things difficult for them and takes everything they say with a grain of salt. The bank employees and customers have no recollection of the robbery.

The warehouse team learn that the robbers used an unreleased recording of a 1960s musician Eric Marsden (John Evans) to put people in a euphoric trance with the soothing song and then simply just ask for the money. This record is the main artifact of the episode. The recording's power is amplified and intensified with the right acoustic settings of the mason work of the bank buildings. The building acoustics were the reason why the banks were chosen.

Meanwhile Artie traces the hacker's trail to Washington DC and suspects Pete and Myka's old boss Daniel Dickenson of being the hacker as it is his computer the trace leads to. So Artie heads to DC to stop Dickenson. Artie gives Pete and Myka the address were Marsden is living and learn he is often in a semi-catatonic state, depressed and diagnosed with liver cancer with a life expectancy of only a year, the investigation leads to music company that holds the rights to Marsden's music who mentions the engineer who Marsden recorded with was last known to be a cab driver. Marsden's catalog being out of fashion with little to no demand conveniently attracts an anonymous buyer to make an offer to buy the entire catalog.

While in Dickenson's office Artie gets a Farnsworth call from Myka telling him about the acoustic nature of the banks that were robbed in an effort to figure out which bank(s) the robbers will hit next. Dickenson catches Artie "in the act" while he is doing something with the computer, I'm not sure exactly what Artie was doing with the computer (Erasing? Copying? Bugging?) but to hold Dickenson for a while he uses an artifact a "Dimensional Conversion Camera" that turns people into two dimensional cardboard cutouts until the camera is used on them again.

On the robber's next bank heist, thanks to Artie's research on the bank structures of the remaining banks that have not yet been robbed that fit the profile of the ones that were robbed Myka arrives on the scene as the robbers are exiting the bank. She gives chase and manages to catch the driver of the van who is Marsden's sound engineer Jed Fissel (Peter Graham). They take him into custody to the FBI offices, unfortunately Fissel's partners in crime spring him using the hypnotic recording system. Thanks to Pete's vibes and a heads up Myka is able to get partial protection from the effects by using ear plugs, but she only has time to get one in. She manages to slip her cellphone into the pockets of one of the crooks.

Artie restores Dickenson back to normal and discovers that he had been had by the hacker. Dickenson is not responsible for the hacking but his computer was used to make it appear he was, together they start a new attempt to find the real hacker.

To tie up loose ends and in an effort to minimize spoilers (or just open them all up) and shorten this review some, Pete and Myka locate her cell phone and discover the other robbers are Marsden's Nurse/Housekeeper/Partner? Jesslyn Henjik (Victoria Snow) and The Music Company's Receptionist/Marsden's Daughter Stephanie Goodison (Lindy Booth) are the anonymous buyer(s). Getting his music back helps Marsden to get his daughter back. Pete and Myka take the artifact recording and as Pete tells Myka the robberies are not their problem the recording is. Maybe Belski and The FBI will find the "robbers' maybe they won't that question is left in the air. I remember when I watched the episode the first time when it originally aired having mixed thoughts about letting the "robbers" go. The Warehouse team's concern is only in retrieving the artifacts, not all the police actions.

In trying to track the hacker further Artie experiences a shock that shows him some sort of mysterious vision/flashback.

This episode is the second of the series shown in sequence and Peta and Myka have clicked well as partners. I'm not really sure how much time has passed between the pilot episode and this one but it seems to have been enough for them to be comfortable relying on one another while on missions. It is interesting to note that in these early episodes Pete and Myka share one Farnswroth (apparently there are only three in existence the one they use, Artie's on one that Mrs. Frederic has) and one Tesla Gun an only prototype. There is a limited battery life for the power source of the Tesla so they have to use it cautiously.

I give this episode 3.5 Warehouse artifacts ***.5  

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 ****