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 ***

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 ****

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: Back To The Beginning

WAREHOUSE 13 WEDNESDAY:

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

Episode Reviews

NOTE: There is no episode review in this post, it is an introduction to the episode reviews series of  posts.

In May of this year (2013) the Sci-Fi Channel, excuse me "SyFy", announced that they were pulling the plug on this, one of my favorite shows, and one of the few current shows I watch. They announced they were renewing the show for a fifth season, but it would be a very short six episode season (their usual seasons are 13 episodes, we got a bonus of a 20 episode 4th season). This right around the time they were starting to show the second half of Season 4.

In an effort to show support for the show and in a little protest for it's cancellation I started up two features here at Kirk's Knook: Warehouse 13 Wednesday (what you are reading right now) and Myka Monday. So far I've been pretty diligent in keeping up with them each week. On Mondays at 5:00 PM EST when new Episodes are being aired or earlier at 12:00 PM if no new episode is being shown I post a picture of Joanne as Myka. I will try to continue that feature even after the show is long gone. Then on Wednesdays at 12:00 PM I have posted my review of the episode that had aired that Monday complete with a few screenshots from the episode.

In order to keep that up for this feature (Warehouse 13 Wednesday) I will re-watch the episodes from the previous seasons via the DVDs*. I should be able to watch several episodes per week, review them and have a nice posting queue so that I don't miss a week or get stressed out with my self appointed deadline. It also allows for me to do reviews for other shows/DVDs in my to watch list/pile. By the time the show returns for its all too short six episode Season 5 I should be almost caught up with all the previous reviews. Any remaining episode reviews will have to wait to be posted till after the conclusion of Season 5.

My process for the reviews is pretty simple but time consuming. While watching the episode I have a pad and pen handy so I can write down any lines of dialogue that are funny or strike my fancy as being fun to quote. I also jot down any terms, names or things I think might be useful to talk about. After the episode is over, (and if I am not too tired on Monday night) I start writing the draft for my review here at Blogger. Usually I use the assistance of a few websites for references I need of either the show, the actors or some of the artifacts and their names. There is a wonderful reference site called: Warehouse 13 Wiki. It has a lot of useful information about the show. I also use IMDb.com for background on guest actors and a few early Tuesday Morning (or Monday evening) reviews along with a stream of the episode (for these past episodes I'll just use my DVD) to rewatch bits to help with descriptions, titles, names whatever might help me. I have also used the video streams for screen captures in case episode photos already posted are not interesting enough for me, which they usually are not. Plus I don't want to use the same 2 or 3 images everyone else has been using.

My reviews often contain spoilers, I try not to reveal too much but in the case of the last few I needed to reveal spoilers from previous episodes I wanted to keep as spoilers, but couldn't because the episode I was reviewing used the spoiler as a main plot story arc. At the end of the review I try to give a least a final thought either about something that is being foreshadowed or my general take on that episode. Finally I rate the episode on a scale of 1 to 5 "Warehouse Artifacts" (instead of stars). Unfortunately I don't have a neat little artifact graphic that would work well (maybe a wooden crate? A Tesla Gun? A Farnsworth?) so I use the standard asterisk/star * Sometimes I use half artifacts (.5) and once used a .4 since the episode was just a little bit lower than a complete half an artifact.

Once the review is "finished" for my purposes I schedule it for posting. After it has been posted I add the link to the review on my Warehouse 13 Episodes list page along with the artifact rating. So far the average rating is about 3.5 (3.49 well really 3.4875 or there about)

Don't forget to check out my "Myka Monday" posts, where each Monday (usually) I show a picture of the beautiful Joanne Kelly as Myka Bering. The challenge is to use ONLY images of her as Myka from the show, or possibly on set not candid photos or from other roles she has performed.

*The last episode of Season 3 (its Christmas episode) "The Greatest Gift" is NOT available on R1 DVDs so I will probably have to review that one from an online source, or if I ever get a R2 DVD (and a multi-region player. I had one but it died and I'm not sure if my laptop can handle other regions.) Maybe they will include that on the final Season 5 DVDs?

YQ: Yearly Quata Met

As of the post before this my self appointed yearly quota of a 32 post minimum for the year 2013 was met.  YAY Me!

I usually aim to get about 36 posts per year, which is an average of 3 posts per month much better than the lowest I ever had of only 18 posts in 2010 lazy year. I started slow that year and directing a show helped bottle up things even more.

So this year will possibly surpass my big year of 2007 in which I made 43 posts.

Look even Leena is proud of my achievement.