TV Verdict

This episode of Warehouse 13 leaves the kids in charge of the Warehouse while Artie has to take care of some unexpected business. Claudia is the stereotypical spunky and intelligent troublemaker that seems common to science fiction these days, basically every other character on Eureka, but it doesn’t make her any less entertaining. There was already that layer of childlike wonder from Pete but now he has a partner in crime with Claudia and they stand in contrast to the more serious and adult Artie and Myka. Their adventure this week starts with Claudia sliding across the warehouse on a zip line. Of course that zip line breaks and she falls knocking dangerous artifacts off shelves on her way down. Now Myka and Pete have to cross the warehouse fighting through the disheveled artifacts to find Claudia. I’ve said this before about this show and others but it all feels like a Dungeons and Dragons game. Work your way through the maze and roll D20’s for attacks. At any rate, along with knocking artifacts about Claudia’s fall also disabled the device responsible for pumping the neutralizing goo around the warehouse. No neutralizing goo means no neutralized artifacts so they all start activating leading eventually to a giant storm cloud inside the warehouse and the eventual destruction of the world. One of the more fun obstacles that had to be overcome by Pete and Myka was the dodge ball that multiplied when it hit someone, Myka for example.

Meanwhile Artie has been ushered into a small-town diner where every patron and even the waitress is a part of a group of regents that are responsible for overseeing how the warehouse is being run. Mrs. Frederic, Mrs. Irene Frederic, has been tasked with bringing Artie into this meeting so that his performance can be evaluated. He is asked to go over recent cases and his decisions throughout the investigations. His artifact retrieval ratio can’t be questioned but the regents believe that he may be handling his job and his people too recklessly. Artie fought back though defending his methods and saying that the results should be considered when deciding whether he is properly doing his job. He does inevitably keep his job and heads back to the warehouse with no clue of the chaos that was going on in the warehouse while he was gone.

Pete, Myka, and Claudia’s adventure through the warehouse was exciting and entertaining if a little simplistic in plot. The most intriguing part of the romp through the warehouse was the look at the “dark vault” the area with the most dangerous artifacts. At one point Pete gets caught up with a typewriter all Jack Nicholson from The Shining style. Not much was revealed about what was inside the vault other than just giving us a look at it but even just getting that was cool. The story was fairly simplistic but entertaining and often that’s enough for a night’s viewing. Not every episode has to be some deep character developing plot. This episode wasn’t even tied directly to the larger story arc which will end with some sort of confrontation between the Warehouse and McPherson. It’s a fun break before the real stuff starts to happen. With that said there is a bit of an evolution with artie in that he is finding himself counting on, respecting, and caring for Pete and Myka more and more and their relationship will be important with more dramatic events that are sure to come.