‘Warehouse 13’ Conquers the World Through Art
To jump-start this week’s episode of “Warehouse 13,” Artie sent Pete and Myka out to investigate the mysterious theft of a famous art sculpture. But, as Pete succinctly put it, “the Secret Service does not care what was taken, but rather how it was taken.” For it appeared that the thief had literally walked through the wall – and that particular parlor trick poses an untold national security risk.
After a cursory investigation, Pete and Myka discovered that the stolen art piece is but one of four highly-prized sculptures by Burley. Additionally, they found out that there are two highly motivated buyers who want the entire collection for their own nefarious reasons: Jeffrey Weaver (nicely played by Joe Flanigan, formerly of “Stargate Atlantis”) and arch-rival Gilbert Radburn. Weaver claimed that he was simply seeking to make up for the sins of his father and wanted to make sure that Radburn did not uncover the secret of the sculptures for he was not sure what Radburn would do with it; and Radburn, well, we quickly discovered that he was purely interested in conquering the world. Pete summed it up when he told Radburn that the art thefts are, “sometimes not about stealing, sometimes it’s about conquering.”
Looking into the history of the sculptures, Pete and Myka also discovered that each represented one of the base elements of nature: earth, wind, water and fire. As foretold by local legend, when all four are brought together, they will reveal a secret which should lead to untold treasure and power, which is exactly what Radburn craves.
In addition to the four sculptures, there was also a nifty mystical cape which rendered the wearer invisible and gave them the ability to walk through walls. One of the better moments of levity was seeing Myka and Pete experiment with the feather they found stuck in the wall of the auction house and seeing how tempted Pete was to keep it. For surely, we have all wondered, what would it be like to keep some of these artifacts!
But, as the climatic ending revealed, even all the power in the world does not prevent a mortal death. Indeed, the water of eternal life and the arrow with power over nature itself were incapable of preventing Radburn’s death when stabbed by the magic-infused arrow. He may have been immortal to normal methods of death, but he was not immune to magical forces which brought about his own destruction.
In an ironic twist, this episode’s lesson was: “be careful what you wish for, you may just get it!”
What Worked
The dialogue was much sharper and entertaining in this episode. For example, when Pete and Myka met the attractive auction house administrator, Myka whispered to Pete: “She’s out of your league.” To which Pete imperiously asked, “How do you know what my league is?” and Myka replied with a smirk, “”Not that I ask them, but I have season tickets.”
Another scene illustrating much sharper dialogue was when Pete was in the hospital and upon seeing Myka gently smiling said, “You’re pretty when you smile.” To which Myka suspiciously asked, “What about when I’m not smiling?” and Pete mock-grimaced and laughingly replied, “kind of frightening!”
Another good use of dialogue was when Myka found the feather partially buried in the auction house wall and told Pete, “you’re not going to believe this, but I smell fudge.” That was a perfect use of perhaps one of the oddest rules from Artie’s obscure list of questions to ask in order to locate an artifact.
On another note, it was great watching Claudia and Artie interacting on their super-genius plains of existence. For in their world, both are used to being the smartest person around and both need someone to keep them on their toes. Plus Claudia’s flippant use of “knock, knock” in order to both startle and needle Artie were quite delightful in a game of one-upmanship. Perhaps Claudia is just what Artie needs to get him to step up his game. For with Claudia around, Artie must pay closer attention and face the fact that he has perhaps gotten sloppy and complacent without someone to call him on what he is doing. It also made sense that Claudia opted to stick around rather than go to college, as Artie and Claudia appear to need each other and perhaps the Warehouse needs them too. After all, where else would they fit in?
Then, as a final nod to the underlying darker history of the Warehouse and Artie’s role in it, Artie let it slip that he once made a mistake. For, as he told Myka: “The last time I was wrong was June 1987.” To which Myka incredulously said, “stop right there – that’s what I want to hear more about.” But Artie simply replied, “Not a chance.” This is a nice tease to Pete and Myka and to the audience, who are dying to know what exactly Artie is hiding.
What Didn’t Work
Is it truly necessary for Pete and Myka to hit upon every hot person they come across in their work? It does not speak well of their Secret Service training that they are so easily distracted by the physical beauty and charms of fellow law enforcement personnel and/or suspects. It may make sense from a comedic storytelling point of view, but it detracts from the credibility that these are two highly trained professionals representing the best of the best. In “Resonance,” we had Peter falling under Tricia Helfer’s spell; then in “Magnetism” we had Myka flirting with a married paramedic; and now in “Elements,” both are toying with the idea of dating two potential suspects! While it may make some sense that after being stuck in the Warehouse together for long periods of time without interaction with anyone besides each other, that both Myka and Pete would seek a bit more companionship outside of each other, it still smacks of unprofessionalism.
It would be nice to see comedy extracted from other source material.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
‘Warehouse 13’ – Elements story by Dana Baralla and Jack Kenny; directed by Ken Girotti. “Warehouse 13” stars Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek, Genelle Williams and Allison Scagliotti. “Warehouse 13” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.
