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Warehouse 13: An Evil Within

... in which Pete and Myka investigate a series of assaults involving mass delusions and tentacled monsters. Meanwhile, Claudia and Artie continue to deal with the fallout from Sykes’ attack on the Warehouse.

After spilling far too much virtual ink last week, I’m going to try to keep things relatively short and sweet this time out. For my sanity and yours. I’m not overly thrilled by the latest turn of events with Jinks, but, overall, I was still happier with ‘An Evil Within’ than ‘A New Hope.’ The main case was reasonably strong (despite an underwhelming performance from the actor playing the perp), the tone balance was much improved, and the overarching plot elements are chugging right along. They even brought Brother Adrian back to the realm of “believably human” after his campy evil debut. (Although we were still tortured with his ridiculously melodramatic voiceover proclamations about the Big Bad Evil in Artie’s nightmare visions. Oy.)

I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I’m not on board with Jinks being resurrected. At least from the “Claudia has made a terrible mistake” perspective. I don’t really mind it so much from a story perspective, because it is clear that the writers share my view that Claudia and Jane screwed the pooch royally here. This isn’t a shiny happy reset button, and there will be consequences. For the Warehouse family and for Steve. So I’m willing to see how it plays out. (And I have to admit that, at this point, it is rather nice to see Jinks back in the fold, even though he’ll probably never be the same. I repeat: the dead never come back right.)

The parallel they seem to be trying to draw between what Artie did in the season premiere and what Claudia and Jane just did doesn’t really hold water for me. I find myself wondering if the writers view their use of artifacts to mess with the natural course of events as the same, or if we are just supposed to believe Artie is wrestling with whether he made the right call. Because it seems to me that Artie was acting unselfishly when he deployed the failsafe device. Yes, he got to save his friends, but his primary motivation was restoring the Warehouse and preventing the world from descending into complete chaos (because of the Pandora’s Box thing). When Brother Adrian said the astrolabe effects had to be reversed, my first thought was “How the hell is Artie supposed to do that? What’s the lesser of the two evils here?“ Talk about a rock and a hard place.

Claudia and Jane, however, were completely motivated by grief and selfishness. Unlike in Artie’s situation, here it is very simple to see the correct course of action. Claudia protested that she’s acting unselfishly, because Steve’s death was unfair and she’s correcting an injustice. But she didn’t do this for anyone but herself. To ease her pain. She didn’t once think about the fact that Steve knew and accepted the risks of his job, and was likely prepared to give his life to protect and serve. Moreover, she never considered how being brought back from the dead would affect him emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Worse, once she did recognize that maybe being undead isn’t ideal from his perspective, she was completely dismissive and unapologetic! And Jane? I can only assume that Jane was feeling guilty about her choices regarding Walter Sykes or was reliving the pain of losing her husband, because she certainly seems to have gone off the reservation on this one. She actually seemed way out of character to me, so I’m wondering if there is more going on here than meets the eye.

Other Thoughts

Myka’s curly hair is back! Yea!!! Of course, it would be nice if she combed it a bit. It’s looking a bit bed-headish right now.

Brother Adrian’s vagueness about the nature of the Big Bad Evil was a bit frustrating, but at least Artie was actually asking the right questions.

It pretty much goes without saying at this point, but great work from Allison Scagliotti this week. And Aaron Ashmore was quite good, too. Particularly in the scene in the courtyard.

The special effects for the Lovecraft monsters weren’t the greatest, but they did manage to give me a good chuckle. I particularly enjoyed the Pete-monster sort of galumphing as it ran from the gym.

Final Analysis: Much better for me this week, despite some questionable developments. Let’s see where it goes.

Jess Lynde is a highly engaged television viewer. Probably a bit too engaged.

3 comments:

  1. Hum, Scyfy's new obsession about bringing the dead back to Life, Not on board either. On the other hand, I do understand their decision : these 2 gave us great moments together last seasons. Give me a civil war reenactment any day.

    AW, the scene at the end between Artie and Claudia. Very nice. So nice that I actually watched it 3 times. So nice that I intend to watch it at least another 3 times this weekend. Between 2 eps of Lost (approaching season 3 !) (Juliet burning her muffins !!)

    Sigh, Myka look great, regardless of her hair, but I do admit that her flat hair last season made her.....more stunning.

    Oy, with the poodles already (pun for myself, and the Gilmore Girls fans out here and out there)

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  2. Oh.

    And Jinks looking in despair at the Buddha statue on the patio ? Nice character continuity shot. proud of you.

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  3. I like that Jinks is back. But I also want there to be consequences, as I'm sure there will be. Like a certain Slayer maybe he's not happy about being back..and ends up sleeping with vampires? Um wrong show..True Blood it's not.
    Anna

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