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Warehouse 13: There's Always a Downside

... in which Myka and Jinks search for an artifact with seemingly positive effects, Pete and Claudia team up to help an old friend, and Artie keeps trying to stonewall Brother Adrian.

Not a bad effort this week. I liked the change up in the team dynamics, thought the ongoing arc development was good, and they even managed to effectively include humor. I really appreciate the continued effort to show that use of artifacts is a dangerous business, and even ones that have seemingly positive effects can have a seriously negative downside. (Although I’m having a little cognitive dissonance reconciling Artie’s bag of nifty artifact tricks with “Hey, artifact use is bad!”) Another plus this week: I actually wanted to rewatch parts of the episode, so that’s a step in the right direction.

Jinks and Myka. I really liked this pairing. It was nice to see Myka in a generally more relaxed mode, enjoying some jazz and free drinks. Pete’s antics seem to put her into uptight overdrive trying to overcompensate for his zaniness. But Steve’s “contemplative” nature seemed to let her function in a more thoughtful mode, and they worked well together both professionally and personally. I’m glad they are continuing to address the lingering psychological wounds from Steve’s death and resurrection.

Pete and Claudia. This wasn’t the dynamic I’d expected from these two. I always thought that if Pete and Claudia tackled a case together we’d get uber-manic hijinks, but Claudia seemed relatively reserved to me. Perhaps with quirky Hugo in the mix, one of them had to play the grown up, and the job fell to Claudia. I was hoping that Hugo’s carelessness would trip some alarm bells for Claudia, but unfortunately, instead of recognizing the dangers of using artifacts for personal benefit and starting to realize the mistake she’s made with Jinks, Claudia just doubled down on her “it’s all okay” attitude.

Artie and Brother Adrian. These two trying to game each other was highly amusing, and it was even funnier the second time through, knowing that Brother Adrian was pulling a fast one with the spur. But I don’t quite understand why Brother Adrian is still so insistent on restoring the original timeline. How can Artie’s “evil” possibly be worse than letting the world succumb to hopelessness and chaos? He must know more than he’s willing to share at this point, because I don’t get why he’s willing to dismantle Artie’s work to get what he wants. I’m starting to feel like the characters are purposely not sharing information just to drag out the drama (like the heady days of Lost), and it is beginning to frustrate me. If you really want Artie to use the astrolabe again, just do a better job of explaining why the hopeless world of chaos is the lesser of the two evils! Sheesh.

Other Thoughts

Myka’s Hair Report: Looking pretty good this week! Still a bit on the messy side, but mostly under control.

Hugo cracks me up. His gentle chiding of his nephew and his belated recognition that sharing a joint shouldn’t be held up as an example of good behavior were very amusing. But what I really liked about this Hugo appearance was that they put some real pathos behind his quirky exterior. His pride in his nephew, his desire for a legacy, and his remorse at being reckless were nice touches.

The pacing in the marbles story thread seemed very off to me. I kept thinking the whole “identify the marble-holders and round them up” effort should have taken way less time. The process seemed overly stretched out.

Sam Huntington from Being Human (US) played Ethan, the trumpet player.

Ethan discovering that the bartender was into him was seriously groan-inducing, but Myka and Steve's hasty exit made me chuckle. (Funny aside: my husband audibly groaned at that moment with a “That’s the cheesiest thing ever” tone, but that’s pretty much how our relationship started. No, he’s not a musician.)

The running “mushrooms” gag makes me laugh every time.

I’m intrigued by the notion that the Brotherhood is an equivalent force to the Regents, only without rules.

I really liked the final twist that the Pete-Claudia-Hugo storyline directly tied into Artie’s story with Brother Adrian. Although I could have done without Artie’s final “Nooo!” So campy.

Final Analysis: A reasonably well-balanced episode that I actually enjoyed watching more than once.

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

4 comments:

  1. Brother Adrian vs Artie: Interesting to see how powerful the Templars are if they were able to get into the Warehouse.

    Jinks/Myka: liked this storyline more for Jinks and Myka talking about what happened to Jinks and what he should do about it rather than the artifact they were investigating.

    Claudia/Pete/Hugo: lots of humor, and yes recovering the marbles took longer than expected, but still I liked this part of the episode the most. And it had my favorite part/line when they're evacuating the gym and Claudia calls each of the cheerleaders "Heather" :D

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  2. Great review (again) Jess

    I had mixed feelings for this one : yay for the crews' mix-ups, the general W-13's atmosphere we're used to, and always a pleasure to have René Auberjonois' presence on the show.

    Nay for the weird evil lurking background (probably the price to pay for character growth and development) and Jinks' return from the dead (but a yay for his return nonetheless : he's great with the cast). But I keep faith in the show ! Eager to see what the writers will take us to that resolution of this season's arc. (and I can't stop seeing/thinking about a parallel with Eureka's Holly story arc as well)

    (and I'd really love a 3rd soundtrack CD please)

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  3. Neat episode..aww poor Jinks..I hope he stays alive I really do. But it looks bad for him.
    Adrian had better come clean about that evil soon..or we'll all lose patience.
    Anna

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  4. Star Trek geekfest here! Odo AND Data in an episode?! YESSSS!!! Pity they didn't share a scene... :p

    I love the character of Hugo, hope they bring him back for more!

    And nope, I don't understand Brother Adrian either! I mean, what on earth could possibly be worse than the chaos we saw following the destruction of Pandora's Box???

    ReplyDelete

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