Television Review: Warehouse Wednesday: Past Imperfect, Present Illumination

Now that we have delved into Pete’s past in previous episodes, the writers of Warehouse 13 decided to treat us with a bit of Myka’s imperfect past. It was a delightful illumination of the present relationship between Pete and Myka verses her old partnership and I thoroughly enjoyed finding out where Myka came from (agent wise) and seeing how she has grown as a character, even if it has all been off-screen. Myka and Pete aren’t currently perfect people, but they are characters that have grown as they’ve gotten older and wiser and that is all I ask from a two-dimensional personality, most 3-D peeps can’t pull that off! Plus this episode pairs up Claudia and Jinksy again, always a great dynamic and begins to explore the reasons behind evil FBI lady, being said evil FBI lady.

The flashback sequence before the beginning of the actual episode, “Past Imperfect” had me stopping the television and doing a quick Google search on Sam Martino, Myaka’s old partner (who appeared in both the Pilot and “Regrets”). I had totes forgotten about this guy, and have a sneaking suspicion I missed some of “Regrets” because, dude I have a great memory and it contains nothing of Myka’s illicit affair! Like, woa. I may needs re-watch the first season or something. OH! EM!  GEE! It just came to me I probably didn’t watch the entire first season. See the first time I watched Warehouse 13 was right after taking the bar (yes, the one to be a lawyer ::shudder::) and I went on a mini vaca to a bed and breakfast and episodes of Warehouse 13 were on and I got hooked, but didn’t get the chance to make sure I watched every episode. So yah, I need to do that. Anyway. Sam Martino worked with Myka when she was stationed in the Denver office of the Secret Service and he was killed during a chase scene of some Leo dude and Myka couldn’t save him. She chases the Leo character for three years before giving up and transferring to D.C. where she gets recruited for the Warehouse.

This episode jumped around a lot, but I ain’t gonna do that. I’m just gonna take one story line at a time today. So, Myka and Pete are trying to retrieve an artifact (some spike?) when Myka spots this Joe dude who killed her old partner. She leaves Pete to his own devices and rushes after Leo Dude. Pete’s purple gloves don’t hold up and he gets cut by the spike and some black smoke tries to choke him, so Myka gives up the chase and helps out Pete. Then they look through security footage and it is defs the guy Myka has been after, so Myka has to face her old co-workers and try to help get this guy.

Screen Still from Warehouse 13

When Myka goes back to her old office she is bombarded with memories of her and Sam’s romance, especially as all this commemorative stuff is still up in the office. Sam was married when he dated Myka, but he was separated from his wife for a year so it was OK. ::Rollseyes:: Myka and Pete are greeted by Gunn from Angel! I haven’t seen this dude in forever! (And  you guessed it, I’m gonna call him by his old character name than the one in this episode.) Myka give a presentation to the Denver field office about the latest incident with Sam’s killer. Pete hypothesis that Leo must be in town to get a new minting printer thingy because the secretary of state has changed since his last bit at minting money. (Remember the secret services is all about counterfeit monies, not just protecting the president.) Leo has changed his looks and is acting like a tourist to take the tour bus which goes to the minting press place and hide in the tourist crowd to cause trouble. The agents hurry to the minting place and try to catch Leo, but he spots Myka and runs past agents and disappears down an alley with Pete hot in pursuit. Myka gets upset and emotional and yells at Pete. Poor Pete.

So Pete begins to run experiments at how some dude could just have disappeared. When Myka asks him what he is doing he explains, and adds that since Myka is acting emotional (usually a Pete thing), he has to be Myka and be rational. After running their experiments, literally, Myka realizes that Leo Dude could not have just disappeared, he must have an artifact! She is going to re-open Sam’s old case as a Warehouse agent.

Flashback reveals that Myka used to have wavy wild hair (remember that?) and that Sam was the more rational one with back-up plans. He hands Myka a card, almost and then tells her he will give it to her at dinner. Which of course didn’t happen because he died. Instead he got a tip on Leo and goes after him. I have a sneaking suspicion that another Secret Service agent is involved with Leo’s scheme. Myka asks agent about the card, and the agent tells her maybe it was about Sam wanting Myka to move in with him. He tells Myka that Sam’s personal belongings went to his wife, so maybe she has the card. Myka goes to wife’s place, have slightly awkward but actually a grown-up conversation about Sam and Myka’s relationship. No crazy ex-wife here. So that was kind of cool. Wife has card, and when Myka opens it, it plays an annoying song. Myka shuts card, disappointed. I think Sam was smarter than that, I think it’s a clue and Myka needs to not give up so easily.

Myka and Pete get a call that Leo is at train station, so they hurry over there and chase him down. Myka asks Pete to stay back so he wont get killed.

cc Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America via Wikimedia Commons

Myka chases Leo with other agents, in the blink of an eye Leo has a gun in his hand, looks surprised, right before he is shot by an agent. Myka realizes that they really need to find the artifact because Leo was set up by someone. The gun is in his right hand even though he was a lefty. Pete asks, what if a blink lasts longer than a blink. Oooh, timey wimey!Because Myka and Pete and synchronized their watches earlier when doing their experiments, they realize that their watches are now 47 seconds off. They call Artie who tells them that it must be something from the USS Eldredge which went off the radar for 47 seconds. Pete says that is how Leo disappeared down the alley, whoever had the artifact was able to help Leo move through the freeze. Myka has a pity party about always failing which Pete replies, you can only fail if you give up.

Myka goes back to Sam’s card and listens to the whole thing. It is his back-up back-up plan. Sam had a hidden audio chip that said other agents were in on Leo’s scheme. I TOTES CALLED THAT ONE!!! I bet it is not Gunn, but Agent Jim. Yancey Arias usually plays the bad guy, bet that is the case here too. But no, Myka thinks that Gunn is the bad agent. Hmm. She thinks he worked with Leo to get the plates, that Sam got too close, and so Gunn killed him all for a lousy promotion. Gunn looks confused. See, nope, totes Agent Jim. Myka tells Gunn she has the recording, Gunn starts to storm out because he is not gonna listen to these accusations.  Pete has out his gun, Gunn turns around, pulls out his gun and shoots. Time slows down, Myka sees that the other agent has the artifact, a barometer from the ship. Myka grabs the artifact and time freezes for Pete and Gunn. Myka stands there yammering at the other agent about how bad he is. Goddamn it Myka you’ve only got 47 seconds! Take away the artifact and save Pete!!!!! Ugh, she is really annoying me this episode. Finally she realizes what she needs to do, fights for the artifact, falls to the ground and in 47 -Hollywood- seconds pushes other agent in line of fire and he goes down instead of Pete.

Pete asks Myka, now that it is all over and they got the bad guys if she feels better. Myka replies, “No.” Myka talked to the FBI leaving out key artifact details and keeping the barometer to safely store in Warehouse. Pete and Myka talk about how sweet Pete was the entire time to let Myka work through the case on her own, to find her center, and her back-up plans. The wife shows up and Myka hands over some sort of Secret Service pin, Ooooh Kay. Unnecessary scene. Oh well. Lovely episode about Myka’s past and how she has grown as an agent. It is also an interesting look at how well Myka and Pete know each other and complement each other that Pete can just be there for Myka and help her save the day!

Meanwhile Claudia and Jinks go looking for a door knob, Jinks gets cut by the door knob. What is up with the purple gloves this episode?! Anyhoo, they find the knob and head back to the Warehouse but are tranquilized. Jinks and Claudia wake up and call Artie, they’ve been snagged, tagged, and debagged. Someone took the artifact from them. A stray dog was with them the whole time and Artie has them bring the dog back to the Warehouse with them as he has an idea. Artie thinks the dog may have seen the license plates and wants to use an artifact to get the info from the dog. The artifact is two fezzes! (Woot, Doctor Who reference?) One goes on the person, one goes on the dog. A magician used to use it to get info from people and “read” them. Artie puts it on to find out the license plate number. Artie tells Claudia and Jinks to be careful, because if either hat comes off and the other one doesn’t not good. Artie and the dog put on the hats when the scarab arrives and the dog chases after it. Damn that scarab. Claudia and Jinks chase after the dog but he gets lost in the Warehouse. Claudia uses Pavlov’s bell to get the dog to come back, this results in her having excessive drool. So much drool I literally gagged. ::Shudder::

Fezzes are cool now
Screen Still from Warehouse 13

The Dog returns, with the scarab? I think, it is hard to tell. They get the dog back to Artie, Artie sees license plate, and Claudia writes it down as Artie speaks/barks it. Claudia and Jinks take the fezzes off of Artie and the dog. Claudia is still drooling as she looks up the license plate number. It is to a rental company, so Claudia hacks into the rental companies data base and pulls up the drivers license for the rental car. It is the evil FBI lady. Artie and Jinks gasp. Claudia asks, Do we know her? Artie replies, “Worse. She knows us.”

Dun Dun DUNNNNN. I think this foretells that the evil FBI lady’s storyline is coming to a conclusion. Not sure why she is wanting all of these artifacts. Not sure why she gave her real driver’s license to the car rental place. Stupid evil FBI Lady! This season is shaping up really well, and I am enjoying it immensely!!! I love the relationship/looking at people’s past aspects of this season with the over arching plot line taking a back turner for most of the season. It has been great fun to get to know the agents a little bit better. I really like the dynamic of Pete and Myka’s sisterly/brotherly affection and care of one another. Way to go Warehouse writers!