Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Summer DVR Dump: Warehouse 13 5.06: “Endless”

“This ritual is also the Warehouse’s gift to you.”
- Mrs. Frederick

Well gang, we’ve reached the end of the road with our fearless Warehouse agents. It’s time to bid adieu to Pete, Myka, Artie, Claudia, Steve and Mrs. Frederick. After a brief trip to 1889 where we get one final cameo from the lovely HG Wells (snagging Jack the Ripper’s lantern), we learn that the Warehouse is moving on. The gang is gathered around the round table which acts as a Warehouse time capsule. Every agent contributes their defining moment to it. Pete is angry that they aren’t trying to stop the move but he’s not going to win the argument. So, Claudia goes first. The artifact picks your defining moment. I have to admit when I read the synopsis that they would be picking their defining moments, I worried it would be something of a clip show. Thankfully I was wrong. Claudia’s defining moment deals with a tap dancing artifact. I had a big grin plastered on my face the whole time as everyone was dancing and the gang was chased by crazy sparkly showgirls. Claudia got to do a big final number while Artie and company found an artifact to stop the tap dancing one. Myka notes that Claudia seems kind of bummed out by the moment and Mrs. F chimes in that Claudia realized in that moment she didn’t want to be the Caretaker of the Warehouse. Claudia explains that she loves being an agent and wouldn’t want to give that up for anything.

Pete storms off angrily to find a way to save the Warehouse while the rest of the team deals with Claudia’s doubts about being Caretaker. Steve is trying to be supportive and Claudia is worried about letting Artie down. This leads to him contributing his defining moment which Mrs. Frederick warns could back fire. We see Artie and a very young man (a few years older than Claudia probably) out snagging and bagging. There’s an elusive artifact that Artie’s been after for at least twenty years. It created a time bubble so a bunch of soldiers didn’t ship out in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Artie and his partner split up and the young guy chats up a woman who’d been fighting with a man. He learns that the guy is her husband and she’s pregnant and doesn’t want him to go. So she’s been using a champagne glass to keep time from moving forward. But the young agent blabs about the baby and Artie snags the glass. He’s pretty pleased with himself but the young agent, Scott, is a little bummed about a mother worrying about her child growing up without a father. And then Artie drops the bombshell that Scott is his son. Say what now? Claudia needs a little time to process Artie’s revelation. It turns out he was the person who got the “one person can know your life about the Warehouse” rule applied to agents and not just the Regents. And his son isn’t an agent. He’s just a normal guy who goes to Comic Con with his dad (love it!) The point is that Claudia should be happy and no decisions need to be made now.

Pete is furiously trying to find a loop hole to stop the Warehouse from moving and he won’t listen to Myka when she says that there is no loop hole and his job is to be contributing to the time capsule. I’m honestly kind of surprised by how vehemently opposed he is to the change. I think he’s lashing out because he’s afraid of what he’ll lose. Myka goes back to the round table to find Mrs. F and Steve bonding over Mrs. F’s moment. But now it’s Myka’s turn. She’s talking to a bunch of preppy women (like suburban housewife types) and going on about all their dirty little secrets and how they are linked to a Japanese artifact. She doesn’t expect them all to touch it and become ninja cat burglars. Whoops! We get a funny ninja fight scene with Pete and Myka and as we come out of the moment, Steve points out that Myka is in love with Pete. It makes sense why the two of them were fighting so much. The Warehouse is what brought them together.

I have to say I really enjoyed a lot of the little character moments we go in this finale. We see Artie railing against the move by talking (aka yelling) to the Warehouse as if it could actually respond. He calls it a cheap whore for moving on without him and not thanking him for his loyalty and care. He gets an apple in return (which I didn’t really get) and he seems satisfied. Back in the round table room, it is Steve’s turn. He’s worried that he doesn’t have a defining moment since he never felt like he truly belonged at the Warehouse but his moment is rather interesting. HG, Claudia and Steve are trying to Magic School Bus an artifact out of Artie’s heart. Steve snags it and he’s just in awe at the fact he’s standing inside a beating human heart. The Warehouse gave him peace. And we also realize that this ritual of recording one’s defining moment is also a way for the Warehouse give something back to the agents. Down at the compass device that directs where the Warehouse goes on its next journey, Myka finds Pete and after some babbling and cross-talking, she finally just kisses him. He thinks it is artifact induced but she assures him that she loves him and that he doesn’t need to be afraid of losing the person he’s become because she won’t let him.

It’s now Pete’s turn to contribute his moment and it’s every case they’ve worked up to Myka kissing him. The Warehouse has made him who he is and continues to shape him. Pete gets rather emotional about it until Steve jabs that maybe he broke the table. This gets a laugh out of Mrs. Frederick. But they don’t have time to sit around and use because they’ve got a ping. And as they start digging into the case we transition to the future where Claudia has become the Caretaker, complete with the creepy entering and exiting of rooms without a sound. She takes a moment to admire her team of agents who remind her so much of her friends before going down to the round table. We get everyone echoing the phrase “endless wonder” as we pull up and out of the Warehouse. I have to say that was a very satisfying ending to a rather wondrous show. It’s not often you get such a good wrap up with the writers honoring all that’s come before and really making the fans reconnect with bits of the past. The only cameo we didn’t get that I would have liked is one by Pete’s mom. She may have been in one of the clips that played during his montage of defining moment but I missed her. I am sad to see this little show go as it was the last of the trio that really got me into watching original material on SyFy. But I’m sure there will be more to come. Farewell, Warehouse 13. May you continue on in our hearts with your rows of endless wonder.

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