Myka and Pete hurry to the Warehouse, plagued by Pete’s
very very very very very very bad Vibes. Artie has rampaged through the Dark
Vault, scattering the dangerous artefact looking for the Astrolabe (which Mrs.
Fredericks has already given to HG Wells to take away and hide) and they find
Leena’s body. It’s true what happened last episode – Leena is, indeed, dead. On
the other end of her fornsworth, Mrs. Fredericks, visibly shaken, upset and
grieving tells them it was Artie who did it.
Claudia, Myka and Pete talk to Mrs. Fredericks and
Brother Adrian about Artie being the evil unleashed, including the history of
the Astrolabe doing the same thing during the French revolution. Claudia is
furious and grieving for Artie and him not being evil – just whammied – and
Mrs. Frederick tells them they must find him before he hurts anyone else. She
reminds them how dangerous Artie is, what an expert he is on the Warehouse and
how much he knows their strengths and their weaknesses.
In the Warehouse, Pete thinks he sees Leena, but rushing
out there is no-one there, causing more very well acted grief from all of them.
And Artie shows up, saying he can feel there is something wrong. They see this
as hopeful, but he quickly says the only thing that can fix him is the Astrolabe,
he needs the Astrolabe and is quite vehement about it. But they know what would
happen if Artie reset time – the destruction of the Warehouse and Pandora’s box
– and they can’t let him have it. It’s then that they find he’s not there –
he’s just a hologram. He says he’s not Artie, Artie is dead and was a slave to
the Warehouse and he’s going to use the Astrolabe to set him free. It’s at this
point there’s an explosion in the Warehouse, setting fire to the files from
Warehouse 8 from the Holy Roman Empire. They contain the fire and guess there
was something in the section Artie was trying to hide that may be connected to
the Astrolabe.
In the Vatican, Jinks, Mrs. Frederick and Brother Adrian
are researching. They find an old text that says if any man lives the same day
twice they will life their life as two – a dual personality and the darkness
will overcome the light, the evil will overwhelm his good, irreversibly
changing him.
Pete continues to see Leena’s ghostly form, which leads
him to a cabinet, hidden in it he finds papers and pictures of the knife that
have been plaguing Artie’s visions. According to Mrs. Fredericks, the papers
are HG’s research. She tells them about Artie’s visions of Claudia stabbing him
with it, Claudia says she never would and just because Artie dreamed it doesn’t
make it true – Mrs. Fredericks agrees but also says it doesn’t mean it’s not
true. It could be the dagger was in Artie’s dream because his dark side was
trying to push him away from it They decide the dagger is important and, looking
at the research find it was Francesco Borgia’s dagger that was stored in –
Warehouse 8.
Using Claudia’s computer skills that outstrip Artie they find out he is travelling to Budapest – and travelling under a false name that is an anagram of his real name, suggesting there is something in him that wants to be caught. He’s tracking down the dagger.
While Myka and Pete go to Budapest, Claudia has Artie’s fake identity listed as a terrorist so he is delayed by the police in Hungary. Myka and Pete have found the dagger – it’s in an ambassador’s private art collection that has been lent to a museum in Prague – and they follow. Claudia has done some research, Warehouse 8 had an orchid that caused a severe, lethal plague that was encased in an impenetrable box – which the dagger can open. If Artie can open the box, unleash the orchid, he can force them to use the Astrolabe because the death toll from the orchid will outstrip the damage caused by the Warehouse being blown up.
Mrs. Fredericks goes to pick up Artie from the Hungarian
police – except he has used an Artefact to escape. In Prague, Myka and Pete are
in the museum looking for the dagger and still stunned by the enormity of
Leena’s death and how they can continue as
group with Artie having killed her – and how they can tell Artie what he
did. They find the dagger – but Artie is there. After delivering some
confidence destroying attacks which is meant to show how much he knows them and
their weaknesses, he throws a noose into the rafters that causes the whole room
to dangle from invisible nooses, allowing him to claim the dagger. Fear Artie
and his bag o’ tricks.
Claudia and Jenks meet in Berlin to travel to the former
sight of Warehouse 8 to find the orchid and Claudia recaps everything to a
rather overwhelmed Jinks. Because of the danger of the orchid it was buried
under Warehouse 8, not kept in it – and when they moved to Warehouse 9 they
thought it too risky to move it. So now it’s under an office building belonging
to a German insurance company. They find no box – but they do find a strange
symbol carved on the wall. When shown to Mrs. Frederick, she says it’s a clue
to the Steinbrook family – since Steinbrook was the Artie of Warehouse 8.
Artie is ahead of them, already talking to the man’s
descendants. The orchid was stored under Warehouse 8, but when the Third Reich
rose to power, they moved it for fear of it falling into the Nazi’s hands.
Telling them rogue agents are following him, he asks them to lead him to the
orchid.
Myka, Jenks, Pete and Claudia catch up with them, but
Artie uses another Artefact – the deafening finger-cymbals, to run into an old
watermill where the orchid is kept. Some badly choreographed fight scenes
later, Pete restrains Artie, Claudia wrestles one of the Steinbrooks and Jinks
and Myka find the orchid and the dagger.
Artie then appears with Pete held at gunpoint and tells
them to give him the orchid and the dagger. After a tense moment, Myka throws
the dagger into the gears of the mill, where it will be ground to pieces –
saving the world before Pete’s life. Using an Artefact to stop time, Artie
grabs the Orchid and goes down to grab the dagger before it can be crushed.
Claudia confronts him and he throws another trampling on
the sore spots speech at her, causing tears to fall dramatically. He runs with
the Jesuit dagger and the orchid – and stabs through the protection yelling “I
cast ye out”, the dagger is jerked out of his hands to land next to Claudia.
The orchid free, he plucks the flower from the plant and throws it into the air.
Claudia grabs the dagger and, hearing Artie whisper “do it, save me” in her
head – she stabs Artie crying “I cast you out.” Artie collapses, holding her
and telling her it’s ok.
Pete throws himself across the room to catch the flower
before it falls, but it still is reduced to black motes that swirl into all of
their mouths and noses. The motes leave the building and spread over Europe and
the entire world
Now there’s a dramatic cliffhanger for you – a world wide
plague that kills the infected within 24 hours. That’s going to be messy. I
also love to see Artie in action with his impressive bag’o’tricks. I didn’t
find his emotional whammies particularly powerful, it’s obvious what they were
and, to be honest, given the circumstances I didn’t find them impactful.
I did like that Jinks didn’t let Brother Adrian’s comment
about valuing new knowledge pass without question, causing Brother Adrian to
say the Vatican protected them, not ruled them.
I am not even slightly impressed by Leena’s death. She
was already grossly underused, terribly under developed and badly in need of
more screen time, to have her then killed off just rubs salt into the wounds,
especially considering how little screen time POC get on this show. Also, while
the cast does have some powerful moments of grief for her, that quickly changes
into grief about how they will affect Artie and how they will work for Artie
and worry about Artie – she gets some powerful grief, but it is not maintained.
I don’t know where they’re going with Leena’s ghost or if that’s ever going to be explained. I hope they pull SOMETHING out of their bag.
This isn’t a season finale, but it is a mid-season finale
(whatever that means) and Warehouse 13 will return in 2013
