Flashback to before the Claudia bronzing and Nick tries
to convince Paracelsus – his uncle – that Claudia isn’t a threat and the
warehouse in 2013 is very different from his day. He uses an Artefact to
transfer white ghosty stuff from him to Paracelsus, bringing him up to date on
the last few centuries.
This is all being seen by Myka and Pete using the
recapper and Myka is frustrated because there’s no record as to why Paracelsus
was bronzed in the first place. Myka also sees that a number of other Artefacts
have been removed. Artie tries to fix the Bronzer to de-bronze Claudia and using
the recapper shows Paracelsus hitting Nick – but they can’t read his lips still
and the recapper is silent. Worse, the bronzer doesn’t work because the
Artefact that makes it work – a bronze Mesopotamian Stele, is missing. A
message appears from Paracelsus: Sutton knows what I want.
To the B&B where Charlotte has been chained up with
an Artefact to prevent her leaving (and Abigail is unimpressed by her whining).
Charlotte keeps protesting that leaving and bronzing Claudia wasn’t part of the
plan and Myka mentions Nick may have been forced to – after all Paracelsus did
hit him. That wasn’t part of Charlotte’s plan either. Artie is unimpressed with
Charlotte’s complete underestimating of Paracelsus.
Charlotte explains their history – Paracelsus was Sutton’s
brother. He pushed the boundaries of science and alchemy, often using Artefacts
in his work; and drugging his dear brother so he could use Sutton, Charlotte
and Nick as guinea pigs for his research. He combined the philosophers stone
with another Artefact (a copper bowl with the Egyptian symbol for life on it)
to make the family immortal. Artie is not impressed with this extremely
dangerous combining of Artefacts to experiment with. After which Warehouse 9
agents bronzed Paracelsus. Charlotte describes, again, how lonely and terrible
it is for Nick as a perpetual 15 year old. To reverse it they need the same
Artefacts and Paracelsus himself (Charlotte expected him to be grateful and
weak after being debronzed. You’d think an immortal would be a better judge of
character) - but all Charlotte knows is that his old lab was buried under
Constantinople somewhere – now Istanbul. But not where. Their only lead is
finding Sutton.
While Artie searches, Pete asks Myka when she starts her
cancer treatments; she ducks the question and basically says it’s her business
how she handles her own body, not his. They’re interrupted by Artie having
found Sutton – he is posing as a Russian businessman called Vladimir Kamanev
and is, as is his wont, cosying up to a rich duchess in Luxembourg. Time for
Myka, Pete and Charlotte (since she knows her husband and his tricks) to go
find him.
Steve has some bad news for Artie though – Claudia’s
starting to crumble. The bronzer machine stabilises the Stele and keeps the
people bronzed alive. But Paracelsus used the Stele without the bronzer – she will
crumble. Time for Steve and Artie to both fight to read the same computer on bronze
– and Mrs. Frederick appears. She knows something’s up. Artie doesn’t even try
to lie to her and shows her Claudia. She’s surprised to learn Warehouse 9 didn’t
leave any records as to why they bronzed Paracelsus - to the restricted files!
Which is the first time Artie learns there ARE restricted files. She cuts short his rant to go check them and walks away. Steve grabs Artie and points that out – Mrs. Frederick walked away, not disappeared, she walked. Something’s up!
She walks to Artie’s office where she gets to use some of her tricks to surprise even grumpy, jaded Artie with some endless wonder – revealing the hidden files (though she doesn’t let Artie in – restricted after all!) But inside she finds that the files have been redacted by the regents of Warehouse 9. Poor Artie feels upset about being excluded from the restricted section – poor Artie, he looks all harrumphy. But Mrs. Frederick acts confused and repeats herself; something else is going on with her.
Artie and Jinks work through various ways to delay
Claudia’s deterioration but they can’t swtop it. Kasan arrives – and he’s
noticed that Mrs. Frederick is rapidly losing it as well. Kasan shows Artie the
Eldunari – the central nervous system of the Warehouse and links the Caretaker
to the Warehouse. It’s pretty. But some
of the pretty floating symbols are burning out and exploding – something’s
attacking the very core of the warehouse.
In Luxembourg, Pete, Myka and Charlotte arrive at the
super formal party to learn that Sutton is now engaged to the Duchess.
Charlotte isn’t surprised – she’s seen him pull the same con 12 times. Get
engaged to a wealthy aristocrat, she breaks out the family jewels and he fills
his pockets. Then he’ll use them gems for yet another scam. Which is when
Sutton notices them and flees.
He goes upstairs with his new fiancée, drugs her and begins deftly removing her gems before the gang show up. Myka and Pete talk about extradition – Charlotte just shoots him. That’s quick and easy; talk about direct action. Of course, Duchess screams for her guards and there’s a fight – during which Sutton resurrects and escapes when the duchess faints. He’s slippery. They do chase him down though – but the Luxembourg police should really be arriving soon, what with them causing this much damage and mayhem in such an exclusive location.
Whether the police were called or not, all is peaceful and the duchess slaps Sutton’s face, so I assume she’s been filled in. Sutton is not amused – and reveals that it was Paracelsus who perfected bronzing in the first place. Pete tries to hide who released him, but she guesses it’s Charlotte – let the fighting begin; but he calms when he hears Nicholas has been taken. He thinks his brother is insane (probably because he tested the immortality by stabbing Sutton) and his immortality for the three of them required him to kill an entire village. He reported his brother to the authorities and Warehouse 9 agents collected him. Sutton also split the stone in 2. A wonderful bickering argument follows over who has the stone (I can really believe Sutton and Charlotte as a married couple, their bickering is perfect). He has his half of the crystal, and he wants his son away from Paracelsus – so agrees to show them his lab, still preserved under Istanbul
There they find it was preserved by Sutton himself – also trying to find a way to save their son from immortality. As they enter the lab they hear a scream which both Sutton and Charlotte take to be Nick and they run off – leaving Myka and Pete behind and quickly getting separated. Myka and Pete find their own nifty patterned (it’s a trap) – and the bronzing argument (oh it is so a trap). They both fall into a pit under the mosaic – yes it’s a trap. And Paracelsus takes their half of the stone from their unconscious bodies.
Out of the pit, Paracelsus uses a net to incapacitate
Sutton and take his half of the stone; while Charlotte and Nick look on being
all helpless. Paracelsus puts his equipment together and promises to make them
mortal, making them breath in the smoke from the stone and cup. Not so simple
of course – Paracelsus wants revenge on the brother who betrayed him to the
authorities and dropped him into the Warehouse’s hands. He shoots at Nick –
Charlotte standing in the way, taking the bullet for him. Myka and Pete arrive
with teslas – shooting at him only to have him use an Artefact to throw the
electricity back, hitting one of the support beams. He runs as the place begins
to collapse; Pete chases him, Myka goes for the Stele, telling Sutton and Nick
to get Charlotte out of there. As the building collapses, Pete runs back to
help Sutton & co as a beam falls on Charlotte. A beam none of them can
move. A tearful goodbye follows as Charlotte urges Sutton to go and look after
their son as she dies. Myka arrives with the Stele and they all leave the
building before it collapses.
Back at the B&B Mrs. Frederick is confused and Kasan
authorises the use of the Keeper – one person per generation trusted with
memorising all the really confidential secrets. And this generation’s Keeper?
Is Abigail; unbeknownst to everyone. She has an Artefact that holds the
memories of all past Warehouses, made from braided hair, that she can use to
tap into all those old memories.
Claudia gets debronzed and in the aftermath Pete realises
they could have lost her – and turns to Myka because he doesn’t want to lose
her as well. He tells her, starkly, that she has cancer and she can’t assume
she has all the time in the world to address it; he doesn’t want to be like
Sutton, regretting the years he didn’t spend with her. She agrees to book an
appointment with her doctor. And Claudia senses something – about the warehouse
and Paracelsus, something’s wrong
Which is when Mrs. Frederick arrives and explains Claudia
(tipped to be the next Caretaker) is just feeling the edge of what she is. Mrs.
Frederick is fighting a battle for Caretakership with the Warehouse – not with
Claudia (she’s in the Warehouse’s future), but Paracelsus. He was the Caretaker
of Warehouse 9 and past takes precedence – Mrs. Frederick is losing.
By the way – in case anyone was wondering Paracelsus was a real person
– and pretty brilliant in his day.
I think he would have made a great villain and the
immortals an interesting storyline if only it had been developed earlier! I
mean sure, Paracelsus could have easily ended up looking like Sykes or Macpherson
– but he has a unique element by being a Caretaker. The renegade Caretaker
could have been an awesome storyline. The machinations of the immortals could
have been fascinating – but this is the second to last episode, it’s too late
to develop.
Also I don’t like that Charlotte died – it seemed purely
to exist to give Pete pain about Myka. Why was it needed? Nick and Sutton were
riding off into the sunset, why couldn’t Nick, Charlotte and Sutton do so?
