Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Last week's premiere restored order to the series after the chaotic events of last season's finale. We see more of the same trend here, as the show continues to gradually make the wrong things right; this time by bringing Jinks back to life. I'm happy to see Aaron Ashmore still has a job, but I'm hoping all this re-writing of history has some serious consequences that raise the stakes for the series.
This episode started off well. The team is in good spirits, except for Artie who seems to still carry stress/guilt/fear from all of last week's events. Pete's innocuous “turn back time” comment has an obviously jarring effect on Artie and precludes the reappearance of Brother Adrian, who of course doesn't know that he and Artie met in an alternate timeline. Brent Spiner gets a much better opportunity to explore the role and it's good to see him back on TV. On a separate note, here's a little bit of TV history trivia for you: Saul Rubinek (Artie) and Brent Spiner once worked very closely on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “The Most Toys” (quite a good episode if you haven't seen it).
Anyways, back to the Warehouse. This episode takes a three-part format, with Pete and Myka investigating an odd case while Artie deals with Brother Adrian and Claudia is doing her best bad girl impression. If you didn't have a ton of reasons to love Allison Scagliotti before, well you should now.
The story really takes an odd turn when Kate Mulgrew once again shows up as regent Jane Lattimer to tell Claudia that it's okay for Claudia to bring Jinks back. It's a thrilling development, made even more surprising by the late revelation that the regents actually did not approve it and Jane was going rogue. We've got all sorts of morality issues here, but Artie's time turning is the biggest of them all. There's a nice bit of thematic storytelling as Artie tries to prevent Claudia from doing something similar (but different) to what he did. It's quite a moral quandary that will surely be part of the series going forward.
Once Claudia gets the questionable go-ahead to revive Jinksy, she and Jane bring Steve back in an emotional scene where Kate Mulgrew really shows she still has the acting chops. I've really enjoyed Mulgrew in this role, and it looks like her character is joining Artie and Claudia in moral limbo. For the most part our heroes have been able to resist the temptation of artifact power, but now things are changing fast.
I also liked the little characterization moments in the script. We learn that Myka has a fear of tentacles (maybe she had an unpleasant experience with some hentai anime). And I really enjoyed Artie's desperate attempts to figure out how to get around this “evil” without unfixing the warehouse's destruction. There's plenty to like here, but there are unfortunately a number of flaws too.
H.P. Lovecraft finally gets some love in Warehouse 13. This is a deserved acknowledgment which comic and horror geeks should surely enjoy, and it's a wonder that it took this long for this series to fit him into one of the stories. Unfortunately, this artifact hunt is one of the weakest the series has ever produced. The plot with the tentacled monsters just doesn't hit any highs, and it culminates in a final scene that his horribly cheesy, partially because our antagonist barely says anything, and when he does he's not particularly interesting. Then we have the extras at the gym, who are all horrendous actors. But to be fair, the whole concept of the scene leaves a lot to be desired. And the special effects – which were gradually getting better for this series – take a little step backwards here.
But if you take out the shaky Lovecraft plot, this is a good episode that sets up a lot of pieces for the developing story that is going to carry us through the season. Still, all these new developments have been at the expense of undoing all the shocking surprises of last season. Normally I wouldn't be a big fan of this approach because it keeps us from believing that any of the major events of the series will ever stick. But at the same time, I understand the producers don't want to take too many risks with a formula that's working. The showrunners have proven themselves capable caretakers of this series, so for now I'll be cautiously optimistic that this direction will pay off very soon.
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