‘Warehouse 13’ 4.15 Episode Recap and Review: Instinct

HG is back on this week’s episode of Warehouse 13!

And she’s in… Wisconsin? Helena is back to calling herself Emily Lake and working in a crime lab. When a murder suspect runs in and confesses at the top of his lungs, her Artifact-sense starts tingling, so she calls in Pete and Myka. Myka is understandably surprised to hear from HG, as she went off the grid some time ago. She’s even more surprised to find Helena shacking up with Nate, a single father in a button-down and his Kenpo-taking daughter, Adelaide.

HG fills Pete and Myka in on the sitch: Richard Purcell, the suspect, was released earlier on a technicality, as was his purported parter, Donald Schultz. Purcell maintains that Schultz is innocent, as he was getting arrested in another state at the time of the shooting in question. The District Attorney is kind of a rhymes-with-Bic and gearing up for an election year, so he’s more than willing to nail everyone to the wall and wants the Warehouse agents far, far away from the investigation. Detective Briggs, the lead detective on the case, doesn’t seem much better. Shortly after Purcell’s dramatic, fear-filled confession, Schultz turns up dead of a fear-induced heart attack. Coincidence? Not on this show!

Upon review of the police station footage, it looks like Briggs knew Purcell was coming. Pete, Myka, and HG go to confront him, but he’s one step ahead. He flashed his badge at Adelaide’s karate school and picked her up, netting himself a nice little hostage. The agents managed to bag the Artifact, a Hyaenadon jawbone, when Briggs was attempting to intimidate Nate into telling everything he knows about “Emily.” Now he’s willing to hand over Adelaide to get the jawbone back. Myka, knowing a kid is at risk and HG’s objectivity is severely compromised, goes solo to make the trade. Pete’s research (yes, you read that right. Pete did the research) shows that hyenas never hunt alone. Briggs has to have a partner somewhere. Myka figures that one out on her own when the D.A. shows up to the hand-off with a gun. A massive fight ensues in which Pete gets turned partially into a caveman, Briggs turns on the eviler-than-thou D.A., and HG goes in to rescue an Adelaide who is already halfway to having rescued herself.

Myka resigns herself to the fact that HG is happy in this life, and that it suits her. The two agree to meet for coffee more often than world-saving, and part on a sniffle-inducing “awwwwww.”

Back in Univille, the Warehouse is experiencing some massive and discomfiting tremors. Claudia, Jinks, and Abigail meet up with Artie to investigate. Claud is not thrilled with the idea of Abigail tooling about the Warehouse with the team. Her wiggins is enhanced by the fact that the Warehouse has been zapping her pretty constantly over the last week or so. It turns out that the tremors are being caused by a jam in one of the Warehouse’s expansion joints (since the Warehouse automatically expands. Didn’t you know?). The Golden Spike from the Transcontinental Railroad has gotten sucked into the joint and is wreaking all sorts of merry havoc. Claudia sifts through the Shoningen Armory and manages to cobble together a “Goozooka,” but they’re a little too far away to make the goo launcher effective.

Attempts to get safely closer to the epicenter leave both Jinks and Artie temporarily out of commission, so it’s just Abigail and Claudia to save the day. Abigail gets Claudia to confess that her edginess stems from some seriously bad therapy experiences, plus the fact that her beloved Warehouse seems to hate her for stabbing Artie. She’s worried that Abigail will report back to the Regents and kill her chances of becoming the new Caretaker, a position she’s recently figured out that she really REALLY wants. Abigail suggests that the zaps were the Warehouse’s way of getting Claudia’s attention to let her know about the expansion joint problem. Claudia agrees and steps into what looks to be a whirling vortex of Artifact-y death in order to neutralize the Spike. The Warehouse lets her through unharmed, and Claud is able to save the day and start trusting Abigail.

Oh, this was a good one. I’m never going to naysay an episode that includes both HG Wells and clues about Claudia’s connection to the Warehouse. The caretaker mythology is one I’ve been wanting to see explored since Claudia got tapped back when Warehouse 2 was discovered. Interviews with the Powers That Be say that it’s going to be a major plot point for this half of the season, and I’m tickled to see that coming true. My big question is whether Claudia is filling Leena’s shoes in the Warehouse, or if she’ll eventually be stepping into Mrs. Frederic’s mysteriously soundless pumps.

On another note, why was this an HG episode in the first place? The whole point seemed to be just to write her off of the series, which seemed rather unnecessary, since she’s only been ducking in and out since the end of season two. Don’t get me wrong. I love HG, and I especially love her Special Friendship with Myka. Throwing Mr. Clean-cut-and-clueless into the mix seems rather against her nature. If we see her again, I want to see an HG who’s ditched suburbia, but is still playing mentor to little Abigail.

Previews say we’re getting a glimpse into Jinksie’s past on next week’s Warehouse 13. Same Warehouse time, same Warehouse channel!

Best Quotes:
Jinks: “This building is old and falling apart.”
Artie: “Yes, we have that in common. (to Claudia) Haha! Beat you to it.”

Claudia: “If you ever tell me Cirque du Soleil uses Artifacts, I’ll never forgive you.”

Things to Ponder:

  • That was a pretty touching Closure Moment, there. Was that the last time we’re going to see HG?
  • Speaking of HG, who else now wants to see Adelaide become a Warehouse agent in about 15 years?
  • Artifact Rundown: Spike from the Transcontinental Railway, Roy Francis’s Diving Platform, Hyaenadon Jawbone, Frequency Interfering Surveillance Holograph (FISH), Goozooka

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