Warehouse 13 Reviews: Season 2, Episode 10

Warehouse 13 opening titleEpisode 10: Where and When

This one starts with a quick scene from Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1961. A woman runs down a sidewalk, apparently trying to get away from someone, but she ends up running into someone else … a cloaked figure who grabs her. The cloaked figure stabs the woman just as her pursuers (two Warehouse agents, judging by the Tesla gun one of them is holding) catch up, but it’s too late … the woman turns into glass and falls over, shattering on theone big happy family sidewalk. In the present, Claudia is freaked out about working with H.G. Wells, now that the latter has been reinstated as a Warehouse agent. I’m a bit surprised at Claudia’s reticence … Wells saved her life a couple episodes ago, and she didn’t seem too worried about working with her before that. Artie’s attitude hasn’t softened either, and Wells’s very presence seems to put everybody on edge. While they’re all arguing, former agent Rebecca St. Clair comes in to ask for help finding an artifact.

Rebecca shows them a file on a guy named Jonah Raitt, who just died (of natural causes). Rebecca says back in 1961, Jonah was suspected of killing his wife and three secretaries with an artifact that turned their bodies to Rebecca asks for helpglass. Rebecca says the last two murders—Jonah’s wife and a secretary named Roxanne—could have been prevented, except Jonah did something to Rebecca and her old partner, Jack. They had complete memory loss the day the two women were killed. When Rebecca recognized Jonah in the obituaries, she went to his place (turned out he’d been in St. Louis just like her, living under a fake name the whole time), but she couldn’t find the artifact. Jonah’s obituary included a line thanking Jack and Rebecca for his life, which Rebecca takes as one last “fuck you” from beyond the grave. Artie says he’ll check Jonah’s place in St. Louis again and Myka invites herself along.

Wells is intrigued by Rebecca and Jack’s “lost time” and asks how long the memory loss actually lasted. When she learns it was exactly 22 hours, 19 minutes, she leads Rebecca, Pete, and Claudia into the Warehouse. Wells says the 22 hour 19 minute memory loss means someone used her timeClaudia finds the film machine. She explains that her time machine can send someone’s mind into the past (as in past-life regression) so the person sent back actually takes over someone’s body in the past, experiencing everything through the past person’s senses. The person “taken over” blacks out … for exactly 22 hours, 19 minutes. Claudia finds an old film reel in Wells’s stuff and a note instructing the old Warehouse administrator to put the film in with the time machine. The weirdest thing is that the note is signed “Jack” (Rebecca’s old partner/boyfriend), but it’s in Pete’s handwriting.

Before Myka and Artie leave, they have an argument about Wells; Artie still doesn’t trust her and Myka keeps defending her. Artie gets so mad, he tells Myka he’ll go to St. Louis alone. When Myka gets back to the Warehouse, the going back in timeothers are about to watch the film from 1961. The film is Jack and Rebecca—with Pete and Myka inhabiting their bodies—trying to convince their present selves to use the time machine. Myka appeals to her sense of logic, while Pete just quotes Total Recall (“Get your ass to Mars!”) Present-day Myka is reluctant, but Rebecca says the artifact is dangerous, so any information they can find in the past could help. Wells assures Myka she can’t inadvertently change history (Sound of Thunder style) because Wells actively tried to change history and it didn’t take. Myka finally agrees to do it.

Claudia hooks the time machine to the Warehouse power grid and Pete and Myka get in. Rebecca reminisces about the case, saying it’s how she and Jack first fell in love. They woke up in an orchard and Jack was kissing her … which she didn’t really mind, since she’d always kinda had a thing for him.Pete checks himself out Pete and Myka’s minds are sent back (Wells says if Jack and Rebecca die in the past, Pete and Myka’s minds will be lost forever) and wind up in Jack and Rebecca’s bodies in 1961. (Pete: “Myka, check it out, we’re …”’ Myka: “Jack and Rebecca.”; Pete: “I was gonna say still hot, but yes, that too.”) 1961 is a bit of a culture shock for Myka and Pete—very Mad Men. (Everyone’s smoking, for a start.)

The old administrator, Charlie (played by Armin Shimmerman), is even Charlie, the 1960s Artiemore of a hard-ass than Artie, and tells them he wants them off the “glass girl” case and in Calcutta to look for Man Ray’s camera. They convince him that they’re close to a breakthrough on the glass girl thing, so he gives them 24 hours to get what they can. The real Jack and Rebecca have already laid the groundwork; Myka has a job at Where & When Magazine (which Jonah runs), and Pete is slated to interview Jonah’s wife, Beth. Myka warns Pete not to get too fresh with Beth, then heads to the magazine. She has trouble working an old dictation recorder and gets a hand from one of the other girls in the office … Roxanne, the next murder victim. Pete talks to Beth at her home, looking around to see if anything seems artifact-ish, but he’sJonah and Roxanne distracted knowing that Beth is going to die that same day. He goes to see Myka at the magazine and they meet Jonah (played by David Anders from Alias and iZombie), who says he’s leaving for the day. Roxanne leaves right after him and Pete is bothered again by his knowledge of her impending fate. Myka reminds him they’re supposed to be gathering information, not screwing with the timeline, but Pete says he has to try to save Roxanne and Beth. While Myka is distracted by an asshole in the office, Pete slips out to find Jonah.

In the present, the time machine puts a strain on the Warehouse’s power, so Claudia tinkers with the grid to keep things running. Artie comes back Rebecca in painunexpectedly and catches her, but Rebecca almost keels over in pain. Artie goes to get her some water and Claudia congratulates her for distracting him, but it turns out Rebecca wasn’t faking … she really is in pain. In 1961, Pete follows Jonah to a men’s club and talks to him. Jonah is reading a copy of the magazine where he works, but runs it down, saying the women featured aren’t given the proper treatment. He goes on about women being works of art, which makes Pete think that might be why Jonah is turning them to glass, to “preserve” them in his own twisted way.

Jonah leaves and Pete prepares to follow, but Myka shows up dressed as a cigarette girl (which she says is a perfect disguise, because nobody ever looks at your face in one of those outfits). She calls Charlie, who tells them Jonah has a second house on Hoover Street, probably where he takes his secretaries before killing them. Myka remembers that Roxanne was killed on Hoover Street, so they head over there. In the present, Artie finds cancer medication in Rebecca’s bag and promises her he’ll help close the glass girl case before it’s too late. Claudia asks Wells where she went when she usedWells tells Claudia about her daughter the time machine. Wells says her daughter, Christina, was killed by thieves while staying with cousins in Paris, in 1899. Wells’s cousin Sophie said she’d blacked out for just over 22 hours and when Wells found out Sophie had fought the robbers using the martial art kenpo, she knew she must have gone back in time and inhabited Sophie’s body somehow. That led her to invent the time machine (which sounds like an ontological paradox to me), and she figured she could go back in time with full knowledge and save Christina … but things didn’t work out that way. Claudia says losing a kid must be the worst pain anyone can suffer, but Wells says it was nothing compared to the pain she later inflicted on the guys who killed Christina.

In 1961, Pete tries to warn Roxanne, but she thinks he’s some kind of nut and runs away. That brings us to the opening scene from the show: Roxanne is the woman running down the sidewalk, pursued by Pete and Myka, who Roxanne turned to glassgets stabbed by a hooded and cloaked figure and turns into glass. Unfortunately, the whole case goes to hell right afterward, as Jonah pulls up in his car and recognizes the broken glass figure as Roxanne. Obviously Jonah isn’t the one killing the women, so who is? In the present, Artie finds a glitch in the power grid and sends a micro-pulse to fix it. That blows out the reintegration circuits in the time machine, meaning Pete and Myka’s minds will be lost when Jack and Rebecca re-inhabit their own bodies. Claudia goes to get some tools, but Artie comes in and sees Pete and Myka strapped into the machine and threatens to blow Wells’s head off.

In 1961, Pete and Myka got brain freeze when the machine overloaded, but they recover quickly. Jonah is freaked at Roxanne’s death, and is even more distraught to hear about the first two women who died. (He thought they’d moved to Los Angeles.) When Pete mentions Jonah was banging all threeArtie holds a gun on Wells women, Jonah says he wasn’t … he was working with them to take over the magazine. The present publisher has no artistic vision and undervalues the women at the magazine; so I guess Jonah is actually pretty progressive after all. When Pete mentions Jonah’s wife is the next target, he freaks and they all head for his place. In the present, Claudia and Rebecca try to convince Artie that Wells is telling the truth about the time machine. Rebecca says the whole thing was her idea, so Artie should be pointing the Tesla at her, not Wells. Artie agrees to let Wells try to fix things, but says if Pete and Myka die, she will too.

In 1961, Myka and Jonah arrive at his place to find his wife. But it turns out they needn’t have worried … she’s not in any danger from the killer … she is catfightthe killer. Yup, Beth thought Jonah was banging those women, so she wasted them with a dagger that turns people to glass. Now she thinks Myka is Jonah’s latest “whore” and bashes Jonah over the head so she’ll have a chance to kill Myka. Pete (who was checking outside) sneaks in and grabs Beth, but she stabs him in the hand with the glass dagger. Pete’s arm stats turning to glass and Myka pulls the dagger out. We then get a classic (though brief) catfight and Beth ends up with the dagger in her gut. As she turns to glass, Jonah wishes she’d been a tad less devoted.

Pete retrieves the dagger and Myka realizes they can hide it somewhere and find it in the future. But they still have to film the message to themselves and they don’t have much time left in these bodies. Myka wonders wherePete gives Jonah the film they’ll find a film camera and Pete notices one that fell out of a cupboard during the fight. (“99, would you believe the credenza?”) They quickly change and make the film, then give it to Jonah to mail to the Warehouse. They tell Jonah he’s the prime suspect in all the deaths, so he has to get out of town since they won’t be around to testify for him. Myka tells him he’ll be safe in St. Louis and that the film will clear his name someday.

Pete and Myka head for the Warehouse with the dagger, but they start feeling the effects of the impending time shift when they’re still a half hour away. The disorientation is so bad, Pete has to pull over and they realize they’re right next to a cherry orchard. Remembering what Rebecca said best way to fix a time machineabout waking up in an orchard, they head in and decide to bury the dagger so they can dig it up in the future. In the present, Wells fixes the machine, but the power still isn’t transferring properly. She and the others do what scientists have done for time immemorial … they pound the machine. That jolts it into working, just as the transfer runs out. In 1961, Pete tries to leave Jack and Rebecca a note explaining about the artifact, to spare Rebecca the lifelong guilt of not having solved the case. Myka says he can’t change the past, but Pete says he has to try. Myka turns out to be right, as the transfer takes place and Pete drops the note, which blows away.

The transfer works and Pete and Myka are fine. They tell Rebecca they know where the artifact is, but weren’t able to save any of the women. Rebecca asks Wells if the machine can send her back to 1961, so she can see Jack again. Wells says it would only work for a few minutes and she wouldn’t be able to bring Rebecca back, but since Rebecca is at death’s door anyway, she’s not worried about coming back. Later, Pete goes to dig up the daggerRebecca and Jack smooch it up (which was the basis of the Cinderella legend) and Artie reads Rebecca’s obituary online. He finally admits that Wells did a good job. In the past, we see Rebecca wake up in her younger body and give Jack a big smooch. Time catches up to her and her younger self regains her mind, but Jack is down with the smooching, so he returns it, bringing history full circle. By the way they’re sucking face, I’ll bet they ended up banging in that orchard; either way, it’s a happy ending.