Episode 7: Past Imperfect
This one starts at Union Station in Denver, where Pete is trying to retrieve an artifact (a railroad spike) that’s sealed in the walls along with some workers’ tools. Myka is on lookout and sees a face she recognizes—Leo, the guy who shot her former partner (and lover), Sam. She tries to catch Leo, but Pete cuts his hand on the railroad spike and starts choking on some kind of black smoke. He calls for help and Myka has to let
Leo get away so she can bag the artifact, saving Pete’s life. At a farm in Wisconsin, Steve and Claudia go through a huge collection of doorknobs, looking for one from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Steve finds it by burning his hand (which he soothes by plunging it into a pitcher of iced tea; The nice lady who made the iced tea isn’t impressed). Outside, Steve and Claudia are distracted by a stray dog and get knocked out by sleep darts. Claudia catches a fuzzy glimpse of a car nearby, but can’t make out any details before slipping into unconsciousness.
In Denver, Myka and Pete check video surveillance and figure Leo took either a cab or a bus when he left the station. Pete suggests they contact 
Myka’s old Secret Service team in Denver, but Myka’s not too keen on that idea. She figures the team probably still blames her for getting Sam killed and not catching Leo, but it sounds like she’s still blaming herself. In Wisconsin, Steve and Claudia wake up to find the doorknob is gone. They call Artie and tell him what happens and he tells them the dog might have seen the license plate on the car, so they should get back to the Warehouse and bring the pooch with them. Naturally, they think he’s nuts, but what else can they do?
In Denver, Myka and Pete go to the Secret Service office and Myka thinks back to the day Sam was killed. She tells Pete Sam was a guy who had plans (and contingencies) for everything. She also mentions that Sam had been separated from his wife for over a year before they started banging. Myka’s
old colleague, Zach (who’s now head investigator), comes out to greet them. Myka briefs him and another old colleague (Jim) on Leo’s appearance at the train station. When Leo killed Sam three years ago he was in Denver to steal plates from the U.S. Mint for counterfeiting. Pete figures he might be back in town to pick up new plates, since they’ve changed since then. Myka realizes Leo was dressed as a tourist at the train station, so maybe he took the bus tour that goes to the Mint.
They head to the Mint to catch Leo when he gets off the bus. Myka is pretty 
worked up … Jim and Zach say being emotional and headstrong is classic Myka, which doesn’t sound like the Myka Pete knows. When the bus pulls up, Leo recognizes Myka (an obvious problem that nobody seems to have anticipated); Leo takes off, knocking Jim on his ass and running down an alley. Pete chases him, but Leo is gone … even though the alley is a dead end and Leo was only out of sight for a few seconds. Myka gives Pete shit for letting Leo escape.
Zach tells Myka not to take her frustration out on Pete, but Pete seems otherwise occupied; he’s running up and down the alley where Leo disappeared. He tells Myka he’s trying to think logically, like she usually does. There’s a truck parked in the alley that Leo could’ve used to get over
the wall, if he had enough time—which is what Pete’s trying to determine. He and Myka synchronize their watches and test various running times, but none of them work. Leo was out of sight for maybe ten seconds, but there’s no way he could get over the wall in that short amount of time. Myka says if something happened with no logical explanation, maybe there’s an artifact in play. She says she’s heading to the office to look over the original case, but this time as a Warehouse agent, not a Secret Service agent.
At the Warehouse, Artie shows Steve and Claudia a pair of fezzes from an old mind-reading act. A magician used the fezzes to read the mind of his partner … a monkey. Artie figures he can use the fezzes to get an image of 
the license plate from the dog. In Denver, Myka goes through Sam’s office stuff, but can’t find anything. She remembers him trying to give her an envelope that looked like a card or something and asks Jim about it. He says all Sam’s personal stuff went to his wife, Alison. Myka goes to see Alison, who’s pretty understanding considering Myka was banging her husband. She admits she was mad at Myka, mostly because it bothered her to see Sam moving on after their separation. Alison has the card Sam tried to give Myka, which turns out be a congratulatory card for buying a new car … I guess they’ll make a card for anything. There’s nothing written on the card, but it’s one of those musical cards, playing “Car Wash” … a song Myka has always hated. Zach calls to tell her they’ve spotted Leo back at the train station.
Myka deploys the team at the station and asks Pete to hang back; she says she can’t handle losing another partner. Pete isn’t happy, but agrees to it.
Myka, Jim, and Zach approach Leo and get the drop on him, but in the blink of an eye—literally in the time it takes Myka to blink—Leo has a gun in his hand. He looks just as surprised as the Secret Service agents facing him, but Zach blows him away before he can react. Pete comes running and figures it’s all over now that Leo is dead, but Myka says they still have to find whatever artifact Leo was using.
After bagging anything that might be an artifact, Myka has a gut feeling there’s more going on than they realize and Pete encourages her to go with her gut. She notices Leo was holding the gun in the wrong hand and says the gun appeared in his hand in the blink of an eye. Pete figures the artifact might disrupt time somehow and they notice their watches are no longer synchronized … Myka’s is slow by 47 seconds. They call Artie and he says a 
47 second time lag sounds like the USS Eldridge, the ship involved in the Philadelphia Experiment. The ship didn’t actually teleport, it just froze the radar screens while it moved, so if someone has a piece of the ship, they could be freezing time. Pete and Myka realize 47 seconds was enough time for Leo to get over the wall, and enough time for someone to plant the gun in Leo’s hand. Now that they know Leo had an accomplice (who set him up to die), Myka freaks out; she says she’s sick of fucking everything up on this case, so she’s done with it.
At the Warehouse, Artie and the dog put on the fezzes and Artie gives Claudia the first three numbers of the license plate. But the green scarab beetle that’s been running around the Warehouse burrows up out of the floor and the dog chases it, leaving Artie unconscious when the dog’s fez is
out of range. In Denver, Pete tells Myka the only way she can fail is if she quits. She thinks about what Sam would’ve said and remembers his penchant for back-up plans. She listens to the card Sam got her all the way through and there’s a recording of Leo talking to his partner about getting rid of Sam because he’s onto them. From the sound of it, Leo’s partner was someone on the case and Myka knows the only agents on the case were Jim and Zach. She figures it’s time to do something impulsive.
At the Warehouse, Claudia gets the dog back by using Pavlov’s bell, which causes her to drool excessively … and graphically. The dog caught the scarab, so one problem solved. In Denver, Myka and Pete call Jim and Zach 
into a meeting and accuse Zach of being Leo’s partner. Myka figures it’s him since he got the job Sam was supposed to get, and he’s the one who shot Leo. But it turns out to be Jim who has the artifact (the barometer from the Eldridge) and he uses it to put Pete’s gun in his hand so Zach will kill Pete. Myka figures it out and struggles with Jim over the barometer. Jim admits he used it the day Sam was killed, which is why Myka was late getting to Sam before Leo shot him. History is repeating itself now, with Zach shooting at Pete … once time starts again, Pete is a dead man. Jim knocks Myka down and she loses the barometer, but she kicks Jim into the path of Zach’s bullet just as time starts again, saving Pete’s life.
Myka explains things to Zach (leaving out the artifact stuff) and tells Pete the whole damn mess is finally over … but she doesn’t feel any better. Myka asks Pete if he knew what was going on before she did; Pete admits he had an inkling, but gently pushed her to figure it out for herself, since that was the only way she’d believe it. Alison comes by to thank Myka for getting the guy who killed Sam and the two part on pretty good terms. At the Warehouse, Artie gives the still-drooling Claudia the rest of the license
plate before dissolving the mind-link with the dog. Artie says they’re keeping the dog (it was a stray anyway) because he’s formed a psychic bond with it. (According to Artie, the dog’s name is Tray; I guess he would know.) Claudia looks up the license plate and finds out who rented the car … a woman she describes as “rather perky, in a roadside diner waitress kind of way”, but who Steve and Artie immediately recognize as Agent Sally Stukowski, their supposed ally in the FBI.