Episode 12: Stand
Last episode, the big bad villain of this season (Walter Sykes) managed to reintegrate H.G. Wells so he could use her in some nefarious plan against the Warehouse. Sykes had help from his sidekick (Marcus Diamond) and disgruntled Warehouse agent Steve Jinks. But it turned out Steve was undercover the whole time, pretending to be a bad guy to find out what Sykes was up to and get the info to his friends. Unfortunately, Sykes dealt with Steve the sane way he’s done with other people who worked for him … he killed Steve and left him for Pete, Myka, and Claudia to find. Naturally, they’re devastated, Claudia most of all.
As this episode starts, Claudia is still beside Steve’s corpse, trying to process everything. Myka tries to rally her and Pete, to get their minds off Steve’s
death and onto catching Sykes. Claudia checks the laptop Sykes’s techie (Tyler) left behind, but the hard drive has been scrubbed. Pete says they’ll find Sykes somehow and when they do, it’ll be payback time. Elsewhere, Sykes, Diamond and Tyler have Wells in an SUV. She’s ready to kill Sykes, but he still has C.B. DeMille’s riding crop, which allows him to control her body and prevent her from attacking. Sykes says he needs her help to get past a lock and he knows she was taught by the best.
We get a flashback to 1889, when Wells was starting out at Warehouse 12 and first getting to know her mentor, Kataranga. Wells tells Sykes she’d rather die than help him, but Sykes is pretty sure she doesn’t have a choice. At the Warehouse, Artie and Mrs. Frederick archive Steve’s room (and 
belongings) and Artie tells her he feels guilty for Steve’s death. Artie thinks back to MacPherson’s death, when MacPherson left him a pocket watch. Artie calls up MacPherson’s room and heads inside. In the office, everyone is going through Steve’s stuff and Claudia finds an SD-type chip that has some video on it. Steve left it as a final message to tell them Sykes is heading for Hong Kong; he also mentions that Diamond gets nervous whenever Sykes pulls out a wooden box, so Steve figures it’s some kind of artifact that gives Sykes a hold over Diamond. Jane tells them Sykes may have uncovered the Regents’ Sanctum in Hong Kong, which was associated with Warehouse 7 but has been lost for centuries.
Pete and Myka head for Hong Kong and Claudia finds out that Sykes only booked three tickets, so one of his people must’ve stayed behind. Jane shows them a signet ring from Warehouse 7 and Myka recognizes the symbol on it as meaning “aperture” or “eye”. Artie finds a network of roads
in Hong Kong that look like the Eye of Horus, so Pete and Myka figure hat’s the place to start. Jane tries to talk to Claudia about Steve, but Claudia’s pissed off and gives Jane shit, saying it’s her fault Steve died and that she was using him to assuage the guilt she feels for not getting the Collodi Bracelet from Sykes fast enough. Claudia says Jane and the other Regents are a bunch of cowards.
In Hong Kong, Pete gets a heavy vibe from a restaurant and he and Myka check the basement, reasoning that the Sanctum would be underground. 
Myka finds Wells’s locket in the basement, so they know they’re on the right track. At the boardinghouse, Leena hears some weird noises and finds a window open. She closes it, but is startled to find Diamond lurking behind her. In Hong Kong, Pete and Myka find a secret door in the basement that leads them into a long tunnel. They find a room with a chess game that would freak out Ingmar Bergman.
Tyler is strapped into a chair in front of the chess board, with Wells (controlled by Sykes and the riding crop) pointing a gun at Tyler’s head. Wells tells Tyler what moves to make, but she’s not doing too well so far, and the consequences for failure aren’t pleasant, as the nearby pile of skeletons with cracked skulls can attest. Yup, there’s a big axe blade poised
above Tyler’s chair and when he makes his next (wrong) move, it falls, killing him. Sykes knows Pete and Myka are watching and invites them into the room. He uses his control over Wells to pop a couple bullets close to them, making them toss their guns. Wells says the chess game is a lock designed by Kataranga, but she doesn’t know how to get past it. Sykes forces her to put Myka in the hot seat, figuring having someone Wells cares about might motivate her more. As long as Sykes controls Wells (and she wields his gun), Pete can’t do much. The game (and axe) resets, and it’s Myka’s turn to play for her life.
At the boardinghouse, we see Diamond has the wooden box Steve mentioned, but we don’t see what’s in it. Leena tries to run, but Diamond grabs her right away. She does manage to set off an alarm in the Warehouse, 
so Artie, Claudia, and Jane know she’s in trouble. In Hong Kong, Wells’s first two moves leave Myka in check, with the axe blade dangling precariously over her head. Wells says she never beat Kataranga at chess, but Myka tells her she believes in her and Wells thinks back to her time at Warehouse 12. She remembers protesting the agents’ use of guns and Kataranga giving her the first Tesla. He told her, “When the rules do not agree with one, it is sometimes necessary to change them.”
Wells figures it’s time to change the rules in the chess game and tells Myka to make an illegal move. It works and she wins the game, unlocking her and disarming the axe. The room starts shaking like crazy and Sykes calls Diamond to give him the go ahead. Outside the boardinghouse, Diamond
fires Black Barty’s cannon at the Warehouse. Artie says the cannonball is augmented with artifact power, but Jane’s not worried since she’s wearing he Shackle that protects the Warehouse. Sure enough, a force field encases the Warehouse, deflecting the cannonball. Artie is ready to go after Diamond, but Jane says once the force field goes up, nobody can get in or out of the Warehouse until it comes down again. They notice Claudia is gone and Artie wonders if the threat is already inside the Warehouse.
In Hong Kong, a portal opens in the wall that leads to the Warehouse. Pete knocks the gun out of Wells’s hand, but Sykes uses the riding crop to force Pete to Tesla Myka and Wells. Sykes and Pete go through the portal into the 
Warehouse where Artie and Jane are waiting. Sykes forces Pete to shut down the portal from the Warehouse side. Artie realizes the Regents built an “emergency exit” for when the Warehouse was encased in the force field. Sykes needed something to activate the force field and needed Wells to get him through from the other side. Sykes forces Pete to hold his gun on Artie and Jane (and to slap Artie around) and says he’ll kill them all as soon as he gets the Collodi Bracelet.
In Hong Kong, Myka and Wells try to figure out how to re-open the portal and Myka tells Wells to quit her moping and act like an agent. In the Warehouse, Jane explains to Sykes that the Bracelet corrupted his soul and gives him the chance to repent, but he won’t go for it. He forces Pete to get
the Bracelet for him and calls Diamond, telling him to take care of Leena. Before Diamond can give her a fatal injection, Mrs. Frederick comes in with the Ishii Medal. Diamond drops he syringe, but reminds her he can’t be killed. Mrs. Frederick agrees, but says the medal can cause him a hell of a lot of pain. In the Warehouse, Sykes puts on the Bracelet and gets out of his wheelchair. He makes Pete point the gun at himself, saying Jane is going to feel what it’s like to lose something she loves.
Myka and Wells show up and Myka blasts the riding crop with a Tesla. Sykes takes off and everyone goes after him, but Wells is grabbed by the rope from the Mary Celeste, which grapples her and starts choking her. When Myka tries to help, she’s pulled in too … very close, as a matter of fact. I think the writers are just fucking with all of us Myka/Wells shippers now. Artie neutralizes the rope with purple goo, freeing them. Sykes surprises Jane, but she gets away after referencing the Frazier/Ali fight and giving Sykes an uppercut from out of nowhere.
At the boardinghouse, Diamond is ready to slice and dice Mrs. Frederick, but Claudia takes him down with … a metronome? Yeah, turns out Diamond was a Baltimore cop who took three bullets in the heart and the metronome (once belonging to Johann Maelzel) was the only thing keeping him alive; that’s what was in the wooden box (and it explains Diamond’s unwavering
loyalty to Sykes). Claudia takes great pleasure in stopping the metronome and killing Diamond … she even says, “That was for Steve.” In the Warehouse, Jane finds the portal back to the Sanctum open and heads through. (We never do learn how Myka and Wells opened it again; I guess they just recreated the chess game.) Sykes tries to go after her and Pete jumps him. Sykes knocks Pete on his ass, but when he tries to go through the portal, Pete shuts it off when he’s halfway through. Sykes dissolves, leaving the Collodi Bracelet behind. Jane is stuck in Hong Kong and will have to return by plane, but she’s otherwise okay. Pete’s so happy he actually hugs Wells, which surprises the hell out of her.
So, everything should be cool, but the force field around the Warehouse is still up, which means the Warehouse is still in danger. They remember Sykes talking about killing all of them and check his wheelchair. It contains 
a bomb wired to a piece of the House of Commons in London which absorbed energy during the Blitz, so it now has the concussive force of the entire Luftwaffe. The force field is supposed to protect the Warehouse, but now it’s protecting the world from the bomb’s fallout by containing the blast to the Warehouse. They try to neutralize the bomb and Pete uses an oxyacetylene torch on it, but nothing works. At the boardinghouse, Claudia, Leena, and Mrs. Frederick try to figure out a way to shut down the barrier, but Mrs. Frederick says it’s tied to the Shackle, which explains why the plot dictated Jane end up in Hong Kong. Mrs. Frederick asks Claudia for the metronome, but Claudia says she’s going to use it to bring Steve back.
With under a minute left until the bomb goes off, Pete, Myka, and Artie figure they’re screwed, but Wells manages to tap into the power grid and bring some of the force field energy inside, forming a field around the three agents. Unfortunately, the field can only be initiated from outside, which means Wells has to sacrifice herself to save Myka and the others. Most of
you are probably wondering why she didn’t put the new force field around the bomb, thus saving her friends and the Warehouse. That never comes up, so I guess the answer is, “This way makes for better TV.” For an in-universe explanation … maybe the new force field would be too weak to contain the bomb because it’s so close to the detonation point, whereas the blast has dissipated enough once it reaches the Warehouse perimeter that the big force field can contain it? I don’t know, I just watch the show like all of you.
Anyway, we get the expected tearful (though silent) goodbye between Wells 
and Myka as Wells nobly sacrifices herself to save her friends. Unfortunately, the Warehouse has no protection from the blast and the concussion sweeps through, destroying everything in the building … including Wells. The boardinghouse shakes like it’s in an earthquake and because of her connection to the Warehouse, Mrs. Frederick withers and dies as the Warehouse is destroyed. There’s no mention of the dog, Tray, nor is he shown; let’s hope he was at the boardinghouse. Once the blast stops, the force fields come down, leaving
Myka, Pete, and Artie standing amid the smoking rubble that was the Warehouse. Pete says that must’ve been Sykes’s plan all along and it worked … they lost. Artie pulls out MacPherson’s watch and says it ain’t over yet. We’ll have to wait a couple weeks to see what he means, since this is the last regular episode of Season 3. Next week is the special (and out-of-sequence) Christmas episode, then I’ll check out the first show from Season 4. I hope you’ll join me.