13 Thoughts On Warehouse 13 2.8: Merge With Caution

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This just in: Eddie McClintock does a great Joanne Kelly, and Artie’s gift for poetry leaves a lot to be desired. Was it just me, or was last night’s Warehouse 13 the best episode of the season? Clearly, my head was turned by the possibility that Myka would actually get a non-work-related subplot of her own for once. Here’re thirteen quick thoughts about “Merge With Caution”:

1. Leena’s Back! And Appallingly Lackadaisical With The Magic Artifacts. On the one hand, it’s nice to see that the writers have finally remembered that Leena works at the Warehouse. On the other hand, she takes the Gryffon out’ve the magic de-magic bag, it sparks and then moves by itself and she does nothing about it? If Artie’d been there, he would’ve kicked your ass, Leena. Best be warned.

2. Artie And Claudia – Together Again! Of course, Artie wasn’t there because he and Claudia were off chasing their own artifact this week, and making me realize that the show is much better when there’s more than one team of agents on a mission at any one time. Maybe this can turn out to be a regular thing, especially considering how well Claudia is taking to the field (Also, mixing and matching the agent teams would be fun; who wouldn’t want to see a Claudia/Pete episode?).

3. Holy Gams, Batman. Part of the fun of the Artie/Claudia case was working out what the artifact was: I was convinced it was Valentino’s cigarette just because, how often do you see someone smoking on television these days? But the reveal of Mati Hari’s stockings was wonderful, and offered up the amusing sight of Claudia trying to bite her way through them. Surely there’s got to be a better way to ruin stockings.

4. “Darjeeling… Feeling… What rhymes with adorable?” Last night’s episode had some of the funniest dialogue of the season, for some reason; there was a sense of… tongue-in-cheek-ness about the whole thing that really worked, and made the banter seem more natural, somehow. It helped that Saul Rubinek can deliver lines like “Would a stalker go to her house in the middle of the night to read her poetry?” perfectly.

5. And Talking Of Great Dialogue: I have no idea where it came from, but Artie’s “And that was just one of twenty-three ways I could’ve escaped” bravado? Let’s have more of that Artie and less of the curmudgeon he’s been recently, please.

6. And Now I Feel Suspicious Of All Charity Donations I’ve Ever Made. If there’s one thing I learned from last night’s episode, it’s that people only donate to charity for tax write-off reasons, or because they’ve been hypnotized by magic stockings. This makes me reconsider every donation I’ve ever made, just to wonder which bucket it falls into. And I thought Fences For Fido was just a good cause…

7. Normal? Not Even In Their Wheelhouse. Meanwhile, as much as I liked the bodyswap plot, is it wrong that I had hoped that Pete and Myka really would get some time off this week, and get some character building time? I would’ve liked to have watched the adventures of Myka Bering, Socially Awkward Former Nerd without interruption, even if I could’ve skipped Pete and Kelly’s love-in (Although, for some reason, his leaving to get cereal in the middle of the night struck me as oddly charming, in that it seemed too specific to fit into the more generic relationship we’ve seen so far. Also, Kelly seems to have quickly swung around on her “I won’t date you” stance of last episode, hasn’t she?).

8. Thank God I Never Attended A High School Reunion. Not anything in particular to do with last night’s episode, it’s just that every single time I see a show or movie do a High School reunion, they seem like slow torture. Real world people who’ve attended them: Are they that bad? Should I be happy that I skipped countries and am less likely to be able to attend any in my future?

9. “I Would’ve Drunk Juice If I’d Known We’d Swap Bodies!” A second mention in three weeks for Pete’s alcoholism. Foreshadowing, or simply making the most out’ve a character trait that most people (Me included) had entirely forgotten? Both times, too, it’s been a passing reference, more or less, that doesn’t really affect the rest of the episode. Weird.

10. Who Am I? Where Am I? Why Do I Feel This Way? Like I said above, Eddie McClintock did a really, really good job of playing Myka-in-Pete’s body, capturing (and exaggerating) her trademarked moves and reactions in a way that stopped just short of parody. I’m not sure that Joanne Kelly did the same with Pete, but that didn’t make it any less fun to watch.

11. Myka! Boyfriend! Well, Almost. This may be the closest Myka gets to a boyfriend this season, I feel, although it’s clear from Kelly’s reaction that she’s clearly better at this relationship stuff than Pete is. Cue increased speculation that Myka is, in fact, a lesbian who’s totally going to make out with HG Wells sooner rather than later.

12. What About That Guy Who Exploded? I don’t know why, but this was the episode that really made me wonder: How, exactly, do Pete and Myka clean up after themselves? I’d love to see that conversation with the hotel staff. “You might want to have someone look at the bathroom. I had a little accident…”

13. And This Week’s Dangling Plotlines Are… Well, pretty much any continuing subplot that isn’t Pete and Kelly; no MacPherson or Todd follow-up, which I’m starting to feel will never get wrapped up, and no HG Wells, but she’s showing up next week. Really, though, I didn’t miss them this time around; this was an episode filled with good stuff. Why can’t they all be like this?

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