SkimIt
Warehouse 13, a sci-fi show with humoristic tendencies, smartly took a turn for the dark side last season that saw the destruction of the Warehouse and the death of three major characters. The season premiere, A New Hope, reverses two of those deaths and the explosion... but at what cost?
Brother Adrian of the Knights of the Black Diamond tells Artie that using Magellan's astrolabe to completely undo the last 24 hours will unleash a great evil upon the world.
But what choice does the team have? According to Artie, the world lost "all hope" when the Warehouse was destroyed and quickly descends into chaos caused by the collapse of the world economies, group suicides and more. It's enough to make the team leave behind two of their own and for one to give their own life to activate the failsafe. (Sidenote: isn't it odd that Artie, seemingly knowledge of all things Warehouse, did not know what the artifact was?)
The burden in the end, however, will lie only with Artie as he will not be able to tell anyone else about the past 24 hours that saw the destruction of the warehouse; the capture of Claudia and Myka; and the deaths of HG Wells, Mrs. Frederic and Pete. It's a heavy burden for Artie to carry and is made worse when he dreams what that coming evil Adrian warned him about might be--Claudia.
It's a strong start of season, despite a plot contrivance or two, and while I've never been a fan of undoing deaths so easily, the fact that Artie alone carries the burden could be fertile grounds for character development. Simultaneously, the fact that he know fears Claudia may become the evil Brother Adrian warned him about is a great idea to build a season around.
Especially since this may be happening because Claudia is refusing to let Jinks - one of the best characters the show ever added to the cast - stay dead.
Other Thoughts:
- Lester Holt appears as himself early on the in episode discussing the collapse of the world economies. It seemed a little odd until I read that he's doing a documentary show inspired by Warehouse 13.
- Pete Tebow-ing after catching the football tracker was a welcome funny bit in a somewhat dark episode--and very much in character. Same with Claudia mocking Artie for his Pooh Bear-like qualities and being unable to crawl through the tight space in the Brother's secret basement.
- The green screen effects that showed the destroyed Warehouse didn't look too realistic, but what else could we expect?
- Why weren't the members of the Warehouse affected by the "no hope" left in the world? Shouldn't they slowly have started to lose hope as well?
- It's not surprising the show brought Mrs. Frederic back since losing her would lose the team's access to the Regents. It was surprising, however, that HG Wells also survived, and that Artie was able to convince everyone to trust her--even though he is now the only one to remember the sacrifice she made before Artie undid her need to make it.
- "They made us read the Bible a lot in the psych hospital. I think it's how they kept their funding." A funny line from Claudia, but also one that reminds us she does indeed have darkness in her...
